Admitting Defeat: I'm Never Going To Get This Blog Fully Up To Date

Its 03:07 on Tuesday 17 May and I've come to the conclusion that I must never let this blog fall behind again. I've just been flicking through all the holding posts and trying to remember what it was that I meant to write. OK some of them I can fill in because I've made reasonably decent notes in Word or they are waiting for me to upload the appropriate photos and videos , which I can now do having worked out that I've still got a about 3 gigs unused Google free space. I'm going to have to bite the bullet though and buy some space because it's been the problem of trying to organise the photos via either Ovi or Zooomr that's caused all the problems.

So then what about today (Monday 16) what did I, or anyone else in the family for that matter, do of significance...or otherwise?

After Deb and the Kids left I hot footed it to the PC to do...what? Nothing particularly specific, catch up on Google feeds, Tweets etc. Well whatever I was doing occupied me until nearly 14:00 when finally I decided I'd best go to bed. One thing of note was that not buying cider meant I just had a few weak beers in the fridge and a few of these had no effect on me and so I didn't wake later feeling the effects of too much booze.

I tried to stay up to watch the last launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour but unfortunately it wasn't due to lift off until about 15:00 and I just couldn't stay up that long. So off to bed and time to see how long I can listen to a podcast before falling asleep. Sorry Jamila (Presenter of the Outriders podcast) but you weren't able to keep me awake and I'm afraid I'm going to have to play you again.

Deb woke me early because she and Nat had to go out and so we were having tea a little earlier than normal. Grabbed a quick showered and came down. Deb had an emergency Governors meeting at Brockington to discuss reducing staff salaries (the school's thinking of applying for Academy status) and Nat was going to help out at Cubs. If he does this for 6 months that will fulfil the community service element of his Queens Scout course.

This meant that I was left with Hannah and a slight problem. I had to leave for work at 7:00 but Deb wouldn't be home until 8:15 so what to do with her during the intervening period. I was supposed to lock her in but I agreed she could play out with the girls so long and Harleen's Dad was outside. I made sure she had her phone and planned to call her when I got to work.

I got to work around 7:30 and gave her a call; no answer her phone kept ringing until it went to voice mail. I tried calling Deb but her phone, as usual, was set to silent so she didn't respond. Next I tried Shantell's Mum Lidia but it seems she may have changed her number so in the end I called Donna who, God Bless Her drove down and checked everything was OK. Hannah also had her phone on silent and so hadn't known I was calling. Donna confirmed she was playing in Shantell's back garden so everything was OK.

I called Deb at 8:30 just to check. She was home. Nat had had a great time and Akala (Elaine) had confirmed that his helping out would qualify for the community service mentioned earlier. It seems he had a great time and Elaine said that he'd been great with the kids and hadn't been too rough. Thank God because he has no idea of just how strong he is. He'd knocked my glasses flying earlier on when we were messing round.

I forgot to mention that Brandon was around this evening the first time in a few weeks as he's been staying with his Dad while his Mum went on holiday

Work was very quiet tonight and its about bloody time, and there was nothing of consequence other than the fact that JDM said he was away next week which means we've got to change the plans we had to surprise him next Tuesday with a party to celebrate his 50th birthday. Looks like this will now happen on Wednesday. Gail and Abdul got their dates mixed up anyway and brought in food and chocolates this evening...whoops.

At least now I don't have a clash with JDM's bash and next Tuesday's Governors meeting where I think we are supposed to be going for a meal to say farewell to the Head John Simpson who's retiring at the end of term.

Draft - Loughboro Lego Robots,

Fin wk

Nat Off to Loughboro for Lego Robot challenge, his team wins three competitions, see pics on Flickr

Walk Han School

09:00 spoke to JDM who received my update and would do more work and send me next draft

Slept and worried rest of day, knackered fell asleep downstairs went to bed about 18:00.

Tuesday 12 October - Sprained wrist, overtime, all about symbian,podcast, N8, Nokia, Steve Litchfield, University fee, Clare Rayner,JDM, Christopher Hitchins, Twitter, Follower

I don’t know why but every time I notice that today’s the 12th of October I feel as if there’s something important about this day I should remember but for the life of me I can’t.
I finished my stint of O/T with the other team at midnight and rode home. I appear to have sprained my wrist while doing this; I HAD TO BRAKE SUDDENLY AT ONE POINT AND THIS MAY HAVE BEEN THE CAUSE when something ran in front of the bike. Whatever the cause; when I got home and went to sit down I nearly screamed when I put all my weight on to my left hand. It was extremely painful, for a moment I thought I'd broken my wrist. The upshot was that I had to dig out one of the kids boxing bandages, strap it round my wrist and then try not to roll over, while asleep, in the bed. This was easier said than done and I was woken a number of times throughout the night. By the time morning arrived I was exhausted and I eventually fell asleep and slept until mid afternoon. I can't claim that I woke refreshed and tonight at work looks like being a very very long night indeed. I think I’m going to see whether I can book Thursday off as well as Friday. It’ll be a shame to lose £50.00 in overtime payments but it is Nat’s birthday and the last thing I want to do is go on holiday with an extremely painful wrist.

