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1 February 2012
(Wednesday) - More Stuff
A cold morning - perhaps not as cold as
elsewhere in the world; but as Albert once remarked, everything's relative. I
take the line that if I have to scrape ice off of my car then it is
officially cold. This morning was officially cold. My attention was distracted as I drove
along the A28 this morning - there seemed to be a large bird hovering over
the fields. But there was something wrong with the bird - we eventually
realised it was a tethered kite. Someone had set the thing flying and left it
there. Bearing in mind we drove past at 7.30am on an icy morning, I can't
help but wonder who has nothing better to do with their time than set kites
off at that time on a cold day. Work was much the same as ever; I was given
some gossip - some colleagues have apparently been spotted holding hands and
snogging over at the McArthur Glen outlet centre. So I spread the word (what
else doe one do with gossip?) and came home again. With "er indoors TM" off out
doing whatever it is that she does when off out I was left to fend for
myself. In years gone by I used to fend in the general direction of the KFC.
Nowadays I forage where there's fewer calories to be found. Admiral's pie and
peas went down very well. Whilst I searched for some more ebooks I put the telly on; I have to ask myself why I
bothered. There was hardly anything worth watching. I started off with some
dribble on the Discovery channel about Area 51. The program wittered on for
an hour without actually saying anything. The next program was more dribble -
this time about some martyred saints. I turned that off and found something
about Frankie Howerd which wasn't too dull. I
rounded the evening off with South Park and WIlly
Wonka, and then put tonight's haul of ebooks onto
my Kindle. So far this week I've found over one
hundred and seventy ebooks that are my sort of
thing: all free.... |
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2 February 2012
(Thursday) - Baggy Trousers
Another cold day. I seem to be feeling the
cold this winter. Possibly due to the fact that I'm carrying a lot less
insulation compared to previous winters. I spent today's tea breaks and lunch
breaks wearing my fleece as it was so nippy. I came home to find that I'd had a visit
from "Daddies Little Angel TM"
during the day. The house was awash with dog biscuits. I scraped up the worst
of them,and then had a
root though my cupboards. As the weight loss continues so my trousers are
getting progressively baggier. I managed to find a few pairs of trousers that
aren't hanging like a bag of poop. They might need some taking up, but I can
do that at some point. I also found a pair of jeans that seem to fit. Jeans -
I can't remember the last time I wore jeans. After a bit of tea I found myself home
alone again as "er indoors TM"
set off bowling. I wrapped myself into my snuggie
and had a bit more of a download, but there's not a lot more ebooks that I'm actively looking for at the moment. Or,
to be more precise, there's not a lot more ebooks that
I want that I can find for free at the moment. Oh, life is dull at the moment.... |
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3 February 2012
(Friday) - -Batteries
For want of anything better to do at 6am
this morning I thought I'd do my weekly weigh-in a day early this week. But
the scales weren't working. Perhaps the batteries were flat? I checked the
batteries to find that one had actually been taken out of the thing. Oh I was
cross. The scales take one of those round silvery batteries of the sort that
you never have spares about the house. Work was something of a disappointment
today, and I got to come home a bit early for once. I spent an hour or so
working on my C.V. and applying for more jobs. Just when i
was getting completely disillusioned with applying for jobs that I had no
hope of getting, the phone rang. It was Alice from one of the agencies; she'd
thought my C.V. was interesting, and wanted to chat with me. She had the
ideal job for me. Just what I want to do, with excellent wages. A shame it
was based in Milton Keynes, because I really don't want to relocate. Alice
said she had one or two more things coming up, and agreed to keep my details
on her files. And then I had a go at another nice little
earner. Or, to be precise, what I once had high hopes of being a nice little
earner. There's no denying that Badger Original Landscapes
hasn't been the cash cow I was hoping for. But it's a nice little hobby. If
nothing else, it's going some way to cover the costs of the canvases. I spent
a little while adding one or two more piccies of
paintings that I currently have available should anyone want to snap up a
bargain. Having said that, my cousin's told me off
for selling the paintings too cheaply. Perhaps she's right. I'm not getting
rich by selling them so cheaply. But would I sell more if I put the prices
up? Tea time. I was on cookhouse duty this
evening; with "er indoors TM"
off swimming, the plan was that she would send me a text when she got
changed. I would then start tea, and I'd have it all ready when she came
home. And so she sent the text as she got changed, got changed and came home. She beat the text home. As she walked
through the door I was watching telly, still waiting for that text. And so,
seeing she was home I started cooking tea. Fish, waffles, peas. Very nice. It
took half an hour to cook, and just as we sat down to eat so my phone beeped
as the text arrived. My phone seems to do that an awful lot at the moment.
Just recently I've had a glut of texts ten minutes after I go to sleep every
night. Which is a pain... |
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4 February 2012
(Saturday) - Back to the Future
I was tired today -
I woke about 4am, bursting for a tiddle, went to
the loo, got cold and couldn't warm up again when I went back to bed. And so
lay there feeling sorry for myself for several
hours. Today was different:usually the first
Saturday in February is booked up a long time in advance: Dover Beer
Festival. But this year I chose not to go. On reflection I would spend five
quid on a fry up, ten quid on a train ticket, twenty quid on arrival at the
beer festival, five more quid on burger and chips, twenty more quid (at
least) in the pub afterwards, and would then spend the next day feeling
ill. And I don't think
I'm alone in this attack of sensibility. Normally up to a dozen or so of us go
to the beer festival at Dover. This year only one person asked about the
festival. Spending money to feel ill and to get fatter is a daft idea really. Having found
batteries, the scales were working again, and I had the weekly weigh-in on
the right day. My weight is now fourteen and a half stone. Last summer it was
over eighteen and a half stone. So I logged into myfitnesspal.com over a spot
of brekkie to broadcast the fact to the world. And having settled down with
my laptop, I found myself not shifting from the sofa for the day. Playing
on-line scrabble, downloading yet more ebooks,
swapping insults with the world at large, generally sulking about my lot in
life. It's not that I actually wanted to go to the beer festival (actually
I wasn't at all fussed about missing it), it's just that I like going out
and doing things, and today was too nippy to go out and do things. With very little
else going on, I set about getting more ebooks onto
my Kindle. Between the Anne McCaffrey ebooks I
found and the Heinleins I was sent (smiles
gratefully) I loaded another sixty-odd books onto the device. Bearing in
mind the average book takes me about a week, I've got enough stuff on the
Kindle to last for the next six years. After a quick bit
of tea, the Rear Admiral arrived. We stocked up his Kindle, and then went
round to Chris's for the traditional film night. We started early tonight for
a "Back to the Future"-a-thon. We watched all three "Back
to the Future" films back-to-back. I'd seen the first one many years
ago, but the last two were new to me. I'd heard mixed reports about them
during the week, but was pleasantly surprised to find that I actually liked
them. The last film
finished at about half past midnight, and we came out to find snow. Only half
an inch of the stuff, but enough to be a pain. there
are those of my loyal readers who laugh about what we call "heavy
snow", but there's no denying that i was
grateful that I didn't have to drive tonight.... |
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5 February 2012
(Sunday) - Sledging
By the time we got home last night (after
midnight), written history (as I saw it) and watched a couple of
episodes of "Haven" it was 2.30am before I crawled into my
pit. I was woken at about 8.30am by the sound of one of the neighbours
