Oh fuck it. This entry was meant to be about my experience with Star Couriers, but the very second I finished typing the entry title I thought there was no need to be so pessimistic and what's the point of carrying anger and frustration all day long. Actually, with Star Couriers the frustration and anger was a 10 day experience but hey, we did move into a new house and I think that takes precedence.

New house meaning, new to us. Not new in terms of its construction. We are enjoying it. Still unpacking, still have things laying around and still trying to find what is where and what goes where. I spent a good part of a week looking for the bluetooth dongle for my keyboard and mouse, and finally, after thinking about a friend who told me a story of "praying to the universe" after losing bank her card, I went into the living room and located the damn thing. Not that, THAT was any excuse for not writing, considering I did have access to a keyboard and mouse, but you know, at this stage any excuse counts. And just for the record, praying to the universe is the lamest statement one can make. And friend, I apologise, but I do distinctly remember making fun of this notion when we had the "discussion."

So, new house, still settling in. Postponed the gym membership and the suspension period ended over the weekend, you'd think I'd consider getting back to the gym after work routine, but the bike after work thing is more tempting. This house is at an ideal location to ride the bike back home. I might give it a go tomorrow as it seems the weather is going to be quite nice. It depends on when I wake up though. I do get quite lazy in the mornings.

And that is pretty much it I suppose. The only thing I can end this entry at is the new Modest Mouse album. We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank: Listen to it.

Did I also mention that I have an Audioscrobbler (sorry Last.fm now) profile? http://www.last.fm/user/mversion/
Over 70,000 tracks baby. Modest Mouse will rise in the charts this week.

I'm outta here, gotta catch up on my emails.

Read the extended entry for the letter I sent to Star Couriers though. Because I did "threaten" them about it.

What happened to my quest of constant updates? Seriously, what happened? I'm asking you.

The flu is over, was over, a while ago. Man that was a bummer, but let us hope that was the end of it for the year. I am definitely getting the flu shot next year. But it's like a new year resolution, I repeat it every year and never actually do anything about it.

The house is painted. The floor-boards are varnished. We didn't do either of them, personally . When I fell ill, we thought it was perhaps a sign to get someone else to do it. After going with a China White and True Red feature wall combination, we found out that True Red just made the house look like a school rather than a home. Today we bought some textured pastel-like red and the painters repainted the true red feature walls, and it looks great. Finally happy with the whole scheme.

Trying to get the new bathroom sink installation complete, but it seems we keep missing some bits, hopefully tomorrow will be the end of that. And then there are the curtains and blinds. It turns out that those will be the only remaining obstacles that will determine the exact date that we will move into our very own house. I haven't seen what they are going to look like as it was Sevim who decided what we will go ahead with (Venetian blinds it seems) on a Monday when I was at work. I'll have to trust her taste and judgement and hope it turns out all good. I think it will.

Work is busy. I have a feeling we will finally begin the 2008 catalogue this week. I think we are missing our deadline, but as they say, better late than never. And also I need something to keep Louise busy with. It seems we are spending more time fooling around than doing actual work. Not that I don't enjoy it, I have a lot of fun, but I feel more productive when I am on my own than I do when I have her around. Last year the best remedy to the problem of facing the question "What should I do next?" was the catalogue. That's why I can't wait for the next catalogue. I shouldn't come across as grumpy or anything though, we have a great time together. I do, at least. I never have any idea what others think.

That's it. I forgot I promised my mother we'd do Skype today. I should probably honour my promise otherwise NO COFFEE FOR ME!

Finally got me. I was so proud of the fact that we pretty much passed the worst of winter and thankfully it was without getting the cold or the flu. That was until Thursday morning when I woke up with a slightly sore throat and a funny feeling around my eyes.

I knew what was coming, so after I went to work I popped in to the pharmacist and asked them whether I could have some Sudofed or Cold & Flu. I had to literally argue with the staff as all she wanted to give me was a cough relief medicine. I told her it was the cold coming and after some insisting I was able to get what I want, and the cough relief medicine.

Anyway, much good that did to me. The same night, once I arrived home, we noticed my temperature rising, and boy it kept going up. To top it all of I was freezing cold and shivering madly. At one point my fever was 40.9°C, and I was still cold and shivering. I was waking up every hour with a massive headache and at about 5 in the morning I did something I haven't done in about a decade. I vomited. I absolutely hate throwing up and I have always done my best to keep it under control. Although that may be the bad thing to do, I've always tried real hard to avoid it. Luckily I told Sevim that I was feeling nauseous so she had a bucket ready just in case. Sevim has been taking real good care of me, as she always does when I am feeling sick.

So obviously I had to take Friday off, the worst part of that was the server problems we were having, that required me to definitely be at work on Friday morning. As usual, these things happen as soon as the IT guy goes on holiday, and when he does, people come to me. I spent a lot of time on the phone with the guy on Thursday and just when we came up with a solution it was the end of the day and the job was left for the next morning. That was Friday. Luckily I was able to call up in the morning and assist a friend on what to do. I believe the problem is solved.

I don't know if I will be going to work tomorrow. I was originally planning on using my RDO (Rostered Day Off- something we get every month... yummy) tomorrow to paint our new house. Actually, the whole weekend was planned with painting in mind. That didn't happen. I'm not sure if I am up to the painting task, but if I feel like this I think I am up to going to work. I have a desk job you know. On the other hand I'm not sure if it is the right thing to do considering I might pass it on to other people. Maybe I'll wear a mask and be the office jester.

