It's time for more pics
Their all from the last day of the conference. Have some fun. See if you can come up with a interesting caption for them ( yes I'm currently that bored)
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Make your own caption
It's time for more pics
Their all from the last day of the conference. Have some fun. See if you can come up with a interesting caption for them ( yes I'm currently that bored)
They'll kill me for this
He, he, he. Well after all of the writing this week I'd thought I'd do something different and show you some pics. And what better way to start it off then to show you some pics of Nemesis and ES. So later.
(Once they see these. I am so dead)
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
I've had it with that question
Well it's pay day tomorrow. Yaaaa!!!!!!!!!! I finally have some cash again. But back to the point I'm sure your wondering which question I'm referring to.
Well it a effort to make the maximum use of my resources I used the scanner at work so I could scan in a copy of the Leicesterites who were at the ball at the YSA conference ( It's in the post below if you haven't noticed it.) One of the design team had quick look and made a comment along the line s of he was glad to see I wasn't exaggerating when I had said on the way out of the door on Friday that I would be spending the weekend with many beautiful ladies. . He then asked which was I was dating and when I admitted none, he came out with my oh so favorite question " Why are you single?" I simply smiled grimly and said I didn't know whilst resisting the urge to use the scanner to batter him round the head. From the look on his face I'd say he pretty quickly realized that he hadn't just put his foot in it, he'd put on combat boots, gone to the top of the building and leapt off landing in it. I wish it, I really wish that it would be as easy to solve as everyone seems to think, as it is starting to get a little embarrassing that grumpy is having more luck then me! Oh who am I kidding it's getting very embarrassing, even if though he started that in a attempt to be spiteful and it has since developed into what seems like a game of tit for tat. Although to be honest I've completely giving up what's trying to go on there. So to get back onto the point, if it is as simple to solve as everyone makes out someone let me know how pleaseeeee!!!!!
Well Grumpy was moaning last night that the house was starting to smell. I asked him in what way. He said that the kitchen spelt of wet washing and was getting worse and he had no idea why. I then pointed out the large basket of washing that I had left for him to put out over the weekend and he hadn't. There was a long pause, and then he argued that I hadn't pointed out to him that it needed to be put out. Apparently I shouldn't have assumed that he would notice it and that a wet laundry smell wouldn't lead him to the basket of wet laundry. Go figure! He also then complained later that the house still smelt and now matter how much he sprayed this air freshener/neutral oder stuff the house still smelt the same. I couldn't smell anything so he described the smell to me and I immediately realized what the problem was. The smell he was trying to get rid of by constantly spraying the air freshener around was in fact ( yes you've guessed it) the smell of the air freshener. I think there's only one word for this and that is D'OOHHH!!
The new series of "Supernanny" started last night, or as it should be titled "Supernanny - why I'm so very very glad their not my kids". Well the first episode was, well there's no other word to describe it apart from horrifying! Particruly with one child where the mother told him that she would be glad when he went into a home! What the .......! As the saying goes it was pure car crash TV.
anyway after all the massive amount of writing yesterday I can't think of anything else to say so
later!
Well it a effort to make the maximum use of my resources I used the scanner at work so I could scan in a copy of the Leicesterites who were at the ball at the YSA conference ( It's in the post below if you haven't noticed it.) One of the design team had quick look and made a comment along the line s of he was glad to see I wasn't exaggerating when I had said on the way out of the door on Friday that I would be spending the weekend with many beautiful ladies. . He then asked which was I was dating and when I admitted none, he came out with my oh so favorite question " Why are you single?" I simply smiled grimly and said I didn't know whilst resisting the urge to use the scanner to batter him round the head. From the look on his face I'd say he pretty quickly realized that he hadn't just put his foot in it, he'd put on combat boots, gone to the top of the building and leapt off landing in it. I wish it, I really wish that it would be as easy to solve as everyone seems to think, as it is starting to get a little embarrassing that grumpy is having more luck then me! Oh who am I kidding it's getting very embarrassing, even if though he started that in a attempt to be spiteful and it has since developed into what seems like a game of tit for tat. Although to be honest I've completely giving up what's trying to go on there. So to get back onto the point, if it is as simple to solve as everyone makes out someone let me know how pleaseeeee!!!!!
Well Grumpy was moaning last night that the house was starting to smell. I asked him in what way. He said that the kitchen spelt of wet washing and was getting worse and he had no idea why. I then pointed out the large basket of washing that I had left for him to put out over the weekend and he hadn't. There was a long pause, and then he argued that I hadn't pointed out to him that it needed to be put out. Apparently I shouldn't have assumed that he would notice it and that a wet laundry smell wouldn't lead him to the basket of wet laundry. Go figure! He also then complained later that the house still smelt and now matter how much he sprayed this air freshener/neutral oder stuff the house still smelt the same. I couldn't smell anything so he described the smell to me and I immediately realized what the problem was. The smell he was trying to get rid of by constantly spraying the air freshener around was in fact ( yes you've guessed it) the smell of the air freshener. I think there's only one word for this and that is D'OOHHH!!
The new series of "Supernanny" started last night, or as it should be titled "Supernanny - why I'm so very very glad their not my kids". Well the first episode was, well there's no other word to describe it apart from horrifying! Particruly with one child where the mother told him that she would be glad when he went into a home! What the .......! As the saying goes it was pure car crash TV.
anyway after all the massive amount of writing yesterday I can't think of anything else to say so
later!
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
YSA Convention final thoughts or " Hasn't he shut up yet"
So I'm sure that some of you might be getting the idea that I didn't enjoy things. Far, far from it. I had a absolutly fantastic time and I wished it had gone on for longer. But what did I get from this weekend.
Good Things :
A healthy appreciation for just how unbelievably cool the Leicester YSA are and I would not change them for anything in the world
I can now legimately say that there was a girl who had her hands over me and I'm not technically lying :-)
I can also say that another girl fell into my arms and also not be technically lying ( she slipped on a wet floor while in heels and I caught her.
I fulfilled my goal and talked to someone outside of the stake
I took part in all of the activities and only missed one due to unavoidable circumstances
I now understand the M56
good motorway practice
a weekend away from everything
bad things :
I didn't make friends enough with a new person to exchange email or mobile numbers.
I allowed some things to bug me immensly when I should have let it go.
I let my shyness over ride some urges to speak to people
I could have stayed up later and taken part in some of the 'unofficial activties'
I need to learn to stop and ask for directions sooner.
What I'll change for next years convention:
Get a new digital camera. our current one is rubbish
Take some cordinal and more munchies. Will help with the social aspect of things.
be more tolerent.
be more open and talk to new people. The worst they can do is to tell me to sod off.
Get footwear that doesn't collapse on me
Learn to ceroc.
beg, borrow, steal or just plain bribe someone to come with me as a passenger. That journey is long and boring by yourself
Good Things :
A healthy appreciation for just how unbelievably cool the Leicester YSA are and I would not change them for anything in the world
I can now legimately say that there was a girl who had her hands over me and I'm not technically lying :-)
I can also say that another girl fell into my arms and also not be technically lying ( she slipped on a wet floor while in heels and I caught her.
I fulfilled my goal and talked to someone outside of the stake
I took part in all of the activities and only missed one due to unavoidable circumstances
I now understand the M56
good motorway practice
a weekend away from everything
bad things :
I didn't make friends enough with a new person to exchange email or mobile numbers.
I allowed some things to bug me immensly when I should have let it go.
I let my shyness over ride some urges to speak to people
I could have stayed up later and taken part in some of the 'unofficial activties'
I need to learn to stop and ask for directions sooner.
What I'll change for next years convention:
Get a new digital camera. our current one is rubbish
Take some cordinal and more munchies. Will help with the social aspect of things.
be more tolerent.
be more open and talk to new people. The worst they can do is to tell me to sod off.
Get footwear that doesn't collapse on me
Learn to ceroc.
beg, borrow, steal or just plain bribe someone to come with me as a passenger. That journey is long and boring by yourself
YSA convention day 4 morning" for whom the bell tolls"
MT who shall be from this moment on be referrered to as Enginseer ( He'll get the reference, it's not bad honest) once again didn't appear for breakfast, or anyone else for that matter so I decided to head for breaky myself. Then again hardly any other YSA showed, the dining hall was very empty. Not that the staff gave us any extra breakfast mind you. It was a very poor showing at the devotional as well, a fair chunk of YSA seemed to be MIA. Gee I wonder where they could have been. * Cough* still in bed * cough, cough* :-)
Well the first class of the day was Indian Head and hand massage. The only person I knew in the class was sw who shall now be known as Traveler and she already had a partner, so I ended up with a girl called Emma who came from a town as obscure as mine is. It was a little awkward to begin with but I think that was the same for most people in the class. The girls learnt the 'head' massage part and practiced on the guys, Emma was very good and almost put me to sleep many times. The guys then practiced the hand massage side of things on the girls. We were able to sign up later to get copies of diagrams sent to us via email. Not that I've got anyone to practice on mind you but hey it might be a a useful skill for some point in the future. ( it's my little known special skill, I'm very good and shoulder and neck massages, and I could explain how I discovered that, but then we would be here for another 10 pages. Suffice to say it was at uni and we'll leave it at that :-) All too soon the class was over and we had to move on.
The second class of the day was the ' Knowing me, knowing you class'. I.e speed dating. The trouble was many, many more people turned up then there should have been so it got very difficult to hear anything as there was so many people. The organizers were going round with 'stamps' of hearts and kisses and randomly stamping people. I was got at least twice so goodness knows what I ended up looking like. No there is no photographic evidence before you ask. At least I hope there isn't. At the end we had a envelope with our name on the front and had to write the name of anyone we liked on the back. I've still got no idea what the point of that was. But as before the class ended all too soon and we had to run across campus for the closing ceremony.
Which again was fantastic. Both Bro Rigby and Bro king said this was the last year and there was real sense of sadness at that, but it also gave me a great feeling of loss because I've missed previous years and made me wonder what exactly I've missed. There was all the usual thanks etc to everyone, and then a group sang a song from the previous nights musical. Which was amazing because a large percentage of the YSA used their LED keyrings and were waving them back and forth ala lighters at concerts. I wish I'd been able to get a picture and or video of it. And then it was officially over.
We wandered back to the main OP to pick up our lunch, hand in our keys etc. Now at this point a plan was supposed to come into effect. A very cunning plan but as you all know how good the YSA r at planning it didn’t come off. Which lead to me hanging around for 50 minutes. Which was annoying. I might have mentioned one or two words of frustration under my breath which I really shouldn’t have and would have probably got me in real trouble if any leaders had heard me. But as there wasn’t a lot I could do about it I simply shrugged and heading off to the carpark. I suppose I could have stood and moaned some more but that wasn’t going to get me closer to home any sooner was it?
I ran into enginseer to get directions back to the M56 as I didn't want to go on a magical mystery tour yet again coz that wouldn’t have been fun. I said goodbye to RN at was heading towards the car when I ran into social and A. A noticed I had a copy of the photo from Saturday night and wanted her copy. I explained that SL had, had them but he had gone. She then started moaning at me ( however I hasten to add that that to me she appeared to be moaning, in all probability she wasn’t but as I wasn’t in the best of moods that’s how it appeared to my judgment which to be perfectly frank isn’t all that good )
and said that she wanted her photo now as she wouldn't see SL. For some reason this fantastically annoyed me and I snapped back at her that SL was gone and there was nothing I could do about it. She looked a little taken back and social did shoot me a look which I know I totally deserved as I had no right to take my frustration out on A. So I better apologize to her next time we meet.
Well the trip home went okay, despite me getting lost around stoke and having to turn round . It took about 2 and a half hours to reach home. Not all that bad. I discovered grumpy had been ill so hadn't got any shopping in and also hadn't done any washing up, or hung the washing out. So a nice pile of dirty dishes and smelly washing awaited. Oh well. I then discovered the reason why my feet were hurting so badly, the soles on my trainers had 'collapsed' at the heel and had been digging into the back of my ankles. I didn't realize quite how badly until I treating a blister and more blood came out then pus. That hasn't happened before and was a little unsettling. I cleaned it and dressed it and hoped it's not going to become infected. which it shouldn't as I'm going to keep treating it with antiseptic for the rest of the week. Did learn one final important lesson though. first aid kits work a lot better when you can find them :-)
Well the first class of the day was Indian Head and hand massage. The only person I knew in the class was sw who shall now be known as Traveler and she already had a partner, so I ended up with a girl called Emma who came from a town as obscure as mine is. It was a little awkward to begin with but I think that was the same for most people in the class. The girls learnt the 'head' massage part and practiced on the guys, Emma was very good and almost put me to sleep many times. The guys then practiced the hand massage side of things on the girls. We were able to sign up later to get copies of diagrams sent to us via email. Not that I've got anyone to practice on mind you but hey it might be a a useful skill for some point in the future. ( it's my little known special skill, I'm very good and shoulder and neck massages, and I could explain how I discovered that, but then we would be here for another 10 pages. Suffice to say it was at uni and we'll leave it at that :-) All too soon the class was over and we had to move on.
The second class of the day was the ' Knowing me, knowing you class'. I.e speed dating. The trouble was many, many more people turned up then there should have been so it got very difficult to hear anything as there was so many people. The organizers were going round with 'stamps' of hearts and kisses and randomly stamping people. I was got at least twice so goodness knows what I ended up looking like. No there is no photographic evidence before you ask. At least I hope there isn't. At the end we had a envelope with our name on the front and had to write the name of anyone we liked on the back. I've still got no idea what the point of that was. But as before the class ended all too soon and we had to run across campus for the closing ceremony.
Which again was fantastic. Both Bro Rigby and Bro king said this was the last year and there was real sense of sadness at that, but it also gave me a great feeling of loss because I've missed previous years and made me wonder what exactly I've missed. There was all the usual thanks etc to everyone, and then a group sang a song from the previous nights musical. Which was amazing because a large percentage of the YSA used their LED keyrings and were waving them back and forth ala lighters at concerts. I wish I'd been able to get a picture and or video of it. And then it was officially over.
We wandered back to the main OP to pick up our lunch, hand in our keys etc. Now at this point a plan was supposed to come into effect. A very cunning plan but as you all know how good the YSA r at planning it didn’t come off. Which lead to me hanging around for 50 minutes. Which was annoying. I might have mentioned one or two words of frustration under my breath which I really shouldn’t have and would have probably got me in real trouble if any leaders had heard me. But as there wasn’t a lot I could do about it I simply shrugged and heading off to the carpark. I suppose I could have stood and moaned some more but that wasn’t going to get me closer to home any sooner was it?
I ran into enginseer to get directions back to the M56 as I didn't want to go on a magical mystery tour yet again coz that wouldn’t have been fun. I said goodbye to RN at was heading towards the car when I ran into social and A. A noticed I had a copy of the photo from Saturday night and wanted her copy. I explained that SL had, had them but he had gone. She then started moaning at me ( however I hasten to add that that to me she appeared to be moaning, in all probability she wasn’t but as I wasn’t in the best of moods that’s how it appeared to my judgment which to be perfectly frank isn’t all that good )
and said that she wanted her photo now as she wouldn't see SL. For some reason this fantastically annoyed me and I snapped back at her that SL was gone and there was nothing I could do about it. She looked a little taken back and social did shoot me a look which I know I totally deserved as I had no right to take my frustration out on A. So I better apologize to her next time we meet.
Well the trip home went okay, despite me getting lost around stoke and having to turn round . It took about 2 and a half hours to reach home. Not all that bad. I discovered grumpy had been ill so hadn't got any shopping in and also hadn't done any washing up, or hung the washing out. So a nice pile of dirty dishes and smelly washing awaited. Oh well. I then discovered the reason why my feet were hurting so badly, the soles on my trainers had 'collapsed' at the heel and had been digging into the back of my ankles. I didn't realize quite how badly until I treating a blister and more blood came out then pus. That hasn't happened before and was a little unsettling. I cleaned it and dressed it and hoped it's not going to become infected. which it shouldn't as I'm going to keep treating it with antiseptic for the rest of the week. Did learn one final important lesson though. first aid kits work a lot better when you can find them :-)
YSA convention day 3 Afternoon" Black hole of mancutta"
Well Dinner pasted relatively quickly, well it seemed like it. We had been asked to stay in our church clothing in respect to the Sabbath. Although once again several YSA interpretation of this was especially interested. They were initially going to be showing a film but decided against it for whatever reason so there were just CES workshops instead. Which were very interesting. The first was overcoming weakness and was very good. Although the teachers regular use of chocolate as a example of different peoples weakness did have a unintended effect. Yep you've guessed it, I and a lot of other YSA came out of the lesson which a desire to go and get a bar of chocolate from somewhere. Whoops! I think we might have missed the whole point somewhere. Either that or it was just like that thing where if your near someone else who is scratching a lot you start to feel real itchy as well. So i.e. he kept mentioning chocolate we started to want it.
The second CES class was entitled " When men meet mountains" and was very good as well. The teacher showed us a video of a sixty year old fell runner who to raise money for charity planned to run 60 peaks in something like 100 hours and it was the equivalent of running to the summit of Everest one and a half times. At one point he was four hours behind schedule and though he would have to drop out as when he was younger he had broken his back and they though he'd have trouble walking again yet alone run! But he still managed to make up the time and succeed. It was amazing. Sw and SW also came into the class as well, so I went for dinner with them in a different dining room to the usual one I had been going for breakfast in. On the plus side going with them meant I got in the queue nice and early and managed to get cheesecake for desert which later people missed out on. To quote Nelson Muntz, " Ha, ha!" We also had quite a interesting discussion over dinner about the sacraments talks.
