Locked within the crystal ball

I saw this today and really enjoyed the video and the song. I've read that Ritchie Blackmore's Night stuff wasn't very good but on the strength of this, I have to disagree.

The wretched shopping

Ventured to the shopping mall today and regretted it. It was probably quieter than Saturday but even so, I'd had enough after an hour. I went mainly for my son, who was just desperate to spend the money gifts he was given by some friends and family members. He bought some of the new Lego Power Miners kits, which are quite good I must admit, and a videogame for the Wii (Pokemon Battle Revolution). I picked up a couple of games that were reduced in the sale too but when I got home I looked up some reviews and one of the games is supposed to be a total turkey but sometimes reviews are misleading and I've had great times when the reviews said that I wouldn't. At least it was nowhere near the cost of full price and I can always do a trade in, if I don't like it. After the mall we called into the hypermarket and I picked up a bottle of "cuarenta y tres" as a birthday present for my mother-inlaw, I've enjoyed a few glasses of this liqueur in a Spanish bar with collegues from work and I think it's a delightful drink.

Boxing Day 2009

Well, Christmas was a brief affair but good while it lasted. There is a heap of litter now in rubbish sacks. Every family member has their own pile of presents that there isn't room in the house for. I have loads of washing up to do, my least favourite chore. I've had afternoon naps infront of the TV the last two days after eating large Christmas lunches with a couple of glasses of wine. I blame my napping on the wine.
This morning my son asked me to help paint a picture with him, he got a superhero painting set as a stocking present. We started it together but he got bored really quickly and I just carried on with it. I scanned it in when it was dry (it was a watercolour) and will post it on here as soon as I can get a chance, it doesn't all fit on the scanner so he might be missing a toe or something. I like watercolour painting but have never really done it seriously.

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Time

I’ve had a sore throat since yesterday and the sniffles in my nose have gotten worse. I don’t like not feeling well but when you have a cold, you just have to get through the symptoms as best as you can.

This weekend was busy, we went to London to watch the carols and singalong. We took the children up to my parents. And today, well we had to pick a few things up from my wife’s workplace and pop into town. I borrowed a couple of books to read from the library, I don’t normally read fantasy fiction but thought I’d give it a go. I picked up a collection of short stories by Kelley Armstrong and David Eddings’ The Diamond Throne. I also picked up a couple of videogames that were on sale to go through.

I’m working on Wednesday but will try to do as little as possible ;-)

Hurrah for holidays!!

Well, I have one day to work next Wednesday but apart from that, I'm a free man until 6th January, huzzah! There is a lot of snow forecast for the early hours of tomorrow morning, I took tomorrow off to go to church to see my kid's school perform a carol concert. I love watching that sort of thing and this year my daughter is performing a solo guitar piece.  I'd hate to miss that for the sake of a bit of snow. It seems the first snowfall of a season takes everyone by surprise and everything seems to shut down. So I do hope that the school stays open and that the snow isn't too bad for us.
We've another busy weekend this one. We've tickets to watch a Christmas carol concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London again this year. We seem to go every year now and have a box which accommodates 8 people so that there is plenty of room behind us to have some drinks and food whenever we want to. I like singing along with everyone else, my mother inlaw invites guests too, so I'm not sure who else will be coming along. It will be good though I'm sure. Have a great weekend folks, Christmas is not far away now!

Christmas no.1

I’ve heard that a Facebook group has been set up to promote sales for Rage Against The Machine’s song Killing In The Name because there is a feeling that the X Factor is a cynical marketing ploy to artificially push it’s own winner to number 1. I like the Rage Against The Machine song and if I were to purchase one of the songs it would probably be that one. However, I’m not the type who buys singles and especially not at Christmas. The last single I bought at Christmas was probably the charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas?

It did get me thinking though, why not have an alternative alternative? So here is my choice for an alternative Christmas single: Death of Love by Cradle Of Filth. I jest of course but just imagine if my alternative catches on?

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

It’s a busy weekend for us. My children’s school disco was Friday night, so I had to be a taxi. In between journeys I treated us to a Chinese takeaway from a shop we don’t often use. the food was really good though but we ordered way too much! Watching the children leave the disco was funny, all hot, sweaty and tired and covered with fake tattoos. Mummies were all red in the face, also tired. At least it finished at 8pm, early enough to get kids in bed and still have some time afterwards before retiring to bed.

Yesterday we spent much of the day in Oxford. I love walking the narrow backstreets of Oxford, its such an old town with such amazing history. My children were playing Harry Potter as we looked into windows of the jewellery shops: it was just like Diagon Alley with the numbers of people. The gargoyles on the colleges also fascinated them. We actually saw the touring show of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and I have to say it was excellent. The stage sets were great and the car effects were magnificent. I loved the car as a kid and it brought all those memories back to life.

Christmas tree time

Yes, that time of year again. Our tree and lights are now up and I feel a little more festive. I also found out last night that our Wii isn't actually in storage but in its box on the shelf in the lounge. Funny that I've seen the box but assumed it was empty just because my wife said it was. I think she just said that at the time we were talking about a house move before Christmas. That's not happening now, so she's let up a little.
Well, December is racing along as it usually does. We actually went shopping for a few final presents yesterday and my goodness! It was incredibly packed. We thought we'd get there early (tills open from 11am but "browsing time" means some stores open before that). We actually got there at about 10:30 or maybe just before. As it was Sunday, there wasn't much food left in the house so we decided to have a Macdonald's breakfast: it was rammed! We had to find a seat upstairs because it was just so noisy and busy downstairs.
We lasted a couple of hours and even split up to save a bit of time. Then we were all done-in, exhasuted.
I drove home, went upstairs and then fell asleep on the bed for a couple of hours. During which my wife went out again to get a few final items from the local shops. Upshot of the day was that we think we've got most of what we need for this year.
Last night we watched Batman Begins on TV. I haven't seen that film for over a year but I do enjoy it.