scraping snow off of the pavement, and I lay for two hours fretting about
life in general. At 10.30am the phone rang - it was "My Boy TM"
asking about the sledge situation. So we leapt into action, had a quick bit of
brekkie, and I got really stressy because my bum
board wasn't where I'd left it. After ten minutes of clumping round the house
I thought (in desperation) I'd have a look in the shed. I opened the
back door to find snow had piled up against the back door - over a foot up
the back door. I found my bum board in the shed (where
I'd left it) together with a sledge I'd forgotten about. By the time
"My Boy TM" and his entourage arrived we had
amassed an fleet of three sledges. And so, suitably
wrapped against the elements we set off to Washford
Farm to collect littlun who'd spent the night at
her auntie's house. Getting to Washford Farm was
easy enough. As was coming home; even if littlun
did sit herself in one of the sledges and had me drag her home. We stopped off to drop off littlun's overnight bag, and then went up to Victoria
Park. It has to be said that, like all of Ashford, Victoria Park isn't overly
hilly. But we found a couple of slopes and had a go at sledging. As had quite
a few other people. And all of the sledgers
were like us - adults taking small children sledging. I would have thought
that older kiddies might have liked to have played in the snow. There were
some teenagers making a large snowman, but other than that, there weren't
many youngsters at all. I suppose it's a sign of the times. And it was also
their loss: we had a great time - we found a little slope, and whizzed down
it loads of times. In fact we whizzed down it until we were so cold that we
were numb. Which is the only problem with snow - it is so blooming cold. We popped round to the Fudgery
for a quick warming cuppa, then came back home. "er indoors TM"
considered making a snowman in the garden, but with a lack of adhesion from the
snow, she gave up and we came inside to warm up a bit. Over a bit of
home-made onion soup (yum!) I uploaded some
photos of the sledging, and then set about uploading a video I'd taken
whilst we were out. I was amazed to find that two minutes of video took up
over 200 Mb, and took about an hour to upload to You-Tube. Whilst it uploaded we conducted surgery on
the Dyson; we'd lent it out a week or so ago, and today it wasn't working. We
took it apart and found it was clogged solid. Every tube was blocked
completely. It took a major disassembly and poke through to clear out all of
the hair, dirt, grit and assorted gunge that was blocking it up. And with the
thing cleaned out and carpets hoovered (dysoned!)
I dozed in front of the telly for an hour or so before spending the rest of
the afternoon applying for various jobs. These applications might not achieve
anything immediately, but it will get my C.V. in front of the recruitment
agencies. Which is where it needs to be. And then after a smashing bit of tea we
cleared more stuff from the Sky-Plus box.. Tonight
we emptied off some more episodes of Star Trek: Tribbles and Triskelions this evening. Can't be bad. Bearing in mind that most of the stuff on
that Sky-Plus box are from series we've recorded
from only a few channels, I wonder if I might make an economy by removing a
few more channels from our subscription.... |
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6 February 2012
(Monday) - Anniversaries
Being on a late shift I had a bit of a lie
in this morning. And something happened which hasn't happened for ages: my
back started hurting because I'd been in bed for too long. I can't remember
the last time that staying in my pit gave me backache. It used to all the
time, but hasn't for quite some time. I suspect that the cause may have
something to do with yesterday's sledging. After all, my old roller-blading
injury was playing up today as well. I'd been dreading today - driving to
Canterbury in the snow was something I simply didn't want to do. I toyed with
the idea of pulling a sickie, but I wasn't in that much pain, so I bit the
bullet and went in. And the roads were quite passable really. I was even
brave enough to brave Morrison's car park to get to their petrol station. Work was work: I did as little as was
humanly possible and came home again. And once home I read something
interesting. As we are now celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of
Charles Dickens, it would seem
that the average child lacks the wherewithal to appreciate the literature of
Dickens. I'm not surprised really. And that's no reflection on the youth of
today, or on the education system. Have you ever read anything by Dickens?
I've been reading a lot of "old" literature on my Kindle
lately; "Gulliver's Travels", "Moby Dick" and the
like. Oh it was hard work. The trouble with *literature* is it's not
something that you enjoy. It has sentences that are so long that when you
reach the end of one, you've actually forgotten what the beginning was all
about. I'm not surprised kids can't cope with Dickens. I can't either. And another anniversary celebrated today is
the sixtieth anniversary of Her Majesty's ascension to the throne. I for one
think she's done a wonderful job. And anyone who says differently is talking
out of their.... |
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7 February 2012
(Tuesday) - Stuff
I was sleeping
quite well last night. Until about 5.30am when next door's dogs started
barking. And they woofed and woofed. I could hear them through a brick wall,
so surely next door could have heard them? Surely they would have gone to see
what the problem was? But they didn't. And the woofing continued. After half an hour
or so I gave up and got up and did my morning's routine. The morning didn't
seem overly cold when I got up, but on the way to work the temperature fell.
The car's thermometer was reading minus eight by the time we got to
Canterbury. I don't know if I believe those things: on-line weather forecasts
never seem to be in agreement with the car thermometer readings. But it was cold.
And for all that the ice has cleared from the main roads, the back streets
are still icy - I fell over twice on my walk home from being dropped off this
evening. And so to
Folkestone where the tribes gathered for this Tuesday's conglomeration. We
spent an amusing half an hour trying to find the remote control for the DVD
player. Trying, and failing. And after discussing the physiological methods
by which one could tiddle ones' self to death we
watched an episode of "Firefly" on the emergency backup DVD
player. We spent a few minutes with the assorted menagerie, and then home
again. I like our Tuesday
meet-ups.... |
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8 February 2012
(Wednesday) - Dull
I had an interesting conversation this
morning. Apparently cavemen went from being sub-human animals to becoming
intelligent by the simple action of adding fish to their diet. The theory
runs along the lines that the trans-aminyl-keto-parsec-aconomides in fish speed up brain chemistry. I smiled
sweetly, nodded sagely and said nothing. Perhaps had I eaten more fish
recently I could have come up with a snappy reply? And so home where we'd had a house guest
today. One who had used four cereal bowls during the course of the day,
emptied all the Walker's crisps from the cupboard, and had covered the entire
downstairs floors with dog biscuits. Whilst the washing machine did it's thing with two weeks' worth
of my shirts I cleared up the carnage strewn around the house, and then spent
an hour ironing shirts. I have this theory that shirts iron easier if ironed
wet. And shirts need to be ironed. They look dreadful if they aren't. My phone beeped; "er
indoors TM" was on her way back from swimming, and I was
on cookhouse duty. I can cook: I like to think I'm not bad at it, but I don't
really enjoy cooking. Some people love it: I don't. I then spent a few minutes catching up with
the games of on-line scrabble that I have on the go: currently I seem to have
a dozen games that I am playing. Most people are playing fairly; others are
clearly using cheat programs. Why would anyone want to cheat when playing me
at scrabble? Oh, today was so dull... |
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9 February 2012
(Thursday) - More Stuff
In the last week
I've read "Jem" by Fred Pohl and "The Songs of
Distant Earth" by Arthur C Clarke. Both classics, both favourites of
mine. Yesterday I started reading "Stand on Zanzibar" by
John Brunner; a classic I've been meaning to read for years. Today I gave up
with it. I couldn't figure out what on Earth was going on. Having been
looking forward to this (supposed) treat for many years I was
disappointed, and felt somewhat cheated. Which
got me thinking.