After dinner we adjoined to the OP hall to have a go at the quiz ( we ended up third over all, no idea how that happened as I'm sure it was nothing to do with me :-) We got a nasty surprise though at the state of the hall. It was absolutely disgusting, there were bags, bottles and remains of sandwiches everywhere. The bins inside were full to overflowing and it was obvious people hust hadn't been bothered to take their rubbish outside. SW not sw who had gone somewhere to catch up with a old mission companion, got us moving and we cleaned the place up in short order. In fact surprisingly short order, so why the YSA who owned the lunches hadn't done this I'll never know. I had to excuse myself after a while to go and take a couple of ibuprofen as my knee was hurting again. I'm so glad I was inspired to buy some to take with me otherwise I didn't know what I would have done. I joined up with the others again soon after and headed over to the cantana ( I think that's how it was spelt). or musical.
Regardless of how it was spelt or how you want to refer to it it was brilliant and I really felt the spirit there. Which to be honest I think is why what happened next totally infuriated me. We headed back to the OP hall for refreshments, many YSA headed back to their room and immediately got changed out of their Sunday clothes as no one challenged the first few people pretty soon the majority of people started to go and change. When we got to to OP the refreshments hadn't been laid out and some of the leaders were trying to get them laid out as people poured in. To be perfectly frank if what had happened in the service project was a scrum what happened then was a riot. I know people have said before that they have felt times the spirit has withdrawn but I don't think I can remember feeling it fleeing so acutely as it did then. This was bad enough but what really didn't help was the return of a old problem. Not many people know this ( well now just me you and the entire internet do). Sometimes I can get claustrophobic. it hasn't happened very often and only once has it caused a full blown panic attack which happened during a caving trip when I was in the ATC. I was having problems the previous night at the ball stuck in the queue for the photo with so many people at right next to a speaker but on Sunday night with so many people in the building I just couldn't do it. I tried three times and each time it felt the same.
So I went for a walk. Mainly to try and get my head together and to try and maintain that feeling of peace and the spirit I had felt in the centre . To be honest it had shaken me to be honest, with everything that's been going on at the moment I've been concentrating on keeping everything in 'check' and to not overwhelm me, it just what I felt in that centre blew all those shields away and it was pretty overwhelming. So I needed sometime alone to try and get my head together. I did go back into the building and tried to find someone free to talk to. But they were all busy and having fun and try as I might I just couldn't seem to open my mouth to ask if someone had sometime to listen or to talk. I just couldn't do it, so I did something which in retrospect wasn't the smartest thing to do. I went to bed without saying a word.
The second CES class was entitled " When men meet mountains" and was very good as well. The teacher showed us a video of a sixty year old fell runner who to raise money for charity planned to run 60 peaks in something like 100 hours and it was the equivalent of running to the summit of Everest one and a half times. At one point he was four hours behind schedule and though he would have to drop out as when he was younger he had broken his back and they though he'd have trouble walking again yet alone run! But he still managed to make up the time and succeed. It was amazing. Sw and SW also came into the class as well, so I went for dinner with them in a different dining room to the usual one I had been going for breakfast in. On the plus side going with them meant I got in the queue nice and early and managed to get cheesecake for desert which later people missed out on. To quote Nelson Muntz, " Ha, ha!" We also had quite a interesting discussion over dinner about the sacraments talks.
After dinner we adjoined to the OP hall to have a go at the quiz ( we ended up third over all, no idea how that happened as I'm sure it was nothing to do with me :-) We got a nasty surprise though at the state of the hall. It was absolutely disgusting, there were bags, bottles and remains of sandwiches everywhere. The bins inside were full to overflowing and it was obvious people hust hadn't been bothered to take their rubbish outside. SW not sw who had gone somewhere to catch up with a old mission companion, got us moving and we cleaned the place up in short order. In fact surprisingly short order, so why the YSA who owned the lunches hadn't done this I'll never know. I had to excuse myself after a while to go and take a couple of ibuprofen as my knee was hurting again. I'm so glad I was inspired to buy some to take with me otherwise I didn't know what I would have done. I joined up with the others again soon after and headed over to the cantana ( I think that's how it was spelt). or musical.
Regardless of how it was spelt or how you want to refer to it it was brilliant and I really felt the spirit there. Which to be honest I think is why what happened next totally infuriated me. We headed back to the OP hall for refreshments, many YSA headed back to their room and immediately got changed out of their Sunday clothes as no one challenged the first few people pretty soon the majority of people started to go and change. When we got to to OP the refreshments hadn't been laid out and some of the leaders were trying to get them laid out as people poured in. To be perfectly frank if what had happened in the service project was a scrum what happened then was a riot. I know people have said before that they have felt times the spirit has withdrawn but I don't think I can remember feeling it fleeing so acutely as it did then. This was bad enough but what really didn't help was the return of a old problem. Not many people know this ( well now just me you and the entire internet do). Sometimes I can get claustrophobic. it hasn't happened very often and only once has it caused a full blown panic attack which happened during a caving trip when I was in the ATC. I was having problems the previous night at the ball stuck in the queue for the photo with so many people at right next to a speaker but on Sunday night with so many people in the building I just couldn't do it. I tried three times and each time it felt the same.
So I went for a walk. Mainly to try and get my head together and to try and maintain that feeling of peace and the spirit I had felt in the centre . To be honest it had shaken me to be honest, with everything that's been going on at the moment I've been concentrating on keeping everything in 'check' and to not overwhelm me, it just what I felt in that centre blew all those shields away and it was pretty overwhelming. So I needed sometime alone to try and get my head together. I did go back into the building and tried to find someone free to talk to. But they were all busy and having fun and try as I might I just couldn't seem to open my mouth to ask if someone had sometime to listen or to talk. I just couldn't do it, so I did something which in retrospect wasn't the smartest thing to do. I went to bed without saying a word.
YSA convention day 3 Morning " That's a looonnng table"
Hurrah! MT managed to wake up early enough so we could go to breakfast and this time I managed to notice the drink machines :-)
I got ready for church and met up with MT and we walked over to the armitage centre again. I know some people were moaning about the distance but it wasn't that far in the scheme of things. We had been asked to be in our seats by 9.45 at the latest for a 10am start. But we made sure we got there in plenty of time. some of the other leicesterites had already arrived and had saved us some seats . however with the usual YSA timing people were still streaming in after 9.45am. ( see need to add alarm clocks to the must bring list :-). The sacrament meeting began and they had the looooonnnggggeest sacrament table I have ever seen. Although with 900 + people in the hall it was hardly surprising. A lot of stake presidents and their wife's had turned up for the meeting as well. Maybe they were checking up on the YSA. no it couldn't be that. We're all young, sweet and innocent, as if we would get up to any mischief ;-)
AF performed a musical item closely followed by her sister SF who gave the first talk, which was very good and a interesting insight into a ward at BYU. Seven sisters getting engaged in one week. If only it was that easy over here. *sigh*. A chap from Northampton gave the second talk, unfortunately I can't find his name as I can't remember where I put the programme right now. We had the intermediate hymn then a talk by sister johnson followed by her husband Elder Johnson over the 1st quorum of the seventy. Now unfortunately I didn't take any notes in during his talk which I now bitterly regret as I was getting extrememely uncomfortable in my seat at that point in time. I could shift round much because as they were fold out seats if I moved it shook the whole row. But Elder Johnson's talk was by far the most interesting to the YSA as I think it intrigued and worried people in equal measure and proved to be a fascinating talking point for the rest of the day.
I'm going to have to paraphrase here unfortunately but he was unhappy at the ball the night before and felt terribly upset that we had been subjected to it and would do everything in his power to ensure something like that didn't happen again. Now he did go into greater detail in part and I'm sure some other people took notes so if you want to know everything I'm sure it will be easy to track down, but this was the basic thrust of his talk. When we moved into the priesthood lesson several people did attempt to ask him what specifically had upset him about the ball. His response was to show the strength of your booklet and to say that the answer was in there. Despite the efforts of several priesthood members he refused to be drawn on the subject and the lesson moved onto other things. However something then happened which absolutely horrified me, I happened to glance behind me and two YSA were playing games on their mobile phones. A member of the quorum of the seventy was teaching us and they were playing games on their mobile phones. I didn't say or do anything mainly because I was shocked to the core then anyone could do anything like that. Why? why did they do that? I found it absolutely beyond belief and quickly resolved to focus every scrap of attention onto the lesson lest I was tempted to say something.
Now the discussion this prompted among some of the YSA was fascinating especially to the conclusion that most of them jumped to, which was that Elder Johnson had, had a problem with the dancers who came to demonstrate some dances due to some of the outfits the girl was wearing, which were a bit revealing. However although he may not have liked the outfits I don't think it could have been sufficient to prompt what he said in his talk, as firstly as far as I'm aware the dancers were not YSA and secondly I think he would have just expressed his unhappiness to the committee and not to the whole convention. I have just been rereading the strength of youth booklet and I think, and I emphasis I think I know where he was coming from. The section of music and dances states ;
"Choose carefully the music you listen to. Pay attention to how you feel when you are listening. Don’t listen to music that drives away the Spirit, encourages immorality, glorifies violence, uses foul or offensive language, or promotes Satanism or other evil practices. Dancing can be fun and can provide an opportunity to meet new people. However, it too can be misused, Plan and attend dances where dress, grooming, lighting, lyrics, and music contribute to a wholesome atmosphere where the Spirit of the Lord may be present."
I'm guessing and I must emphasis this is just my guess. That his main objections were to some of the music, and lyrics of the songs, the very loud music, and the lighting well only being provided by flashing lights and the main hall lights being turned off. I'm fairly certain he made some comment about not being able to see the girls dresses due to lack of light. Thinking about the music it was rather shocking to realize that some songs to have some inappropriate lyrics, for example the Macarena. When I pointed this out some of the other YSA though I was mad but when I pointed out a certain section, there were quite a few stunned expressions when it clicked. ( if your not sure what I mean think about the 'spoken' sections of the song and you'll realize).
It was sandwiches for Lunch again but this time I got some crisps I liked rather then Worcester sauce flavor. I thought we were going to be stuck in a queue again for a very long time but some girls who were very quick witted, grabbed bags of the lunches and started running down the queue passing them out, which meant a twenty minute wait from the day before was less then a two minute wait. Hurrah for those girls! Although no one knew what ward or stake they were from I think that made it all the more nicer.
I got ready for church and met up with MT and we walked over to the armitage centre again. I know some people were moaning about the distance but it wasn't that far in the scheme of things. We had been asked to be in our seats by 9.45 at the latest for a 10am start. But we made sure we got there in plenty of time. some of the other leicesterites had already arrived and had saved us some seats . however with the usual YSA timing people were still streaming in after 9.45am. ( see need to add alarm clocks to the must bring list :-). The sacrament meeting began and they had the looooonnnggggeest sacrament table I have ever seen. Although with 900 + people in the hall it was hardly surprising. A lot of stake presidents and their wife's had turned up for the meeting as well. Maybe they were checking up on the YSA. no it couldn't be that. We're all young, sweet and innocent, as if we would get up to any mischief ;-)
AF performed a musical item closely followed by her sister SF who gave the first talk, which was very good and a interesting insight into a ward at BYU. Seven sisters getting engaged in one week. If only it was that easy over here. *sigh*. A chap from Northampton gave the second talk, unfortunately I can't find his name as I can't remember where I put the programme right now. We had the intermediate hymn then a talk by sister johnson followed by her husband Elder Johnson over the 1st quorum of the seventy. Now unfortunately I didn't take any notes in during his talk which I now bitterly regret as I was getting extrememely uncomfortable in my seat at that point in time. I could shift round much because as they were fold out seats if I moved it shook the whole row. But Elder Johnson's talk was by far the most interesting to the YSA as I think it intrigued and worried people in equal measure and proved to be a fascinating talking point for the rest of the day.
I'm going to have to paraphrase here unfortunately but he was unhappy at the ball the night before and felt terribly upset that we had been subjected to it and would do everything in his power to ensure something like that didn't happen again. Now he did go into greater detail in part and I'm sure some other people took notes so if you want to know everything I'm sure it will be easy to track down, but this was the basic thrust of his talk. When we moved into the priesthood lesson several people did attempt to ask him what specifically had upset him about the ball. His response was to show the strength of your booklet and to say that the answer was in there. Despite the efforts of several priesthood members he refused to be drawn on the subject and the lesson moved onto other things. However something then happened which absolutely horrified me, I happened to glance behind me and two YSA were playing games on their mobile phones. A member of the quorum of the seventy was teaching us and they were playing games on their mobile phones. I didn't say or do anything mainly because I was shocked to the core then anyone could do anything like that. Why? why did they do that? I found it absolutely beyond belief and quickly resolved to focus every scrap of attention onto the lesson lest I was tempted to say something.
Now the discussion this prompted among some of the YSA was fascinating especially to the conclusion that most of them jumped to, which was that Elder Johnson had, had a problem with the dancers who came to demonstrate some dances due to some of the outfits the girl was wearing, which were a bit revealing. However although he may not have liked the outfits I don't think it could have been sufficient to prompt what he said in his talk, as firstly as far as I'm aware the dancers were not YSA and secondly I think he would have just expressed his unhappiness to the committee and not to the whole convention. I have just been rereading the strength of youth booklet and I think, and I emphasis I think I know where he was coming from. The section of music and dances states ;
"Choose carefully the music you listen to. Pay attention to how you feel when you are listening. Don’t listen to music that drives away the Spirit, encourages immorality, glorifies violence, uses foul or offensive language, or promotes Satanism or other evil practices. Dancing can be fun and can provide an opportunity to meet new people. However, it too can be misused, Plan and attend dances where dress, grooming, lighting, lyrics, and music contribute to a wholesome atmosphere where the Spirit of the Lord may be present."
I'm guessing and I must emphasis this is just my guess. That his main objections were to some of the music, and lyrics of the songs, the very loud music, and the lighting well only being provided by flashing lights and the main hall lights being turned off. I'm fairly certain he made some comment about not being able to see the girls dresses due to lack of light. Thinking about the music it was rather shocking to realize that some songs to have some inappropriate lyrics, for example the Macarena. When I pointed this out some of the other YSA though I was mad but when I pointed out a certain section, there were quite a few stunned expressions when it clicked. ( if your not sure what I mean think about the 'spoken' sections of the song and you'll realize).
It was sandwiches for Lunch again but this time I got some crisps I liked rather then Worcester sauce flavor. I thought we were going to be stuck in a queue again for a very long time but some girls who were very quick witted, grabbed bags of the lunches and started running down the queue passing them out, which meant a twenty minute wait from the day before was less then a two minute wait. Hurrah for those girls! Although no one knew what ward or stake they were from I think that made it all the more nicer.
YSA convention day 2 Afternoon" Medic! Man down"
( I'm splitting these into post detailing morning and afternoons otherwise it will be far too hard to read all these posts as they'll be so long)
Well after lunch the first 'class' of the day was the oddball Olympics. I'm fairly certain I can leave it there any you guys could fill in the dots of exactly what we were doing. Basically we were arranged into teams of five and there were a series of challenges that stretched the length of the field. The challenge was to walk as a team to a football, round it then back again to our start position. Sounds easy right? Well if it was that easy it wouldn't be oddball now would it? There was the small matter of the two very long pieces of wood with loops on for our feet that we had to 'wear' as a team. Once we completed that, each member of the team then had to dribble the football around a series of blobs then back again. We then had to run to a piece of 'tree trunk' and bank a nail in as far as it would go, go around the team using a hammer with each team member taking one hit before passing it on. After that we then had 'welly wang', where you had to throw a Wellington boot as far as we could. Following that, we then had to transfer water from one bucket into another with about a five meter gap between the buckets using sponges. Finally there was a race using wheelbarrows where one person sat in the wheelbarrow and the other person had to push them around a series of blobs in a zig zag pattern, whilst blindfolded, so the person in the barrow had to give directions. So our team didn't come first, but then we didn't come last either. So it was good. But then as we had completed the course so quickly the organizer decided that we would go through the course again.
It was like that say in the film Memphis belle, " You only go round once, you never go round again" But we went again, although we ended up with different planks this time. The two girls decided not to go on the planks, as they were only wearing sandals so they had gone some v nasty frictions burns from the loops the first time round so it was just me JRP and M.R. We set off at a pace but failed to anticipate that the missing two girls meant we couldn't brace against each other very well, so our sense of balance quickly went to hell. About midway JRP stumbled, MR started to go over and as my feet were firmly locked in the loops I couldn't keep my balance and went over as well and with the title of this post I'm sure you can guess what happened next.
The one very small advantages of old injuries or persistent ones is when you do it again you know pretty darned quickly what it is you've done and when I went down and was unable to brace myself when my knee hit the ground first at a angle I knew pretty much straight away what I'd just done. But being a stubborn sort I tried to 'walk it off' hoping that it was just 'jared' and nothing more. I was walking to the next Class and ran into j and spoke to her, I should have really listened to her at that point because she thought I should go straight to first aid and wanted to check my knee there and then, but again being stubborn and not wanting to face up to the fact I might have done something that would limit the rest of my weekend I decided to soldier on, but I did promise that if it still hurt after the next class I would finder a first aider/medic . Which with the benefit of the 20/20 hindsight that every human seems to have was a mistake as it got extremely uncomfortable I the next 'class', which was a CES class " When the light grows dim" (or a title to that effect) run by Julian Jones. Following the second class I decided to stop being stubborn and go in search of a medic.
