I have a good excuse

Yes, I know I said I would be posting over Xmas but I've been ill. Xmas day was nice, if slightly hectic, with a house of 12 people and everyone sat round together. It helped keep my mind off things (well, dad) but it still wasn't quite the same. I was just glad number one son and My Better Half were there. My Better Half's face lit up on Xmas morning when she opened her present... I got her a torch. (boom tish).
I then woke up at 06:00 Boxing day morning and commenced, every 15 minutes, to crap through the eye of a needle and throw up twice. I was a very sick puppy. I spent the entire day laid out on the sofa wrapped in a sleeping bag.
It's now the 29th and I'm still not 100%. I've hardly eaten, I've lost quite a lot of weight ('D' plan diet rocks. 'D' for diahorea), and I have no appetite. I'm down in London at the moment and will be driving back home tomorrow morning. In the afternoon both Mr. P. Senior (and family) and Mr. P. Junior will be popping over to see us so that'll be good.
I hope you all had a nice Xmas and you got all you wanted. I'll hopefully post again before 2010 but if not have a happy new year.
Peace.

-- Post From My iPhone

3 days and counting

Presents bought & wrapped. Work (what there was of it) completed. Now the wind down can officially start. I'm in the office today, tomorrow and then half of Thursday (until lunchtime) and then that's me done until January 4th. And I can't wait. No more worrying about anger-inducing emails from the U.S. No more getting up early to get into work. Bliss. Although it's only short lived (the time will fly by) I intend to enjoy it as much as I can.

I will be posting over the break (who said "Oh No!"?) but that really will be the only computer interaction I'll be having!

Have a lovely day.

Danger! Danger! Low motivation detected!

Indeed. I can't get going today. I do have two things I need to do. Neither will take me very long. I could probably make them last the day so I'm not sitting here bored but I just can't get going this morning. I'm currently re-reading Douglas Coupland's "The Gum Thief", and all I wanna do is sit here with a cup of tea, put my feet up, and lose myself in the book. *sigh*.

City lost last night. They were well and truly spanked by a very good Spurs side. So football is off the menu today.

I'm working from home tomorrow, and then at last it's the weekend. I have no game on Sunday, Jake might have a game on Saturday if the pitch is OK. So this weekend is going to be a quiet one, gearing up for Christmas by cleaning the house and stuff like that. I might even treat myself to a lie in if Jake has no game.

Jebus, what a boring post. Sorry. Have a nice Thursday.

Zombie weather again today

For all those who are not my one regular reader, I have often made references to 'zombie' weather. The sort of weather that's misty, damp, a bit chilly. The sort of weather you can imagine a horde of the undead shuffling out of toward your window. My new office is on a trading estate, so driving in this morning it enhanced the feeling of being in a zombie movie. The odd person wandering around on their own, darkness, mist, some building lights on. Dead spooky.

There have been a couple of comments about the Kevin 'Bloody' Wilson post... isn't it amazing how these songs have embedded in our conscience? I put the album on I got and as soon as songs like "Mick The Master Farter" and "Dicktaphone" came on, I was singing along to every word. And I haven't heard these songs for years!

In other news...
BIG game for City tonight. Jake has training, and then I'll be back at home sat in front of the footy with a beer or two screaming at the TV. Nerves nerves nerves.

Have a good Wednesday children.

Face like a nest of ants

That's how it feels right now with this beard on the go. I know I said last night that I was going to grow a beard for Christmas (that sounds like it could be a Christmas song) but by Britney's thong it's hard. I do this every time... my stubble starts off very short and prickly and damaging to My Better Half's face. Then it gets longer and softer to the touch, and then it get's to this stage - even longer but for some reason very very itchy. Almost to the point of it stinging. I will give it a couple more days, and if it doesn't improve or gets worse, I will wuss out again and shave it off. I do want to persevere though, as I think it'll be comical to see me with a proper beard. I could then shave it off and just have a manly mustache, like a 70's porn star but ginger.


In other news..
With 10 days left until the holidays, I have all but finished my shopping, which is nice. I have to get something for my mum (I know, what she really wants she can't have and she's not in the mood at all but I have to try and get her something, don't I?) and My Better Half and I need to get a last few bits for number one son, but apart from that I'm done.
I honestly don't know how I am going to feel about Christmas this year. It'll be the first one I have spent away from my parents (I mean ever. Every Christmas day since I've been born I have been with my mum & dad. This year I won't be) and obviously with my dad gone... I don't know. I might be fine and dandy, or I might be a mess.
But hey, let's not bring the mood down eh?

