Friday 1 Jan 2010 - New Years Day

Happy New Year... Beware the Election...Cameron and Clegg together I predict!

Thursday 31 Dec - New Years Eve 2009

At Work; so far it seems to be quieter than it has been the last three nights. However time will tell as we are 4 staff down tonight, first let's see what happens at 9pm when the other centres close and then what it's like when everyone else has gone home and it's just the 8 of us!

Wed 30 Dec

Must catch up with Christmas happenings.

Christmas Eve, Christmas Day the Weekend and Boxing Day 24-28 Deec 09

Christmas Eve

Somehow we all managed to wake at a reasonable hour and, eventually, washed, dressed and fed we set off for Leicester via the new park and ride site near Enderby. We had a cunning plan, park up, travel to town cheaply, head for the Highcross, get our cinema tickets early, do the shopping, go and see the films and then return home and have a takeaway. I suppose that in reality there was nothing particularly cunning about this plan but it sounds good to say there was and so, I will.
Luckily, for me, the cinema didn’t open until 10 am and we arrived at the Highcross Centre at 9:30 am. What a shame we had to spend a half an hour in the Apple store looking at all the lovely expensive goodies they make. By the time we left Deb had decided that out next computer was going to be an iMac, I was even more desperate to own an iPhone (I don’t need one I just want one, the stupid thing is that I use my existing phone, in the main, to take lots of photo’s and the iPhone’s camera is pretty crap and has no flash – so where’s the sense in wanting one?) and the kids had decided that next Xmas they each wanted an iPod touch. Oh the allure of the beautiful. Eventually it was 10:00 so we headed for the box office and got out tickets. 2 for Avatar and 2 for the 3D version of A Christmas Carol… £ 34!!!!!!!

We had an hour and half before Avatar started so we made for the other side of Town so that the kids could buy Deb her presents from Dedham’s the Jewellers in Belvoir Street. After we had negotiated the security door and had been locked in the shop they each chose and bought Deb a new charm for her charm bracelet. We made our way back to The Highcross, diverting only for Nat to show me the CEX shop that sells all the goods that have been stolen in Leicester. By now my hip was killing me and I was looking forward to sitting down. We got back to the Highcross and went straight into the cinema. Avatar started an hour before the girl’s film so Nat and I went upstairs while Deb and Han stayed outside to do a little (?) more shopping. Avatar was superb and lived up to all the hype, 2 hours 40 minutes plus adverts and trailers and I didn’t go to the toilet once, now that’s a real Christmas Miracle!
We met Deb and Han in the foyer afterward where they were waiting for us, their film started later and finished earlier (as I said “Avatar’s an epic”). It was time to leave town before it got rowdy with Christmas Eve drinkers. We caught the Park and Ride bus at the top of High Street. The bus held an unexpected surprise. If you switched on your phone’s Bluetooth it sent you adverts and token books fully of discounts and money off coupons and, in addition, there was supposed to be free wifi on board, if there was then the link was down when we rode. We made it back, safely, to the out of town parking opposite Leicestershire Police HQ and proceeded to slip and slide our way across the car park back to ours. Home around 4:30 no one felt like cooking so we decided to have a take away. The kids and I opted for an Indian whilst Deb preferred Chinese. Luckily there’s an Indian, Chinese and a Chippy a short way away so we headed there. The Indian was lovely but I think Nat and Han regretted their choice and found it a little hot for their tastes; they live in Leicester so they’d best get used to it!
Deb had bought the a “new” version of Trivial Pursuits for us all to play on Christmas Eve but it proved to be a huge disappointment and hardly resemble the original game. She had also bought the kids new pyjamas which they did like. Eventually I fell asleep on the sofa and later woke to find that everyone had gone to bed and that whilst I slept Santa had paid a visit!

