Welcome to my world.

Urgent breaking DIY News. I have a downstairs toilet, its plumbed in and everything… But has yet to be christened...

Starting to get a bit bored of all this crap now… I feel like its been ages, and technically it has been (5 weeks now), but as its been winter and dark in the evenings (you know how difficult it is to paint in artifical light?) I have mostly been working weekends, so its barely been 2 weeks worth. Not bad for 3 rooms and a shit-load of clearing out. This week, plumbing and tiling. I have however decided to delay the final bits of the kitchen and bathroom until the Summer because I think I had given myself too much work with 5 rooms to do up in total...

Both kitchen and bathreem have been decorated since we moved in, but they have some finishing touched needed to make them complete. As these involve woodworking and probably a fair amount of hard-core sawing, its probably wisest to do this in the garden… In summer...

So, in the meantime I have completed the downstairs storeroom, and now we are most of the way through the downstairs WC (which really was a Manky old room when we started, It was fitted with the original bathroom furniture from when they built the house in the 70's and looks like it hadn't been redecorated since the early 90's at the least, worse than all that, it was a toilet with a carpet! Hands up who doesn't want to imagine that!!! I am sure Steeeeve can vouch for this). So yeah, the WC was always on the list for a redecorate, but it was one I was able to delay, right up until the toilet broke and it became a vacant room in the house, unfit for purpose.

So we ripped out the old stuff, the boxed in pipework that made it next to impossible to get to the stop-cock and cistern and all the rough woodwork that impaled your hands with splinters everytime you flushed, we ripped out the carpet, we picked lighter colours (that terracotta/peach… not too hard), and the last few weeks we have been painting, tiling and plumbing, tonight we add the sink, and then I need to grout the walls and re-grout the floor (I get to do it because nobody wants to help with that… and who can blame them…

After that, we are putting some edging tiles up, a mirror and shelf and then I need to pick and add a towel rail and toilet roll holder that will look good with it all, and then… Voila… job done.

Now all I need to do is fight off this nervous panic attack at the thought of completing in time for the girls return in a week and a half.

Next weekend. The trials and tribulations of the Ikea quest...

Once upon a time I worked in a shop.

It seemed like a great idea at the time. And, I feel, a direct result of my Careers Advice.

Careers Advisor; "What do you want to do when you leave school?"
Me; "I want to draw and write professionally."
Careers Advisor; "Don’t be stupid. It says here you work in a Shoe Shop on Saturdays, lets go with that."
Me; "But…"
Careers Advisor; "Nobody makes a living as a writer. Now shops, people will always want to buy stuff."

*Sigh* And so went a significant portion of my life. It’s a side effect of the times. Back then in 1988/89 there was a Teachers Strike on, which really cocked things up for the kids getting close to graduation, as the Teachers barely gave us any attention unless we were exceptionally talented or exceptionally dim. Those of us falling into the average group (I feel) definitely suffered through the experience.

Anyway, I went on to study Retail and Distribution at college, and then Business and Finance, leaving after 3 years in 1992 into the bloody recession that was raging at the time. And as a result (and already disillusioned with the idea of working as a shopkeepere the rest of my life), I found myself unemployed for a year. My plan had been to work and build a pot of money, and then to go to University after a year out. But the absence of job rather screwed that over. Its not only the job mind, I have used that as an excuse for years but its only half the reason, I was relatively inactive during this period anyway.

But I eventually found a job in Boots Opticians as an assistant, and found a nice niche. And over the years between Boots Opticians and Vision Express between 1993 and 1998, I worked hard. I slowly advanced to senior sales assistant, In-Store Trainer, and then supervisor. And I thought I had my career planned out. I was pushing for a management opportunity, but back then I didn't drive. And I kepot hitting the same brick wall, the Area Manager was a firm believer in moving internal promotions to new stores. As far as he was concerned if you had worked alongside people you would be too chummy with them to enable you to be a manager. (the argument falls over when you take public transport into account, but hey!)