Many years ago I wrote a "Top Ten sci-fi Novels" list for a
particularly wonderful magazine I once had the honour (ahem!) to edit.
I might just see if I can find a back issue of that magazine, see what I
wrote, and see if my top ten list has changed over
the years. If any of my loyal
readers would care to come up with a top ten list of sci-fi novels, I'd be
very interested to see it. I spent a little
while applying for more jobs. It occurs to me that the new-look svelte me
might look better at interview than the old-look lardy version once did.
However my interview suit will probably now be somewhat baggy. I'm reluctant
to shell out megabucks for a new suit: I wonder if anyone might have a suit I
might borrow (should I get short-listed). And then it was off
to Park Farm for a committee meeting of the astro
club. We went over the plans for the next meeting, and then made serious
plans for the future. There is a humungouos
telescope being decommissioned in a few weeks time:
did we want it? Well, yes we do (dur!)
But (and there is always an "but",
isn't there?) there are one or two drawbacks to the idea. Firstly the thing
is in Scotland and needs to be collected. It's a huge scope: far too big to
go in a car, and would need to come down on a lorry. Secondly it would
need a dome to go into. It's currently in one which is five metres across;
we'd need to build a dome for it. Thirdly we don't
have a five mete dome, so the scope would have to go into storage whilst we fund raised the money for a dome and found somewhere to
build it. Fourthly the scope
is older than me, so should it go west, spare parts wouldn't be easy to find. So the original
idea might be a non-starter. But if we can scare up some land on which we
could build a dome, all the rest could be done at our leisure with a more
modern scope. Do any of my loyal readers have some spare land where there's no nearby street lights? |
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10 February 2012
(Friday) - Scoffing Too Much
As I drove to work this morning I listened
to radio two. Which is unlike me: having been a radio four fan for many years
I find myself listening to radio two more and more these days. Radio four is
very good, but the programs are somewhat hit and miss. They can be very
interesting or very dull. Radio two is somewhat more bland,
but I must admit I like the music. Radio four doesn't have music. I did my bit at work. My bit, but no more
than that. Whilst at work I let my dieting ways slip: one of the girls had
brought in cakes. Just lately I've been good and not succumbed, but today I
relented and had a doughnut. Just one. But that one had over two hundred
calories in it. Two hundred!! in the past I would
have thought nothing of scoffing two or three of the things. And then home again. Once more listening to
radio two. Once home I set the washing machine loose
on the laundry. "er
indoors TM" taught me the difference between acrylics and
non-fast coloured. The difference being that if she puts them all in the
washing machine together then all is fine, but if I do so, it will turn her
pants pink. As the washing machine did it's
thing I sorted the undercrackers, and after a
decent bit of fish and chips, "er indoors
TM" set off to a girlie thing with her mates. I stayed
home and did the ironing, and then did an on-line survey. For each survey I do, I get a quid. It's
not a lot, but it adds up. I used to have the money as Amazon vouchers, but
now that my Kindle is full to overflowing, I'm going to have Tesco vouchers
from now on. Tonight's survey was about chocolate. And
by the time I finished the survey I had quite a hankering for some choccy. There had been the remains of a bar of chocolate
in the fridge for a month or so. Not any more - I scoffed it. By the time I'd
had a bag of crisps and some biccies as well, a
quarter of the calories I ate today were in "rubbish" food I
would normally not eat (any more). I can see how I put the weight on over the
years.... |
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11 February 2012
(Saturday) - Painting, Cold...
“My Boy TM
” came home “quietly”this
morning, so I thought that I might as well get up. I looked at the clock to
see it was 10am. A lie-in (!) After I’d abluted
I had my weekly weigh-in. I’ve lost a pound this week. I was hoping to have
lost more, but bearing in mind yesterday’s pig-out I should be pleased I’ve
lost anything.
And so home where I spent ten minutes
clearing the ice from the pavement outside our house. The pavement was
covered in thick compacted sheet ice, but once the ice was cracked with a
shovel it immediately started to melt. It’s odd that the people on the other
side of the road have almost cleared the entire length of their pavement, but
the people on our side have hardly touched it. But I’ve now done my bit. And having done my bit, I got my paints
out. Regular readers of this drivel may recall that a few weeks ago I was
asking after masking tape. Today I used that masking tape in producing a
border round a painting of a waterfall in a forest. As usual I can find lots
of fault with the painting: I’m not happy with the cliffs, I feel the water
spreads out too much, I was hoping for more from the background hills. But in
the final analysis I’m quite pleased with the painting. It’s colourful and
the border effect works well. It’s easily worth the bargain price of ten quid
which I am asking for it. A shame no one has offered me that tenner (yet!). It has to be said that Badger Original
Landscapes has not turned out to be the money-spinner that I was hoping for.
Since the launch of the business I’ve sold three paintings with a total
income of under fifty quid. But when you feature in the cost of the paints
and the canvas and the brushes and stuff, I’m losing money hand over fist. My
cousin (whose has serious business sense) has told me that I am
selling the paintings far too cheaply. She is probably right, but in these
austere times no-one seems to want to spend money on paintings. Which (for me) is a shame. Talking of money, I then spent a little
while totting up the astro club’s accounts. I went
through the accounts so many times, but try as I might I could not get the
books to balance. We have four pence too much. All the figures add up and
agree with bills and receipts. But when you add up the cash there is a
stubborn four pence that shouldn’t be there. I can only imagine I
short-changed myself when I was changing up some coppers. I then wrote (typed) some letters to
go with some cheques I need to post for the astro
club. And in these hard times I am going to have to do something which goes
very much against the grain and bill the club for my expenses: namely a book
of stamps and a replacement ink cartridge. After spending an hour (or so)
playing on-line scrabble we set off to Chris's for the Saturday night film
show. This evening we saw "The King's Speech" and "The
Social Network". Neither were films I'd seen
before, and I enjoyed both. I do like the Saturday night film show.
The only drawback with tonight was coming home; oh it was cold. According to
the thermometer in the car it was minus six degrees. Far too cold !!! |
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12 February 2012
(Sunday) - Bored
We got home last night shortly after
midnight. It was cold, so we had a cuppa (decaffeinated) to warm
ourselves up. By the time we'd watched a couple of episodes of "Haven"
it was 2am. Still, a late night might make me sleep in the next morning. Some
hope - “My Boy TM ” came home “quietly”shortly after 8am, and spent about an hour
clumping round the house before setting off again. The Bat texted - was it too cold to swim
across the duck pond to sort out the duck house? Bearing in mind that it had
snowed a little overnight, we decided that it was too cold. I wasn't impressed with the snow. there wasn't much - only a slight dusting. But I'd spent
some time yesterday clearing the pavement only to have it covered over again.