Christmas Day

As usual the kids got more presents than most small African nations; Deb really really really goes over the top at Christmas. No wonder I never have and cash she’s sending it to Santa all year long! Nat’s listed elsewhere some of what he got and I’ll have to get Han to do the same. Deb and I got a few little things. My main present was a box of rather splendid bottled beers. I looked forward to quaffing the tasty suds soonest and acquainting my mouth with their hoppy flavour (Unfortunately I did exactly that which explains why I remember so little of Saturday morning and why I ended up in the pub Saturday afternoon after going for an extraordinarily long walk). Nat’s main present was the X-Box he’d been craving and pestering us for all year. Han had been equally determined to make us aware that she lusted after a net book and this was what she got as her main present. After setting up the X-Box and showing Han how to operate the lap book Deb and I opened a bottle of sparkling wine and had a drink.

The morning passed amicably, amazing when you’re talking about our kids who could squabble for Britain, and eventually it was time for Christmas dinner. As usual Deb had done a brilliant job and it was gorgeous. Best of all we all had sensible portions and Deb hadn’t gone OTT and cooked every traditional Christmas dinner accompaniment. The end result was that we all enjoyed the meal, finished our meals and we weren’t left bloated for the rest of the day. After, or was it before, dinner we opened the presents we hadn’t opened in the morning but I can’t recall now what any of them were.
The rest of the day passed quickly by, as Christmas day always does such a build up for such a little thing, and eventually it was time for the penultimate episode of Doctor Who. Perhaps I was slightly the worse for wear but I couldn’t make head nor tail of the first episode and as such I still haven’t watched the final one. Some day soon, when everyone’s out I’ll watch then both back to back and see the one with the London bus in the desert that I also haven’t yet watched. Perhaps I just don’t want to say goodbye to this incarnation of the Doctor. Soon it was late, Xmas day was over for another year and eventually the kids were persuaded to their beds. Deb followed shortly after and once again I fell asleep on the sofa……….Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Saturday 26 Dec.

I forget

Wed 23 December - Han's Birthday Present - Hannah Montana at the NEC

Deb and Han travelled to Redditch to see Deb’s Mum and Dad before continuing on to the NEC to see Mylie Cyrus in concert. Below are a few pictures and videos of the concert. Han said it was fantastic; Deb said it was fantastically loud!!!! They were Home around 11:30. Straight to bed (not) we have to be up early. We’re off to Town to do some last minute shopping and to visit the cinema.

Tuesday 22 Dec - Too Tired

Had to leave work last night after one hour because unable to stay awake. My hip is very painful and I hadn't slept for about 36 hours. Tried to tough it out but I was babbling on the phone. Been awake most of the rest of the night I'm going to bed now to see if I can finally fall asleep!

Monday 21 Dec - Oh My God....Again

It's now 01:05 and for the first time since I started work at 20:20 there aren't any calls in queue. It's been another hectic evening and I've dealt with over 50 people so far tonight. I know it's got cold but the volume of calls still seems extreme. We are planning to bring in munchies tonight to celebrate Xmas but if it remains this busy then there seems little point in doing so. I think I'll suggest we do this for New Year instead. It's now 01:22 and I've taken another two calls since I started writing this entry!!

Sunday 20 Dec - Oh My God!!!

Got to work at 20:00 to see that there were over 70 callsin queue!! I've not seen this for at least 4 years. Started taking calls at 20:25 and didn't stop until 01:30. After 21:00, when all other centers closed the queue jumped to over 170 at one point. To make matters worse it seems that there is a major backlog of work from Friday and we were having to offer people who weren't at risk, appointments from Wednesday onward. As one might expect this news was not greeted very favouably especially as many of these people had been on the phone for up to an hour waiting to get through. It's now 01:49 and we appear to be on top of everything but it looks as thought there's a mountain of writing up that needs to be done tonight. Thank the lord that some of those due to finish at midnight agreed to work on until we had cleared the backlog of calls! I'm shattered, my head's pounding and I've drunk so much water, because my voice was going croaky, that I now feel permanently in need of the loo. Oh the joys of a middle aged male bladder!

