Dan

Namesake

2007-01-13T16:16:00.001Z

Namesake
Originally uploaded by doogleQ.

I found myself on TV last night. Somebody with the same name was trying to

pay off their mortgage in two years on a BBC2 show. He seemed a nice chap

with his head screwed on, and not some sort of chavvy loser. Well I probably

do share my name with some ne'er-do-wells, but lets hope they remain hidden!

Akbar's

2007-01-07T00:20:00.000Z

Had a very pleasant meal at Akbar's restaurant tonight to celebrate a friend's birthday. We had to wait a long time in the standing-room-only bar area, long enough for one and a half bottles of Cobra. I saw one of my modern day TV heroes, Richard McCourt or Dick as he has been known, at the bar too. But it was too crowded to make a scene and dash over for a photograph or autograph. Besides, I already own a dog bowl which bears his signature!

Mustafa was our server for the evening and, as is often the case with this style of food, the service was very quick. Mustafa also brought Suzie an ice-cream with candles in it, and we all sang. Most tables seemed to be singing Happy Birthday at some point in the evening. I'm not sure if they were all genuine, or each trying to be louder than the previous table just for the fun of it!

Tomorrow night, we may had back to Liverpool Road for The Ox's famous pub quiz. It would be good to start making that a regular Sunday night thing again. It depends how much boring coursework I can get done during the day as to whether I'll be able to start the regularity tomorrow or not...

Local

2006-12-11T23:42:00.000Z

Local,
originally uploaded by doogleQ.

We had dinner out at Albert's Shed this evening, which was delightful as ever. There was a big all-male group as some sort of Christmas outing, and were a little rowdy for the normally-quiet restaurant.

When we got back, we went to the other local which we hadn't tried so far. It was ok, but I prefer the marginally closer Legh Arms. Anyway, here's a picture taken on, with my first blog post from, my new phone.

Who will buy

2006-07-08T05:16:00.000+01:00

Who will buy,
originally uploaded by doogleQ.

Labour vs. Conservative

2006-07-07T23:39:00.000+01:00

Labour vs. Conservative,
originally uploaded by doogleQ.

"Have you got a light?"

apologies

2006-07-07T22:28:00.000+01:00

apologies,
originally uploaded by doogleQ.

for not writing for so long. So much has happened, including house buying, end of term at work, and many more unmentionable things.

But here we are, celebrating Nav's 28th birthday in a pub in Stoke. Paul reckons it's a gay pub. Bless :)

Pubs and Programming

2006-06-01T22:08:00.000+01:00

Paul and I got cold sitting outside the Slug & Lettuce (Paul especially as he had ice cubes in his cider and black...) We moved on to the Sir Ralph Abercromby on Bootle Street. We used to come here for "Spikey Watching" but there was no Spikey about. As we approached, I wondered whether X Factor or Big Brother would be on the TV in the bar. It turned out to be Sky News, and the TV had been upgraded to a flat (LCD wotsit) one. Big Brother was put on after a while by the barman, probably bored of hearing the repeating "Breaking News" swoosh noises that appear on Sky News (the news was something to do with John Prescott). We had a few more pints here and then I cycled home.

I didn't manage to get up early, but somehow was only slightly late for work. I worked on my barcode reading software, which I'm still finding exciting. They're actually going to be used in production on green paper, so I printed a barcode on the same green paper to give it a try. I scanned it in and read gobbledygook. Hmm, not very impressive. But then I had an idea to change the algorithm and then it seemed to work better than ever, even on green paper! This excited me, but then I had to go and observe some user training, and I observed the software not working. I had to fix this, and I think I have done, ready for another attempt on Friday.

I've been in touch with IT, and we're going to get hold of a reasonably speedy sheet-feed scanner for use at main enrolment and for other stuff. I'm also getting a traditional style CCD barcode reader to test out my barcodes for real. It's like Christmas :)

Went to Gareth's parents' on the way home to pick him up. Had dinner, then came home for a beer before bed.

I'm really enjoying the "Monster" song by The Automatic, a band of four teenagers from Wales. It's out next week. Also out next week is the winning Eurovision song, Hardrock Hallelujah by Lordi. It's coming out on Tuesday because of the 06/06/06 thing. Sweet :)

Pub one

2006-05-31T21:33:00.000+01:00

Pub one,
originally uploaded by doogleQ.

Meeting up with Paul for a few evening drinks. It was meant to be earlier, and I was going to take a bike ride somewhere on my way. But I got delayed with cooking dinner and other things.

We start at the Slug&Lettuce due to its outdoor tables. Paul hasn't arrived yet, but it on his way. He wanted a pint of cider and black but they only sell trendy pint-sized bottled ciders! Mine's a Fosters anyway :)

Down South

2006-05-29T22:44:00.000+01:00

I spent the weekend in Milton Keynes with some friends, mainly for the event of Marky's birthday barbecue. Had a great time, as I do every time I visit. I still have some affection for the town which could so easily by now have been a failed social experiment!