For all that the temperature was above freezing point today (for the first
time all week), with melting snow everywhere, it was too muddy and too
slippery to do anything or go anywhere today. I'm getting fed up with
Sundays: just lately they are being wasted in front of the telly because it's
generally too horrible to do anything else. Over a spot of brekkie I called up some
job-hunting web sites on my lap-top, and thought I'd spend a few minutes
applying for jobs. Three hours later i decided that
my head was spinning and so I gave up. I've applied for loads of jobs today:
some I could do easily, some I could probably do, and some I haven't really
got a hope. But applying through agencies puts my C.V. in front of the people
who should be having my C.V. And my point was proved: as I slept through
episodes of "Only Fools and Horses" my mobile rang. A chap
at one of the employment agencies had seen my C.V. come though
an hour or so previously, and he wondered if he might put me forward for a
position he had in mind.I didn't realise that the
employment agencies worked on Sundays, but here's hoping... We then went fo a
bit of a drive - "er indoors TM"
had seen a coat advertised on the local Facebook "Get It Here"
list. Normally retailing at a squillion quid, this one was advertised at
fifty pence, having only been worn once. The drive to Bethersden
was rather dull, but it was something to do. Having something to do on a Sunday is
always good. |
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13 February 2012
(Monday) - Having a Whinge
Monday , Monday. And so to work.
I really shouldn't complain. It's work I can do,
paid at a better rate than anything else I can find at the moment. And I work
with a group of really good people. But there's no denying that I feel I
could do so much more with my time, and that I spend a large part of every day bored senseless. Let's hope that something
comes from all the job hunting I'm doing. If any of my loyal readers know of
any vacancies in absolutely any walk of life, do let me know. Talking of work, I spent quite a bit of
time today reflecting on something "er
indoors TM" posted on Facebook yesterday. I've blogged in
the past about the traffic wardens in our area. They don't work during the
busy times of the day when there are cars and lorries parked so as to block
the road. No traffic warden has ever done anything to improve the traffic
flow in my road. Instead they come round when everyone is
asleep (after 11pm and before 7am) and put tickets on cars parked an
inch or so over the yellow lines because that's easy to do, and (presumably)
because the overtime rate is good. Yesterday we saw a car had been ticketed.
You couldn't really see that the car was just over the yellow line because
the yellow line was obscured by ice. And the ticket was timed at 5.39am.
5.39am on an icy Sunday morning (!) Am I really over-reacting in
thinking that these people are lower than the lowest? And having said that, at the moment I would
go out and do exactly the same myself if the money was more than I'm getting
at the moment. I had a text from "My Boy TM".
He'd found a spot of black ice on his way to work and had put his car into a
ditch. All is now well, but at the time it was all something to worry about. as was the note I came home from work to find. The RSPCA
had come to the house whilst I wasn't in and had left a note about a
complaint which had been made about my dog (!). I wonder what that was all about? Meanwhile, apropos of nothing, I've been
whistling the Gloria Gaynor classic "I Am What I Am" for the
last day or so. I wonder what that's all about... I was never confused.... |
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14 February 2012
(Tuesday) - Stuff
Another restless night - for once "er indoors TM" couldn't
sleep, and her tossing and turning kept me awake. For a moment I had this
plan that seeing how she was awake and we were both in bed.... and then I
remembered what happened the last time I had that sort of thought ("Daddies Little Angel TM" was the result)
so I rolled over and thought puritanical thoughts instead. It's unlike "er
indoors TM" not to sleep. She tells me she sleeps better
now that I don't snore. I don't snore because I don't sleep. If she's going
to be awake, I will make a point of snoring. Perhaps we could take it in
turns to sleep? Regular readers of this drivel might recall
that a few months ago I had my cholesterol checked. It was a tad high, and
the doctor said to check it in mid-February. Bearing in mind my dieting ways
I was expecting it to be really low, and I was planning to have it checked
this morning. As I got up I prepared myself for a hungry morning - one needs
to have the blood taken before eating anything. And then I remembered we'd
had a fry-up for tea last night. That would do wonders for the cholesterol
level - I shall leave that for a week or so before having it done again. I've received an offer for the waterfall
scene I painted at the weekend. Ker-Ching !!! Not
that it'll make me rich, but it will go some way to cover the cost of a
bottle of black gesso (do stop me if I'm getting too technical). And,
realistically, covering the costs of the hobby is all I should hope to
achieve from flogging the paintings. Because if I start making loads of dosh,
I'll start having to pay income tax on my profit. Which would probably be far
more trouble than it is worth. In the meantime I've signed up with a website which might help me
flog some more paintings. I just need to put a few more pictures up on it. Being Tuesday the clans gathered: this time
round at Somerset Road. We stood on Matt's doorstep for ten minutes until we
(and he) realised that the batteries in his doorbell have had it. We
admired his model railway layout: I must admit I'm not at all into trains,
but the scenery he's building is wonderful. And after a crafty bit of cake (CAKE!!!)
we watched "Being Human". In a novel break with tradition I
stayed awake during the show. Which was for the best.
I hate sleeping through telly programs that I want to see... |
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15 February 2012
(Wednesday) - Making Money
In a novel break
with tradition I slept right through to 5.30am this morning. That's to be encouraged(!) I got up and after watching Bob Ross
and checking on-line scrabble, I set off to work. Once there I did my bit. I
spent quite a bit of time today thinking about a business scheme my cousin
suggested. She reckons... well it's not good business sense to tell the world
about my next money-spinner. Suffice to say that when it's ready my loyal
readers will be amongst the first to be tapped up for their hard earned dosh. And all the job
hunting I've been doing lately might be beginning to achieve something - an
agency phoned today asking my availability for interviews over the next week
or so. I know I mustn't get my hopes up, but if any of my loyal readers have
any interview hints, tips or suggestions I'd be grateful to hear them. I then did some on-line surveys for
financial gain. It seemed a lot of survey for relatively little financial
gain, but it was something to do whilst "er
indoors TM" boiled up some tea. And if I can finance some
new trousers by idling away a few minutes that would otherwise be wasted,
then that's a more productive use of my precious time. At the moment I seem
to be frittering a lot of time away on nonsense. Like on-line scrabble. I
have nineteen games on the go at the moment.... And talking of
financial gain, I sold a painting tonight. Since I launched Badger Original Landscapes back
in November I've now sold a grand total of four paintings. That's only one a
month. Or four times more than Van Gogh sold in his
lifetime, depending on your perspective... |
|
16 February 2012
(Thursday) - A Visitor
There are many annual events in my life.
