The Occasional Musings of a Kabbes

I would like this as a wedding present please.

2008-10-29T09:10:19Z

Only fifty thousand Euros (currently about $70k, but dropping fast!). Worth every Eurocent. It's Lacroix, dahling!

Moles

2008-10-27T07:05:50Z

Judging from the amount of molehills we get in our garden (and there is a HUGE one right by the patio this morning), there must be a whole community of moles out there. I like it. Every time I see a molehill, I think of the little creature that made it. I think it's a real shame that some people go berserk about the little piles of earth and want to kill all the moles that made them.

Here is something else that I have been doing

2008-10-25T07:37:27Z

I forgot one -- we got a dog. A collie called Ben (a wasted opportunity for him to be called Ben, I think, but it's hard to change a dog's name and it's too late now). We tend to either call him Smelly Fail Dog or Cheesy Crap Head, owing to the way he tends to smell within about 30 minutes of washing him.

He's very sweet and loving and you can't help but fall for him. I didn't think that we were really living a lifestyle compatible with owning a dog, however, and I still am not convinced. But the kabbess is (mostly) over the moon, so that works for me. She's lost a stone since we got him too, with all the running she's doing with him. Although that's going to be very tough to maintain over winter.

He goes to a homestay farmhouse with lots of other dogs (and horses) during the working day, which he absolutely loves. And he comes and slobbers on us in the evening.

generational differences

2008-10-24T15:46:05Z

Speaking for going to Wales, in the 50 years my Cypriot grandmother has been living in this country, she's only ever been out of the South East a few times to see my Aunt in York and once with my aunt to Cornwall. That's it. Amazing, really.

And in 50 years of marriage to my grandfather, they have never spent more than one night together away from home since their honeymoon.

Here are some things that are happening to me.

2008-10-24T11:07:27Z

1) I'm getting married in... er... three weeks. And a day. It's in North-West Wales, near Carnaerfon, in the old residence of Lord Snowdon (who married Princess Margret). There are going to be a grand total of twenty people there including us, for the entire weekend, where we will fill the place. It will be most jolly.

My parents have hired an 8-seater to make the drive and are taking my three grandparents, my sister and her husband. That should be a fun trip. The last time my Dad took my two grandmothers on a trip to our place, he got stuck in traffic in Fulham on a hot day, with the windows wide open (relevance in a mo) and the following things happened:

a) Chelsea were playing at home. They pulled up outside a Chelsea pub with fans all milling about. My nan took a look at them and exclaimed loudly, "Oh look -- that must be one of them GAY pubs!"

b) My nan saw a policeman and said, "Oooh, it's rare to see a policeman these days because they're all in vans having sex."

My nan reads the tabloids a lot.

The kabbess' brother is taking her parents up too, which should be fun. It would normally be about a four hour drive but you can double that with the toilet stops.

2) My sister is pregnant, but nobody is allowed to know yet so keep it to yourselves.

3) We're going on honeymoon to New Zealand, which is going to be awesome. We're actually there for three weeks and the flights take another half a week. We're actually off work for a month, which has been hell to save the holiday but now I can't wait. We're going all round the South island and we will be doing EVERYTHING.

4) There is another round of redundancies at work. I'm untouchable but the general atmosphere is not exactly great. The shame of it is that the current financial crisis means that NEXT year should be superb for us... but for now expenses must be cut. I hate it. Other than that, work is great. It's nice to be somewhere you are seriously appreciated.

That's yer lot.

Lucyshoe, you're wrong

2008-10-23T13:33:30Z

I've been to the Isle of Barra.

That is all.

Flat for rent!

2007-10-21T07:18:11Z

We finally sorted out our buy-to-let flat. And we created a website for it!

www.epsomflat.com

Pithy, eh?

Related to Fran's Entry -- On Dogs

2006-08-04T14:04:04Z

Over the last year, I have felt a strange desire build up to own a dog. I have no idea where this as come from, as I've never been that keen on them. I blame next door's black labrador, who always comes to see me when I get out of my car and I love like a best friend. She's away at the moment because her family's on holiday and I feel that there's something missing when I get home. But I digress.

Unfortunately, if we were to get a dog, we'd want a border collie and the advice is that they shouldn't be left alone for more than 3-4 hours at most -- not very compatible with being out at work for 9 hours a day. In general, I don't think it's fair to have a dog and leave it alone that much, so no dog for us. Maybe when we have kids. Le sigh.

kabbes @ 2006-06-23T17:05:00

2006-06-23T16:07:21Z

Boots and breeches are here!