Outdated tech

There is a list of technology that is on the verge of extinction in 2010. Here is the list:

• DVD players (not for me, I still only watch DVDs, no Blue Ray for me. I could download a film from Zune but it would be for my Xbox connected screen not the one in my lounge)
•   Fax machine (well, I can’t remember the last fax I sent so its not a surprise to me, I always hated faxing anyway the quality was shocking)
• Analogue TV (no surprise again, with the digital switchover imminent. I have noticed that digital reception is affected by adverse weather and while you could just about watch analogue TV through interference it just becomes impossible to watch digital TV through it because the picture just freezes)
• The landline phone (not for us, again we still rely on our house phone as an alternative to Skype and our cell phones, I have noticed however that we use it a lot less frequently)
• Mobile phone charger (there isn’t an imminent alternative in our household, I’ve heard about these charging mats but have never seen one in real life. A universal connector would be a bonus though)
• Wii remote (I don’t think this will happen so soon, considering the number of Wii consoles out there. I’ve seen a demo of Xbox’s Project Natal and it looks interesting but as far as I’m concerned I like the feel of a controller in my hand)
• Sat-nav (our Sat-nav will still be in use throughout 2010 as I don’t see us buying into smart phones that are muted to replace these, we’re happy with the basic cell phones we have)
• 3G Dongle (I hate 3G anyway, it’s slow and reception is generally poor wherever I go with my work 3G card. I hate the way USB dongles stick out so much. I’m much happier using my Netbook, although I only use it around my home so I can see the need for mobile broadband coverage –I just don’t think 3G is the future)
• The computer mouse (I don’t see this going anywhere, it has survived over a long period and has evolved from the pretty terrible ball to the cool optical variety)
• Chip and Pin cards (I wasn’t aware there was an alternative but Wave and Pay is mentioned, I’m not sure what that is – sounds too prone to false payment to me. I’ve gotten so used to Chip and Pin now that I can hardly remember what life was like before it. I feel more comfortable typing in a pin and carrying a card around.)

Do you have any other ideas of your own? I’ve got a few items we have ditched in the last couple of years:

• scientific calculators (people have phones with calculators on these days, the days of having a block-like calculator with lots of complex scientific functions seem to have gone – at least in my life)
• Personal CD player (move over CD, the MP3 player has probably already made you obsolete)
• VHS video recorder (sorry, another easy target)
• Film-based SLR camera (yep, I can’t remember when I last bought a roll of film)
• 1.3 MP digital cameras (yeah, you can’t buy these now can you? Don’t they give them away free with Happy Meals yet?)
• Tape based voice recorders (the micro cassette variety of voice recorders are surely obsolete. Digital recorders offer hours of record and a lot of MP3 players allow record too now)

Bear with a sore head

I didn’t have such a good weekend this week. I was like a bear with a sore head and probably not very nice to be around for my family. My bad vibe carried over into today as well. Do you think it’s possible to have male PMT? I’m not very happy with myself for being Mr Grumpy.

I brought the advent calendars down from the loft this afternoon. They can go up tonight in preparation for the children to find in the morning. They love opening the windows and finding the chocolate and toys to hang up.

I watched some clips of kids opening their Wii on Youtube. Some of their reactions are hilarious.

Happy Thanksgiving

I know this is late but I hope my US blog friends had a great Thanksgiving. You could say I had an early Thanksgiving, last weekend my brother and his wife flew over to the UK to see the family. I haven’t seen them for a year and I hadn’t seen my folks since August, so it was nice to see the family again on Saturday. I took my children with me but my wife had to take a group of colleagues to a work related exhibition that day. Dad opened some champagne and mom put out some food, I had a beer and a chat with my brother, which was nice. My folks gave my son a Lego box they had kept for 5 years for him until he was old enough. It helped get me, my son, daughter and my brother and his wife laugh about things while we all tried making stuff. We so rarely get together, it was special. After my brother and his wife had left and my kids were in bed, I fell asleep – must have been the alcohol and the journey. I woke up feeling like I was being boiled, I was under a duvet on the sofa fully clothed: it was 10:40.

This week was a very stressful one workwise. However, at the same time I pulled off something quite successful. I devised a workshop, led the facilitators and facilitated the wrap up session at the end of the afternoon. Everyone who attended said how well organised and run it was. My line manager even said how impressed he was with how I’d driven the whole thing. Some weeks just end on a high don’t they? There’s always a balance though and I think the next few weeks are going to be tough, with a lot of work to get through by mid January. I’m also looking forward to a break from work at Christmas.

Get well soon, Ronnie

I learned this evening the news that Dio has stomach cancer. I hope he slays the dragon quickly! Dio sang in his own bands Elf and Dio, but has also been a vocalist in Rainbow and Black Sabbath and latterly the band Heaven and Hell with his Black Sabbath bandmates. Dio has an incredible range to his voice and I love the mythology he employs in his lyrics. There’s a taste of his solo work in the video below.

I'm listening to...

Getting fatter again

My weight gain has been noticeable to me over the last 12 months. I’m going to have to deal with it more effectively, I have got to take control. Otherwise I’m going to end up having a heart attack or something. It’s very difficult to keep an eye on everything when you’re stressed and got a lot on your mind and when you’re generally depressed like I have been. Everything is gradual, you hardly notice it on a daily basis but the effects are cumulative. I try to tell myself that I’m not as big as some guys I see but comparing my size to others has never been helpful to me. I’m quite petit for a guy and am not tall, so comparisons are pretty meaningless. Packing the Wii away has meant that I have no real tracker of my weight: Wii Fit was great for tracking my weight – its just a shame the activities weren’t compelling enough for me in it.