We also had a lovely Sunday lunch cooked by Emma, and went for a treetop walk in a forest. This consisted of a walkway which gradually took us above the top of the trees, giving us a monkey's eye view of the forest. Similar to the concert series, this is a great initiative by the Forestry Commission, hope we can see more of this throughout the country.

Also at the weekend, had a lovely few breakfasts of sausages and helped a few people with DIY tasks. It's nice to be useful!

Celebrity X Factor

2006-05-29T21:50:00.000+01:00

Celebrity X Factor,
originally uploaded by doogleQ.

What a load of rubbish.. at least they could have got a few people in who could sing! Perhaps they're saving those contestants until later in the show. It's all harmless fun and entertainment helping me to relax into the summer :)

Run Done

2006-05-21T21:46:00.000+01:00

Run Done,
originally uploaded by doogleQ.

I completed my Great Manchester Run this morning, and got a target time of under 45 minutes, but only just with a personal best of 44:58 :) I'm quite pleased with that, although there is definitely room for improvement in future runs. The course was tight at times, making it difficult for over-taking. That perhaps cost me a few seconds.

I unfortunately lost Andy at about 7km, and didn't see him afterwards either. He must have passed me in the crowd as I waited at the finish. Despite being ill, he also did really well to finish in about 46 minutes.

Thanks to all who sponsored me. That means a lot to me and Cancer Research UK. You can still make a donation through me, at www.justgiving.com/danielharding or directly to the charity. Thanks also to the crowds that were cheering, it really does help the runners along imensely. The cheers were especially great at the finish line, and I could here it all from about the 500m mark. The noise undoubtably made me finish at the time in which I did.

We went for lunch at Albert's Shed, after trying a few full pubs and bars beforehand. The atmosphere wasn't quite as brilliant as last year, perhaps because of the rain and me not visiting the charity and sponsor's stalls quite as much. But still a great day which I'll remember for some time. I think the Great North run, half marathon, may be possible next year!

Living in the past

2006-05-19T23:47:00.000+01:00

Well, this thing hasn't been updated for a bit. Part of the reason is that I was updating weeks ago, but time is travelling faster than I can manage to keep up with updating. My idea of a comprehensive day-by-day account will have to fall by the wayside and I'll just update "live" when I get the chance.

Since the last update, I've done a bit more practicing of running. Last Wednesday's was fun in the pouring rain! It was a city run, along the streets and canal. Just the type of run I like and I was impressed by the route, although I haven't measured it yet. The real Manchester 10k takes place on Sunday. I'm just about ready for it. Haven't drunk for a week, apart from having my Pepsi Max dashed with Smirnoff on Wednesday evening, and feel great for that. I might have to make not drinking in the week a regular thing.

We've won jackpots at the quiz twice in the past month. Clever us :)

Big Brother has come back to TV. I think everyone agrees that it is not a representative section of society.. a house full of freaks, worse than the normal offerings. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, it's all done in the name of entertainment.

The Eurovision Song Contest final is also on tomorrow. We're going over to Paul's to enjoy that on the big screen with pizza, nibbles and fruit juices.

Work has been busy, and so has course and coursework. Approaching the end of Semester, so everything is due in. I'm as last-minute as usual, but I've got everything in for one module and the rest due along with a presentation for the end of next week. Should manage it. It's not as if the work is difficult, just extremely boring..

As a result of all this hard work, I'm very tired and going to go to bed now. I'll try and write something more or post some pictures soon :)

A true 10km practice

2006-04-30T17:21:00.000+01:00

I'd booked us on a practice 10km run as it would give us a good feel as to how our training had been going. This event was held at Croxteth Country park in Liverpool and was sponsored by my work, Myerscough College. We had set off from Manchester with plenty of time to spare, and we needed a considerable amount of that time after getting lost several times, and having to put up with some broken traffic lights that seemed to be permanently on red!

After parking up, we still had a bit of time to kill. The weather was wet and cold, and waiting around wasn't altogether pleasant. When the race had started, Andy took the lead and overtook many other runners straight off from the start line. My initial thoughts were along the lines of "what on earth is he doing?" as I didn't think we'd be able to sustain that pace for more than a couple of minutes. We'd passed the first kilometre marker at 4 minutes 30 seconds. The quickest average we'd ever previously managed is about 5 minutes per kilometre.

By some miracle, we did keep up at around that pace, and finished the race with official times of about 45 minutes 20 seconds. Considering we'd performed poorly in our own training sessions, I'd walked a significant distance and height the previous day, and that I'd not eaten well but drunk lots, I'd say we did alright :) It gave me confidence for the real race in three weeks time, to say the least.

