A very long and exhausting day. Now to have dinner and read some college texts.
Or possibly just poke about the net.

The latest images from the Hubble Space Telescope are awesome. I’d love to come back in a few thousand years when we can travel to see these things close-up.

My attempt to inflate my site visitor statistics artificially by including a link to Holly Valance has been most successful, not least because I initially misspelt her surname as Valence, and Google spidered this site before I had a chance to correct it. It seems that lots of other people spell it incorrectly too. Popular searches include “Holly Valence”, “Holly Valence naked” and “Valence+sex”. You’re all sooo predictable.

Another exhausting day, spent largely behind the wheel of a lorry – a task that can be fun, but from which the novelty soon wears off. Still, I got a lot achieved, and earned a good sum for the nursery.
Tomorrow will be hectic too, but I’m looking forward to Friday night drinks.

Anna Kournikova topless pictures are always popular online (no, this isn’t another hit counter enhancing gimmick post, honest!) – but why do we need to see a close-up of her breast? Poor girl – who would want to have her pictures splashed all over the internet? (And splashed all over, for that matter. oh, okay, I’ll get me coat.)

This email received this morning, with the obligatory virus attached:

(Their spelling/punctuation). I mean, just how stupid do virus authors think that computer users are? (Apparently some actually are that stupid, else I wouldn’t have received it).

I forgot to mention this week’s TFF score: a rather good 60 points, taking my total to 1170.

sigh.
Anyway, another busy weekend beckons, not least because I’m planning my birthday celebrations for next weekend. (Did I mention my wishlist?)
E-invitations will be sent out very shortly, with a plan that is similar to last year’s.

Beer tonight with Greg, Paul F, Paul C, Matt, Kearn, James, Dom, DA, Clive, Cat, Malcolm, the beautiful Sally (looking very well and always fantastic to see!), Amanda, Mandy, Steve C and numerous others.
Today has been a very long day. I’m tired now, and tomorrow is another long day. I’m a bit down too. But I’ll survive.

Nothing to say today. Yet.

Recent internal searches of this site (my comments in brackets):

• holly valence naked (it’s spelt VALANCE)
• malcolm (my father’s name and also the name of a fellow Nags regular)
• sam brown (highly laudable – a fine female vocalist)
• backcombing small toads (what??)
• backcombing tourtuses (try searching for "backcombing tortoises" and you may have more success)
• buffing aircraft carriers (a whole aircraft carrier? This has to be slang for something – anyone like to try to explain this?)
• down by the sally gardens (nope, means nothing to me)
• head in toilet (obviously a bad night)
• holly valence (oh for crissakes….VALANCE!!!!)

Beer tonight with the jovial James, Jayne, indigestion-ridden Dom, Emma, Matt, Kearn, DA, DAGS, Aris, Paul F and DJ, with sightings of Dave, Sal and the gorgeous Lucy, working her last night in W2 before going to the soon-to-reopen Bull.
Chichester is about to see a deluge of new bars: the Slug and Lettuce in South Street, the Bull in Market Avenue and Brookes in North Street. Add to that the forthcoming conservatory extension to the Nags and you have quite a pub rennaisance in Chichester.
On my way home I was accosted by a mewing tabby and white shorthair cat that proceeded to follow me home. I called the number on the tag on his/her collar, but only got an answering machine (after several attempts). Bit worried that he/she might get run over in the street, although I suspect that it is a she that is seeking a he and will probably end up with the battered black shorthair that I spotted on the city walls.
And my computer fan is making amusing noises. At least they would be amusing if I was convinced that they aren’t expensive noises.
UPDATE: just had a call from the owner of the cat, and she made her way home safely.

Hmm. IE6 on my PC at work will only work full-screen. Which is annoying. I guess I’ll have to reinstall it. guh.
UPDATE: tried that. Didn’t work. However, random key pressing succeeded. I like the old techniques best.

