Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in covltwt's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
5:31 am	Once more another beautiful dawn. Up at 0445 for work, just about to head off ;) Glasses are £250 :o Ahh well. I'm insured ;) 3/4 through route learning. Today I have a 'progress meeting' with training plus hope to 'finish' the 10, 1 and the W's ;) (Comment on this)
Sunday, May 31st, 2009
12:17 am	Everything has gone yellow. Lost my glasses on a bus that I was driving. Was wearing my sunglasses at the time and only later found them missing. So. Everything has a yellow tint... Hmm (Comment on this)
Monday, May 25th, 2009
10:46 pm	Day out in Leicestershire... On Sunday I went with a friend over to the 'races' near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire. Si1entDave and I were to be helping out with MROC with their vehicle support unit (Called Rovercovery). Vets and Doctors needed accessibility to the site and around whilst the horses were running. In between that time I got to chat 4x4's, Landrovers and Radio's with the others in the group. It was quite an interesting and informative day, made even more interesting as thanks to Dave's scanner we could hear what was happening between the controlers and their staff. Guess what I forgot to take. Shorts & Tshirt, Yeah. Camera, Packed Lunch, Fluids, Money, Maps, GPS, Anything else? Yeah, sun tan lotion. Forgot that. After the event I spoke nicely and was assisted with some after-burn cream from the St Johns Ambulance crew there for my left arm (I was a passenger! Didn't drive today) and the back of my neck. Note to self. Consider a Tilley Hat & get some Factor 30 or 50 suntan cream :o Today was a day of sorting out my ebooks and trying to chill. Rather restless and listless and unable to get 'stuck in'. Felt tired all day but couldnt fall asleep... Neck and arm painful intermittently. Adding anesthetic treated aftersun. Well, it feels like it anyway! ;) Back to route learning tomorrow. 0545 start so best eff-off to bed then! NN :D Current Mood: sleepy (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 16th, 2009
10:05 pm	Today it rained. And was murky, foggy and generally a grey day. For me, however, it had a lighter yellow tinge as I had my yellow tinted glasses on. On days like this it really improves the visibility out there. This morning I had the 14's then later on the 2's. For the most part the day was OK. Marred by a few technical aspects which I had best not go into right now, but even so. As for the home front; I have progressed with the spring cleaning. But still have loads to do. Always seem to find something to take my time up with. However, saying that, I've always had stuff to keep me busy. And I must say, typing on this new laptop is a pleasurable experience. It's great ;) Whether it encourages me to write more is a different matter! I guess soon I shall have to sort out this 'expansion' of places to hang up my stuff. Although, I already know I have too much stuff :( Yet, despite everything I need to do, I often feel tired of such things. I guess everyone does, but they still continue ok. It's not that I'm depressed, but just feel lethargic. My muscles ache and bones no doubt creak but I guess it's my body reminding me I don't get enough exercise. One day all will be good. Until then, I guess I'll have to practice at things like the washing up.... My new T42 is currently running on Linux Mint but if I can't get the MiniITX machine working I guess I will have to put this lappy back on xp :( Hmm. I'll try and delay as long as possible though, as despite the niggles I do like this beast on Linux.... (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
10:07 pm	Days Driving Well. An interesting day at work. It started easy enough with a 10am start in town in Trinity Street on the 2's. Except for some reason I was always running 5 minutes behind out and back until the last trip, then I was actually almost running early. Still. Waited time in the sunny green dappled sun and shade of Fenside for about 5 minutes with the engine off... When I got to town and I was releived of my bus, I had a Metro (MCW Metrobus) on the 15's. Mostly an OAP route and I was late outbound for that too. But once I'd got used to the, ahh, accurate and precise braking, heavy stearing and remembering this is a double decker not a single decker then my speed picked up. Back into town on time for that and time for lunch. Sandwiches today and popped back to the depot because I'd spotted an odd thing. That odd thing was a Merc on the 11 route. The 11 route has an Optare. This is a smaller single decker bus that has a nickname of 'the breadvan'. The Merc is a standard 40ft single decker. Longer, a bit wider and, um, yeah. There are a few narrow places on the route but nothing can be as narrow as the Stonehouse Estate. I have actually now got the nerves together to do the route at more than 15mph! It's narrow. Cars have to park on the pavements or you wouldn't get through. So of course, the first time I had queries was when I 'missed' a turn that would take me under the Hiron bridge. Some passengers complained, but not many. Then the major complain point is at Stonehouse, or in my case, the main road outside where I refuse to go down. So far the complainers have been the younger people. The OAPs just 'accept it'. Odd. The last trip had someone insisting that the bus company should swap