Full House

2006-04-29T23:59:00.000+01:00

There was no spare room at the flat this weekend as Gareth's old Lancaster housemates were visiting. Naima, Stephen and Stephen arrived on Friday evening. I had cooked a roast beef dinner, but not entirely perfectly! This is a dish I normally deliver very well, but on this occasion the Yorkshires didn't rise, the meat was over done and it somehow just didn't "feel" right. My thoughts were over-reactionary because it was all eaten and well received, and I received compliments :) We had several more beers, glasses of wine, ports and whiskeys until the early hours. We even found some old cigars from a trip to London several years ago, and these were smoked (not by myself!) up on the roof of the building.

There had been talk of climbing Scafell Pike in the Lake District on the Saturday, but the amount of alcohol consumed the night before led me to believe that this would be cancelled. I realised how wrong I was when I was woken up early..

We made reasonably good time getting out of bed then on the long cramped journey. We stopped off for a lovely breakfast on the way and started the actual walking early afternoon. The weather was perfect for the trip, and there were fewer walkers than expected. As we reached the top, the cloud started to come down slightly, making it chilly and putting the stop on getting a good view. By the time we had got down, time was getting on, so we hit the road.

I kept having weird dreams during my punctuated naps, and awoke several times thinking we were being followed by other cars. I guess I was mainly over tired!

There was a motorway closure on the way home which added a bit of time to the journey. By the time we got home, it was too late for the original going-out plans, so the others got take-away while I went to bed, knowing I had another early start with a 10km run to attempt!

Networking

2006-04-24T23:12:00.000+01:00

Networking,
originally uploaded by doogleQ.

After work on Monday, my old pal James had invited me to a "Beermat Monday" event at Tiger Tiger in town. This was an event where you can meet like-minded entrepreneurs and make other contacts to help you do business. Although James and I had initially set up Legalhelpers over 5 years ago, we aren't, as such, entrepreneurs or self-employed at the moment. Nevertheless, we went armed with (in my case, out of date) business cards and gave the Legalhelpers "online legal services" spiel.

I was initially nervous about attending the event, but it was very friendly and I must have been enjoying it, as the time flew by. Met some interesting people, and got some ideas of how to perhaps conduct ourselves at the next event. More planning is needed on our parts, specifically with how we want to describe what it is that we do.

If nothing else, it was a good fun night out and provided inspiration for future projects. We ended up being amongst the last to leave, and retired to Sinclair's Oyster Bar for a pint (James and Gareth pictured).

The rest of a Sunday

2006-04-23T23:22:00.000+01:00

I left the big screen after watching the elite runners finish their race, and rode my bike in a few random directions before deciding to head over to Sale. I had difficulty getting onto the canal anywhere around Old Trafford, and ended up only cycling the last half mile on the towpath! After some biking round the town, the canal-side King's Ransom pub was too tempting to avoid an al fresco pint and a read of the paper.

My journey home was almost completely by canal, bar the last mile or so from Salford Quays /Pomona. Had a quick microwave meal for lunch and then headed back out on the bike to Andy's. We enjoyed some nice weather for a run, and managed over 10km in around 55 minutes, a reasonable attempt considering I'd done some cycling. Andy cooked a pizza, which we quickly ate before leaving. Andy went to his parents and I headed to The Ox for the pub quiz.

Phil and Neil joined our usual threesome with Paul and Gareth in the pub for the first few rounds (of questions). When the quiz finally started (it seems to be dragged out since the Sunday opening hours increased, and then Quizmaster Flash lost the questions..) we seemed to be doing okay. But as is usually the case, everyone else seemed to find them easier too, and we were pipped at the post! We did get the bonus question correct, but so did a few other teams, and the growing jackpot (£200+) rolls over to next Sunday. We'll be back next with with extra team-members for ammunition! We're also eating from early evening in The Ox next Sunday when Naima, Stephen and Stephen are visiting. With it being an early start, I hope I'm still compus mentus for the hard brain work later on...

The London Marathon in Mcr

2006-04-23T11:53:00.000+01:00

The London Marathon in Mcr,
originally uploaded by doogleQ.

I decided it would be nice to come and watch the London Marathon on the BBC's big screen in Exchange Square. I watched the start early from the comfort of my sofa, then peddled over here. Nobody is here just to watch the show, but there are several passers by stopping for a glance while their partners are shopping in the Corn Exchange!

The screen will, no doubt, be used more during the world cup. Expect barriers and crowd control and anti-drinking officers (the number of empty beer cans strewn around is disgusting..). By then, the big wheel will have also moved from this unsuitable location, releasing the seating for its intended use.

Whilst it's raining in London, it's lovely up north, with the sun being out more than behind the clouds. It's my intention to go out for a run later, training more for my own entry in the Great Manchester run in less that a month. After some good practice last week, I'm finally quietly confident for a half-decent finish time :)