and so it came to pass

Today was one of those days where you plan out everything that must be done and for the best part most of it did get done. I was awake early this morning, not sure why but the pig impersonation from the person next to me probably did not help. Got up at 7.30am before son left the house with his sister for a shopping trip to Southampton. If I tell him the ground rules before he leaves then I don't have to put up with an agitated daughter phoning up to ask me to talk to son who won't do as he is told.

We never did the weekly shop last night so we went this morning, done all the shopping and back home by 10-30am. Had a cup of tea and then out again looking for one of those items we could not get at the other shops, also spent some time looking at new ovens (one of the ovens in our cooker is dead and it to old to look at repairing), went in to a large national white goods store and they had 6 electric free standing hob\cookers, just 6, if you wanted a range cooker with 3 ovens and 9 gas burners you had a choice of over 12, am I missing something here? Just got to work out when we can afford to buy a new one

This afternoon we cut the grass and erected the gazebo, with the extra bonus this year that it has side panels. Mother in-law wrecked their gazebo last year so they past the side panels they had for their on to us. So now we have a blue and white striped gazebo with green and white striped side panels...............nice.

Sat in said gazebo watching the world go by until it was time to ignite the BBQ. Now I am normally quite good with the BBQ but tonight was naff, it lit and started ok but for some reason I could not get the cooking right, the stuff that takes time to cook was cooking to quick and the stuff that cooks quickly was not cooking, just could not get my act together. Eventually had all the food cooked off and sat down out side to eat it. Once I had finished eating I returned to sitting there watching the world go by when I heard the beep beep of a text message arriving on a mobile phone. This single thing reminded me of an anniversary (which I mentioned a few days ago) I would prefer to forget. I think the actual date is in a couple of days time but the fact was it was the bank holiday weekend. Until that mobile went off I had forgotten all about it, but it was a text message that set the ball rolling 5 days earlier. Well I can't change it so I might as well stop talking about it.

Tomorrow were taking our son out for his final birthday surprise, another early start and pack lunches to make as well, let just hope he enjoys it.

Yeah, it is a Bank Holiday

Its a bank holiday weekend, it is going to be sunny for two of the three days and I also have all of next week off as well, that a nice thought to finish work with on a Friday. Today was a pretty calm day for a change, managed to finish my 4 proposal early, sorted out a PC I was preparing for when I am back at work and only a couple of annoying phone calls and all handled from the comfort of my dining room (which looks more like an office).

Not got a lot planned for next week yet, would like to get the kites out but there is a fair on at the flying field so will have to see how thing go on that front. Will probably take the camera out but not sure where yet. Will be doing the garden tomorrow so that a) it will be one job out of the way and b) assuming it nice weather I will spend it bit of time resting in the garden!!

Sunday I have to get my anorak out the cupboard, I have to admit to being a train spotter in my younger day and still have a passing interest in trains, so with the Eastleigh Railway Works 100 years open weekend this bank holiday and with my sons interest in train it is the ideal place for a day out on Sunday. I will be taking my camera but I think I will leave the little book of train numbers at home :o

And finally is anybody reading my blogs??? a simple yes will suffice beginning to thing I am alone in my own little world

Talked into it again

After watching the speedway on TV last night (British individual finals) and my comments about no hints for her indoor's about a present for her impending birthday, I found myself ordering tickets for the British Speedway Grand Prix in Cardiff on the 27th June. I only started out looking at the prices, then we looked at the family deal tickets, then exactly where the seats were, next thing I know I am being told to put my card details in then I am printing out my order confirmation. How did that happen?? at least it one less thing to think about, I can now think about the drive to Cardiff instead............

Today I decided to work from home (have several proposals to write up). I also needed to post a parcel and thought I would take it over the local post office and post it, only 5 minute walk away. So I go to the post office, I tell the clerk I want it to go first class, he ask me to put it on the scales and I get told it is £2.74p, so I duly go to hand the clerk my company credit card (I had no cash on me and it was a company parcel anyway) and he tells me that they do not accept credit cards, pardon?? You can pay with a debit card, maybe but the money comes out of my account and this is a company parcel (it is only £2.74 I know but, do you want the argument with the company accounts department?). So now tomorrow I have to drive to the local branch and pay twice as much for a carrier to collect the parcel and deliver it. I thought the post office was looking for people to use their services, declining credit card is not exactly going to help their cause is it.

The joy of working from home is you can get so much more done than when you are sat in the office. A morning work at home is like a days work in the office. I have done several days working from home and I have to be honest by the end of the third day I was suffering from cabin fever, the fourth day I just had to go into the office, us human are a social race after all.

I have been known to sit out in the garden in the summer working, taking phone call is interesting as the caller can't quite work out why they can here birds twittering away in the background. I must admit I do enjoy the freedom of working from home. No traffic jams driving into the office, no traffic jams driving home, start early, pop to the shop and finish late.

I am also fortunate that I have two connection to the outside world at home and I can access both companies networks from home as well, at the end of the day there are only a few IT things I can't do from home which certainly make my life easier.

I never get the full story and Mamby Pamby Sports stars

I got asked to collect some IT equipment from one of our branches yesterday, they are having a clear out in one building and the bosses felt it was safer if I collected the IT bits rather than leave it to those clearing the building out. Well I decided to do it today as I am busy Thursday and Friday and on holiday next week. I had intended to get to the branch, collect the bits do a couple of hours work and then drive back to another branch on the way home for a meeting later in the afternoon.