buses around off other routes and offered a few numbers of services. Needless to say, pointing out double deckers had been used on that route all day took the wind out of her sails. Still, she left me and probably felt she'd accomplished something. TBH I'd like driving the Merc on that route. Means I don't have to drive the Stonehouse :) Still. Practice :) Last run of the evening was approaching the stop in Trinity street and a lady fell, she was due to get on the bus but hadn't actually got there. She was loaded down with shopping and pushed out of the way, and went down. I wasn't sure of the proceedure so called Traffic. Once updated I made the decision that an ambulance was required. The lady had hit her head, she looked pale and sounded weak and shaky, I suspected she was probably feeling a bit woozy too and tried nicely to tell her that I would prefer that she get checked out, especially with the bleeding..., so got the 'witness' to call for a free taxi for her with the usual flashing lights... Delayed the service by 15m, and for most of that time the bus was parked in the middle of the road with the hazards on. Space for buses to pass either side by now. When I had arrived the nearside was packed with buses anyway... Not that it mattered, it was the last service so time wasn't an issue. So, now I have to put the report in over this. Not sure how to phrase it. Got another report to write from an incident last week where a chap ran out in front of me. And it's got diagrams. I hate diagrams. Dislike forms too. But I'm tired now and have a 6am start. So I might just take the paperwork with me and do it at lunchtime or tomorrow after work at work. They 'say' they want the Accident Report Forms in tomorrow before 1500 Hrs. Hmm. Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: U2 The Joshua Tree (Comment on this)
7:17 am	New Hardware & Bills It's scary to look at the bank account and work out where everything is going. I get paid 230 a week and 175 of that goes on bills in the form of standing orders, that leaves about 55 left. Of that, every month I've got about 30 on gas and electric each and a whopping 45 on the orange phone bill, which I don't use much anyway. It is up for 'renewal' in June so I think you can work out what I'm going to do... Hopefully I'll end up with a sort of Sim-Only deal, but I might go the whole hog and go for a PAYG deal... Anyway. Back to The New Hardware. Thanks to all those people that owed me money and found the financial reserves to pay me; I've now bought The Laptop. It is an IBM Thinkpad T42. I've previously owned one, an X30, but that was sold onto my mum. Which at that time enabled me to buy a desktop PC. However, that machine then got sold onto my sister which I also setup for her etc, and with that money I could get The Laptop. Look, it all made sense in my head. I've installed Mint Linux on it and all is well. It looks good but there are always tweaks I could do. Got a bit fazed with the install. I used a partition manager to split the HDD into NTFS/XP at 15gb and left 19gb available for the linux install. But it wouldn't use it. It wouldn't touch it. Eventually it took the option to use 5gb from the NTFS drive and the rest of the partition but I still didn't get a seperate home partition. But I guess when I decide to change OS or perhaps a reinstall to 'get it right' I'll just backup to the server :o I've got a Windows machine here at the moment. It's the Mini ITX my sister had before (Part Ex you could call it!) This is currently my main PC before I transfer everything over. Considering the laptop still dual boots but I don't use XP... Having installed the software I've paid for previously, I'm reluctant to reinstall on a whim as the registration code, hand typed, is about 300 characters! ahh well. Anyway. The specs of the laptop are basically a 1.7Ghz CPU, 40gb Hdd, 1gb Ram, CDRW/DVD, PCMCIA, USB and a 15" screen. The battery life seems OK but I've not tested it yet. I will in time though... Once I've transferred my mail across and my webstored pages I will still need a windows PC for the following software: PC < > PDA Sync (Windows Mobile 6, HTC Kaiser MS Access for databases for the above Rawshooter Ameol (Cix) (I'll find some for Linux at some point) HDR Software (I'll find some for Linux at some point) uTorrent & Peer Guardian Plus, I can VNC into this PC from most places on the network. Meaning I can put it out of the way and leave it there and run it remotely.... There are drawbacks with lag and the like, but considering I have this widescreen 19" TFT flatscreen I might as well leave it here. Which does mean I could do with running another Cat5 cable from the far connection in my living room around the wall/skirting board to where the PC is. I do actually have a box installed on the wall but it has no cables going to it. Friends have 'plugged in' here before noticing there aren't wires there! Doh indeed! Housework. When I pass the computer phase I'll do some more. Perhaps I'll do some and just stay away from the computer. At least I have hot water now. The heating engineers replaced the motherboard. It was 'getting confused'. It was only 18 months old! Ahh well. Anyway. Have me coffee and sod off to work now methinks... Got 3 buses today. The 2 to Cheylesmore & Fenside, then the 15 around Finham & Fenside and then the 11 between Cheylesmore, Whitley and Willenhall. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Express_Coventry (Main Page, with a Merc; 1608 on the 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_National_Express_Coventry_bus_routes Bus Routes 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Midlands_bus_route_2_(Coventry) 11: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Midlands_bus_route_11_(Coventry) It's always interesting to read the history of some of these routes... But I've been there since last November now and have the starter routes OK in my head. Have made a few silly mistakes, but improving my Geog of Coventry all the while. 2, 11, 14, 15, 20, 36, 75 are the starter routes. Anyway. Coffee. Work. Home at 1900 ;) Current Mood: cheerful Current Music: Silencio! (Comment on this)