Which was easier said then done as there were none of them at the 'first aid station', because of course that would have been far too simple. I did find SL + J and ES talking and went up and stood there waiting for a pause in their conversation to interject, however there wasn't a pause and they disappeared off having not noticed me standing there. So mental note for any future times if I need a medic is okay to be rude and interrupt people if I'm injured, I have a good excuse :-)
I finally managed to find one of the security guys and asked if they knew where the 'medics' were as I needed a ice pack. He put out a call for one and then looked at me a little askew and asked why I was still on my feet if I had hurt my knee. Which was a very question. So I took a seat, and waited and waited. Although as J would later point out if it had been really serious they would have hurried. Which is reassuring, I think. But Doc S eventually appeared with a ice pack and checked me out. He was happy I hadn't gone anything too bad and had in fact simply aggravated it and suggested I just rested it for a while. Which was incredibly frustrating as I wanted to go to the dance class as they were running a beginners ceroc class which I really wanted to go to. ( it's one thing that has previously put me off going to any cerocs class with our leicesterites as they've all been going for ages, and I've never done anything like that before). So with a heavy heart and leg I wandered back to my room and rested up. Fortunately when I had stopped at the garage Friday morning I had been inspired to buy a pack of ibuprofen, so they helped. Mind you I would have been more happy to be inspired not to sign up for the oddball Olympics to begin with. But hey we get what every inspiration we're supposed to, I suppose.
So while lying on my bed with my leg iced up and nothing to do but stare at the ceiling the inevitable happened and drifted off to sleep. I did wake up in time for dinner mind you, but only right near the end so there was a huge queue for the barbecue at this point and most of the other Leicester YSA seemed to have already gone through. I supposed I could have used my knee as a excuse to cut in line but I was feeling that mean spirited so waited in the queue like a good boy. Well that was that and the fact the ibuprofen was still working :-) So as that great philosopher Homer Simpson would put it. " Hmmm, Chemically induced happy" The food was very good, as it was all weekend it there was any problem it was that there never seemed to be enough of it! By the time I finished however most people had disappeared to get ready for the ball. I'm not making any comment about girls taking ages to get ready, it was simply that most of them disappeared by 6.30 to get ready. The ball wasn't till 8. So back to my room I wandered to get ready as well.
So as it was posh ball I had tried to make a effort, i.e. going to get a nice shirt and bow tie. However I did feel slightly overdressed compared to some people because it had stated that it should be a minimum of Sunday's best, so a lot of the male YSA took that literally and just wore their 'standard' suit and tie. But some of the other male YSA, well lets just say there were some incredibly interesting interpretations of what constituted Sunday 'best'. Fortunately the girls more then made up for any shortcomings on the guys side as they all looked absolutely fantastic. The ball had a chocolate fountain, dodgems outside, a band and they even had some professional dancers come in to give some demonstration dances. We did get in a queue for the photos to get a whole group one of the Leicester YSA. Unfortunately the queue was so long it took over a hour before we got our photo done and the ball had ended, also SW and SW had disappeared so we couldn't get them in the photo either. But despite this small problem the photo turned out very well. I'm going to try and get it scanned in so you can see it. We might not have had time to get much dancing in but e all had a great time and considering I dance the way the incredible hulk walks not doing much dancing was probably a good thing.
and that was the end of day 2!
Well after lunch the first 'class' of the day was the oddball Olympics. I'm fairly certain I can leave it there any you guys could fill in the dots of exactly what we were doing. Basically we were arranged into teams of five and there were a series of challenges that stretched the length of the field. The challenge was to walk as a team to a football, round it then back again to our start position. Sounds easy right? Well if it was that easy it wouldn't be oddball now would it? There was the small matter of the two very long pieces of wood with loops on for our feet that we had to 'wear' as a team. Once we completed that, each member of the team then had to dribble the football around a series of blobs then back again. We then had to run to a piece of 'tree trunk' and bank a nail in as far as it would go, go around the team using a hammer with each team member taking one hit before passing it on. After that we then had 'welly wang', where you had to throw a Wellington boot as far as we could. Following that, we then had to transfer water from one bucket into another with about a five meter gap between the buckets using sponges. Finally there was a race using wheelbarrows where one person sat in the wheelbarrow and the other person had to push them around a series of blobs in a zig zag pattern, whilst blindfolded, so the person in the barrow had to give directions. So our team didn't come first, but then we didn't come last either. So it was good. But then as we had completed the course so quickly the organizer decided that we would go through the course again.
It was like that say in the film Memphis belle, " You only go round once, you never go round again" But we went again, although we ended up with different planks this time. The two girls decided not to go on the planks, as they were only wearing sandals so they had gone some v nasty frictions burns from the loops the first time round so it was just me JRP and M.R. We set off at a pace but failed to anticipate that the missing two girls meant we couldn't brace against each other very well, so our sense of balance quickly went to hell. About midway JRP stumbled, MR started to go over and as my feet were firmly locked in the loops I couldn't keep my balance and went over as well and with the title of this post I'm sure you can guess what happened next.
The one very small advantages of old injuries or persistent ones is when you do it again you know pretty darned quickly what it is you've done and when I went down and was unable to brace myself when my knee hit the ground first at a angle I knew pretty much straight away what I'd just done. But being a stubborn sort I tried to 'walk it off' hoping that it was just 'jared' and nothing more. I was walking to the next Class and ran into j and spoke to her, I should have really listened to her at that point because she thought I should go straight to first aid and wanted to check my knee there and then, but again being stubborn and not wanting to face up to the fact I might have done something that would limit the rest of my weekend I decided to soldier on, but I did promise that if it still hurt after the next class I would finder a first aider/medic . Which with the benefit of the 20/20 hindsight that every human seems to have was a mistake as it got extremely uncomfortable I the next 'class', which was a CES class " When the light grows dim" (or a title to that effect) run by Julian Jones. Following the second class I decided to stop being stubborn and go in search of a medic.
Which was easier said then done as there were none of them at the 'first aid station', because of course that would have been far too simple. I did find SL + J and ES talking and went up and stood there waiting for a pause in their conversation to interject, however there wasn't a pause and they disappeared off having not noticed me standing there. So mental note for any future times if I need a medic is okay to be rude and interrupt people if I'm injured, I have a good excuse :-)
I finally managed to find one of the security guys and asked if they knew where the 'medics' were as I needed a ice pack. He put out a call for one and then looked at me a little askew and asked why I was still on my feet if I had hurt my knee. Which was a very question. So I took a seat, and waited and waited. Although as J would later point out if it had been really serious they would have hurried. Which is reassuring, I think. But Doc S eventually appeared with a ice pack and checked me out. He was happy I hadn't gone anything too bad and had in fact simply aggravated it and suggested I just rested it for a while. Which was incredibly frustrating as I wanted to go to the dance class as they were running a beginners ceroc class which I really wanted to go to. ( it's one thing that has previously put me off going to any cerocs class with our leicesterites as they've all been going for ages, and I've never done anything like that before). So with a heavy heart and leg I wandered back to my room and rested up. Fortunately when I had stopped at the garage Friday morning I had been inspired to buy a pack of ibuprofen, so they helped. Mind you I would have been more happy to be inspired not to sign up for the oddball Olympics to begin with. But hey we get what every inspiration we're supposed to, I suppose.
So while lying on my bed with my leg iced up and nothing to do but stare at the ceiling the inevitable happened and drifted off to sleep. I did wake up in time for dinner mind you, but only right near the end so there was a huge queue for the barbecue at this point and most of the other Leicester YSA seemed to have already gone through. I supposed I could have used my knee as a excuse to cut in line but I was feeling that mean spirited so waited in the queue like a good boy. Well that was that and the fact the ibuprofen was still working :-) So as that great philosopher Homer Simpson would put it. " Hmmm, Chemically induced happy" The food was very good, as it was all weekend it there was any problem it was that there never seemed to be enough of it! By the time I finished however most people had disappeared to get ready for the ball. I'm not making any comment about girls taking ages to get ready, it was simply that most of them disappeared by 6.30 to get ready. The ball wasn't till 8. So back to my room I wandered to get ready as well.
So as it was posh ball I had tried to make a effort, i.e. going to get a nice shirt and bow tie. However I did feel slightly overdressed compared to some people because it had stated that it should be a minimum of Sunday's best, so a lot of the male YSA took that literally and just wore their 'standard' suit and tie. But some of the other male YSA, well lets just say there were some incredibly interesting interpretations of what constituted Sunday 'best'. Fortunately the girls more then made up for any shortcomings on the guys side as they all looked absolutely fantastic. The ball had a chocolate fountain, dodgems outside, a band and they even had some professional dancers come in to give some demonstration dances. We did get in a queue for the photos to get a whole group one of the Leicester YSA. Unfortunately the queue was so long it took over a hour before we got our photo done and the ball had ended, also SW and SW had disappeared so we couldn't get them in the photo either. But despite this small problem the photo turned out very well. I'm going to try and get it scanned in so you can see it. We might not have had time to get much dancing in but e all had a great time and considering I dance the way the incredible hulk walks not doing much dancing was probably a good thing.
and that was the end of day 2!
YSA convention day 2 morning " It's alive"
Now on a campus with nearly 900 YSA I was in no way stupid enough ( hard to believe sometimes I know) to believe that I would be able to get a lot of sleep. What I wasn't expecting was to be awoken a nearly 3am in the morning by the sound of a key in my door and the sound of someone grumbling about the 'stupid door'. I quickly pulled on a t-shirt and shorts and jumped up and opened the door causing the guy on the other side to jump out of his skin.
" Who are you" He demanded. My response was " At this time of the morning I think a better question is who r u"
" But your in my room" He declared, making me wonder if they had been a terrific screw up. But I then saw his keys and realized he had misread the flat and floor number as the room number. When I pointed this out he quickly mumbled a apology and legged it down the hallway to his room obviously worried that he had made a rather bad impression on me. Which he hadn't in hindsight it was quite funny because if it had been anywhere else my first thought would have been that drink was involved. Which it hadn't been. Or at least I hope it hadn't been or that would have been a whole other problem. He, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he,
Well I woke up in time for breakfast and headed to the 'tower' lobby, this was a halls of residence 18 floors high, I was half expecting quozemoto to be living on the top floor. " Master, master the YSA, YSA!" Well I waited in the lobby for MT, and waited and waited and waited. I finally got annoyed at all the waiting and remembered that mobiles r good for something else besides txting and decided to call him. It did sound like I was getting a answer from beyond the grave and he was still in bed and wasn't going to get up for breakfast. So off I trotted fro breaky by myself :-( It was still good although I didn't run into anyone from Leicester. ( breakfast was on for a hour and there were three different dining rooms, so with nearly 900 YSA on campus the chances of meeting someone for breakfast without actually planning it were astronomically high). Breakfast was your typical fried breakfast and cereal. I had milk for a drink to go with breakfast as I couldn't see anything else apart from orange juice. The orange and lemon cordial drinks were in the powered drinks machines which were about 2 foot high, with giant see through containers on top and making a humming sound. Easy to miss. Honestly. Oh wait D'ohhh!!!!
I wandered over to the armitage centre for the morning devotional. There weren't enough chairs so I ended up sitting on the floor, which after a while got very uncomfortable. It's something I always thought peculiar that why is it when bits like your legs or feet go numb it hurts? Isn't that a ridicululous contradiction in terms? That something goes numb and it hurts. But it may have had something to do with the fact that I was wearing my boots as I didn't know what the service project was going to be about. So my lower left leg and foot went completely numb. Very, very weird feeling to be able to wriggle the toes on one foot but not the other, or at least feel that you weren't. Etc, you get the idea. The devotional was very good although I did find the number of YSA coming in late especially amusing, I think they need to add alarm clocks to the list of things you need to take :-)
So the service project was making Christmas gift boxes to be distributed by the Samaritans I think. We made 500 so go us! I actually felt quite pleased with my effort and I helped make a whole lotta boxes up, with S's help. Although it must have been that in their desire to be part of the service project most YSA forgot other things such as their manners when they were trying to get hold of the contents for their boxes. Seriously it was a scrum!!!!! Despite that it was a whole lotta fun and it was nice to do a service project as I can't remember the last time we did one. Oh wait, something's happening, I think It's called a idea, long time since I had one of those :-) Oh I know it's a suggestions for C and M.R. MT turned up mid morning unfortunately his brother was ill and had gone home. We also discovered a problem pretty quickly that with 870 YSA on site we had emptied the vending machines very, very quickly. Fortunately I had got a few bits at the garage on the way up so it wasn't a complete disaster for me, but I would start to get heartily sick of just plain water by the end of the weekend. I think I'll take cordial with me next year :-)
So it was lunchtime which prompted a very large queue which we were stuck in for a very long while. It didn't help that there was a large percentage of YSA pushing into the queue, but we got our lunch soon enough, which did lead me to ponder why near enough all pre packaged chicken sandwiches some with stuffing. Why? why? Wouldn't it just be easier to have plain chicken? And cheaper coz who wants to eat cold stuffing. Seriously though if anyone knows let me know? However the packed lunch was good and it was a very nice lunch too sitting outside. It was blazing sunshine, but it wasn't cold or rainy either. It was just a very nice balance. I was talking to SL and J with some other Leicesterites when he noticed I had a red holder for my pass but a green LED keyring. So he wondered if I had swapped groups. Which I hadn't, I had just been given a green led with a red holder. I felt so sorry for him from the look on his face when he heard this as you could see he realized that despite his hard work in getting the keyrings they were being given out randomly. Oops. :-)
" Who are you" He demanded. My response was " At this time of the morning I think a better question is who r u"
" But your in my room" He declared, making me wonder if they had been a terrific screw up. But I then saw his keys and realized he had misread the flat and floor number as the room number. When I pointed this out he quickly mumbled a apology and legged it down the hallway to his room obviously worried that he had made a rather bad impression on me. Which he hadn't in hindsight it was quite funny because if it had been anywhere else my first thought would have been that drink was involved. Which it hadn't been. Or at least I hope it hadn't been or that would have been a whole other problem. He, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he,
Well I woke up in time for breakfast and headed to the 'tower' lobby, this was a halls of residence 18 floors high, I was half expecting quozemoto to be living on the top floor. " Master, master the YSA, YSA!" Well I waited in the lobby for MT, and waited and waited and waited. I finally got annoyed at all the waiting and remembered that mobiles r good for something else besides txting and decided to call him. It did sound like I was getting a answer from beyond the grave and he was still in bed and wasn't going to get up for breakfast. So off I trotted fro breaky by myself :-( It was still good although I didn't run into anyone from Leicester. ( breakfast was on for a hour and there were three different dining rooms, so with nearly 900 YSA on campus the chances of meeting someone for breakfast without actually planning it were astronomically high). Breakfast was your typical fried breakfast and cereal. I had milk for a drink to go with breakfast as I couldn't see anything else apart from orange juice. The orange and lemon cordial drinks were in the powered drinks machines which were about 2 foot high, with giant see through containers on top and making a humming sound. Easy to miss. Honestly. Oh wait D'ohhh!!!!
I wandered over to the armitage centre for the morning devotional. There weren't enough chairs so I ended up sitting on the floor, which after a while got very uncomfortable. It's something I always thought peculiar that why is it when bits like your legs or feet go numb it hurts? Isn't that a ridicululous contradiction in terms? That something goes numb and it hurts. But it may have had something to do with the fact that I was wearing my boots as I didn't know what the service project was going to be about. So my lower left leg and foot went completely numb. Very, very weird feeling to be able to wriggle the toes on one foot but not the other, or at least feel that you weren't. Etc, you get the idea. The devotional was very good although I did find the number of YSA coming in late especially amusing, I think they need to add alarm clocks to the list of things you need to take :-)
So the service project was making Christmas gift boxes to be distributed by the Samaritans I think. We made 500 so go us! I actually felt quite pleased with my effort and I helped make a whole lotta boxes up, with S's help. Although it must have been that in their desire to be part of the service project most YSA forgot other things such as their manners when they were trying to get hold of the contents for their boxes. Seriously it was a scrum!!!!! Despite that it was a whole lotta fun and it was nice to do a service project as I can't remember the last time we did one. Oh wait, something's happening, I think It's called a idea, long time since I had one of those :-) Oh I know it's a suggestions for C and M.R. MT turned up mid morning unfortunately his brother was ill and had gone home. We also discovered a problem pretty quickly that with 870 YSA on site we had emptied the vending machines very, very quickly. Fortunately I had got a few bits at the garage on the way up so it wasn't a complete disaster for me, but I would start to get heartily sick of just plain water by the end of the weekend. I think I'll take cordial with me next year :-)
So it was lunchtime which prompted a very large queue which we were stuck in for a very long while. It didn't help that there was a large percentage of YSA pushing into the queue, but we got our lunch soon enough, which did lead me to ponder why near enough all pre packaged chicken sandwiches some with stuffing. Why? why? Wouldn't it just be easier to have plain chicken? And cheaper coz who wants to eat cold stuffing. Seriously though if anyone knows let me know? However the packed lunch was good and it was a very nice lunch too sitting outside. It was blazing sunshine, but it wasn't cold or rainy either. It was just a very nice balance. I was talking to SL and J with some other Leicesterites when he noticed I had a red holder for my pass but a green LED keyring. So he wondered if I had swapped groups. Which I hadn't, I had just been given a green led with a red holder. I felt so sorry for him from the look on his face when he heard this as you could see he realized that despite his hard work in getting the keyrings they were being given out randomly. Oops. :-)
YSA convention day 1 " Or how I got very, very lost"
Well I survived the convention, which actually if you think about it, is a pretty stupid thing to say because by writing this I'm proving that I have in fact survived because otherwise I would be writing this blog from beyond the grave, woooo!!!! ( just I incase you haven't realized I am still very knacked and might not make a awful lot of sense, as I do when I get tired. But I'm sure you've actually guessed that so I'm going to shut up now and get on with my point or points)
Well I left work at 3pm, and hit the M56 about 2 and a half hours later. Traffic on the M6 wasn't bad but then it wasn't good either. It was roughly what I expected for the bank holiday weekend. It was when I hit the M56 the trouble started. The directions said to exit at junction 3 and then take a road. So I was looking for a junction as in a junction with slips roads off the m road. Unfortunately it wasn't. It was in fact the stupidest junction I ever saw. The road spilt into two with junction 3 indicated off to the left, so I headed that way only to realize too late that the road I was suppose to take was the road off to the right. So I then had to try and find a place to turn round which I mentioned eventually but when I left the M56 I took the wrong turning got caught up in a residential estate, tried to make a turn to get back to the main road, and well I'm sure you can guess the rest. I eventually had to pull up and ask in a fast food restaurant for directions. So with my magical unintentional tour of the Manchester suburbs I added nearly a hour ( yes I got that lost!) to the journey time before I finally got to the campus.
