Time on my hands

Well I've found myself with a bit of extra time on my hands this evening as I sat down to send the reminder email out about announcements for this weeks bulletin. Because there is no bulletin this week as we have general conference. Fortunatly I remembered that fact just in time before sending the email and making myself look rather silly.

I'm going to have even more time on my hands tomorrow night as institute has now finished which basically means I get an extra night to mysef. Not that I'm moaning of course, I've just got to think of something constructive to do as it's my new aim, to make sure when I do have spare time to try and spend it as constructivly as possible.

Whether or not I'll actually manage to keep to that aim is another matter entirely.

For those of you who notice such things my blog roll has been updated. The Mcnugget diet blog has been removed because the blog was also removed as well. It seems that Smooth's aim of eating chicken Mcnuggets every day for two months lasted a grand total of six days. Whether or not this was by his choice or his wifes is a matter of which we'll probably never know.

In it's place I have added wattsablog? ( i wonder how long it took for here to think of that punn) written by none other then Traveller , sister of Sian of the Guild Family blog. Please, please, please..... if you have any time pop across to her blog and leave a comment as what's she's doing out there is fantastic. If you want to know more you can visit the Thai Austism Group website here a charity which Traveller, (oh heck what am I still calling her traveller for, her name is all over that website after all) or Sophie I should say launched in 2008.

Work was fun today, we were having a bit of a clear out, which can be interesting in the sense of some of the stuff you find and wondering just how many cupboards turn out to be 'mary poppins' cupboards. ( you just keep taking more and more stuff out but there always seems to be stuff left).

One of the ladies in our department announced she had got engaged ( yes girl works at our HQ in department other then reception shock). Now I say that in all seriousness as there is a slightly stereotypical view that most people who work for my company are men. In the first department I worked in, a girl did start manning the phones and most people even staff when they spoke to her usually said something along the lines of they were trying to get through to customer service not reception. Although she did say she used to enjoy the moment of silence at the other end of the phone as they realised they had got through to the right department

" Eek it's a girl. What do we do?"

I was in one of our shops once when a couple of girls walked in, all of the guys around the table when deathly silent and barely moved as the girls wandered around the shop then left. The guys who by this point were looking like they had just witnessed the landing of aliens still stood there frozen. The manager finally had to say " You can breath, it's okay, they've gone" .

Oh wait I'm digressing again, I'm sure I had a orginal point. Oh yes, it took me a while to pick up on this fact and I only noticed when I actually heard her say she was engaged to someone. I spent most of the morning being a walking, talking stereotype to the fact then Men just aren't able to pick up on the subtle clues sometimes. She had been talking about changing her surname, and I had just heard this conversation, shrugged and turned back to my screen thinking what a odd conversation.

Sometime it really does take the blindingly obivous to smack me in the face before I'll notice it.

I managed to get to the petrol station at just the right moment on the way home as when I came out after paying a huge long queue was going out of the station back onto the road. I think people had finally remembered about the fuel duty going up tomorrow.

So any UK readers if you haven't filled up yet you've got very little time left.

Anyway,

I'm off to do something constructive,

Later folks

I know I say this every week

It was really hard waking up this morning, more so then normal. I ended up having to splash cold water in my face to wake up, which was after bumping into several different things much to the seeming amusement of Owen who watched me blundering about for a little while before deciding to go back to bed.

The traffic was surprisingly light going into work, which made me wonder if the schools Easter holidays have started early. Well it was that or maybe the university term has ended and it has a greater effect on traffic around Nottingham then I had realised.

Work was good, if busy. We also had some new books arrive as well as some other new products which is always fun as it's all well and good seeing a product go through all of the various design stages but nothing beats the feeling of when you get a finished product in your hand.

We're also hard at work preparing for a event we will be running in two weeks time. The section I'm running is coming together nicely which is making me worry that I might have missed something blindly obivous, but I'll just make sure to check, check and recheck. Plus it's quite unique to prepare for a show by painting models. That's the toy soldier kind not the other variety ( mores the pity :-) ( wait said that out loud d'oh!)

The traffic was also very light coming home as well, which was nice because as it's light it gives you a chance to admire the scenary. Of course that feeling tends to only last a few days then it's back to being the same old, same old.

For all English readers if you have a car you might want to top up your tank tomorrow. The fuel duty rise that the government delayed from October comes in on Wednesday (As it's the 1st April) so all petrol (and I'm fairly sure diesal as well) will be going up 2 pence. Which means the average cost of petrol at the station on my way into work will be going up to 92.9. Oh well, C'est la vie I guess.

Oh I also found that inspiration I was searching for. More on that later this week if it all comes together.

Later folks!

Out of time

It's very odd as I write this as it's just after 8pm here in the UK and it's only just got Dark. Yes with the clocks going forward this morning it's going to be getting lighter in the evenings from here on in.


However my body clock didn't go forward with the 'real clocks' so I really struggled to get going this morning as it felt like I should still be in bed. Of course Owen was already wide awake and was sitting outside my door with his favourite toy as he obivously decided that it was playtime.