Problem was, we were in a bit of a bind. The Store Manager had recently been sent to prison for fraud and theft, and the Retail Manager had been sacked for punching a customer. We started burning through replacement managers fast, the store seemed to have been cursed in regards to the guys in charge. In effect we didn't have a manager, we had no candidates that wanted to take on the store, and eventually the company resorted to sending in managers from other practices to work with us for a week at a time, but soon even these visits dwindled to 'between 10-4' and then 'for 3 days a week'… As supervisor I found myself key-holder, in charge of alarm codes, opening and closing the store, and as the visiting managers ceased the Area Manager had to change his mind.

And so I found myself a 'Trainee Manager' with no senior management or training structure and a bloody shop to look after. I thought that this was a promotion, I thought I knew what I was doing, I even thought that I had already been doing it. Shit. I hadn't even got a pay-rise out of it, just a shit load of extra hours and responsibility. Needless to say I failed, and in the process it did a nice little number on my ambition, and I have been unable to get anywhere near that level ever since. But it worked out fine for the shop mind, buying them just enough time to sort stuff out and as I collapsed into stress and depression and found myself handing my notice in and not caring it was the end of an era. Thankfully I got over the worst of the depression relatively quickly, and was able to return to general population even if its after effects continue to this day.

In hindsight I got lucky (ish). Shop work is crap pay, always has been. And my resignation pre-empted the extended shopping hours that we see now, It was bad enough loosing every Saturday at the time, I really wouldn't want to loose the whole weekend, or work until 8pm like the current crop of shop workers do… Not ALL the time, and not without over-time rates. And as a direct result of wearing suit and tie for 5-6 days week for 5 years I STILL hate wearing a tie to work.

There are some positive I suppose. I admit that as a direct result of spending 5 years working every Saturday, I enjoy doing bugger all on them, and for many years I often had extra holiday available at the end of the year as I never seemed to use them, as I was having all my R&R on Saturdays (this is starting to change I now realise, but it has been over a decade…)

But the follow on effects of all this are still affecting my I feel. My salary is struggling and certainly below average (but then so are those of a great many people), I have fallen into an Admin role and found myself unable to climb out of this wherever I may be, even though I do try. But biggest loss of all, and probably the cause of the other two woes; my ambition has never really recovered from the experience or the depression… And I have never found myself with enough confidence in myself to reclaim it.

OK, so I ordered the Monkey; Journey to the West album off Play.com...

And it arrived today. At least thats what the packing order said.

So instead of this CD cover;



I was rather surprised to find instead;


Yeah.  I'll be sending that one back.  

On the plus side, customer services was particularly quick and efficient, but I havn't completed the return yet in that I need to get into the post office to resend.

But.  Odd.  The genres, hell, the covers are nothing like each other...  Someone at the packing warehouse was on a FAIL tip that day (and in trouble with some irrate gangsta's probably...)

This year is an election year. Hell we have less than half a year until the decision to change government or not has been made.

So. Who here is going to vote? It doesn't matter who you vote for, I simply mean to ask who here is going to go to a poll (whether it be phsically going or having set up a postal vote) and make their mark against a candidate, and in so doing be part of the democratic process.

If you have decided not to vote is this a new thing and why are you not exercising your rights?

Lets have at it.

So its cold but not freezing at 2 degrees, with a bit of wind-chill, but most importantly its damp and wet, the air is ultra damp, like it has all the moisture of rain but cant really be arsed with all that falling from clouds business, and the cold dampness feels like a wet fish slap getting everywhere so you find yourself unable to get warm… And slowly, inevitably, you find yourself slipping into a maudlin state of miserable.

In the meantime any commute kicks up the mucky spray and slowly obscures your windscreen leaving you hoping that you have enough screen wash to last the trip (this is even more fun on those slightly colder mornings when the nozzles have frozen over…

And so you are left with an overcast steel grey sky, no sun, no warmth and a permeating dampness that cheels you to the bone. And everyone you meet has a mood to match.

