Monday, 30 November 2009

Thursday 26- Monday 30 of November

 

Thursday

At school to day we had English,Science,Geography,French,Math and Music and we went to a special practise room just 4 of us to practise the Hat Dance from Mexico. After school we had judo  Judo and it was kick assssss!!!!   

Friday

At school today I had: English,Math,ICT and DT  in which we are finishing off our light up key rings after school I went home and that's about it.  Now not in WINGDINGS after school I went home and that's about it. I also went to the Millfield school fair and won 4 cuddly toys

Saturday

Today instead of going to GW I stayed at home doing well nothing much went online went on some games watched TV but that's all.

Sunday

Oh what a day we won 2 rugby games out of 2 my good friend Jacob got MAM 

MAN OF THE MATCH we won the first one 27-0 and the second 21-7. After rugby I called an old friend Michal who like me is a GEEK.

Monday

Back to school I had Math,English,French,Science, and PE in which I scored my teams only goal yay me after school I had kick boxing and I saw Jacob and Brandon from rugby.

Sunday 29 Nov - Rugby, Machete, Andrew Marr, Harry Hill, Work

Home this A.M. to look after Han whilst Deb went to rugby with Nat. Vipers were playing Rugby Lions and apparently thrashed them. Deb says that Nat set up a number of the tries and Nat tells me that at one point in the game he ran half the field with the ball before being taken down. Proves my point, if you carry a machete they’re less likely to tackle you! Here' a picture of Nat's!

I tried to watch the Andrew Marr Show while looking after Han; not a chance, by 10am when it was due to finish I was running 20mins behind (I can freeze the programme) because for reasons unknown my 8 yr old daughter wanted all my attention….bloody kids!!

I eventually made it to bed at about 1pm hence the fact that I’m now at work and feel totally knackered. I watched some of Harry Hill’s TV Burp before leaving for work and honestly, BBC 3 gets more absurd by the day. HH was taking the P out of their new series “Young Butcher of the Year”… WTF!!!

Tonight’s been as frantic as the previous few, it’s now 23:53 and this is the first time since 8:30 that there haven’t been calls in queue. Some of the things that people ring about a t 11 pm are ridiculous; if an appointment was supposed to happen that morning and didn’t why would you wait until now to ring in about it. If I was expecting someone between 8-1 I’d be ringing shortly after 1pm not 10 hours later!

Saturday, 28 November 2009

Too Embrassed to wear a Bluetooth Headset? Then try the Bluetooth Butt-Plug

Snitch & Langford - The Bluetooth Buttplug from brianhogg on Vimeo.

Friday 27 Nov - New Glasses, Darkly Dreaming Mysickbones and Busy Busy Busy

Called into ASDA at 9am to see if my new glassses had arrived. Appalling service, not the assistants fault, only one member of staff on duty and I had to wait 20 minutes before I was attended to. My glasses were in and eventually I got home at 10:15 having arrived at ASDA at 9:00. Seem OK so far, going to try one pair tonight.

Today I had the weirdest of dreams, I don’t normally remember my dreams but on a scale of 1-10 this one was an 11. It involved, in no particular order, an iTrain (whatever that was, steam electric diesel? It seemed so clear at the time) which we (?) all kept going to see, the entire Army making a last ditch defence against persons (or things) unknown on the outskirts of the tiny Welsh village where I grew up, my new iPhone (I don’t have an iPhone) and US President Barack Obama on the iTrain licking my iPhone whilst pulling faces of delight as he did so, I don’t think it was sexual I think he just liked the phone.

When this, now fading – hence the lack of details, adventure ended I made my way Home via a bar that I can kind of still faintly visualise and which seemed of immense important, whilst I was there. Incidentally it was also choka block with famous people, none of whom I can now recall.
When I eventually arrived Home, I think I was in the bar a long time, I was confronted by my Wife and Kids who accused me of posting my Mother-in-Law a bottle of my piss. This, apparently, was accompanied by a note advising her to pour it through her nasty neighbour’s letter box. What they were hacked off about wasn’t my sending the piss but rather that someone who we knew socially had found out about it.
As I said, F**king Weird, but, in some ways, what was even stranger was that when I first woke;
1. I thought I was still in the dream because I thought the dream was reality and;
2. It stirred memories of similar vivid dreams I’ve had over the years and had almost forgotten about.
One of these dreams involved a very convoluted bus ride, I can sort of remember the various stops where I had to change buses, another involved an even more convoluted bicycle ride and a third (the strongest) a strong virtual false memory of jogging round the school grounds during lunchtime when I was in the sixth form (not true I was playing brag in the Common room during lunch) and jogging through the village and up to the top of the mountain in the evenings when I got home. Part of me is convinced that this really happened even though I’m “sure” it didn’t.
As I said previously, I’d almost forgotten these dreams but now I remember how vivid they seemed at the time and how, for years, I’ve never been totally sure whether the jogging memory was a dream or a real memory. It’s such a strong image that it’s difficult to believe it’s not a real memory, which it may be – I couldn’t, in all honestly, say definitely which it is.

