Actually there is some sort of logic behind the timing of the generator tests and the backups. The backups take a long time and can be run unattended, whereas the generator test does require human intervention. If the backups were done first then the generator tests could run all through Sunday night.

Another classic from our Technical Services department: As part of the improvement of the reliability of our servers we now in the process of installing a diesel backup generator. This is being tested this weekend. All well and good so far. However, we've been informed that all servers will be powered down for the duration of the test, after which the normal weekly backups will be taken. So, not only are the backups being left till after a potentially risky operation (power cycling the essential servers), but the generator isn't actually being tested under normal load. Needless to say most of my work is backed up no where near these 'essential servers'.

Congratulations are due to an old university friend of mine BT. She's only gone and found herself a man and got engaged to him! Like S and I did the two of them kept it quiet for a while, but it's now public knowledge. They are planning on getting married next summer as well, and I've already spoken to her and warned her off our wedding date. It's most certainly going to be wedding season next summer. I wonder if anyone else from that crowd will manage it.

Last night’s cinema trailers included one for Monsters, Inc.. That should be one to keep an eye on.

Last night, after the BBQ, I went to see Shrek with S and her sister A. I hadn't read any reviews beforehand, but had had a couple of recommendations from friends, so I went into it not really knowing what to expect. I thoroughly enjoyed it from its beginning to its end just under an hour and a half later. The Dreamworks crowd have definitely come up with an other winner. The faint air of rivalry between them and Disney is more prevalent in this movie than there has been in their earlier works. However Disney has nothing to fear; with movies like this the public’s interest in animated features will just be increased.

Technically the visuals are superb. It is clearly still a cartoon, but the subtlety in the expressions and the attention to detail make it look very slick, for example the donkey’s fur texture changes with his expression – it stands on end when he’s surprised. Scriptwise there are plenty of jokes, but for me the funniest parts were visual, with the exploding bird being the best as it was so unexpected.

Thumbs up from me.

Documentation is now filling out nicely.

The documentation that I am writing currently consists of nothing but headings and page layout. The entire content is just "Lorem ipsum dolor" etc. Time to break for lunch I think - I've done quite enough.

This evening is the inagural event of our new social club at work - It's a BBQ and needless to say it's raining... lots.

Went to B's birthday party last night. Quite a laugh really - no jelly and icecream, but plenty of screaming kids. I'm not used to tiny little girls coming up to me, informing me they hate me and then trying to, to use her own words, "beat me up". This little charmer wasn't actually B herself, but her sister's daughter.

B spent three hours preparing food; I never thought a simple pasta dish could take so long, but the end result was good. Very good.

On Sunday we waved goodbye to N and J and then went to find the hotel where a jazz band we are interested in hiring for our wedding entertainment was playing. We've been pondering exactly what to do with regards to entertainment for the evening for quite a while. A disco, whilst cheap and adequate didn't seem quite the right thing to do. Another idea was a Ceilidh, but the room we have hired isn't quite large enough for that, and it would probably be quite tiring, especially for S. Ceilidhs aren't the easiest things to participate in wearing a wedding dress (so I have been reliably informed; I never actually tried it myself). Anyway, this band were really good, at least to our ears, so we expect we'll be giving them a ring soon to officially book them - and at least this way we'll appease every genereration. We don't want the oldies there thinking our wedding reception is like an air raid!

Last weekend was great although it didn't start so good. A couple of S's friend N and J were coming to stay on Saturday and when we first woke up in the morning neither of us were in the mood to handle guests. I think we just both wanted to be grumpy together, but that just wasn't going to be allowed. We had a weekend of fun and excitement to organise. Okay, maybe fun and excitment was pushing it a little too far. Of course when N and J actually turned up for lunch our moods changed and we had a lovely time. N's still playing at being a student in London by doing a PhD, and J is working in Oxford. They only really get to see each other at weekends, which must be tough. N keeps going on about her active life in London and all the time telling us that our life of apparently tranquil domestic bliss must be so nice. She's jealous of us being able to live together and do domestic things and to a certain extent we're guilty of being jealous of her lifestyle as well.

To fill in the afternoon we hoped in the car and drove down to Evesham where we did a bit of shopping at the Evesham Country Park, before exploring a little further in search of a pub. Not just any pub, we had a particular pub in mind, namely The Fleece Inn. We had had recommendations and knew it was an "Olde Worlde" Pub and it most certainly was. It had antiques in every room, a small but functional bar, and an extensive orchard with plenty of tables. I can well imagine that it gets a bit crowded in the winter when it has roaring log fires burning in every room, and to check this out I have every intention of returning for an extended period of time on a dull wet winter day.

This should be 'entertaining'. I'm sure I've haven't been totally complimentary about all my colleagues in here in the past...

*wave* to all those folks at my work that have apparently discovered this blog.