Listened to the All About Symbian and The Phones Show Chat podcasts in bed today and the good news is that the N8, a few little niggles aside, appears to be the best phone that Nokia has ever made and lives up to the hype. Steve Litchfield (AAS & TPSC) considers it to bed the best camera phone in the world bar none and capable of going head to head with many stand alone point and shoot cameras and even some lower end SLR’s. Now that’s praise indeed and I’m becoming more and more committed to the idea of buying one. This is, after all, the only the reason why I’ve done all of this overtime this weekend; that being said, however, given the news today about the coming increase in University fees I’d probably be best advised saving it towards those. How the F**k are Nat and Hannah ever going to be able to afford to go to University? I’d write to Clare Rayner for advice if it wasn’t for the sad fact that she passed away last night. Now there’s a woman who could look back on her life and say that she did indeed do an awful lot of good for an awful lot of people. RIP Clare Rayner, Humanist, Atheist and all round decent egg.
JDM returned to work tonight after recovering from his knee operation; proudly displaying his scars including before and after photos of said scars. They said I was crude when I did that so obviously rank hath its privileges. We had a ten minute buzz that lasted for forty five I love it when others can’t count and keep asking the same dumb questions and show utter disregard for the time. Best of all we’ve another meeting scheduled for tomorrow evening so Lord knows what we will’ll have to discuss at that one. No doubt Prash will ask his classic one o clock question and then immediately forget the answer. I’m sure he does it on purpose because I know he’s not that stupid. Fairs fair, they were loads of people available to field the workload while we were procrastinating!
WTF!!! When we were finished and had returned to our work stations I finally managed to get round to logging into twitter. I noticed I’d acquired a number of new followers (174 all told) and decided to check them out. Well knock me down with a feather, one turned out to be famous writer, journalist and atheist Christopher Hitchins's, yes the Hitch, and he’d followed me. So., of course, I immediately repaid the favour and followed him but HTF did he see my stuff? I’m going to have to up my game now, I’m not going to be able to Tweet any old bollocks if I’ve got a writer of his calibre looking over my shoulder. I should mention that while I wasn’t following his twitter stream I have his Slate articles as one of my Google Reader “thinkers” feeds. The F**king Hitch FM!!!
I’ve just seen the pictures of the young Afghani girl who had her nose and ears cut off by her husbands family (why can’t we have a decent religion like they do) with her new, temporary, prosthetic nose. This is what she will eventually look like when decadent godless western surgeons will reconstruct it for real… what a bunch of C**ts they must be for going against God’s will like that… Stoning is, obviously, too good for them don’t they know God wants men to hate and suppress women?
Well, never show C anything or she’ll end up showing everyone else. I made the “mistake” of showing her the Oddee site which compiles lists of weird things. Before I know it she’s ferreting about all over it finding interesting things I was saving for later. Naughty lady won’t show you anything else if you keep doing this. Only Joking! Bollocks I’ve still got a hundred words to go in order to reach 1,000. I’ll have to keep reading Twitter and Google Reader until I find something else to write about. Can’t keep talking about using waffle to fill the space that’s left because eventually that strategy will become tedious I mean I’m bored doing it now so Lord knows what you dear reader are feeling as you plough your way through this waiting for me to eventually say that I’ve made it to the point I wanted to reach and that there’s no longer any need for me to continue. Not quite there yet…Yeah!

Tuesday and Wednesday - Phone John, Occ Health Tel, Sore Throat, Occ Health Reschedule Friday, Shitty Day, No Sleep, Wed Am Bed, Swimming, Sailing

No much has happened over the last two days. Just after midnight I phoned work and spoke to JDM (mgn) re: my return and occupational health appointment. I explained that I was hoping to return, for at least one night, on Saturday but before then I had an appointment to see Lucy the Occ Health Nurse this morning. I explained that I still hadn't heard back from her to confirm this appointment and did JDM have her number so that I could check this morning. Luckily he had her number and I took it down. During this time I'd been feeling more and more unwell as my throat became increasingly painful and I continually coughed up a thick yukky mucus. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to go to the appointment and this, in part, was why I'd rang to get her number. Things got worse, I was unable to get any sleep and finally at 9:45 I gave up can called Lucy to explain why I wouldn't be able to make our meeting. Hearing my squeaky and croaky voice she thought this was best and we provisionally arranged to meet on Friday. I'm to call to confirm I'm fit and to arrange a time that day. I didn't really do anything much else for the rest of the day other than watch TV and drink too many beers in a vain, but enjoyable, attempt to ease the soreness of my throat. I stayed up after everyone else had gone to bed and eventually at 6:00 on Wednesday morning went to bed and slept until Noon*.

Shortly after I came downstairs Nat left to go swimming, with his pals, Hannah was almost inconsolable when she found out she couldn't accompany them, at Endeby Leisure Centre so we'll see him when we see him altough he can't be too late as his Scout Troop is going sailing this evening. I made Deb and Han and myself some salad sandwiches (it took me 30 minutes!) for lunch and now, because I used all the remaining bread, I'll have to pop to ASDA at some point to buy some more.

*When she got up Deb finally accepted the inevitable and phoned her work to report that she was sick and would be absent for today. While I've found this bug unpleasant it's hit her much harder and she's been feeling quite unwell for the last several days. In fact, as I was writing this she quietly crept upstairs and went back to bed where she's now fast asleep.