Of course my sense of being slightly out of sync wasn't helped by church today because as it's general conference next week, we had Fast Sunday a week early, which means we've had two Fast Sundays this month and it was a five weekend month to start with anyway.

I got to the Chapel just as Mechanicus, Multi-task and the rest of their clan arrived. Gadgets, the brother of Mechanics and Photoshop ( maybe I need to add a family tree to the friends list as well) baby was being blessed today so they had come down for that.

So I thought this would be a good chance for them to see the bulletins they I organise every week. Well that was the plan at least as it seemed that the photocopier had decided to save up all the problems it could have had over the last few weeks and throw them all at me today. The thing jammed, and it jammed solid! Not even the old IT staple of turning it off and on again seemed to work. I could not find the jam at all. As the thought of putting my hand into a machine which had live electricity running through it and very hot printing plates I decided that descretion was the better part of valor and decided to leave it and reported it as busted and needing repair.

So this meant no bulletins today. Well it could have been worse there was only one announcement anyway and that was to say it was general conference next week.

The sacrement meeting was very busy as not only was Gadgets baby being blessed, another baby was blessed, as well as a new member confirmation and several items of ward business. Not forgetting of course that muggins here was asked to say the closing prayer. Now usually I'm okay with talking in front of groups, I was a tour guide in uni and throughly enjoyed it. But get me up on that stand in front of a congregation and my brain likes to lock up. On the plus side I knew I had the whole meeting to get myself into the right frame of mind and mentally prepare. At which point the member of the bishopric who had orginally asked me came down to say they had swapped me and I was no doing the opening prayer instead. After a moment of blind panic I managed to collect myself and was able to say the opening prayer which with any luck any came out as english sounding and vaguely understandable.

Lego(one of my nephews) got quite upset towards the end of the sacrement meeting as a loose tooth finally came loose and came out and unfortunatly it did seem to hurt him at the time. Still he was lucky that neither Multi task or Mechanicus follow the same 'procedure' as it were of one of the sisters in the ward who when ever one of her children had a loose tooth she yanked it out immediatly, regardless of how 'loose' it actually was.

Sunday school was a little quieter then usual as the students have gone home for easter or in the case of Physics, gone to China and Athena whose has gone to the USA. I did wonder with Athena now having a codename if it would be possible to give one of the other YSA the codename racetrack so I could then refer to " Athena and Racetrack" but I then realised that most people wouldn't get that reference at all. If anyone reading does I'll be very impressed.

Social's (older) Brother was teaching today and he was very good. Mind you the lesson got off to a odd start when O walked in with a wet suit ( not wearing it mind you or it would have been very, very odd) which he offered the teacher a chance to sniff. The teacher unsurprisingly declined the offer and asked him to put it under his chair. So there was this surreal sight of a wetsuit on the floor of the classroom all though out the lesson.

It actually stayed sunny most of the afternoon so Grumpy decided to do some work in the garden which sent Owen nuts as he doesn't like being inside if Grumpy is outside. I don't know if he's worried that he won't come back or something of it's just that he can hear him and doesn't like being unable to see him.

Well it's Monday tomorrow. The start of a new week and all the oppotunities it will bring.

Later folks!

Spring Time

Being woken by Owen going berserk as the postman arrived could only mean one thing. It's Saturday! Either that or I'd badly overslept on a weekday and was going to be in trouble:-)

The weather was once again trying to make up it's mind and switched between being cloudy, sunny, raining and hailing on what seemed at times like a minute by minute basis.

So it looks like we're stuck with the spring weather for the time being. We've also got to put the clocks forward tonight so we loose a hour of sleep. Although most people put the clocks forwrd when they go to bed it happens 'officially' at 1am. Does anybody know why it's 1am? It was one of those random questions that came up today and neither Grumpy or I knew the answer.

The new series of Robin Hood and Primeval both started tonight at more or less exactly the same time. All I can say to that is 'D'ohhh!' as people who watch one are just as likely to watch the other. I decided to go with Primeval and I'm pleased to say that it finally seems to be finding it's feet in developing it's own identity. The final shot of the first episode was awesome.

With regards to Robin Hood I was highly amused to read a story the radical transformation of Friar tuck from the stereotypical middle aged, white, fat, balding monk to young black 'warrior priest' who is a expert in martial arts has sparked fury among professors who believe the portrayal is historically inaccurate. Are they seriously trying to say that the rest of the series is historically accurate? Have they seen nottingham 'castle' in the series for a start. I see Nottingham castle everyday and let me tell you it looks nothing like that.

