ThePickards
standards, accessibility, and ranting and general stuff by the web chemist

I was on the Team Valley ‘Retail World’ retail park the other day, sitting in a coffee shop tucked away in Borders bookshop. I’m presuming it was a Starbucks as they are pretty much ubiquitous but it could theoretically have been ‘Costa Coffee’ or something similar. Not that this is really relevant, but there you […]

Read: Interest Free »

I might have mentioned before that my four year old, BTP, is something of a Dr. Who nut. And I don’t just mean new Dr. Who (I’m no longer sure whether his favourite Doctor is David Tennant, Tom Baker or Patrick Troughton…)
I told him that I’d buy him a treat when I started my new […]

Read: Patrick Troughton: A Warning »

I just thought I’d share with you some tales of my sporting prowess. Remember me mentioning the inter-departmental five a side team?
Well, just look at the trophy I got presented with!
I was presented with this trophy for “services to goalkeeping”, and also picked up another medal. Not bad, eh?
The exact award reads — and I […]

Read: Up For The Cup »

Well. Today was my last day at work with my old employers.
It was a bit odd today, as at least half the department weren’t in today anyway, but it’s been a weird sort of week anyway. After all, you don’t work somewhere for nine and a half years without developing some attachments.
And you don’t […]

Read: So Long… »

Last week, to mark the 30th anniversary of the very first spam message (sent over ARPANET, the precursor to today’s internet), Sophos have put forward a spam pledge. If everyone followed this pledge, there would be no financial benefit to anyone sending spam and so we’d get an awful lot less.
And just as importantly, buying […]

Read: Repeat After Me »

I’ve been sorting stuff out.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m changing jobs next week and so I’ve had to prepare to take home all the personal crap I’ve accumulated in nine and a half years with one employer — which appears to consist of a family photo, about nine and a half years worth of payslips, […]

Read: Of Studies And SEPs »

Earlier on in the season, I mentioned Gateshead FC: I could get used to this, in reference to the fact that my local non-league club had won their first seven games of the season, and were flying towards promotion from the Unibond Premier League to the Blue Square North.
(For those of you not up on […]

Read: Chasing Promotion »