Today was one of them - Alan's annual visit. I *really* wish I'd got my act
together and taken the day off work so's we could
have had more time. The three hours in the local Wetherspoons
just flew by. It was so good to catch up - has it really been a year since we
last met up? Whilst others guzzled cheeky Vimtos and Woo-Woos and Skippy p*ss
and Guinness, I had a couple of pints of ale. Tonight was the first time I've
been to the pub for four months. And for all that I wouldn't have missed
meeting my mates for the world, next time we'll have a get-together at home. The trouble with a pub is that it is
someone else's get-rich-quick scheme. The food was good, but we could have
done better at home for cheaper. And I can certainly knock up beer far
cheaper than what we paid at the bar. But it was really good to meet up with
Alan. A shame that his time is limited and he has so much to do in so little
time. Next year we'll get ourselves organised in advance. Or that's the plan.... |
|
17 February 2012
(Friday) - Stuff
A late start meant I didn't have to emerge from my pit too early, and
not having set an alarm, I dozed until 8.30am. Quite the lie-in. Mind you, I
felt rough this morning. I think I had a hangover. A hangover after only two
pints last night. What's that all about? Whilst checking my emails over brekkie I glanced down the garden and
saw a few of the Koi on the surface of the pond. Something didn't look right,
so I went down to the pond and found six floating dead. That's now a dozen
that haven't survived the winter. I wish I knew what was wrong in that pond. And then it was time to go to work. After filling up with petrol in Morrisons (a penny a litre cheaper than the Esso not a
few hundred yards away) I popped into Dunelm Mill. I'd been told they
sold canvases. They did - in a range of sizes. And reasonably priced too. I
got a few. I was very tempted to get one of the canvases that was a metre across. I'd like to have a go at a painting
that size, but I have no easel to hold such a huge canvas. Mind you, if any
of my loyal readers would like to commission a huge painting, I'm game to
give it a go, though And this evening we watched the first episode of the new hit series
"Grimm". I liked it - it's got promise... |
|
18 February 2012
(Saturday) - House Move, Curry
Two more dead Koi this morning. What on Earth is wrong in the
pond? It's not as though the fish are in need of food - they don't seem
hungry at all. I wonder if it something to do with the cold snap a week or so
ago after a very mild winter. The Rear Admiral
arrived and we set off to find Chip. Regular readers of this drivel may
recall an entry from October 2010 when we helped Chip move to a second storey
flat. We nearly killed ourselves lugging no end of gear across town and up
flights of stairs. At the time I told him that he was never to move out of
that flat - moving in was too much like hard work. So despite my
better judgement, today I found myself helping him move house again. All the
heavy, awkward, bulky items I'd heaved up all of those flights of stairs had
to be heaved back down those same stairs, back into a van, and driven to the
aptly named Queen's Street. Most of the stuff survived the move, but one of
the wardrobes did look a little the worse for wear by the time I'd done my
thing with it. I offered to repair the thing with a hammer; perhaps making
good the scrapes I'd made in the paintwork might be a better thing to do. It has to be said
that I noseyed round his new house with more than a
tad of jealousy. It's a wonderful house on four floors with a wonderful attic
room and an even better basement suite. Bearing in mind his previous houses,
there seems to be a marked absence of toilets. But what he lacks in cludgies this time, he more than makes up with stairs. For some reason we
were amazingly organised today. Previous house moves have dragged on all day
long. Sometimes they have taken a whole weekend. Today we had two loads to
lug down stairs, across town and up stairs again.
And even taking the best part of an hour for a very leisurely lunch (yum!)
we were all done by early afternoon. And so home, where
I spend several hours working on a Powerpoint
presentation and a web site. I have to prepare a presentation that will take
ten minutes to deliver. Am I being that facetious when I say that every
minute of a presentation requires an hour of preparation? Whilst I did my
thing upstairs, the Bat did his thing in the kitchen. He'd been
wanting to stage a dinner party for some time, but lacking the
wherewithal he'd asked to borrow mine. I was quite content to have someone
cook me my dinner and let him get on with it. And once dinner was cooked,
nine of us sat down to some really good curries. A really good time was had
by all. We must do it again sometime soon... |
|
19 February 2012
(Sunday) - Dover Castle
Only one dead Koi
this morning. But the local cats had been at the dead ones I'd bagged up
yesterday. I wonder if turning on the filtration system might help, but the
water in the aeration splash pool was frozen this morning. It's still far too
cold to reactivate the pond. At this rate I might just shut the pond down
altogether as another economy measure. Not that I want to, but it might be
the pragmatic solution. Andy and Julie
arrived, and we set off to Dover Castle where we met more of our number.
Bearing in mind our English Heritage membership is approaching its last
month, we thought we'd have a look round one of the better local attractions.
On arrival at the castle site our first port of call was the newly opened
Casemate-level tunnels. We had to queue for a little while, but it was well
worth the wait. The tunnels had been done up very well, and were brought to
life by the guide and the various audio and visual effects. At the end of an
hour's exploring of the tunnels we found ourselves forced to come out via the
gift shop. I wasn't falling for that marketing ploy, but made a point of
scoffing the free sweeties they had laid out. There was an
exhibit here where you could try on various military uniforms, so we spent an
enjoyable ten minutes playing dressing up before moving on to the next part
of the day out. We did the tour
round the underground hospital the last time we went to Dover Castle, but
underground tunnels are always good places to be. The guide at this area
seemed to be quite new to the job, but she did a very good job. Bearing in
mind what a wonderful job English Heritage have made of the tunnels in the
White Cliffs under Dover Castle, it's a shame they can't do something with
the tunnels over on the Western Heights. It's criminal that those tunnels are
being left to rot and collapse, but that is a rant I've done before. With all of our
party finally rallied together we decided to eat. It was a lovely sunny day,
so we found the picnic area and ate. And shivered. For all that the sun was
shining, the wind was cold. So once scoffed, we set off to the castle itself.
Dover Castle is good in that there's a lot to see and do. We'd been on the
site for two hours and still hadn't got as far as the actual castle. And once
at the Great Keep everyone scattered. Whenever we go anywhere we seem to go
mob-handed. And trying to organise everyone is akin to herding cats. A dozen
people wandered in a dozen different directions. My direction was that of the
toilet. Once I'd been for a
tiddle I spent ten minutes trying to find everyone
else. I found two of our number in the Angevin
exhibit, two more in the gift shop, and four at an archery display.
Eventually eight of our party were at the archery display,
and realising that this was as many as we were likely to get together, we
moved into the Great Keep. And within five minutes everyone had scattered
again. But that wasn't necessarily a bad thing: I wandered round meeting
various members of our party as I went. I would go up the turret with two of
our number and come down with a different three. I would go into the kitchen
with two of the ladies and come out with two of the blokes. Everyone seemed
as content as I was to wander randomly; and it worked. It was a shame that
the lances, pikes and halberds were all chained down: they looked ideally
suited for use in a game of "poke up the a**shole". But this was a game we had to forego.
Instead we went to the gift shop where I availed myself of the free samples
of mead and wine. The chap behind the counter assured me that after one taste
of the mead I would buy a bottle. I had the taste; I didn't buy a bottle. The
chap then said the same about the cheery wine. He was again wrong. In fact I
proved him wrong about quite a lot of his drinks. I was quite happy to guzzle
his free samples, but there is no way I'm shelling out ten quid on overpriced
plonk. We then moved on to
the Pharos - the oldest part of the castle. Originally a Roman lighthouse the
Pharos is next to an old church, and we spent a few minutes nosing round it. All too soon we
realised we'd seen most of the attractions, and that it was time to come
home. We said our goodbyes and came home. Yesterday I mentioned that I was
working on a Powerpoint presentation; I came home
to spend a couple of hours (and a large part of the evening) carrying
on with my preparations. I hope that my efforts are all worth
while: time will tell - it always does.... |
|
20 February 2012 (Monday)
A Day Off Work
I'm on a week's holiday starting today, so
with no need to be up early I stayed in my pit till 9.30am. Which was nice. After a spot of brekkie I had a look at
the pond. For once all seemed well. I thought about cleaning out the filter
in readiness for the spring, but thought better of the idea. Instead I put
the shovel and broom and my wellies away: I'd got them out for the snow a
couple of weeks ago. I spent a little while tidying up my back
room; it had got somewhat out of hand over the winter. It's amazing how the
rubbish accumulates; I found a dozen star atlases from last year's Stargazing
Live. I'm loathe to throw them away, but what good
are they now? I shall see if I can unload them onto the public at this week's
astro club - if I can't, I wonder if we can use
them for some of the club's outreach activities. And talking of the astro club I had another go at the club's accounts.
