zappo

I have "Sherlock Holmes"! And I've just watched it again, muahaha, and laughed. Fun!

In fact I've watched a slew of Holmes movies recently. "A Study in Terror" was rather bad, but it _was_ from 1965. It showed. It's another Jack the Ripper story and a lot more lurid than later ones. A few days ago I watched "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" from 1970, which I liked a lot, even though Watson got rather annoying towards the end. Christopher Lee as Mycroft, how'bout that, and the Loch Ness monster no less! Plus if the Downey/Law movie is slashy, this one is more text than subtext...

Still got the Cyberman version with Dominic Keating to watch. But perhaps later. There's so much to watch! And to read!

Yesterday was the Big Book Exchange Day here, and the tolkienists had a small get-together at a central café to exchange books. I brought some to work too, and the net result was a decided minus for me, yay. That is to say, I took less books home than I brought out.

Speaking of tolkienists, I went to Sthlm on Saturday to their big Spring party there. Boy was it Spring! We left from 10C Gbg and arrived at 25C Sthlm... bringing clothes for chilly climates. Stifle! Sweat! But it was a fun party, maybe slightly because I consumed a whole bottle of red wine and quite a lot of whisky, plus Gimli gave me free drinks in the bar. Whee!

Just slightly tired the next day, which involved a seven-hour car journey home. Having to be funny, interesting and _social_ for seven hours... with someone who confessed to being infatuated with me, I slowly gathered after a while. Ugh. From now on I'll always go by train, it only takes three hours and you don't have to _talk_.

Work is slightly hysterical again, but what can one expect when two days a week are removed from proper working hours. Yesterday we had an interesting lecture day, about rock bolting and shotcrete, and today we went on a mini-conference to a spa hotel in Varberg. "Muscle harmony exercises" -- doesn't it sound a lot like slow, easy yoga? It's not, it's a full-blown gym session. Ow! But the saunas and bubble pools afterwards were very nice.

And the weather is still wonderful. Warm and sunny, with occasional explosive thunder storms. The bbqs are out today, as our shorts and t-shirts. Aah. Hopefully no heavy rainclouds on Sunday, when we're going on a picnic in Slottsskogen. But hey, that would be traditional so why not. "Picnic? Bring hip-waders!"

Finally I'm once again up to date on the a) cleaning, b) laundry and c) "Doctor Who". The latter so much so that I saw it last night, whee.

Those weeping angels still are really scary -- such a brilliant concept when it comes to scariness. I like the new episodes, with their little details, like "Broadsword to Danny Boy!" in the Dalek episode, hilarious. And that was a brilliant concept to, the theme of that episode, no spoilers. But the best part, of course, is that we once again have a continuous swathe of "Doctor Who", with a new episode each week. Aaah, that's how it's supposed to be!

Now I've just got to catch up on "Confidential" too. And clean some more but that's just too boring for words.

Yesterday was a really geeky day, when I look back on it. Star Treff 52, the first one in ages I went to without working at all. The theme was mostly re-mastered TOS, with some new FX like pretty planets and galactic swirls instead of the old hokey paint-jobs in the original original series. And amped up sound whenever it got slightly suspenseful or actiony, painful. Good to see so much of Kirk et al., the old episodes are still fun!

Then a short tolkienist meeting and then home for a whole evening of 2nd and 11th Doctor. Good way to end a week that included two days of really cold weather out on the railroad to Lysekil, and two days of conferences. Next week: more Lysekil, a railroad safety course, possible vacation on Friday, and far too many deadlines pressed into the remaining day and a bit. Arrgh.

Okay, hands up, who got the reference to Broadsword and Danny Boy?

Three nights down, two to go. We've done remarkably good time, hooray!

Yesterday it snowed heavily. Then it rained a lot, turning everything into thick slush. Finally it snowed again.

This morning it was like the road maintenance dept had decided to give the citizens a treat: skating rinks all over the streets! Yay! I noticed there are ppl who detest ice even more than I do. Hooray, I'm not the wimpiest for once!

***

Today is our big Open Office day, for which we have worked like mad for the last week, or at least the last 24hr. We also have a new doorbell installed. Its chime would be approved by my icon. When it rings, it rings with a vengeance. No one else here has heard of the Bouqueeeeeeet residence. There are so many suppressed jokes. Oh nice!