Being wide awake and with it after three hours in the car by myself(not) I spent a good ten minutes wandering around the campus looking for the place to register before realizing that I had walking straight past it, twice! I went in and registered although I then found out I was going to have to get in the car again and drive round the campus to the car parks. I'm sure the poor women giving out the keys wondered what she had done, from the look on my face, as I really really didn't want to get back into the car. At this point I knew I really didn't smell good as I was still in my work clothes and it felt like I was going to have to scrap my clothes off they were that stuck to me! But as I had no choice back in the car I went. So I drove round to the new car park and decided just to take my bpack until I found my room and then I would come back fro my case. A good plan yes? Well until I found myself wandering the campus again and ended up where I started as I couldn't understand the map. The problem was the map only had the buildings marked we were using, none of the other buildings were marked so as you guessed it I ended up in a area of the campus totally unmarked on the map. I was lost again . (sorta running theme for the day) However in my defense I hadn't had anything for lunch as I tried the fish and chips in the staff canteen but I couldn't eat it as they really can't fry the fish right. It literally it like eating a bit of fish wrapped in a pancake, so I think my sugar levels might have been a bit low and that was what was sending me a bit doolally.
However help was at hand because with his impeccable sense of timing MT appeared and he knew exactly where the hall I was staying in was. And even better it was a ensuite room so I had my own shower and everything! Although I did notice that was a warning about keeping the door closed and not spraying deodorant as it might sent the smoke alarm off. Just like Edge hill. One of these days someone will event a fire alarm for students rooms which will only be set off by fires and nothing else! However after a shower and some spray I felt a lot more human ( don't know about looking more human though) and decided to go for a explore.
I met up with MT and his brother in the main building, where pizza was arriving on a regular basis, so unsurprising as soon as we found one I devoured it pretty quick. The only slight problem was in my rush to find food I breezed past Sw and SW ( I've really, really got to start thinking of code names for people). Lots and lots of people were arriving by this point, it did make me realize pretty quick that I really don't know anyone outside of Leicester stake so I did start to feel a little overawed by it all. There was lots of talking people catching up with each other. RN came across to say high although she got distracted and managed to say hello to everyone except me, which was little annoying but hey ho. There was lots of dancing upstairs and then this was followed by the opening ceremony. This was marred by a large group of YSA at the back of the hall which seemed to have a genetic inability to SHUT UP. ( as you may guess this was problem which kept occurring all weekend). but it was still good. I signed up for all the classes and decided to go to bed early as I was still not totally with it. Which was then I discovered a big problem that I kept gaining and loosing the signal on my mobile randomly which would prove to be a massive problem all weekend. But c'est la vie.
Well I left work at 3pm, and hit the M56 about 2 and a half hours later. Traffic on the M6 wasn't bad but then it wasn't good either. It was roughly what I expected for the bank holiday weekend. It was when I hit the M56 the trouble started. The directions said to exit at junction 3 and then take a road. So I was looking for a junction as in a junction with slips roads off the m road. Unfortunately it wasn't. It was in fact the stupidest junction I ever saw. The road spilt into two with junction 3 indicated off to the left, so I headed that way only to realize too late that the road I was suppose to take was the road off to the right. So I then had to try and find a place to turn round which I mentioned eventually but when I left the M56 I took the wrong turning got caught up in a residential estate, tried to make a turn to get back to the main road, and well I'm sure you can guess the rest. I eventually had to pull up and ask in a fast food restaurant for directions. So with my magical unintentional tour of the Manchester suburbs I added nearly a hour ( yes I got that lost!) to the journey time before I finally got to the campus.
Being wide awake and with it after three hours in the car by myself(not) I spent a good ten minutes wandering around the campus looking for the place to register before realizing that I had walking straight past it, twice! I went in and registered although I then found out I was going to have to get in the car again and drive round the campus to the car parks. I'm sure the poor women giving out the keys wondered what she had done, from the look on my face, as I really really didn't want to get back into the car. At this point I knew I really didn't smell good as I was still in my work clothes and it felt like I was going to have to scrap my clothes off they were that stuck to me! But as I had no choice back in the car I went. So I drove round to the new car park and decided just to take my bpack until I found my room and then I would come back fro my case. A good plan yes? Well until I found myself wandering the campus again and ended up where I started as I couldn't understand the map. The problem was the map only had the buildings marked we were using, none of the other buildings were marked so as you guessed it I ended up in a area of the campus totally unmarked on the map. I was lost again . (sorta running theme for the day) However in my defense I hadn't had anything for lunch as I tried the fish and chips in the staff canteen but I couldn't eat it as they really can't fry the fish right. It literally it like eating a bit of fish wrapped in a pancake, so I think my sugar levels might have been a bit low and that was what was sending me a bit doolally.
However help was at hand because with his impeccable sense of timing MT appeared and he knew exactly where the hall I was staying in was. And even better it was a ensuite room so I had my own shower and everything! Although I did notice that was a warning about keeping the door closed and not spraying deodorant as it might sent the smoke alarm off. Just like Edge hill. One of these days someone will event a fire alarm for students rooms which will only be set off by fires and nothing else! However after a shower and some spray I felt a lot more human ( don't know about looking more human though) and decided to go for a explore.
I met up with MT and his brother in the main building, where pizza was arriving on a regular basis, so unsurprising as soon as we found one I devoured it pretty quick. The only slight problem was in my rush to find food I breezed past Sw and SW ( I've really, really got to start thinking of code names for people). Lots and lots of people were arriving by this point, it did make me realize pretty quick that I really don't know anyone outside of Leicester stake so I did start to feel a little overawed by it all. There was lots of talking people catching up with each other. RN came across to say high although she got distracted and managed to say hello to everyone except me, which was little annoying but hey ho. There was lots of dancing upstairs and then this was followed by the opening ceremony. This was marred by a large group of YSA at the back of the hall which seemed to have a genetic inability to SHUT UP. ( as you may guess this was problem which kept occurring all weekend). but it was still good. I signed up for all the classes and decided to go to bed early as I was still not totally with it. Which was then I discovered a big problem that I kept gaining and loosing the signal on my mobile randomly which would prove to be a massive problem all weekend. But c'est la vie.
Friday, August 25, 2006
Today's the day
Well just a short entry for today. In a few hours I'll be hitting the road on the way up to Manchester. I'll be keeping notes all weekend, so I'll probably do some 'retrograde' posts on Monday/Tuesday time. One thing I did discover last night though was that it appears Mum has taken the smallish suitcases so I've had to use the only ones we have left. Which are Huge!!!! It looks like I'm going for three weeks not three days! So I think I'll try and wait for a quiet moment to sneak it up to my room or where ever it is we're going to be sleeping.
Nemesis has checked in on her blog so they made it back from Prague alright (well duhh!) . I've also just been reading the newspaper over lunch and realized not only am I going to miss the start of the new Simpson's series on Ch4, I'm going to miss the Shield again for the third week in a row. aright. Not that I would rather be at home watching it you understand it's just mildly annoying to miss it three weeks in a row. I would ask Grumpy to record it but knowing what he's like with technology I'd probably end up with him recorded east enders for me instead!
Well that's it for now.
later!
Nemesis has checked in on her blog so they made it back from Prague alright (well duhh!) . I've also just been reading the newspaper over lunch and realized not only am I going to miss the start of the new Simpson's series on Ch4, I'm going to miss the Shield again for the third week in a row. aright. Not that I would rather be at home watching it you understand it's just mildly annoying to miss it three weeks in a row. I would ask Grumpy to record it but knowing what he's like with technology I'd probably end up with him recorded east enders for me instead!
Well that's it for now.
later!
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Forget Zoidberg, The boss is king!
Don't worry people, I haven't suddenly gone off futurama and starting sucking up to the boss. However my boss has done something very cool. As a large part of the office will be out on training tomorrow afternoon and I have the convention he's going to let me leave work early in the afternoon. Yaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!! That's great and it means I should........ no wait a second almost fated myself then. I was going to say something and realized in time that if I did the opposite was going to happen. So good save there, good save :-)
This weekend is going to be so cool, I'm not sure why but I haven't felt this excited to be going to something in a while ( before any smart comments my birthday party doesn't count, I mean excited in this sense in a different sense as opposed to the party sense. Everybody understand that? Good! Can one of your explain it to me then because I am now totally confused :-)
So assuming I don't get totally lost and survive the fun of the M6 I'm sure I'll have a great time and for once I mean that phrase in a totally non sarcastic way.
Nemesis, E and ES are due back from Prague tomorrow. I wonder if they survived the holiday and by that I mean the people of the Czech republic :-) ( yeap, I agree, I too think I'm probably dead when they read that ). Umm it was also majorly raining last night on the way home, but not as bad as the mega rain we had a little while ago. Ironically as it was so overcast this morning I decided against handing any washing on the line and as I'm sure you've already guessed we've had blazing sunshine all day. ';*^%!"£$%^$%&*$%^ weather!!
LDS Linkup update. I'm up to 12 friends and still only two comments. Love life update, well I'm sure you can all guess. I'm counting the days until next Thursday when I can order the Calvin and Hobbes set, I really, really, really can't wait. Also I'm planning to pop to Ikea too to get a new bookcase which should solve all my storage problems. I know I should get rid of some books but I'm one of these people who find it really, really hard to chuck/give anything away Although I am probably going to have to be really tough with myself and have a massive clear out soon.
Well that's about it for today. I really can't think of much to say for some reason,
so later!
This weekend is going to be so cool, I'm not sure why but I haven't felt this excited to be going to something in a while ( before any smart comments my birthday party doesn't count, I mean excited in this sense in a different sense as opposed to the party sense. Everybody understand that? Good! Can one of your explain it to me then because I am now totally confused :-)
So assuming I don't get totally lost and survive the fun of the M6 I'm sure I'll have a great time and for once I mean that phrase in a totally non sarcastic way.
Nemesis, E and ES are due back from Prague tomorrow. I wonder if they survived the holiday and by that I mean the people of the Czech republic :-) ( yeap, I agree, I too think I'm probably dead when they read that ). Umm it was also majorly raining last night on the way home, but not as bad as the mega rain we had a little while ago. Ironically as it was so overcast this morning I decided against handing any washing on the line and as I'm sure you've already guessed we've had blazing sunshine all day. ';*^%!"£$%^$%&*$%^ weather!!
LDS Linkup update. I'm up to 12 friends and still only two comments. Love life update, well I'm sure you can all guess. I'm counting the days until next Thursday when I can order the Calvin and Hobbes set, I really, really, really can't wait. Also I'm planning to pop to Ikea too to get a new bookcase which should solve all my storage problems. I know I should get rid of some books but I'm one of these people who find it really, really hard to chuck/give anything away Although I am probably going to have to be really tough with myself and have a massive clear out soon.
Well that's about it for today. I really can't think of much to say for some reason,
so later!
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
clever, clever people
There are lots of different kinds of people in this world. Smart people, clever people, stupid people, chatty people to name but a few and there are those people who have just waaaayyyyyy too much time on their hands. On the way into work yesterday I heard something which darn near left me speechless. Due to a single, that's right one complaint the TV complaints department ( can't remember what their called) has decided that episodes of Tom and jerry have to be censored as in some episodes they appear to be condoning smoking. So the TV channels are now removing the parts showing smoking, however apparently all of the sections showing cruelty to animals, stabbings, crushing, being set on fire, having large weights dropped on heads etc is all perfectly fine and it's no problem according to the complaint maker that kids see that. It's the smoking is the problem and could influence kids apparently. I really don't think there is anything I can say that would use a lot of swear words. Lets just leave it as , the worlds gone mad!
There's also another kind of person, one who's sneaky and far too clever for their own good. Case in point, my nephew JB. I popped round on Monday as promised to play computer games with him for a while, which he seemed to enjoy, and got me feeling all nostalgic and old, as they were the games that I played when I was younger when 16 bit consoles were the most advanced gaming consoles around. Come a long way now haven't we? His sister and my youngest niece R or Roo as they call her was crawling around the place, generally investigating anything and everything she could get her hands on as kids do at that age. Well she decided that the stereo looked very interesting and pulled herself up to start experimenting by pushing some buttons. JB immediately jumped up and went across and I assumed that he knew to pull her away. He asked her if she wanted some music and started pushing some buttons, so being rather oldish now and yet somehow still naive I assumed he was putting some music on for her. He pushed some buttons and she copied him and then he stood back and watched her push more buttons with a grin on his face. I was about to say something when quick as a flash he ran to the conservatory door and yelled out to J who was putting some washing on the line that Roo was being a naughty girl and pushing buttons on the stereo. Of course he left out the part where he had shown her what buttons to push, which I suppose means he was just playing the standard part of 'big brother' and trying to drop his younger sister right in it.
Well I can't think of much else to say. It now seems highly likely that I'm driving to Manchester myself on the Friday of Bank holiday. Oops, I really, really really should have thought that through and taken a half day, but oh well no use crying over spilt milk etc. Hopefully there will be somewhere to stop and I won't get too lost on the way. Although I still have no idea what time we are supposed to get there for, although on Friday going straight after work it's likely to be somewhere around midnight for me :-)
anyway, I think I'll leave it there otherwise I think I'll start to bore myself.
later!
There's also another kind of person, one who's sneaky and far too clever for their own good. Case in point, my nephew JB. I popped round on Monday as promised to play computer games with him for a while, which he seemed to enjoy, and got me feeling all nostalgic and old, as they were the games that I played when I was younger when 16 bit consoles were the most advanced gaming consoles around. Come a long way now haven't we? His sister and my youngest niece R or Roo as they call her was crawling around the place, generally investigating anything and everything she could get her hands on as kids do at that age. Well she decided that the stereo looked very interesting and pulled herself up to start experimenting by pushing some buttons. JB immediately jumped up and went across and I assumed that he knew to pull her away. He asked her if she wanted some music and started pushing some buttons, so being rather oldish now and yet somehow still naive I assumed he was putting some music on for her. He pushed some buttons and she copied him and then he stood back and watched her push more buttons with a grin on his face. I was about to say something when quick as a flash he ran to the conservatory door and yelled out to J who was putting some washing on the line that Roo was being a naughty girl and pushing buttons on the stereo. Of course he left out the part where he had shown her what buttons to push, which I suppose means he was just playing the standard part of 'big brother' and trying to drop his younger sister right in it.
Well I can't think of much else to say. It now seems highly likely that I'm driving to Manchester myself on the Friday of Bank holiday. Oops, I really, really really should have thought that through and taken a half day, but oh well no use crying over spilt milk etc. Hopefully there will be somewhere to stop and I won't get too lost on the way. Although I still have no idea what time we are supposed to get there for, although on Friday going straight after work it's likely to be somewhere around midnight for me :-)
anyway, I think I'll leave it there otherwise I think I'll start to bore myself.
later!
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
it's all gone retrograde
Whoops. Another long break between blog postings. Gonna have to keep an eye on that as I don't want it become the norm.Right so lets think, where was I with regards to posts?
Oh right that was it. Well I had to get up real early on Saturday even though I didn't want to as we had to go and get some shopping. I had only got to bed in the early hours of Saturday morning, as I got mega lost on the way home. I think I just missed a turn or two in the dark and ended up on a magical mystery tour of most of Leicester's countryside, and it didn't help that there was a lot of fog around. Yes you heard that right and I'll say it again for those of you who still don't believe I said it. There was fog. We're still in summer and there was fog on the roads.
So the shopping was a little more expensive then usual mainly because as I'm off on the YSA convention next week Grumpy wouldn't have the car to do the shopping, so I was getting extra of all of the main things so he only has to get bread, butter, veg etc next week. And what are the chances of him getting that right, shall we guess children?? We then had to rush back Home as I was going out for lunch and unfortunately this was another instance of me having to be 'technically truthful'. J +t and A + S and their respective broods were planning to take me to lunch at pizza hut for my birthday, but I knew that if Grumpy knew this he would throw a paddy and I didn't want anything to spoil it. So I said that it was some YSA who were taking me out for some food. Well they had done, sort off but that had been the night before. So he seemed happy with this. ( I know this all sounds incredibly complicated, just try being stuck in the middle of it.)
So off I went to pizza hut. when I got there however I discovered that fate had decided to play a part and A + S's car had broken down shortly after they had left home so they couldn't make it. Which was sad but on the positive side at least they were close to home. J seemed to feel guilty over this for some reason and got my phone and tried calling some YSA to see if anyone was around, which they weren't, but I wasn't surprised as it was a Saturday after all. So it was just the five of us there, however it was a extremely good meal and I even got another cake out of it. Ya!!! Jb decided he wanted to come home in my car, which prompted some awkward questions from him along the lines of " Why are you going slow along this road" so I explained about speed limits which then prompted the question " Do you have a different speed limit to mummy and daddy because they always drive a lot faster along this road" Oops, queue long awkward silence as I desperately tried to think of a good excuse which wouldn't lead to J + T having a little voice from the back of the car telling them when they were going to fast. Fortunately a passing ice cream van distracted him and he seemed to forget about the question. Hopefully for good, so his uncle Saxon doesn't say the wrong thing and get in trouble with his Mum.
In the afternoon I helped J move stuff from Mums old house, which was J's old house to her new house, the one I can't tell grumpy where it is. Although there's a very good chance he's going to stumble across it anyway. It is a very, very nice cottage, complete with Sky and everything ( might have to pop round to watch new season of galactica me finks, he, he, he, he). Although moving all her books was a absolute pain. As most of them were her counseling books, they were extremely heavy and about as far from pocket sized as you can get. Unless you happen to be a 50ft tall giant. Which as far as I'm aware most people ain't.
