Crack Security Force

Today I spent my time mostly sitting with Kellie.  Yes, I'm a sap.  Gemma turned up after school with her wee ones, and the two girls spent their time gassing while Kellie had cuddles with Zoe - sorry, Zoé, which became feeding Zoé, burping Zoé and more cuddles with Zoé.

Jaysen, in the meantime, was running around with Amy, sorting out toys and having a laugh with his wee ickle cousin.

Gemma decided to drive Kellie home to save her getting the bus (Awww) which probably doesn't bode well for me.  Females being Females, and all that...

When they left, I decided to take Jaysen into town and get him a McDonalds - it's not often we have take away food, and while I had a strawberry milkshake, he had food.  And it's there that I get to the point of this post...

See, we were sitting in a rather sparsely-populated food court.  Various resturants and fast-food joints and cafés and suchlike.  However, with it being 5pm, most people were going home and NOT sitting in the food court. 

While we were sitting and eating, I noticed that the table diagonally across from us had a friend, in the form of a bulging backpack.  The table was clean - so either it had been cleaned and the bag ignored, or it had been put at the table after cleaning.

Regardless, there was an unattended bag.

Now, you probably know where my mind is at this point.  I really wasn't expecting it to go blammo, but the whole "you never know" factor was there.  In this day and age, with hightened security levels and threats from all and sundry, the risk was there.

Being a Good Citizen, I get up and alert the girls that look after the tables.  "Excuse me, sorry, but I thought I'd let you know there's a bag with no owner sitting at that table."  The woman looked at me and huffed.

Yes, she huffed. 

"Oh IS there?" she asked me.  Now, the backpack wasn't big, but it was sticking up from the chair and quite visible.  I turned and pointed.  She huffed again.  "Oh OK then" and she wandered off.  No thanks, no acknowledgement, no bravery award.

I sit back down with Jaysen and watch the old girl toddle over and pick up the pack almost gingerly.  With one meaty hand, she wandered over to the other staff who were watching and performed a careful check.

She shook it.

*shake-shake-shake-jiggle-jiggle*

There was no firey ball of death, no cloud of death-flavoured gas.  Thankfully.

So, from the height of four feet, she dropped it to the ground, and with one meaty "I'm On My Feet All Day" foot, kicked it under the cleaning station.

Again, no Blammo, No Hisssss-gag-choke.

A few minutes later, a Proper Security Guard arrives.  He looked very very bored, and leaned over the cleaning station to chat up the younger girl working there.  My Lady pointed out the backpack, so he skirfed it out with his Size 12 Security Shoe, picked it up and shook it.

No Blammo.  No Hissssss-die.

So, with all the precautions taken, his Keen Security Training moved to the next level.  He opened it.  The first thing I noticed were wires.  Not to be put off, he turned the back upside down and shook out all the stuff inside into the sink.  I think one of the items that crashed into the metal bowl was a multimeter or something similar.  Wires, some tools..

As me and Jaysen made our escape, he was casually stuffing it all back into the pack.  I didn't look back.  I'd make an awful witness...

Now, it's not just me, is it?  I mean, heaven forbid it HAD been someone that was sick of the infidels - the British, the Shopping Center, McDonalds, Men, Women, whatever - my last thought would have been "What is that silly cow do- *BLAMMO*"  The headlines would have reported the terrorist attack on Eastgate, and some poor sap would be scooping my intestines from the Happy Meals.  It wouldn't have read "Security Team: What A Bunch Of Knobs" or anything else.

Sitting around that table was myself with Jaysen, a mum with six kids, a mum and dad with two kids, a mum with three kids, plus various staff for the various places, and whoever happened to be in the shops above and below.

All because of Miss *shake-shake-shake-jiggle-jiggle*

It's All Go

I'm not sure what it is, but the last five or six days have been manic. Well, manic in some aspects, lazy in others but none the less, it's all caught up with me this afternoon.

I spent the day out with Ruth and Alyce - harassing the wildlife that inhabits the local post office, being unruly on the bus, and embarassing the masses around the town centre. Like any wandering butt-head, I needed a recharge, and it was more Chinese food at a local buffet that was in order.

Seriously, yum.

