Mike Power's Personal Blog

Just a Test - please ignore. Will remove shortly

Mike Power — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:25:38 +0000

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On The Beach

Mike Power — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:39:13 +0000

Will and I at the beach.

Off to the smoke

Mike Power — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 21:37:26 +0000

Sandra's off to London tomorrow. She's going to stay with my daughter in Surrey for Sunday night and then travel into central London for her interview on Monday morning. The interview will take about 90 minutes and getting to it will have involved a round trip of over 800 miles and about 18 hours travelling in trains at a cost of around £130. If she gets through this one there are two more interviews and a whole day of assessments lined up. They don't fuck about at this level.

There will be plenty of top notch candidates for this job so, realistically, the odds are against her but she'll give it a damn good shot and we'll see what happens.

Prepare for boarding

Mike Power — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:23:12 +0000

Will's friends are coming up from Kent for a fortnight. Only three of them this time. They are great lads and I enjoy having them here. The energy levels in the house rocket! They arrive by plane (ooh, how awful, end of the world, doom, warming, CO2 etc. blah, blah, bollocks) on Saturday afternoon.

Will has spent the week washing bedding, shampooing carpets and cushions and generally cleaning and tidying prior to their arrival. Anything that gets a 17 year old doing that can't be bad.

The local shop keeper will be happy. They spent a fortune in his shop last time they were here, mostly on sweets, crisps and Irn Brew.

I'm hoping another one of Will's friends, now living in the north of England, will pop up for a few days. He was one of the gang until he moved up north to live with his father. His mother died last year and we haven't seen him since then. He's a nice lad and it would be great to see him again.

Sandra and I have been lucky with our children's friends. They have all been really great lads and the older ones have grown into good, decent men.

It's much easier for young people to stay in contact today than it was when I was growing up. Typically, you lost touch after leaving school and your friends went on to marry, have children and, often, move away from the area. Now they can stay in touch from every corner of the world and can follow each other's antics on social networks. That aspect of the new technology is incredibly positive and only those, like me,who are old enough to remember the days before the internet, mobile phones and digital cameras can really appreciate that.

Well done son!

Mike Power — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:47:56 +0000

Will built his latest computer this afternoon. The bits arrived by courier at 3pm and he had it up and running by 4-45pm. He hasn't installed any OS yet. He's going to load Windows XP (NOT Vista!) and Mac OS X Leopard (Developer) later. It's not as high spec as his main machine but then this is really just a spare which we hope Sandra will use rather than hogging my Mac. She has a laptop but, she 'doesn't like using it' - more waste of taxpayer's money (together with her new Blackberry, which never leaves the house).

Using our old keyboard and mouse, a £12 monitor bought on eBay and a free case he got from a fellow student in exchange for sorting out his network, the total costs came in at under £200 - including new fans. We should get a few quid back for the old spare parts so, all in all, a pretty inexpensive deal for a well specced (no crap parts) computer. Well done son!

Beam me up

Mike Power — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:35:17 +0000

We are in a holding pattern at the moment. Sandra is applying for jobs in England and we are praying that we will be able to get out of this damn place before the year is out.

Aberdeen City Council is in crisis. It was dominated by unbroken Labour control for 63 years, up until the elections last year. It is mired in debt and facing bancruptcy. This state of affairs hasn't developed overnight, as you can imagine, but successive councils have refused to bite the bullet and do anything about it. Now Labour has the chutzpah to berate the SNP and Lid-dems for cutting services in order to avoid complete financial collapse, a collapse that Labour must have seen coming for years. Tossers!

Whatever happens shit will hit fan. And we want to be well away from this dysfunctional city when it does. But the stress of waiting for an exit plan is a bloody pain. I've got bubbly and a big fuck-off Cuban cigar for the moment we know for certain that we are out of here. I can't wait.

Valentine's Day

Mike Power — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 14:13:50 +0000

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Man's best friend

Mike Power — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 02:54:36 +0000

This is the little Parsons Jack Russell that befriended us at Cruden Bay yesterday afternoon (yes, I know it looks nothing like a JR but the owner assured me that is what it is!). Will and I went for a drive at lunchtime and ended up at this delightful little village on the coast. I love going there. The sandy beaches are almost always deserted and there is something wonderfully relaxing about listening to the waves crashing against the harbour wall. The little dog ran over to us before we could even get out of the car and stuck around for the hour or so we were there. He was a bundle of energy and a great little fellow. His owner is a regular there, so I'm sure we'll meet up again.

Let's just start again

Mike Power — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:56:00 +0000

I'm slowly recovering from some kind of nasty bug which has really knocked the wind out of my sails since the new year. The great thing about getting over 50 is that the NHS starts taking your complaints seriously. In fact they become very proactive (sorry, hate that word) about testing and prevention. I have nothing but good things to say about my experiences with my GPs over the years. And on the few occasions a hospital consultation has been required I have been pleasantly surprised with the efficiency of the service.

Having a couple of very attractive female doctors doesn't hurt either!

Anyway, with luck I should be able to crank up my postings to a more respectable level again soon. You have been warned ;)

Bon Appetit!

Mike Power — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 13:07:30 +0000

We have friends popping over for dinner this evening. It's a retro meal. Avocado mousse with king prawns. Salmon with currants, ginger and butter in pastry. Raspberry and passion fruit Pavlova. All made from scratch, of course. It's a really easy menu with no last minute rushing around required. My days of 'competitive' dinner party cooking have long gone. I want minimum hassle, minimum kitchen time and maximum socializing/boozing. Cheers!