Regular readers may recall that a few weeks ago I did the accounts and was
three pence adrift. The trouble with the accounts as they were was that I had
major equipment purchases down as "purchase of equipment". I
wasn't happy with that, so I went through the accounts and re-wrote the lot
to specifically itemise each purchase. Now the accounts are far more specific
as to exactly what we've bought, but are now twenty six pence adrift. Oh
well, such is life. I'll have another look at the accounts later this week. Whilst I'd been busying, "My Boy TM"
had been busy tattooing his mother. "er indoors TM" now
sports a particularly fetching pocket dragon tattoo. Once we'd had a spot of
dinner, "My Boy TM" went to work, and "er indoors TM" and I went
for a walk. We drove down to Brockhill Park (which
is somewhere I've not been for ten years) for a wander. It was cold, but
quite pretty. We spent a pleasant five minutes admiring the river. And an
annoying five minutes examining my shoe. I kept getting whiiffs
of dog poo, but couldn't see any on my shoe. Eventually I realised that I was
standing two feet from the dog poo bin. I won''t do that again. Home again where I worried over my Powerpoint presentation some more, and after a spot of
tea we popped round to see Steve and Sarah. Regular readers may recall hat
their cat was run over a couple of weeks ago. Arnie was very lucky to have
survived, and was in what I can only describe as "Cat Prison";
he needs to be in cat prison - if he jumps or puts any effort on his pinned
broken leg he will do untold damage to it. So we spent a few minutes feeding
him cat treats. And after a quick cuppa we said our goodbyes, and came away
having borrowed a suit for tomorrow's interview. It's quite a novelty having
trousers that aren't six inches too big round the waist. Here's hoping the suit does the trick
tomorrow..... |
|
21 February 2012
(Tuesday) - Happy Birthday to Me
Ideally I wouldn't have had an interview
scheduled on my birthday, but one takes what one is given in life (mostly).
I was up before the lark, breakfasted and on my way before 7am this morning.
The M25 was better than I have known it to be, and (to
be fair) worse than I have known it to be as well. With the radio tuned
to radio four (for a change) I trusted my sat nav,
and it didn't let me down. I drove the ninety miles to Wokingham in just
under two hours and immediately found my destination. Once parked up I made
my way to the reception, got given a visitor's badge and was sat down. I went
through my Powerpoint presentation one last time,
before striking up a conversation with the chap sitting opposite me. He too
was there for an interview; for the same job as I was there for. After exchanging pleasantries with the
opposition for a few minutes I was called in. First of all I had half an hour
with the personnel manager which seemed to go well. I then gave my
presentation which also seemed to go well, as did the following interview
with the departmental managers. Will I get the job? I don't know. For all
that the presentation and interviews went well, I
have no idea how well the other candidates did. It turns out that there are
still interviews to be had on Friday. I was told that I probably wouldn't
hear anything for a week or so. I know I shouldn't get my hopes up, but I'm
crossing my fingers. The journey home was easier than the journey
there, and once home I opened my birthday pressies.
I had quite a decent haul of pressies this year.
And once pressied we had some lunch. Two hot cross
buns and a cup of coffee - four hundred calories. Four hundred!! I then got
cross playing on-line scrabble. It wouldn't allow "Latin"
but was quite happy with "dunt"
and "dup" and "jeed"
(for 102 points!) , and would probably accept
"kxvzjg" as long as someone else
was playing it against me (!) Following a flying visit from Maria borrowing
hair crimpers for an 80s party, we set out to Hothfield for a walk. I'd not been for a stroll on the
common for years. It was warmer than yesterday's outing, and it was good to
get out. We wandered all over the common, through the bogs, admired the
wildlife, and against "er indoors TM"
s better judgement I played on a rope swing that the local kids had put in a
tree. Who says I'm to old
to play on a rope swing? And so home again where we had coffee and
cream cake (three hundred more calories) and we watched this week's
episode of "Grimm". I can't help but feel that it's a good
show, but it's just yet another police program. And being a Tuesday the clans
gathered this evening and we watched more "Being Human": I
do like that show... |
|
22 February 2012
(Wednesday) - Busy, Busy....
As well as being my birthday, yesterday was
another anniversary. It was my thousandth blog entry here on Blogger, and my
two thousandth blog entry (in total). I've been making daily diary
entries since September 2006. that's five and a half
years. Not bad going really. After a rather restless night I made a
point of being up and about for the arrival of "Daddies
Little Angel TM" and Sid. Whilst "Daddies Little Angel TM"
worked on her latest essay I did some paintings. I had a couple of
commissions to sort out, and I also wanted to try out the smaller sized
canvas I bought last week at Dunelm Mill. I'm quite pleased with how the
paintings turned out. As always photos are available on Facebook if you know where
to look. Before I do any more painting I need to get some white spirit. I
have been using "Artist's white spirit" from the art shop.
From now on I think I shall get white spirit from B&Q at a fraction of
the price for ten times the amount. As essay writing and grand-dog farting
continued in the background I mucked out the fish tank. Under-gravel filters
are all very well, but even they need attention from time to time. After
stirring the gunge, syphoning, leaving to settle and again syphoning gunge a
dozen (or so) times I eventually got the tank a little cleaner that it
was. And then no day off work is complete
without a spot of ironing. An hour's worth kept me out of mischief. The Rear
Admiral visited, we had a cuppa, and as the Folkestonians
disappeared into the sunset I dozed in front of the telly. In fact I kipped for over an hour until "er
indoors TM" texted me to start boiling up some scran for tea. And then I wasted the evening watching
rubbish in UK Gold. Talking of watching rubbish, yesterday I mentioned that
we'd watched "Grimm". We made a point of watching it so's when everyone else was talking about what had
happened we wouldn't have to stick our fingers in our ears. But for once no one
else has watched it yet: everyone has it on the Sky box to watch later. This really is a sign of our times: people
rarely watch TV as it happens. Most people watch stuff from a Sky box so they
don't get bothered by adverts. And so no one ever watches programs at the
same time. Which means there's a whole etiquette about
talking about what you saw on the telly last night. Or that is there
should be. How long can you give someone to watch a TV show before it's
acceptable to start talking about what you've watched without spoiling the
plot for others? |
|
23 February 2012
(Thursday) - Surveys
In a novel break with tradition I wasn't
woken by "er indoors TM"
going to work this morning: I slept through till nearly 9.30am. I got up, brekkied, and spent a little time (three hours)
applying for more jobs. I must admit I did get rather wound up by some of the
job agencies' web sites. I specifically called up "laboratory sales"
and "South East England" as my search criteria, and was
amazed with the amount of utterly irrelevant jobs that came up. Catering
manager, care assistant, recruitment consultant all came up on my search.
