life

2 Jun 2011

10 Sep 2010

Its almost July and it's already to hot!

iTunes. Please, from the bottom of my heart, disable your annoying 'genius' feature on your software. 29 songs in 5 minutes. Far, far, to easy for me to buy stuff. Maybe you are working in cahoots with Amazon and the strategic email I recieve, every pay-day without fail. "We thought you might like...". It's evil. It truly is, they know what I want and when, they know when we've finished watched Supernatural and now need season four. The buggers.

But not this time. I've turned my personal email off all day in a bid to avoid the email.

That being said, I'll probably cave in later on and go on a mad 'clicking' spree and give the postman a hernia carrying the mail to the door.

Things are going well. You can definately see Jen's bump now which is growing by the day, she gets daily rubbage from me with the cocoa butter and so far only one stretch mark heh. It is also pay-day, which means for a whole 24 hours I don't need to worry about money! So tonight we'll live the highlight and raid the Asda at Eastlands again. Or Makro. Which is another annoying place. Its a big shop that sells to all the other shops and you need to have a membership card. Took six months but got one through the company I work for. Its a great place for getting huge bags of dog food and the like. However, I need dragging away from the kitchen section as you have woks the size of a small kitchen, coffee machines that laugh at starbucks and mixers which cost the same as a small house.

I've got a work experience person at the moment working for my department. Its been quite nice since I remember when I had to do work experience and how strange it was. So I've given him fun jobs like stripping computers for parts, installing new machines, wiring things and smashing up old harddrives with a claw hammer. He liked the latter one a little too much. He's also helped install a new CCTV system for me which was a help. I met his teacher today. P.E teachers always scare me. I think they were impressed I gave him actual serious work to do with me rather than making him sit at a computer and type all day. That being said I've given him the past 30mins to play around on facebook and download crap on the spare IT machine.

Hope everyone is equally as hot and sweaty as I am. I'll say no more about the weather :)

QotD: Endings

Do you think it's true that "All good things must come to an end?"

Depressing though the answer is, yes. Otherwise what would be the point? you would never appreciate anything since it would never end. Short & sweet moments to keep life exciting and thrilling and make those 'moments' all the more precious.

...

Does that mean I'm not allowed to bitch about the weekend being so short, ever again? pfft. Asides complaining and the weather, I'd have nothing else to blog about!

Friday randomness

I blinked and it became Friday. Partially because I had the day off yesterday. Although John from work summed it up, its not really a day off when you do the next days work the day before in the evening. Alas, it was the only way I could get time off, work till 10pm at night.

It was worth it though.

Jen has started going to her pregnancy Yoga thingie. Which, she assures me, is thoroughly knackering. I was so proud that with my hour and a half freedom, I picked up some flowers for when I picked her up, when she finished. We then had a lovely lazy day walking around the nice air conditioned Trafford centre, fighting past the zombie hoards of people collecing the new iPhone things.

They have a really good shop there, well, apart from Selfridges which I think is awesome, a place called Home Sense where they sell the most random things. I got a parker pen. I've never had a proper pen so its nice to have something posh to use in meetings and things.

Molly has started leaving presents of hair around the house.

Note to self: Return the favour and put beard trimmings in her basket.

This weekend we have a wedding to go to. Jen's uncle is getting married where they live in Salford. So should be nice although as always am nervous. I think the plan is then to head to Wales for the afternoon and collect various presents from my mum & dad, who've just returned from seeing the family in Holland.

I woke up at 8am. I though it was 6am. It was crap.Stuff like that always messes up the day!

Baby is now 5.6" and weighs 6.7 ounces.

I can't wait till mid-July for the 21 week scan. 21 week scan because they couldn't get a decent image last time so hopefully delaying it a week should make it clearer. Hopefully everything will be ok.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

I still will never understand...

I still will never understand extremes and British attitude. "Its freezing, I wish it was warmer!", then three day stretch of 21c weather, "Its to hot, I wish it was colder!". I'm guilty of it, everyone in Britain is guilty of it. Personaly, everyone in Britain is guilty of talking about the weather far to often. It is something I hate as I talk about it on a daily basis. I'm wondering where the cut off it, where everyone will stop talking about it being to hot, or to cold. A sort of purgatory weather system. Then. What would we have to talk about then? Our bad teeth?

...

The weather is lovely outside. I hope it keeps it up all the way to the weekend, I have sunburn on top of sunburn and I love it. I don't understand the nay-sayers who condemn walking in the sun, and in there perfect world we would all be pale skinned and hiss when we see sunlight. Its nice, warm and you feel charged for laying/walking/running around in the sun. Of course there is taking it to far and turning into a piece of leather, smelling of biscuits (fake tan) and solariums baking you to a crisp. I'm talking about lovely, glorious sunshine. Granted you may get skin cancer but then you might get hit by a bus. That argument works well for smokers, so I'll use that one.

