creamed-coconut.org

• I'm going to have a nice quiet day in today. I might bake some bread later. #
• I'm half way through making my bread. I'm just waiting for the dough to prove. #
• Today was a bit of a yukky day – I feel like I have a mild cold coming on. #
• Now home from work. Today was so so. I'm going out to get a takeaway in a minute. #
• I've just noticed that a few tweets that I deleted have shown up on my Twitter Tools weekly update posts! That's really weird because… #
• …I deleted them just a few hours after I wrote them. So I thought they wouldn't be recorded anywhere. :-0 #
• RT @dabr: Want to help improve Dabr? Please answer a few simple questions at http://bit.ly/DabrFeedback #
• RT @smashingmag: Giveaway: to win the book "Bulletproof Ajax" (http://bit.ly/VnY9G), just follow @smashingmag and retweet this msg! #
• I've spent most of this evening chilling out listening to music. I didn't even switch my computer on until after 9pm! #
• Yay! I've finished writing the "about me" page for my new portfolio. Often the hardest part of a task is finding motivation to get started. #

At the end of July, not long before my holiday in the Lake District, you may remember I wrote a tweet saying I’d been offered a voluntary part-time web developer job at Norwich IVC, the social club of which I’m a member. I was offered the job because the previous web developer decided to quit the committee. At the beginning of September, I started working on the site, although it only takes me a few hours each week.

I haven’t made any changes to the design of the website, although I do hope to convert the site’s HTML template into a WordPress theme when I get the time, so that it will be easier to update. I’ve never actually created a WordPress theme of my own before, so I hope it won’t be too difficult. Over the last few days, I’ve mainly been working on the members’ forum, as I’m now the main adminstrator/moderator. I’ve also been sorting out the domain transfer, so that the domain and the web-hosting are both with the same company.

Even though it’s only a voluntary job (in fact, all the jobs in the Norwich IVC social club are voluntary) I think it will be a good way to gain more experience of developing websites. It will also be useful to add to my portfolio, which I haven’t got round to creating yet! I did have an online portfolio about 4 or 5 years ago, but it was very basic and it’s now very outdated, so I deleted it several months ago.

At work I’ve continued to build more self-serve reports in Oracle Discoverer. I’ve also been helping a co-worker to build some Recruitment self-serve reports – this brings back memories of when I was in the old Automation Team in the first 3 months of 2008 as our aims are similar, although I feel a lot happier now than I did back then. Oracle Discoverer is very different from Microsoft SQL Reporting Services (which is what I used in the old Automation job) and in many ways it is easier to use. With Reporting Services, it seemed to take weeks to build one self-serve report and get it tested and signed off, which really frustrated me as there was a lot of waiting around. That wasn’t totally the software’s fault though – part of the problem was that we often had to rely on other people to create the datasets and fix any errors, which added delays to the process. With Oracle Discoverer, I can build a simple report within an hour or so and all the datasets I need are already there.

In my old department, there is a weekly lottery bonus ball sweepstake. Most people in the department took part, and even though I left in May, the organiser still allows me to take part. (Several ex-members of that department still take part as well). On my first day back at work following my holiday, there was an email in my inbox saying that I had won the sweepstake for the previous week. I’d won about £80, so I decided to take Mum and Terry out for a meal at Mambo Jambo’s restaurant on Saturday 12th September. It was a good meal – this time I tried something different. I had what they call Reggae Chicken (a kind of jerk chicken), whereas usually I have Memphis Chicken, which is Cajun chicken served with sour cream. I had a butterscotch sundae for dessert, but I found it rather sickly so I didn’t eat all of it.

I applied for a couple of jobs last week – one is for a Data and Change Analyst and the other is for a Continuous Improvement Analyst. Both of these jobs sound very similar to what I’ve done in the past, with regards to improving existing reporting processes. The reason I’m applying for these jobs is because my current secondment is due to finish at the end of April next year and I don’t think it will be extended as a lot of reports will have been automated by then, so there won’t be so much work to do. There are nowhere near as many jobs available nowadays as there were 4 years ago when I first graduated, so I am a little bit nervous about what will happen in April next year. I haven’t heard back about either of these 2 job applications yet, but I thought it was best to start applying early, given the current situation. I will start looking for jobs more seriously in the new year.