Blog changes

I’ve made a few visible changes to the blog. Hope you like them, please vote over on the right side panel. I’d appreciate it if you could change the name of this blog in your links. I might also change the address to http://tortoisefeathers.blogspot.com but because I’m not sure what the effect of that will be, I don’t want to change anything like that just at the moment.

Change change change

It’s more the lack of change that is the issue for my personal life. I don’t mean my romantic life, rather things like the desire to make some changes but not having the time or energy to actually make the change. I need to change my job or career and we need to move house. Both of these things take a lot of energy and careful consideration. They are big things around which lots of important smaller things happen, like they have heavy gravity. Gravity is the problem: you need a lot of thrust to break out of Earth’s gravity and that’s what I’m lacking in my life: thrust to break out of my current gravity. The problem is more difficult because I have two gravitational things to change, my job and my house. Does anyone have any advice on how I should manage this predicament? I’m just floundering at the moment, I’m paddling but just not getting anywhere. I’m also worried about the recession: if I quit my job, what happens if I can’t get anything else? How would we cope without my income as the main breadwinner? I guess the other side of the coin is that at the moment, is it better to have stability and a steady income, even though I’m not happy at work? So many considerations! It’s overwhelming! I can’t see the wood for the trees, if you know what I mean.

 

Happy Halloween!

Whatever you’re doing, I hope you have a great time. My children are excited and I’m exhausted after battling through crowds in the shops today. Suddenly, it doesn’t feel like there is a recession on at all. The shops were rammed with people, don’t know if they were buying though but there was certainly a lot of hustle and bustle and a feeling of Christmas coming. Funny how Christmas has more feeling in leaner times. The Christmas gift market had lots of great gifts but we were just browsing. I was tempted to buy a bottle or two of Caribbean Punch but I didn’t in the end, my wife was worried there would be too much ginger in it and she doesn’t much like ginger. I don’t mind it so much.

It’s been a hell of a busy week at work this past week. I did get a bit of time back on Friday afternoon though, so that was good.

We ate in a restaurant for lunch today. I couldn’t believe the bill when it arrived. Don’t get me wrong - the food was lovely. However, first of all my son’s plate had to be sent back because it arrived with beef instead of chicken. Then my wife’s had to go back because she got pasta instead of brown rice with her meatballs. My wife did at least get a complimentary drink out of it but even so. It was just short of 60 pounds, we usually eat out for less than half of that. I would have felt more cheated if the food hadn’t been good. I’m just not sure it was THAT good. We also had to queue a few minutes for a table. There was a much bigger queue on our way out. I’m really surprised how popular the place was. My wife and I shared a plate of nachos, the kids had ice cream and we had two rounds of drinks. I guess it all adds up, we normally just have mains plus drinks. Probably won’t be going there again any time soon.

Halloween is coming

Halloween is in 7 days time. How will you be celebrating this Celtic New Year? An adult Halloween party with apple bobbing games and toffee apples followed by some dark rituals? A night at home with a scary movie? A party with friends in a public bar? At a party for children, taking them Trick or Treating or playing games? Dressing up in costume? I will be attending a family bonfire with our children. It should be a fun evening if its not raining and will involve the traditional games and roasting marshmallows on sticks above the fire. Hope you have a good one, whatever you're doing.

Poetry practice

I haven’t done very much creative writing over the last 12 years. I’ve started to practice writing again recently but not compulsively. I thought I’d share with you a draft of a poem I’m working on. What do you think? I can’t work out why the first line is indented. It’s annoying but nothing I can do about it.

The Unexpected

It's funny, life
The unexpected happens
Like air under plastic
You think it's flat, move your hand
Revealing the bubble

I used to potter through life
In my teens, my twenties
When I didn't know who I was
Now I'm dad, hubby, home owner, pension payer
Once impossible
Now reality

How did that happen?
Where was I?
When did my hair go thin?
When did my face lose its youth?
When did I get stale?

I don't recognise the face
In portraits I take
While on the train
Or at home, between emails
A middle aged man stares back
Dull, with middle class mores

Dream dream dream

I had an anxiety dream last night. I was asked to give a presentation using PowerPoint. It’s something I’ve done a lot of in my career. But this time I couldn’t find the file on my computer. I was looking in all the usual places but just couldn’t find it.

The people in the audience wanted to get up for a comfort break but I refused to let them take a break, saying that my presentation was about to start – I even rapped on the table with a paperweight to get their attention. But instead of starting I carried on looking at Windows Explorer sifting through my folders and subfolders to no avail.

I think I had this dream because we have a new filing system at work I find confusing and I had to write some notes up for my boss, who was giving a presentation. It just shows that you can’t always leave work when you leave work, if you see what I mean.

Weekends

I was just musing, what if weekends didn't exist? What if, the powers of economic determination forced everbody in the working world to accept, as the 'norm', a 7 day week? The only days off work being those taken through holiday. What would that do to holiday days? If it was the case that we got the same number of days for holiday as we get for weekends would that be so bad? It would be like taking a weekend whenever you wanted. Who invented weekends anyhow? There must have come a point between the cavemen and the businessmen of today when somebody said, "Hang on. We're working our employees into the ground with this 7 day week, let's give 'em a couple of days to make 'em feel like they've got a life". Why only 2 days for a weekend? Who decided that particular regimen? I'd prefer to work 3 days and rest 4 days. I'm sure I would be a better worker, the reduced week would ensure I made every minute count. How many employees can truly say every minute counts with a 5 day week?