Now THAT’S the face of the standard crappy British Winter that we all know so well. None of this snow business that took us all by surprise over Christmas. Makes you almost wish for the snow to come back. Almost.

As an amusing aside. Day After Tomorrow was on at the weekend, and I happened to channel hop across it just as they dealt with the demise of the UK, where a fake news report spoke of devastation after 24 hours of non-stop snow, and the general sense of panic that clogged up the roads and ground the country to a halt in the face of all the frozen water... And to think that people have suggested that Roland Emerich is a crackpot making movies with no basis in reality, eh? Turns out he was a visionary!!! Visionary I tell you. (of course we only really need to worry when they dig up a Mammoth fossil over by the pyramids, that one I grant was a tad far-fetched) ;p

Back in School I once won a jar of sweets on a guess how many in a jar competition.

First time I bought a lottery ticket I won a tenner. I bought a few lottery tickets over the years since to no avail, but last year played online during a particularly high jackpot… And ended up winninh £30 over a couple of weeks… I think there is still a bit of money there having not yet been spent on less successful tickets.

Over the years there have been some odd wins here and there. A copy of Wild at Heart on VHS, a book or two, and the interesting thing was that I wasn't really going arse over tit in entering competitions here either, although sometimes I was more active than others.

Last year my bother-in-law pointed me at a website that runs a particular magazine publishers competitions, and while some of the cars and holidays would be nice I have so far won a Land Rover branded shirt and a packet of caterpiller killer tablets (yeah I don’t know why I enetered that one either), the Brother-in-law has been more successful with a couple of hundred quid of snowboarding gear and a pair of waders.

But then last year we picked up a 10-pack box of eggs. And every single one was a double yolker! Every-one. All 10. I mean WTF?!?! What were the odds of that happening with a normal carton of eggs? I think I just used up a lifetime supply of luck there… Bugger!

The competition website BTW is; http://www.greatcompetitions.co.uk/
I recommend it, and a damned site cheaper than sending a stamped addressed envelope or a postcard.

Oh. I made Jambalaya on Friday. One of my favourite cajun dishes, inviting my best mate and his wife over. And the meal was a great success. So I have now found my new favourite recepie, thank to Saturday Kitchen; http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/mommasmeatjambalaya_76386.shtml (although I did make a couple of alterations, the spice list was the same, but the measurements were close appoximations, and I didn't mix the rice in to cook as I used the rice cooker and mixed it up on the plate…)

I heartily recommend. Hell, I am going to make it again as soon as possible. Yum. Damn, I want to make it now!!!

Anyway afterwards we sat down and watched QI, which was bloody deadly what with the revelation of just how irresistably delicious the Giant Tortoise was and the sheer amount of pant-wetting humour that David Mitchell made out of that. I was laughing so much that it hurt!

Did some decorating this weekend on the cloakroom cupboard and downstairs WC. Hovering around the edges of these 2 jobs however is the final push to tidy the edges in the Upstairs bathroom (finishing fixtures that are tied into the downstairs WC) and living room (hiding a repaired hole in the wall with a fixed mirror), along with the finishing touches in the kitchen (this last one I am probably going to leave til the summer, as its lots of wood sawing, and that'll be better done in the garden).

Plan is, however, that most of this will be done in the next 2-3 weeks before the girls come home. Which would be a load off and make our house really nice.

This left me with the sudden realisation that on completion this would mean that only my study/playroom and the hallway are left to do.

That'll be it. All done… In theort, I could have redecorated every room in the house by the end of the year…

… In theory...

Of course once all that is done I get to start thinking about cavity wall insulation, sloped roof on the porch/porch extension, better patio dooors, replacing the boiler (which is scary is it may also infer a replacement of the heating system)… Oh bugger...

