Hairy Times

Hi there

Sorry it's been a while.  It's always been a while hasn't it?  Hmmm.

We watched a programme on tv the other night called A Passionate Woman.  It was a two-parter starring Billie Piper and Sue Johnston and it was absolutely fabulous.  It told a story about regrets.  A young woman had an affair with a man she fell passionately in love with, but he got killed.  As the woman grew older, the regret ate away at her and sent her a bit mental. Deb and I agreed that we would not go mental because of regrets in our old age.  I love my Deb.

However, she fell down the stairs last week holding our Luke.  Luke banged his arm and Deb bruised her arse...

"Ouch"

Poor bruised wife.

Last week - in fact, exactly a week since, we gave Luke a hair cut.  He looked like a proper scruffy tramp so we decided that rather than subject professional hairdressers to his screaming, we'd tackle it at home.  Out came the trusty hair clippers and about 20 mins later, a tidy (ish) haired boy emerged.  He claims it hurt loads, but I think otherwise.

Speaking of hair cuts, I am noticing more and more grey hairs.  Around my ears, on my chest, and, of course - pubes.  I'm not massively bothered by it on my head. I must have mentioned before, I am looking forward to going grey as I will look distinguished and interesting.  Grey chest hairs - hmmmm. Not too sure about that.  Maybe when we retire to the Canary Islands and I have a tan like David Dickinson, maybe then - they'll look ok.  Pubes?  Just ridiculous.  If I was brave enough I'd wax.

Been working WELL hard on the garden during the last few days.  Got a load of photo's over at OneADayFor365Days blog of my progress.  As a result, my back is knackered and my shoulders hurt quite a lot.  I also burned my lip and tongue on one bloody hot chip this evening.  I was fortunate to have an icy cold can of Blackthorn to hand to ease my distress.

I am on day 5 of my 6 off and I can honestly say that I think this is the most productive 6 off I've ever had.  It started with a visit from my lovely children (minus Abbey), which was ace. Weather was perfect and our new barbecue was christened.  Lessons were learned from that, by the way. Following that, we had a relaxing Sunday evening with an Indian (meal, not person).  Monday saw the start of the garden refurb and tomorrow will see me getting Deb's Corsa valeted.  I can't remember what occasion I promised her I'd get it done for, but at least it's finally being done!

Right, that'll be that then - I'll do another of these sometime soon.

Be young, be foolish, but remember to be happy.

Goodbye reader...

Happy & Sad Easter

Today has been a lovely day. It's Easter Sunday and all the people in the world who are THE most important to me, have been with me today.

The day went beautifully.  The children played, I did a beltin' roast pork lunch, we then went to Haigh Hall and played some more before coming home to watch Everton on TV.  The children went back late, and arrived in Rhyl shortly after 7pm.  It was my lovely wife's suggestion that I take them back late, and it was inspired.  Those extra few hours made such a difference to the day.

After I'd dropped them off, and was driving home, I got upset.  It's been ages since I got upset after saying goodbye to them, but for some reason, today was the day.  If I'd been asked at the time why I was upset, I'm not sure I could have said why.  I had a think about it, and I think it's because today was so nice, and then I had to take them back.  That, coupled with Luke being absolutely devastated about them going back - hurt me.

I then got to thinking about how lucky I am to have such lovely people.  I absolutely adore my wife, she is beautiful and I don't think I give her the credit she deserves.  She can be moody at times, but she's never moody just "because".  It's almost always to do with stress caused in her job.  My children are fantastic, too.  I am very proud of how balanced Abbey and Robert are.  Charlotte constantly reminds me of my mum.  Matthew is a loon, but a very caring one.  Luke thinks he's the boss of us all.  To be fair to him, I can understand why. He isn't though.  I am most proud of the fact that none of my children are "naughty".  They are messy, but so am I.  They are good children and I love them dearly.

Today has also made me think a lot about Christianity.  I realise that the bible is a collection of works that tell various moral stories, but Jesus born of an immaculate conception?  Even back to "the beginning" - Adam and Eve.  None of it makes sense, yet week in, week out, millions of people all over the world go to churches and worship the character of Jesus Christ.  Now, I was an alter boy in my younger years, so I'm absolutely not Jesus bashing, I'm just explaining that I've questioned a lot of stuff today. Stuff that you just accept as a youngster.

If you treat the bible, as I said earlier, like a book of moral guidelines, fair enough.  It now also seems hypocritical to turn up at churches for baptisms/christenings, weddings, and funerals, but I will continue to do it.  Ignore me, I'm just feeling weird at the moment.

I just had two spam fritters for my supper. Haven't had them in years!!  I have missed them. 

I shall go now - until next time.

See ya.

Damp

Evening

I should be in work tonight (as I was last night), but due to unforseen circumstance, I am not.