Saturday Musings

Just finished a nose bleed. It's neither a common experience but at the same time it's the third or so in the last three months. Slightly alarming is the way it gushes out. I think I may have high blood pressure, due to stress. It clots up pretty quick though so it's not like I'm losing much blood or anything. I'm not alarmed by my own blood, obviously though I prefer not to see it. I have donated blood in the past, maybe I should donate again, they do always welcome volunteers. It's good blood as far as I'm concerned. Speaking of blood, has anyone seen True Blood? Channel 4 here has started showing the first season over here and I've missed 3 episodes so far, if its any good I might watch them using the 4 On Demand service on the internet.
Not much else to report. I have been finding it difficult again to think of something to write about. I borrowed a book from the library that is about writing. Maybe it will free up some thoughts and help me to write again. We shall see, I've a story I started using Google Docs earlier in the year, maybe I'll pick that up again and add more to it.

A cold

I have caught a cold. It developed on Thursday evening and got worse on Friday. Today I feel pretty dreadful. I hope it’s not swine flu, doesn’t feel like flu but is pretty unpleasant nonetheless. I don’t do colds very well, I think my asthma makes them feel worse.

Life v Work

My wife and I have alternately had to work late this week. We meet in the middle somewhere. I often feel like I wanted to talk about something but we missed each other because she was one place and I another.

Pity we can’t work together and see more of each other. Does it work for couples who work together all the time? Or do you think it just gets complicated with other problems to have to deal with?

Does anybody have an easy life? Really?

Name search continues

My brainstorming for a new blog name goes on. I have a few I’d like to share to get your opinions on possibly:

• Inn of Intensity
• Mundanity
• Mundane Review
• Tortoise Feathers
• Blog Tank
• Mood Tank
• Frantic Wagon
• Future Warp
• Fact Worryer
• The FW Station
• Mangle Wangle
• Wangle Dangle
• Furtive Murtive
• Cone Zone
• Bloggo Mondo
• Bloggo Blanco
• MojoDojo
• A Fistful of Blog
• Swing Top Blog
• Double Hinged
• Unhinged in Rio
• Footprints in Mud
• Cuckoos Nest
• Twist Your Risk
• Thought Traveller
• Bubblewrap Brain Blog
• FW5020

Some of the above might already be blog names, I haven’t checked any of them out. Do any strike you as good or appropriate for me? Let me know.

The longer the search goes on, the less sure I am that Furtive Wangler is wrong for me.

She wolf?

I don’t know what you think of the Shakira single She Wolf? Catchy but a weird video and odd movement.

Time for a name change

I want to get a new name for my blog. I didn’t really think too hard about the current name and have kind of regretted it ever since.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Leonard Cohen collapses on stage

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Leonard Cohen collapses on stage 

Leonard Cohen writes songs with wonderful lyrics. I sometimes feel that cover versions are better than his originals but then again sometimes his voice hits me with powerful sincerity and I “get it”. I love Jennifer Warnes’ cd Famous Blue Raincoat in which she sings a variety of songs he wrote, Jennifer Warnes has what I think is one of the most underrated female voices ever.

Leonard Cohen’s album I’m Your Man is probably my favourite of his.

I hope Leonard makes a full recovery.

Weekend thoughts

A sequel to The Da Vinci Code was published this week, I didn’t read the first book but my wife did buy a copy of it. She gave up after a few pages. It is weird how extraordinarily popular a book can become even though (I bet) a large percentage of its buyers never finish it. I don’t know why but I don’t normally buy or read books that sell millions:

• chicken soup for the soul
• men are from mars women are from venus
• the da vinci code
• 7 habits of highly effective people
• how to win friends and influence people

Have you ever bought a really popular book that failed to live up to its promise?

Wild horses

Wow! One of my favourite songs.

Blog history

I spent a few minutes today looking at some old bookmarks I’d stored of blogs I found and read. It’s sad the number of blogs that have been removed or just not updated for years by their owners. I wonder what’s happened to the people? What percentage are still blogging but with another identity? Or perhaps there is a percentage who have moved their activity onto Facebook or another medium.

I like the bloggers who keep going. It shows a commitment to the medium. Gives it some kind of validity.

A little music for Monday

A great song and one close to my heart with the line “libraries gave us power”. Hope you’re having a good Monday.

Another weekend flies by

Well yes, the fact is that time seems to be speeding up. I seem to have less time each week. I constantly worry about time slipping away from me. I can’t think of what I’ve been doing and when I do get five minutes to sit down and blog I get sucked into web browsing and looking stuff up.

This weekend has been pretty good and relaxing. Nothing special has happened but that’s ok. We’re still sleeping with the windows open and it is starting to get chilly at night, good job we’ve got our big bed cover on now. It’s lovely and furry (without being fur) and is quite heavy. After half an hour or so I have to kick part of it off – I like to keep my feet uncovered to help regulate the temperature of the rest of my body. Funny how I’m always covered up by morning, even my feet.

I’ve been eating way too much recently, it will be difficult but I’ve got to start reducing my intake. I did cook a nice Chinese curry last night. I prefer home cooked food and it often doesn’t take as long to prepare as I think it might. If I find any good, simple recipes I’ll post them here to share.

Penultimate day of school holidays

It was the penultimate day of the school holidays today. Today and tomorrow are daddy days for me and the kids. Mummy has started back at work, so it’s just the three of us. Last year we spent this day in ZSL the London Zoo and this year we decided to visit the London Aquarium (now called Sea Life or something like that) and the Natural History Museum.

Hope you enjoy the photos below. We walked from Waterloo Station past the London Eye to the aquarium. I didn’t take any photos in the aquarium, I don’t like flash photography when animals are close. What annoys me is that people just ignore the warnings when there are clear signs saying not to use flash. We walked over the bridge past the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Then a tube ride to the NHM. What a fine building it is, there are lots of stone creatures or gargoyles on the outside making it look like a cathedral. Inside there is a entrance hall and a cast of a diplodocus skeleton.