It’s easy to see how people, with the right encouragement, can develop false memory syndrome. Remember how we were inundated with satanic abuse cases in the 1990’s (remember Cleveland anyone?); none of which turned out to be of any substance. Fathers accused of things they never did by daughters who had been encouraged to remember things that had never happened. Some families, it seems, never recovered.

Work – Busy, busy busy… we haven’t stopped tonight; I started at 8.30 and by 10.30 I’d taken over 30 calls. It’s now 00:54 and the calls are still coming thick and fast. They seem to be easing off slightly now, before there was a queue, but it’s still busier that it’s been all year up till now. Woprn new glasses tonight and not had any problems except for as little eye ache as my eyes adjusted to the new prescription.

Friday, 27 November 2009

Monday 23- Wednesday 25 of November

Monday
at school today we had RE,French,English,Science and PE in which we hockey after school I went to kickboxing where I demented several punch's and kikes to everyone.
Tuesday
On the way to school today I came off my bike badly spinning over my handlebars and twisting my ankle and bruising all of my shin at school we had PD,Fitness,History,Geography,Science and Drama and I got a commendation(yippee).
Wednesday
I went in the car because I could not cycle with yesterdays injury. At school we had English,Math,science,geography,French and History in which we did the Feudal System. after school I had Scouts where we made candles.

EA Update

I wasn't wrong; its now 00:18 and the pressures just begun to drop off. I haven't stopped taking closing calls since 11:00. The problem is that the message line over-rides everything so you get stuck listening to garbled messages whilst engineers can't contact you and so they leave even more garbled messages. I'd love to get my hands on the person who designed this new system and get them to use it for a night. Yet another example of something designed by someone who doesn't really understand what it is that the people they are designing for actually do!

Now That's A First
After we'd cleared the backlog I was expecting the overnight EA jobs to start hitting my terminal but this wasn't to be! For the first time ever, when I've done it anyway, we didn't issue a single EA from 1.30 until 7:00 when we finished for the night. I kept waiting for a late one to arrive just before close of play but it never came. It'll probably be another five years before that happens again.

Thursday, 26 November 2009

Thursday 26 Nov - Sleep and Work

Slept allnight down stairs on sofa then went to bed at 7am whne Deb got up. Stayed in bed untill 6pm listening to podcasts and napping.
Corrected Nats blog entry re mix up in use of where and were and had to shout at Han, again, when she gavces us the silences. As always she started crying which only further fuels my annoyance, what is it with her and I?

Work tonight, as I guessed I've be put on EA so 11pm to 1am's going to be hectic.

Wednesday, 25 November 2009

Tuesday 24 Nov - Bicycle Boy, Governors Meeting and Meal

Yesterday morning Nat had an accident on his bike on the way to school. Ran into the back of Henri's bike and went over the handle bars. He called Deb who put the bike in the car and drove him the rest of the way. He managed to complete the day but looked quite drained when he got home, apparently he'd hurt his leg when he came off and it had been painful all day.

He Deb and Han left as soon as he was home to visit Deb's Mum and Dad in Redditch prior to Han's birthday. I stayed home as I had a Governors meeting in the evening.

The Governors meeting was supposed to be fairly brief as we were going out for our annual Xmas meal afterward. However there was one very important issue to be discussed which was the proposed closure of Holmfield Primary School. This is one of the five Primary schools in our area and it's closure is likely to have significant knock on effects to Millfield and the other three schools. It was agreed that we would oppose this decision and that as a first response a letter would be sent expressing our concern that this decision was being made on the basis of a 2 day Ofsted inspection carried out by a single inspector.

Afterward we went for a meal at the leftbank restaurant on Braunstone Gate.