I dropped Luke off at Helen's this morning, only to be called to collect him about 30 mins later.  (10 mins after i'd gone to bed)  The poor little man had been sick a few times so Helen, quite rightly, suggested he come home.

As you'd expect, he made a complete, somewhat miraculous recovery within about an hour of coming home.

In this time, Deb had contacted her mum to come and look after Luke whilst I went to bed.  At about 10:30, whilst we were sat waiting, I heard a gush of water from upstairs.  I rushed up to find water pouring in from the ceiling in the Girls bedroom.  I got towels and put them down on the floor and flew outside to get a bucket to catch the remaining water.  the ceiling had bowed and the paper on it had an 8" tear in it where the water was escaping from.

I rang the CIS with whom we are insured and it is currently in their hands.

The resulting to-ing and fro-ing meant that I actually was in bed for a total of 2 hours 20 minutes, having taken two telephone calls during my bed-time.  Surprisingly, however, I feel ok at the moment.  I can't understand why, but I do feel a-ok.

I deliberately didn't tell Deb about it whilst she was at work, to avoid any unneccessary alarm or distress.  She's due home any minute and I'll tell her then.

OK - so she got home and was fine with things. Deb actually suggested a way we are able to get it temporarily repaired quicker than monday. I do love my wife.

The co-op shop was WELL wet this evening when I went. Well, outside it was, anyway.  Have a look...

So tomorrow I will be taking the corsa to be fixed, arranging for the roof to be fixed, and then letting Sandra go home so I can take full care of Luke again.  I'm also going to move the beds in the girls' room down into the playroom until the ceiling has been sorted out by CIS.

Update over....

About Time Too!

I haven't posted on here for such a long time and most days, I kick myself for not doing so.  It's made me feel like I was at school again, and I'd always leave my homework until 10pm on a sunday night then do it and it'd be shit.  The only difference here is that I have no deadlines to meet.

I hope this isn't shit, though.

I am now convinced that my lack of blogging here is due to my daily blogging here.  I see things on a daily basis that rile me and vex me, and I used to come here so often to vent and it'd be make me feel better.  Well I've decided that now is a good time. It's sunday afternoon and I'm in work (on a break), so it's as good a time as any.

Tomorrow, I am going to be told that the building I currently work in is to close in two years time and we're moving to a fancy new one, somewhere in Skelmersdale.  We can see only one reasonable location at White Moss Park, so we'll have to see what comes of that.  I doubt very much that I'll learn anything other than what is freely available on the grapevine tomorrow, but if I do, I'll do my best to pop back and update you.

In the last month I've had an Ultrasound and an MRI scan.  Ultrasound because my belly has been hurting a lot near to where I had a hernia years ago.  The scan revlealed nothing abnormal.  So I went back to my GP who has told me to consume loads of Omeprazole tables until further notice.  Only been taking them for four days now, and I am not in the same sort of pain at all.

The MRI was marvellous to have done.  It, too revealed nothing weird going on in my head.  Weird things do go on in my head, but nothing physical is abnormal.  I was only having that done because I was having a fair few dizzy spells at the tail end of last year.  I've not had any for weeks and weeks now and I'm beginning to feel like a bit of a fraud.  I shall not chase that one up.

The power in the building I'm in has just gone off twice in 2 minutes.  Then the fire alarms went off.  We had a good think about weather or not we could be arsed walking down five flights of stairs and then go and stand on the other side of the car park.  We decided not to.  The alarms eventually stopped and I rang the (to be fair) moron security guard.  He told me he thought there might be a fire on the third floor but said it was probably due to the alarms going off.  We really are in safe hands here.

It's Easter next weekend and snow is forecast this week.  It says for Northern England.  It really does mean Northern though. Newcastle, Carlisle, that sort of North.  I maintain that we live in the North Midlands here.  It's a frigging long way North until you fall into Scotland.

I am starting to yearn for things I used to do that I don't do any more.  Things like my scanner. I spent just under £300 10 years ago and it is/was ace.  I still have it, and it still works.  I used to listen to the local constabularies on it but now they, like us, have gone digital so that's a no go.

I have also had desires to use a CB radio. I owned one of these for many years.  My handle was "glo-worm".  My 4 watt broadcasts could be heard all over the north west.  It was in the era of pre-internet. In a time when people actually spoke to each other.  Night after night I'd go "on the rig" and speak to all the friends I'd made on there. You would help taxi drivers or lorry drivers wtih directions round town, too.  Yes it's sad and geeky, but that sums me up quite well.

I also had a dabble at some DJ'ing a few weeks ago and that blew my mind. I loved it SO much, and it made me want to DJ again.  Being realistic though, you'd need to earn a fair bit of money to make it a viable venture. And you'd be out EVERY weekend evening or you're losing money.  Shades Disco. RIP.