One of the reasons I bought a spotlight for my bed was so that I could read my very fine-print sort of facsimile copy of original Strand Magazine "Sherlock Holmes" book. With my old light I just couldn't make out the text. Super-squint! So now I spend my late evenings alternately listening to the 8th Doctor adventures on the iPod, and re-reading Conan Doyle. Maybe that's why I'm always so sleepy in the morning...

Or perhaps it's just work. I've started to dream about the office library, which I've spent the last couple of weeks re-organising. But the end is in sight! Oh the end is nigh!

*looks at TV* Hey, seems like Southafrican trains run on electricity too, just like ours. There's, er, "kontaktledningar" along the tracks, but they look slightly different from ours.

Where they don't have overhead lines is for steam engines, like in the Jeremy Brett "Holmes" which I'm of course watching again. So brilliant! Just look at all those late-19th century dresses. Did they plunder some other TV show's wardrobe for it, or did they have a superduper budget for that series? For a mid-80s show, it really looks very good.

Also I watched "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow", which was stolen from me last year on the train. Stupid thieves! I tried to watch it once and went "Meeeh..." but this time it was a lot of fun. Maybe it's because of the wine? Mmm, Angelina with an eye-patch... or with anything... or _without_ anything! Hrm, anyway...

Now time for bed, so I can get up in time for a board meeting at 1100hr. I mean come on! I'm hardly awake at that time on a Saturday! Oyyyy!

Hey, where did my computering go?

First I had a visit from therru on Saturday-Sunday, for a big wedding/baby/naming/xmas party -- at which the first snow started falling, what timing! It was very nice hanging out with therru, got to do that more often. Btw, thanks for the DVD, it arrived today!

Then on Monday and Tuesday I was out on the railroad again, this time between Uddevalla and Göteborg. Snow on the railroad cuttings, made it difficult to see, inspect and classify. And then it got dark at oh-too-early o'clock! But it was very picturesque around lake Hällungen.

Followed by a very nice Club Cosmos do, meeting at Lejontrappan for some glögg and waving huge tomtebloss around (cool, Jim!) and then dinner at The Golden Days. Mmmm yum.

Yesterday: road safety course all day. I almost fell asleep. The teacher has done this for a long time and was obviously a bit fed up with it so he kept telling stories about the real world. But hey, our study material?

Today, catching up on all the office stuff I haven't been able to do this week, so no surfing today either. But I did manage to get away early enough to look at a possible venue for this summer's SF convention. It was coooold, icy winds and more snow. Brrr.

Now I'll relax a bit and perhaps watch some more early "Sharpe" adventures. Stupid TV8 only showed the two latest movies so I had to go buy the stuff from the 90s at Movieline.

 
tunnel-moon Stenungsötunneln off Tjörnbron, inspection work dec 09

We're having health check-ups at work this week. I don't have to do it since I got checked up last year -- just as well since most comments from the doctor seems to be "you're overweight". And all those gummi-brains and licorice boats I ate on Sunday _will_ add up. Like the Cesar salad I just had. There must be cocaine or something in that dressing, I just want mooooooore! And more brainnnnnns!

Just relaxing a little before going back to work. Or "work", I'm mostly playing with Google Wave that I just got an invite to. What does it do, really? Seems a bit like yahoogroups.

A really miserable, typical November day: rain rain rain overcast fog rain. And more rain.

I tagged along to road 45 this morning to look at difficult places along the rock works. Really difficult ones, like, will this tunnel that's already built here survive? Eep. And we saw a borehole in one rock cut where water welled up from somewhere below. Boy did it look like the waters of Mars!

Now I'm home and dry with a cinnamon bun, coffee and this. Yay!

And it just hit me... this is the longest I've been away from home (I don't count visiting the parents) since the US field trip in 2000.

When I talked to one of the guys at the Gbg office the other day, he said I should refuse point-bland ("tvärneka") to any more requests for doing long-distance work. Apparently they've missed me! Awwww.

Last night I got a good look from the train window of our office. During the renovation work we've installed green diodes in the windows, and they light up at night. It looked really cool, like a R'lyeh aquarium!

Aaah, being home and doing nothing. And I _mean_ nothing. I'm relaxing so much I almost expect the germs to take the opportunity to strike. They usually get under my defences when I relax after something long and strenuous -- like the aforementioned US field trip. But I try to counter them by chanting "more work to be done, still not over, must work a lot". Heh.

Good ole Gbg! No more funny slurring rrrrs, no more self-important hurrying, no more communications that run on time! But at least I brought the dismal weather with me...