OK, I'm bored, want to go back to work now

This is why I don't normally book leave unless there's something specific going on. There comes a point where it's just not fun any more, things around the place need doing, but could use some company here to get me motivated to start - company's far away. Went out for a drive this morning to shake the cobwebs off; down to Waddington (nothing much happening, just a single E-3 arrived as I did, then a Be-200 from Cranwell, I'm not getting out of the car for one of those damned things). Then off to Coningsby for an hour or so's entertainment, lots of shiney new Typhoon's doing their thing, and some not so shiney but very nice Jaguars. As the last wave left, the light was starting to go so I headed back.

Came back to find the little moron just where I left him, sat beside the fireplace faithfully stairing at the video cupboard, which is where I know for a fact the mouse he let go the other day is hiding. I've shone a torch down the back of the thing, and I can see it but I'm not unloading a cupboard full of dvd's, stereo, cd's and booze just so that little bastard can escape. I'm not catching mice, I employ a cat for that task.

A scene of carnage in the house at the moment, and not just cat and mouse related. It's a long standing joke of FLoH that I've been up in my loft a hundred times clearing it out, and it always has more that needs doing to it. Well, at the moment I'm running on the motivation of getting the hell out of this town, so things are coming down that have been jammed up in far corners for ever. A massive disposal massacre is happening. I intend to be ready to move by April, that's all rubbish sold or binned, all rooms redecorated completely. To be honest, I'm too lazy to run a house solo. It's more than I need. What'd be perfect for me would be a two bed flat, ground floor or even basement. That'd be just the job. Going to get this damned place sorted out then see what I can find.

A better one

No complaints today. Went for a drive to meet an old friend for lunch; duly met my old friend (ain't that old) for lunch, I always eat well when dinner with her's on the agenda. Perfect Jacket Potato with Tuna mayo (how difficult is that, you say... amazing how many places screw it up); Bluberry tart for afters then scuttled next door to the pub for a quick pint. That's a very nice lunchtime, even if it was a bit of a drive to achieve it; life feels a bit better now.

Got back here, the Himbo cat is crashed out on the bed, no sign of a corpsed mouse anywhere. Kind of got a bit of a gap at the end of the day now, which I'd normally fill with nonsense but I feel I aught to do something constructive. Don't have a clue what that might be at this moment.

Muppet

I'd just like to say, my cat's a moron.

Comes in while I'm upstairs on the computer; yowling excitedly (how do they do that with their mouths full...). Wandered up to the stairs to see what he's up to, he's punching something around the hall, and into my slippers by the front door. He then concentrates so much on what I'm doing upstairs that he completely fails to notice the mouse make it's escape past him into the lounge right in front of his nose. And stares puzzled at the empty slipper and the corner the mouse was in for five minutes while I attempt to point out the error of his ways.

Put too much effort into looking cute I think.

What kind of f*ckwit does something like this????

LINKY

Mighty cider

So - off I scuttled on my little Southern oddessy; many parts of the plan would end up flushed, leaving a very sawn off schedule remaining but it was very enjoyable anyway. Popped down to see my mate Ellie and meet her new fella, who doesn't trip off any of my very highly tuned "instant arsehole" sixth sense detectors, so there's a nice change there; good conversation ensues, plus houseplant management tips. Her folks were down too though; lovely as they are (and they are), it kind of scuppered Plan A which involved taking a drinky or two on board and kipping on the sofa, so when the appropriate time came, I scuttled off down the motorway for a certain distance before I found an appropriate service station with a Days Inn hotel attached to it that - being almost an honorary Yorkshireman, I took one look at, pursed my lips, zipped up my wallet tight and slept in the car instead.

A grim night... woke several times to gale force winds battering the car, and to clouds of driving rain like I remember Oban, on the west Scottish coast when I went there as a kid in the late seventies. Still managed to get more sleep in a reclined driving seat than I have in my bed all week, which can't be bad. Up with the larks... well, would be if it weren't for the fact that they're an endangered species now - how did that happen; into the services for a large Latte coffee for breakfast served to me by an entirely Eastern European staff (it's true you know, I'd read about the changing service industry demographic but I'd never believed it) and hit the road again.