After visiting the dinosaur hall we visited an exhibition about the human body. The kids enjoyed it because there were lots of buttons to press, lights to turn on and off, levers to pull and plenty of interactive learning exhibits. The ones on perception and optical illusions were very good. I looked closely at a human brain and spinal cord in one case: the spine and brain stem are really like a trunk cable, lots of interwoven electrical cables. I found it surprising how it made me think of computer cables carrying data and that’s exactly what it does of course.

We had a full day and were all tired by the time we left to catch the train back home. As tomorrow is the final day of the holidays we’ll probably take it nice and easy, not quite sure what we’ll do but we’ll have fun. My parents leave to visit my brother in the USA this week, he lives in Massachusetts.

 

 

Final Bank Holiday

Today is the final Bank Holiday Monday of the year. No more free holidays for us here in the UK. I spent it in a fairly uneventful way. It usually goes like that, it kind of marks the End of Summer – so I feel both sad that summer has gone but also glad that I have Halloween, Bonfire Night and Christmas to look forward to.

I’ve been sorting out my iTunes Library and playing with the my son and his Go Gos in the back yard (see the video), they are these odd shaped little characters. They look like bits that fell out of a board game, except there are hundreds of different ones.

I’m composing this on my new Netbook, got it set up and working in minutes: all good so far. I hope to be posting a bit more frequently now that it is much simpler and convenient to do so. Got to get my money’s worth!

New Netbook

I've been wanting to get a replacement for my PC for a while. I have it set up in our bedroom, which isn't ideal but there is nowhere else really in our tiny house. The fan in my PC is quite noisy and it is rather slow and frustrating. So I was thinking of a laptop. But then we got some Costco vouchers and there was 30 pounds off a Toshiba Netbook NB200 10G, so I decided to take the plunge and get one. They are dinky and really light and will hopefully do everything I need without costing the Earth.

The Hobbit

I'm reading this book to my children on a frequent basis as their bedtime story with dad. I have to admit to probably enjoying it more than they are but what a great storyteller Tolkien is. I'd love to write a story as well as that.
It's the film noir season on TV and the channel we watch a lot is showing some old black and white American film noir films from the 50s. I love watching old films, they just have so much character and charm. Great actors too, classics like James Stewart. We're also watching some of the old Doctor films with Dirk Bogarde, good clean fun.

Cameraphone

I wanted to blog about the phenomenon that is the cameraphone or mobile phone with camera. They are very common these days, even low priced phones seem to offer the built in camera. Whilst the quality of the lens doesn't really compare to an average digital camera , the cameraphone does offer the advantage of being one multi-functional device that is small enough to keep in a small pocket. For me it allows me to take snaps of the average everyday stuff that I would normally not have any record of. Things like how I looked on a certain day, how long my hair was, whether I was clean shaven or not and how I'm aging month by month. Other things can be recorded too, like points in a routine journey. There is something about being about to quickly record something seemingly quite trivial at the time yet with age gains something. Maybe I'm talking rubbish. If I were to take my digital camera out with me I might have some better photos but it's not always the photographic quality I'm looking to capture. Does this make any sense? Maybe some examples would help...

 

Ok so not the greatest examples but over the last few years I've owned a cameraphone I've collected over 600 snapshots.

Back in the saddle

We had a great time away in Boscombe. I didn't take as many photographs as I thought I would and what I have shot is spread between my digital camera, video camcorder and cameraphone. Our apartment was at the top of a big house, so we had a few stairs to climb and their was a slightly odd smell to the room with the double bed my wife and I shared. Other than that it was pleasant. The town itself was the same as I remember but the beach was fantastic. Lots of sand, so we just set up wind breaks and lazed around watching and playing with the kids as they built castles or buried themselves. The fresh sea water was exhilarating to say the least! I only managed waist-depth before getting too chilly, surprising since the air temperature was hot and the sun was blazing. My daughter managed to enjoy herself in the water with her inflatable.
Now I'm back I miss having all the time to do other stuff. Instead work again takes priority. Gloom!

The Day Is Here!

I can't quite believe it but the day has finally arrived. We're leaving later today for our holiday. Still got packing to do but I think travelling light is the best option, we're only away for a week. The important thing is to pack a range of clothes for unpredictable weather. And pack things like camera, reading book, portable game system and a game or two, drawing book and notebook plus pens and pencils. That's just my list! The kids will no doubt want to empty the contents of their rooms to take with them.

Last time at the seaside we took a mallet, which came in very handy with bashing in the windbreak. It's lovely just sitting on the beach watching the kids play in the sand and the wash of the sea. We have some binoculars somewhere, I'll have to try and find those.

Bye bye my friends, I hope you have nice weeks too.

Looking forward

4 more working days to go until I take a week off. We're heading down to the South coast. We have an apartment from Saturday to Saturday. I can't wait to be somewhere else, enjoying a new experience and chilling out on the beach etc. There are lots of events happening in Bournemouth next week, like candles in the park, fireworks from the pier, roar on the shore and other stuff that should keep us all well-amused.

Work has been pretty horrible the last few months, so I sort of wish I had taken more time off but I didn't so I shall do my best to enjoy the time away from it that I have.

I plan to take a lot of photos while I'm away so I hope to be posting up a few more pics when I'm back.

Long Weekend

I had Thursday and Friday on leave, so we went from London's Soho on Thursday down to Brighton on Saturday, with an overnight stay in Eastbourne. We didn't play pinball as in the Pinball Wizard song however!

The weather on Friday was delightful, I actually got burned on my head - for some silly reason I didn't wear a hat that day - I think it was because there was some wind that cooled me down. Pictures below show how nice the beach at Eastbourne is.

 

Brighton was cooler but we had the best of the weather, getting there reasonably early and doing what we wanted to get done. It was the weekend of the Gay Pride festival, so the train station was continually pouring people out of it - I've never seen so many people in Brighton. The kids wanted rainbow flags, so we bought them one each to wave.