Whilst mentioning Geek TV as it were at the far end of the scale from Primeval and Robin Hood( not to say their bad) is (the reimagined) Battlestar Galatica series which came to an end this week. This show has set the bar so high for sci-fi shows there is nothing right now which even comes with in sight of it in terms of quality let alone be on anything approaching par with it. Even if the ending required a little leap of faith, the quality of the show was incredibly high, there was a realism to the situation the characters found themselves in which Star Trek failed to match. There was also no magical reset button, the ship wasn't blown to hell and fixed in time for the next episode, it stayed damaged. Also they developed a great range of secondary characters that you cared about but it also made you nervous as you knew unlike the main cast they could die at any time and frequently did! Which also really added to the sense of danger and desperation this rag tag fleet faced.

Star Trek Voyager for a ship which was marooned on the far side of the galaxy seemed to be more on a cruise to the shops. Crewmen died and were forgotten about by the next week. Which shouldn't have happened, every death should have been a blow to this crew all out on their own.

Also if anyone knows a place or happens to see somewhere selling a model of the Battlestar galactica(any size) I would really like to know as I would really like to get my hands on one.

So, so long BSG. All geeks will miss you.

and here's hoping they get the DVD box set out asap.

As a side note, I've also found out the next Doctor Who special is supposed to be shown over the Easter Weekend. I don't know when it will be over in the USA though Scully.

Later folks!

Is this better or worse

Lets see, so far today it's been cold, it's been warm, it's been sunny, it's been cloudy, it's been rainy, it's been windy, it's been calm and oh yes it's also been hailing as well. Spring weather is definatly here I would say.

We've also reached that point where the clocks go forward Saturday night by one hour which means the night's will be getting lighter but we also loose a hour in bed :-( Still at least this year I've remembered it and won't turn up to church really, reallllyyy late.

I was on facebook tonight (yes, yes I know the great time waster) and I saw that one of my friends had done a couple of quizes. They looked like fun so I thought I'd give them a go forgetting that irony would probably not miss a chance like this.

The first quiz was " Which x-men character are you" I thought it was unlikly I would get Wolverine but I was hoping maybe I would get one of the other really cool characters, like Gambit, cyclops, cable, iceman or heck even nightcrawler. Instead I ended up getting 'the beat' which I really hope isn't a bad attempt at a editoral comment from somewhere :-)

The second quiz I took was " What type of person is likely to fall for you?". The answer?
"Your laid back personality, confidence in what you say and believe, and sense of humor and good sense style will attract a hottie right away"
At which point I decided to give up on doing anymore quizes as I'm sure whatever force in the universe governs Irony it's probably sitting somewhere sniggering to themselves right now.

Well it's the weekend now, two whole days to myself and hopefully I will get something constructive done and won't look around on Sunday evening wondering where the weekend went.

Later folks

Routines

Now as much as we hate to admit it routines are a part of our everyday lives, we get up do the same series of 'activities' (nicest term I could think off there), we drive in the same way, cook in the same way etc. And when those routines change it cab be a bit strange.

This is a roundabout way of saying I've had a really weird day as I had to change my lunch hour today to be significatly earlier then I usually go for lunch due to a series of meetings. So with this early lunch and being in meetings rather then in the office my internal clock was rather screwy by the end of the day. I kept thinking it was time to go home and it was only four pm.

I also managed to go hometeaching tonight and the one person from our list we can see, was actually able to see us and didn't cancel at the last moment to go out with the Elders. Yaahh! However I've now got to find a new hometeaching companion for the next three months as chemistry is getting married and moving out of the ward.

My luck with home teaching is not the best.

Oh well, at least it's Friday tomorrow which means the weekend is almost upon us.

Later folks!

We're organised honest!

It was yet another cold start to the day. So much so I'm wondering if I should ask Grumpy if we could turn the heating so it's on first thing in the morning.

Of course with the weather being in it's usual mood although it was very cold, it was also very sunny. Well until I got to work when it proceeded to tip it down with rain until about half past elven, then it turned sunny again and stayed that way for the rest of the day.

Proof I think ( as if we needed it) that spring is finally here.

Work was good if busy. I've got a lot to do right now but I'm keeping up with it all which is the main thing.

Driving to institute was good as it was light nearly the whole drive into Leicester. Which was interesting as you start to forget some of the landscape over the winter as you only ever make the drive in the dark.

I got the Stake centre to find we had a problem. We had students for the institute class, we even had our substitute teacher. What we did not have however was key to get into the building. This prompted a quite amusing gathering on the street outside as we tried to figure out what to do. One suggestion from a YSA to climb over the fence into the carpark was turned down as it would be pointless, one YSA would be trapped in the car park unable to get into the building or out again thanks to the railings.

The substitute teacher ahd been told that one of the girls LP would be opening the stake centre for him, but this surprised us as this girl hasn't been before Christmas. DoubleN who had turned up for the first time in weeks said he would try calling her. He discovered that she was coming. Hurah! But she wasn't going to get there until 8pm D'oh!! As one of the guys scrabbled in his car to find the bishops phone number someone said something about things had been well organised I couldn' resist the obivous joke and responded that they were as we were a organised church after all. At which point everybody had a huge giggling fit.