So Sunday rolled round and the day was finally here. I couldn't fight it any longer, I was now officially 25. I had a huge pile of cards to go through and grumpy did actually remember it was my birthday. He got me one of those cards with a ('voice message/impersonation thingy) in and £30 of big w vouchers. I got £25 of virgin vouchers and a book from mum, a CD from J + T, £30 of Amazon vouchers from A + S ( to go towards that Calvin and Hobbes collections) , a cute little key ring thingy from Jen ( one of the YSA) and a packet of indoor sparklers from miss sparkle. So all in all rather then the incredibly sucky birthday I feared it turned out to be a fantastic one. Although one thing did happen which slightly marred the day, but I'll got into that later.
church was okay. I have to admit for the second week running I totally lost track of the priesthood lesson and can't remember what it was about. Our teachers is a great guy and he is trying but he just doesn't have the spark/skill to be a great teacher. Our YSA Sunday school lesson was great, although I still don't like saying anything in class as everyone else is wayyyy smarter then me, I still worry I'll sound like a total Muppet if I say anything. SW is back from Thailand this week and both here and the other SW will be going to the convention. Meanwhile Nemesis, E and ES have all gone off to Prague for a little holiday. So YSA wise I think it will be a quiet week, although not altogether unsurprisingly so. ( if that makes any sense). One thing I did try, was to see if anyone wanted a lift to convention because I suddenly realized that Manchester is a long way and I'd rather have someone along to talk to, as it's not much fun driving by yourself. unfortunately I've left it too late as everyone already have lifts or made plans to go together so oh well. Here's hoping I don't bore myself to sleep.
Right, onto the 'thing that marred', wow that's sounds like a film title or something, right anyway, I would give you three guesses to who caused this but your only going to need one. Yes that's right grumpy. Who decided to throw a complete strop/bad mood because mum wouldn't come round the house to see me, and was going to see me at Jill's. So off he went on his usual ranting for quite sometime until he blurted something out he hasn't mentioned before. Once he retires next year he doesn't not want to stay in the house so he is going to sell it and in his words "you can either get a place or my own or move in with your mother", and as the latter is unlikely, it looks like I'll me having to find my own place sometime next year. It wasn't the sort of surprise I was really hoping for on my birthday, a " Thanks for everything, don't let the door hit you on the way out" thing. I'm not sure where it will be. If I did get a place in Nottingham it would massively cut back on petrol bills for the car but it would mean that I'd be outside of Leicester stake and things are going so well with Leicester YSA I desperately want to avoid that, so I'll try looking in loughborough or one of the out lying towns or villages along the edge of the stake. But that's a moot point at the moment because I can't really look for a place when I don't have to move in until next year. It's something for the new year, so it's already safe to say that 2007 will be a lift changing year. I just hope any other life changing events next year are good ones, and no more bad ones, hey :-)
anyway. later!
Oh right that was it. Well I had to get up real early on Saturday even though I didn't want to as we had to go and get some shopping. I had only got to bed in the early hours of Saturday morning, as I got mega lost on the way home. I think I just missed a turn or two in the dark and ended up on a magical mystery tour of most of Leicester's countryside, and it didn't help that there was a lot of fog around. Yes you heard that right and I'll say it again for those of you who still don't believe I said it. There was fog. We're still in summer and there was fog on the roads.
So the shopping was a little more expensive then usual mainly because as I'm off on the YSA convention next week Grumpy wouldn't have the car to do the shopping, so I was getting extra of all of the main things so he only has to get bread, butter, veg etc next week. And what are the chances of him getting that right, shall we guess children?? We then had to rush back Home as I was going out for lunch and unfortunately this was another instance of me having to be 'technically truthful'. J +t and A + S and their respective broods were planning to take me to lunch at pizza hut for my birthday, but I knew that if Grumpy knew this he would throw a paddy and I didn't want anything to spoil it. So I said that it was some YSA who were taking me out for some food. Well they had done, sort off but that had been the night before. So he seemed happy with this. ( I know this all sounds incredibly complicated, just try being stuck in the middle of it.)
So off I went to pizza hut. when I got there however I discovered that fate had decided to play a part and A + S's car had broken down shortly after they had left home so they couldn't make it. Which was sad but on the positive side at least they were close to home. J seemed to feel guilty over this for some reason and got my phone and tried calling some YSA to see if anyone was around, which they weren't, but I wasn't surprised as it was a Saturday after all. So it was just the five of us there, however it was a extremely good meal and I even got another cake out of it. Ya!!! Jb decided he wanted to come home in my car, which prompted some awkward questions from him along the lines of " Why are you going slow along this road" so I explained about speed limits which then prompted the question " Do you have a different speed limit to mummy and daddy because they always drive a lot faster along this road" Oops, queue long awkward silence as I desperately tried to think of a good excuse which wouldn't lead to J + T having a little voice from the back of the car telling them when they were going to fast. Fortunately a passing ice cream van distracted him and he seemed to forget about the question. Hopefully for good, so his uncle Saxon doesn't say the wrong thing and get in trouble with his Mum.
In the afternoon I helped J move stuff from Mums old house, which was J's old house to her new house, the one I can't tell grumpy where it is. Although there's a very good chance he's going to stumble across it anyway. It is a very, very nice cottage, complete with Sky and everything ( might have to pop round to watch new season of galactica me finks, he, he, he, he). Although moving all her books was a absolute pain. As most of them were her counseling books, they were extremely heavy and about as far from pocket sized as you can get. Unless you happen to be a 50ft tall giant. Which as far as I'm aware most people ain't.
So Sunday rolled round and the day was finally here. I couldn't fight it any longer, I was now officially 25. I had a huge pile of cards to go through and grumpy did actually remember it was my birthday. He got me one of those cards with a ('voice message/impersonation thingy) in and £30 of big w vouchers. I got £25 of virgin vouchers and a book from mum, a CD from J + T, £30 of Amazon vouchers from A + S ( to go towards that Calvin and Hobbes collections) , a cute little key ring thingy from Jen ( one of the YSA) and a packet of indoor sparklers from miss sparkle. So all in all rather then the incredibly sucky birthday I feared it turned out to be a fantastic one. Although one thing did happen which slightly marred the day, but I'll got into that later.
church was okay. I have to admit for the second week running I totally lost track of the priesthood lesson and can't remember what it was about. Our teachers is a great guy and he is trying but he just doesn't have the spark/skill to be a great teacher. Our YSA Sunday school lesson was great, although I still don't like saying anything in class as everyone else is wayyyy smarter then me, I still worry I'll sound like a total Muppet if I say anything. SW is back from Thailand this week and both here and the other SW will be going to the convention. Meanwhile Nemesis, E and ES have all gone off to Prague for a little holiday. So YSA wise I think it will be a quiet week, although not altogether unsurprisingly so. ( if that makes any sense). One thing I did try, was to see if anyone wanted a lift to convention because I suddenly realized that Manchester is a long way and I'd rather have someone along to talk to, as it's not much fun driving by yourself. unfortunately I've left it too late as everyone already have lifts or made plans to go together so oh well. Here's hoping I don't bore myself to sleep.
Right, onto the 'thing that marred', wow that's sounds like a film title or something, right anyway, I would give you three guesses to who caused this but your only going to need one. Yes that's right grumpy. Who decided to throw a complete strop/bad mood because mum wouldn't come round the house to see me, and was going to see me at Jill's. So off he went on his usual ranting for quite sometime until he blurted something out he hasn't mentioned before. Once he retires next year he doesn't not want to stay in the house so he is going to sell it and in his words "you can either get a place or my own or move in with your mother", and as the latter is unlikely, it looks like I'll me having to find my own place sometime next year. It wasn't the sort of surprise I was really hoping for on my birthday, a " Thanks for everything, don't let the door hit you on the way out" thing. I'm not sure where it will be. If I did get a place in Nottingham it would massively cut back on petrol bills for the car but it would mean that I'd be outside of Leicester stake and things are going so well with Leicester YSA I desperately want to avoid that, so I'll try looking in loughborough or one of the out lying towns or villages along the edge of the stake. But that's a moot point at the moment because I can't really look for a place when I don't have to move in until next year. It's something for the new year, so it's already safe to say that 2007 will be a lift changing year. I just hope any other life changing events next year are good ones, and no more bad ones, hey :-)
anyway. later!
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Raindrops keep falling on my head
Oops just realised that I haven’t posted anything since Wednesday. See I get a couple of days off and I forget to do things. Great init? But now I have something to write about, so I am. And I’ve just realised that those last two sentences don’t seem to make a awful lot of sense to me, so either my English has suddenly got really bad, or I’m just sleep deprived. You decide!
Right lets see, Thursday, didn’t manage to do an awful lot. Apart form in the afternoon I suddenly realised that I had forgot to mention to Dad that I had the day off. I realised that he would probably get all paranoid as to why I hadn’t told him, so being a bit of a coward and not wanting a argument I took the path of least resistance and took the car down the park and sat in their car park for half an hour and then came back once I knew Dad was home and it was my ‘usual’ time to come back from work. He asked how my day had been and I said fine, which was technically lying, but I know, I know the intention was there. I just wish I knew how things had got to this point where I have to do things like this and try and vainly justify it to myself when I know I’m in the wrong. There were some ferocious thunderstorms overhead on Thursday, the flash and thunder were as close together as it’s possible for them to be. The downside of this was the ceiling in the toilet started to leak. An awful lot. So we had to call an emergency repair guy out but as he couldn’t come to Friday we just had to keep out fingers crossed that it didn’t rain overnight or we would have been in deeepppp trouble.
So onto Friday. Or “ Snakes on a plane “ day. The film is finally here so the company decided to pay for us to all go and see it. Ironically they would choose a day when I wasn’t working but hey, I still wanted to go anyway, coz I wasn’t going to be paying! The film, well lets be honest is stupid, but in a good way. It holds no illusions to be a serious film and you can see the cast are just ‘rolling’ with it. There are some gratuitous bits and I don’t think some church members are going to be happy watching it, but I still thought it was good. The only bad thing about the film was J was planning to ask me to look after my nephew J and he had got all excited but of course when she checked it was at the same time as the film so I could do it. The poor little guy got so upset and I felt so guilty. So I offered to pop round on Monday to play some games with him, which did seem to cheer him up.
Well in the evening it was the YSA get together at the McReynolds. I’ve never been there before so I got some directions off the web but I had visions of arriving there dead late. Ironically (for some reason irony is toying with me this week), I found my way straight there and was the first to arrive. I forgot to work on MMT (Mormon mean time) like the rest of the YSA. I know, I know I should know better. But the others soon turned up and it was a fantastic night. But what I found most amazing was how many cards I got from people, I couldn’t believe it. I haven’t had that many cards for my birthday in years and just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, I got a cake too with the candles and everything. I can’t remember the last time I had a cake, it was brilliant, and it was fantastic they did call for me to make a speech, but I couldn’t think of anything to say. Well that and I was afraid that I would start blubbering if I did. It’s just with everything that been going on, to just feel part of the group like that and wanted/liked, just sitting he typing this I feel myself welling up. I wish now that I had stood up and said what I was feeling, and told them that they were a fantastic group of people and without their help I really don’t think I wouldn’t have been able to cope with the last few months and I am thankful for each and everyone of them and cherish them dearly and at that point of time there was nowhere in the world I would rather have been.
Well I would write more but it’s very late and I’m starting to get a bit ‘punchy’ with the keyboard, so I think I’ll call it a night and continue this tomorrow.
Later!
Right lets see, Thursday, didn’t manage to do an awful lot. Apart form in the afternoon I suddenly realised that I had forgot to mention to Dad that I had the day off. I realised that he would probably get all paranoid as to why I hadn’t told him, so being a bit of a coward and not wanting a argument I took the path of least resistance and took the car down the park and sat in their car park for half an hour and then came back once I knew Dad was home and it was my ‘usual’ time to come back from work. He asked how my day had been and I said fine, which was technically lying, but I know, I know the intention was there. I just wish I knew how things had got to this point where I have to do things like this and try and vainly justify it to myself when I know I’m in the wrong. There were some ferocious thunderstorms overhead on Thursday, the flash and thunder were as close together as it’s possible for them to be. The downside of this was the ceiling in the toilet started to leak. An awful lot. So we had to call an emergency repair guy out but as he couldn’t come to Friday we just had to keep out fingers crossed that it didn’t rain overnight or we would have been in deeepppp trouble.
So onto Friday. Or “ Snakes on a plane “ day. The film is finally here so the company decided to pay for us to all go and see it. Ironically they would choose a day when I wasn’t working but hey, I still wanted to go anyway, coz I wasn’t going to be paying! The film, well lets be honest is stupid, but in a good way. It holds no illusions to be a serious film and you can see the cast are just ‘rolling’ with it. There are some gratuitous bits and I don’t think some church members are going to be happy watching it, but I still thought it was good. The only bad thing about the film was J was planning to ask me to look after my nephew J and he had got all excited but of course when she checked it was at the same time as the film so I could do it. The poor little guy got so upset and I felt so guilty. So I offered to pop round on Monday to play some games with him, which did seem to cheer him up.
Well in the evening it was the YSA get together at the McReynolds. I’ve never been there before so I got some directions off the web but I had visions of arriving there dead late. Ironically (for some reason irony is toying with me this week), I found my way straight there and was the first to arrive. I forgot to work on MMT (Mormon mean time) like the rest of the YSA. I know, I know I should know better. But the others soon turned up and it was a fantastic night. But what I found most amazing was how many cards I got from people, I couldn’t believe it. I haven’t had that many cards for my birthday in years and just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, I got a cake too with the candles and everything. I can’t remember the last time I had a cake, it was brilliant, and it was fantastic they did call for me to make a speech, but I couldn’t think of anything to say. Well that and I was afraid that I would start blubbering if I did. It’s just with everything that been going on, to just feel part of the group like that and wanted/liked, just sitting he typing this I feel myself welling up. I wish now that I had stood up and said what I was feeling, and told them that they were a fantastic group of people and without their help I really don’t think I wouldn’t have been able to cope with the last few months and I am thankful for each and everyone of them and cherish them dearly and at that point of time there was nowhere in the world I would rather have been.
Well I would write more but it’s very late and I’m starting to get a bit ‘punchy’ with the keyboard, so I think I’ll call it a night and continue this tomorrow.
Later!
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Of course I know what I'm doing.....Honest!
Well Grumpy is still refusing to ask for help with his new mobile, so he's still stuck with the dance of the sugar plum fairy at maximum volume every time the mobile rings. He, he, he, he, he..... He seems to be getting more frustrated so I think he is going to cave. However he has discovered another problem with his phone. He needs to call a a couple of numbers on a regular basis and unfortunately they are barred. So he called the service provider etc and they told him they can't be unbarred for a pay as you go phone. So you can imagine what that did to his mood. Yes it's plummeted so much it's already gone through the earths core and I'm fairly confident it's about to surface in China any second. So I'm not entirely sure what he's going to do with the phone now mind you. Knowing him probably a drop kick into the nearest canal :-)
Well I've got the rest of this week off now and Monday next week as well. I thought with my Birthday on Sunday and so on it was a good excuse as any to take a 'long weekend'. However I'm sure like most of my times of,f I will start with some great plan to get something constructive done and actually end up doing bugger all. But hey, at least that means I'm consistent.
I was going through the photos we took with our digital camera last night however I discovered a small problem. We didn't make a note of dates or when the photos were taken, so this means we do have a lot of photos of S + As brood that we not sure who their of as it's not readily obvious in the pictures. Guess I'll have to ask them, I just hope that they can tell the difference too.
Can't really think of anything else to say right now. It's being one of those days where I can't see to break my mental blank.
so later!
Well I've got the rest of this week off now and Monday next week as well. I thought with my Birthday on Sunday and so on it was a good excuse as any to take a 'long weekend'. However I'm sure like most of my times of,f I will start with some great plan to get something constructive done and actually end up doing bugger all. But hey, at least that means I'm consistent.
I was going through the photos we took with our digital camera last night however I discovered a small problem. We didn't make a note of dates or when the photos were taken, so this means we do have a lot of photos of S + As brood that we not sure who their of as it's not readily obvious in the pictures. Guess I'll have to ask them, I just hope that they can tell the difference too.
Can't really think of anything else to say right now. It's being one of those days where I can't see to break my mental blank.
so later!
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
1001010011100110
Well now I know what a borg feels like, as all I've got at the moment floating around my head are numbers. Which considering the lack of anything else in my head such as brains, means they have a awful lot of room to float round in. And why have I got numbers floating around my head the one or two of you who actually read thing ask? Well I'll tell you, in fact I would have said anyway without anyone asking, because if you didn't ask I would sound like my ramblings were madder then ever and me look stupid, but wait technically none of you did ask that question so I have made myself look stupid. So whoops too late there.
Right, yes sorry back onto my point as tedious and small it maybe. It's that time again where I have to sort out external products to send to authors, reviewers, distributors etc, which although it takes a bit of time isn't usually that bad. However this month there were 10 different books to sort out. So I was having to input the same 11 sets of eleven digit number sequences, going through the same seven screens on the order system somewhere in the region of 85 times. To say I was a bit boze eyed at the end of it, would be a rather large understatement. I was able to input the codes without checking them by the end and then the numbers decided to spend the rest of the day flying around in my head, which was nice of them. Fortunately it only gets that bad with samples once a year, otherwise It would reduce me to a gibbering wreck. Okay, okay more of a gibbering wreck then usual.
Lds linkup update. I'm up to the 'huge' total of 11 friends, but I still only two comments, which means people haven't got round to it yet or maybe I'm just indescribable. Wait would that be a good or a bad thing???