Two 12-hour days at work back-to-back are not good for the soul. And, oh look! Another one tomorrow.
I’ve not had a day off since April 6th (when I went to Brighton and spent the day with Sarah, Kate, Neil and Emma) – by that I mean I have worked every day since then. I am so looking forward to my birthday, as it will be a precious day off. Of course, I won’t spend it resting – as is my usual style, it will be packed with activities with friends and lovely people. Which, it has to be said, is a Very Good Thing.

Yup – another 12 hour day. And, yes, another one tomorrow.
Wound down tonight with a couple of pints in the company of Paul F and Helen N.

TFF: just 7 points this week, as only one player from my team (Ljunberg) took part in the cup final. Total now 1177.

Brief update:

• Firstly, apologies for sparse posting here. I’m incredibly busy, working very long hours, and when I get home, I’m exhausted. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.
• Secondly, irritating, defamatory and derogatory comments left at this site by visitors will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Got it?
• Thirdly, my team has won division 13 of itsagoal.com. Congratulations also due to Nico for a creditable second place. I’m looking forward to a great battle in division 12 as I deal with my aging team that needs refreshing with new talent.
• Fourthly, I gave a lecture to a local horticultural society tonight, where a member said to me afterwards that I was the best speaker they had ever had. Praise indeed, and probably not deserved. But nice to hear anyway.
• And finally, just to keep Lord Percy happy, I note that the weather forecast for my birthday is excellent (as it always is).

Another busy day, but this time I escaped work early in order to go and see Jo. I now sport a good short haircut and a good smile following 45 minutes of laughing about in the salon.
No chance of lazing about this evening though (although I did flop on the sofa for a bit when I got home), as I must tidy the flat at least a little in readiness for birthday shenanigans this weekend.

Beer tonight with Paul F, Dave, Gary, Cat, Karen and Helen N with a sighting of Andy.

Summary:

• Morning post featuring my case study materials from the CIM. Not pleasant, but at least I can make a start on it….
• …also in the post, some birthday cards. Much better.
• Another incredibly long day at work. It’s starting to get to me, but I can see no escape for at least eight weeks
• Also in the post, Tiga and Zyntherius’s single Sunglasses at Night. Really rather good.
• A brief visit to Sarah tonight, who was the wrong side of a bottle of wine and showing it.
• Beer with Arron (ever so briefly), Dave, Paul F, Peter, Malcolm and Sally (and I choose my "and"s carefully)
• A brief inspection of the newly refurbished Bull – it’ll never last. It is aimed at the 17-19 market, who are notoriously fickle. It *is* what Chichester needs, but I just don’t see it lasting.

Sorry. Not very cheerful tonight. Will try harder tomorrow.
And talking of tomorrow, this is an open invitation – beer in the Nags from 8.30 tomorrow. Picnic in Priory Park from 1pm on Sunday.

Happy Birthday to me!!
31 today. Gah.

Anyway, an update:

• Long day working yesterday, selling plants to the masses in Windsor, but highly profitable.
• Then rushed back home, grabbing a Big Mac (yuk) on the way, in order to get to the pub for birthday drinks with Aris, Paul F, Lady Bren, Lord Percy, Arron, Andy, Sarah, tanned Fi, Julie, the lovely Wendy and Paul, with sightings of Peter, Hamish, Paul S and one or two others (bit hazy!).
• Lovely prezzies: cash, chocs and an elephant!
• Now off to Priory Park for a birthday picnic

Well, the picnic was abandoned due to poor attendance. Greg, Bren and I flung the frisbee around the park for a while, went for a short stroll, and then headed to Café Rouge for coffee and frites, where we were joined by Arron – the hardcore crew! We then headed for Sadler’s and enjoyed the courtyard in lovely warm sunshine, with their new Sunday afternoon barbeque (all you can eat for a fiver – I think we might be found there on quite a few Sundays this summer). I’m now back home for a short rest before heading out for a couple of quiet bevvies later, and also to retrieve my birthday cards that I left in W2 last night (oops!) that were sneakily hidden in my kitchen by Arron (d’oh!).
Thanks for all the text messages, e-mails and calls to mark my birthday.