We then got through to the bishop but he was babysitting, so we were stumped again. However we found out that a church member who lived nearby had the key. DoubleN said he knew who that was as he was their home teacher. He then admitted he didn' have their phone number. When asked if he knew where they lived he said yes. " Their in that direction somewhere" waving his hand in a vague direction.

Finally J managed to get through to the said church member and was talking to them on the phone. By this point a few YSA were on the pavement and we were getting odd looks from passers by. Obivously wondering why the Mormons were massing.

My attenion was drawn back to J's phone conversation as he finished with " We think we know where you are, so we should be with you very soon" I winced as J left a giant sized opening for Irony to step in. DoubleN piped up waving his phone in the air in a dramatic fashion with all the enthusisam of a flag waver that he could use his satnav to find the way. I couldn't help but ask
" Why do you have satnav? You don't have a car?"
" Well I can use it if I'm walking somewhere"
I decided to leave it at that as madness probably that way lied.

J and DoubleN promptly disappeared into the night in search of keys leaving the rest of us hanging around waiting, well for something as time ticked on. GF our ward YSA rep chose this moment to appear along with Physics and O. They were obivousily surprised to see us as they were 15 minutes late and thought they would have to walk into the class late. Athena wasn't with them so I guess she was buried in coursework still.

Time continued to tick on as J and DoubleN failed to reappear. Finally after nearly another fifteen minute wait where people got colder and colder they reappeared from the gathering gloom. Unsurpsingly irony had decided to teach them a lesson and they had got very, very lost, despite Satnav and DoubleN's wonderful directions " Left, it's left here, no right, it's right definatly right" J turns right " no wait it was left it's right if you were coming from the other direction". I can only guess that DoubleN's companion does the navigating.

So we got into the building nearly 35 minutes late and for some reason that I missed but I'm sure that made perfect sense to the YSA who had entered the classroom before me, they had decided againist getting the tables out and arranged some chairs in a semi-circle for what they called ' a more informal atmosphere'. Now I say semi-circle as it actually looked like the battered horseshoe which had been run over by a steamroller shape that we usually manage in Elders Quroum lessons.

Our subsitute teacher started the lesson by explaining what insitute was for some visitors and who did he pick on to give a complete and fully indepth explanation. Oh right that would be me and with perfect timing my brain went completly and utterly blank. I think I could have just about managed my name at that point and that would have been it.

LP did eventually arrive and we discovered she knew nothing of the fact that Bro H thought she would be opening the building. So slight communication break down somewhere me thinks. We had a brief chat afterwards, about old times etc. Well not that old, only last year but institute had changed considerably since then.

ahh, memories......

Later folks!

Well I've heard of making friends at work

In the news today there was a story about a prison officer who has been fired for gross misconduct as he made 'friends' with nearly a dozen prison inmates and listed them as his friends on facebook. D'oh!! He probably didn't think that one through.

It was again really rather cold this morning but it was also very sunny which didn't seem to make a great deal of sense but I guess that's the english weather for you when you move into spring time.

The journey into work was good and for the first time this year I had to wear my sunglasses which was a really nice feeling. However it did remind me of how annoying the sun will get as summer moves on as the route's I can take to and from work all have one thing in common. And that's, that the Sun will always be side on in the morning and the evening which means it can't be blocked by the visor.

Still if that's my only complaint about the weather this summer I will be very, very happy :-)

They've released another new trailer for the new star trek film. It's quite amusing how they showed shots of it in one paper with the caption " Who will survive ( shows a dramatic moment) Kirk? Sulu? or Olsen? Hmm who take the bet on, Kirk, sulu of Olsen who we've never met before and is wearing a red uniform? They may have well just called him Ensign expendable! Still at least he got a name which is more then most red shirts got.

It's the last insitute class of the course tomorrow. I'm not sure who we've got to teach us though. Oh well lets hope he knows he's supposed to be there even if we don't

anyway,

Later folks!

Lets get it started

Well it was another Monday and of course that meant the usual struggle of getting up when my alarm went off whilst wondering why we can't have a three day weekend :-)

It was also more difficult as the weather had taken a turn for the worse which meant it was cold and it's always harder to get up when it's colder outside your bed then in it.

Owen came downstairs to see what I was doing whilst I was making breakfast then promptly turned roudn and went back upstairs to go back to sleep with a look that seemed to say " I don't have to go to work nar, nar nar na nar"

Getting to work was surprisingly easy for a Monday morning despite a fair share of idiots out and about on the roads.

Work was good,if very busy as it usually is on a Monday. Still I did get a call first thing from one store who had used that project I had done and sent out and wanted to know when the next one was going to be sent out. So as you can imagine that pretty much made my day.

Getting home was easy as well as they've reopened amain road which was closed which helped the traffic no end. In fact it sped the traffic up so much I was able to get home without having to turn my lights on as it was well, still light. If that sentence makes any sense at all.