I'm still feeling exhausted and ill from the BBQ on Sunday. The beef burgers are my primary suspect. So rather than fill you in on my bowl status, we'll leave it at that I'm in pain. Hopefully it'll stop and I can get a decent nights sleep, although good practive for the baby. Things are going well on the baby front. Jen's bump is growing by the day, the animals are being protective of her and she's started sleeping normally now as well. It is week 18 now, so thats mid-way through I think. Apparently the baby can hear things, so will try and sing some songs at her tonight. A few places have said if you play music to them in the womb, and they hear the song when they are born its soothing. I also learned that the reason why baby's kick when you stop moving is because the walking or moving you are doing keeps them soothed and calm, so naturally, when you stop they kick.

*thinks* so whatever song we use we'll probably end up hating from over playage. Best not make it an Ozzy song then heh.

Speaking of music. I managed to get one of my oldest albums onto the Laptop which am now listening to. Its significant because its the exact point where I started to notice music, and my tastes matured. Hmm. That doesn't sound right, it my head it does. Basically the first memory of listening to something that wasn't pop music or on the radio which caused me to follow a certain path of music.

It was a David Bowie album of all things. I got the cd in 1996? So I was all of 14. Still works now, so take that 10 year expiry date on cds!  I remember taping it and listening to it as I rode around on the motorbike I made with a friend at the time. Nice memories. Drive in Saturday? think thats the name of the song which I loved.

The other album was from a film called 'The Faculty'. It had Oasis, Creed, Garbage and The Offspring, which opened the doors to music like that. I'm avoiding using genres as I never understood how that worked, much easier to class music as 'Good' and 'Bad'.

I'm rambling so shall stop. But was nice to type as it always relaxes at the end of stressful day.

Weekend Report

It was a good weekend. As usual it flew by, which is a good thing & bad rolled into one.
Saturday involved an early morning trek to Stockport to find maternatey clothes for Jen. You get so much free stuff when your pregnant its unreal. The books they give you all contradict each other, they also have conflicting things that you can and can't do. I do find it funny, its an obvious area that people cash in on, where you need to have the 'best' thing for your child. The marketing is fantastic. It's something that I've started to notice more with my role at work. To appreciate good marketering when you see it.

Do you love your unborn child? if you really do they you'll spend hundreds on THIS device, otherwise they will grow up a freak and won't amount to anything in life.

Thats pretty much the gist of what they put out there. That being said, we will no doubt succome to this advertising and buy countless articles of clothes they will grow out of in minutes. Part of the fun. They had an awesome pirate costume. Which will have to be bought for halloween next year. Which has to be the best time of year ever.

The bank also made me chuckle on Saturday. After waiting in a shockingly long queue the very helpful teller asked, "Do you know the state of your account?". Why the hell else would I be wasting 20 minutes of my Saturday throwing money at the bank.

I also got a game called Left 4 Dead. Far to addictive shooting zombies.

Today we went to Cleeveleys. Or however you spell it. Its a less touristy version of Blackpool with a nice beach. Molly loved it, when we got there she jumped straight into a puddle and did mad little sprints everywhere.

You could even see Blackpool tower. And as you can clearly see Molly was smiling as she jumped, dived and rolled around in the sea. When we drove back we stopped at Jen's dad for fathers day and had an impromptu bbq. It was nice. I simply sat and took photos.

I'm so tired its unreal. 3 hours driving in the baking sun with some lovely sun burn.

Totally worth it. Hope everyone had an equally great weekend.

QotD: Eat Your Veggies

Today is "Eat Your Vegetables Day." What vegetable do you love to eat? Hate?

I like Carrots, and I like Brussell sprouts. But which one is better.. Fiiiiiggggghhhhttt.

In all seriousness it would more than likely be carrots. The way I always love cooking them which is done with some nice fresh ones. Peeled, put into simmering water, raise to the boil and then reduce to simmer again. Leave it for like 15mins, drain, put in some butter, cover and put back on the cooling hob, stick a lid on. Shake it about at bit and then then drain butterness into something, put down the carrots and then drizzle on top.

Particularly nice with a home made mini pie. I made some really nice ones last week, I did it with stewed steak and beans. A weird combo but so nice. I used puff pastry for the tops and yum. I had enough of it left over (puff pastry) to make some the next day for dipping in soup.