Ballet party and Rugby Party

Thursday 17 Dec - Missed School Events, Hip Appointment and....

It's not a very nice day today weather wise so Deb took Nat to school in the car this morning in order to avoid the possibility that he might have to cycle home in a blizzard and so I walked Han to school along with Monty. By the time I got home my good hip was hurting fit to burst(?) and so I plonked myself down on the sofa to rest it. It wasn't until later that I realized what the date was and that I'd forgotten about the events on at school today. The Christmas singing concert was scheduled for 10:00 (although Han didn't mention that she was in it) and the staff X-mas buffet at 12:00 where there was to be a presentation to Pam Boyer, the school's music teacher, who leaves to move to Yorkshire at the end of this term. Unfortunately it's now 12:56 and I guess I've missed both. On the upside, if I'd gone I would have most probably turned off my phone at school and would have missed the call from Leicester General Hospital. They rang me to see whether I could make an appointment to see the surgeon, Mr Davidson, at 09:25 on the 19 Feb 2010 to arrange to get my second replacement surgery carried out. Looks like I'm going to have to put up with the pain for a couple of more months and that my request to get it done sooner has not met with success.

First Snow

A Little later

Wednesday 16 Dec -Don't Remember Much

Sat around tied and napping, nothing of note other than watching

Jericho

and

Defying Gravity

How can you tell that a programme has potential and is worth investing some intellectual effort in to follow the plot properly and pick up the nuances? Easy if it gets canceled in the USA after 8 or so episodes it fits the bill. What is it about the attention span of TV viewers? It's a shame though because DG looked as if it could have been an innovative 5 yr series; as of now, if we're lucky, I think we'll get a whole 13 episodes. As for Jericho I've wanted to see this post-apocalyptic drama for a while but have always missed the beginning whenever the series has started a rerun. Just caught the 1st 4 episodes and must say enjoyed it a lot. At least Jericho ran for 2 series so there's still quite a bit to watch and I might get to find out what the new black guy in town is up to!

Tuesday - Much Pain days Holiday

Stayed home no sleep...again

Waht a Clever Octopus

Monday 14 Dec - Off Work

Not slept at all today, woke at 6pm absolutely shattered and with a killer headache. Called in and booked a days holiday. Watched the Gadget Show "Gadgets of the Decade" Show then fell asleep on the sofa. Woke-up at 3am and I've been been nodding off sporadically since. It's going to be difficult to write a 1,000 words today (my new daily target) as I've nothing to write about. So what happened in the news that I can comment on, I'll check it out tonight at work and finish this post then.

Monday 14 - Playing with Hasmuhk's Nokia 5800 Express and at Last a Google Phone

I've just had a play with my first resistive touch screen phone, Hasmukh's new Nokia 5800 Express Music on Orange. It's rather nice but I can see why people prefer capacitative screens. There is a hesitancy on this screen that you don't encounter on something like the iPhone and also a problem is that, sometimes you tap the screen once to execute a command and sometimes you have to double tap to execute a different command - very confusing. Saying this, I've never used one before and I was still able to install Google Maps on it for Hasmukh. Maybe you just get use to it over time.

So, Google have released their own phone to their employees to test, or "eat their own dog food" as Google phrased it. There are a few pictures circulating on the net and it looks pretty neat. The proof will however be in the pudding if they ever release it to the general public. The rumour seems to be that if this happens it will be sold sim free and not tied to any particular carrier.

Sunday 13 December - Tony Blair, Fern Britain, Tearful Han Discovers Opportunity Costs and Exactly 1000 Words!

Home this morning about 07:45, I knew Deb had to take Nat to Rugby training and wanted to get some firewood whilst he was there so I’d be looking after Han until they came home. That wasn’t a problem because I had wanted to stay up this morning anyway. I wasn’t going to miss the Fern Britton interviewing

Tony Blair about his Christian Faith and the role it played in his life and work.