YSA FHE was at the chapel this evening. We had a quick lesson followed by some messing around in the cultural hall with basketballs. Physics is still as competive as ever when it comes to sport. When he's playing it's best to just get out of the way. Still I was able to have a good chat with Athena whilst we watched physics charging about all over the hall.

Later folks!

Lies, Darned Lies and Statistics

I'm slowly starting to get the hang of the computer system at the chapel so I can start running reports off as part of my new calling. However there is a bewildering amount of different options to choose from and I can well see it taking a little while before I get the hang of them all.

Church was good even if there was one or two organisational problems. I had been given the wrong programme information whic hsaid the primary were doign a musical item half way through sacrement. But they weren't they sang at the start, which was right but then one of the bishopric still read out the wrong information after they had sang leading to confusion as to whether or not they were singing once or twice and had sung in the right place or not.

There was also confusion as they welcomed a new convert to the ward then remembered he needed to be confirmed as a member. ( for all non mormon readers that's supposed to be the other way round in case you were wondering why it was wrong).

Well as they say these things come in three's and the third confusing thing to happen was at the end of sacrement when we had to sing one of those really 'obscure' hymns from the hymn books which probably only about half a dozen know and they only sang it six years ago.

Sunday school was good, if a little crowded. Well it will be less crowded next week as the students are going home for Easter Holiday. Well going home is a relative term as Athena is going to the USA and Physics is off to China for the whole of the easter break. With his usual planning style he admitted that he only has the first week planned, he will be winging the next three weeks.

Dinner was late as Grumpy forgot to turn the oven on, so it was less dinner more half dinner and half tea.

Tapdance popped in on her way home from visiting family up north as it were. She surprised both me and Grumpy by immediatly opening the choclates I had bought her. Now we were surprisd by this as TapDance is well known for leaving choclates sealed in their boxes for months on end then suddenly eating them. So her opening choclates in weeks of recieving them is highly unusual. In minutes is unheard of.

Owen didn't seem that bothered by all the commotion and seemed more interested in, if Tap dance had bought him any rock cakes as she gave him one the other day and he's absoutly loves them.

Well Monday tomorrow, which means the start of another week and the resulting oppotunities which every week brings.

Later folks

Well at least I didn't hear it

Well I wasn't woken up this morning by Owen barking. However Grumpy was because apparently at around 2am this morning, Owen heard something has tore downstairs barking his head off. As a matter of of fact Owen has been on edge all day as I think he got used to there not being anybody next door and now there is.

On the way into Loughborough, Grumpy was very impressed to discover that the classical music CD in the player was mine ( I had left it there last Sunday) and it wasn't my only classical music CD. It wondered if it's a sign I'm getting more mature in my old age ( thanks for that!) or if I might actually be aquiring some taste.

It was a very nice day weather wise today. In fact so nice we were able to leave our coats in the car when we went shopping. Iceland still have the most stupid attempts at promotion ever. It's still buy one loaf of bread for a £1 or two for £2.

For a change we decided to have lunch at KFC as we haven't been there in a while. We both decided to get the boneless banquet for one which did sound very weird when we ordered
" Can we have two banquests for one"
It sounded like we were trying to get a discount.

We also had to stop at pet world to get Owen yet another new collar. To be fair he hasn't broken the last one but he has stretched it to the extent where if he pulls backwards when your holding his collar it pops right off.

So I think he was worried that he would do that one day while they were out for a walk and thats the last he would see of him!

Church tomorrow. I've got to go in earlier to see if I can get the hang of the computer system so I can start running some reports off for the EQ Pres. This will be my third big challenge for my new calling. The second was taking minutes and the first was getting the hang of spelling Secretary as for some reason I kept spelling it wrong.

anyway,

Later folks!

Neighbours everybody needs good neighbours

We have some new neighbours.

We think.

The builder who has been round next door for quite a lot of the last three weeks has gone and another guy is there. He has appeared a few times and according to Grumpy he keeps offloading car loads of stuff. We've also seen him a couple of times in a people carier with a women and three kids who we guess are his family. Grumpy did comment with three kids next door it might be a little noisey then we're used to. To which I pointed out that unless they all scream their lungs out constantly their still going to be quieter then the last kid to live there as when he didn't want to do something the whole close knew about it.

Quite how this family came to buy the house/move in we have no idea but at least it keeps up the tradition of us recieving new neighbours unexpectly.

It was nice and clear on the run into work as it usually is on a Friday morning. The weather was also quite nice, it wasn't too cold but it wasn't too hot either. It was just right :-)

Work was also good as I was able to get a lot done which is always satisfying and I've started recieving feedback about my first project and thankfully it seems to have gone down very well indeed. Lets hope it continues!

It's Athena's birthday today. So Happy Birthday Athena I hope you got lots of shiny things.

My search for inspiration is still proving to be a bit fruitless. I've decided to try a different tack and just forget about it and try and concentrate on something else as I was wondering if actively searching for inspiration is what's stopping me getting some.

Well I've tried everything else.

Anyway it's the weekend now so two whole days to myself.

Later folks!