Tracy gave Via and I a lift there and Carl drove us home at the end. The food was excellent and they were doing a special offer were you only paid for every other main course, so the overall price was very reasonable. I had home mad chicken liver and pork pate with Melba toast as a a starter and followed this with a Leak and Brie dish. While it was extremely nice I think next time I'll go with my first choice which was going to be the lamb. The only downside was the price of the beer. I bought  a pint of Heineken Export for myself and a pint of Budweiser for Carl and this came to £6.50!!!
The company was excellent and the conversation mixed and varied, I had a super evening. Maybe I'll bite the bad leg bullet and change my mind about missing our team's Xmas outing this year. Eventually arrives Home at about 10:45 where Han was in bed awake waiting for me to get home, so she could tell me about the huge purple parcel she's brought home from Redditch, whereas my injured little soldier was fast asleep. Stayed up to watch some TV, none of which I can recall, before falling asleep on the Sofa.
All in all not a bad day and far more active than is normal for me these days.

Monday, 23 November 2009

Nat's Blog – Nov 12 to Nov 21

Thursday
Today I cycled to school again with Alfie. At school it was a normal day but we finished the Battle of Hastings in History. After school Brandon came round we looked at his new Empire codex.
After that we went to judo where an official came to the club to see how it was doing.
That's all Nat.

Friday
Today I cycled to school again. At school we had humiliation Friday were (where)because Alfie got a C3 he had to sing telly tubes backwards and that was funny. Then we had tech were (where)we are making light up key rings. After school I went round Jonathan's house to watch Austin powers 1 it was great
now I must leave you Nat

Sunday

Today I went to rugby  were (where) it was as normal until I scored a try which is worth 5 points, after that we went home to a roast dinner and then watch Dr who “water on Mars”
and that was about it Nat

Monday
 Today I went to school and as normal it was a normal day yep it was normal very norrrrrrrrrrrrrrmal day but after school I had kick boxing were (where) I had to show people how to do certain things like frog hoping and punching
and that's it Nat

Tuesday

Today I cycled to school again and again not much happened but on the way home Henri and I were attacked and had stones thrown at us so we went back to school and we both wrote statements so their now in BIG trouble
and that's that Nat

Wednesday

Today I went to school in the car I went with Henri at school we had one more Wednesday like the one before and the one before that. I was taken home by Dave. Later on I went to scouts were (where) we made candles and played with Jacob's I pod touch and it had an app with weapons like a knife and an Uzi and an AK.

Thursday

Went to school on my bike when I got to school we had normal Thursday lessons but after school I went to Judo and kicked butt because I had an M 16 so relay (really / rarely?)was I ever going to be beaten at all
well would I.

Friday

Today because of some of the boys have miss behaved we had a lecture on good behavior then we had tech and we have all most finished our light up key rings.
I got 2 commendations in drama after school I had a relaxing afternoon with the TV and finally I watched Children in need.

Saturday

Today I got up around 8 and went down stairs to watch TV in the afternoon I went to help raise money for scouts we must of made a killing in thee 2 hours I was there and when I got home I watched some TV for about 2 hours then went on my pc.

Monday 23 Nov - Star Trek DVD, Sleep, Podcast Feed, Governors Meeting, Nats Blog

Went to bed yesterday at 6 PM awoke finally at 5:30 AM this morning, I actually got a full nights sleep and boy can I feel the difference. Before I went up the stairs to Bedfordshire we watched the DVD of the latest Star Trek film and it was as good as I remember it being at the cinema, let's hope that they make another. However, I kept expecting young Mr Spook to start pointing his finger at the heads of anyone who pissed him off and to start seeing their foreheads start to bleed (Heroes Villan ref here - it's the same actor who plays Sylar the psychotic brain eater)



I've just added a feed from Podcast.com to the blog so now I can listen to my favourite podcasts within the blog. It's down on the right for anyone who's interested.
There's a Governor's meeting tomorrow night, followed by our Xmas meal, so I've got a pile of papers that I'm going to have to work my way through sometime today.
I'm still waiting for Nat to input his blog entries, he says he written them on his PC but can't get this blog to open on his machine....another job for Daddy!

Saturday, 21 November 2009

Hannah's Blog

friday

          this morning I got up as usual and got dressed for school.I eat my  cereal 
(coco pops) and went to school. At school it was non scool uniform because it was children in need and you got to bring your teddies to.  

Made It Too Work

Well I'm here, feeling knackered but not as much as before. Deb's out at a works meal so Donna was nice enough to give me a lift to work. Left the kids watching children in need, which seems to come round every couple of months.

Friday, 20 November 2009

Friday 20 Nov- Anniversary, Work tonight,

Today is Deb and my 28th Wedding Anniversary and we both forgot. If it wasn't on my phone as an annual reminder the chances are neither of us would have remembered. That's what having kids does to you, you forget about everything else because the little sods overwhelm your brain with noise.
Had last two nights off as holiday because I've been too tied to make it through the shift. managed to get some sleep on the sofa last night and I'm off to bed now so hopefully I'll drop off and be able to go in tonight. I feel in a state of constant exhaustion but I can't keep using up holiday like this! Role on the operation maybe I can then have some kind of life.