What was that all about? Mind you, I shouldn't complain: on my
search I found a link to several on-line surveys for which I can get paid. So
after three hours of applying for jobs I spent an hour or so signing up to do
on-line surveys. If any of my loyal readers would also like to be paid for
doing on-line surveys, please drop me a line. I get a bung for introducing
people. A bite of lunch, then an hour or so was
spent on the ironing. I must love ironing; I seem to do more than the average
person does. And then I put on my "Survivors" season three
DVD and slept through it until "er
indoors TM" came home. I woke up, we did a catalogue
drop, and then tea time. Over tea we watched the Uma Thurman film "My
Super Ex-Girlfriend". It was a film I'd been meaning to watch for
some time. If you've not seen it, give it a go - it's not bad. Whilst the
film played I did on line surveys. For every ten thousand surveys I do, I get
two pence in vouchers. Perhaps not the bargain I was hoping for...? And here's a bit of news which made me smile.
Having spoken with my brother, it would seem that after forty years I am no
longer the fat brother. He's a stone heavier than me. I'm pleased about that. |
|
24 February 2012
(Friday) - Astro Club
This morning was
much like yesterday morning - a lie-in followed by a late brekkie and some
job applications. One of the agencies phoned back about one of the
applications, so the morning wasn't entirely wasted. After a while "My
Boy TM" came home. We bandied insults for a while; he's
off to a dirty weekend in Eastbourne (which will be nice for him).
Unfortunately two minutes on Late Rooms (dot com) came up with several
hotels in the area at a cheaper price than he'd paid. Oh well, he'll know
next time. As "My Boy TM"
set off to work, so my mobile rang. It was another of the agencies about one
of the jobs I'd applied for. In fact three different agencies phoned me
during the afternoon about jobs I'd applied for. Nothing seemed immediately promising,
but I suppose that the fact that they phoned me shows there must be some
hope. The Rear Admiral
arrived, and we turned on the telly: Challenge TV and an old episode of
"The Crystal Maze". A quality show - at the end of the show
they had five crystals, three of the team locked in, and one of the lowest
scores I've ever seen. Oh, how we laughed. There is nothing like the
thwarting of naked greed for cheering me up. Being the last
Friday of the month, we set off to astro club. We
started off with an update on matters astronomical, and then moved on to the
business of the evening. Tonight was billed as a telescope workshop; and we
had a good talk on telescopes, and as I hawked the raffle so everyone had the
chance to look at the telescopes on display, and to bring in their own
scopes. We got word that there was a break in the clouds, so I quickly called
the raffle, and people went outside to look at Mars and Jupiter. As they
looked, so I tidied away the chairs. And as I put away the last chair, so the
clouds rolled over, and everyone came in for a Stellarium show. A show they had to stand for, as I'd put
the chairs away. Whoops! But, all things
considered, another excellent astro club meeting.
It turns out I'm lecturing there in October on a subject which has yet to be
decided. I wonder what I might talk about...? |
|
25 February 2012
(Saturday) - A Dog, A Walk, A Meal
We were up earlier than usual on a Saturday
morning: we were expecting a house guest. With "My Boy TM"
setting off to his dirty weekend in Eastbourne, we had volunteered to
supervise the antics of our grand-dog. Fudge arrived shortly after 8.30am and
burst into the house like a mini-whirlwind. We got our instructions for what
do do with him, and the dirty weekenders set off.
Fudge continued to charge about the house for an hour or so. He then went
into the garden where he tiddled over pretty much
everything. Getting him back into the house was something of a mission;
bearing in mind he totally ignored everything I said to him. In the end we
left the back door open and waited until he went into the house of his own
accord. Following on from that, it's clear he can't be trusted off of his
lead at walkies time. Fudge seemed to trying to get at something
under the sofa. It was a dog biscuit left over from one of my other
grand-dog's visits. He soon yummed that up; and
spent a few minutes yumming up all the other
left-over dog biscuits he could find. For some odd reason when "er indoors TM" went
upstairs to get changed, Fudge's behaviour completely changed. He became very
restless, and stood by the door and cried. It's obvious that he's decided who
the head of the household is. After a while "er
indoors TM" came down, which cheered him up no end. He
then followed her around like a second shadow. He would rather follow her
than bother me for my coffee and cake. Mind you, he did bother her for her
tea, but when given some tea of his own, he didn't seem to like it at all.
"er indoors
TM" then gave him an old teddy bear and a sock which he
threw around the living room and destroyed with gusto. Whilst Fudge got used to his new
surroundings and slowly calmed down (calm being a relative term) I had
a look-see what was happening on Facebook. I do that a lot. I exchanged
insults with various people, reminisced with my cousin about Tiswas, commented with various other people about what an
excellent night we'd had last night at astro club,
and even had a database write fail error. Which was nice. Andy arrived, and after a quick hot cross
bun for lunch we set off to Kings
wood for a wander. Ostensibly to wear the dog out, but a stroll round the
woods is always good. I'd not been to Kings Wood for ages. I really should go
there more often. After all I am a member of the friends of Kings Wood. (Or
the Tree Huggers, depending on your personal perspective). We very soon found ourselves at the Stour
Valley Arts B52; and on finding out that Andy hadn't seen the art in the
woods, we set off on a mission to see as many of the woodland art exhibits as
we could come across by randomly wandering about the woods. During our two
and a half hour wander we probably covered about six miles of paths, and
found just over half of the art work. It was a shame that vandals have
removed the descriptive plaques of most of the exhibits, but such is life,
really. I came home and sent a message to Tree
Hugger HQ to let them know about the removed plaques. I don't know if they
already know, but it's probably best that they be told several times than not
at all. And then I noticed something strange - one
of the best Facebook
pages in the world had somehow lost all of its followers. So, loyal readers, do sign up to Facebook; if only to keep "CrackWatch" alive. After all, if we don't
watch those cracks, who else will? After exchanging insults with the dirty
weekenders, the Folkestonians arrived and with
Fudge absolutely shattered we left him in the kitchen and set off to High Halden. Following a particularly excellent pre-Christmas dinner
back in December we seem to have started off a non-competitive "Come
Dine With Me", and tonight Andy and Julie were in the hot seat. And
they didn't disappoint. A wonderful starter of all sorts of dips, really good
fajitas, choice of desserts, excellent company and fun entertainment. We had
a really good evening - must do it again soon.... |
|
26 February 2012
(Sunday) - Two Dogs and a Walk
For all that I had a very tiring day
yesterday I didn't sleep that well last night. I couldn't stop worrying about
how my grand-dog Fudge was doing downstairs spending the night in the
kitchen. Eventually I got up a couple of hours earlier than I usually would
on a Sunday only to find the dog quite happily fast asleep. I was about to go
back to bed when his ears pricked up, his head picked up, and he came running
over to me. So much for my going back to bed. We'd had no pottty
emergencies overnight, but he had been sick. There were small sharp lumps in
the vom: presumably he'd eaten something that he
shouldn't. But dogs do that. I let him out into the garden where he did
something else that dogs do, and then we played for an hour or so. For that
hour this morning he was my devoted companion. And then "er indoors TM" came
downstairs, and (as far as the dog was concerned) it was as though I
no longer existed. It's quite clear who his favourite is. The morning was spend
slobbing about browsing the Internet. I didn't feel
one hundred per cent - my insides were having a serious rumble, and I had a
vague headache. I did have three pints last night - was it a hangover? If so
then I am seriously thinking of giving up the beer altogether. I've mentioned
before that it is a lot of expense just to put on weight and to feel ill. After a while we got dressed and set off to
Folkestone where the clans had gathered, and several of us set off on a walk
along the Leas to the Coastal Park. The smaller ones among us played on the kiddy toys, then we met up with the Hoseys
and we wandered down
to the beach. We sat on the waters edge and
enjoyed the sunshine. I wished I had my swimming trunks with me - I would
have gone for a dip; the day was that lovely. And to think that it was only
three weeks since we'd been sledging in the snow. We walked back past the Leas Cliff beer
festival, which was in full flow. In years gone by I would have stopped
for a crafty half. But not any more. It's not
"me" any more. A shame? possibly.