Love life update. Well I don't really need to do this bit is it? It's not like you can't guess :-) I think I really need to borrow that books of E's that she was recommending. ( ask her if you want to know)
Grumpy did actually get a new mobile over the weekend. Hurrah!! Downside it has about several dozen options which I'm sure he'll never use. He is starting to get the hang of txt messaging and doesn't want my help with things as he wants to do everything himself but after he really annoyed me by taking my paper before I had a chance to read it yet again, I changed his message alert tone to the tune " The sugar plum fairy", so as he has his phone on loud every time he gets a message everyone in the vicinity can hear it. He, he, he, he. he's refusing to ask for help, but I'm fairly sure he'll cave before the end of the week. It was a petty thing to do I know, but hey it is funny at the moment :-)
Oh I realized that in all my moaning yesterday I failed to mention how the film was on Friday night. Lets put it this way. It was a frustratingly annoying film not because it was bad, which it was, but because there was potential for it to be so much better. But hey at least there were some good trailers and it gave me the chance to spend sometime with the wonderful young ladies of the YSA which more then made up for the disappointing film. It also was good to get out of the house on a Friday night although I still managed to get in earlier then grumpy. What the heck is up with that? I still have no idea where he's going. He's convinced I'm still spying for Mum or sumthing.
later!
Right, yes sorry back onto my point as tedious and small it maybe. It's that time again where I have to sort out external products to send to authors, reviewers, distributors etc, which although it takes a bit of time isn't usually that bad. However this month there were 10 different books to sort out. So I was having to input the same 11 sets of eleven digit number sequences, going through the same seven screens on the order system somewhere in the region of 85 times. To say I was a bit boze eyed at the end of it, would be a rather large understatement. I was able to input the codes without checking them by the end and then the numbers decided to spend the rest of the day flying around in my head, which was nice of them. Fortunately it only gets that bad with samples once a year, otherwise It would reduce me to a gibbering wreck. Okay, okay more of a gibbering wreck then usual.
Lds linkup update. I'm up to the 'huge' total of 11 friends, but I still only two comments, which means people haven't got round to it yet or maybe I'm just indescribable. Wait would that be a good or a bad thing???
Love life update. Well I don't really need to do this bit is it? It's not like you can't guess :-) I think I really need to borrow that books of E's that she was recommending. ( ask her if you want to know)
Grumpy did actually get a new mobile over the weekend. Hurrah!! Downside it has about several dozen options which I'm sure he'll never use. He is starting to get the hang of txt messaging and doesn't want my help with things as he wants to do everything himself but after he really annoyed me by taking my paper before I had a chance to read it yet again, I changed his message alert tone to the tune " The sugar plum fairy", so as he has his phone on loud every time he gets a message everyone in the vicinity can hear it. He, he, he, he. he's refusing to ask for help, but I'm fairly sure he'll cave before the end of the week. It was a petty thing to do I know, but hey it is funny at the moment :-)
Oh I realized that in all my moaning yesterday I failed to mention how the film was on Friday night. Lets put it this way. It was a frustratingly annoying film not because it was bad, which it was, but because there was potential for it to be so much better. But hey at least there were some good trailers and it gave me the chance to spend sometime with the wonderful young ladies of the YSA which more then made up for the disappointing film. It also was good to get out of the house on a Friday night although I still managed to get in earlier then grumpy. What the heck is up with that? I still have no idea where he's going. He's convinced I'm still spying for Mum or sumthing.
later!
Monday, August 14, 2006
waiting for the sword of Damocles
Well you would have though that I knew better by now, that I really, really wouldn't be as stupid to think certain things. But unfortunately I did decide to think that things seemed to be getting better so fate/sod/murphy whatever you refer to it as decided to teach me a lesson for thinking that.
Oh great, I hear you all thinking. What precisely has caused this latest bout of self pity. Well I discovered at the weekend that Mum has found a new house, place to rent etc as J has now sold her house and will shortly be moving out. Which is a good thing, don't get me wrong, as she is moving on with things. However if things were that simple we wouldn't have a problem now would we? The problem I have now and it's a HUGE one and is one I discovered via J. Mum doesn't like grumpy going round J old house to drop things off for her or to get her to sign things, so she doesn't want him to know where she's going to be living and she doesn't want me to tell him. Right okay. Just excuse me one moment.
ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay sorry about that. This I do not believe. It's been hard enough being stuck in the middle but now she decides to go and do this. Yes I understand that she wants to be getting on with her life and make a fresh start etc, but has she got any idea what this will do to Grumpys mood. Forget a volcano he will EXPLODE. and what in the bloody hell am I supposed to do,
" Oh sorry not allowed to tell you, oh and if I do pop round to see her would you mind terribly staying home so I can be sure your not following me. "
Or maybe she's going to change her mind again and then tell him later, which if that happens forget grumpy I'm gonna flip out. They can't go on like this, it's something I never wanted to hear but one of them sooner or later is going to have to mention the D word because things really, really can't keep going on like this for everyone's sake.
Unfortunately Grumpys mood wasn't helped yesterday (accidentally mind you) by the home teachers. L grabbed me at church to ask if it would be okay for them to come home teaching. I was mindful of what happened last time, so I decided to hedge my bets and say I wasn't sure and that I needed to check. He said fine and he would call later to confirm. When I got home for lunch I checked with grumpy who moaned and wanted to know why they were coming again, he didn't see why he should have to see them as they were from 'my' church not his. He said it was fine for them to come but he probably wouldn't come down. So he stomped around for the rest of the day obviously keyed up for when they would arrive. But they didn't turn up and I didn't get a call from L either. So either this means they will come next week, L got the wrong end of the stick, or he forgot and assumed I was supposed to be ringing him. Either way, this accidentally worsened grumpys bad mood.
Not that I was in the best of moods myself yesterday and in hindsight I could have handled things better. The priesthood lesson was so boring. I zoned out at the beginning and I think that I can honestly say that's the first lesson I've come out of, that I've had no idea what so ever of what the lesson was about. Sunday school was only marginally better. The teacher asked us at the end of the lesson why we were so quiet etc, and we not participating in the discussion more. Well two reasons spring to mind. The first is it is a very bad habit we got into with the last teacher, and secondly for me, I'm always a little worried that if I do say something I'll either get it wrong, or it will seem like a very basic answer which will make me look like a idiot in front of the others, because some of the people In the ysa class r waaaaayyyyyy smarter then me. MR was called as the new ward male ysa rep. Ironically that calling was only 'free' due to the bishopric thinking that MT was gone for good.
The trouble after sacrament was most of the other YSA were busy talking to other people and to be honest I'm not the kind of person who will just force their way into other peoples conversation. Never have been, never will be,unfortunately when I was attempting to talk with C and a couple of other YSA did butt into our conversation and she was talking to them. If it had been any other day I supposed I was have stood there and been patient but when your trying to have a personnel conversation with someone and then someone comes and interrupts taking the conversation over leaving you standing there like a lemon and your in the mood I was in you don't exactly handle it with tact. In other words I just left without saying a word.
D'oh, D'oh, D'oh, D'oh, D'oh,
I could have handled that it a lot better couldn't I? I don't know why but the whole thing fantastically annoyed me and I had to just get outta there. I'm just going to make sure that I apologize to C next time I see her and explain I was trying to be purposefully rude. I hope she understands.
anyway later!
Oh great, I hear you all thinking. What precisely has caused this latest bout of self pity. Well I discovered at the weekend that Mum has found a new house, place to rent etc as J has now sold her house and will shortly be moving out. Which is a good thing, don't get me wrong, as she is moving on with things. However if things were that simple we wouldn't have a problem now would we? The problem I have now and it's a HUGE one and is one I discovered via J. Mum doesn't like grumpy going round J old house to drop things off for her or to get her to sign things, so she doesn't want him to know where she's going to be living and she doesn't want me to tell him. Right okay. Just excuse me one moment.
ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay sorry about that. This I do not believe. It's been hard enough being stuck in the middle but now she decides to go and do this. Yes I understand that she wants to be getting on with her life and make a fresh start etc, but has she got any idea what this will do to Grumpys mood. Forget a volcano he will EXPLODE. and what in the bloody hell am I supposed to do,
" Oh sorry not allowed to tell you, oh and if I do pop round to see her would you mind terribly staying home so I can be sure your not following me. "
Or maybe she's going to change her mind again and then tell him later, which if that happens forget grumpy I'm gonna flip out. They can't go on like this, it's something I never wanted to hear but one of them sooner or later is going to have to mention the D word because things really, really can't keep going on like this for everyone's sake.
Unfortunately Grumpys mood wasn't helped yesterday (accidentally mind you) by the home teachers. L grabbed me at church to ask if it would be okay for them to come home teaching. I was mindful of what happened last time, so I decided to hedge my bets and say I wasn't sure and that I needed to check. He said fine and he would call later to confirm. When I got home for lunch I checked with grumpy who moaned and wanted to know why they were coming again, he didn't see why he should have to see them as they were from 'my' church not his. He said it was fine for them to come but he probably wouldn't come down. So he stomped around for the rest of the day obviously keyed up for when they would arrive. But they didn't turn up and I didn't get a call from L either. So either this means they will come next week, L got the wrong end of the stick, or he forgot and assumed I was supposed to be ringing him. Either way, this accidentally worsened grumpys bad mood.
Not that I was in the best of moods myself yesterday and in hindsight I could have handled things better. The priesthood lesson was so boring. I zoned out at the beginning and I think that I can honestly say that's the first lesson I've come out of, that I've had no idea what so ever of what the lesson was about. Sunday school was only marginally better. The teacher asked us at the end of the lesson why we were so quiet etc, and we not participating in the discussion more. Well two reasons spring to mind. The first is it is a very bad habit we got into with the last teacher, and secondly for me, I'm always a little worried that if I do say something I'll either get it wrong, or it will seem like a very basic answer which will make me look like a idiot in front of the others, because some of the people In the ysa class r waaaaayyyyyy smarter then me. MR was called as the new ward male ysa rep. Ironically that calling was only 'free' due to the bishopric thinking that MT was gone for good.
The trouble after sacrament was most of the other YSA were busy talking to other people and to be honest I'm not the kind of person who will just force their way into other peoples conversation. Never have been, never will be,unfortunately when I was attempting to talk with C and a couple of other YSA did butt into our conversation and she was talking to them. If it had been any other day I supposed I was have stood there and been patient but when your trying to have a personnel conversation with someone and then someone comes and interrupts taking the conversation over leaving you standing there like a lemon and your in the mood I was in you don't exactly handle it with tact. In other words I just left without saying a word.
D'oh, D'oh, D'oh, D'oh, D'oh,
I could have handled that it a lot better couldn't I? I don't know why but the whole thing fantastically annoyed me and I had to just get outta there. I'm just going to make sure that I apologize to C next time I see her and explain I was trying to be purposefully rude. I hope she understands.
anyway later!
Friday, August 11, 2006
Deja vu all over again.
Well for the second night running I was talking to a person on messenger, different person from last time though and got the same question as the previous evening.
" Why are you single?"
Once again my response was exactly the same.
" I don't knowwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!"
Everybody make it sound so easy like as a YSA you should just be able to click your fingers and you've got a instant gf. I don't know, maybe I missed the institute class where they taught that trick which might explain a lot actually. But who knows.
Well grumpy has changed his mind yet again. I was speaking to S last night, as in A + S, not Sw or Sw ( I really need to think up codenames for more of them because this is starting to confuse me and I'm the one who's writing this thing) and he said to say hello to grumpy. well when I passed this on grumpy wasn't interested and said that he wasn't bothered as he had nothing to do with them now, that was over with, they weren't part of his family. Which to be honest I was bit surprised and this outburst and didn't know what to say without starting a huge row as this is the same guy who a couple of weeks ago was moaning that he didn't get a invite to tea at J+T and said that they had chosen to cut off contact with him and not let him see the kids and it wasn't his decision. But now when a member of the 'extended' family says hello he says he wants nothing to do with them. I'm so confused............. it's like he has a attention span of a child I swear. I'm sure He's probably going to have changed his mind yet again next week. I dunno maybe he has a D10 (that's a 10 sided dice for all you non geeks out there) that he's rolling once a week to see what he's going to think this week etc. Which although unlikely might make things marginally more understandable.
Well I should be going to the cinema this evening with some of the other ysa to see my 'super ex girlfriend' and before any smart comments from anyone it's a film. Yes I realize the chances are that it could turn out to be a chick flick but hey even so I don't want to turn down a opportunity to spend sometime with the fantastic and lovely ladies of the YSA. Although as grumpys running off with the car I will need to get a lift, however this is the only negative point and hey for the first time in a while I'll be out on a Friday night and chances are I'll get home after grumpy for once and to be honest the way it should be :-)
My money issues should ease a little tomorrow as grumpy is actually going to give me a Cheque for some petrol and half the cost of recent repairs I had done. ( only fair). It's not enough to make me feel complete easy till the end of the month but it should get me by :-) However he's main concern for tomorrow is buying himself a new mobile, but after the initial surprise he has reverted to form and in his words " Wants a cheap one", why am I not surprised.
And with just over a week to go to my birthday he still hasn't asked me what I would like. which means he either has forgotten, he hasn't but is planning to surprise me, or he'll remember next Saturday and the panic will kick in. I think there a remote chance that it's possibility 2 but possibility 1 and 3 are joint neck and neck for the likely outcome.
But as always I guess we'll see.
later!
" Why are you single?"
Once again my response was exactly the same.
" I don't knowwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!"
Everybody make it sound so easy like as a YSA you should just be able to click your fingers and you've got a instant gf. I don't know, maybe I missed the institute class where they taught that trick which might explain a lot actually. But who knows.
Well grumpy has changed his mind yet again. I was speaking to S last night, as in A + S, not Sw or Sw ( I really need to think up codenames for more of them because this is starting to confuse me and I'm the one who's writing this thing) and he said to say hello to grumpy. well when I passed this on grumpy wasn't interested and said that he wasn't bothered as he had nothing to do with them now, that was over with, they weren't part of his family. Which to be honest I was bit surprised and this outburst and didn't know what to say without starting a huge row as this is the same guy who a couple of weeks ago was moaning that he didn't get a invite to tea at J+T and said that they had chosen to cut off contact with him and not let him see the kids and it wasn't his decision. But now when a member of the 'extended' family says hello he says he wants nothing to do with them. I'm so confused............. it's like he has a attention span of a child I swear. I'm sure He's probably going to have changed his mind yet again next week. I dunno maybe he has a D10 (that's a 10 sided dice for all you non geeks out there) that he's rolling once a week to see what he's going to think this week etc. Which although unlikely might make things marginally more understandable.
Well I should be going to the cinema this evening with some of the other ysa to see my 'super ex girlfriend' and before any smart comments from anyone it's a film. Yes I realize the chances are that it could turn out to be a chick flick but hey even so I don't want to turn down a opportunity to spend sometime with the fantastic and lovely ladies of the YSA. Although as grumpys running off with the car I will need to get a lift, however this is the only negative point and hey for the first time in a while I'll be out on a Friday night and chances are I'll get home after grumpy for once and to be honest the way it should be :-)
My money issues should ease a little tomorrow as grumpy is actually going to give me a Cheque for some petrol and half the cost of recent repairs I had done. ( only fair). It's not enough to make me feel complete easy till the end of the month but it should get me by :-) However he's main concern for tomorrow is buying himself a new mobile, but after the initial surprise he has reverted to form and in his words " Wants a cheap one", why am I not surprised.
And with just over a week to go to my birthday he still hasn't asked me what I would like. which means he either has forgotten, he hasn't but is planning to surprise me, or he'll remember next Saturday and the panic will kick in. I think there a remote chance that it's possibility 2 but possibility 1 and 3 are joint neck and neck for the likely outcome.
But as always I guess we'll see.
later!
Thursday, August 10, 2006
No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!
Yes after having a talk with grumpy last night I got a mite concerned that we might be getting a visit from the inquisition. Because Grumpy even more of a techno luddite then me when it comes to phones has decided he's going to upgrade his phone to one of the latest models. That was bit of a shock to say the least, remember this is a man who refused to upgrade his computer for eight years and has trouble sometimes turning subtitles on, on the TV. Yet he's decided he wants a more modern phone. I half way suspect he'll be insisting that I swap phones with him before the month is out :-)
I was going to go off on a ramble about the days events but figured there was no point as most of the media have made the blindingly obvious facts. However one thing I shall say it's been very difficult to keep a open mind and not become all paranoid as I did watch V for vendetta last night. ( if you've watched the film you'll that reference. If you haven't watched it. why haven't you? it's great!)
Umm asides from that it's a bit of a odd day. The day seems to have flown by, but also not much seems to have happened. I know I've not explained that very well but I'm sure you all know what I mean and have had days like that yourself.
Well grumpy is in a fairly good mood at the moment. I think it's probably got something to do with mum being on Holiday so he hasn't been dragged into a blazing argument every other day. It's also felt weird as well because I've got so used to going home and being keyed up for him being in a bad mood and her and mum having had some sort of argument, to know that I'm going to get home and nothing like that will have happened. Well it's nice but it's also weird as well. Argghhh, again to explaining myself very well but I'm sure you all get the gist of it. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed and hope that his good mood last beyond her coming back from holiday but if I want to be brutally honest with myself there's probably not much chance of that.
Well there's no denying it now, I'm 25 a week on Sunday. no matter how much I still want to be in my 'teens'. I suppose on the plus side for my birthday next year I can copy J and just throw a massive freak out and run around the place moaning about how I'm closer to 30 then I am 20. joy :-)
I was talking to one of my old penpals who I have kept in contact with on and off since I was about 13 on MSN last night, just generally catching up and all. She's a lovely lady with one slightly problem that she has no subtly or tact whatsoever. It's not a case that she'll put her foot in it, more that she run up to the roof and leap off in a attempt to land init with both feet while wearing boots. Well you get the idea. Well she decided that she wanted to steer the conversation onto my love life. Or lack of one. The conversation went something roughly a long these lines. ( her part of the conversation is in bold)
How's your love life?