God, I look fantastic in them. Honestly guv'nor.

Unfortunately, we're not actually going riding on Sunday, because England are playing at that time. But I can admire myself for a full week in them before getting them dirty instead.

I'm very excited

2006-06-20T15:53:19Z

I think we've found a venue for our wedding

And it's available on 7/7/7 as well!

Stuff I have just bought

2006-06-20T13:35:55Z

This:

and this:

I felt a wave of guilt over spending so much money (long, leather riding boots in particular do not come cheap) but if I'm going to be spending the money to do the activity, I may as well be comfortable. And I got the boots in a sale for about 25% off RRP and the breeches about 25% cheaper than RRP too, so spending a bit extra to get good quality stuff seems like a good investment.

Oooh, reassure me meaninglessly that I did the right thing.

ETA In the second case, it is a pair of breeches that I have bought, not a rather camp looking man.

kabbes @ 2006-06-20T10:15:00

2006-06-20T09:16:59Z

It's nice having hobbies. A few years ago, it felt like we'd got to the point where we did nothing but sleep, eat and work. Something Had To Be Done! But yesterday I had a very nice round of golf with a guy at work that I've become 10 times more friendly with since we started the golf thing. It was sunny, we both played well (for us), we got a hilly 10km walk out of it and we had a nice chat. Hooray for getting out. And on Sunday, we had a different teacher in horseriding, who taught us some things that we hadn't learned from our normal teacher. This, in turn, finally allowed Charlotte to get into a canter without fear or effort, which felt like a big step forward. All in all, these things make the week enjoyable rather than a chore.

Speaking of work, Charlotte has an interview next week. Ooh bloody hell. After always advising others of the need to prepare for the interview, I now find myself having to actually do it, which is a lot harder than advising others to do it.

I'm loving the world cup. I'm particularly loving the way some of the teams are playing the game. I just wish England would do the same, although they are pretty effective with their kick and rush.

That's all from me for now. Mrrrh?

kabbes @ 2006-06-14T13:31:00

2006-06-14T12:31:06Z

Now, I’m not a body fascist as you, hopefully, know. But if you have a belly at least three times as large as mine, you probably don’t, on reflection, want to be wearing a crop top. I mean, fair play to the lass on Epsom High Street. She wasn’t going to be bound by society’s view on beauty. But she was at risk of being arrested for breach of the peace. Or possibly causing an illegal obstruction.

kabbes @ 2006-06-06T14:06:00

2006-06-06T13:06:09Z

Something I just read in missfran's journal made me comment something that in retrospect I should share.

The other night, I dreamt I was Charlotte. I was getting ready for work but I couldn't find my bra.

God only know what that means.

Best weekend for a good long while

2006-06-06T09:31:33Z

On Friday I played my best golf just about ever and then we went to a friend's house who made thick pancakes with blueberries and maple syrup and bacon. Awesome. And Sezar the Chauvinist got voted out of the Big Brother house with a record percentage so it was all good.

On Saturday, we had our garden party and it was great fun. I made a tomato/egg/potato salad with my special garlic/mustard/cider vinegar vinegrette and also an avocado/rocket/cucumber salad with a lemon vinegrette. Charlotte marinaded some lamb in some fantastic lemon sauce with bay leaves and herbs and garlic and also made a barbecue sauce for the coating of stuff. So the food was good.

We started out on the lawn, under a tree in the middle of the garden. It was wonderfully sunny so it was all very chilled out. We have a wine estate just round the corner from us, so it was a good excuse to get in a load of their really rather good white wine too. Then in the evening, we moved down to the patio where I'd borrowed a gazebo from the neighbours and I was able to turn the chiminea from a barbecue into a log fire. Then after midnight it was into the lounge instead.

We had about a dozen people round in all and I love those guys. It saddens me that we can't all see each other more often, because of being spread out all over the place. But some people you just click with really easily and it's all very relaxed and happy. We all need more of that in our lives.

On Sunday, after having breakfast with the friends that stayed and going for a nice walk in the fields, I cantered all the way round the riding school for the first time (previously, the horse has always either cut corners or slowed to a trot at some point) whilst Charlotte managed to avoid being thrown off, so that was also an improvement.