Then it was back to walking up and down the length, breadth and depth of town, Asda and then finally home. THEN it was the school run, then back to Ruths, then home where I collapsed and set about running around the Government.

See - when the pooey stuff hit the fan at the start of March, I called all the departments and set about sorting stuff out for me. Well, one department "lost" my claim, so I've had to kick them in the butt. The second department asked for evidence of me having a child - which would have been the completed claim from the first department. So I called them, and instead they want Jaysens Birth Certificate, and brownie points for his Passport. Done and done.

Then a third department are now after me because I have left someone else to raise my child. Eh? Yes folks, the Child Support Agency who are now MANDATORY for all new claims... So I called them, and the woman was as bemused as me. See, I have to fill out the claim and file a counter claim which means the government will over see me paying Jo £5 a week towards Tam, and Jo will pay ME £5 per week towards Jaysen. All that paperwork, man hours, filing, inputting...

Just so me and Jo can swap a fiver a week...

I know, I know, it's all crap, but there's not a lot we can do about it.

Moving on, after being so busy the last few days, I am paying for it today. I woke up and felt a bit achey and headachey, and rapidly went downhill from there. By about midday I was hurting, and once I got it, well, sod anything that resembles movement. Plus, on top of it, I'm so not with it, I decided that crashing my head into a low ceiling at Ruths was just what I needed, jarred my neck, spanked the skull, clattered my teeth...

So, now it's a big cuppa, pain killers, feet up and... NOTHING.

Stupid body.

A Sort-Of-First

Today was the first time since the poop hit the fan that the cupboards needed restocking. Even the mice and roaches left, there was so little in the house. Now, before, I could quite merrily go out, buy what we needed and come back, but for some reason, this was a big new thing to me.

Luckily, Jo was on hand to assist.

We met up in town, wandered around the estate agents looking at places to rent and putting her name down for when places come up. Then we went to a little resturant (obviously the kids were with us too) and had lunch, and tackled the shop.

As per the previous blog entry, the shop was Hellish with people wrestling through crowds to get everything they needed. We wandered up and down, going through the things I needed, looking for deals and what-have-you to save money.

All in all, I did rather well, and have restocked the cupboards and fridge/freezer with actual food. Granted, I forgot the dog food, but I went to the local pet shop and bought their over-priced stuff to tide me over, and a rawhide bone as an apology for forgetting her.

But I did it, I shopped, got what was neccesary and didn't go over my budget. Go me.

The fact Jo was there guiding me is not the point though ;)

An Easter Warning

With Easter finally arriving, despite the fact the stores have been pointing out since the start of the year, it's nice to see people in the shops actually realise this fact. Asda today was packed with people stocking up on Easter Eggs. But, ho ho, being that Friday and Monday are both Bank Holidays, people were buying stacks of bread, milk, groceries...

It was manic.

People, Asda is open as normal Friday, Saturday, Sunday trading hours on Sunday and Monday...

But this isn't about me ranting about shoppers for a change. This is about news people. You need to pay attention to this tale for your Easter Break.

MANILA (AFP) - Philippine health officials Wednesday warned people taking part in Easter crucifixions and self-flagellation rituals to get a tetanus shot first and sterilise the nails to avoid infections.

Every Good Friday in this predominately Roman Catholic Southeast Asian nation dozens of men re-enact the crucifixion of Jesus Christ by having themselves nailed to wooden crosses.

At the same time hundreds of others, mostly men, strip to the waist and whip themselves until their backs are cut and bloody as a way of atoning for their sins over the past year.

The Catholic church frowns upon the crucifixions and self flagellations which have become a tourist attraction in a number of towns around the country.

The department of health issued a health warning advising people taking part in the rituals this Friday to have tetanus shots and to check the condition of the whip they will use before lashing their backs.

It warned that dirty whips could lead to tetanus and other infections.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque said that as was hard to discourage "flagellants from whipping their own flesh, the best penitents can do is ensure that their whips are well-maintained."

According to the Manila Times, in San Fernando City, Pampanga, some 23 people, including two women, plan to reenact the crucifixion on Friday.

"We are not trying to go against the Lenten tradition here because whipping has somewhat already become some form of 'atonement for sins' for some of us," Duque said.