Here's where more plans change. Bren, who I'd intended to catch up with again was out of the country; Simone's wasn't taking visitors due to the aftermath of a drinks bender the night previously and the Mosquito Aircraft Museum at Colney was closed for the winter, so I headed to Surrey earlier than I intended. Got onto the M25 from the M40 at just short of five to ten. It struck me that for the first time in an age I was driving without pressure and that was a nice suprise. Just bimbling along at a happy sixty miles per hours, and for once going somewhere without a specific deadline on a nice morning, no requirement to drive like a bat out of hell, no stress, no grinding at other motorists and it suddenly struck me just how different and refreshing that felt.

Feelings about being back in the south of england were complicated and a little ambigous... it's crowded and complicated and I can't make head nor tail of the maps, but I love the cosmopolitan nature of it. At the same time I bought the Saturday paper, discovered I'd gotten the London suppliments, not the northern editions and found myself somehow disappointed. Maybe a weeks leave in London is in order so I can learn to hate it properly again. Chewed over the news. Litvinenko. I feel sorry for the guy. In a lot of ways he was an open class obsessive and a prime fuckwit, but he was clearly into something with his work or he wouldn't have been deemed worth killing. Just a shame that Joe public isn't capable of pronouncing his surname, otherwise we might turn him into a folk hero just for the hell of it.

Farnham. A nice town. Just nipped in for a cashpoint, but as they had a Waitrose, on a whim I popped in, hoping to find a box of those Sammy's couscous cuppasoups that I used to get in the Harrogate one. No joy , maybe they're no longer produced 'coz it was only myself and FLoH who ever bought them, but it doesn't matter as I seem to have gone slightly whoopy in there anyway. I often do. I seem to view some quality grocery stores as other men view electrical gadget shops, a bit daft but that's the boy in me; as I used to be unsafe to be allowed in a shooting supplies shop with my own credit card, now you can't let me loose in a good farmshop or quality off license. Another Traminer to try, which no doubt being a Waitrose will be very nice, even if it does have a screw cap. And it's a pound cheaper than ASDA's equivalent, go figure. What was also slightly concerning was that they do Bison Vodka four quid cheaper than BeerRitz. Now, that's annoying. Anyway, Farnham's lovely. A bit like Harrogate but a little less developed. It's full of nice people, nice well dressed well behaved children and most importantly, no Codheads in sight. Of course, the only problem is that I can't even afford a garden shed down there, so that's that little idea scuppered. Never mind. Nice place anyway.

Eventually got to my final destination, the hospitable home of my good bud and one third of QBMCC, Ginger Chris and his lovely partner Sally; a quick trip to the bathroom to freshen up from the journey, and it's up to the award winning Crossways pub for a few quality bevvies and tasty butchers burger and chips for lunch, prior to wandering back to have a few more tasty beers in front of the Rugby, to which I can only say Wales, "oh dear". And digressing for just a moment, I see my lot, Harrogate were stuffed too. "Oh dear". Never mind, the plan for the evening has curry stains on it, and after a short stop off for myself and Chris to change into special evening shirts (!!!!), and for Sal to make us walk twenty yards behind her, we wandered off to the vindahouse for just the right balance of main course, bread, veggie dishes to fill without bloating and leaving no room for pub entertainment. Having had curry, heavy beer wasn't the order of the day so we attacked the Biddenden's cider with the appropriate balance of enthusiasm for it, and respect for it's well known devious spirit and sheer lunacy. Devious in that you'll glug quite a lot of it in the mistaken belief that it's nice and light and tasty, then discover your legs stopped working a pint ago. Wobbled back to base for nightcaps of the naughty schnappes I'd brought with me - who says I never bring anything to the party.