Not a clear view

Well the small fog bank that I encountered last night had got considerably larger by this morning as there was fog nearly all the way from home to work. And once again it was really, really thick so it was difficult to see the road. Still I managed okay despite getting the heck scared out of me when I was cut up by a idiot in a sports car which came roaring out from the fog, which was that thick that at the speed this idiot( i might have used a stronger word to describe him at the time) was going I had maybe 2 seconds of warning at most from when I saw him to when he speed past me then suddenly swung in.

He was the kind of idiot that makes you whisper a silent prayer. Not for him but all of the other road users.

When the fog cleared it turned into a all right day. It was busy at work, even more so then usual as we had a lot of visitors on site as part of a school's league. I went for a wonder up in the hall to have a look round at some of the armies on display. It's interesting to see what some of the kids have done plus it gives them 'bragging' rights if you stop to have a closer look " My Armies so good staffers stopped to have a look".

I'm still searching for inspiration for my next project, which is getting frustrating as well as annoying as I'm usually not stuck for ideas like this. I'm hoping that inspiration will strike at some point otherwise I might have to find something else to do during my lunchtimes then paint!
Now I'll admit that Russell Brand is not my favourite person as I don't get his sense of humour. Still I have to admit that the news story about him in the paper today where whilst waiting for a ferry he managed to seduce and kiss a girl with in 60 minutes was impressive. I did have to laugh at a comment that someone left on a website about it though;

" What do girls see in this ugly rich celebrity anyway?"

I'm guessing options two and three kinda answer that question.

well one more day until the weekend.

Later folks!

A YSA by any other name

As my regular readers will know ( and are hopefully still out there as a recent lack of comments and google anayltics are getting me worried) I commented back in February about one of the YSA who is a silent readers or at least was and wanted her own codename. Well I was thinking about it but it had got lost in the 'to do pile' as it were until I got a reuqest/order via facebook last night from the girl who said she wanted a codename sharpish! Or words to that effect.

Well after wracking my Brains and checking with her, she will henceforth be known as Athena and is officially recognised as such as she has been added to the Whose who friend list. Plus due to the wonders of how the list is organised by blogger she is at the top.

I also discovered that Non-splitter will soon become splitter. Although she was unaware that was her codename so me thinks that codename was a touch too effective. So I suppose I could always give them the codename the 'splitters' once there gone :-)

Non-splitters husband wanted to know what his codename was. When I said he didn't have one but suggested " non-splitters other half" he seemed fine with it. She must have him well trained

Joking aside I will be sorry to see them go as for want of a better term they are the last of my 'peers' still at institute.

It was very weird coming home from institute as one moment the road was fine and then as if from nowhere a huge thick fog bank and when I saw thick, it was almost solid. I could barely see the road, trying to get round a roundabout was really fun I couldn't see the edge or the middle. Then after about a mile it suddenely stopped. No gradual thining or the like it was suddenly all clear. It was very, very weird.

Oh well. Two more days until the weekend!

Later folks

Inspiration seeking

I've been quite amused by the whole thing that has been going on in the news with regards to setting a minimum price for alchol. Basically the governemnts top health advisor suggested these new plan of setting a minimum price of 50p a unit of alchol in a bid to stop binge drinking. It was quickly shot down by the government who stated that it would not be fair to penalise the majority of sensible drinkers for the actions of the reckless minority ( intereting how this same thinking doesn't apply to the plans to lower speed limits in places). My guess is the actual reason is that their too scared to as if they put alchol back up it will definatly lead to them loosing the next election.

My thought would be if they really don't want to penalise the 'majority' and only the minority of people they claim binge drink, if they get so drunk that the police have to be called out or a ambulance has to take them to hospital to be treated charge them for it! I'm sure people will stop binge drinking pretty quickly after they have to pay for an ambulance, paramedics, doctors and the like.

Work was good as I was able to get a lot done today. It also took my mind off the latest problem facing me in that I'm 100% stuck for inspiration at the moment for ideas for my next modelling project. My current 'army' is finished and I don't want to continue with it right now but in the same vein I don't know what to do now and I've been trying to gain some inspiration for the past couple of weeks. I've re-read some of the rulebooks, tried walking round the shop, even tried looking through my minature cases to see if anything inspires me.

so far? Zip, nada, nothing...

It's getting frustrating but I suppose that's the thing with inspiration you can't force it to happen. I think the best thing at this point is to try reading some of my military history books to see if something inspires me there.

Well institute tomorrow. Only two more to go until the end of the course, then I get a whole month 'off'.

anyway,

Later folks!

What not to buy

As it's Mother days next weekend there seems to be an increasing number of adverts for different products all proclaiming loudly that there just what your Mum wants for Mothers day. However there are two products that I think anyone in their right minds should reconsider buying for their mums.

The first is oil of ulay (or olay I can never remember which is which) with the slogan " For this mothers day give your mum younger looking skin" How would you even give that as a present. " Here Mum I thought your skin was looking old" Might it be the last mothers day gift you ever give as she never speaks to you again?