"But this advice is important to make sure that no one will land in the hospital due to tetanus or other infections that penitents might get in the process," he said.

The health department has also warned that the six-inch (15-centimetre) nails used in crucifixions should be sterilised.

So there you have it. Please don't forget your little needles before you insert the big nails.

Bane Of My Life

Like any half-decent Superhero, I have my weakness, my bane, my Achilles Heel. Superman goes all squiffy with Kryptonite. Batman is only a normal person. Spiderman has his whole "Unstable Mutation". The Hulk can't control himself. Daredevil is blind. The Flash has a stupidly-high metabolism. Sportacus is weakened by sugar... Added to this, each Superhero has a arch enemy... Lex Luthor, The Joker, The Kingpin, The US Army, Bullseye, Gorilla Grodd, Robbie Rotten.

Anyway, while proving me and Jo are in fact Big Fat Nerds, I do have a point. And that point is that the bane of my life is the Mobility Scooter, and my arch enemy is "Anyone Old".

So today, we decided we needed to go shopping, and upon arrival in Asda, Jo decides how she is going to shop...


Yes, that is Jo - and Tam - in a mobility scooter. And she also falls into the "Anyone Old" category. So I spent the better part of the morning hobbling around after her while we shopped and filled the basket. Amazingly she didn't kill anyone, though Tam did figure how to work the controls and zoom around randomly. I, however, did get "accidentally struck" a few times.

So, not only was I shopping (*shudder*), not only was every old fart and their partner shopping in their mobility scooters, but I was also dealing with all the Xmas crap everywhere. HOW I didn't murder anyone is beyond me.

I also managed to catch a movie of The Ramming Wonder "zooming" around, and get to play with the Video feature of Blogger ;)


Anyone else spot the irony that there's a pensioner blocking the way and Jo is in the scooter - but unlike "Old Fart in the Scooter" Jo refrained from running her out of the way.

Another Edit: For the perverts of you out there, watch the woman to the far-right bend down to pick up something: Thong Alert!! hehe

In A Shock Move...

Many many years ago, this thingie was invented called the Compact Disc. The tapes I owned were dusty, old and hey, new technology! I had to have it, and from the day I got a CD Player, I started buying CDs. Albums, Singles, Rare Releases... All mine!!

Even today, I have a cupboard that is literally overflowing with music of all kinds, all types, some great, some not-so-great, some... well, some really not good. Music has always been a part of who I am.

And then, many years later, someone created this cool thing called "File Sharing". Every song I ever wanted but never bought, available at the whim of a search engine. My music collection went from a few hundred Albums to a few thousand tracks. Yes, I was a bad person. However, over the days, weeks, months and even years, my downloading has petered off to almost nothing.

Why?

Because (and at the risk of sounding like an old codger) music today sucks ass. Every now and then, I might borrow a CD from someone and copy it, or burn some of my own music onto my computer, but in general, not much music of today catches my eye. Or my ear.

Then last night, a friend of mine mentioned the William Shatner album. I laughed. I actually have one of his tracks, a cover of Pulps Common People which I love, but the thought of him doing an actual album of music... So, I wandered the web, listening to some samples, some clips, and I realised something scary.

I was enjoying this 70-something year old guy talking his way through records. OK, he actually sang one song, but still...

Now, apparently waaay back, he released a load of Beatles covers - this is NOT that album, this is the album Has Been.

And, in a shock move, I bought it.

Yes folks, for the first time in five or six years, I parted with money for something because I appreciated it that much. A couple of the tracks are amusing, a couple are almost cringeworthy, and there is even one track on there that chocked me up so much I almost burst into tears because the lyrics hit so close to home.

So, next time you're looking for some music, hunting for something just that little bit different, have a go at the album. It's probably a "Love It Or Hate It" deal, but I love it!

Edit1 - Jo listened to the William Shatner tracks and hated them. Guess she's going to be unhappy for a while ;)
Edit2 - Updated my MP3 Collection list on the right-hand Linkage section, but for ease of updating/publication, I've put the list on my Last.fm page. You can view the list Here.

GAH!