Monday, April 6th, 2009
8:04 am	Off to collect the new hardware. Despite planning it looks like I will be going via the M25, an area I would have preferred to avoid. But these things happen :o Thanks to Si1entDave I have working SatNav and also thanks to him I have decent music! Andy The Viking will be accompanying me today... Back about 4pm I guess... :o (Comment on this)
Friday, April 3rd, 2009
7:19 pm	Well. I've had this Via Epia M Mini ITX machine back with me for almost a week. And there is still something causing it to lockup. It only seems to happen while Ameol is running though... However. I have psyched myself up to it and 'allocated' my pennies from 'stuff' sold and so on Monday will have a roadtrip down to Guildford to collect the New Thing. It's not expensive, but it is an alternate to this Mini ITX machine. Not sure if I should take it up to see Mum when I next go, she might like it too much and want to swap :o Once I've got that I'll probably move this machine over to Linux proper, as Ubuntu works OK on this and I already have licenced software for Linux as such. Was out taking Photos today. Well, in the afternoon. In the morning I 'Did Stuff'. After 12 days on 'lates' and 'PMs' I needed to do such things as visit friends, wash car, clear out car, buy stuff for distant friends and all the rest. Spent a bit of time with MS before his travels to distant horizons. He seemed remarkably calm, but seemed to have everything under control. I tried to get him to take 1000 photos a month while he was out there, but that's 250 a week and he'll probably be, ahem, doing other things than taking fots. So I narrowed it down to 1000 fots in his 10 weeks. 100 a week is managable. He could of course just 'blow' the limit in the first week where he is, apparently, in Florida! THEN I went out taking Fots. Trundled around Eastern Green and then as I was near Malfunction Junction popped in to see Franc to hand over a pair of Motorola car-chargers I had found (Chargers that plug into cars, not chargers for Motorola cars!!! ;) } He has a Motorola mobile and no car charger. Meanwhile I had these two blasted chargers that wouldn't work on my HTC. And I don't like binning things! Dusk approaching I returned home shattered. Hopefully nice weather tomorrow. Need to do more constructive stuff. You know, like cleaning up flat and washing loooads of clothes. Mustn't forget to go and let Millie in.... :o Or that will be one chilled cat tonight! (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009
9:53 am	They came today to fix the boiler. And couldn't. It's within warranty but the hard water area has snaffled up the 'heat exchanger'. The bit that gives me hot water. Hopefully have one fitted tomorrow afternoon... Still. Day off to tidy flat ;) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
10:53 pm	Home from Wales. More cleaning, unpacking, stowing, storing, drying and disposing of. Some of my hi-vis waterproof gear died and my boots were soaked too. Off to bed shortly, lie in tomorrow so I don't need to be up until 8am. Relearn to do washing up in Stages as still have no hot water :( (Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
10:52 am	Things to do today. 1. More washing up. 2. Breakfast 3. More clothes washing 4. Buy Recovery Gear for Range Rover 5. Fit Recovery Gear to Range Rover 6. Admire Friends' Range Rover 7. Prep recovered recovery gear I found in the bottom of this cupboard that needs sorting before I can use it... Cue the use of Francs' Pillar Drill and some U Links. 8. Post letters 9. More tidying 10. Relax on Day Off 11. Enjoy Sunshine 12. Prep for Weekend away. Yaay! 13. More cleaning, tidying and generally good things... 14. Washing up. That should cover it :) Oh, and Gilks asap. Now. Hmm. More computer work... :( (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
6:13 am	Waking up to a cold flat reminds me of two things. 1. I need to sort out the automatic heating system so it's warm when I get up. 2. I need to get the engineers out to fix the boiler so it actually generates heat when I want it without losing power after 4 1/2 minutes on full power. 1 can be easily sorted. 2 is something to watch out for when you're in the shower and just soaped up ;( But I have an early today. 0645-1345. Niiice shift ;) Start off on the 11's (which could either be the 11 or 14s starting) and then onto the 36's. The latter means I have at least one trip through Hillfields, where the roadworks are. Not tried this during the day. The evening is bad enough. Also need to find some horns to lock up with.... Specifically against management at work... But I'll do it nicely... ;) Current Mood: gloomy Current Music: Silence again... (Comment on this)