Oxford

We had a busy family day on Saturday. A trip to the theatre in Oxford proved to be an interesting experience. Knowing how bad traffic congestion and parking can be we took the Park & Ride, leaving the car on the outskirts and catching the bus into the city. The city centre was absolutely rammed with people. There were the usual beggars, buskers and other street sellers but the worst thing was, as my wife put it, "it's like walking through a landfill site". She was referring to the bins, they were all full to overflowing and were overflowing. Mainly with fast food packaging, it was quite disgusting. We had an hour to spend before the show, I suggested a small restaurant I knew down a side street. My wife didn't think there would be any seats at Saturday lunchtime but we tried and were very pleased to find that despite the main thoroughfare being crowded to bursting that the Thai restaurant was not particularly busy. We got seats without waiting and were served with excellent food very quickly. The theatre production wasn't so great, it was a kids show and my son enjoyed it but my daughter wasn't at all bothered. There were quite a few adults asleep around us, so that gives you some idea how bad it was. I took some photographs, so here they are - they are all looking up because the ground level view was so disgusting.

 

 

 

June

Well I couldn't let June go by without a blog post could I?
I've been a bit depressed lately, hence my lack of blog activity. Hope you all understand. I'll be back when I've recovered a bit more of myself.

An expensive month in prospect

I completed my job application and was totally fed up by the amount of time it took up outside of work hours - I felt cheated that it was taking my free time but what else can I do? I stopped at a Post Office in a village I've driven through many times to post it. I have never called in at that Post Office before but it was truly lovely, that might sound like a strange thing to say about a Post Office but it was set way back from the road and had a small pond outside. Inside it was kind of a general store/Post Office and sold practically everything you might need from a village store. They even sold sweets in big jars, I love that excitement of seeing big sweet jars come down from a high shelf to be shaken out into the weighing scales. The village is really nice and has lots of trees, it just had a good feeling about it.
Monday of this week was a Bank Holiday, which meant a day off from work. The weather was really good, so I decided to try and put up the tent I bought last year. It was the first time we have tried to erect it. It's a 4 person family tent and has an inner (bedroom) tent that you can divide into two. I hope the prediction of a hot summer is right, I hope to take the family to a camp site at some point. The tent took a bit longer to erect that I thought it might and it only just fitted width-wise into our garden - so it's comfortably large. I just need to work on my wife because she's not keen on camping, I love it (for a few days) because it's such an alternative way of life.
I've been hoping to replace my slow, ageing PC with a new laptop this month but yesterday I had to get some new tyres. I've been driving around with a screw in my front tyre for a few weeks and it has been praying on my mind. I eventually got it sorted but I needed two new tyres. They aren't cheap are they? They also called me up during changing my tyres to say I need new brake pads urgently. Also I have my MOT and annual service check in just over a week, so I won't be able to afford my new laptop this month and next month I'll be paying for our family holiday - so basically bye bye laptop until August/September and by then I'll be thinking of Christmas. I'm also considering selling my car for a smaller, cheaper model - I'll let you know how that goes.
Today, I have a day off from work. We're going to see Monsters vs Aliens with the kids after lunch, for lunch we're going to a nice pub that sells good food and this evening just the two of us are going to go and see a Swedish horror film called Let The Right One In - fortunately we managed to get a babysitter. Don't know how scary the movie is meant to be because I haven't read any reviews of it.

Eurovision 2009

Well another year and another Eurovision has come and gone. I just didn't feel as excited about it this year, don't know why that is. I did watch it and score the acts alongside my daughter who was doing the same. The UK song did well, within the top 5 I think - I wasn't paying too much attention to our entry because I thought the song was rubbish. There were much better songs, I thought the song from Malta deserved to win but it didn't really come anywhere near. The German song was catchy but having Dita von Teese on stage with them was a bit too gimmicky. I thought there were about 5 songs that would have made ideal winners, Turkey was the only one I liked that came close. The runaway song of the night was from Norway, I didn't think it was bad but I didn't think it was the strongest song either. The voting this year was shaken up a bit, or it appeared that way, so the political voting wasn't quite as blatant as it was in previous years.
In other news, I saw Derren Brown on Tuesday night last week. It is amazing what he can do with his mind games, I'm glad though that I didn't go up onstage. He does use a lot of the audience, I'm just not that susceptible to his screening, I'm always in the half that deselect themselves.
In film news, I'd like to go and see the new Star Trek and Wolverine movies but I don't think I'll get the chance to see them before DVD. I also missed the Watchmen film too.
Tomorrow I have the day off from work. There's a couple of things I need to do. Complete a job application, watch my son's sports day at school and collect a piece of mail from the post office. I hope the weather is fine for my son's class sports day. I'd like to cheer him on but tomorrow is the only day I could get, so I really hope the weather is kind and it still goes ahead. The forecast is "chance of rain", which gives me hope that there is a chance it might not rain.

More videos

I think I'm getting the hang of these video things, here are a couple more I shot on the beach.

A day out

We had a day trip to Brighton yesterday. It was nice to see the sea, we live so from it that I forget what it's like. I have a couple more videos. We were walking on the beach just after 10am and surprisingly it was pretty quiet, it was lovely. I have a couple more videos to post.

Take the stairs

Tara has made me remember another thing this week. Speaking of how she influenced someone to take the stairs, I was reminded of an advertising campaign I really liked by The British Heart Foundation, the campaign was called The Big Red Fight Back and featured groovy posters that were designed in an art style used for wartime propoganda. The one I was reminded of was about stairs being your friend, an image of the poster is above. I thought the campaign was a great idea.