I'm in town, tired, aching and still fighting off a headache, but i SWEAR if one more pensioner pushes me, bumps over my foot or glares at me for playing with Tam...... Suffice to say, I will become famous and be splashed on every paper in the country!

Crappy Days

With Jaysen being back at school, I have noticed something has cropped back up. Pain and Tiredness.

Trying to get back into the routine of "Get Up, Get Sorted, Get Out, Get In, Get Tidy, Get Fed, Get Re-Sorted, Get Out, Get In, Get Dinner..." It's bloody never ending, and I'm finding less and less time to do anything. This morning I struggled to peel myself out of bed, hardly had the energy to shower, let alone wash and dry my hair.

THEN once I was sorted, and Jaysen was sorted, it was a case of fight the old buggers in town milling around every fricking aisle I needed. The old idiots walk even slower than me and act like they own the world. Yes I sound ageist, but none the less, please, when someone appears to be in a bit of a rush, don't stand there and glare at "the rude young man" just get out his bloody way!

Don't even remind me how close Xmas is...

And now, I've managed to eat some lunch, take my meds (late) and am trying not to fall asleep on this ever-so-comfortable sofa. I'm hurting, the pills aren't taking the edge off anything, but I can't fall asleep as Tam is maurading and Jo is asleep. Plus I am smelling evil stinky something, while no one else can, so it's time for headache pills as well!

So don't be surprised that posting is sporadic over the next day or three ;)

Oh, and in reply to the previous comments, I didn't put the spoon in the socket on purpose, I didn't decide to do it on a spur of a moment kinda thing, it just "happened". No Darwin Award for me, but that's no great loss. The post Tim mentioned in regards to the broken glass is Here. And that was only February!

Slowly But Surely...

Christmas is creeping towards us. Of course, the people in town today seem to think that the world is ending tomorrow, and will be desolate for what appears to be a month. People buying twenty pints of milk, a dozen loaves of bread, the worlds supply of loo roll - and so on.

We didn't want to go into town, but had to - there was nothing we could do to avoid it, though if a certain person was a REAL friend she would have done as I asked her this morning, but noooo I had to go. So nuts. On the bright side, Jo got me another pressie. The last couple of weeks I've been complaining about my wooden cockpit (minds out the gutter) - takes up room, too much space, too much dust, blocks the window. I am, of course, referring to my desk. As much as I love it, it's just... excessive. So we hunted the web, saw some nice ones, and collected my new one today.

Of course, I don't get to set it up yet, no no. Firstly I have been doing computer repairs ALL DAY LONG. Person X - remember him - well his computer decided to just give up the ghost, but not one for being beaten, I set it up on it's on while I fixed the other two. Install, reinstall, fiddle around, windows update, no worries - however.

There's always a but. It would seem Person X has been the victim of what I can only describe as a lightning strike. Aside from his graphics card, every single item of the computer is dead, fried, and knackered. I have no idea what has happened to it, what he has done to it or how it happened, but I have spent the ENTIRE poxy day dismantling, rebuilding, re-dismantling, re-rebuilding, re-re-dismantling, and then testing every single component one by one on Jo's computer. It was literally "dead", "dead", "dead", "oooh workin-no, dead"...

So, I just got off the phone to him. It's worse than that, it's dead Jim, all over again. He was not best pleased, but you know what, I wasn't too bothered. I'm good, but not THAT good. So, I gently suggest "Go to a shop and get a proper computer!" He then said something that made me think I don't feel even remotely bad, screw you! He said to me "Ah well, it's OK, I've got a couple of grand in the bank"

Tosser.

So my entire day twatting around on his computer, achieving NOTHING could have been avoided if I had told him it was dead, piss off. After all, it's nice to be loaded.

*grumble*

Anyway, things are slowly going from messy to manic, and the social calendar is filling. I don't think I have a free day till New Year. 2008. If you're a hitman, might I suggest you pay a visit to Person X. Tis the season, after all...

Monday Already?

Days are not like buses, as they turn up, one after the other, without fail, and three do not arrive at the same time... However, I am sure that some days are long or shorter than others. Take last week for example. Monday rolled around, then 30 hours later it was Tuesday, two days later it was Wednesday, eventually it was Thursday, and finally, along with much rejoicing it was Friday, Friday evening and the weekend arrived. Last week dragged, and seemed to take forever to go anywhere. The upside of this was that the weekend too should in fact drag.