The second is a CD of 101 songs to do household chores by. What would you say?" Here mum, at least you now won't be bored whilst your cleaning up after us".

I think these prove that their are some slogans they sound much better in the conference room then in real life.

It was a fairly busy day today, baring some small technical problems which I'm sure if they weren't solved using technical/computer skills were solved using the engineers method of when all else fails hit it with a hammer! :-)

I also had fun this evening as I was trying to write up the minutes from our first EQ meeting yesterday.However it took a while to translate the hand writing from the notes. I can't complain though as it was my writing after all :-) My handwriting skills really do suck :-)

Later folks!

Drilling away

The first thought that springs to mind is that i's been a very long day.

It started even earlier then usual as I had to get into the chapel to speak to the EQ president before church and be shown how to use the software to run off reports, plus quickly run through what he wanted he expects my new calling to entail. I.e what I'm going to be doing.

We had problems in Sunday school as we ran out of chairs for people there were that many YSA there. It made me smile though as it's been a long time since that has happened, but it was also bittersweet as well as nearly everyone who was there last time it happened have either moved on to new wards or got married.

The Eldars quorum lesson was interesting as I had to try and take the attendence and I realised looking at the full 'register' I don't know half as many people as I thought I did. However I was able to work it all out eventually.

We had a meeting straight after church, the first as the 'new' Elders quorum presidency. So I didn't get home until nearly 10 past 2.

After dinner I helped Grumpy try and install our new post box and it did not go as smoothly as we hoped. In fact it was a complete pain in the backside, especially trying to drill the holes in the wall. It didn't help that the screw which came with it seemed to be made of the purest 'cheapiam' ( real material honest :-) well either that or I've suddenly gained the muscles of superman as when I was trying to tighten one of the screws using a screwdriver the top suddenly sheared straight off.

Still after a lot of work and language which we probably shouldn't have used we managed to get the thing onto the wall and it stayed there. Hurah! Although Owen did looked somewhat confused as to what it was we were actually up to! as he spent the whole time watching us from the windowsill.

After the postbox was finished I had just enough time to quickly clean the car out before I had to set off to pick up some YSA for a fireside at the Bishops house which started at 6.30pm. However due to half of the people not getting there until 6.55 and the bishop then leaving to go and pick someone up the fireside didn't get going until nearly 7.45pm and didn't finish until nearly 9pm!

Still it was a fun night as we were able to chat amongist ourselves and I was able to chat with the girl who I mentioned a few weeks ago who still has no codename. I really need to get on what that. Plus it was nice to be able to give a lift to give lifts to people. I haven't done that in a while and I forgot how good it was to be able to chat to someone whilst your driving.

I got home at nearly 9.50pm, wondering where my Sunday had gone!

Oh well.

Monday tomorrow, so it's the start of a new week and all the oppotunities it will bring.

Later folks!

Lock it down

At work we are encouraged to lock our computers whenever we're going to be leaving them for a extended period of time. Now for some reason I've got some into the habit I'm now finding myself locking the computer at home, which has managed to confuse Grumpy a couple of times :-)

I was woken up this morning not by Owen but by my alarm. Unfortunatly I forgot to change the time so it went off at the same time it does during the week and of course I totally failed to get back to sleep.

When the post finally arrived Owen went even more ballistic then usual and managed to take out the back of the letterbox. Which as you can imagine did not impress Grumpy in the slightist. After a lot of moaning and swearing he finally admitted defeat that we couldn't fit the back back on the letter box.

So whilst we were in town Grumpy finally decided he's had enough and bought a mail box to put up on the side of the house. However for some reason he didn't get a small box, he got the biggist mail box they did and it's huge! We're going to try putting it up tomorrow. I have a feeling it's going to be an interesting experience.

It was a pretty quiet afternoon and the weather seems to be improving as it was sunny for most of the afternoon. However there was also a wind blowing from the directions of the nearby fields and the farmer decided to spread manure this morning. Suffice to say it was not nice. Hopefully that will be the end of the spreading.

anyway,

Later folks,

We did it our way

Well it's Red nose day today. For those of you who don't know Red nose day is a charity event where people do lots of silly things for charity and try to raise as much money as possible. And the BBC is taken over for a evening for a special Red nose show which has lots of special programming, sketches, guests etc.

Now the way we usually raise money for this event and Children in need at work is to basically have a cake sale. Admitally not the most silly thing to do and not as physically demanding as the events some people do but as the saying goes we did it our way. Although I didn't try the Chocolate and Potato cake. Yes that's right Chocolate and potato and no I have no idea what the heck was going on there.

I had a interesting time getting home as they've closed a section of road which means I have to go round a detour. However the detour is about four times longer then it needs to be! I guess I'll just have to remember to come home a different way on Monday.

They've just changed some formatting on facebook again so I wonder how long it will be before a group starts up protesting the change and demanding to go back to the old new version.