That’s about it for now. September has been a good month so far.

• I really enjoyed my meal at Mambo Jambo's last night. This time I had something different – Reggae Chicken (jerk chicken). #
• We are now on our way to Reepham for an afternoon out. #
• I just had an awful scare! I switched my computer on and none of my settings or files were there – it was as if the computer was brand new! #
• …I re-started it and then everything was back to normal. Phew! I've got no idea what happened; it's never happened to me before. :-O #
• @rockinrimmer I'm the only user of this computer so it always logs me in automatically. That's why I couldn't understand what happened. in reply to rockinrimmer #
• @rockinrimmer An error message came up saying Windows couldn't find my user profile. Then it went straight to the default account. in reply to rockinrimmer #
• Isn't it awful when you start a task, thinking it will be fairly simple, but it actually turns out to be a total nightmare?! #
• Today has been one of those days when everything turns out to be more complicated than it first appears. Glad to be home at last. #
• This morning has gone slowly. It's probably because I've been checking my Hotmail every hour to see if I've been offered a job interview! #
• As much as I love my current job, I'm worried about what will happen when it ends in April. That's why I'm looking around. #
• I feel so sleepy and rough this morning. #
• I think it's silly that most cafes round here charge for using their wi fi connections – isn't buying food and drink enough? #
• It's my sister Sarah's birthday today, so she came round and we gave her her card and birthday money. I also showed her my blog which… #
• ..I had printed as a book. She was really impressed and now she wants a copy of her own. #
• Google ads are funny! I just searched for "Chrome plugins" and an advert came up on chromeplugins.org for chrome taps for kitchen sinks! #
• I'm pleased with the amount of tasks I completed today! #
• Even though I slept for about 9 hours last night, my eyes feel sore and sleepy. #
• I'm currently learning how to convert a standard HTML web template into a WordPress theme. I hope this won't be too difficult. #
• I'm looking forward to my Saturday night out! #

• I feel like I've wasted a large part of the day. I didn't get up until 12pm, so I missed the whole morning! That's very rare for me. #
• In the afternoon we went for a walk round the ancient Roman town of Caistor St Edmunds. There's not much there now though. #
• I've just signed up for the broadband speed to be upgraded from 2mb to 10mb, free of charge. It will probably take a few days though. #
• I had quite an easy day at work today, since we somehow managed to get a day ahead of ourselves! So I did some online training courses. #
• I can tell the new school term has started as the roads are really congested around here! #
• RT @NorwichChat: Trapped girls call for help on Facebook – http://bit.ly/fkFAe – You have to wonder sometimes dont you? #
• I spent most of the morning fiddling with a database query, all because I didn't realise Oracle SQL is slightly different to Microsoft SQL. #
• …Thankfully, I managed to spot the problem eventually. I met my friend Naomi for lunch – we had a nice salad in Garfunkel's restaurant. #

• I'm currently sorting out my Lake District photos. #
• At last, I've sorted out my photos! All 241 of them! http://www.flickr.com/photos/sparkleworld/sets/72157622062174957/ #
• The Smashing Book is finally coming – http://tinyurl.com/nqnma5 – Pre-order now ! (via @smashingmag).-> I've just done this, it sounds good! #
• Now about to go to the local cafe for a milkshake. #
• At 6pm we will be going round my sister Suzanne's house for tea. We will have beef stew with dumplings. #
• It's back to work for me tomorrow. I've got that strange nervous feeling that you often get when returning after a long break. #
• I had a nice surprise when I arrived at work this morning. There was an email saying I'd won £80 in the lotto bonus ball sweepstake… #
• …so I'm planning to take my family for a nice meal this weekend. Hopefully to Mambo Jambo's. #
• I was so engrossed in my work that I nearly forgot to go and have lunch! #
• It looks like Bejeweled Blitz (the Facebook game) must be down for maintenance. #
• RT @mashable: Facebook for Mobile is Growing Rapidly – http://bit.ly/DuNTz #
• I'm looking forward to the weekend, so I can catch up on things. #

I arrived home from my holiday on Saturday. I had a really good time in the Lake District with my family and I was sad when it was time to go home. As you will see from my previous blog entries, I was able to update my Twitter status whilst on holiday, so I’ve got a record of what I did each day.