And yet all of a sudden, I am back to Monday. It's like I'm stuck in that stupid fricking Bill Murray movie, Groundhog Day.

The weekend was spent indoors (mostly), in the quiet (not mostly) without a care in the world (not at all). Saturday I was up early (duh), but Sunday I actually slept in till a massive 9am, where, once dressed, we face The Town (Bum-Bum-Buuuuum). More Xmas shopping, more food shopping, busy in general. And we blew up one of the automated checkouts in Asda, but still...

I've been pottering around on EvE Online mostly this weekend for a change, but also jumped on Warcraft last night to poodle around with Jo, and chatted to a friend on there most of the evening.

And then it's Monday.

Anyway, for those of you that know what it's like, a good friend of mine has had to take her son into hospital for the next stage of his heart surgery. Keep everything crossed for David - I know his mum, Rosie, is dreading it.

So, back to the grind I suppose. Maybe I'll keep entertained by sending and receiving text messages all day!

Dagnabbit

So, I made the post about shopping this morning, took Jaysen to school, went back to Ruths for my usual coffee+gossip while Jo woke up, and got a message from sleeping beauty - "We need to go into town".

Which means I didn't quite get away as scot-free as I might like. And in my manflu-state as well I should add. As usual, people are busy bustling, oblivious to the world around them, pushing through gaps they really can't fit through, rushing to newly-opened checkouts, and generally being ignorant to those around them.

It's the season of giving, alright. Giving me a headache.

And He's Off The Hook!

It may come as a surprise to you, Mr or Mrs Reader, that I am not a shopper. My genes have me pegged as a geek, a love of all things tech, a roleplayer and maybe even a damn fine looking man, but they do not have me down as a shopper. It's mostly a female trait. So, when Jo said to me yesterday "I'm going to sort most of the Christmas Shopping", the chivalrous part of me was stomped to death by the anti-shopper in me. When she said "I'll take the kids too!" the chivalrous part of me twitched, but the size 14's of the arsehole in me put a swift stop to that.

So last night Jo took two kids and a taxi, into town. The Taxi didn't want to go shopping, but none the less... And she returned a few hours later, laden down like Santa himself, with bags bulging gifts of various size. I dutifully helped her into the house with them, and stood by with a smile on my face as she explained "And this is for nan, this is for mum, this is for someone else, this is blah-blah." But inside my sad sad little mind I was thinking "Yahoo, most of the shopping is done, whoohoo yay cheer!"

Which means no fighting through the crowds of grannies stocking up for the long winter, no hordes of wrinkled wonders to run over my toes with walking frames, shopping trollies or motorised wheelchairs, and most importantly, not standing in the line headed by the old dear paying for her stacks of shopping One. Coin. At. A. Time.

Of course, I don't for a second think I am going to get off scot-free. Oh No. We've still got to get the pressies for the kids, not to mention Jaysen decided to put his earthly appearance in on the 11th of December - two weeks before Xmas. So he gets nothing for a year, then within two weeks gets piles of gifts. Cheeky little bugger.

And of course, I still need to get Jo something. Of course, she's the perfect person to buy for as she's a geek as well - a lesser geek, but none the less. Her ideas list almost hit girlie... Earrings, necklace, smellies, lingere (which, let's face it, I am sure I can cope with!) - but then her list took a dive towards Geekdom. Keyboard, Mouse, Graphics card... Bless. If Freud were still alive, he'd look at my computer setup, look at her computer setup, and stamp her patient form with "Tech-Envy".

Of course, the upside to geeky-gifts for her - I can order online and not leave the house ;)

The status of my Chivalrous side remains unknown at this time. If you're a female and walking behind me and a door slams in your face, don't be surprised!

The Best Laid Plans...

In a break from the norm.. Wait, who am I kidding ;) Jaysen screwed around getting ready for school as per usual this morning. Didn't want that for breakfast, didn't want that shirt, didn't want that pair of socks, not to mentioned those shoes were uncomfortable. And on and on.