A gentle sort of day follows; a certain amount of respect has to be given to the god of hangovers, but as we debated, we're not getting any younger, we don't hit the pubs like lunatic teens and we know when to stop. Generally, when we pass out. Once again, I'm accused of breaking Chris; once again I'd better plead guilty to that. It has to be said, whenever we get together it tends to be a big one, but a nice one. A perfect weekend of a nice gentle boozy Saturday and a rare lazy Sunday with bloody good mates. Spot on.

Eventually, in the late afternoon I leave Surrey and head north for what the computer says should be a fast four hour drive up the M25 to parts northern; unfortunately, it fails to factor in... and in fact, how can it... the long hold up caused by an eight car accident somewhere in Buckinghamshire. Never mind. It's been a bloody good weekend; I feel generally positive about life in general and the things I have to do, the question is, how long will it last when I get back to Grim?

Shaves, nonsense and sociability

It went. No beard for me. No requests to the contrary, so I attached a blade and did what had to be done, the right decision I feel as I felt a damned sight more human this morning. Not for long though, the ever popular four hour sleep did me no favors once again.

A bit of luck though the fuzzy headedness though... through clever manipulation of the rosters, and the fact that we're all well over where we should be in the hours we've worked this year, my team have managed to blag not having to come into work for the next six days, without having to use any leave. Yay! Funky goodness. All I need to do is plan clever things to do with this time that don't cost a lot.

Unlike what I'm about to do, which is to drive down south to see a bunch of friends and drink lots and lots of beer. Yay! You know it makes sense! Well, I do anyway.

Oh, and well spotted. I've worked out how to make the title bar work. That's my achievement for the week.

Hair

So does it stay or does it go? A week of beard growing and it's getting to D day. To go hairy for the winter season, or to brave the blade and go back to a sensible shaved way.

The back end of the energy crisis

Seem to have caught up with a bit of sleep this afternoon, got back from the fun factory, had some munchies, sat down on the sofa and when I woke up it was four hours later. No point being awake anyway to be honest, it's a quiet one again. Went to Hull for a seminar today, only a quick one, but the best hours' sleep I've had in ages! Actually, no, seriously, I didn't but I was tired enough too... the subject matter was dry and I was exhausted. Turned out I knew the trainer, hadn't seen him in years... from the works bike group in 2003... but I'm sure I had full "who the f*ck are you mode" all over me when he greeted me by name when I walked in heheheh. Clearly a better memory for faces than mine.

Had a little clearout on the icq front this evening; killed off a few contacts that haven't lit up in ages. It's funny but depressingly not suprising as to how things have been, dropped out of the F group and if not actually a social pariah, certainly dropped off the map of people I hoped were better. It's a shame and to be honest I do miss it - it's another chunk missing from my life that's not been replaced but for obvious reasons I can't go back. Still, those that keep me on know who they are and are damned well valued.

Something going right? Good god!

Quietly satisfied with the day so far; small achievements but all a bit of an up. Got a few things addressed at the fun factory that needed doing, and a few things sorted out that have been hanging far too long. Also managed to sort out my misbehaving dvd recorder after months and months and months, so it's all to the good really. Let's see if I can keep this positive vibe going for an hour or two more. For the followers and fans of the feline chap, he's currently slobbed out under a hot radiator after clearly having had a tiring day heatbathing while someone else does all the work. Good. I'll just kill the mice myself, shall I.

Driving about, more north than usual

So where are we at? I dunno! A barely legal quick turn around shift at work, leaves me short of sleep and none too pleased; bad dreams in the night didn't help matters much. But in work at the weekend I was anyway; the reason for being there cancelled, but it was too late to cancel us. Damn. Friday, erm, coulda gone better!! Had several cunning plans to meet up with real living friends for meals and chats, all of them went to hell in a handbasket, even did a 170 mile round trip to see a mate in Leeds before the cancelation notice was received. Wasn't best pleased, but god knows I'm bad enough company when I'm knackered so it's filed as "one of those things, no grouch held". Couldn't find my way to the NRM in York in time, so that's one for a future weekend, but on the way there was delighted by a spectacular sunset, and I had the bigcam on me; stopping and taking pics just had to be done. Things like THIS are just one of the reasons I want to get myself moved to Yorkie as soon I can. You just don't get wow factor like this in Codland.