#1. If only I could do something about parking at our house, that'd be favourite, but location and road layout are against me on that one as I dont even have the road upside the house...

#2. Oh, those DVDs I ordered didn't get delivered on Saturday, so I guess thats my weeks entertainment sorted instead... Could you already tell?

Excalibur? At £2.99 on play.com?

Whatever were they thinking?

Also ordered. Leon; Directors Cut, Dead Set and Robocop; Directors Cut. All for less than £20.

Thats a few more clapped out VHS tapes that can be disposed of, and a hell of a retro movie weekend coming...

I admit it, its been a while since I was last in the cinema. A couple of years… Last film I went to see was Iron Man. And while going to the cinema used to be a semi-regular night out for us, married life and mortgage had made it increasingly difficult to find the time and money. But back in the day, all the way through college I worked in the early multiplex's (way back in the early 90's), and so have fairly fond memories of the behind the scenes shenanigans, along with an enduring love of watching the film on the big screen.

So. I have booked tickets for Avatar at the local VUE

WTF??!?! Let me get this straight. Because this is a 3D movie, you are going to raise the ticket price by £2. Really? Last time I saw a 3D movie at the cinema it was the crappy Nightmare on Elm Street one, and TBH I am a bit dubiuous about the concept that this raised price is paying for the tech, because quite frankly if people are going to pay out here, its just going to end up in a raised ticket price in the end… Still the price includes the new 3D specs right?

NO? So that extra surcharge is just for the privilige of a movie in 3D? This had better be good y'know… If anyone starts waving shit at the camera/audience just to show its in 3D (ish) I am going to be pretty annoyed. I also approciate that this is an optional charge… So that’s £10.60 a ticket plus 80p for glasses. A grand total of £11.40 a seat. And I cant even sit in my favourite spots either. Because the central seats where the sound is best and the screen at optimum distance are now registered as 'VIP seats' for which the cinema charges an extra couple of seats. VIP seats? Unless they are leather seats with massage function and waiter service to the concession stand then that is a bloody swindle.

Hypothetically you could pay this extra cash for a VIP seat and still be sat with a common oik either behind or in front, who could ruin your movie by either talking through the film or kicking the back of your VIP-chair… Not so special now huh?

And lets not get started on the worthless student/age-related discount. Although I do notice that they now have 2 kid discounts. Child and Teenager.

And then to top it all off. Having booked in advance over the internet. Bypassing a member of their staff, with the ability to collect the tickets from an automated machine, and with the requirement that we usher ourselves to our seats. So in effect working as free Box-Office and Usher staff on an idividual basis, for that saving to the cinema chain we have to pay a 'booking fee'. That’s right, they still apply the credit card admin fee that only gets charged on these really low prices, fine back when the tickets were about £5, but these days with a £20 plus price it’s a bit-fucking-much…

You know what? I am taking my own drink and sweets.

Rule #12.7 sub section C

As many of you are aware we men live by a set of rules. They are un-written and often even unspoken. But just because of this does not mean that they dont exist, and man can get quite dis-gruntled should these rules be broken... Although like the rules themselves, such annoyances must remain unspoken...

Its very simple really. When visiting the facilities for the purposes of taking a pee, it is recommended that users should stand in a staggered formation; ! urinal in use, next at rest, use, fallow... and so forth. This expectation is even more important when there are a small but even umber of recepticles. On no account, with an available rack of 4 units and 1 current user occupying the first space (unit #1) should user no. 2 walk right to the end (unit #4), he should instead go to unit #3. Thus not standing too close to the original user to cause dicsomfort, but not so far away as to cause offence. This also has a bearing for the hypothetical third user. With units #1 and #4 occupied this third participant is required to now decide which of the 2 incumbants to stand next too... But at least under the 'rules' with units #1 and #3 in use, there is simply no choice but to opt for unit #2 between the current users, as is only fair...