But we carried on past the festival, waved goodbye to some of our number, and
then wandered through the harbour, up a really steep flight of stairs, and
slowly made our way back to our Folkestonian base.
We had a quick cuppa, the dogs did their thing, and then we came home. A quick catalogue
retrieval, a bite of tea, and then the dirty weekenders arrived to collect
Fudge. They'd had a good time, but the trip was marred by a speeding fine and
three points on the driving licence following falling foul of a speed trap in
Bexhill. But Fudge was pleased to see them, and with all his accessories
packed into the car, they set off with Fudge. And the house now seems a much
quieter place.... |
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27 February 2012
(Monday) - The Holiday's Over
Bearing in mind the active weekend I've
just had, I was amazed that I wasn't aching this morning. Mind you, the word
is that my grand-dog Fudge went home last night and was absolutely shattered:
he'd never been so quiet and subdued. I think we might have got ourselves the
job of wearing Fudge out more often. To work, where, after having a weeks holiday, I found that I
disagreed with the management. They felt that I still had a week's leave to
book before the end of March. I wasn't quite so sure, but after a moment's
reflection I decided to agree with them, and promptly booked another week
off. And then on with the business of the day. I
was at work, so I did some. Not much; in fact I probably did the bare
minimum. There was a time when I would have done far more. But times have
changed. Over lunch I spent half an hour on the
phone to one of the employment agencies about another possible opening, and
then heard about last week's interview. Needless to say I didn't get the job.
I'm told that I interviewed well, but some of the other candidates had
hands-on experience with what the job was to be demonstrating. I must admit
that I wasn't expecting to get the job, bit it
don't stop me being disappointed. Mind you, there are always loads of other
jobs I can apply for. And having said that, I spent an hour this evening
applying for more jobs to prove (or disprove) the point. And then once I felt "applied out"
I spent some time doing on-line surveys. I've now got twenty quid in Tesco
vouchers. I might buy some new trousers. Ones that aren't six inches too big
round the waist... |
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28 February 2012
(Tuesday) - Alcatraz
Regular readers of this nonsense may recall
my mentioning that I'd found a web site from which I'd downloaded all sorts of
books. Most have (so far) seemed to be genuine, but I've made a
discovery. The most recent Harry Potter book that I downloaded isn't actually
the most recent Harry Potter book. It's about Harry Potter, and features all
the characters of the Harry Potter world, but the story isn't the one that's
in the last book. It's a tad saucy in parts - Ginny has a wonderbra. I'm treating it as a whole new Harry Potter
book, and (in the meantime) will have to try out some other dodgy
websites to see if I can get the real Harry Potter book. There has been quite a bit of talk over on
the astro club's Facebook page about the practicalities
of taking photographs through a telescope. It's something I've been thinking
about trying for sometime, but have never actually
got round to having a go at. And on reflection, since getting my telescope a
year ago I've only had the thing out twice. It's no secret that I am an
armchair astronomer. I wonder if I might be better off flogging the
telescope; if only to clear up some space behind the sofa. After all,
whenever I go telescoping there are plenty of other people about with
telescopes of their own that I might look through. Being a Tuesday, the clans gathered. Since
I was coming from work i thought I'd park in the
Vicarage Lane car park; after all it was free parking and there would be
loads of spaces when I arrived there at 8.30pm (ish).
Or so I thought. I managed to take the last space - the car park was full.
What on Earth was attracting so many people to a town centre car park at
8.30pm on a Tuesday evening? Once parked, I made my way to the aptly
named Queen Street. After exchanging a few insults we watched the first
episode of the new series "Alcatraz". Once we got over the
novelty of playing spot the actors from "Lost", "Terra
Nova" and every other TV show known to science we realised the show
was actually quite good. I liked it - it has promise. Let's hope it lives up
to that promise. Meanwhile the Sex Pistols are re-releasing
their classic album. I think I've still got it on CD somewhere... |
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29 February 2012
(Wednesday) - Astro-Arky-ologee
Seeing how today
was the last Wednesday of the month, this evening we set off to the arky-ologee club. Tonight was the AGM. I read the minutes
of last year's AGM in amazement; at last year's AGM it was me who had
proposed doubling the annual subs. In this new world order of austerity I
can't help but wish I'd kept my trap shut last year. This year's AGM was
rather entertaining. There is talk of amalgamating with Harrietsham
Historical Society. But only talk because (at the moment) Harrietsham Historical Society doesn't actually exist.
It's still at the theoretical stage, and if it ever gets off the ground it
would probably be very much the same as the arky-ologee
club. I can't see why the historically-minded denizens of Harrietsham
can't just join the arky-ologee club and be done
with it. Starting their own club just to then
amalgamate with another club seems like a lot of fiddling about to me. but what do I know? There was also talk
of getting involved with a local village's open day for the Queen's diamond
jubilee celebrations. Apparently in celebration the club is going to invite
the general public to do a resistivity map of a nearby field to try to find
an oast house. Personally I can think of easier
ways to find oast houses. Just having a look is one
that immediately springs to mind. Mind you the whole
idea may well be doomed to failure as Margot would seem to have reservations
about the whole sorry issue of insurance. There may well be those of my loyal
readers who are wondering who Margot is. I too am wondering as well. It was
never made clear who Margot was, and I couldn't bring myself to ask. Having elected someone
else to the position of club chairman (even though he wasn't there) we
then had the evening's talk. And in an amazing break with tradition the talk
was really good. Astro-archeology. The talk was
about how Stonehenge and Avebury lined up with celestial bodies as they were
in the skies several thousand years ago. And then the speaker moved on to
other sites, including several local ones. It was a really good talk; I
didn't know that Stonehenge had been upgraded over the millennia to account
for stellar drift. At the end of the
talk we had the opportunity to ask questions. I asked if the speaker would
come to the astro club in a few months' time. She agreed.... |
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