General Random Update
Busy having a bit of a tidy of the flat at the moment in preparation to start showing it to estate agents in an attempt to get it valued, and I've finally managed to put my PC on the computer desk I inherited from my parents a couple of months ago- it's a really nice change- I can finally sit in a proper chair and type, rather than the my old slumped in the sofa position. With a bit of luck it'll mean I might get more useful done- it'll certainly help my touch-typing as my monitor and keyboard are now in something closer to a normal position.
I think some of Bob's greenfingeredness is starting to rub off on me in here. I've had a couple of plants for a while, namely Aubrey, the African Violet that redkitty23 got me for my 30th Birthday, and Stephen- I'm not quite sure what breed he is, but he's one of those unassuming green sprouty things that sits in his pot and gets on with life. On moving in here I've also inherited Bob's plants, including Stephen's Dad (Stephen was an offcut from him), the bathroom Spider Plant, and the Yucca.
Aubrey has never been entirely happy since the builders at the last house I was in dumped him outside and covered him in bits of wood, and recently I thought he was finally dying, but I looked at him closely a few days ago and discovered that although his old stalk looked pretty much dead, the clever 'lil bugger has started on an entirely new one that's small at the moment, but it's got some really nice green leaves on it- I'm hoping he'll pull though yet.
Stephen, Stephen's Dad, the Yucca and the Spider Plant all suffered from not being watered enough over the winter I think- when I saw Bob in the US I asked if they were safe to put outside, and he said something along the lines of 'God yes, otherwise they'll all die', so I did, and they're all sprouting like fiends- Stephen in particular is looking like he'd have a good go at invading the pot of any other plant that gets close enough, and all of them look like they're all growing at an almost visible speed. My parents are coming over on Saturday to help prepare the flat and I think I'm going to need to take repotting advice from my Mum.
Since I've moved here, I've also bought some daffodils (reported here), picture here, which've been and gone by now, as you'd expect. A couple of weeks ago I was passing the tiny little old shop on Magdalen Road and bought my latest boy, a Sunseeker Rose called Arnold- so far he's not done very well on the sunseeking front (we've had about two days of sun since I got him), but he's got really nice orangy flowers that smell wonderful. I think he'll need repotting soon too- this weather might now be so good for people, but the plants are loving it.
On a completely different topic, I decided to re-flash the firmware on my mp3 player a few weeks ago, mainly so it'd recognise as an external drive on windows when I plugged it into other PCs, but I thought it was also a good excuse to clean out my music collection a bit. After a faintly frantic half-hour during which I thought I'd upgraded it to to a brick, I got it working again, but Media Player decided that the best way to sync to it the first time I tried it was to delete everything. I stopped it as soon as I noticed, but the last couple of weeks has involved way too much time rebuilding my collection. In the process it looks like I've lost all copies of various important things, including my entire Aphex Twin, Skinny Puppy, Saint Etienne, and Mozart collections, which is really quite distressing. I've got all the CDs, but they're in cold storage in my Parent's loft, so I'm finding bits of them where I can- today I discovered a copy of Selected Ambient Works on the office network (aah the joys of having an admin app that'll report every mp3 on the network, and the access rights to get it), and I'd almost forgotten quite how good it was. After some of the later stuff I was starting to go off Aphex Twin, but listening to it again has reminded me that he should be one of those musicians that'll still be remembered in a 100-odd years time.
Speaking of which- I've just noticed that my collection as it currently stands spans exactly 300 years- the earliest thing I have on my mp3 player is a Bach fugue that was written in 1707 (as far as anyone can say for certain). I think I've got some earlier plainsong and things that're still yet to be recovered, but I like the syncronicity of it as it currently stands.
I think some of Bob's greenfingeredness is starting to rub off on me in here. I've had a couple of plants for a while, namely Aubrey, the African Violet that redkitty23 got me for my 30th Birthday, and Stephen- I'm not quite sure what breed he is, but he's one of those unassuming green sprouty things that sits in his pot and gets on with life. On moving in here I've also inherited Bob's plants, including Stephen's Dad (Stephen was an offcut from him), the bathroom Spider Plant, and the Yucca.
Aubrey has never been entirely happy since the builders at the last house I was in dumped him outside and covered him in bits of wood, and recently I thought he was finally dying, but I looked at him closely a few days ago and discovered that although his old stalk looked pretty much dead, the clever 'lil bugger has started on an entirely new one that's small at the moment, but it's got some really nice green leaves on it- I'm hoping he'll pull though yet.
Stephen, Stephen's Dad, the Yucca and the Spider Plant all suffered from not being watered enough over the winter I think- when I saw Bob in the US I asked if they were safe to put outside, and he said something along the lines of 'God yes, otherwise they'll all die', so I did, and they're all sprouting like fiends- Stephen in particular is looking like he'd have a good go at invading the pot of any other plant that gets close enough, and all of them look like they're all growing at an almost visible speed. My parents are coming over on Saturday to help prepare the flat and I think I'm going to need to take repotting advice from my Mum.
Since I've moved here, I've also bought some daffodils (reported here), picture here, which've been and gone by now, as you'd expect. A couple of weeks ago I was passing the tiny little old shop on Magdalen Road and bought my latest boy, a Sunseeker Rose called Arnold- so far he's not done very well on the sunseeking front (we've had about two days of sun since I got him), but he's got really nice orangy flowers that smell wonderful. I think he'll need repotting soon too- this weather might now be so good for people, but the plants are loving it.
On a completely different topic, I decided to re-flash the firmware on my mp3 player a few weeks ago, mainly so it'd recognise as an external drive on windows when I plugged it into other PCs, but I thought it was also a good excuse to clean out my music collection a bit. After a faintly frantic half-hour during which I thought I'd upgraded it to to a brick, I got it working again, but Media Player decided that the best way to sync to it the first time I tried it was to delete everything. I stopped it as soon as I noticed, but the last couple of weeks has involved way too much time rebuilding my collection. In the process it looks like I've lost all copies of various important things, including my entire Aphex Twin, Skinny Puppy, Saint Etienne, and Mozart collections, which is really quite distressing. I've got all the CDs, but they're in cold storage in my Parent's loft, so I'm finding bits of them where I can- today I discovered a copy of Selected Ambient Works on the office network (aah the joys of having an admin app that'll report every mp3 on the network, and the access rights to get it), and I'd almost forgotten quite how good it was. After some of the later stuff I was starting to go off Aphex Twin, but listening to it again has reminded me that he should be one of those musicians that'll still be remembered in a 100-odd years time.
Speaking of which- I've just noticed that my collection as it currently stands spans exactly 300 years- the earliest thing I have on my mp3 player is a Bach fugue that was written in 1707 (as far as anyone can say for certain). I think I've got some earlier plainsong and things that're still yet to be recovered, but I like the syncronicity of it as it currently stands.