Movies I watched this weekend

It's an older film now but I watched Re-Animator last night. It made me laugh with the over-the-top gore and silly plot. As a fan of gore horror, I enjoyed it and the acting was brilliant.
I also watched Girl From Next Door which starred Emile Hirsch and Elisha Cuthbert. In honesty, it was a film I watched only to see Elisha Cuthbert. It turned out to be quite different from what I was expecting and not in a good way. As the film closed I just thought what a wasted opportunity it was to have such a good cast and still to end up with such indifferent fodder. The cast looking great is about the only thing it is worth watching for.

Childhood memory

Tara's trespassing post reminded me of one of my earliest childhood memories, not about the act of trespass though.

It was in my pre-nursery/pre-school years so I must have been under 5. The airforce did recruitment open days every year in our town, they had a couple of planes, a mobile caravan and various other events and displays in an area of the town. My mum must have thought I would be interested to see a jet plane up close. They had two sets of narrow stairs up to the jet's cockpit and there were a lot of guys crowding in on both sides. Somehow my mum managed to get up the stairs carrying me and I don't know if I was a special case or not but she was allowed to sit me in the pilot's seat. Great! What a treat! Then it all went wrong for me. Seems such a silly thing now but the guys were all crowding around and were interested in the flight joystick, that's where their focus was - I think an airforce man was moving it around and telling the other guys about it while I sat quietly. Being an infant I was naturally curious, so as soon as he let go of it I grabbed hold of it. It must have been amusing because all the guys erupted into laughter. That cockpit turned into a pit of hell as all the attention turned on my young self. I was probably a bit frightened when they all started laughing and it was really laughing at nothing but my infant curiosity however I remember crying and wanting desperately for my mum to remove me from the cockpit. What should have been an enjoyable experience became something much less pleasurable.
It was an experience that has stayed in my memory for a long time. I often have to talk to groups of people for work, often times they are strangers to me and I have no problem doing that. I am in control and am confident. However, when I find I am suddenly the centre of attention in situations where I haven't been warned or haven't instigated it, I hate it. The simplest example of this is when I join a group of friends at a pub or restaurant and they are already there and seated. They might be talking and laughing about something completely not related to me but as I walk in and hear their laughter, my sensitivity is "are they laughing at me?". I am suddenly thrown into the limelight and I dislike it intensely - I much prefer to be part of the group from the beginning or walk in with someone else. We all have insecurities, this is mine.

It's been a while....

It has been a few weeks since my last update. I'm afraid a lot has been going on and it has mainly been all work related, hence the lack of time to look at blogs and blog about social stuff.

We're having a new fence in the garden this week. A nice man from the Czech Republic is doing the handiwork for us. I'm so bad at DIY that this was the best option to have the work done quickly, I usually take too long and end up not doing the job properly.

We have a long weekend here in the UK, Good Friday and Easter Monday. The weather has been a bit grim, grey and drizzly. My wife and daughter went to the seaside but the shops were shut and the weather defeated them. As I write this, they're currently on their way home. My son has been ill this week. So I stayed home with him, mainly playing Mario Kart.

This afternoon, I set up Twitter - you can read my Tweets just over there -> somewhere.

Friday 13th

Its Comic Relief Day today, a great institution. There'll be plenty of silliness in places of work and education today. My daughter and son have gone to school wearing red clothes because paying a pound to charity means they can dress in non-school uniform. My daughter is also wearing her red wig - she looks a bit like Annie or Shirley Temple or Ronald MacDonald. I hope they raise a record amount of money because everyone needs cheering up in these hard times.

What else has been on my radar recently:

• Jade Goody - she has cervical cancer and it has spread, which effectively means that she is not going to recover. She became a celebrity after appearing on Big Brother 3 in 2002 and has since remained in the public eye due to some rocky professional and personal experiences. I haven't yet formed a solid opinion about Jade, I have heard criticism of her fund raising for her children however I'm not sure I wouldn't do exactly the same if I had to
• Spring-like weather - despite sometimes feeling very cold, the weather recently has definitely been changing more to mild and it makes me happy to think of Spring coming
• Colds - along with the weather change it is bringing the family down with coughs and colds as usual
• Swimming - I actually managed to swim 3 widths in the pool on Tuesday so I think I'm making good progress, I'm actually sad when the time comes to end the session, there are some nice people also attending the class so its nice in a social way too

That's about it for now. Hope today is a good day for everyone, despite the date! Have a great weekend!

Here it is, March...

My wife has lost a ticket. One of those times when we win something and the ticket goes missing. Actually, its not our winning ticket, she runs a syndicate. How can a ticket just disappear? Well, it has and cannot be found - believe me, we tried. It has gone into the ether, the thin air. So apparently has the 75 pounds along with it. To each person in the syndicate it is a small amount but any win is a win and it just so happens that a ticket with a Post-It note attached to it decided to get itself lost on the very week the ticket was actually worth more than it cost. So frustrating!

I'm feeling slightly more upbeat than usual this Sunday evening, next week I'm off work and instead am attending a course. I'll probably end up feeling really tired and stressed because there are exams at the end of it but really just lately I'll take any excuse to do something different.

This weekend I actually managed to sit down and catalogue our movies. I was supposed to be working but the computer was on and yadda yadda I ended up doing the cataloguing and then couldn't find the willpower to stop. So, do you want to know how many films there are? It's frankly disturbing but we have over 430 films ranging from the 40s to the 00s. That's 32 days and 11 hours worth of back-to-back movie going. Sheesh!

Well bless my soul! In the course of me writing this the ticket has turned up! It was in the smallest crack between the computer desk and the chest of drawers - but right at the back. How it got there is still a mystery but at least the ticket has been found and my wife avoids the embarrassment of having to explain about the loss. She found it, as I'm working on my computer upstairs.

My swimming is going quite well. I am starting to enjoy the water and I didn't ever think I'd feel that way. I can see myself actually swimming soon, it is just a matter of time and patience. I never thought I'd be able to. I think I'm so determined to conquer my fears this time that it will come eventually.