No plans tonight. City on TV tomorrow night (B I G game away against Spurs) and that's about all I've got planned this week.

Have a lovely Tuesday everyone.

Soundtrack of the day: The Bloodhound Gang and The Shins.

An evening post for a change

I just received an email from our manager - I was voted Man of the Match by the opposition on Sunday - so I'm really chuffed. I started the game, played in center midfield which is my normal position, worked hard, did a good job - but I didn't expect to be voted MoM. I could name two or three other players I would have voted for, but in this league, you vote for the opposition MoM so... well, there you go!

Number one son had a blast on Saturday evening - he went to something called the Chill Factore in Manchester. He didn't do the snow boarding or skiing, he did the party thing with the tubes and the luge... but he had an absolute blast. It was chuffin' freezin' though - because it's real snow, it's kept at -2.0 degrees celcius, and when you're stood around in it... Good gravy it was cold. I went to the loo and my nuts were like freeze dried peas. (Too much information Simon. I must work on that. My doctor says I need more control. Sorry.)

Anyway... that's about all for the weekend. This week, so far, not much happening. Work continues to be shite. Oh, and I'm growing a beard. I thought I'd see if I could keep it growing until Christmas. I'll keep you up to date. Maybe I'll post a photo of it as it is so far.

Take care everyone.

Ooh, ooh, soundtrack of the day tomorrow: The Bloodhound Gang - "Hefty Fine" (go to a web site and check out the album cover - it's superb). And, a greatest hits type of album by Kevin Bloody Wilson - those of you my age, from the U.K, will remember him ("Santa Claus you ****" and "Mick Me Mate The Master Farter"). So I should be laughing a lot at work tomorrow. Lord knows I have toss all else to do...

Peace.

It's been a while since I've had a good moan...

... and today's subject is house alarms.

You can probably guess why I'm having a moan about this - yes, somebody's house alarm was going off all this morning. And the pisser is, I actually saw the person who lives in the house leave for work this morning and THEN his alarm went off. How fcukin' inconsiderate. If you're going to use one of these pointless noise makers, at least make sure your house is locked and all windows and doors closed before you set the bloody thing. This one is quite a new one, so the siren is nice and loud and set at the right tone so that it goes right through you to the point of making a tiny little pin-prick of pain right behind each eye, like someone gently sliding hot, chilli-sauce-soaked kebab skewers through your eye balls.

Come someone tell me the point of these things? OK, OK, I know they are to alert people to a possible break-in at their home, but unless they are linked to the local cop shop, are they really any sort of deterrent? I mean, if someone was breaking into this twunts house (and they weren't) they would know that they had a good few minutes to get away with stuff before anyone showed up. And, if it was one of the more common ones that aren't linked to the local rozzers, they would have even longer as most people simply ignore the alarm thinking "Oh, it's gone off for no reason again".

When I lived down in London, my next door neighbor had one, and more than once it went off at stupid times of the night - usually when they weren't in. This was a little different, as the neighbor had given myself and their other neighbor a set of keys and the alarm code, so if it did go off we could go and investigate and shut it down. However, there are a couple of problems with this. 1 - if someone was breaking in, would I really want to confront them when it's not even my house? Fcuk no. 2 - why did it have to go off at stupid times like 02:30 in the morning? If I couldn't be arsed to get out of bed and investigate, it'd just go on and on and on and make sleep impossible. Which means I'd have to get up, get dressed, get armed (see point 1, above) and then go next door to see what was what.
And you know the really annoying thing? Every time either myself or my neighbor went to investigate the problem was an open door which had moved and disturbed the sensor, or a window left open, or once the loft access door falling open and setting it off. So our sleep is disturbed in a most horrible way for absolutely nothing. The ironic thing is, they actually did have a break in once. And the alarm wasn't set. Stupid, eh?

So anyway - if I get home from work before this ball bag tonight, and his alarm has been going off all day (My Better Half will let me know) I will be having words with him.

No post today

Not in the mood. Sorry.

Not much goin' on today

But I have finally finished that docu-bloody-mentation. I have to email the final two documents over to the U.S and then I'm done, done, done with it.

