Things I Did Yesterday 13/01/10

Had some bad news today about Bonnee Harkess, someone I knew through my good friend Marianna back in the Wellington days. She'd been based in the UK for a while and I'd seen her a few times while she was over here. Not sure of the details, but she passed away while on a flight back to the UK from NZ. Horrible news. She was a real gem of a person, vibrant and enthusiastic. I was always amazed at her travel stories, particularly about her time spent travelling around South America (including a stint working in a wild animal rehabilitation centre), and last time we saw her she was in a very happy relationship, as active as ever with sailing and god knows what other outdoor activities on the go. Very sad.

Anyway, trivial as it is, yesterday I:

- Worked. Did an early start (8am) so that we could get stuck into a huge stocktake we're doing to get our POS stock management system corrected. It's drifted slowly but surely into inaccuracy, as it does, and it's been quite some time since we last corrected it. That, combined with us taking a hard look at how we're managing stock generally, meant it was a colossal job. Is a colossal job, I should say, as it's still going on.

- Worked through lunch then knocked off at 3.30, heading home. Put in some Xbox time, including a good little run on Dragon Age, getting past a bit that was getting me stuck. Spent most of the time playing Left 4 Dead 2, though. Versus mode has got me hooked all over again and let me tell you, I play a damn good Spitter.

- Cooked dinner and then we watched Michael Palin's Sahara, followed by the new series of Survivors. I really want to like this show, but every time it's on I get about 10 minutes in before slowly losing interest. I'm just not that interested in the characters, I guess. Plus, as much as I like Patterson Joseph, I just can't see anyone but Johnson from Peepshow. Seriously, did you see that clip last night where he was staring down at the guy he just beat up, mugging into the camera for a POV shot? Johnson.

- All the while we made some good progress on a jigsaw we've been doing for a while now. "Doing for a while", as in "Put away for months at a time". Nice puzzle though: a vintage world map, complete with areas "UNKNOWNE".

- Watched the first episode of Nurse Jackie. I quite enjoyed it. Difficult to do anything really new in a medical show, but it's been son many years since I've watched one that it's pretty entertaining. Nice dark sense of humour, too. Plus it's only half an hour, leading to good, punchy writing.