araqnid

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    I'm back! I survived wandering around the Baltics for a couple of weeks or so... and much fun it was too! Took me a bit to get out of the groove, and didn't meet many people while I was in Latvia, but by the time I got to Stockholm I was well into holiday traveller mode :)

    Stockholm is a beautiful city... so much less crowded than London, but then, most places are. Got a chance to see some bits outside of cities with a quick whizz round one of Estonia's national parks, and at least looking out at it from the bus between Riga and Liepāja.

    Liepāja was rather less touristy than the rest... my first time being up close and personal with the Baltic sea :) I got rained on a lot though! Kind of sad to see large chunks of it empty and falling into dereliction... the gradient from downtown revived city to grim "suburbia" was pronounced in all the Baltic State cities. Not as harsh as in Bangalore, but still there...

    Picture is some storage bunker just off the coast, somewhere in Lahemaa :)

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    October 1st, 2010

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    it's raining. lots and lots of wet rain. wet. lots. on a related note, i've discovered my rain jacket needs re-waterproofing :|

    glug glug squeak squeak

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    August 25th, 2010

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    OK, possibly the geekiest photo *ever*. But I'm so glad to be getting rid of these things... this is (one of) my old bike pedals, now superceded by SPDs that arrived today! See that metal bit in the middle? That's been poking through the plastic and up into my foot more and more over the past couple of weeks >.<

    Quiet weekend last weekend- been abusing the credit card to book goings-away in the coming month and getting a replacement phone. My race instructions for the duathlon arrived! It's in three weeks, and then I'm off for two weeks after :D

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    August 23rd, 2010

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    Moving house... not me, but helping shift stuff for a friend that she's had sitting in storage for a year or so. Lots of stuff. Two van-loads, and that was the final bits after the main load last week!

    I got rid of a bunch of things when I moved into my current flat- intentionally, I was beginning to feel I had too much stuff around and wanted a smaller place in an attempt to curb my pack-rat instincts. Some people like to be "minimal", some are the opposite... I like the idea of being minimal, but in reality I have a tendency to keep stuff around because "it might be useful" or "I'll read that someday..."

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    August 15th, 2010

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    I've run round the corner the other way past this for months and never seen it before! Wandering around at night, taking long exposure photos, cities are spooky without people in them... and cars don't count, they cease to seem to be people somehow.

    This last weekend sucked, had a cold come in to roost on Friday evening, and just shaking it off now :( Guess it was a good thing I didn't get Sonisphere tickets after all!

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    August 2nd, 2010

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    Someone liked one of my photos so much she asked if she could make it into a poster :D

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    July 26th, 2010

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    Went to see Front Line Assembly on Tuesday and it was excellent! Admittedly, my first thought when they came on stage was: "he's so old! when did he get so old?" which is a bit silly, but hey, still putting out good music and doing a good selection on show! no theatrics like Skinny Puppy, which imho was much better. and the icing on the cake? the second encore was one of my favourite but never-played-at-clubs songs, "Bio-Mechanic". \\o/

    Had to come down a bit yesterday when my credit card got declined while buying lunch... budgetary failure! Fortunately I have stuff left in the fridge to tide me over for a while, although I'll be scraping the bottom of the barrel by the end of the weekend, I think... In the meantime, this is probably good discipline to have reasonable portions until then. It'll just make me cranky. GRRR.

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    July 22nd, 2010

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    Well, today I went to Brompton Cemetery for their open day, had a look round, got shown the catacombs... another weekend, another cemetery, another sunburn. Ow. Cycled there and back, which probably didn't help the sunburn, but was good because it's a fair bit further than my usual commute and I need to extend my range... although it's still not far by my old standards!

    Tonight I went to see Skinny Puppy, who I used to be really into when I was back at Uni *harrumph* years ago. It was ok, but I'm glad I didn't work myself into a "I've been waiting years to see these guys" frenzy.... I think they played some tracks I knew, kind of mangled. Some tracks actually went down well and the audience got properly into (old faves like Assimilate and Worlock, for instance) but in the main it didn't really grab me. The crows was small (upstairs was closed) too, so maybe I'm not the only one...?

    Oh well, come Tuesday it'll be another day, another venue, another blast from the past as Front Line Assembly are playing. I'm allowing myself some hope that this will be a lot more exciting 8]

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    July 18th, 2010

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    It's almost the weekend! Pic is from last weekend :D This is me and Sonny, she's a Depeche Mode devotee :)

    So far this week I've been rewriting a fair chunk of the payment process on our website. Today we started getting wierd problems with our provider not coping with US transactions properly. Fun and games, not. Weekend needed!

    I've been told I have to go on holiday. I'm trying to decide what to do, or where to go. Considering just soloing off for a city break somewhere... I can just walk down the hill to get a train up to Luton and then off on a cheap flight somewhere... Amsterdam? (again...) Riga? (my inability to speak anything but English could interfere) Somewhere else?

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    July 15th, 2010

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    Not so baked today... just clammy and stuffy. Easing into a new iteration at work, and getting a few things done despite the noise in the office, but not too much.

    Planned to kick a new routine into action and go to the gym after work tonight... foiled by them having had a power cut! So cycled home the "scenic" route... I can at least cycle up New North Rd now! And even overtook a few people! Then went for a little run afterwards which felt a bit heavy but at least it went :D Then went for a takeaway, just a moment of weakness... :|

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    July 12th, 2010