Freeloading Phill and ...

The Valley of Horses by Jean M. Auel

As you may remember this was a selection that Salsa Girl had picked for me to read when I gave her the opportunity to choose my next read.

So I finally found myself able to start this novel after having read it's preceding volume - thus satisfying one's desire to read things in the proper and correct order.

It is much like the first book in writing style although the subject matter expands to a larger view of Auel's pre-history world.

I do have to apologise for characterising the previous adventure as "Ayla invents everything" because the sheer amount of inventing she gets up to this time around makes her previous attempts pale in comparison.

It was an interesting read and one has to admit that - sigh - one shall indubitably get around to reading the remainder of the series to find out what befalls our plucky heroine (albeit probably a tad more spaced apart than these first two were).

Alas, the dangers of following the reading recommendations of one's sweetheart.
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Trusting Oneself

So it appears I may have jumped the gun when I was discussing the apparent lack of weird and interesting happenings on my life over the past week or so.

Making my way to my vehicle yesterday - in order to make my commute in a barely timely manner to attend a morning meeting - I discovered that my transportation was suffering from the condition known as "Flat Battery".

Apparently one's subconscious had planned ahead and left several interior lights on when last departing the vehicle.

One's subconscious must have also foreseen that this setback would cause Supervisor Grand Chief K to cancel the meeting and thereby one would be saved all the pain and stress that uncatered meetings cause.

In future I shall very much trust in the wisdom of my subconscious self.
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Tumbleweeds

Well after the excitement of one's birthday not much of blog-worthy substance has occurred.

There has been the usual work and gaming. The less regular visits and dinners with friends and family. The smooth continuation of the grand experiment betwixt Salsa Girl and myself. Steady progress through my current read and not much on the film front - although I will say that I think Black Swan falls short of what it was trying to achieve.

All on all not much at all but be sure I'll inform you all should anything at all weird or interesting befall me in any part of my life at all.
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The Birthday Experience

This weekend past saw the passing of a not very significant birthday - well in comparison to last year at least.

As my present Salsa Girl decided to give me an experience.
Now get your minds out of the gutter as I tell you that the experience was a trip to the Melbourne Aquarium - a venue to which one had never made an expedition.
I had quite an enjoyable time with my personal highlights being the rather Cthulhu-esque cuttlefish and, as befits my age and maturity, being witness to underwater penguin flatulence.

The day after such an uplifting experience was a gaming Sunday which included a plethora of one's favourite games, friends and even a magnificent caramel mud cake courtesy of Salsa Girl.
The afternoon included the long awaited, and much anticipated, meeting of BestFriendSincePrep and Salsa Girl - thankfully he approved of her so I may continue on in my courting ways.

So all in all I think we can agree that my birthday weekend was spent in a very Phill manner.
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The Final Step

So during all that wonderful holiday time that I spent with Salsa Girl I decided it was time that I took the final step.

I awoke one morning several weeks ago, took a deep breath, steeled myself and then took the action that had been on my mind for the latter part of the holiday period.

That's right, I decided to stop using my pedometer. For all it's interesting insight into one's exercise regime, my use of it had become a tad obsessive.

With the act done - and several weeks without it under my belt - I feel as if a great burden has been lifted from me.

In the end my daily averages were around 7,500 steps for working days dropping down to 6,500 during this recent holiday a slight bit less than the recommended 10,000 per day.
Despite that I think I have built some good walking habits from the whole exercise and in fact the scales at Freeloading Mum's say that I lost several kilos over the Xmas break so one must be maintaining them.

I dare say I'll saddle up with a pedometer later this year should work participate in the global challenge again so that shall test whether I have continued my habits without the constant company of the infernal device.
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The Importance of Decimal Points

In my capacity as a distributor of public welfare information I bring to you today a Caution about the dangers of the online world.

You may not be aware that this whole "Internet" carries with it, not only the boundless fun of getting angry at those on it that are wrong but also many traps for the unwary.

For today's example I shall tell you the tale of one poor anonymous fellow whom we shall call Freewheeling Bill to protect his identity.
You see just the other night Bill innocently went online to perform the simple act of BPaying a bill (of the paper kind). In the simple act of typing on the payment amount it appears that his fingers danced ever too lightly over the decimal point key. Being a trusting fellow Bill failed to scrutinise the "are you sure" screen. The result was a payment of several thousand dollars winging it's way to the lucky service provider - an amount in credit that would require nearly 8 years to use up.

The good news for Bill is that a refund has been easily arranged.

So there it is, a Caution indeed. Let us hope that Bill's unfortunate experience never happens to you or I.
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Back to the Grind

Well yesterday marked one's return to work after the extended Summer holiday.

One found it to be much the same as one had left it - scads of emails to be answered, mysterious equipment failures, looming deadlines, jovial work companions, etc.

A noticeable difference from business as usual was the quite apparent lack of any sort of "Welcome Back" cake or even small pastry. It seems that while I have been away tragedy has struck and Days of our Libraries has lost her cooking mojo. Kiwichick's kind gift of a thorny IT problem to sink my teeth into did little to alleviate my suffering.

Anyway, I seemed to have gotten my email under control and achieved not much else yesterday. Perhaps I shall return to work today?
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