Beer tonight with the lovely Helen, Helen N, Phil, Paul F and Aris, with sightings of Dave, Ricky and Peter W. Absolutely exhausted.

Got any Intel 8086 chips lying around? NASA needs you. They’re also looking for some eight-track Johnny Cash cartridges.

I am totally and utterly exhausted. I was almost certainly a bit testy (and probably testing) at college tonight, so apologies to everyone for that. I’ve just done some cleaning (this place is an utter sty), and must now find the energy to cook and eat and then do at least a little college work. Red Bull, be my friend.

After my comprehensive victory in itsagoal.com division 13 last season, down to earth with a bump with a 2-1 away defeat in my first match of the new season. Hmmm.

Well, it looks like I may have possibly slightly upset someone who is special to me by being slightly surly the other day, and then writing something here which could be misinterpreted.
I really need an escape. I need a get out of jail card. I need something to lift me out of this mood that I’m in – or, more precisely, I need to lift myself out of it. But it’s like I’m in a long dark tunnel, and I can’t yet see the light at the end. It’s hard to be motivated when you feel like that, and it’s hard to keep the jolly happy persona visible for all to see.
And there isn’t anyone to just take me by the hand and reassure me at the moment. I know I need to find the whole thing within myself, but a little support would make it easier.
And before anyone leaps to any conclusions, it isn’t just any one thing – it is a whole mass of things individually and bundled together that make me feel llike this.
Oh well, best just to get on.

At least my itsagoal.com team did better today.

College tonight, followed by some time doing some valuable study, and then a very quick beer with DA, Kev, Kearn, Aris and Phil. Also briefly visited by Lord Percy.
I’m sooooooo tired.

Yet another long day at work, which featured a visit to this place to deliver a van-load of plants for the garden. Based on a very brief walk around, I’d heartily recommend a visit to the gardens. Can’t comment on the Palace itself, but judging by the pictures, it looks very impressive. I’ll attempt to get back there one day on a day off.

Is it me, or does Sabrina Setlur bear an uncanny resemblance to a sun-tanned version of our very own Robyn?

Hmm. Thought so. It’s me, isn’t it.

Warm + sun + evening = Priory Park. Pity it is also (+ CIM case study).

Incidentally, several people are stumbling on Grayblog looking for help with their CIM Diploma World Class International (WCI) case study. We were discussing this in class the other day. We should have a comprehensive analysis completed by Monday or Tuesday of next week, and it would be fairly easy to sell it on disk (or even online – I already have a PayPal account to accept credit cards). It will only be an analysis of the case, without any strategic proposals, but would certainly be in-depth. It will be in PowerPoint for Windows format and cover around 30+ slides. I reckon it is worth a minimum of £30 (working on the basis of £1 per slide), although I’d need to discuss this with the other guys in our class. The question is: are there any serious takers? If you’re interested, leave a comment or e-mail me.

Hmm. Dropping one’s mobile phone onto the pavement outside the Accord Southern offices in Chichester whilst running for a train doesn’t seem to be a good idea. Thankfully, I managed to gather the scattered case components and reassemble it, and it seems to be working ok. Good job it is insured.

I was thinking this morning (in the bath – it’s a good place for thinking) about how past relationships can influence a person’s life in even quite subtle ways, and sometimes those influences stay with us for a very long time. For example: food and drink. As regular readers may know, I’m quite a foodie – I love food and drink, enjoy cooking, love buying food and eating good meals. But there are many foods and drinks that I’ve only discovered through the influence of relationships:

• bagels – introduced to me by Kate
• chinese food – Jill (no, really! I never ate Chinese food before I met her)
• chorizo – Andrea
• pinot grigio – Louise

…the list goes on. And don’t get me started on the influence of people I’ve known on my taste in art, architecture, music and literature.
Of course, this isn’t really rocket science. It’s just the realization that people you know and love have an influence on you.
I can be very profound in the bath.