After the school run - and because the girls were still in bed here - I went back with Ruth for a coffee, where my arm was twisted into a sausage sandwich. It's hard to say no when the food is already cooking, so out of pure guilt, I ate my breakfast. Jo came over and had a cup of tea, and then me, Jo and Tam headed into town at a slow saunter. We had to grab "a few things".

So we did a lap of town and ended up in the supermarket where we grabbed various items with a "meh" attitude. For some reason, the store has been stripped bare, probably by hording oldies that start packing everything they can into cupboards ready for the winter. Doesn't matter that the shops are only closed for two whole days, no no, they need to "stock up".

So, between lugging shopping, dragging Tam (who was having a whale of a time on her reins with me swinging her around) and fighting the old biddies, we got out and went to see a friend that runs the ice-cream stall in Eastgate. There, we met with Gemma and Amy, had a gossip, and entertained the crowds by throwing Tam across the marble floor. She slides for a good fifteen feet with a good shove...

I know, father of the year here I come!

We then trudged home at Tam-Speed as we'd loaded up the buggy with shopping, and now, here we sit, cheese bagels to hand, tea brewing, feet thumping.

All because we needed "a few bits".

Chillin' Out

So after a few stressful days, I'm actually sitting here with my feet up, music pumping out, and all is fairly quiet.

Jo is still suffering with her muscle/nerve/whatever so I've told her to stay in bed and eat drugs. Problem solved. Tam, however, is slightly miffed at this arrangement as Daddy is clearly less fun/interesting/clean than Mummy. As soon as she realises the breasted-one is missing, she gets the raging strop, which is fun.

Anyways, the girls are having a nap at the moment which is why I am chilling - Jaysen is having fun on Jo's machine, and the dogs have either moved out or are asleep upstairs too.

I had to brave town today which was less-than-fun as usual, and the Xmas madness is starting. Someone moaning that his son would miss out on a PS3, someone else discussing the intricate difference between Duck and Turkey, one old girl buying about 10 loaves of bread, and women moaning over the price of the coats.

Of course, with Jo out of action, I HAD to go into town and got the basics (plus some apple pie and custard), and doing so half killed me. Tired and Achey. The downside if that means the housework is piling which means that tomorrow I will blast through the house and knacker myself that way. It never ends :D

My WYSIWYG editor is still screwing in Firefox which is strange, but still no fix for it in sight.

And as for my pills, well, no iffy side effects to report so far. I do keep finding myself having a constant stream of really strong Yawning, which is strange. Otherwise all seems fine and dandy. Of course, being the researcher that I am, I did some digging around Google to see what I could find in regards to Bad Stuff © and it's pretty scary. Fret not my friends, everything like that on the web I read with a pinch of salt, but it would seem some people really suffered while on this med, while the withdrawl symptoms seem to be dire.

Won't worry about then. As long as the libido doesn't vanish ;)

Last but not least, expect a template change over the next few days (or hours, or minutes, depending on my boredom levels). My pre-beta template was almost perfect, but I've yet to find any decent Beta templates out there. All the standard ones are just that - standard - so I might fidget and fiddle around with some of them to see what I like most. There are a couple of lighter ones that I like, and a couple of the dark ones might be OK, but probably too dark.

We'll see - I might change them over and ask for your input, see which ones we like the most.

Very Odd...

At some point, er, recently, we watched a rather odd movie called The Machinist with Christian Bale (of Batman Begins and Reign of Fire fame). Now, there are a few movies out there that you watch and thing "Huh?" not because of bad writing, nor bad acting, nor generally just being pants. No, some movies confuse the buggery out of you.

Of course, I watched this while rather doped up too. But none the less.

Christian Bale looks hideous in it - he dropped shedloads of weight to play the insomniac that hadn't slept for a year. Honestly, he looked like something out of a concentration camp. It all starts off well and good, then something happens and you think "Eh?" and it kinda goes from there. However, unlike some movies, it does explain most of what is happening. I'm still lost on one part, but I'm sure that's a "Put In To Make You Wonder" part.

Well worth a watch though.

Also on the DVD front, I'm currently going through Season Two of 24. I own seasons 1 through 4, and have watched one, two and half of three. However, I only tend to watch things like this when Jo is with me. She always claimed to not be interested, but when I watched the first season she was stopping what she was doing and questioning. Then she sat and watched. Season two she started to watch but lost interest, though she couldn't explain why. I ended up watching it while she was away one weekend and loved it, and started on season three but never got through it.