There was no doubt, from the every start, that Tony Blair was a man with strongly held religious convictions. It was clear that he absolutely believes that,

1. God Exists; and

2. That God cares about, and takes an active interest in, what we humans do.

The question was, and remains, how much did these beliefs influence his behaviour and decisions when he was Prime Minister? Not a great deal, according to him, but snippets of interviews with those who had been close to him during this time appeared to paint a different picture.

It seems that he remains convinced of the rightness of his actions, he may appear to back peddle a little here and there but overall he’s never going to admit that he might have been wrong. His point regarding WMD’s is telling; if we’d known they weren’t any there, he says, then we may/would have had to come up with other reasons to justify the invasion and the subsequent change of regime. What does this mean, were WMD’s just a convenient justification for the implementation of a policy that had already been decided upon? For whatever reasons it seems fairly clear that Bush, in the aftermath of 9/11, if not before, was determined that the US was going to go to war with Iraq. The question that remains however is why Blair was such a staunch supporter of this policy? It’s hard to believe that in his place Gordon Brown, or any other British Prime Minister, would have followed the US lead so docilely. Bush was and is a “Born Again” Christian and Blair has the air of a religious zealot (you don’t convert to Catholicism unless you’re a zealot). Did they find a common ground in their faith; was the administration able to exert undue influence because of Blair’s feeling? We may never know for certain one way or another but like most secular people I’m loath to put the reins of Government into the hands of someone with these kinds of strong beliefs.

I’m not too concerned if a politician is a Cof E Lite because it usually means he’s/she’s simply keeping up appearances and making a gesture of support toward to the prevailing religious establishment; he/she isn’t likely let this bit of irrationality materially affect their judgement.

It’s bad enough that in “The Land of the Free” you have to believe, or at the very least appear to believe, this bovine excrement if you are to have any chance of being elected to public office. We’ve seen what this can result in, Creationist in charge of Boards of Education and

The Chimp

that said creationist say that Darwin said that man evolved from (he said no such thing) in charge of the White House for 8 long years.

I don’t want this in the UK, I don’t want this in Europe, I don’t want politicians with paper weights on their desks saying “What Would Jesus Do” I don’t give a flying f**k what a fictional 1st Century Jewish carpenter’s position would be on modern policy. What I want is the considered opinion of my elected representative. I want the separation of Church and State because one man’s beliefs are another man’s belly laugh. I don’t want a Sarah Palin thinkie/likie in any position where she/he might take the opportunity to hasten the onset of “The Rapture” by Nuking the Middle-East. No Siree, give me a secular expenses fiddler every time, you know where you are with these thieving bast**ds, in deed, with them, you always gets what they can make you Pay for!

I’ll forgive you your Duck Houses and your Moat cleaning bills as long as you leave your God in the lobbies when you enter the Chamber. I know politics attracts mendacious Kitty-Fiddlers (by that I don’t mean to imply that you insert your fingers or other body parts into pussy’s; I mean you may well insert things into pussy but I’m sure you only do so to human lady pussy not the feline kind because that would be perverted and who on Earth has ever heard of such a thing as a perverted politician, I ask you? No by kitty I mean a fund of monies) like yourselves but so long as you don’t walk into the Chamber side by side with a beardy man who normally lives on a cloud I’ll put up with you!

I didn’t actually get to watch the interview in one sitting rather I managed to catch chunks of it between Han’s demands on my attention. Han is such a funny little thing, so empathic; she came and asked me something about TB during the program that necessitated freezing the programme and having a discussion. I can’t quite remember what the initial question was but somehow, via the US medical system and “Death Panels” the conversation ended up discussing NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) and how scare resources are allocated between sick people, cost v benefit and opportunity costs. Poor thing, I was illustrating the point by explaining why you might not be able to give one person a drug that could extend their life because of the opportunity cost involved. That that single treatment would preclude the funding of other treatments. It was at this point that I noticed that she was crying because she felt so sad about the hypothetical cancer suffered we had just condemned to death. Silly Sausage!