Today was good. I had first aid training at St Johns ambulance place. It is next door to the McVities factory and you could smell biscuits wafting in all day. It was lovely. It was good, I actually enjoyed it. I was the only one for the company going, so I made friends with the random 20 or so people there. Partly because I was used abused for every example. I had bandages on my head, arms, pretend to faint, example for recovery positions. It was amazing, they had an espresso maker which used fresh beans and it was free! I made a quadruple one and I was mimicking a hmming bird for the afternoon.

Long story short, I got a free pen, certificate (in the post) and I'm insured if some scum decide to sue me should they not be happy I administered first aid!

I wonder how I will react if I see something happening in the street. I suppose that is something everyone asks. How will you react if someone was in need of help in the middle of the street? I hope I don't freeze and I take charge. I certainly hope I dont turn the other cheek and pretend something isnt happening, like you hear about so often on the news.

I guess you never know till you are tested!

QotD: Those Were the Best Days of My Life...

What's the best summer you've ever had?

See. I want to say a recent one but none come to mind. Don't get me wrong, I've had countless great days in the summer, just not an entire duration. One that does come to mind is back in High School. See you appreciated it then, 10 weeks of school free days, no homework to hand it, no bullies, no nothing! Brilliant.

I used to work at my parents factory during the summer, being the bosses son I could always get away with murder. A lot of the workers there were good friends as well. The deviants of society, but they were almost like an extension of family as I would see them everyday from when I was 10 till well, 18 when I buggered off to uni. So this one summer, it was so hot that I chose to work outside with one of the other workers. For six weeks we had constant water fights, driving around on the quad bike to cool down, racing on the fork lift trucks and the best job of all, gathering up all the dissused cardboard and making a huge bonfire every week. Must of been when I was 12 or 13 as thats when I got the work permit from the council. See, was even paying the NHS money at that age!!

Today has been nice. The weather outside has been beautiful without a cloud in sight. The lunch time stroll was eventful as a butterfly decided to follow me along the path at the back of where I work. The only downside is I think I angered the sun burn on my neck again. A small price to be outside when the weather is like this.

I did do a rant about a certain university spewing out some rubbish about the philosophy of maths and cultural studies but shall bite my tongue.

Hope the weather is great the world over!

Tuesday. A step closer to the weekend.

I never quite understood work politics. It has always been something that I've steered clear of, however, I seem to get drawn into it more and more to protect my staff. Its the blame culture that I disagree with so much. I never quite understood why someone couldn't stand up and proclaim "It was me, I made the mistake", learn from it (depending on severity) and move on. Instead, people have to be devious and calculating which causes so much more hassle and messes with the office 'karma'. Leaving certain people in a corner where they have to correct the mess.

I've learned quite well to try and split personal and work into two different boxes. I'm a firm believer in 'clocking' off whenever you possibly can. A lot of my role, means working 12 hour days, so I try and take the breaks whenever I can, seriously. Its spilled into my personal life a few times now, with disasterous consequences. It is always quite terrifying, my work persona is 100% different to how I act in 'real life'. When there was a snow day at the start of the year, I had to work from home. Co-ordinating staff whilst I was repairing the telecoms system remotely caused me to go into work mode. I could only appologise to Jen's dropped face as she heard me shouting down the phone, rallying troops and arguing with various site engineers. My work persona is a twat. Arrogant, determined, very outspoken and outgoing. It has to be that way for me to survive and 'get up the ladder'. It work's quite well, and I know for a fact I wouldn't be where I am now without it.

Fortunately, the people that matter to me at work know who I am. Probably through one of the 'IT thank you days' where I take the select few out for lunch on me. I like those afternoons out. The one time where I pull rank and give everyone an hour and a free lunch. Also part of why I love doing the catering at work for the meetings, its fun & relaxing. I can also try out different foods for people, except vegitarians, and its a way of getting along with everyone.

It made me feel better typing that out. Work is a huge part of my life at the moment, something which I know I need to seperate a bit better to free up my life a bit more. Its a vicious cycle because it will involve hiring more people to delegate to, then spend my days buried in paper work which is something I loathe. Helping with new marketing ideas, programming and creating core systems is something I enjoy more.

And cooking. I should open a bakery. Or a resturant, although bakery would be fantastic because I could bake things all day. I'm aware there is probably more to it than that. Ok. So a bakery in Whitby or Scarborough, with a house and a seaview and I'll be quite content.

Complete subject change now. Yesterday after I posted I started looking at photos on the laptop. I noticed a few of JD when he was a puppy. It still amazes me how massive he is now. Own orbiting planets and everything!

Doggy 2 001

100_1259

I now miss JD. I think Molly misses JD, she is currently gazing out of the sliding door things, waiting for a cat to appear. Bark and then give me a heart attack. On purpose because that is what she loves to do.

Tea I think. Tea for all. And come dine with me. Both good things!