So, over the last couple of weeks, her parents have been raving about Season five - which she saw the trailer to and said "Wow, that looks great!". Then the trailer for season six caught her as well. So, she decided to give it another go, and day before yesterday, we started watching season two.

Seriously, the woman is hooked. Last night we went to bed at the grand time of 8pm, but took the DVDs with us. We did three and a half episodes and finished the disc. Then she decided on "just one more". Which she did twice, and we turned off the TV at 12.15am.

Of course, she's been nice enough to take Jaysen to school and gone into town as I'm not doing mornings too well yet - taking me forever to wake up, but still... She's actually braving town as I write this, but then, shopping crowds IS the natural habitat of the Female.

Rather her than me ;)

Friday?

Where did Thursday go? Hmmmm... I think the Evil Pixie Nation are at work against me once more, as I seem to have completely missed yesterday. Reasoning? Well, I was alternating between "Mega Busy Man" and "Slob Boy" but none-the-less. Let's see...

Jo is still feeling poorly - whatever stomach bug she's had is still floating around her innards, and while she's not being as ill as she was, she's got that constant queasy feeling. To add to the "fun" our friend Ruth now has it too. Which means yesterday morning I had to sort the kids and get them to school on my lonesome. Ruth is due to have her fella down this weekend, but if she's ill, she's going to have to cancel. We're still trying to place the source of the bug, but the popular theory is that it's Tam, who has a bit of a funny belly. Tam is also teething, currently pushing out three teeth and two ruddy-great molars, so she is a barrel of laughs. Ibuprofen for Kids to the rescue.

Anyway...

The plan was to grab Ruth some shopping from the local shop, shoot into town, get our shopping, come home, housework, walk the dogs, bath the dogs, get the kids, do dinner, put kids to bed, play games or watch DVDs. Simple. Of course, being that I foolishly made plans, it went more like School Run, Ruths Shopping, phone call to come home, Jo then came with me to town with Tam, we chatted to a friend of ours who is having a crap time, wandered around Asda, went back to our friend, chatted some more (and gave her chocs and flowers to cheer her up!), bus home, shopping away, vegitate. Rather, that was the plan.

We downloaded a trial for a rather pants game we played before, under the impression they'd improved it. Jo installed it, I installed it but crashed at 98%. I then spent two hours trying to delete 5Gb of data that would not be removed. I ended up formatting the drive. Jo, in the mean time, installed, updated, created and played her game - which still sucks, so uninstalled it.

I think flicked and farted between a couple of different games, namely the ever-present Warcraft, and my first love, Dark Age of Camelot (that game sucked up 3 years of my life!), before heading back to school to get the squids. Got in, houseworked away, did dinner, bathed kids, got them to bed, sat for Warcraft - server crashed. Buggerit.

So at half eight last night we went to bed with Shanghai Knights.

And this morning, up at 6am again.

And So It Starts

One Hundred and Three Days.
Two Thousand, Four Hundred and Seventy Two Hours.

And so on...

That's how long we've got till Xmas folks! We're not even half-way through September, and it's started. Decorations for sale, Xmas shopping ideas, even the Xmas Spam from Kellkoo and ShopSafe. The off-license (that's a liquor store to our American friends) has a range of "Christmas Drinks" that are mostly Chocolate liqueur and something like coconut, toffee, fudge, strawberry or whatever - kind of like a chocolate selection box.

With my Birthday next week, I always have to chuckle how far away the Christmas stuff starts, and it's ALWAYS before my birthday. Last year I found stuff on the first week, but have to admit I've not been looking too hard this year.

And with Crimbo around the corner, that means New Year is only a week away.

Last year was our first Christmas without Bethy, and while it was tough in places, we got through it. New Year was the kicker - the fact we were starting a year without her felt like the weight of the world was on top of us. Then, two weeks after New Year would be her birthday. Then in late February, it's the anniversary of actually losing her.

Ugh, can you tell I had a bad night last night.

Time to start planning the Xmas gifts I suppose...