I want more time spent doing stuff like that. Work sucks. And I have a sore throat from the air conditioning. When do I get to retire?

kabbes @ 2006-06-01T10:08:00

2006-06-01T09:08:17Z

Horseriding on Sunday: my cantering continues to improve at a canter. Fortunately, I went first. This is fortunate because unfortunately, Charlotte's horse decided to buck her big time on her attempt and I'm not sure I'd have had the guts to have my go after seeing that. Certainly, the 8-year-old girl who was due to go next started crying at the whole idea.

In classic horse-teacher style, after seeing Charlotte thrown clean out of the saddle so that she was clinging on for dear life around the horse's neck, the teacher simply asked her what she was doing out of her saddle and told her to have another go. So she did, with a similar result (I guess because by this time neither horse nor rider were in the right frame of mind). And then she was told to have another go. Cue crying in the child next to me and laughter from me.

Golf yesterday: I can't believe how much I've improved in a year. I'm still pretty shit though, objectively speaking. But this time last year, I'd only ever played the odd round and most of my shots were scuffs. Now I'm disappointed not to get to within at least two of par and I'm most proud of my par on one of yesterday's par-5s.

I've also been going to "Body Combat" with Charlotte, which is like aerobics but with "combat moves". It is absolutely hilarious. On Tuesday, I was the only guy in a class of about 100. And most of these women were taking the whole "combat" stylee very, very seriously, despite the fact that I would strongly urge them never to attempt to use it in real life. Personally, I'm just there to work out my weedy arms. I don't need the whole aggression, "imagine it's somebody's FACE!" bullshit but there you go. It's still the best workout class that I've come across. Not sure how long I can cope with the burmo attitude though.

kabbes @ 2006-05-23T13:35:00

2006-05-23T12:34:59Z

Cluck cluck :whistle: WANKERS cluck

Some things I have been doing

2006-05-22T11:04:04Z

Weekend before last, I went to Cowpie. This is a big annual country show near where I live. It was most entertaining and had excellent fudge. It also had, in no particular order:
- A JCB tractor thing raising its bucket with fireworks in it to the sounds of "Fanfare for the Common Man"
- Royal Artillery motorcyclists who apparently can only afford one motorcycle for about 10 people at once
- Royal Navy parachutists, who overshot the "X" and hit the fence instead
- A falconer who lost his falcon and could be heard muttering, "I wasn't even supposed to be here today... I'm not getting paid for this" over the tannoy.
- Pens of lambs, calves and the cutest goat kids you ever saw
- Bizarrely, a cage with wolves in it and a wolf-geek who thought he knew everything about wolves and wore a fantasy airbrushed-style wolf T-shirt
- WALL OF DEATH motorcycle riders
- Lots of countryside tat for sale
- And did I mention the fudge?
We had an amusing time.

We have been put up a class in horseriding, such that we are no longer learning with 5-year-olds and are learning with 10-year-olds instead. Our first class was on Sunday and, whilst it didn't have anything technically harder than the beginners' class, it was like all the hardest bits of five beginners' classes jammed together, which was rather exhausting. I felt sorry for 10-year-old Conor, who couldn't do his S-shapes and was just wandering around the middle crying, "I can't do it" whilst the teacher gave him slightly less than no sympathy whatsoever: "No such word as 'can't', Conor, now get back in the middle and carry on with it. You're just embarrasing yourself." Marvellous stuff.

kabbes @ 2006-05-18T11:29:00

2006-05-18T10:29:09Z

I'm going to have a garden party in a few weeks. Anybody got any "must haves" for such an occassion?

Work is incredibly boring at the moment. I've not had a serious project to get my teeth into for about a month. It's funny too how the less I have to actually do, the less I can be bothered to do the small things that there are to do. They seem too trivial and non-urgent, even though they should really be done before they become non-trivial and urgent.
Periods like this in a project-based profession are always going to exist but it doesn't stop me beginning to daydream about moving to a more regular-work style company.

On the other hand, my sister works on the same floor as me here. That's really nice. She got married the other week and it was marvellous to have such a large family affair, where everybody had such a good time. That's not going to stop me from having a teeny, tiny wedding myself, mind.

My friend here (whom, like my sister, I also got this job) is expecting his second kid. I'm the godfather to the first one, so this is very exciting news. On the other hand, various work and home pressures have made him a bit ill recently (chest pains turned out to be anxiety-driven and muscle-related rather than heart-related, fortunately) so I do hope that this doesn't exacerbate anything.