Damn, after sausage I only needed another eighteen words to make these comments exactly one thousand words long!

Saturday 12 Dec - Sofa Sleeper, Curry and Back to Work

After everyone went to bed I stayed up intending to catch up on some TV, particularly the two latest episodes of Spooks. I watch one episode but can't recall anything about it and then fell asleep. I was still asleep it seems when everyone else woke up. I was left sleeping there until I finally returned to consciousness at about 1pm when Deb was taking Han to ballet. Did a few things then went to bed until 6pm.

Deb had bought curry for Han and I and pasta for Nat and herself. Han and I had Rogan Josh and Chicken Tikka Marsala with rice, nans and onion bargees. Lovely!!!

Off to work 7:45, busy as bollocks...again. It’s now 04:30 and I'm off to lunch.

Friday Dec 11 - Tesco Announce iPhone Prices, Brockington Xmas Fair, Birthday Meal and New Harry Potter DVD

At last a reasonable iPhone tariff I may finally treat myself! Tesco today announced their iPhone offering and on the face of it the 12mth deal looks pretty reasonable if I can save up enough for the upfront cost. I can't decide on whether to go for the 16GB or 32GB. I've managed OK with an 8GB card in my N95 and N82 so 16GB should be more than enough, however it seems to be the rule that the more space you've got the more you use so perhaps 32GB would be best. On the downside I know that the camera's pretty hopeless, no flash, but that's really the only problem. I can live without multitasking. I was tempted by the new Nokia X6 however Electricpig (a tech review site) have just given it a fairly poor review and more importantly Nokia have, for patently stupid reasons unknown , failed to include a digital compass in the specification. Without a DG it's impossible to use most augmented reality applications and these are the apps with the greatest potential. I want a phone that I can use as a virtual guide book when |I'm somewhere I’m unfamiliar with. Something, which, not only tells me where I am, but also what I'm looking at; and then how to get from there to where ever else I want to go. The lack of a DG means that despite GPS, the camera and the Internet the phone can't overlay information because it doesn't know in which direction it is pointing. Why oh why do Nokia keep doing this, they always seem to fail to include one essential element in very phone they produce!

Enough about phones Mysickbones you’re obsessed, waiting now for Nat to get home and get changed. When Deb's home with Han we're off to Nat's school's X-mas fair and then into town for Han's birthday meal more on these later.

The fair was great, we arrived there shortly after 4pm, I got five books for a Pound, Han got her nails and face painted and we discovered a stall with home made cakes and sausages which represented a small farm type shop in Endeby. We're off there later in the month to stock up for X-mas. Their cheesecake (something I've never been a huge fan off) was absolutely delicious and I'm intending to make sure that this is one of the things we will buy. We saw Donna, Jonathan, Sian and Josh there and Donna gave Deb one of the bottles of wine she's won in the tombolla, apparently she always wins.
We stayed for about 45 minutes then headed to the car to get to town in time for Han's birthday meal. Deb had booked a table for 4 at 5:30 at Zucchero on Charles Street in Leicester City center. It's one of those all you can eat restaurants and features food from around the world. The selection was very good and the quality also. Unfortunately there seemed to be no Mexican dishes on offer that night so I missed out on the chilli which was supposed to be superb. There was a sushi table and for the first time I was able to try a selection, pretty tasteless over all but not bad when you dip them in the spicy sauces. The broccoli cheese was outstanding. Typically Han and Nat headed straight for the buffet and returned with plates piled high. We tried to explain that it was best to get little helpings and to go back frequently. The staffs, without exception, were exceptionally pleasant and very helpful; on arrival Han mentioned it was her birthday and one of the staff brought her a free fruit cocktail a few moments later. There were only two faults, the drinks were too expensive (£3.50 for a can of beer) and the all in adult price was a little on the high side at £14+ per head.

