Month: June 2008

I Liked It, A Lot!!!

Thanks for the visit and the Birthday Wishes…It is much appreciated!
I actually liked The Mamas & Poppas version of that song, but I am not familiar with the group you mention. I will go and take-a-listen, Right Now!

Almost missed this one again ! Find the original Friday Fill-ins post here for links to more people.

1. A smile is something to be gladly given, returned with interest and treasured.
2. D&D, (although it can only loosely be called a board game!) is my favorite board or card game.
3. I would love to have more companionship in my life and less of the old bones telling me what I can’t do.
4. When I think of the Summer Solstice, I think of how many times I’ve missed the sunrise due to being dead to the world 🙂.
5. I just remembered I need to acquire a personal slave to do my washing up and other cleaning for me.
6. One of my favorite song lyrics goes like this: “All the leaves are brown, and the sky is grey … I went for a walk, on a winter’s day … I’d be safe and warm, if I was in LA … California Dreamin’, on such a winter’s day” – but sung by Siobhan Maher of River City People.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to watching telly cricket ! (well – watched one game with close finish, other one was rained off, so I watched Narnia instead), tomorrow my plans include watching more cricket ! (and Doctor Who) and Sunday, I want to chill out, relax, recharge, eat a proper meal !

In case you’re wondering why I say River City People instead of the more well known Beach Boys version of the Mamas and the Papas song, here’s a Youtube link to the River City People version. The band is great and Siobhan Maher looks fantastic as the glamour as well as having an amazing voice. There’s two albums, Say Something Good has California Dreamin’ on it which isn’t actually the best song on the album. The second album is This Is The World.

PS Their “Act Like A Child” song from This Is The World is the current song to be running around in my head. Tis Great ! I love that song.

You should have seen the West Indian fellas who were at the Bristol ground a few years ago. They were sitting in front of us, enjoying the game too. They’d come prepared, with what would have looked to the gate people like coke bottles … However we got the feeling there was more rum in them there bottles than coke 🙂

They were excellent value too those boys 🙂

Not quite a fruit smoothie 😉

I don’t suppose a healthy fruit smoothie goes well with the games eh?

Mouth ulcer, probably due to biting my lip at some point … It’s a self inflicted wound, so I try not to make too much of those. I suffer from too much acid too but can mostly ignore that. The too much acid is why I’m pretty much teetotal though.

Saying that though, the caffeine in coke tends to get me acting irrationally, whereas alcohol just tends to send me to sleep.

Lol “Why do you need Barbados when you have Old Trafford like this ?” – Paul Allott’s comment on it being wonderfully sunny in Manchester (Old Trafford) while the international game in Barbados is being delayed due to rain.

sounds like the perfect time for a week off!

and starting it off with cricket and a heathy meal seems like a good plan.

you have an ulcer!? you mention it so casually!!

We have the raised eyebrows and hushed whispers going on a bit at work at the moment …

The organisation I work for is going through a little bit of change as the things we’re expected to look after alter. So we get in a few more people on the one hand but lose a few on the other because there’s not enough spots for everybody. My job isn’t affected, although my role is a little different to what it used to be. There’s been steadily evolution in what I do as I get to work on certain topics that need “special” attention.

Ha – that makes it sound like I’m some sort of special troubleshooter doesn’t it 🙂 More like adaptable and able to turn my Electronics Engineering degree into more than what was in the coursebooks at uni. I’m not sure I’d like to be all senior and high up anyway like most of the glamourous troubleshooter people we hear about. I like the techie stuff and those people tend to be rather too highbrow to think anything other than “oo-kay” when they see what I’m interested in, whereas I like to dig into the detail.

Right – “crossfire” ? Well – that too many people thing is affecting a couple of the more senior people. One is very active, enthusiastic and appears to get things done in a manner best described as flamboyant. The other one doesn’t really give that impression. Different people, different ways of doing things. I don’t know that much about what’s going on there apart from an apt description of it being “trainwreck” and all the people on the team can do is watch from the sidelines.

Anyway – that all seems to be coming to a head now and I have next week off. My body was telling me a few weeks ago that it wanted a chance to rest and recharge and next week’s a convenient time for work and home stuff. Off to the races next Friday with mum, dad and sis.

Kinda glad I’m not near the firing line this time around like a few years ago. I learned a bit about defensive working that time. Otherwise known as making sure plenty of people know what you’re working on and that it’s your work, not the person who’s having trouble due to not doing much …

Time for more fun stuff now – I’m going to start my week off by crashing out in front of back to back cricket matches on telly ! I might even eat a sensible dinner too. Wednesday night was a few crackers and Thursday was popcorn. I have an ulcer at the moment which means I can barely open my mouth enough to fit a sandwich in, let alone anything fancier. I can last on biscuits for a few days because I have far too much in reserves (aka I’m chubby!) but it’s not healthy to eat like that for long.

We’ve seen those idiots here who go screaming everywhere in their cars and it irks me no end. The thing is, they do their speeding along city streets as well as on the Highways.

We’ve seen a fair few go screaming by us, and then 10 minutes down the street, they’ve been pulled over by the cops. Always makes me laugh.

We’ve been cutting down drastically on our use of the car though. Rising Gas prices have made this a necessity, and we’re starting to feel the hole in the pocket more than ever.

Been away for a few days because my sister and I took trips to my mum’s & dad’s place for Father’s Day. It was a good chance to check out the car on a long trip on motorways 🙂

The relaxed, no-effort feeling from it continued, it just takes everything in its stride. I think I may get a recurring feeling of a hole in the wallet though every time I fill it up. I’ve done two fill ups now, one was mostly urban driving and returned 30mpg, the other was mostly motorway and 35mpg. Not as good as my last car 😉

I’m typing this while watching the end of the first half of the cricket. Durham have a youngster bowling the pressure overs (2 of the last 3) and he’s doing really well. But he’s got a lot of pizzas to eat before he truly becomes a Shane Warne replica … There’s a few Dancing Girls at this game too, except I think they’re far more concerned about keeping warm up there than even getting out of the way when the ball comes their way.

Heh heh heh – it’s Twenty20 cricket – get those hard hats on in the crowd 🙂

Back to driving – I struggle to understand why there’s people who scream down the motorways, in more ways than just going 100mph+. All that happens is that they will :

• Run their car into an early demise
• Get tired due to the extra attention they’re hopefully giving
• Be stressed when they get stuck behind someone with the temerity to only be doing 75.

I prefer to just cruise and stay away from the morons. I learned from my Astra (aka The Buggy) that going for an 85mph average only led to bits dropping off the car (sometimes literally) and wouldn’t get you there any time sooner. 100 miles on a motorway at 70 takes 1 hour 26 minutes, going at 80 would only take 11 minutes off that, if you can maintain the extra speed. I still have the Need For Speed (no3 was a great game) but I’ve grown up to the point where I like to arrive relaxed and fresh.

Oh – IpodFM is still alive and well and working happily in the Focus 🙂