Overstretch

Well, it's an unplanned day off. Got a chunk of stuff done; did proper cooking for dinner, that overstretched and cost me my shooting time this evening. Have to confess though, busy or not, I'm sitting here very bored. It's all a bit rudderless at the moment; the structure of life is missing entirely. Maybe it's because I've been in company for a day or so, it's always a bit weird after coming back from that. At least, that's my excuse.

Beer II

Did anybody get the number of that enormous truck full of Adnams Broadside that ran over my head on Monday evening? Think the driver threw a couple of bottles of red wine at me as well. I'd just like to say that it wasn't me that was standing up in the back of Kev's convertable at three am waving to strangers as System of a Down was played very loudly. That was the evil clone. I was at home drinking Whorelicks and reading fine literature by that stage.

Anyway. I'm alive and I'm back. No apologies or big eyes needed, Jules... I've spent weeks trying to forget the damned thing myself! Back to the happy home, where they've changed my weekend shifts, in that they've called me in and given me more days off in the week. That'd be nice if they'd phone me to let me know so I can actually arrange stuff. As it is, I'm stymied. At least I got to work "gentleman's hours" as I was on a course today. That's more like it.

Beer.

Righto, I'm off down south to drink an enormous amount of belated birthday beer with friends.

If I should die tonight, think only this of me....

"Who WAS that fat bastard?????"

(snigger)

Night time insanity

Spamming marketting b*stards have even gotten their way onto here now. Is anybody actually stupid enough to sign up to these "money making opportunities" that get posted as comments on here? I guess they do, and they're probably American. Time to go back to eastern europe where you can go for a leak without some bastard nailing a poster at eye level in front of you, unlike this mall of a country. Gah!

Well, the shift was... interesting....! Went out on an observation again; nothing specific but always worth a go. At about half ten, got a shout from the guys in the hide that there was something we aught to go and have a closer look at, so the intercept cars took off at amazin' speed through a certain coastal village in Eastern England to do so... flashed past a couple of police cars as we did so, now we hadn't told the local plod we were working the area as we normally do as it was an ad hoc obs ("stay where you are you f*ckers....... perleeeeeeeeese, no blue lights, no blue lights"); very real chance of a "blue on blue" which would screw up the whole evening. Got close to the interest, so killed the lights and drove on darkened, popped down a single track muddy lane beside what we wanted to look at to be slightly less obvious; long story short, was suddenly overtaken by a pair of fast moving heels belonging to someone of obviously nefarious intent, blue lights opened up behind us on a plod car that was clearly chasing said nerk, so I gunned the motor to get out of their way - must have scared the shite out of the crim (mwahahahahahah), a darkend car rushing up behind him at speed behind him and breathing down his heels - he ditched something in the bushes and leapt into an eight foot deep ditch to escape, which if you know your ditches, he must have needed his bloody head examining, what with metal poles, bits of fences, barbed wire and all the nasty crap that goes under the murky water level. Got to the end of the lane and pulled over; warrant cards produced, jovial relations with local plod as we got the flashlights out and attempted to find what turned out to be a thief who'd nicked a motorcycle locally and was doing a pretty good job of making his escape down to the sea wall where he couldn't be followed until he encounted our trailing car at speed and crashed the bike avoiding it.

Well, as a biker, I'd call that a fairly decent night's work. Didn't catch the scrote - with a bit of luck he's impaled himself on something nasty - but at least we absolutely buggered his plan for world domination and somebody's getting their bike back. High speed jinks and lots of blue lights knackered our low profile work, so we went home but it's a tale for the pub anyway.