 When we arrived 5:20 the restaurant wasn’t yet open so we walked to the town hall to see the Christmas decorations. Nat was not feeling very well and was in a bit of bad mood. I was overly harsh with him and claimed he was ruining Han’s birthday. This resulted in tears, sorry Nat, but he seemed to perk up when he saw all the food and shortly thereafter everything was forgotten.

 We left the restaurant at about 7:10 and drove home. To finish off the night we watched the new Harry Potter DVD and I drank Donna’s wine. Can’t decide whether |I liked the film or not, like the last two there’s so much left out because the books are so long that it’s sometimes hard to recognise the story. It’s like the last film in a way as soon as it ended I couldn’t really remember much of what had happened. It seems I’m not alone in feeling this way as a team mate at work told me that she’d only managed to watch the first half of the film before becoming bored and switching it off.

Interesting Links I've come across

American Beer

Leicester Chronicle: 2000 years of Leicester history

Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay, Self-Reliance, translated into modern English

Thursday 10 Dec - Borders, Sundry Thoughts and Warhammer

I finally plucked up the courage to visit, the soon to be closed, Borders bookshop this afternoon; I love this shop, we took the kids there for the launch parties of the last two Harry Potter books and had a great time on both occasions. How depressing it was to see it absolutely full to bursting with people looking for last minute X-mas bargains and, sadly, covered in closing down and money off signs. It's failure is my fault as much as anyone's, I'd go there, browse, read a book, have a coffee and then come home and then buy whatever I'd seen and wanted on Amazon. Admittedly Borders were expensive, but that's the price you have to pay if you want to continue having real bookshops.

Speaking of Borders fall to the on-line retailers it begs the question; if everything goes on line and is automated where will most people work and where will the money come from to buy the things on sale on line? When I was younger (in my teens) I ran a kind of thought experiment in my head as to the possible effects of the mass automation of most industry. I concluded that the likely end result of an entirely automated society would be a socialist society, because in such a society the government would have to create jobs in order for people to have the incomes necessary for them to purchase the goods produced by these very factories. This in turn would lead to huge rates of corporation tax, to fund the jobs, which in effect would mean that the state effectively owned the means of production. So rather than through a deliberate act of political will on the part of the electorate socialism would emerge as the default way of dealing with automation. In other words Communism would be achieved via the back door. Whether I would have been proved to have been correct is moot but my projected outcome seems far less likely when one is dealing with transnational entities, who do not even necessarily have a physical presence in a territory, as is most often the case with e-commerce. With Governments around the industrialised world, strapped for cash, thank you near sighted bankers (didn't you play pass the parcel and musical chairs when you were kids?), and more and more jobs vulnerable to being replaced by on-line services that are substantially less labour intensive we may have real problems avoiding a situation of massive under(if not un)employment.

As if the current World economic situation wasn't bad enough there appears to be yet one more hurdle to be cleared. I hate to think it, especially as I have two young kids and can't be a dispassionate observer, but I'm more and more convinced that the Human Race is walking blindly into the perfect storm, Global warming, Over Population, Resource Scarcity and Under-Employment. Welcome to the wars of the 21st Century, first OIL then WATER then FOOD.
The potential blood letting of this century may well make the major wars of the 20th Century pale into insignificance. Imagine when the glaciers are gone (and make no mistake they are going) and the rivers Ganges and Yangtze and the other great rivers of Asia start to dry up:

India v China – Total Pop 2.5 Billion and rising.

In addition to the foregoing, we have half the population of the USA excitedly looking forward to nuclear Armageddon in the middle-east in order to usher in the Rapture so that they can sanctimoniously go live with a “beardy man on a cloud”, Islamic zealots who want to return the world to the middle ages and sundry other loonies. All in all it's not looking good for “God's” greatest creation!

