Month: January 2004

bought Richard snowboard controller

I bought Richard a snowboard controller for the PS2 for Christmas. Last night I used it to play SSX3 (rather than just use SSX in training mode and try and achieve a straight line which had been all I managed to date). I’m not sure how much, if any, it’ll help me when we go snowboarding later in the season, but my calf muscles ache so I guess it’ll strengthen them if nothing else.

London is bidding for

London is bidding for the 2012 olympics. Part of the plan (according to BBC News) involves using some of London’s famous landmarks as backdrops to events.

“Suggestions have included beach volleyball in Horse Guards Parade and diving in Trafalgar Square. “

ve learnt some technical

I’ve learnt some technical stuff today which makes the installation of our product a lot easier:

  1. you can tell MSDE to use mixed authentication mode by adding SECURITYMODE=SQL into the setup.ini file or as a parameter
  2. you can start the SQL Server and SQL Agent services using “net start MSSqlServer” and “net start SqlServerAgent”
  3. you can make a batch file call an external program and wait until its finished before doing the next thing by using “Start /w appname” (/w means wait)

Woohoo IT Employee of

Woohoo, I’m IT Employee of the Month for Glass’s for “Achieving a remarkable amount in her first few months at Glass’s and for going the extra mile in terms of hard work and commitment in difficult circumstances”. Apparently I get some gift vouchers as well so I just need to think of where to get them for.

One of the oddest

One of the oddest evenings we spent in Calcutta was our last night. All the friends of the wedding party went out to a bar (Someplace Else) and club (Tantra) for a session (both part of the Park Hotel). In the bar we watched the Arsenal v Middlesborough premiership game, listened to lots of soft rock (Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams and the like) before Q.E.D., a canadian rock band, performed. We really could have been anywhere, except that the clientelle were a little different to UK bars/clubs.

Calcutta

Calcutta 2004

Our real reason for travelling to Calcutta was for Neela and Ste’s wedding, but we did have some time to explore and experience Calcutta during our one week stay.

This was our first trip and I’m sure we’ll return. We found Calcutta to be a very intense place, very polluted (it makes London feel clean), but very friendly. Being one of only a few white faces in a City makes you stand out somewhat, and many people came up to us and introduced themselves (and sometimes their somewhat reluctant families), and we often walked along to the sounds of “Hello Madam, How are you?”. The staring can be annoying, but is something that is just going to happen, and can be helped by dressing appropriately.

We did a lot of shopping – mainly to buy clothes and accessories for the wedding, but also for warm clothes as (typically) Calcutta was having it’s coldest spell for 35 years and Calcutta is not a city designed for cold weather.

We managed to spend a few days doing touristy things. One day we had a pleasant walk across the Maidan to Eden Gardens and to the James Prinsep memorial. Another day we went to Belur Math (the headquarters of the Ramakrishna mission. Ramakrishna preached that all religions should be united. The building has 3 facades – one representing a church, one a temple and the other a mosque [no photography allowed]) and Dakshineswar Kali Temple (the temple where Ramakrishna was a priest). And on other days we visited the Victoria Memorial (an incredibly clean reminder of the British Raj which houses an interesting exhibition about the European colonisation of India) and also the Botanical Gardens (which contain plants from different corners of the globe).

All in all a really interesting trip. Of course the highlight was the wedding, but the rest of our time was enjoyable too – and we found India to be somewhere we’d like to return one day.

We ve just got

We’ve just got back to Brighton after our hectic Christmas/New Year/Early January. Christmas was spent in Brighton, New Year in Margate (unexpectedly), and Early January was spent in Kolkata, India where we attended a friend’s wedding (which was a fantastic experience). So now we have to sort ourselves out and find homes for all those lovely Christmas presents!