I’m proud to announce that we are now the owners of a MacBook! Or rather, Kevin is the proud owner of one and I am being friends with it too. It arrived yesterday and is called Edoras. All our computers need names because we have too many to be able to refer to them otherwise!
I’m not too familiar with Macs but I’m looking forward to getting to know this one, not least because its little and sexy. Software recommendations are most welcome, if anyone has any favourites.
I may have mentioned that I made it to the PHP Conference last week. O’Reilly had their own stand and were doing a healthy 30% discount on a selection of technical books. I was enchanted to see in the corner of the stand, copies of CRAFT – so I bought one!
Its a truly eclectic publication, I describe it as crafty tech rather than techie craft but the distinction does get blurry in places. Features include crochet robots, a wool-winder made from Technic Lego, homemade chain mail and a cat scratching creation made of cardboard layers. My personal favourite has to be the pattern for a top with programmable LEDs fitted … my university degree was in Electronic Engineering and I always loved LEDs so this is my idea of heaven. Not sure I quite fancy a top which lights up but there is definitely scope for something to come of this.
Craft/Tech fusion suggestions welcome!
The Daily WTF website has redefined itself to make WTF stand for “Worse Than Failure”… WTF???
I’ve been away for a couple of days at the UK PHP Conference in London. Due to the unique way that train ticket prices work here, it was wildly cheaper to travel a day either side of the day we actually wanted to be in London for which allowed us to take in some sights and socialise with some other PHP-ers.
I’ll post more about the conference itself but for now I’d like to leave you with the highlights.
The survey results are in for the house (here’s the obligatory link to previous episodes of this story) and there are fewer nasty shocks than we feared. It does have damp issues, the roof is missing a few slates, the guttering needs looking at and the electrics/gas need safety checking but all in all its not too bad.
Apparently the lining paper is holiding up the ceilings in the attic and said ceilings have absolutely no insulation in them at all, but we kind of expected that. There’s something I don’t understand about the cellar and building regulations but the kitchen was in the basement when the house was built (we think, its got most of an old range in there) and they may not have had building regulations in 1900! Anyway, its going to be lots of work and money but I really wanted it not to be falling down, and it isn’t, so I wanted to share the news!
In case you missed it I’m leaving my job. I’ve been with the company one year and its had its ups and downs, I thought I’d share some of each.
I resigned last week1, and my manager said he wasn’t surprised. A recruiter rang him a few weeks ago and announced “I have the perfect candidate for you! … oh wait, she already works for you … sorry …”
Can you spot the one word that identifies which member of the team is leaving?
SHE. The ratio of women in IT is small to vanishing so it wasn’t hard for my boss to guess which of the two (two women on a twelve person team is a very positive statistic) women in his team might be looking for another option.
So it was that when I resigned1, he wasn’t surprised and told me the recruiter story. I know I am not alone in having a recruiter story to tell – please add yours in the comments or better still blog it and drop us a link!
1 I’ve resigned! I’m moving on and start my new job on March 5th.
Today’s recipe is the obligatory follow-up to Shrove Tuesday yesterday. I had actually forgotten it was pancake day until I got in from the gym starving!
weight the flour (sift it if you like, I never bother), add the egg and a bit of the milk. Mix very hard with a wooden spoon until you have a smooth, sticky dough-like arrangement. Then add the milk a little at a time, stirring it back to smoothness after each addition.
The batter is supposed to be better if you leave it to stand in the fridge for an hour before serving but if time isn’t available then don’t worry.
Melt some butter in a pan over a medium heat. Once its sizzling a bit, add enough batter to cover the base of the pan and wait. When it sets on top, keep waiting until its a bit brown underneath. This is especially important if you are going to toss your pancake as if you try to flip a soft pancake it will tangle. Get it turned over one way or another and let the other side brown too, tip out onto a plate and get some more butter in the pan ready for the next one.
The usual fillings are sugar and lemon juice (freshly squeezed ideally but from a bottle is almost as good) and maple syrup. Last night, in a nod to our late friend Amy who introduced me to this, we had cherry pie filling in our pancakes and they were yummy!
Not sure what else you can eat on a pancake – any suggestions?
I’d be the first to admit that our path along the house-buying road (see all house posts if you missed earlier episodes) hasn’t been straightforward. So far we’ve had:
Its complicated and I admit that. However the bank have surpassed themselves over the last week or so by sending us out paperwork for one mortgage with the wrong amount on it, one with the wrong property address, a duplicate of one of the above, and finally copying the wrong solicitor on the corrected version of the paperwork! I’m confident that they now have it under control and I’m more amused than worried, but its another twist in the road.
In other news, the estate agents tell me the survey was done last Friday (I discovered you can just ring them and ask and they will tell you these things) so we’re giving them a chance to type it up before I start stalking them for a copy of it … I’ll keep you posted.
There’s a lot of craft entries going on here at the moment I know but actually I’ve just had a binge at finishing things off rather than actually creating things at speed.
Here’s my string basket:
Its going to hold all those little samples that you get from Boots in the free gift from the No7 range that I keep ending up with! Its made from “jute twine”, that’s common-or-garden brown parcel string to you or me, I used a 5mm hook and its just double crochet through (single crochet if you are not British – see an earlier post about crochet dialetcs). Just make a little loop, dc into the middle six times, then 2dc into each stitch for the next round. After that I increased in every other stitch and then less frequently as the round base of the basket grew. The exact pattern depends on the string and your hook so I just tried to stop it from curving up or getting wrinkly and its not too bad. The double crochet makes it quite quick and very simple:
The stripe is just some crochet cotton that I used for a few rows, partly for interest and partly to give my fingers a rest from being shredded by the rough string. I might make a few more to go with it … can’t decide though whether to do the next ones more stripy or in another colour of cotton or what. Watch this space!