Its just not done to stand in #1 and #4. NO. WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING?!?!?!

All of this is hypothetical. But consider for a moment the added dilemma, when upon commencing flow, I was struck upon a sudden urge to fart too. Which during a pee is a process that is fraught with tyerrifying possibilities.

No. I didn't follow through, which was fortuous, and allowed me to snigger smuggly.

For the ladies. be warned. Next time you ask your fella "What are you thinking?" be damned sure you want the real answer, because most of the time it will be on this level... If we say "Only of you..." Chances are we just want a quiet night watching the telly. Although this is actually covered under rule #374.2

OK, so I caved in and purchased the iTouch. And was pleasantly surprised to find that 24 hours later on New Years Eve it was delivered.

Less pleasant however was the massive struggle with iTunes. Its annoying really as i would dearly love to have not bothered with that software, didn't want it, and was only accepting it into my life begrudgingly.

Yes. I did look at the iTunes support website, no the solution wasn't there, and it was bloody annoying atht their phone based customer services was only supporting the USA and Canada? WTF?!?!

In the end, after a massive hunt for a solution, involving an entire thread devoted to just this problem based on iTunes version 9 from last September I just could not get any of the suggested fixes to work, and 3 days later I gave up, and took the damn thing back and got a refund. Because quite frankly the amount of shit involved in trying to add something I didn't bloody want to support something I did was too damn annoying.

I REALLY dislike iTunes now.

Now of course i have to take the iTouch cover back for a refund (just as soon as the snow clears) as it was delivered seperately and is of no use to me without an iTouch in it. Sorry Steve Jobs, but y'knoiw if you REALLY want to control the MP3 market, you could consider making iPods compatible with non-iTunes sources... At the very least allow us to setup with a setup disc...

So I do now have a surplus budget of £225, with which I am now looking at the possibnility of getting a new MP3 player, Digital Camera and punt a toe into a satnav?

Anyone got any suggestions?

I suspect that being a BBC video this one is just for UK readers. International viewers will see the new Matt Smith Doctor Who preview when it sneaks out on You Tube in about... ohhh 10 minutes or so,

A follow up to the MP3 player query yesterday...

I have succombed to the evil of the iPod Touch. It looks really purty and got an awfuly nice mouth... erm, no wait... ahem. Sorry about that.

Anyway. All the lovely looking tech aside, I have managed to retain my phobia of iTunes, it was a devil I was prepared to deal with to get to play at the iTable, but it seems that I am to be excluded!

The problem is that the software does not want to install correctly, I get the .exe download from the apple website as advised on the leaflet that comes with it (because no install disc is included, thanks for that bit of genius Steve Jobs...), and once I start, the install even seems to go ok, and eventually tells me that it has installed correctly...

...And then a couple of seconds later it changes its mind due to 'Error Code 7' Unfortunately without a bloody download disc or anything resembling a user manual (apparently it would be available during the iTunes device intall) the damn thing is just no good to me.

If error code 7 turns out to be a black list of people who said nasty things about iTunes...

And the 'great' thing about having it delivered at 4pm on New Years Eve? Impressive as it is to get your kit delivered in just over 24 hours on new-years-frickin-eve, it does unfortunately mean that I cant really do anything with it until Saturday...

This had better be one sweet bit of techie kit, thats all I can tell you. :(

I think its going to be a quiet one this year. I know my sister has a party planned, but I think that we would be better served putting the baby to bed, sitting on our new sofa and watching Jools Holland have a Hootenanny on the telly with a nice glass of wine for a bit of a change.

I suspect that this may be a fairly common occurance for most of our friends this new year... Eventually however what with all the kids we will be able to get back into a new routine for the holiday season once they are all old enough.

Anyone doing anything interesting for new years or is Staying In the big to-do for everyone...

