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.