Ummm same as always.
You mean you still don't have one?
That would be correct.
Why?
What do you mean why?
Why don't you have one?
Well if I knew the answer to that, I could solve it and would have one?
Well true but you must have some idea?
Again no.
I still can't believe you haven't found a gf?
you and me both.
Are you sure you don't know?
again, it's a reason I have pondered on for quite sometime and again if I knew I could fix the problem?
Oh right. It's just strange that all?
What do you mean strange?
That you don't know.
No, your right I do know. I've just decided not to change and get rid of this reason as I'm fond of a life of being single and alone.
really?
NOOOOOO!
Why r u getting so touchy?
Oh can't imagine why
R u being sarcastic with me?
no wouldn't dream of it.
good
because there would be no point as you can't get sarcasm.
oh ha, ha, ha, ha.
Well at least you think I'm still funny.
Yep and I'm still.....
don't finish that sentence.
but I'm intrigued and confused.
We've finished that line of conversation.
says you
yes
Have you tried asking the girls why?
what?
well maybe if you asked the girls why your still single they could give you some pointers?
what?
well have you considered it?
no!
why not?
Well because I'm not insane, I've not been sniffing glue and I would like to keep the small shred of self confidence and dignity I have.
Well if you don't ask.......
I don't make myself look like a idiot.
Hmmm. Not quite what I was going to say.
but the only thing I was going to hear.
Is there stiff competition from the other guys in the YSA?
Stiff competition? Why would there be coz lets see, as a 25 year old still living at home with one of his parents who are in the middle of a bitter break up which is really putting me down at the moment, into sci-fi and computers and working as a customer services assistant for a company who makes toy soldiers so I spend my days talking about soldiers and fantasy worlds, I can't possibly see how that could be any stiff competition from other ysa guys there. It's not like any of them have really cool jobs like being a lawyer or studying to be a engineer, life away from home and don't dance the way the incredible hulk walks. Oh wait........
Your being sarcastic again aren't you?
congratulations you've just got your first piece of sarcasm.
Well, cheer up . As they say there is someone for......
finish that cliché and I'll get very upset with you.
Oh touchy!!!!!
Look you started this line of conversation.
so this is my fault.
yes.
oh okay. .......
( and at that point the conversation went of on a totally different tangent about food and drink in museums. Don't ask! Oh and despite apaprences we are still talking to each other. This is just how a lot of our conversations go :-)
later!
I was going to go off on a ramble about the days events but figured there was no point as most of the media have made the blindingly obvious facts. However one thing I shall say it's been very difficult to keep a open mind and not become all paranoid as I did watch V for vendetta last night. ( if you've watched the film you'll that reference. If you haven't watched it. why haven't you? it's great!)
Umm asides from that it's a bit of a odd day. The day seems to have flown by, but also not much seems to have happened. I know I've not explained that very well but I'm sure you all know what I mean and have had days like that yourself.
Well grumpy is in a fairly good mood at the moment. I think it's probably got something to do with mum being on Holiday so he hasn't been dragged into a blazing argument every other day. It's also felt weird as well because I've got so used to going home and being keyed up for him being in a bad mood and her and mum having had some sort of argument, to know that I'm going to get home and nothing like that will have happened. Well it's nice but it's also weird as well. Argghhh, again to explaining myself very well but I'm sure you all get the gist of it. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed and hope that his good mood last beyond her coming back from holiday but if I want to be brutally honest with myself there's probably not much chance of that.
Well there's no denying it now, I'm 25 a week on Sunday. no matter how much I still want to be in my 'teens'. I suppose on the plus side for my birthday next year I can copy J and just throw a massive freak out and run around the place moaning about how I'm closer to 30 then I am 20. joy :-)
I was talking to one of my old penpals who I have kept in contact with on and off since I was about 13 on MSN last night, just generally catching up and all. She's a lovely lady with one slightly problem that she has no subtly or tact whatsoever. It's not a case that she'll put her foot in it, more that she run up to the roof and leap off in a attempt to land init with both feet while wearing boots. Well you get the idea. Well she decided that she wanted to steer the conversation onto my love life. Or lack of one. The conversation went something roughly a long these lines. ( her part of the conversation is in bold)
How's your love life?
Ummm same as always.
You mean you still don't have one?
That would be correct.
Why?
What do you mean why?
Why don't you have one?
Well if I knew the answer to that, I could solve it and would have one?
Well true but you must have some idea?
Again no.
I still can't believe you haven't found a gf?
you and me both.
Are you sure you don't know?
again, it's a reason I have pondered on for quite sometime and again if I knew I could fix the problem?
Oh right. It's just strange that all?
What do you mean strange?
That you don't know.
No, your right I do know. I've just decided not to change and get rid of this reason as I'm fond of a life of being single and alone.
really?
NOOOOOO!
Why r u getting so touchy?
Oh can't imagine why
R u being sarcastic with me?
no wouldn't dream of it.
good
because there would be no point as you can't get sarcasm.
oh ha, ha, ha, ha.
Well at least you think I'm still funny.
Yep and I'm still.....
don't finish that sentence.
but I'm intrigued and confused.
We've finished that line of conversation.
says you
yes
Have you tried asking the girls why?
what?
well maybe if you asked the girls why your still single they could give you some pointers?
what?
well have you considered it?
no!
why not?
Well because I'm not insane, I've not been sniffing glue and I would like to keep the small shred of self confidence and dignity I have.
Well if you don't ask.......
I don't make myself look like a idiot.
Hmmm. Not quite what I was going to say.
but the only thing I was going to hear.
Is there stiff competition from the other guys in the YSA?
Stiff competition? Why would there be coz lets see, as a 25 year old still living at home with one of his parents who are in the middle of a bitter break up which is really putting me down at the moment, into sci-fi and computers and working as a customer services assistant for a company who makes toy soldiers so I spend my days talking about soldiers and fantasy worlds, I can't possibly see how that could be any stiff competition from other ysa guys there. It's not like any of them have really cool jobs like being a lawyer or studying to be a engineer, life away from home and don't dance the way the incredible hulk walks. Oh wait........
Your being sarcastic again aren't you?
congratulations you've just got your first piece of sarcasm.
Well, cheer up . As they say there is someone for......
finish that cliché and I'll get very upset with you.
Oh touchy!!!!!
Look you started this line of conversation.
so this is my fault.
yes.
oh okay. .......
( and at that point the conversation went of on a totally different tangent about food and drink in museums. Don't ask! Oh and despite apaprences we are still talking to each other. This is just how a lot of our conversations go :-)
later!
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
That's not a rambling. This is a rambling!
There's a peculiar trait to the roads round here. When the roads are quiet I can get home with barely having to stop anywhere. However when the roads are busy they do a extremely good impression of a car park. Yes as you may have guessed on my way to work this morning I got stuck in a traffic jam and a stretch of road that should take me two minutes to get through took me 25 minutes instead and of course as dictated by the great law of the universe 'sod', it was a stretch of road I 'had' to take to get to work. Ironically I had just managed to exit the stretch of road when the local radio station I was listening to finally decided to have a traffic report recommending that people avoid that stretch of road due to a accident. Well that was very useful wasn't it? Having up to date traffic reports every half an hour. Pillocks!
The morning didn't get much once I had got to work. The NMM is currently on which means there's a awful lot of extra people wandering the campus and obviously learning from the problems they had yesterday they arrived early so they could park their cars. Unfortunately this meant that a huge chunk of the staff who work here myself included couldn't find a car parking space. As I left the car park I was indicating to people coming in that there were no spaces left, but as is so often the case they still decided to go and have a look in the vain hope that maybe another empty space had appeared outta thin air. Lots of people were already parking out on the road which is a pretty death defying experience with all the lorries, vans and school buses which tend to hurtle up and down the road and even if you survive there's no guarantee that your car will.
But why do people risk parking on the road then? Well probably for one reason, that their lazy. Lazy lazy, lazy, lazy! I'm being subtle) As they only want to be a few seconds walk from the building. But where's the proof that this is laziness I hear you cry? Well there is one reason or rather 120 of them. Four minutes walk down the road is our main warehouse which has a 120 space overflow car park which every car user has access to you. It's nice, secure, no danger of having your wing mirror ripped off by a kamikaze lorry and there's even a nice pair of security guards who will watch it with the cctv cameras. Yet people won't park I there as it means they have to walk for four minutes up the road. They'd much prefer to risk the road. Hence lazy.
I finally entered the building and got the day rolling and checked the email account to discover the usual junk emails. Offers of a holiday in the sun, cut price medication, that we had won a lottery and a women from sierra Leone asking us to wisely invest £8 million dollars for her as she was about to die and wanted to leave something to charity. She failed to explain precisely why as someone from sierra Leone she had a Russian email address but I'm sure that a small oversight. So at last count I think that was 30 million dollars that we have 'won' so far this week. If only it were true we could all take the rest of the year off and still beat target . But I suppose that reality will always win out over fantasy. Because it's real!!!! :-)
Talking of fantasy verse reality, we had a lot of letters arrive for some of the guys here. I won't/can't go into details but lets just say someone took one of our books waayyyy to seriously. Which was fairly amusing as the letter sent me into a real giggling fit for a good 10 minutes. We've also had a lot of new books arrive in the main warehouse so I spent a large chunk of yesterday afternoon wandering around the building distributing samples. And what do I get for this important role for giving people samples of books which aren't out in the stores for another 2 months. Well a new job title according to the guys in direct sales. Yes they've christened me the 'Sample fairy'. Great, after all the hard work in getting the samples system set up, I get rewarded by being christened a "fairy". Great! Wonderful! Excuse me while I go and sit under a desk and cry.
Well grumpy was in his usual happy mood yesterday. He hadn't been able to find his work trousers so he had to wear a different pair to work. when I asked if he had checked under his bed, he said no and asked why. He had actually managed to forgot ( and I have no idea how) that his new bed actually had space underneath it rather then drawers. But before you jump to the obvious conclusion the trousers weren't stuck under the bed. They were actually hanging up in his wardrobe. He didn't see them however because he had hung them in front of a black shirt. So as it was black trousers hanging in front of a black shirt he didn't notice them. Because that would have actually entailed him moving stuff around rather then doing his usual technique of just looking. D'oh
Well the other thing which wasn't putting him in a good mood was his diabetes. I don't know if it's stress, or he's just not watching his sugar level as well as he could be but it does seem to be getting lower then it used to at the same point in the day. When he was cooking dinner last night he was being a bit clumsy when he was dishing it up, then he managed to forget that he had left part of dinner in the oven and left the oven on to. Fortunately I realized as I was sitting the lounge and spelt the cooking ( I.e burning) and was able to turn it off. goodness knows what would have happened if I wasn't there as he was sitting out in the garden! Of course there is another option that he's just being his usual forgetful self and is blaming it on his diabetes by way of an excuse. Which is more likely. I just hope this forgetfulness isn't genetic. He,he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he,
wait was I laughing about again? In fact wait even more, who am I? This isn't my desk, this aren't my shoes arghhhhhh!
later!
The morning didn't get much once I had got to work. The NMM is currently on which means there's a awful lot of extra people wandering the campus and obviously learning from the problems they had yesterday they arrived early so they could park their cars. Unfortunately this meant that a huge chunk of the staff who work here myself included couldn't find a car parking space. As I left the car park I was indicating to people coming in that there were no spaces left, but as is so often the case they still decided to go and have a look in the vain hope that maybe another empty space had appeared outta thin air. Lots of people were already parking out on the road which is a pretty death defying experience with all the lorries, vans and school buses which tend to hurtle up and down the road and even if you survive there's no guarantee that your car will.
But why do people risk parking on the road then? Well probably for one reason, that their lazy. Lazy lazy, lazy, lazy! I'm being subtle) As they only want to be a few seconds walk from the building. But where's the proof that this is laziness I hear you cry? Well there is one reason or rather 120 of them. Four minutes walk down the road is our main warehouse which has a 120 space overflow car park which every car user has access to you. It's nice, secure, no danger of having your wing mirror ripped off by a kamikaze lorry and there's even a nice pair of security guards who will watch it with the cctv cameras. Yet people won't park I there as it means they have to walk for four minutes up the road. They'd much prefer to risk the road. Hence lazy.
I finally entered the building and got the day rolling and checked the email account to discover the usual junk emails. Offers of a holiday in the sun, cut price medication, that we had won a lottery and a women from sierra Leone asking us to wisely invest £8 million dollars for her as she was about to die and wanted to leave something to charity. She failed to explain precisely why as someone from sierra Leone she had a Russian email address but I'm sure that a small oversight. So at last count I think that was 30 million dollars that we have 'won' so far this week. If only it were true we could all take the rest of the year off and still beat target . But I suppose that reality will always win out over fantasy. Because it's real!!!! :-)
Talking of fantasy verse reality, we had a lot of letters arrive for some of the guys here. I won't/can't go into details but lets just say someone took one of our books waayyyy to seriously. Which was fairly amusing as the letter sent me into a real giggling fit for a good 10 minutes. We've also had a lot of new books arrive in the main warehouse so I spent a large chunk of yesterday afternoon wandering around the building distributing samples. And what do I get for this important role for giving people samples of books which aren't out in the stores for another 2 months. Well a new job title according to the guys in direct sales. Yes they've christened me the 'Sample fairy'. Great, after all the hard work in getting the samples system set up, I get rewarded by being christened a "fairy". Great! Wonderful! Excuse me while I go and sit under a desk and cry.
Well grumpy was in his usual happy mood yesterday. He hadn't been able to find his work trousers so he had to wear a different pair to work. when I asked if he had checked under his bed, he said no and asked why. He had actually managed to forgot ( and I have no idea how) that his new bed actually had space underneath it rather then drawers. But before you jump to the obvious conclusion the trousers weren't stuck under the bed. They were actually hanging up in his wardrobe. He didn't see them however because he had hung them in front of a black shirt. So as it was black trousers hanging in front of a black shirt he didn't notice them. Because that would have actually entailed him moving stuff around rather then doing his usual technique of just looking. D'oh
Well the other thing which wasn't putting him in a good mood was his diabetes. I don't know if it's stress, or he's just not watching his sugar level as well as he could be but it does seem to be getting lower then it used to at the same point in the day. When he was cooking dinner last night he was being a bit clumsy when he was dishing it up, then he managed to forget that he had left part of dinner in the oven and left the oven on to. Fortunately I realized as I was sitting the lounge and spelt the cooking ( I.e burning) and was able to turn it off. goodness knows what would have happened if I wasn't there as he was sitting out in the garden! Of course there is another option that he's just being his usual forgetful self and is blaming it on his diabetes by way of an excuse. Which is more likely. I just hope this forgetfulness isn't genetic. He,he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he,
wait was I laughing about again? In fact wait even more, who am I? This isn't my desk, this aren't my shoes arghhhhhh!
later!
Monday, August 07, 2006
It's time for the Marie Celeste take 2!
Yes, yes as if Mondays don't drag enough our corner of the office is doing a extremely good impression of the Marie Celeste with just two of us actually in work today. The others are all on Holiday or in my bosses case recovering after coming back from the states. So I get to be in charge of the whole WADS team and the trade team by Default. As Homer Simpson would say "the two sweetest words in the English language De Fault, De Fault" :-)
I've also had a second comment on my profile at LDS Linkup. So 2 down, another 8 to go out of my '10 friends' on the site. Although I have to admit it does look a bit pathetic when compared to Nemesis's 56 or Joeys 93. Well as the saying goes I just guess I'll have to work on that. I suppose I might make some 'new friends' at the YSA conference, I hope. I've just realized how close that is. Fortunately I think I have enough half way decent clothes to last the weekend as I definitely don't have the pennies to go shopping for new clothes this month. One thing that has suddenly struck me ifs having to drive up there. I know I used to drive all the Way up to Ormskirk which is a lot father but I haven't really driven any significant distance on the Motorway since I wrote my Fiesta off that time. Which is stupid I know and I'm sure I'll be fine. I have started to get a bit of practice by driving to the vue cinema which I know isn't the same but at least it's some practice. It's the thought of facing Manchester traffic on a Friday evening which I'm finding a little unsettling. But hey I've faced the motorway before and I'm sure I'll be able to face it again. Just got to consider should I take the KA or go with a safer route for me if not all the other road users and take a tank? :-)
The first trailer for snakes on a plan has appeared on the Tv. Yaaaaaaa!!! Downside it's a bad trailer as it only plays up the snakes + horror' of the film not the humor. Although hopefully people will figure out that snakes + plane = not serious movie. But regardless it's still going to be a cool firm. Coz it has Snakes on a plane + Samuel L Jackson. It couldn't get much cooler. Well maybe if they turned the air conditioning up, right???............................................... No, no gota stop saying anything more like that. sorry peeps sorta sugar overload this morning, so please forgive any ramblings which seem more inane then usual.
Say two very stupid adverts over the weekend. the first was for sandicliffe cars and features two characters sandy and cliffe ( see what they did there? clever huh?) who are supposed to be in charge of the company. There was disclaimer along the bottom of the screen saying " Please not these characters are not the real directors of the company". Well gosh darn, it's a good thing they pointed that out otherwise I don't think I would have figured that out for myself. The second advert was for the 'pebbel' mobile phone and starts with someone picking up a pebble and skimming it out to sea and it then proceeds to skin all over the world, through the artic, south Africa through a flock of birds, oceans etc until it lands on a beach and a girl picks it up and it's turned into the peble mobile phone. A good advert right? Well until you notice the disclaimer along the bottom of the screen saying " fictionalization. The peble mobile phone is not waterproof" Again well it's a good job that someone pointed that out as well that an advert is a fictionalization, I was just about to rush down to the beach and attempt to skim a pebble because I need a new mobile. But the more worrying thought is they've had to put that disclaimer there because some cretin did attempt to skin their new mobile and it sank, broke and then they sued the company for a lot of money. It was like a guy in the USA, stood on his motorbike to change a light bulb, fell off then sued the motorbike company for a whole lotta money as he said there were no warnings on the bike to say it might be unstable to stand on. Well duh, is a motorbike was safe to stand on it would be a stepladder not a bike. Words fail me sometimes they really do..