Anyway, went to our GP yesterday, he had a quick check, asked a few questions and told me I had the real flu. The way he said it though was a bit frightening. Especially after watching the news and hearing about all those influenza a outbreaks that have claimed 5 lives so far. He said there was only one medication that would cure it and it was a bit costly, or I could just take two panadols every 4 hours and wait it out. I opted for the medication, and the panadols.

I feel my best so far today. That is after sweating profusely all night, had to change clothes a few times, I was literally soaking wet. Right now I feel crooked, but nothing really unbearable. I hope the worst is over and yes, I have made a note to self to take a damn immunization shot next year.

Been a tiring day. Mentally more so than anything else. Had to do a relatively major facelift to the work web site which involved getting uncomfortably intimate with the publishing system we use. Needless to say it sucks and harder to get around than deciphering monkey speak. I had to stay at work till 7:30 because I just didn't want it to be something I had to resume in the morning.

I also had to take the train back home so I wasn't here till quite late. And then I had to prepare the remaining 2 contracts for the house. Man contracts are such funny documents. It is the pinnacle of human bullshit.

Painting the house still hasn't begun. We thought we'd hire a painter and after getting a ridiculous quote from a "friend-of-a-friend" we decided that we should definitely be the ones doing the painting.

Enjoying the weather oh dear Northern Hemisphereans? It's freaking cold here. The weather report says 11 degrees, but thanks to gusty winds it feels way less than that. Winter hasn't been so bad though. Only remember one particular day a couple of weeks ago when I felt the winter cold (turned out to be the coldest July in 22 years) and that has been pretty much it. So far so good, but still can't wait for spring and then summer.

OK then, time to go to bed. 11:11 was meant to be the time I started this post but you know, you get distracted and next thing you know you feel the urge to make sure you finish what you started before you go to bed. That is what I am doing now.

And finally, to end on a positive note, the next time someone asks your opinion and you wish to remain neutral without offending anyone, try this:

"As long as it doesn't involve kiddie porn and a monkey gang bang, I'm fine with it"

It works wonders.

Wow great, now I am no where on the front page again. It's an on again and off again relationship now is it Google? Wow, worry not your bot will like me whether you like it or not.

Anyhow, has been an interesting weekend. Had a work mate of Sevim stay over last night because she wanted to have a photo shoot with Sevim She wants to send them out to Ralph magazine and see if they'd be interested in doing a magazine shot with her. I got to personally see all the pictures first hand, and the actual outfits (!) so I can't say I am complaining. I may not understand how one could possibly aspire to be in magazines like Ralph but hey, I am a man deep down and therefore I will do my absolute best to make sure young girls like that get their opportunity damn it!

We also had our French friends come over this morning and we had brunch. The best part of it was that we had Sevim's work mate dress in hardly anything at all and answer the door. We were hiding in the kitchen and expecting an out cry, but apparently their facial expression remained the same. I don't know if that is a French thing. We did laugh about it quite a lot afterwards though.

Tomorrow is Monday, I think we finally get to start working on the 2008 catalogue. The annual catalogue is always a bitch, and we just began a massive clean up of the backend and that included putting a dedicated model number field and now we have about 750 products that have to have their model numbers changed because they are duplicates. That it seems is going to involve the company owner and me sitting in front of the computer and manually changing every single one of them, although this is Purchasings job. This won't be the first time I have had to do something that is not in my job description with Robert. He seems to like getting things done with me and I don't know whether that is a good thing or a bad thing.

And finally about the house... we are hoping to start the painting this week. Sevim doesn't work tomorrow so she'll be getting the paint and necessary tools. Heck, we might even start tomorrow. We found a sink we liked so yesterdays shopping expedition turned out to be worth it. But we also got a lot of other ideas too. Ideas that have to be put on hold for a little while. Still have no idea how the mortgage repayments are going to effect us. I'm sure I'll be blogging about that when the time comes.

Anyway, that is it for now. Anyone complaining with the frequency of posting?

- Imagine I ended this post with something funny...

Wow... that was quick. I'm already on the second spot. Now I gotta beat that Civil Servant from the United Arab Emirates whose Linked in profile comes up first.

Just to keep it relevant though, Sevim has a friend coming over for breakfast and then we'll go out for some sink shopping. That seems to be the only thing we will change in the new house. Not that there's anything wrong with the existing one, but it feels too much like the 70's every time we walk into the bathroom. Later in the day we'll be visiting a friend who works for Porter Davis and she'll be showing us some display homes so we can get some idea about what colour we want to paint the walls.

We also have a brunch tomorrow with a French couple and take them over to the house and get them to give us some ideas. So it seems it will be all about the new house for a while.

Sheesh, there was a segment on one of those current affair shows yesterday about employers googling prospective employees and I thought I'd google myself considering I haven't done it for a while (what?.. you don't google yourself? Anybody who says they have never googled themselves is a liar.).

And what do you know, this site doesn't even come up on the main results page. There are a few of my comments posted on other sites, but not this blog that I have been keeping since 2000. Having looked at this blog I did notice that the author name has been changed to mversion instead of Bilgin Ozkan (which I have corrected now) and considering I have been an absolute dick about updating this blog, I am not surprised. However I am determined to get back up there and to do that I realise I have to post more often. So expect more pointless crap from me. This is not a return to form, but my stubborn nature to have my rightful place on the google rankings.