Well, given that I was only intending to write about Borders that went a bit off topic, I'd probably be flamed in a chat room for that one. At least I think I would; I've never actually been in a chat room, I suppose that's why I haven't got any cyber friends

On a lighter note, Nat was supposed to be going to Brandon's new home after school with some friends to plat Warhammer 40,000. Then Brandon's Mum said no to four so Nat arranged for them to play here instead. It turned out that messages got mixed (my Son will one day learn to get peoples mobile numbers) and in the end it was just Brandon and him playing after all. I tried, honestly, to understand what they were doing but in the end I gave up and watched the 1920's episode of Andrew Marr's recent series on the history of Modern Britain. What a superb series and it ties in nicely with his previous series on post war Britain.

Wed Dec 9 - Birthday Girl - 9 Today

It's 05:02 and I wonder how much longer it will be before Hans up and about. She gets so exited during the run up to her birthday, will she have slept much tonight?

Her presents are under the Christmas tree and she has absolutely no idea about the big surprise we've hidden from her, even Nat's managed to keep stum.

Teen superstar Miley Cyrus will kick off her first ever UK tour at the end of this year, taking in Birmingham’s LG Arena on Tuesday 22 and Wednesday 23 December. These highly anticipated shows will be the first chance for European fans to see one of the most exciting shows of the year. Miley will be supported by the chart topping pop/rock group Metro Station featuring older brother Trace Cyrus on vocals and guitar.

 I'm up having slept most of yesterday and only woken up at 10:30 last night.

Nine years old already; where has all the time gone?

Just after 7:00 she came tearing into the room; here's the photo's and videos:

















So it's now 15:06 and Han will be home soon for her birthday tea (we're going out for a meal on Friday) so I'll update later.

Han was home at 3:30, Nat shortly after, so we all had a birthday tea with cakes and sandwiches and other goodies. Han had a special 1 hour ballet lesson at six and Nat was off to Scouts at 6:45 so I just chilled and watched the Gadget Show. I was very sleepy when Han got home and eventually had to go to bed around 8 PM.

Sat 5 - Wed Dec 9

Well four more days have passed, working nights and sleeping days. It's been as busy as ever but the only real things of note are,

1. I've pulled a muscle in my neck which is extremely uncomfortable,
2. I sold all of Nat's school raffle tickets at work,
3. Dawn, very kindly, brought in a birthday present for Han.

Tuesday - Nat poorly so stayed home, he painted a few of his Warhammer Models and then he and I watched Batman Begins. I really do like this film and we must get a DVD of Dark Knight ASAP. Popped to bed for a few hours sleep at about 2pm but nobody bothered to wake me so slept until 22:30!!! That's why I'm writing this at 05:57 Wednesday morning.

NAT'S BLOG - Saturday 5 December

What a glorious Saturday, filled with Warhammer 40k I went into town at 11:30 to meet Brandon but I first met Zac and Sam who took me to Maryland Chicken where I had 2 pieces of Chicken,3 spice wings,lots of chips and a Pepsi all for £2.99. Back at the Warhammer I bought a tub of paint for £2 but because of the tax reduction it was 5p cheaper so thank you Gordon Brown!!!!

Sunday 6 Dec - Holding

awaiting update.
Well it appears that the anticipated update will never come. I've just noticed this post and can honestly say that I can't remember what it was that I intended to write so there you go.

This is the Tomb of the Unknown Posting

Friday 4 Dec - Pods and Blogs

My Tweet on Twitter was read out on Pods and Blogs, imagine my surprise sitting in bed listening to podcasts to hear "mysickbones said...." its about 16 mins into the the following episode:

Voting papers and robots 24th Nov 09
Tue, 24 Nov 09
This week Rhod and Jamillah discuss papery things (during the discussion re: Filofaxs and who still has one online, take a look at the voting season and to Jamillah's delight have a chat with the man who made R2D2.