Monday, 16 November 2009

Friday13 - Friday 20

Friday 13
I kept being attacked by some psycho in a hockey mask wielding a bloody great knife.


Luckily I have a black belt in Llap-Goch 
(The Welsh art of self-defence that is based on just two simple principles;

1. Attack is the best form of defence
2. Surprise is the best form of attack

Therefore the perfect technique is to attack your attacker before he attacks you, or better still before the thought of attacking you has occurred to him.).


By utilizing these two techniques I was easily able to defeat my opponent before he’d even drawn his knife, or in fact I left him looking like 6 tins of cat food before he’d even had a chance to don his hockey mask and overalls! I’m sure many others would have been fooled by his cunning disguise and would have truly believed that he was just an innocent traffic warden issuing a ticket. Unfortunately for him this time he picked the wrong car and as a Master my training immediately enabled me to penetrate his cunning deception and take the appropriate action before it was too late. Its weird, this keep happening and for some reason it’s always on a Friday!
After I had disposed of the remains

I went to work.

Sat 14 – Film Night
Me to bed, Nat to the Games workshop, Han to Ballet, Deb goes shopping, Deb bought the DVD of Night at the Museum 2.


We all watched it that evening (I want to go to the Smithsonian) after which Nat and I started to watch Watchmen (for some reason Deb absolutely hates this film) and which we were going to turn off when Deb came back into the room. However she plonked herself on the PC then beat a retreat to an early bed so we didn’t get the chance.

Sun 15 – Rugby, Allotment and Wine

Sunday morning and it’s another early morning rugby match day at the Leicester Vipers. I can’t recall who it was that they played but the Nat’s side lost the first match. His team just can’t ever seem to get it together in the first match. They two teams played a second shortened match and right at the last minute Nat smashed his way through to score a try in the corner. You should have seen the look of pride on his face and the smile as his team mates congratulated him.


After the match we stopped at the allotment to try to clear it ready for winter. We took down the bean sticks and pulled up some veg that that gone passed it’s best. Now we need to arrange for a delivery of manure which we can be spread on the plot and left over the winter. That’s one for next week hopefully. Home for dinner, I got the potatoes and parsnips prepared and into the oven whilst Deb popped to Asda for a few things, including, because for some reason I’d had a craving for some for days, the first bottle of Liebfraumilch we’ve bought in years. Chilled the wine and had a glass with lunch it was a nice as I remembered it to be. I don’t know why, I hate sweet French wines but love sweet German ones.

Mon 16 – Opticians, Frozen Cars and Edward Woodward

I had an appointment to see the optician at Asda today. It’s been two years since I’ve had an eye test and I think my prescription needs adjusting, aside from which I’m tired of wearing glasses with sello-tape on the right arm. As I suspected there had been small changes and I got a new prescription (remember to take the receipt into work). I didn’t choose any new glasses as I can’t see what the frames look like without my glasses on so I said I’d come back with the family later in the week.

I returned Home sat and supped and generally felt sorry for myself. That’s the trouble with chronic pain it eventually wears you down to a point where you’re just apathetic. I don’t feel like I’ve actually done anything, on my own initiative, for months. About 2:45 I got an urgent call from Deb saying that the car was frozen. Apparently the batteries in the electronic key had gone flat and when she’d tried to start the car everything had locked up. She needed me to get the spares to her. It appeared she had already called Donna, who was picking up Nat and Sian from school, who was going to drop off the kids at our place, Han was already at Donna’s house, with Josh, having been collected from school by Jonathon. Donna arrived at about 3:40 and we were on the clock because she had an important appointment herself at 4:30 that she couldn’t miss. We made it by the skin of our teeth, got the car started, got Donna home before 4:30 and made it home. Nat went to kick boxing at 6:15 and Han went to Cubs. Sad news on tonight’s news, the actor Edward Woodward has passed away, I was always a fan, I don’t think I ever saw him in anything I didn’t enjoy.