My Better Half is away for a couple of days, the dog is staying with my in-laws, so tonight and tomorrow night it's just me and number one son in the house. Tonight he has a doctors appointment (nothing serious) but tomorrow I think we'll go out for dinner somewhere. That should be good. I can get drunk and the faithful son and guide his legless father home.
I kid of course.

As for the weekend... I think I have a match Sunday, I'm going to watch City vs Chelsea on Saturday afternoon and that's about all I have planned so far.

See? Told you there's wasn't much going on.

Soundtrack of the day: The various albums by Disturbed, and also "The XX" by The XX.

In trouble again

But to be fair, I couldn't help myself. So now I don't think this particular young lady will be saying hello to me when she comes into our office anymore.

Case for the defense: I went upstairs to see the lady I thought was responsible for providing stationary as I needed a pen. I went to her desk and she wasn't there, but there is a young woman who sits next to her who, justifiably I thought, could work with her. So I stood in front of her desk, waiting for her to finish typing what she was typing so I could speak to her without interrupting. Now normally if someone is stood right by your desk while you are typing something you either finish that particular word / number you're keying and then look up at the person waiting to speak to you, OR you quickly say something like "give me two seconds, I just need to finish this while it's in my head" or something. This dizzy little tart did neither. She just sat there tapping away at her keyboard seemingly ignoring me with malice aforethought. "Fcuk this" thinks I. "*COUGH COUGH* HI THERE." She finally deigns to look up at me and say "Yeah?"
"Hi, sorry to disturb you", says I, "but I need a pen - can you help me?"
"No. You need to speak to Dorris". Now the lady's name I actually need to talk to is Karen, but she is known as Dorris. If I hadn't overheard someone else call her that the other day, I wouldn't know that. But I thought "Fcuk you, I ain't being helpful seeing as it seems this is REALLY putting you out" so I said "Who?"
"Dorris. Karen. She does pens". (Pointing at this Karen's desk).
"Oh" says I. And with that she goes back to her tip-tap-tapping on her keyboard.
Now this is where I should have just said "Right, thanks" and walked away. But no. Not me. I leaned down so she had no mistake I was not done with her (not aggressively so, I mean, I'm not a psycho, but I leaned in enough so it was obvious I had something more to say), and with a big, sarcastic, shit-eating grin on my face I said "Thank you very much, you've been SO helpful". And when she looked up at me with a slightly shocked look on her silly face I dropped the smile to a dead serious face and then walked away. *sigh*. So now when she comes down to our office (which she does with unfortunate regularity) I doubt she'll be smiling and saying good morning to yours truly. People eh? Fcukers.

In other news...

Number one son has training tonight, and then City are on t'telly in the Carling Cup quarter finals. So tonight it's a case of standing in the cold and wet watching my little footballer and then getting home in time to crack open a beer and sit on my arse watching the box.

No plans for the rest of the week.

Soundtrack of the day: All sorts. I've been hitting the random button a lot and normally if I'm not in the mood for a particular album, I'll skip it, but this time I'm letting fate decide my soundtrack.
Peace.
Update: I edited this because I seem to over use commas. I must,control,this.... sorry. I must control this urge.

I wasn't gonna moan about this again but...

I hate my fcukin' job at the moment!
I know, I keep going on about it, and I know you're all sick to death of hearing it, but it's my blog and I want another moan.
I am STILL not doing the job I am hired to do - i.e. develop applications. I am still sitting here writing pointless bloody technical documentation that no fcuker will ever read or make use of.
There is still no hint or word of any upcoming work. And one of the worst parts? The job market is dead at the moment and so there is no way out of this current hell. I haven't even got any leave left to take so I can't even take a few days off to escape the drudgery. *sigh*. Moan over.

In other news...
The first frost of the season hit the house this morning - car covered in frost and needing to be de-iced, roads slippery, bundled up in thick coats and gloves... it'd be lovely if it was Christmas morning, but when you have to get to work, it's a bitch.

The only plan I have for this week is taking number one son training on Wednesday night. Apart from that I'll be staying in, and enjoying the fire (which I now know how to light and it's lovely to sit in front of).

So, have a nice Tuesday (those with jobs you actually enjoy!) and I'll post more soon.

Peace.

Update: Forgot, soundtrack(s) of the day: "Behind The Music" by Soundtrack Of Our Lives (recommended by Noel Gallagher) and "Magpie" by Stewart Fretwell. Both exceptional.