We stayed in a holiday cottage in Torver, a small village near Coniston. The weather was rather wet for the first week of the holiday, but the second week wasn’t quite so bad. We spent most of the holiday going on long walks rather than visiting indoor attractions such as stately homes/halls and castles etc. There were 2 walks which I particularly enjoyed – there were some woods not far from the cottage where we were staying which led down to Coniston Water, the local lake. We went on that walk several times and we also hired a boat for a couple of hours. My favourite walk of all was in the area surrounding Aira Force – this was a very beautiful area full of trees, streams and waterfalls. I’ve been to many places in the Lake District, but Aira Force seemed extra special. We also visited several nice restaurants and cafes during the course of the holiday.

One thing which made this holiday different to my previous holidays was that other members of the family came to stay with us as well, so it wasn’t just me, Mum and Terry. It was just us 3 for the first few days of the holiday but on the first Wednesday, Suzanne and her husband Paul and my nieces Anya and Emily came to stay. There was a large open loft area above the dining room, and Suzanne and Paul slept there on an airbed. Anya and Emily slept in a bedroom with twin beds. The cottage had 3 bedrooms in total, plus the loft area. Suzanne, Paul and Anya had to go home on Sunday due to other commitments, but Emily stayed with us until the end.

Several funny things happened on this holiday:
1. When Suzanne and Paul were on their way to stay with us, their satnav misdirected them to the entrance to the Coniston ferry. Once you are in the queue, you can’t turn round, so they had to pay to use the ferry.
2. One day we got up at 6am to go on the walk from Grasmere up to the Easdale Tarn, but when we arrived at the Grasmere car park it started raining really heavily, so we ended up sitting in the car for over an hour! We didn’t actually start the walk until 10am.
3. When we arrived at Easedale Tarn, Emily was holding one of the large umbrellas. All of a sudden, there was a really strong gust of wind and Emily nearly got blown into the tarn as she was holding on to the umbrella! The spokes of the umbrella ended up broken.
4. On the way back down from Easedale Tarn, Suzanne and Anya both fell into some water at the bottom of the mountain, in front of other people who were waiting to go through the gate.
5. Just as we were about to go through the gate near the entrance to the farm at Easedale, the grumpy farmer told us off! He said to Terry, “Are you having difficulty in reading? Do you think you own the Lake District and you can walk anywhere you like?” Because of this, we couldn’t walk past the farm and we had to walk by the stream instead, which was badly flooded. People kept falling in the water and at one point Paul was holding onto a branch of a tree. Anya was really grumpy as she fell in the water a couple of times, and she had a really fed-up look on her face. Luckily I didn’t fall in, although my walking boots were very wet after having to wade through the stream.
6. Mum bought a big bag of nuts for the birds outside our cottage. We kept the bag of nuts on the windowsill in the lounge. One morning when we woke up, there were nuts in our walking boots and some of them were scattered on the floor in the lounge. No one knows how they got there, so we think it must have been someone sleepwalking.
7. Mum fell asleep in the lounge while we were all watching the X Factor. She had a really miserable look on her face. Everyone was laughing but she didn’t hear us. Then Terry tapped her on the shoulder and she awoke with a start and she shrieked really loudly. This made everyone laugh even more.
8. One day we went for a walk near Torver Beck. There were some sheep on the other side of the hedge and we could hear one of them baaing in a weird way. It sounded like a bit like a gurgling noise. I’d never heard a sheep make a noise like that before and it made me laugh. Mum said it was probably trying to eat at the same time.
9. The power shower in the bathroom at the cottage made a strange humming noise whenever anyone used it.
10. One evening we went to the pub in Coniston for a meal, and a large group of old men (they were mainly men, but there were a few women as well) came in. They were very noisy and they were congregating all around the bar area. They were all wearing T shirts with strange slogans on them, such as “hasher with large weapon”.
11. Emily and I had profiteroles for dessert at the pub. They were served in a tall sundae glass rather than a bowl, which made them more difficult to eat. So we both ended up getting the chocolate sauce on our chins.

You can see photos of my holiday on my Flickr page.