Monday!!?? Already???!! bugg*r!

Aunty M's birthday bash went off without a hitch and it was very entertaining to catch up with the cousins who I haven't seen for quite some time.  They never seem to change, and I wonder if they think the same about me. We stopped over at the senior ball's for the night and then journeyed back with Sister ball on Sunday morning.

Sunday afternoon saw son arrive home from his biking trip tired and bruised. More tired because he'd been out late on Saturday night than riding his bike up and down mountains all day I suspect.  Daughter arrived home close to midnight last night as was shattered the poor love. She'd had a Saturday night police shift hoping for some action - although was a bit disappointed as the local population were remarkably well behaved - but didn't get home until 6am Sunday, only to be off to work and get paid at midday Sunday, serving Sunday lunch to those stupid enough to want a roast dinner in 20 degree heat. She;s off to the gym this morning and then I think she'll be sleeping this afternoon as she's got the rest of the day off.

Work is starting to annoy me now. I've been back in the office 5 minutes (It's just coming up to 8am) and I'm sick of it already!! This is not a good sign. I'm not a salesman, I never have been and I certainly didn't sign up to be. That's not to say I can't sell stuff, especially if I'm passionate about it, but to be honest a) I'm not - we are just talking about dark grey boxes that whirr - there's nothing innovative about them and b) there's nothing there to be passionate about.

Usually my self motivational skills are second to none - so what's going wrong? Starfleet have had a very turbulent first half of the year where "change" has been the watch word. From my perspective it doesn't look like any of the changes have been of any use and in fact have just served to depress, hamper and annoy those of us that are still here and not in away teams (which appear to have been very small). Perhaps I need a holiday, although I'm inclined to think I need a change - why not, the rest of the ship is doing it!? whether it likes it or not. My inner nerd/geek is wholly unsatisfied.

The worst part is if I'm not careful, a light depression could spiral downwards into a full on "quit my job" type depression, so, chin up, best but forward, stiff upper lip and let's get on with it.

But just before I do.... Last night, Mrs G and I caught up with "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo". Well I say Mrs G and I, after not sleeping particularly well at the Ball senior's house on Saturday night, Mrs G dozed on the sofa intermittently through out The GWTDT while I power napped through the first 5 minutes.


I'd bought the book for Mrs G on holiday last year but I didn't get to read it thanks to cheap glue and spanish sunshine not being the best of bed fellows when it comes to book binding. The glue fell out, closely followed by the pages. It was still readable, but you also had to manage the filing at the same time and I think we dropped a couple of chapters in the airport - so I never got to finish it. Having now watched the film, I will be getting hold of another copy somewhere just to see how well they did.

The DVD has both the Swedish language version (with subtitles) and an english language dubbed soundtrack which makes for an interesting choice. I went for the later so that I could concentrate on what was happening instead of reading and then having to apply what I'd read to the picture. It's like watching any film but occasionally feels like the audio is slightly out of sync or the actors are rushing some of their dialogue. Other than that - you'd never know it was a swedish film. In summary - an excellent piece. A slow start, a frantic second act culminating in a classic who-dunnit finish. I loved it and will make a point of a trip to the cinema (hopefully with an awake Mrs G) for the next one (The Girl who played with fire) on August the 27th.

While I was picking DVD's I also grabbed a copy of "Crazy Heart" with Jeff Bridges. Thos of you that were reading this drivel back in March will remember that this was the movie that "The Dude" won a long overdue oscar for. I'm going to try and grab a couple of hours with it this evening to see what all the fuss was about, so that's something to look forward to.

No news on the motor yet, although I'm expecting a call this morning at some point and dreading the bill that will accompany it. Having said that, I know it won't be as bad as it would have been if I'd taken it to a Toyota dealer, but it's still gonna hurt a bit.

So it's another shortish entry from me and back to the grindstone again...  Oh the drudgery of it!! :-(