For the first time, Charlotte is actually using her study days from work to really, fully, 8-hour-a-day study this session. This is good news but since this will finally, hopefully be her last exam it comes a bit late! It's only taken her her school career, her university life and seven years post-university to learn how to study. Still, better late than never. The results for the next session should come out one day before my birthday and I've told her that I do not want to enter my thirties with bloody exams still hanging over me!

We went camping a few weeks ago, in North Wales. It was cold. But it was fun. It took me 3.5 hours to get the tent up. I am not a 1337 camper.

ERL, did you ever see this?

2006-02-03T16:07:07Z

Good ol' Penny Arcade

Cooking 1337ly

2006-02-02T15:52:21Z

I've long been an admirer of the "1337 Chef" apron worn by Lucas in the Ctrl-Alt-Del comic here. So I thought what the hell -- I'd go to CafePress and make myself one. What do you think?

Liana, thank you for caring

2006-01-23T12:04:16Z

I have been very busy since Xmas. Last week was a 65-hour working week and the week before was 55 hours. I also had two weeks off over Xmas itself, which was lovely. As such, my posting quotient has been non-existent.

Not much going on for me at the moment, other than being completely knackered through overwork. Learning to ride a horse continues to be the one thing keeping me going. (I now have pretty reasonable control in a walk and a trot but we haven't started to canter, for those keeping up).

Charlotte is about to hit the spring revision session, which will be a pain in the arse. But hopefully this will be the penultimate revision session, leaving 2007 as my first entirely exam-free year since 1985.

I am engaged

2005-11-28T16:05:34Z

So I popped the question, got the response I wanted and promptly disappeared to Turkey for 3 days. On my return, I find it amusing to see Liana complaining about everybody going to "post turkey", because for a moment I wonder how she knew where I had gone.

Turkey was quite cool. My colleague and I were speaking at a seminar. We had no idea what level to pitch things at and we also had the broad scope of "anything except motor insurance" to talk about. For 90 minutes. So we included a bit of everything and it seemed to go OK.

We were introduced as "distinguished foreign experts". I like being a distinguished foreign expert. I may get cards made up.

We knew that we were involved in workshops the next day but had no idea what it was about. We didn't even know who the seminar was set up by. It turned out that our hosts were a kind of non-governmental government department representing the insurance industry and that they were in the process of setting up some kind of legislation as regards what data should be held and provided by the insurance companies. This is what they wanted their distinguished foreign experts to tell them. Yikes!

Discussions were in Turkish with bizarre English phrases (like "Top Priority") thrown in during the middle of sentences. Everything sounded like a passionate argument but whenever it was translated, it turned out to be a dry point about some esoteric issue. I ended up talking engagement rings with our translator cum Turkish reinsurance expert. She liked the fact that UK engagement rings have a diamond. Like most Turkish women, she herself was drrrripping in gold.

Our workshop was made up of very senior Turkish insurance people. There were eight women and five men. The men didn't say much. Apparently, Turkish insurance is dominated by women. It was noticably more collective in approach than UK or US insurance.

Our hosts treated us like VIPs. Wherever we went, they had moved our stuff there first. They checked us out of hotels, drove us to shopping centres (my colleague had lost his luggage) and generally made sure that we didn't have to do anything except be there and be distinguished.

I returned home on Saturday night. My colleage stayed an extra day. I just spoke to him. he went out on Saturday night and befriended a Turkish guy, who ended up stinging him for more than $1000 and causing him to run for his life. I was very amused by this. Everyone I dealt with, incidentally, was exceptionally friendly and helpful.

But it was good to get back to my fiance, which is beginning to sound like less of a weird word. We got the ring fitted. I have also had more congratulations from happy friends and relatives than I ever thought possible. I had no idea that being engaged would feel this good, or I probably would have done it years ago.

Exciting times

2005-11-23T14:55:44Z

I just bought an engagement ring.

Violin

2005-10-06T13:09:44Z

I have just ordered one of these:

It's an electric violin. I used to play so much violin there wasn't much time for anything else. I played for the county, for the region, for schools and for organisations. It was a major part of my life.

I lost it somewhere. At uni I played much less. After starting work there was always other stuff to do. Then when I picked it up I... wasn't so good. It sounded bad. And the thing is, a musical instrument is a very LOUD thing to be playing when you sound bad. So that made me reluctant to play.

No more. With this beauty I'll be able to play with headphones on, or with the sound turned right down. I'm rather excited about it.

I'm back, baby.