Up to parts north and not achieving much

The unbearable quietness of being? Well, it's Friday and it's a day of peace until I have to be at the fun factory at eight tonight for the ever popular night shift. We were supposed to be doing something specifically nefarious, but that's been scrubbed so it'll be any old nonsense they can fill our time with instead. Joy of joys. I shall catch up on some reading and a bit of that self education malarky.

A pleasant if unproductive day on Wednesday... went up north for jollies; had company with a good mate, then off to see my cousin. That was the plan anyway; as per usual these things get shredded and flushed. Cousin turned out to be in Newcastle after all, and some of the folks I planned to see just weren't around. Hey ho. Plus the fast jets I planned to photograph weren't coming out to play. A pleasant time had anyway, a bad day in the north country beats the pants off an average day here. My folks can't understand why, with things the way they are, I still plan to move further North. York'll do for starters. It's becuase it's better up there, muppets!!!

So for today....? Domestic chores. What chores? Large Brandy. Thank you. Lots of stuff to do, plus the computer chair has gone phhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhst in a fairly big way; gas pillar seems to have given up the ghost so I must wander over to see if these things can be fixed or replaced, or if I have to spend another hundred and lots on a new one (yeah right, Ikea'll get a quick purchase for cheapo cash this time).

Ignoring birthday wisdom

Conventional wisdom is that you shouldn't go out on your own on your birthday, and you certainly shouldn't drink alone. Well, conventional wisdom can go and shove it's head up it's arse. All drinking buddies are at least a hundred miles away so there's really no alternative. This is just too quiet to be acceptable. Admittedly life is a hundred percent worse than it was this time last year, and some of the things that made it acceptable, nay special aren't around any more. And big thanks to all who remembered, love ya all! But I'm going to the pub!

Got the bike running though. Would have been nice to have gotten the thing on the road today, but didn't do it in time to get mobile and see folks. Never mind, there's always tomorrow. Got a few days off prior to working the weekend, so might as well put them to good use.

Gay fireworks, stretchy necked dictators

Well, it might be that the last time I saw fireworks was in Slovenia; in a natural amphitheatre of mountain, lake and granite cliff with acoustics that really help. It might be that those fireworks didn't have to make British Standard and the acoustics in Lincolnshire just ain't the same. But I have to say, the firework display was; and in no way being prejudicial to those with different preferences to mine.... ; gay as f*ck.

Phut, phut, pop, sparkle, hear the codheads go "oooooooooooh". Parking was rubbish, had to park half a mile away and walk in, which is not especially advisable for me at the moment. Small consolation was bumping into a lass I know around here who works for the same firm who was watching the bangers with her kid. Quick hello and then off, but nice to have a little contact with a real human being for a change. The show phutted and spluttered into conclusion and I made a quick dash before the crowd got the same idea; somehow didn't get arrested by the vast amounts of police present... didn't strike me 'til I'd gotten there that the four cell maglite I was carrying for light at the fireworks just isn't the sort of thing you carry openly in this overnanny'd country. A bit coshlike for the sensibilities of the average plod, being that it's made of aluminium and designed for security use. Just happend that it was giving better light than my shorter one so I had half the grip concealed in the sleeve of my coat when I realised my mistake! I wonder if I've still got that old works radio holster in my loft, I could use that to bodge a slightly more subtle means of carrying it than the belt loop I've got.

Morning's been passing slowly, not a lot going on so it's a chores day. Getting on with the VHS/DVD conversion while doing laundry, and occaisional breaks for blog entries and news browsing!