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
11:39 am	Monies... Well, finally got around to speaking to the Council Tax. They pointed out I had until April to pay or they'd start proceedings to take me to court. Sods. Offered a relatively low amount and they said the courts could offer something better for me when they take me to court. Yeah right. Have prodded my finances enough to get some money to them, but set it up so that it will take into account my next years' council tax too. Checking the figures I don't think the woman on the phone took the 'only me here' discount into effect, but the standing order is setup now. Apart from that I've had a nice long weekend off work. Got a bit done. Had a 13hr round trip out to Builth Wells for a computer cable swapout... Don't look at me like that. I'm sane you know! Just under 4h to get there, stopping for brekkies at The Ford Layby near Shrewsbury :o and when I felt tired of driving stopped to take fots ;) Flagged a few places to stop and take more fots on way back but then took another route home. Even so, got to visit Gladestry http://www.flickr.com/photos/covltwt/sets/72157614273281652 but friends were unavailable so went to the church. Carried on via Pembridge and Kidderminster to get back to Coventry, visiting friends on the way. Alas some were out, but the parents of said friends are also friends and, er, that waylaid me enough. All in all a good day out. Stuck £40 in the car, did 300 miles and I've still got just under half a tank. Result! Spoke to the Union chap today about the leave booked. As I've not received a letter he thinks I've got the leave but he'll check for me :) All I've got left to do today is, um, lets see. Shopping. Tidying up. Prolly more fots later. Haircut and that sort of stuff... I might even sneak off to Go Outdoors and exercise my discount card :o Oh yeah. And the washing up still needs doing. Friends have given me some plates and stuff from a relative that no longer needs them, so they're in the 'pile to be washed up'. I already have waaay too much now so I guess after they've been washed I'll pop some down to the local charity shop (if we have a 'local' one of them, or it'll be in the city) for, um, moving on. One day, everything will be done, good and happy. However, today is not that day and tomorrow doesn't look likely either. Current Mood: relaxed Current Music: Boiler & Silence :) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, February 12th, 2009
11:57 am	Today a letter came I was expecting but not wanting. It was from the Benefits people from last year. I was on benefits, see, and ran out of some type of contribution. Except the benefit office forgot to tell me. Eventually I got it sorted and after a few weeks also got a job. So I notified them. In November they made a payment to my Council Tax and Rent accounts that put me seriously in credit for both of them. I contacted both and told them it was a mistake. For example, my CT was paid off completely and my rent account was nearly £700 in credit! But I was good. And careful. And instructed both organisations NOT to set my account to automatically refund me. Thankfully. So today I had the letter. Or letters. Once again they give 2 different messages in 3 letters, but the general information is that whilst Rent is sorted out (Phew!) Council tax do want some money off me :o But not too much. Rang them up but their systems were down. I guess I'll have to start paying them soon. I wonder if I can convince them to add it to my next years bill.... Anyway. Have a day off. Got up early and finished the computer projects I have been working on. A quick rebuild for a friend. Just gotta deliver it this afternoon with that TV that Dad used to have and was loaned to another friend... It was a beautiful sunrise and TBH I could have got up at 6am to go and take fots of it. But it was sooo cold! Sod that, hot brekkies, moving XP profiles and battling files which windows tell me "Read Only" and "I shouldn't be touching" and useless crap like that. Anyway. JK is after moving bits from his Dell GX280 over to his GFs machine as the former can't be uprated for gaming. I'm off to have a prod and then later will have that Dell back from him destined for other shores. I won't make a profit nor a loss on it, as the destination of this GX280 will make the machine worthwhile in more ways than one. Anyway. Best go 'do' things. Perhaps another coffee first :o Current Mood: artistic Current Music: August Rush OST :) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, February 6th, 2009
9:26 pm	Went out for a drive this evening. Remembered to load my cold weather gear into the car but already knew all the roads would be clear anyway. Sun popped out just leaving home but figured had enough time to get some gogo juice but whilst at Asda sticking £20 into the tank the sun went down. Ahh well. Considered a few other options for where to go next in the failing light and oddly enough ended up at Wolston. And, oh, they've got a church. A nice little one. I could do with going back there again! However, even though I had a few long exposures and HDRs mixed I found that the latter worked together because there wasn't any light pollution. Marvelous. Also my new gadget (hush hush) will let me do timed exposures exactly. So if I wanted to do a 6min, 4min and then 2.5 min exposure I just programme it all in... And guess