Work until late, followed by a brief beer with Julie, Caroline, Arron, Paul F, Malcolm, Dave and Helen N, with sightings of Anne and Kirsty.

Things to make Graybo happy:

• the arrival of the Big Tilt EP by Visit Venus
• the arrival of the utterly fantastic new Cinematic Orchestra album, Every Day, supplied most efficiently and cheaply by the fine folk at Ninja Tune records. This may be one of the best albums that I have ever bought, and certainly is likely to be the best of 2002 unless something really stunning comes along.
• a late night phone call and a tentative arrangement to visit Amsterdam to visit someone after my exams
• the new issue of Wallpaper*
• succeeding in getting some good quality college work done

Busy busy.
Actually, you readers have been a bit quiet lately. What have you been up to? Tell me in the comments and save me from having to write my own content!

Mo Morgan hates you.

Tomorrow is the day of one of the plant fairs that I organise at Pashley Manor Gardens in East Sussex. If anyone fancies going along, I can recommend the chocolate cake in the restaurant.
The consequence of this is that after I’ve done a spot of college work, I’ll be crawling into bed very early indeed, as I have to get up at about 4.30am. And I’m pretty tired already.

Remember this?
Now there’s this!

A very long day in the sun (I now resemble a lobster) in the company of bro, Kev McG, Jules, Wendy and the usual posse. Much fun and moneymaking.
Followed by beer tonight with Paul F, Dave, Simon and Aris, with sightings of Helen N and Helen, Laura and Ruth.

My mind is elsewhere at the moment. My train of thought has left for Holland.

What is it in this office that is attractive to hornets? Remember last year? Well, I was just sitting here typing when I noticed a pair of antennae moving on the corner of my keyboard. I leant over and saw a large queen hornet crawling up the side of my keyboard, decided to beat a hasty retreat and fetched a jar and card. With help from mum, we captured it and released it on a pile of logs on the nursery – hopefully a nest will be built there.
They are seriously amazing creatures, but I wouldn’t want to be stung by one!

I’m exhausted.

CIM students up and down the land seem to be getting desperate, judging by search referrals here. Our group has come up with a pretty impressive in-depth case analysis which IBM wunderkind Andrew is collating into an awesome PowerPoint presentation for tonight. We’ll be tweaking it tonight, and also discussing the terms for offering the analysis for sale (note – only analysis, not strategic proposals, which *may* follow later) – more on this site tomorrow. Leave a comment or email me if you’re interested in purchasing the analysis.

NOTICE FOR CIM DIPLOMA STUDENTS:
An analysis of the WCI Case Study will be made available for purchase from this website from Wednesday morning. It has turned out to be much larger than originally anticipated, details as follows:

• Approximately 100 MS PowerPoint slides
• Compiled as a collaborative effort by thirteen CIM diploma students, with input from our tutor – perhaps 100 hours of labour!
• Covers PEST, SWOT, financial analysis, competitor analysis, customer analysis, market analysis, Porter’s 5 forces, Porter’s value chain, GE matrix, BCG matrix and "much much more"!
• Does NOT include any strategic options or recommendations
• Comes with no warranties for its quality, accuracy or completeness – however, our tutor has commended it as "excellent" and says it is "much more than the class at the Southampton Institute have done"!

