Chilli Child

So there we were at the noodle bar, the Youngling in her highchair and munching through spring rolls, noodles and prawn crackers, when she noticed that <3 and I were dipping prawn crackers into a dish of chilli sauce. Next thing I have a cracker thrust at me with some waving and looks that left me in no doubt that the Youngling wanted it dipped too. Okay, I thought, so I dipped for her and handed it back. She sucked the sauce off and gave me the cracker again.

After a couple of iterations, we let the Youngling dip for herself, which she did in a very ladylike manner and continued to do so until eventually she stopped, pulled a face looking like she was chewing a wasp (or, perhaps a heap of chilli sauce) and expressed displeasure quite loudly.

A drink of water and some rice later and all was well again, though I don't think she trusts prawn crackers any more.

I get the feeling we are bad parents...

Not so new any more, but...

So, before January is out, a brief review of 2007...

The year was, unsurprisingly, mostly about learning to be a parent. It isn't easy sometimes, but I think we haven't had it badly overall and the youngling is a complete star. Latest cute story: having fed the littlun, I left her playing while I sat next to her having my own lunch (which wasn't ready early enough). Next thing I know, she had rummaged through the bib bag (kept hanging on the back of her highchair), and was standing next to me proffering a bib and indicating that she expected to have it put onto her and then be put into the highchair. What could I do but oblige and give her some of my lunch? That's me told!

Next most important was finally completing my degree. That's 7 years of study all paying off. I'm now booked in for a graduation ceremony in May, which should be a laugh. Incidentally, last week I actually received a sales call from the OU, who had noticed that I wasn't signed up for a course and wondered if I had continued my options for further study. I said that I was taking some time off from study.

Musically, I have kept playing harmonica with slowly increasing confidence and repertoire. And furthermore, I have spent some time with my ukulele, learning a few basic chords, so at least I can accompany a few songs. The youngling likes musical instruments too, and apart from shaking her maracas, she can also make good noises by twanging uke strings and by banging on our electronic keyboard (it's amazing what functions and effects she can set off sometimes).

The other big thing which I haven't written about yet is that I have started learning morris dancing. This is turning out to be a great way to get some exercise, get out of the house, meet some other people, and an excellent excuse to drink beer. :o) I don't have any of the outfit yet, but will have soon...

So, all in all, apart from some rocky patches 2007 wasn't a bad year, and it ended with a great new year's eve bash with some very good friends in South Wales.

2008? Well, more of the same, I guess. We'll see how the morris and the music goes, but the top priority remains the youngling, who is already developing into a real little person who is a lot of fun to be with. It's all good...

I SAID I BET THAT YOU LOOK GOOD ON THE DANCEFLOOR

There is a fairly interesting article in Rolling Stone, The Death of High Fidelity, which is full of plenty of "well, duh, we knew that" stuff, but includes some good examples of differences in dynamics between recordings.

Coming soon, something to mark the new year, with some thoughts on 2007 and 2008, but probably not today.

Free to every complaining customer...

When our conservatory was finished, alongside the final bill there was a feedback questionnaire asking if the installers had followed certain procedures (they had, where appropriate) and asking how satisfied we were and if we would recommend the firm to friends and neighbours. The gist of what we put was that the builders, installers and electricians were courteous, efficient and seemed to do a good job, but we were unhappy with the lack of communication from the company (there were big delays and getting information about what was going on was like getting blood from a stone) and the fact that they tried to change the agreed payment terms towards the end (after a very wet summer, I suspect cashflow was an issue for them). As a result, we said, we couldn't really recommend them.

Well, that was a couple of months back and we didn't hear back until a couple of days ago when <3 received a phonecall, apologising for our dissatisfaction and saying that if we could pop into the shop, they had a hamper of goodies for us. So yesterday we went by after work and now have a rather nice M&S hamper containing lots of lovely consumables, including cake and pudding to supplement our home-made ones, in case we get more visitors than expected.

While we still probably won't be recommending the firm, this has left us with a much better feeling about the experience. Hopefully the goodwill gift is a sign that they have taken our criticisms on board, but if not, it's not a problem: we no longer need windows or conservatories, and we have a great supply of sweet (and other) stuff for the holiday.