Link to Pods and Blogs

Friday 4 Dec - Bed, Pods, Dreams and Work

Absolutely knackered, "slept" downstairs again. I'm going to stay up to see JK then to bed until 6 pm because its work again tonight....Oh God please let me win the lottery!!!

JK was a look back at an outside visit last year to a Youth Club set up in Manchester for underprivilaged Scallies (yes I know that Scallies is usually a Liverpudlian term however, Liverpool Manchester what's there to choose between them? They both appear to be violent shit holes where everyone speaks with a horrible accent - tweedledum/tweedledee) . Not watching that bollocks again so stayed on PC. Somehow, when I looked up it was 12 Noon so off to bed asap.

Hear myself on Pods and Blogs - see separate post. Then turned on The Skeptics Guide to the Uniniverse and started to catch-up on backlog. Must have fallen asleep because I had the weirdest dream where, somehow, the SGU team ended up visiting my home. Then I dreamed we went to Steven Novella's  house which was;

1. made of Gold and

2. filled to the brim with his Wife and all their kids. His wife looked to be an elf from Lord of the Rings and all the kids appeared to be clones of him.

After that the details get blurry; at 6 pm Nat woke me up and I releaised the SGU was still playing. I must have been aware of it as I slept hence the strange dream. If I listen to those pods again when I'm awake I may find out where some of the images in my dream came from.

As mentioned up at 6 pm and downstairs for dinner which I hardly touched. My appitite fluctuates wildly from ravenous to apathetic. Went to work at 7:40 for 7:50 logged on 8:20. At first quite but when the other call centers closed at 9:00 the calls started flooding in and we didn't really slow down until about 1 am. Even after this time there was a steady trickle throughout the night. I photocopied 50 manual job sheets at the begining of the evening and I've only got 8 left at 05:59, busy, bust, busy!!!!

Thursday 3 Dec - Morris . A life with bells

What a disappointment, it was amusing but seemed, I thought, somewhat forced. I didn't form any kind of bond with any of the characters and totally failed to understand why the leading man was "Rusticated" in the first place. Maybe I was too tired to appreciate it properly but for now I can understand now why it didn't get a cinema release. Morris: a life with bells
The new Phoenix Square building seemed  a very pleasant venue and was, when we arrived at 5.45, already  fairly full. We didn't have time to eat or drink there but the small bar area in the main reception was quite inviting... according to the website "Our Cafe Bar, the 'Screen Lounge' offers a wide range of enticing food and drink together with the unique opportunity to experience digital media presentations in a stylish and contemporary environment. With interactive touch screen tables, daily newspapers and WiFi technology, the Screen Lounge is a fantastic place for lunch, meetings, or to enjoy a few drinks with friends".
 The actual room (cinema 3) sat only 30 and was quite claustophobic I didn't get the chance to see the others. I wouldn't fancy trying to watch the 3D epic Avatar in a room quite this small. As Avatar is coming to the Pheonix lets hope the other cinemas are substancially larger! I've just been looking att he web site and it appears that the other projection rooms must be substancially larger because according to the wedsite  "Phoenix Square is ,to date, the only independent cultural cinema in the whole of Britain to be equipped with 3D, so that our commitment to bringing the very best in world cinema to the people of Leicester and beyond continues to develop and grow."
We didn't really get very much of a chance to see the whole building. The kids and I did a quick recce before the film but the important word here is brief. Upstairs there seem top be an outside quad on the first floor and this appeared to have some potential during the warmer parts of the year.

On the upside, this time last year at 6 PM on 3rd December 2008, I was on the operating table at Leicester General  having my right hip replaced whilst discussing smart phones with my anesthetist.

Militants

Monday 30 Nov - Sleep and that's about it!

I like to try and stay awake when my shift end as otherwise I lose a day off. Not to be today: stayed awake until about midday then had to crash. Woke up at 11.45pm!!!!!!!- NO Dinner!!! Downstairs on PC now and feeling in need of sleep again...Too Much Beer -making up for no dinner perhaps!