It was amusing watching the news this morning where they discussed this issue, with the Daily Mail columnist suggesting that 'going out was the new staying in' I missed the next bit as I was too busy shouting the stipid bitch down for being overly pretentious.

And then to top it off when asked where the good place to be was for new years she started suggesting that the Carribbean was were all the first name basis celebs were hanging out. Missed. The. Point.

arg. Just in time for 2010 I have now renewed my dislike of celeb-spotter journo's is there a bigger waste of oxygen? I think not.

My 5-year old Creative Zen seems to be dying a death, with the battery barely lasting a couple of commutes...

And this morning it seems to have just given up. :(

So I am starting to think about treating myself here, and so I turn to you dear readers to let me know what you think is the best MP3 player out there, I tried to avoid an iDevice but am considering caving in mostly because all the bloody docks are Apple and I am sorely tempted with an iPod Touch just to start playing with Apps...

What think you?

Watched the GI Joe movie today...

So its a big budget chop-socky movie. It was never going to be anything resembling a masterpeice, and we got exactly what it was a toy tie-in movie playing to the next generation toys and the nostalgia of us 80's kids.

Although I have to say, that when they story-boarded the movie, surely someone in the room must have been aware of Team America and should have mentioned this when they thought that blowing the shit out of Paris and the Eiffel Tower was a good idea.

Because quite frankly the two movies are pretty interchangable...

"No Hawk, dont listen to the Baroness. Shes only ACTING!"

So yeah, I was entertained... But unfortunately some of this entertainment came from my mind overlaying Team America dialogue at inoportune moments...

You'll have to excuse me now. Its time for a montage.

So. The snow came, and laid it on thick. And almost immediatly the system broke down and travel chaos ensued...

Now I know that there are those of you on the Continent, or over in the USA and Canada who can lay claim to much, much thicker snow than anything the UK can give, but the thing is that we have 2 factors at play here that made this situation worse.

1. It was unexpected. Its christmas week, and quite frankly we have not had a white christmas since (I think) 1973... Shit, I couldn't even rememeber that one what with being 1 at the time.
But lets face it, as a nation we have become acclimatised to the ideal that a white christmas was not really very likely...

2. The UK has the gulfstream, and this affects the weather systems of this little island, and as a result, heavy snow is very light and often limited to only a couple of days only in the whole year. Unlike continental Europe or Northern American Continent where snow can lay and be a factor for months. This means that our driving experience is limited, and that most snow-driving precautions (specialist tyres and the like) are just not worth the money, to put on only to take 'em off again a week later.

So when you get snow like yesterday it DOES cause a certain amount of shit... Short term shit, all over everything...

For myself, I knew the car was low on petrol, so I just decided to call it quits and rather than get stranded with no fuel in the traffic jam, I just left it at work and looked to the trains. Which wasn't too bad.

The rail network was a bit late, and snow-going on foot, but eventually I made it to mum and dads.

However the roads were still gridlocked. We knew it was bad but didn't realise QUITE how bad until today...

http://www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/news/4815108.Blizzard_hits_Basingstoke/?ref=mr

Anyway, its fortunate that Li was in London yesterday, and as a result grandparents were baby-sitting, and so getting to their house put the whole family together, and eventually we just decided to call it quits on that and settled down for the night... Which it seems was several times better than many other people had it.

All in all, we ended up not getting home until about 1pm today. After a change and a shower I didn't see the point in getting to work. So I'll go in tomorrow. With any luck being that close to crimbo, we wont be seeing many people bothering to go in and I'll have a reasonably clear run on nicely gritted roads all the way home with a piot-stop for petrol.

And I think if this happens regularly snow chains for tyres might be a good idea...

So, the roads are gridlocked, hell, looking out the window, the damn car-park jammed too. So what with all this snow panicing people left and right.

What are the odds on a white christmas now... First since god knows when?

Or. Do you think it'll warm up a bit and start raining on Wednesday and melt the bastard snow so that we cant even get that out of it?