cucumber
Originally uploaded by viZZZual.com

I've been sent home. I'm too ill. I'm not *that* ill … i managed to get a decent bit of work done this morning, but it made me very tired. So i've come home with a fascinating book to put me to sleep keep me occupied: Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software by Gamma, Helm, Johnson and Vlissides. Nearly 400 pages – yikes!

I like cucumbers. Sometimes i think a nice fresh cold, crisp and juicy cucumber tastes almost like a watermelon! Depending on my mood i might prefer slices, chunks or strips. I like cucumber grated in salad, and it makes a tasty and refreshing juice. Wow, cucumbers are great!

Today i discovered another Cucumber that i like – the feature runner that supports behaviour driven development. We switched over to Cucumber at work today. Just like that! We converted two of our projects to Cucumber and already gained the benefit of having ambiguous steps pointed out, and enjoyed the pretty colours and helpful information in the output.

One thing i like about Cucumber is it is multilingual. I have been thinking about writing my features for MyChores in LOLCAT! I'm not quite sure how it's going to work, but i think it would be pretty funny^[0] to pretend i have a team of cats testing the code! Maybe it's a bit impractical, i don't know. Perhaps i'll give it a try this afternoon.

^[0] My interpretation of the word 'funny' may not be the same as everybody else's!

Yesterday i said my body was made of WIN. That is only partially true. Having successfully fought off the flu virus, i seem to have now caught a cold.

Okay, immune system, let's put that down to a brief lack of concentration, shall we? Now will you please stop moping and get on and fix it?!

A cold is preferable to the flu because at least my muscles are not aching and i am not needing to sleep all the time. But this is still a DO NOT WANT! situation, and unfortunately my immune system seems to have decided it is bored of fighting germs and it's just going to let this cold have its way.

Time for another dose of Echinacea.

I have been ill with the flu since Wednesday afternoon, which may explain why i've not been online lately … i could barely stay awake for more than a few hours at a time! I am on the mend now. Last night i woke up at about 11pm with my body about a trillion degrees, and i believe at that point the war was over. The virus died and now we're in the mop up phase where my lovely white blood cells go round and repair all the damage done by the virus over the last few days.

My body is most definitely made of WIN! :D

I have just watched Death of a School Friend on the iPlayer. It's a devastating and moving documentary about a teenage suicide and the impact of friends and family even 40 years later. I'm not ashamed to say that i cried throughout most of the programme.

I hope i might be able to go and see the Winchester Fireworks this evening. It's always a stunning display, and having stayed indoors for 3 days i feel i'd like to get out. Provided it is not raining, and i don't feel too tired, i will probably go. I am also hoping to get to church tomorrow morning. I missed it last week when i was away with my family.

The time has come when i must decide what, if anything, i am going to do after Couch-to-5K.

To be quite honest, i am now bored of running around Winchester. I did 30 minutes tonight and it wasn't particularly difficult; it was just dull. The question now is not whether i can do it – it's whether i can be bothered to keep doing it!

One thing is for sure: i'm not going to keep increasing distances. There's only so far i can go round here before i run out of street lights or have to cross a dangerously busy road. Keeping to the same old roads has become monotonous. I might try with a shorter distance and aim to increase my speed. I might also go for a long run on Saturdays – like 6 miles or something, going right out into the country with some nice music on my ipod, or a MuggleCast, or something like that. I'd probably enjoy that.

There is absolutely no doubt the running has done me a tremendous amount of good! I feel very much fitter, my muscles have toned up just beautifully, my sleepwalking has been cured (as far as i know!) and i have had very few nightmares since beginning the programme.

Any thoughts what i should do next? I really need a plan otherwise i am just going to end up doing nothing!!

*sniff sniff* Mmmm i can smell something delicious! I wonder what my sweetheart is making for dinner! :D

I feel like a Life Review is in order. But i'll keep it short. [Edit] no i didn't! It's kinda long!

(more…)

I thought i'd seen a lot of slugs lately. This article suggests it's not just my imagination: Is the UK facing a slug plague?

In other news, today i have a rather sore throat. Which is quite ironic after my healthy wheatgrass juice yesterday! That's the last time i treat myself to something uber-healthy!! Though i did rather like the flavour.