My idea for a disco would be from a "classic hits, with no R&B" point of view.  Maybe not excluding every R&B track, but there would be veeery few. I think that offering soemthing like that would be good. I think people would want that.  A few weeks ago during a lull in work I priced up DJ equipment. New, albeit.  In the region of £2500-£3000 to get a half decent set up.  It's not happening is it?

I've gone on for a while now, so sorry.

I've made the website look a bit more 70's with a new template and fancy wallpaper. Hope you like it.

I am gonig to go and get some vimto and get ready to go home to my beautiful wife and child.  Then tonight, I shall sleep on my new memory foam pillow. Ace.

T-ra!

Just... Well - disappointing

That's the way I feel about things at the moment.  Work has been a pisser recently and I haven't seen much of my wife during the last few days.

I'm in work now (on a break) and when I finish at 7 it's home to bed then up for midday, prepare lunch for me and Luke, then off to Wales to collect my children who are with us for the forthcoming weekend.

I am considering moving this blog to Wordpress, from it's current host of Blogspot.  I am also toying with Tumblr, which is supposed to be aesthetically very pleasing indeed.  I'll have a mess with each and get back to you with the outcome....

Inside My Own Head

Greetings

I had an MRI scan today.  I may have mentioned it already, but if not, I had it because I've been having dizzy spells for a few months.  I loved my MRI scan.  It made a low, rhythmic "thumping" sound througout the whole 20 minutes I was in there. Really enjoyed it.  I only hope I enjoy the results as much.

I collected our new car today, too.  It's well nice, it is.  To the untrained eye it looks identical to our previous Zafira, but this has 5 spoke 18" wheels and the last one had 6 spoke 17".  This has a panoramic glass roof (with electric blinds inside!), and this does not have any model badges. i.e. it does not say Sri on the side.  Oh - and it's a 1.8 petrol, instead of a 1.9 diesel.  I like it. A lot.

Luke has decided that he's going to be shy when it comes to using the potty.  He can't do anything on it if you watch him.  Not that we sit watching him, but even in my peripheral vision, I can see him looking at me to see if I'm looking at him.  As a result, he point blank refused to use it at his childminders house yesterday, favouring instead, to soak three sets of underpants, trousers and socks.  Things have changed today and he's done a wee on it. Well done lad - it's the future, that. 

I stumbled across what I think is my first ever blog today. I'd totally forgotten I'd done it.  Even whilst reading it - I was thinking "are these words mine?". How very strange. Have a peek here if you want. Not much too it so it'll not waste too much of your time.

Luke and I are off to Wales tomorrow to collect my children.  He is SO excited about it - as am I to be honest.

Got some ironing and playroom tidying and car getting ready to be done before we leave - all of which I'm looking forward to completing.

I'm tired now and I am distracted by this episode of Silent Witness which has proved to be very good.

Until next time - namaste

All The Latest Goings On

Hey

Ok, so a quick catch up.  After going through everything we went through with the IVF, it failed.  Quite spectacularly actually.  My beautiful wife produced follicles, but there wasn't a single egg in any of them. This is despite her being on the highest dose of medicine to stimulate them into producing lots of eggs.  We were told on the day that this happens once, maybe twice a year, but there is no one explanation as to why it happens.  We're going back to see the consultant on Tuesday to discuss things further with him.

Our Zafira car is going to be sold as soon as is feasibly possible.  It has developed yet another fault with it's turbo charger which will cost in the region of £900 to fix. That, along with a full set of brakes and tyres is a bit too much. Brakes and tyres are a given, but If I spent the money to put them on, I'd only be waiting for the car to break again.  So we're going to go an look at a few cars this weekend and see if any take our fancy!

Google have released a new product in the last few days called "Buzz".  It's a new social networking sharing links and pics affair.  Do we need it though?  I am struggling to keep on top of my online social life with Facebook and Twitter. I'm not sure I need a Buzz in it, too.

Luke is doing REALLY well with his potty training.  Have a look at my other blog for more details of that, along with his amazing gift to be able to shit numbers!  Awesome.

Luke's child-minder, Helen, is off sick at the moment and it's a proper pain in the arse at the moment.  Not the girls fault, obviously, she's recovering after having some sort of operation. I'm not sure what, but I'd love to know!

I've had my new phone for a month and a half now and I've only just worked up how to upload photo's to twitter from it.  I disappointed myself by taking so long to work it out. Dammit.

Speaking of my lovely Samsung Jet phone, my lovely wife has taken the plunge and binned O2 off in favour of the splendid Virgin Mobile, and she too, will be the owner of a Jet in the next few days.

I'm in work at the moment and it's dull. However, I need to wee, so I'll go and do that.


Speak soon kids, speak soon.