The price will be £60 – that’s only 50p per slide! (Prices will be converted to US dollars for handling by PayPal – that means that your credit card details will be dealt with by a reputable third party – I’ll never see them, so your security is assured). However, after one week (i.e. on Wednesday 29 May), the price will increase by 50% to £90. It will increase by a further 50% on 5 June to £135. So the early bird gets the worm saves money!
This analysis is being offered for sale with the agreement of all those who contributed to it. Proceeds from the sale will be divided equally between the contributors (we hope to pay our exam fees! or at least for the post-exam party!).
Terms: payment with order. Your file will be sent to you as an email attachment within 24 hours of the receipt of payment notification from PayPal. No warranty. The file will be virus checked using AVG.
Check back on Wednesday morning (or tomorrow night if I get a move on!) for full details.

Happiness is ordering very obscure music from an equally obscure online record store in Iceland.

The CIM diploma WCI case study analysis is now ready for purchase. Click here to find out more.

study, study, study. sheesh.

Joy is purchasing Old Ramon by the Red House Painters. Well, “joy” is probably the wrong word, as RHP haven’t done a joyful song in all their time, but I like them anyway.

There has to be an easier way to get 7 watt, SES cap, compact fluorescent light bulbs than to get in the car and drive all the way to IKEA in Croydon. B&Q don’t stock them. My local electrical wholesaler wants £20 each for them. Online resources either only offer them in packs of 10 (I only want two!) or don’t offer the SES variant, just ES or BC. guh. Suggestions anyone?

This is the sort of thing that makes my blood boil. It is either a terrible piece of reporting and there were other factors involved that have not been reported, or it is a terrible legal decision.
The essence of the story (as reported) is that a woman in Hertfordshire has lost custody of her two children because she was using an internet dating service, in spite of the fact that after the break-up of her marriage, she had given up her job to care for them full-time. This decision was made in spite of the fact that the father has had limited contact with the children since the break-up and does not get home from work until 7pm each night. Additionally, the social worker working on the case believes that the children should stay with their mother.

By that token, Marianne should have Kristi taken away from her because she met me through an internet dating service. Which is patently ridiculous.

How is meeting people online any different to meeting people in a bar? If this woman had left her children with a sitter twice a week to go clubbing and pubbing, would the judge have looked differently on her case because she was being more conventional? Is this woman condemned, therefore, to remain single for the rest of her life? It seems to me that the legal system needs to catch up with reality.

I don’t think I mentioned my TFF score for last week, the final week of this year’s league. I got 66, taking my total to 1242 and just pushing me into the top ten of our Super League. Not bad.
I won’t mention my final position in AFF. gah.

Study, study, study. Again. Need to clean this flat too.

Busy busy busy. With work for the nursery, work for my plant fairs and work for college, I really wonder if I’ll find time to get to the pub this week – disaster! Have to clean my flat tonight too, as some of the guys from college are coming around tomorrow morning to go over some stuff. Help!

After college work, flat tidying and a chinese take-away, beer with DA, Stein, Arron, Malcolm and Sally (who look very cool), Dave and Peter, with sightings of Patrick, Paul S, Phil, Terry, Simon, Teresa and numerous others. Can’t decide if I’m cheerful or not. Probably I’m confused.

Forgot to say that Tim was in the pub last night, back in the UK for a brief visit from his travels in New Zealand and Australia.

Four hours of study this morning here with Alan, Lee and Becky – hugely productive. This followed by a poke about the shops, then lunch in the Nags with Mark and Cath. After a trip to Waitrose, an hour or so of textbook reading and cricket watching in Priory Park. Now back here to do a little more reading, listen to my utterly fantastic new CD, freshly arrived this morning from Rekjavik, and have a much-deserved chilling session.

He‘s quiet. She‘s gone on holiday. And he‘s got a large yellow flower and a sore red lump on his right eyelid (we demand pictures!!).

The exciting world of UKBlogging.

You all want to know what I bought in the shops, don’t you? Two pens, a pencil, a can of antiperspirant and a new fascia for my phone.
Life on the edge.

Just added Afternoon Nap to the list of net radio stations in the navbar.