Mind you, I'd rather have my sort of day than Saddam Hussain's sort of day. To paraphrase Robbie, "Swing coz you're not winning". Try as I might, and fully being in accordance with the fact that the guy's a monster and deserves everything he gets; I can't get my head around this kind of pre-ordained result, driven by the Americans as having anything to do with any concept of actual Justice; and more than I can associate the showtrials at Nuremburg at the end of the Second World War with justice. Show trials they were, show trial his was too. It's always the same, the Americans roll in, some form of legal revenge has to be seen to be done for the domestic audience and to step on those you've conquered. Not the same when their guys go off the rails though. Lt. Calley, did about a year for the Mai Lai massacre. The soldiers that killed Terry Lloyd, any chance of any prosecution there ? Or for that matter the British government having the balls to demand any? Nope, don't see that happening. What about those fighter pilots who splashed a friendly helicopter in 91 and killed thirty senior people, while the commander of the AWAC that was supposed to be controlling the engagement was having a nice chat and coffee with the pilot of his plane? What about the Airbus, Iran Air 655? Only 290 innocent dead there. They're the bullies of the world. Monster or not, and I'm glad he's going to swing, the Saddam trial's got as much to do with actual justice as a speed camera. I look forward to the Bush and Blair trial. But I'll not hold my breath.

I need to have a serious word with Hull CAMRA...

Well, that was less successful than planned.

Caught the train to Hull, or at least the train to Barton, where you have to catch a bus. Which we saw pulling out and leaving as the train pulled in two minutes late. Bastard. That's one letter of complaint going off. One hour later another bus turned up, wandered into Hull, tracked down where the beer festival was located. To discover a notice on the door saying "sold out", or to put it another way "run out of beer". Bastards. That's an afternoon which has fairly massively not gone according to plan.

It struck me on the way back - in fact the thing that reminded me was fireworks blowing over the night skyline of Lincolnshire which I saw en mass last November - that this time last year it was all a bit more sociable. Alien Kev was over, as was FLoH, BGA and TB. A jolly night had until I blew my stack at a triviality, and even then I *think* that was forgiven after I apologized for being a stressy twat. Hey ho. Things change, life changes, not always for the better and this time around the birthday build up's solo. A bit like 2004 really. And 2003 now I come to think about it. Hey ho. Time to go watch fireworks blow up.

Lazy

Lazy Saturday. With my radiation shift getting cancelled on Monday, I've taken the opportunity to take the day off, combined with midweek rest days that's a nice spell of not working I've got ahead. A nice day today for doing stuff, and therefore nothing at all. Think I'll wander into Hull by train later for the lunchtime session at the beer festival, then back to Grim in time for the fireworks which I've discovered take place at Waltham Windmill. This could be an expensive day travel wise and booze wise, but this weekend, it's worth it.

And a small celebration. The good news is, that according to the heart doc's, they can't find anything wrong with it (and they ruined my chest hair for that???). Got more tests, but it's looking like my current wheezyman living is something less serious, like a brain tumour. No, but seriously. Broncial's my fav'... brought on my work, or cat, or this unclean shitpit of a house that I'm seriously considering getting professional cleaners in to blitz. Lazy I know, but there's about two and half years worth of dry cat skin and spit, spilt beer fumes lurking deep in the carpet to do terrible things. Anyway, whatever it is, pretty certain now it's not the big pump so I'm going back to the gym next week, if only for weights and abdominals. My weight's dropped to seventeen stone for the first time in over two years, so that's good news and is there to be pushed further. Going to have to be a procurement of smaller trousers soon. Another small celebration. With an enormous amount of beer and kebabs. Hmmmm....

Frosty

Starting to get the first serious chills of winter. Never too keen on that, actually turned the heating on for the first time this morning and I'm waiting for the place to start to get a bit toasty. Suppose that's the one advantage of my new social arrangements; if it's too cold here (which it is) it was bloody perishing in North Yorkshire, early mornings there were always a battle versus the duvet which was usually won but never happilly. Aught to take a look at the garden population and see what's going to make it unprotected and what isn't. Already got my fuschia indoors as I know one good frost'll see that off, but it's not especially enjoying the kitchen. That's going on a trip down south to a friend with a greenhouse. Well, it gives me an excuse for travel and beer. Shall factor that in to the next few weeks somehow, a pain in the arse factoring in fun amongst the shifts and housework at the moment.

Going to wander up to the Nook again today, see if there's any baby sproggy seals to be seen this morning. And of course, any noisy nasty jets!