More Scores on the Doors

And the final result is in: I now have a first class honours degree in IT & Computing. Ph34R my 1337 X4|\/| 5k!lz. This is such a relief and has put a huge grin on my face.

And the scores from the Milton Keynes jury...

Holy crap! I got my course result today and somehow I actually managed to scrape a distinction. This is a *lot* better than I was expecting and needless to say I am very happy with this. Now I just have to wait for the letter offering me a degree, which should (I think) arrive before Xmas.

I am going to accept the offer, by the way.

One More Couple, Please

Last night <3 and I got out for one of our rare nights out thanks to one of her friends stepping up for babysitting duty. So we pottered off to Grove for a ceilidh organised by White Horse Ceilidhs. These guys organise half a dozen or so ceilidhs each year and the one we had been to previously was great fun, so a return visit was always on the cards.

This time was every bit as good as last time. The band was Boldwood, who specialise in playing tunes found in C18th manuscripts, and are effective proof that the modern era does not have the monopoly on great dance tunes. We came home with a copy of their CD, which is a really nice listen. I'm going to have to see if I can learn a tune or two off there. The caller was Will Hall, a chap who occasionally attends our local pub sessions and who has proved a great help to me in getting used to learning and playing folk tunes, and who is a lot of fun to play with, even with my very limited skills and repertoire. Anyway, this was the first time I've seen Will call a dance, and I really enjoyed it: his choice of dances was a lot of fun and he had a great, gentle presentation style. (I don't have much to compare with, being pretty new to ceilidhs, but he's definitely good.) Half-time entertainment was courtesy of the energetic and enjoyable Borders morris side, Armaleggan, who did a great, manic show full of sound and fury.

So, we danced to the point of exhaustion, we chatted, and we won a big box of fudge in the raffle. All good. Time to decide when we can next make it...

Unknown Beneficiaries

It turns out that HM Revenue and Customs have given our family's personal details to persons unknown by sending them, along with those of 7 million other families who claim child benefit, on disk, via a courier, who lost them. Nice. Chancellor Alistair Darling has apologised for the security lapse, but apparently there is little danger of identity theft. According to the BBC:

The records include parents' and children's names, addresses, dates of birth, child benefit and national insurance numbers and in some cases, bank or building society details.

That sounds like plenty of information for bad guys to be going on with.

There are, of course, calls for Darling to resign. While I love to see a good bit of bloodletting, I'm not sure that he needs to go in this case. The chairman of HMRC has already resigned over this and an investigation is underway. The Revenue had better get its arse in gear over data protection before this happens again.

Actually, when I first came across this story I thought it was just a follow-up to the story from a few weeks back where HMRC lost a load of personal data in transit and more details were now coming out. But no, this is a new and separate cock-up, albeit one of a very similar shape.

And Now, We Wait...

So that's it. My OU degree is done and dusted. I managed to survive sitting at a small desk for three hours with nothing but a bottle of water and a bar of chocolate for sustenance and only my calculator and reference books for company. The first part went pretty much by the numbers, with the expected questions about ATM cell sizes, CSMA/CD collision domains, and object models. Part 2 was a bit tougher, with a few surprises (I think this was the first year ever that there was a question on the Bellman-Ford algorithm instead of Dijkstra), and left me burbling on in a vague manner about TMN function blocks (don't ask!) and elements of MPEG encoding.

I'm confident of a pass, and I'm pretty sure it'll be better than the basic 'Pass 4' grade, but beyond that I don't know. It just depends on how close I got with my random burblings. According to the OU website, the results for this course should be available by mid-December, and I should receive an offer of a degree shortly afterwards. There's nothing more that I can do but wait, but it'll feel like a very long wait...

A Glimmer of Light Ahead

So, seven years since I signed up and I have now reached the final hurdle. Yep, tomorrow is my final exam for my OU degree.

The course this year has been a struggle (officially this was meant to take about 16 hours per week and I have also been doing a full-time job and trying to do my bit with raising a new baby) and revision has been intermittant, but thanks to <3 covering for me over the last few days I think I'm just about ready. This exam allows me to take some reference material with me and to annotate it as I see fit. A lot of my time has been spent working on indexing key sections and adding extra diagrams into margins and spare pages. I'm confident of a pass, but beyond that I don't know.

The result is due in before Xmas, and I should get my offer of a degree shortly after that. It's going to feel like a very long wait...