where I left this little cutie. Yeah, at home :( Sod. http://www.flickr.com/photos/covltwt is where my photos are hanging out. I really like this latest set and it has put me a good mood. Working tomorrow. Will be wearing thermals again. I do report the heaters when they don't work but the usual response is 'no available bus, keep on going' with the union office saying 'cold bus, return to depot and wait until they get you another' but I don't want to make trouble and lose the job do I. So Thermals. Once I've been there a bit and found the level of + and - we both can take we'll take it from there. Was also pleased to see that a variety of LRs are now available at the sub £1k bracket! £600 for a 300tdi Disco!!! Not that I've got the money, but it was an interesting peruse on ebay with Dad yesterday... I won't even mention his problems just yet, but its enough to want to pull your hair out. And he actually has some unlike most friends' fathers' I know ;) Current Mood: tired Current Music: ...the gentle gurgle of central heating radiators keeping me warm ;) ..... (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 29th, 2009
9:03 pm	Yesterday I had my new aputure remote turn up. And I set about taking 600 shots over 4 hours. And got a result when they were stitched together. Flattened 2 batteries pretty quick though :o Working on a solution for that. But here's the result and I'm very pleased with it, albeit being a starter. http://www.flickr.com/photos/covltwt/3236998386/ (Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009
10:39 pm	Have returned from Wales. It was cold, wet and I managed 350 miles there and back yet forgot to take an IDE data cable and screws to hold the drive in place. Drat. I also didn't manage to swear. This is good. However, I also had some time to revisit some good and bad memories of the area. I had a few photo opportunities, but the camera was unavailable. Having arrived at my accommodation I put the camera/camera bag in my room and went out for a meal. And while out found something worth taking photos of, but my camera was 20 miles in >that< direction :( I had time to think though, and time to reflect and time to mutter bad words about the drizzling rain. And also consider how life has retreated for some of my friends.... I'll be back in February... In the meantime, I think I need another Photo Op, or GTG to rediscover some ideas... Current Mood: contemplative (Comment on this)
Friday, January 23rd, 2009
11:55 pm	Finished my week of lates (1500-0000) and I've got a mid on Sunday (10-6) and then I'm off for 3 days. Monday will see me at K's funeral in Hereford. Then after that I'm off to others in the area to get away from work for a few days. Not sure how I'll end up after that. Moody and depressed again no doubt, but it needs to be done. Alas I no longer have the patience of an ox, but I'm hoping I won't need to tap into my reserves and can actually go out at some point into the hills for some solitude... We did agree to go out for a meal on the first night I'm there, with both of us offering to 'treat' one another. This is a good thing in a friendship. J certainly seems in better spirits since I last visited, but then, his life had just been ripped apart too :( Anyway. I still can't find that blasted Seagull adapter, an L angled bracked for the camera so I can 'look down' into the viewfinder. I know I had it last time I went out, but as it's not in the flat nor the car I'm guessing it was left at the site of the photo shoot. I guess I'll warm up the car tomorrow and take it for a run out into the depths of Warwickshire to attempt innocence, apologetic and cautious approach to get it back. If I can. If not, well, ebay I guess. It's worth about £30 :o Current Mood: blah Current Music: The central heating boiler is on full power. Music enough right now! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
12:36 am	By comparison, today was quiet. The sinks were unblocked at home so the water now drains away. They won't drain faster than that now because apparently I need to raise the bath by about 6 inches to a foot as the drop isn't enough. Went to a meeting at work about my collisions last year to find the guy interviewing me was doing other things and only found out as I was about to do my first stint of driving. Hopefully be later this week. Told him I was on lates all week. And finally, returning to the depot this evening with about 7 other double deckers from their own terminii found that the traffic lights sync'd up by the time I reached them. Managed Little Heath to City at 30mph without needing to slow for traffic lights. I was impressed. Of course, at 2315 there wasn't much other traffic either :) Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: Silence can be sweet too :) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
12:50 am	Vandals at work... Finally got 'bricked' today. Was on the outskirts of the city in a particular area that I am advised to be careful anyway. Whilst still on the route and not yet at the problem area we past a group of teen-lads. Moments later I had the report from a passenger that a window was broken. Stopped as soon as I could and did my dooty. Fots to follow. However, bed for now. I'm ok and the bus is off the road for a new window :( Current Mood: tired Current Music: Listened to the theme from Top Gun on the way home from work.... Does that count (4 Comments |Comment on this)