Signs that you have an incredibly infantile office colleague who should learn to act her age and get a life, #576436:

When you check your office webcam and see this (would be 'not safe for work' if she could spell and/or knew how mirrors worked).

Oh how sad. 

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Yesterday I travelled to watch Sunderland take on Hull City at the KC Stadium.  The trip didn't go particularly smoothly…

When we arrived at Sheffield train station it soon became apparent that Northern Rail had cancelled my train because it had broken down earlier in it's journey.  Not a good start.  Because one of the two automatic ticket machines at the station was out of order, we then missed the only alternative train that would get us to Hull in plenty time by a couple of minutes (of course, the second machine started working again after I'd been in the queue ten minutes…)

The train we ended up catching was due to get us to Hull at about 2:55.  The match kicked off at 3pm, but I wasn't too annoyed, as the KC Stadium's website states that it is a ten minute signposted walk to the stadium from the station.  The exit from the station wasn't very well marked, but we made our way out and immediately saw the blue pedestrian signs to the stadium.  The walk went on… and on… and on…  After 35 minutes (no, really) we eventually got to the ground, almost expecting there to be no turnstiles still open.  Fortunately, there was still one turnstile open for the away end and we finally got to our seats.

As for the game, we needn't have worried about missing any action, as it was a fairly average 0-0 encounter right up to injury time at the end of the game, when Ross Wallace scored (and then got sent off after receiving his second yellow card for taking his shirt off) giving Sunderland a 1-0 victory.  As was the theme of the day, during the goal celebration melee, I managed to break my glasses!  The journey back to Sheffield had to be made with one good eye from the remaining lens

After the game the police would not let us go back the way we had walked to the ground, but sent us on an even longer journey back to the train station.  We eventually picked up our original route, but there were no signs for the train station until we were practically outside it, which wasn't very helpful.  The walk back to the station, at a more moderate pace, took 50 minutes, so anyone believing the advice on the KC Stadium website wouldn't be particularly amused, as was the case for us!

So in summary, the day would have been a total shocker had it not been for the fact that SAFC won, so none of the above matters really ;-) 

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As the majority of people reading this are probably reading it through BlogExplosion, I wonder if anyone can answer this for me… is there actually anyone still working there?  A banner I submitted for approval about 10 days ago still hasn't been approved and my two day old support ticket also hasn't been replied to.  Is anyone else having similar problems?

Edit: a day after posting this, my ticket was replied to and the banner activated.  I guess they get there eventually ;-) 

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After reading this story, it was worth checking it wasn't April 1st - BBC News reported yesterday on the "green" weapons that BAE Systems are developing.  These include:

• reduced lead bullets;
• more fuel-efficient jet fighters;
• "bang-free" bombs;
• biodegradable landmines.

I'm not kidding!  There seems to be something just plain wrong about worrying about the environmental impact of weapons when their primary purpose is to, well, make a significant impact on the environment…   My favourite is probably the biodegradable landmine, whose explosives turn into manure after a period of time!

For some reason I'm reminded of Eddie Izzard's sketch in Dress to Kill in response to the NRA's "guns don't kill people, people kill people" statement… maybe the next step in BAE's plan should be to replace tanks with very large sound systems that just play people shouting "BANG!"…

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Today I finally took the flight that my friend Marie and her mam bought me for my birthday (a mere 337 days ago…)

The 30 minute flight was from Sheffield City Airport with Sheffield City Flying School.  Unfortunately the weather wasn't ideal, with some light rain and low cloud, but the experience was still fantastic.  We flew in a four seater Piper Cherokee 180 (registration G-DLTR), taking off west over Sheffield in the general direction of our flat, then turning south, flying at 2,500ft down the western edge of Sheffield to the M1, then turning north to head back to the airport via the local visual reference point (VRP) which is the M1/M18 motorway junction.

In terms of the sensation, the flight was surprisingly similar to flying in a large airliner (I think the smallest plane I've been in prior to this was an MD-83!)  I expected something rather bumpier, but that just wasn't the case.  The instructor who took us up was most friendly and explained everything that he was doing.  Based on my limited experience I would certainly recommend the Sheffield City Flying School for anyone wanting to learn to fly - they offer the NPPL, JAR-PPL and all the add-ons that go along with it.  If I had a few thousand quid knocking about (and could pass the medical…) I'd be back down there like a flash!

The rest of the photos we took can be viewed here. 

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I'm not even sure why this is funny, but for some reason it is… sorry folks…

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