Horribly busy at work on a foul windy and wet day – the type of day when just walking around outside is tiring. Now to do a short bit of study before heading to the pub to listen to the band and celebrate not one, not two, but THREE (count ‘em) birthdays – Theresa, Malcolm and our very own Lord Percy. More later.

Much post-study merriment last night in the company of birthday boy Lord Percy, Lady Bren, Arron, Heidi and Aris, with the band playing (loudly, but with panache) and sightings of birthday people Theresa and Malcolm, as well as Dave, Sally, Cath, Mark, Helen, Kristian, Tim, Phil .. and, well, just about every other Nags regular you can name. Lady B and Lord P came back to my place afterwards for late night chitchat, music and Doritos.

I notice I’m suddenly getting a lot of referrers looking for two things. One is the CIM WCI case study analysis, which is good, and the other is Holly Valance – but I only seem to be picking up those people who (like me, at first) spell Valance as Valence. Tip for you people – if you want to see the lovely lady in the buff, try spelling her name right.

Good session at college tonight. I’m starting to feel armed to tackle the exams now.
And college (along with work) is the main cause of the paucity of updates here. It’s going to be like that until late June I’m afraid. But I’ll try to keep you updated on news as much as I can – although, for the same reasons, there are few news-making opportunities.

I have to show a party of school teachers around the nursery this afternoon as part of a project to raise the profile of horticulture in schools (as we are suffering a chronic recruitment crisis in the industry). It’s tipping it down and blowing a gale – and I’ve left my jacket at home. Hmmm. Maybe I should have learnt about preparing for the weather when at school.

Another useful session at college last night, going over things and getting some worthwhile revision. Pity that only three of us turned up, but I think we all gained from the time spent. And had a laugh too.
Today: another busy day at work.

The folks at Blogger have launched a new version of the Pro code. And it seems to be very fast, which makes the (small) cost of upgrading to the Pro service seem worthwhile.

Good news for people interested in buying our CIM WCI case study analysis. The group has decided not to implement our originally proposed price increases, as sales have been so successful, and we’d like to help as many people as we can (and maximise income). Some old pony about price elasticity of demand or something!

Punch RIP. Click here to go to the Punch website.

Shock news for the day is that Luke has been fired, which may or may not have something to do with his website. Watch your backs, kids.

Meanwhile, in the world of Graybo:

• I’ve got shedloads of work to do, so more paucity of updates here
• I’m progressing well with study
• We’ve sold a whole bunch of our case study analyses, which is great for funding our end of term dinner/piss-up
• I’ve had a few messages from the sort of people that merely reading the word “hello” that they have typed induces a broad smile
• There are interesting developments afoot in the future job/career department
• The sun is out, the sky is blue….

busy, busy, busy.

study, study, study.

Remember when the war in Afghanistan started? Every weblog, it seemed, had something to say about it. Every news website led with the story. Every TV news programme covered it to the exclusion of most other things. Every newspaper had it on the front page.
Now there is a serious fear of nuclear war between India and Pakistan. If that kicks off, it’ll make the war in Afghanistan seem fairly small-scale, certainly in terms of the loss of human life – estimates vary between three million people and 21 million people killed (that’s equivalent to one-third of the population of the UK).
And yet, hardly anyone seems to be talking about it, certainly in weblogworld. I’ve just checked half a dozen English-language Indian weblogs, and nobody mentions it – not once. They seem more concerned with cricket and football.
This worries me. When people are actively concerned with something there is discussion and debate, which tends to moderate the actions of politicians and decision makers.
I’m going to try and find more sources of online information in the next few days (I may even set up a special page for it) – both traditional news sites and less-traditional sources (if I can find English language versions). More soon.
In the meantime: Pakistan News Service; Times of India.

Beer tonight with Malcolm, Phil, Kearn, Arron, Paul F (enjoy your holiday), Helen N, other Helen, Dave, Clive, Hamish, Julie (anyone looking to buy an MGF? She’s the girl to ask!), Caroline, Amanda and several others.