What happened to February?

The month is slipping by fast. The weather is getting a bit milder, so I feel more upbeat about that. It was a downer feeling so cold and the dark nights are moving further back.

I heard this news story about the final bag of Woolworth's Pick & Mix sweets being sold through e-Bay for charity. Great idea but shame about Woolies closing, I just thought that store had so many retail outlets that its presence on the high street was rock solid. Just goes to show that you can't take anything for granted.

Last week I had some time off from work and it was great, it's just such a pity that I had to return to work. It was nice not to have to do anything but spend time with the kids. We had great fun unlocking extra tracks and karts on Mario Kart Wii. We did buy a camcorder, so I hope to put up some videos at some point - when I've worked out how to do it and what to record.

We went out last night for our last Chinese meal for hopefully a while (need to lose a few pounds again). We also played a game of ten pin bowling with friends and their kids. It was a pleasant night out but I didn't sleep very well - I think it was the feeling of returning to work and the food lodged in my belly.

In other news, I've started looking out for a new job. Not sure what I want to do yet but I'm scanning regularly.

More of the white stuff

I was back from my travels North last night. And this morning I was awoken by my wife at 5:20am, she was getting up and looking out of the window. Fresh snow had fallen, I actually thought it looked worse than it had done on Sunday night. Here is a photo from back of the house looking to the garden.

Weather

The weather on Sunday turned bitterly cold, wind from Northern Russia I think. Then late in the afternoon and overnight the snow fell. Several inches on our town and as usual a bit of snow has brought everything to a near standstill. The schools closed in large numbers. My own kid's school was open but it too had closed by lunchtime. Here is a shot of the road I was waiting on - the traffic was slow but it was at least moving, except for this shot I was actually waiting at traffic lights.

I love the snow when I don't have to travel in it. I might have to travel further North today or tomorrow and the snow was moving in that direction. Last night the snow turned to ice around here, I think that's worse than the snow.

John Martyn, a hero passes away

My calendar now has a photograph of the lovely Cristina Scabbia from Lacuna Coil on it, man she's gorgeous!

Since my last post, one of my all time heroes has sadly died this week. Singer and songwriter John Martyn passed away, his songs were of great comfort to me. They always brightened my mood. He was one of those artists that didn't ever compromise, so some of the music is not so easy to get into - you have to absorb it and let it wash over you but once you get it, it is some of the most beautiful music you'll ever hear. Thanks John, Rest In Peace.

I'm now booked on an adult swim class on Tuesday evenings. This was one of my New Year's resolutions and I didn't want to mention it before in case it never got off the ground but now the money has been paid and I start this week - or next, depending on if I have to work in another part of the country on Wednesday or not, I might have to travel this Tuesday night. So, I'm feeling both a bit terrified and happy that I'm doing something about it. At least my son is still learning to swim, my daughter is already an excellent swimmer. I wish I'd done it sooner but I guess its never to late to learn something new.

Blurry

Doesn't time fly? January is going by in a bit of blur. I missed a friend's birthday a couple of weeks ago, just didn't get around to making the extra effort required; she moved away and I don't see her very often. I do feel bad about it though.

The weather varies here from very cold and dry to mildly cold and very wet. I think I prefer it dry and cold. It's the kind of weather that makes you just feel like coming home from work and getting into bed as soon as you can to keep warm together. I'm drinking lots of hot beverages. Watching the news every night is a bit depressing, hearing about companies laying off hundreds of employees and closing branches. We'd like to move house this year and I don't know how we're going to achieve it. Last year we only had a short holiday away form home for a few days; this year I wanted to go away again but I don't think we will - moving house is going to take precedence - my work is going to get very stressful with a big change coming up and I selfishly wanted to go somewhere to relieve myself of the stress of it. Just as well we're staying home, with the added expense of a holiday, it might have just added to all the stress rather than relieve it. There is so much preparation to get done if we're to move house this year I don't know how we're going to get it done.

It's Chinese New Year tomorrow and to celebrate we had a Chinese takeaway tonight for tea. I could only eat half of what was on my plate - it was so filling! I love Chinese food though.

Obama-tron

Lots of excitement in the States over the inauguration of a new President. It is a remarkable thing that America has achieved. I really do hope that he is able to make a difference to the lives of hard working, ordinary Americans. I can only remember one black UK politician off the top of my head. I expect that people will forget Obama's ethnicity as soon as Washington's political machine starts churning. It does feel like history is in the making though, I think you can be much more hopeful and optimistic when you have a young, good looking leader for your country. You know he has a lot of energy to contribute. Good luck President Obama.

Here I am

Its funny how sometimes in your life you can be in a time of change, with lots of uncertainties and stuff happening all around you and people you know being affected, and in the middle of it all you have thoughts of great clarity. Just when you'd expect your thinking to be muddled or distracted. Its as if the world keeps turning but you see yourself from the outside of a spinning world and you realise that the world is a big place and you do anything (within reason) or lead a life anywhere you choose. I feel that 2009 is going to be a creative year and a year of change for me.

First post of the year

My Christmas holiday is over tonight because tomorrow I return to work. I've had quite a bit of time off this Christmas - or at least it feels that way because I had to take a couple of extra days this week because my children's school started back later than other schools.

The holidays were good for me, I felt we spent a bunch of time together as a family and my wife and I even got to spend some a couple of nights alone together (a first since our daughter was born eight years ago). I saw two pantomimes, attended a carol concert and a wedding. I even had the luxury of not having to get up early in the mornings. All that has to change tomorrow.

I know its the season but I don't want to make any resolutions yet, there are a number of important things I want to do this year but I feel if I put them "out there" I may just end up not doing them. I'm looking at the calendar infront of me and the face of Kat Von D from LA Ink is watching me. I wouldn't want to make her any promises infront of her that I can't keep!