We found out on Sunday when institute starts again. "0th September which is six weeks away. Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!! I was hoping it would be sooner then that, but considering how late uni's start it makes sense for it not to start any sooner. It's almost September. Wheres the year going? Arggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
( and on that freakout I think we'll leave it there.)
later!!
I've also had a second comment on my profile at LDS Linkup. So 2 down, another 8 to go out of my '10 friends' on the site. Although I have to admit it does look a bit pathetic when compared to Nemesis's 56 or Joeys 93. Well as the saying goes I just guess I'll have to work on that. I suppose I might make some 'new friends' at the YSA conference, I hope. I've just realized how close that is. Fortunately I think I have enough half way decent clothes to last the weekend as I definitely don't have the pennies to go shopping for new clothes this month. One thing that has suddenly struck me ifs having to drive up there. I know I used to drive all the Way up to Ormskirk which is a lot father but I haven't really driven any significant distance on the Motorway since I wrote my Fiesta off that time. Which is stupid I know and I'm sure I'll be fine. I have started to get a bit of practice by driving to the vue cinema which I know isn't the same but at least it's some practice. It's the thought of facing Manchester traffic on a Friday evening which I'm finding a little unsettling. But hey I've faced the motorway before and I'm sure I'll be able to face it again. Just got to consider should I take the KA or go with a safer route for me if not all the other road users and take a tank? :-)
The first trailer for snakes on a plan has appeared on the Tv. Yaaaaaaa!!! Downside it's a bad trailer as it only plays up the snakes + horror' of the film not the humor. Although hopefully people will figure out that snakes + plane = not serious movie. But regardless it's still going to be a cool firm. Coz it has Snakes on a plane + Samuel L Jackson. It couldn't get much cooler. Well maybe if they turned the air conditioning up, right???............................................... No, no gota stop saying anything more like that. sorry peeps sorta sugar overload this morning, so please forgive any ramblings which seem more inane then usual.
Say two very stupid adverts over the weekend. the first was for sandicliffe cars and features two characters sandy and cliffe ( see what they did there? clever huh?) who are supposed to be in charge of the company. There was disclaimer along the bottom of the screen saying " Please not these characters are not the real directors of the company". Well gosh darn, it's a good thing they pointed that out otherwise I don't think I would have figured that out for myself. The second advert was for the 'pebbel' mobile phone and starts with someone picking up a pebble and skimming it out to sea and it then proceeds to skin all over the world, through the artic, south Africa through a flock of birds, oceans etc until it lands on a beach and a girl picks it up and it's turned into the peble mobile phone. A good advert right? Well until you notice the disclaimer along the bottom of the screen saying " fictionalization. The peble mobile phone is not waterproof" Again well it's a good job that someone pointed that out as well that an advert is a fictionalization, I was just about to rush down to the beach and attempt to skim a pebble because I need a new mobile. But the more worrying thought is they've had to put that disclaimer there because some cretin did attempt to skin their new mobile and it sank, broke and then they sued the company for a lot of money. It was like a guy in the USA, stood on his motorbike to change a light bulb, fell off then sued the motorbike company for a whole lotta money as he said there were no warnings on the bike to say it might be unstable to stand on. Well duh, is a motorbike was safe to stand on it would be a stepladder not a bike. Words fail me sometimes they really do..
We found out on Sunday when institute starts again. "0th September which is six weeks away. Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!! I was hoping it would be sooner then that, but considering how late uni's start it makes sense for it not to start any sooner. It's almost September. Wheres the year going? Arggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
( and on that freakout I think we'll leave it there.)
later!!
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Okay… Now even I’m confused
Right so Mum has now gone off on Holiday for two weeks after asking me not to tell Grumpy where she had gone or to play ‘dumb’ if he asked me if I knew where she was because she didn’t want him knowing and getting annoyed that she was going off on holiday. Yet this morning she called him to tell him she was on holiday for the next two weeks in Devon. So yes you can probably pretty much guess grumpys reaction to this bit of news. I just really don’t understand why she asked me to lie in the first place if she was just going to ring up and tell him anyway. Maybe she did change her mind and decided to tell him. Maybe she intended to all along, or maybe she just realised that disappearing for two weeks then coming back and only telling him then would be much worse. I don’t know but if the pair of them are going to continue doing things like this I wish they would just leave me out of this, as I don’t want to lie to either of them or be dragged into the crossfire yet again.
Well it was the ward barbecue last night. Interesting side note that it’s the first barbecue I’ve ever been too that I never got a burger. I’m not sure what happened there, it was either there was too little food or there was just an underestimation as to how long it would take to cook all the food. There was a fair queue of people waiting to get food ‘hot’ of the barbecue. J, J and R turned up along with T’s mum although T was staying at home to get some work on their garage done. J had a great time and stayed with us when the others headed home. The only problem was we got him home about half an hour after we say we would, which was mainly in part to the car getting blocked in and having to find the owner so they could move it. We left fairly early because grumpy was going out. The downside to this early exit was I didn’t get a chance to speak to any of the other YSA there as they were all deep in conversation with other people and most of my time was spent looking after Jacob who just wanted me to help him with loads of things. I got the car washed as well by the young women as they were washing cars to raise money for their camp. They did a very good job for £3.50.
Strangely enough the theme of not being able to talk to most of the YSA carried through to this morning as well. C was talking with CP then disappeared. I was only able to talk to SW and E briefly, same with Nemesis as well. Mainly because Nemesis seemed to up and vanish off the face of the earth at the end of the meeting. Although she did make some comment about reading ‘how things were on my blog’. Or words to that effect it was quite noisy in the chapel and I couldn’t hear her that well. Which well it got me thinking. Since institute finished I haven’t been as ‘in’ with the YSA on activities as I was being, mainly because when they are up to something Grumpy has usually nabbed the car (wouldn’t mind if he paid for petrol more). Which is annoying because I was starting to really feel as I was ‘in’ with the group’ So is it a case I’m only really communicating with some of them through my blog? Rather then being round them enough to talk in person?
If it is that, then it feels like a slip backwards to the bad old days, which at the time although I wasn’t what you could call completely happy with being ‘cut off’ from the other YSA, I could cope with it, and after thinking it made me realise I would never be happy with something like that again, ever. In fact even thinking along those lines felt terrifying. Institute starts again in just over a month and maybe things will feel better then because at least there will be one night a week when I know I’ll have a ‘night out’ of the house and I will be mixing with the other YSA. But it’s contemplating the time in between that’s making me feel uneasy. Maybe I am over thinking things and things are nowhere near as bad as I think but this is the trouble when your thoughts trundle off in a particular direction. You come up with answers and possibilities that you really, really don’t want. Any being in the particular frame of mind that I’m in at the moment I suppose really, really doesn’t help.
But anyway I don’t want to depress you anymore so later!
Well it was the ward barbecue last night. Interesting side note that it’s the first barbecue I’ve ever been too that I never got a burger. I’m not sure what happened there, it was either there was too little food or there was just an underestimation as to how long it would take to cook all the food. There was a fair queue of people waiting to get food ‘hot’ of the barbecue. J, J and R turned up along with T’s mum although T was staying at home to get some work on their garage done. J had a great time and stayed with us when the others headed home. The only problem was we got him home about half an hour after we say we would, which was mainly in part to the car getting blocked in and having to find the owner so they could move it. We left fairly early because grumpy was going out. The downside to this early exit was I didn’t get a chance to speak to any of the other YSA there as they were all deep in conversation with other people and most of my time was spent looking after Jacob who just wanted me to help him with loads of things. I got the car washed as well by the young women as they were washing cars to raise money for their camp. They did a very good job for £3.50.
Strangely enough the theme of not being able to talk to most of the YSA carried through to this morning as well. C was talking with CP then disappeared. I was only able to talk to SW and E briefly, same with Nemesis as well. Mainly because Nemesis seemed to up and vanish off the face of the earth at the end of the meeting. Although she did make some comment about reading ‘how things were on my blog’. Or words to that effect it was quite noisy in the chapel and I couldn’t hear her that well. Which well it got me thinking. Since institute finished I haven’t been as ‘in’ with the YSA on activities as I was being, mainly because when they are up to something Grumpy has usually nabbed the car (wouldn’t mind if he paid for petrol more). Which is annoying because I was starting to really feel as I was ‘in’ with the group’ So is it a case I’m only really communicating with some of them through my blog? Rather then being round them enough to talk in person?
If it is that, then it feels like a slip backwards to the bad old days, which at the time although I wasn’t what you could call completely happy with being ‘cut off’ from the other YSA, I could cope with it, and after thinking it made me realise I would never be happy with something like that again, ever. In fact even thinking along those lines felt terrifying. Institute starts again in just over a month and maybe things will feel better then because at least there will be one night a week when I know I’ll have a ‘night out’ of the house and I will be mixing with the other YSA. But it’s contemplating the time in between that’s making me feel uneasy. Maybe I am over thinking things and things are nowhere near as bad as I think but this is the trouble when your thoughts trundle off in a particular direction. You come up with answers and possibilities that you really, really don’t want. Any being in the particular frame of mind that I’m in at the moment I suppose really, really doesn’t help.
But anyway I don’t want to depress you anymore so later!
Friday, August 04, 2006
Reasons to be cheerful, erhhhh you find any let me know
Yes I'm still in that wonderfully 'good@ mood everyone, which was so helped by the fact that DL failed to appear to go home teaching yet again. So I had to spend half a hour standing around in my suit for no reason. This time round when organizing it I ever tried telling his wife so she could remind him, as DL can be a little scatty brained. But that didn't work either which means I'm probably going to be in line for another ear bashing from the Elders quorum president on Sunday when I have to fill in our home teaching report. So far we're on 100% failure rate to go out. I'm sure we must be setting some sort of record. Although I have to admit that I might not be a diplomatic as I should be if the elders quorum president has a go at me again. My reply will probably go something onlong these lines
" Oh gosh darn and blast it. Have we really not gone out so far this year old boy. Terribly frustrating isn't it. but rather then constantly harping on at me it might be better to talk to DL as the senior partner as he's the one not turning up or forgetting as he's totally scatter brained sometimes. Thank's for understanding there old chap."
( note it's' highly unlikely that I will actually use this precise sort of language but I think you get the gist of the point I'll try to get across. I.e stop moaning at me, it's not through want of trying!)
I have successfully resisted the urge to watch anymore of big brother. Unfortunately though the radio station I listen to insists on playing the best 'clips' each morning. I will resist, I will resist.............. But I have to admit that they played one of the best clips ever this morning. one of the contestants saying " I'm glad we're learning sign language for the task as this means I'll be able to use it to talk to the next blind person I meet" Words fail me. They really do.
Well it looks like another night in, in front of the computer for me tonight as grumpy is borrowing the car to go for a 'drink' with one of his 'friends'. I really have no idea why he is still using those terms as I know exactly what he's doing. Although I have to admit it is infinitely depressing that grumpy is out on a date on a Friday night and I'll be stuck at home. There's just something 'wrong' with that. It should be the other way round darn it! But I suppose it does say awful lot about me that it is this way round to begin with :-( But oh well. Ce'st la vie.
It was a shock to realize that I'll be 25 in 16 days. I've been alive quarter of a century, how scary is that? I really don't feel that old. Although I suppose we all still feel like kids at heart. Uni seems like such a long time ago. It;s strange but I find it really east sometimes to forget I have a degree and sign by name with the initials BA after it. Maybe I should change my profile to Saxon_uk BA?????? Yeah I know stupid plan.
I know when I was 12 I definitely didn't think I would be where I am today. I was thinking along the lines of something cool, like a engineer in the RAF, living in my house somewhere along with my wife and a couple of kids. I definitely did not imagine myself as a customer services assistant, working in Nottingham, still leaving at home with one parent and never having had a proper gf. Oh well, I suppose it's a very lucky person who grows up to fulfill their childhood dreams.
Right well I think I'd better leave that there before it sounds like I'm on my deathbed or sumthing. I suppose I'll just keep doing what I usually do, plowing on and meeting each day as it comes and hope that the saying that ' there's someone out there for everyone' is true and I'll run into her soon.
so later!
" Oh gosh darn and blast it. Have we really not gone out so far this year old boy. Terribly frustrating isn't it. but rather then constantly harping on at me it might be better to talk to DL as the senior partner as he's the one not turning up or forgetting as he's totally scatter brained sometimes. Thank's for understanding there old chap."
( note it's' highly unlikely that I will actually use this precise sort of language but I think you get the gist of the point I'll try to get across. I.e stop moaning at me, it's not through want of trying!)
I have successfully resisted the urge to watch anymore of big brother. Unfortunately though the radio station I listen to insists on playing the best 'clips' each morning. I will resist, I will resist.............. But I have to admit that they played one of the best clips ever this morning. one of the contestants saying " I'm glad we're learning sign language for the task as this means I'll be able to use it to talk to the next blind person I meet" Words fail me. They really do.
Well it looks like another night in, in front of the computer for me tonight as grumpy is borrowing the car to go for a 'drink' with one of his 'friends'. I really have no idea why he is still using those terms as I know exactly what he's doing. Although I have to admit it is infinitely depressing that grumpy is out on a date on a Friday night and I'll be stuck at home. There's just something 'wrong' with that. It should be the other way round darn it! But I suppose it does say awful lot about me that it is this way round to begin with :-( But oh well. Ce'st la vie.
It was a shock to realize that I'll be 25 in 16 days. I've been alive quarter of a century, how scary is that? I really don't feel that old. Although I suppose we all still feel like kids at heart. Uni seems like such a long time ago. It;s strange but I find it really east sometimes to forget I have a degree and sign by name with the initials BA after it. Maybe I should change my profile to Saxon_uk BA?????? Yeah I know stupid plan.
I know when I was 12 I definitely didn't think I would be where I am today. I was thinking along the lines of something cool, like a engineer in the RAF, living in my house somewhere along with my wife and a couple of kids. I definitely did not imagine myself as a customer services assistant, working in Nottingham, still leaving at home with one parent and never having had a proper gf. Oh well, I suppose it's a very lucky person who grows up to fulfill their childhood dreams.
Right well I think I'd better leave that there before it sounds like I'm on my deathbed or sumthing. I suppose I'll just keep doing what I usually do, plowing on and meeting each day as it comes and hope that the saying that ' there's someone out there for everyone' is true and I'll run into her soon.
so later!
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Round and round and round we go
Family huh. As the saying goes you can choose your friends but you can't choose your family. At times you love them dearly and at other times you feel the urge to bang their heads together to try and get some sense into them. Unfortunately at the moment I'm very much leaning towards the later view with at least two members of my family.
Yes for those of you who are familiar with my blog it's probably going to take you a whole umm two seconds to figure out who I'm talking about. Yes Mum and grumpy are still stuck in their cycle of disagreements and had yet another blazing row last night. Well to be honest I'm not going to go into the nutty gritty details suffice to say they went out for a drink, he stormed off and decided to walk home. Came in, had a massive go at me for being on the internet ( I'm guessing he tried to ring me to get me to go and pick him up) he then proceeded to stomp round the house before ringing mum on her phone and leaving several message for her in his usual oh so subtle way (not). He's accused her of being depressed and 'mental' and she should go and see a doctor. See subtle!
There's a ward barbecue on at the weekend at SP's house. grumpy did say he was going to come to it but I think he'll probably change his mind. The problem is if he does come Mum wouldn't be there as she's going off on holiday ( as I mentioned in a previous post) and he would be bound to notice that she's not there. Grumpy still hasn't asked about my birthday so it's looking more depressing likely that he's not remembered yet.
I should be going out home teaching with DL this evening, for the first time in oh 8 months. I have the feeling it's going to be quite uncomfortable when visiting some of our families. I am half expecting Grumpy to make some comment as I head out the door tonight. but hey ho not a lot I can do about that either :-(
I really can't think of anything else to say which won't consist of me either whinging or whining about how things are at the moment..
so
Later!
Yes for those of you who are familiar with my blog it's probably going to take you a whole umm two seconds to figure out who I'm talking about. Yes Mum and grumpy are still stuck in their cycle of disagreements and had yet another blazing row last night. Well to be honest I'm not going to go into the nutty gritty details suffice to say they went out for a drink, he stormed off and decided to walk home. Came in, had a massive go at me for being on the internet ( I'm guessing he tried to ring me to get me to go and pick him up) he then proceeded to stomp round the house before ringing mum on her phone and leaving several message for her in his usual oh so subtle way (not). He's accused her of being depressed and 'mental' and she should go and see a doctor. See subtle!
There's a ward barbecue on at the weekend at SP's house. grumpy did say he was going to come to it but I think he'll probably change his mind. The problem is if he does come Mum wouldn't be there as she's going off on holiday ( as I mentioned in a previous post) and he would be bound to notice that she's not there. Grumpy still hasn't asked about my birthday so it's looking more depressing likely that he's not remembered yet.
I should be going out home teaching with DL this evening, for the first time in oh 8 months. I have the feeling it's going to be quite uncomfortable when visiting some of our families. I am half expecting Grumpy to make some comment as I head out the door tonight. but hey ho not a lot I can do about that either :-(
I really can't think of anything else to say which won't consist of me either whinging or whining about how things are at the moment..
so
Later!
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