When I reached said branch I was met with a completely gutted office, somebody had forgotten to tell me that they were re-carpeting the entire office today. I eventually found where they had setup home for the day in the building they were going to be clearing out, hidden behind piles of furniture! That's was problem one, problem two was that the equipment I was supposed to be clearing out was newer than the equipment that was in the main office so branch manager wanted to keep the newer stuff and let me take the older stuff, not a problem, except that all the older equipment was in the store room at the far end of the office that they were re-carpeting and the floor was covered in glue!!!

Trying to explain to the MD (who turned up) what I was doing there and the fact that I had to wait until the carpet was laid before I could collect the equipment was fun

The talk at work today was football, when I was asked my opinion about some forthcoming match I expressed my believe that most players are a bunch of mamby pamby overpaid fairies. This was met with a silence which was eventually broken with the question "what sport do you follow then"? That's easy, Speedway and Rugby (union variety). My Speedway comment was met with, "Speedway? that not a real sport", well I may be wrong here but four riders racing around a track at upto 70mph without brakes shows a lot more skill and courage than some guy trying to kick a leather ball into a net and falls over if anybody get within 3ft of him. You watch a Speedway meeting and see what happens when these guys come off their bikes. Nine times out of ten the guy will get up and start to walk back to the pits ready to come out in the re-run. A footballer falls over and he is rolling around like he has just been run down by a herd of elephants.

Ok I will admit some football player have some good ball skills but the way they act in (what is called) the national game, gimme a break most of them are a bunch of prima donna's. If want to a real game with a leather ball then watch a rugby match, those guys play hard and rough and that is part of the game.

Football is all about the look, the adulation and the money, very little of it is about the game.

Thats a weight of my mind

I have been going to Slimming World for the last 10 months and today after a good weight in (that's the term for going to the weekly meeting and having your weight checked), I'm a happy camper, to date I have lost 26.5lb's. Maybe I should of waited till next week when hopefully I will have hit the magic 28lb mark but I promised you some good news so there you go. I am the lightest I have been for a while although there is still a long way for me to go yet, I don't have a target weight to get down to, I just know the area I want to get to.

Well that was the only good news of the day. My trip to HQ was as boring as ever, Mr Happy the engineer returned to hook up the photocopier\printer\scanner, at least this time the photocopier worked which is more than it did last time. But in the end he had to call his mate who arrived and had it all sorted within 10 minutes.

The drive home was entertaining as everybody seem to have lost the use of their indicators and mirror so just pulled out in front of me. But at least I got home.

Short blog tonight as I am propping my eyes open at the moment.

Birthdays and Anniversary

It was my son birthday today, a whole 9 years old (oh to be 9 again). He did not want a birthday party this year, he was happy just to have some sausage rolls and chocolate cake. He knew what his main present was going to be but it is not here yet. He is a large Pokemon fan and the latest game is not released for a couple of days but he knows we have pre-ordered it for him so it should be delivered by the weekend. He also got a couple of other games for his favourite toy a Nintendo DS (which was last years birthday present), along with some more Pokemon cards. He has also got a surprise present which he won't get until Sunday (it involves going to an event), he know nothing about it apart from it happens Sunday but as yet he has shown little interest in it. He more than happy with his other presents.

Yesterday was the anniversary of moving into our current house, 7 years ago we moved in. Moving in ended an unpleasant 12 months of trying to move. They say moving house is stressful, believe me it is very stressful when you have somebody trying to stop you from moving for no reason. I would of never believed that one old person could cause so much aggravation.

In a couple of weeks time another anniversary comes up, this is one that I would prefer to forget. But as I am quite often told, you can't change history you can only plan the future, well it maybe true but it does not make the passing of the anniversary any easier to cope with.

Then in just over 3 weeks time there another birthday to deal with, the wife's. Now if I want to live to see my next birthday I guess I better not forget this birthday. Not had any gentle hints yet but I guess I will get them soon enough, at least I hope so as I don't have any clues for her birthday at the moment.

Think I shall try to have a good day tomorrow as my past few bloggs have been a little depressive :(

Realisation

The past few years have been full of turmoil for me but through it all I have tried to keep plodding away at all the things I need to do but just shying away from making that ultimate decision on what I should do. But I have come to realise over the past few months that I can't keep turning a blind eye to things that are going on in my life. Thats why 8 months ago when I was told by the doctor, "lose weight or it is diabetes for you" I opted for the slimming option, not been easy but I am around 22lb lighter with a long way to go, but I am feeling better for it.

My weight problem has not been my only problem, but regardless of the problem I treated them just the same, doing just enough to keep going without having to face the truth or make any painful decision about it. Well as anybody who has walked a similar road knows you can't keep hiding away from problems like this. The longer it takes you to face them, the harder they become to face. Well I have faced up to another one of my problems recently, I decided what needed to be done and put things in place for that to happen. I still need to carry out the solution should it become necessary and I know that won't be easy but I have to do it otherwise it will end up making my life worse than it has been and the problem I am having to deal with will just continue.

My final problem is one that I can't do much about at the moment, it is not the right time, but the decision is in my head and I know what I need to do, it is all about biding my time and keeping my eyes and ears open. Again it won't be easy and will probably involve sacrifices on my part but again I need to make this change in my life, otherwise it will continue to control and rule my life and I don't intend to let it continue to that any longer than I have to.

I am just beginning to realise why I started this blog, rather than getting frustrated about something that has happen during my day I can have a little rant here and let of a bit of steam, it is my little safety valve. While I can rant I would much rather write about the nice thing that have happened. Maybe in time to come I will be able to write that my life is really great rather than just getting by as it is now.