Tues 17 - Brockington Bullies
Yet another night with little or no sleep. The hot water bottle sprung a leak and nearly scalded me. Had to chuck it in the bin and make do with putting the microwave bear between my knees. I’m afraid MB didn’t stay hot for very long and so proved to be something of a dud when it came to pain relief. We got an urgent call from Nat at about 3:30 that afternoon, it seems he and Henri had been cycling home when they were once again confronted by the lads they’d had problems with at the beginning of term. Words were exchanged, threats were made and stones were thrown. Nat and Henri had gone back to the school car park before Nat phoned us. Deb, Han and I piled into the car and headed for Enderby. We met the lads in the car park then went to reception to report what had happened. The school had better sort this out once and for all, my Son is NOT getting bullied, I went through for years and it scared me for life, and it’s not going to happen to Nat. I will have no compunction about ruining those other kids’ lives if I have too. We left the kids’ bikes at school and drove Henri home. Briefed his Dad about what had happened. Hopefully, after the debacle with Sian, Henri and the bike incident the other week, this time he and Maxine won’t go off half cocked. After dropping Henri off we dropped Nat at home before Deb, Han and I went to choose me some spectacles. It took them about 45 minutes to make my choices. I ended up ordering two pairs with veri-focal photo-reactive lens. Total cost £240! They should be ready in about 10 days.

Wed 18 / Thurs 19 – Sleepy Hols
Shattered from lack of sleep, went into work but once on site I booked a night’s holiday and Deb came and picked me up. I felt sick from lack of sleep. Spent the night down stairs on the settee and went to bed in the morning after everyone had gone. Yet again I didn’t manage to get much in the way of sleep so I called work and booked yet another day’s holiday.

Friday 20
Got a few hours sleep on the settee then went to bed around 10:30. Decided to listen to podcasts as this usually helps me to drift off, listened to the All About Symbian podcast first where I discovered that there was a new version of Google mobile apps available for my mobile which now included voice search. Downloaded and installed over the home wireless network. Fantastic, unlike Yahoo’s attempt at the same thing last year this actually works. Afterward I listened to Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History episodes 27/28/29 on the war on the Eastern Front during WW2. His cast were as excellent as ever and I’m looking forward to listening to number 30 in bed tomorrow.

Deb was out tonight; after all it’s only our wedding anniversary, at a works do so Donna kindly took me to work. It’s been very busy tonight and at times I’ve really had to fight the tiredness, around 1:00 AM I thought I was going to heave I was suddenly so exhausted. At the moment it seems as if I’ve managed to tough it out. Hoping Dan puts me to sleep this morning, its OK Dan I’ll listen to it again another day, so that I’m less sleepy on Saturday night.

Saturday, 14 November 2009

Shattered Absolutely Shattered

I't's 07:15am and I#ve just finished doing manuals over night whilst helping Julie B on EA. We haven't stopped since 11:00 PM when we took over. I was so short tempered by 4:00 pm that I swore at Prash when he was winding me up ( I did apologise later) and that's not like me.....At All. My legs hurting big time but even worse is the fact that my neck's as stiff as a broard because of the odd posiyions I've been in in bed trying to sleep. I'm thinking of calling into a Lloyds Pharmacy and buying one of the TENS machines they've currently got on special offr. Perhaps that would help relieve the pain?
Must try to get some sleep today whilst nat's in Town at the Games workshop and Deb and Han are at ballet.

Friday, 13 November 2009

wed 11 nov


Wednesday


Today I cycled to school with Alfie. It was a pretty boring day, after school I went to Scouts and lit a bonfire but it didn't light because the leaders helped everyone else then they burnt the kindling ( the b@**%$£&^$@). after I got home I watched the Family, then I went to bed.
By Nat.

Shakespear - Bill Bryson - Much Ado About Something

I bought this book from Waterstone's in January 2008 and I've only just got round to starting to read it (I bought it with the book tokens Deb's Parents sent me for Xmas 2007). The daft thing is that I've not really started reading it,actually I've started to dip into it whenever I go for my dinner break at work.

I rarely spend more than 5 minutes with it (I'm busy microwaving) but somehow I've still managed to read the first 80 pages or so already. It's remained in my rucksack at all other times.

The truth of the matter is that like ALL his other books this one just slips across your eyes and into your brain in the same way that a brick doesn't**. There's something utterly seductive about Bryson's style of writing; it draws you in and before you know it you've consumed great chunks of it. This latest work shares these qualities in full measure; I recommend it highly!

I'm looking forward to reading the rest but only at lunch lest it vanish in a flash. This way I can savor it for a little longer.


**Yes I fully acknowledge I nicked that metaphor lock stock and barrel from the late Douglas Adams.

Thursday, 12 November 2009

Thursday 12 Nov - Back to Work

By lord it's busy tonight, haven't stopped since 20:30. There are a few people missing from the team because of sickness so I'm glad I bit the bullet and came in tonight. After all, every little helps.