There was big news in space last night as the crew of the ISS were evacuated to their soyez as a precaution when a piece of debris was detered coming straight at the space station. A lot of people queried what the panic was over as it missed the station by three miles. There forget that in astronomical terms when a asteroid passes by the earth at a distance measured in five figures that's a 'near miss'. So three mile is probably classed as coming right at them.

anyway, it's the weekend now so two whole days to myself. I am aiming to do something constructive plus I'm going to attempt to translate the meeting minutes I recieved from the last EQ presidency meeting. Unfortunatly nobody included a rosetta stone in with them :-)

Later folks!

Am I bovered?

Well with everything thats currently going on in the world it's good to see that the media has their priorities in order with the most burning issue of the day. And that issue? Apparently test audiences don't like the new Harry potter film.

And yet somehow I'm sure humanity will survive.

Sorry, I've just realised that sounded a bit cranky. I've not had a good day in the sense that my shoulder has been playing me up all day to the extent I had to take some ibuprofen. I think I may need a new pillow. It's my left shoulder which is sore, it's basically an old injury from back when I was a teenager. I got knocked off my bike and fractured my collar bone whilst on my paper round. As to how I actually got hit I have no idea as I had a total blank for the ten minutes leading up to the accident. I think I was in a sling for two months which was really annoying as I'm left handed. Still it could have been worse, so I shouldn't really complain.

Of course when I was at uni it wasn't nearly as much of an issue as it was relatively easy to get a shoulder massage off one of my friends, mainly as a quid pro pro as I'm very good ( or at least I was as I'm a bit out of practice) as giving shoulder and neck massages. So they'd give me a massage then I'd give them one when they needed it. So yes giving neck and shoulder massages is another one of my little known talents.

Work was good today as I was able to get a lot done again. I'm feeling quite pleased with myself as I've been able to do loads this week and get ahead on lots and lots of stuff which is good as it will give me more time to fine tune some of the projects I have in the works.

It looks like we're going to have to get Owen another new collar as he's pulled as his current one so much, it's stretched and if he pulls in the wrong direction it slips over his head. We would tighten it but it's as tight as it was able to go.

I've started watching the dvd's of the series " Dead Like me" again. I've forgotten how good the show was. Why is it all the good genre shows seems to get cancelled.

Oh well.

Well one more day to the weekend.

Later folks,

He who laughs last

Well it's been a strange day as for some reason time seems to have passed really, really quickly. Which was strange in the sense that I didn't do anything differently today to what I usually do. Of course I could be pondering this fact too much but I guess that's what sitting in a lot of traffic jams today does to me. I become very zen like :-)

Work was very good as I was able to start dispatching one of the projects I've been working on out to the people who will be using it. Of course now I have to wait for the feedback to start coming to see if it's actually worked. I'd be lying if I said I'm not slightly nervous but I have done everything I can do so I'll just have to see what people make of it.

Insititute was interesting tonight. We now have only two more classes until the end of this course but this was Bro H's last class as he will be away for the remaining two. The summer course will be the last part of the Church History course. Physics also pointed out that people who are athesists have to get their laughs in now as they can't really laugh last as they can never be proved right, because if their wrong everyone will know it and if their right no one will ever now.

In the news today a pony has prompted five 999 calls as passers by keep thinking he's stuck in the mud. But he isn't he just has very short legs.

Anyway, two more days till the weekend.

Later folks!

It's like learning to walk all over again. Only it isn't

I was half way into work this morning when I realised something and before you ask/think it no it wasn't that I had forgotten my pass again. What I realised was that for several days now I haven't had to use my lights in the morning on the way into work and only have to use them for the last ten minutes or so of my journey home in the evening. I guess this means that winter is indeed drawing to a close.

Well another sign that winter maybe coming to a end is the increasing amount of runners I'm starting to see out an about. We saw a large group last night and Grumpy summed it up by asking
" If running's supposed to be good for you why is it you never see a happy looking runner? They all look miserable?"

Work was good today. I was able to get lots done even if I wasn't able to go as fast as I wanted to. This is becuase one of the projects I'm currently working on requires me to use a MAC. Now one of the more little known things about me is that I can touch type. Years of working in customer service answering phones has meant that for a bloke I'm very good at touch typing and I have been known to freak some of my colleagues out by answering a question whilst still typing and not looking at the screen.

However this doesn't help in using the MAC as near enough all of the keyboard shortcuts I have learned for the PC don't work on the a mac and I find myself still using the PC shortcuts despite trying to remember not to and then sitting there wondering why the darn thing hasn't done anything.

Still it was good to do something different and I am teaching myself some new skills at the same time which is always useful.

Apparently in the news today one newspaper caims that Britain is in a shocking state as most people are lacking in 'basic skills'. The main example they used for this is that 46% of people they asked did not know how to make a martini. May it's just me but I don't consider that a basic skill.

It did remind me of one time when I was at uni and I turned on the TV to see a member of our ward on a TV quiz show. The question which knocked him out of the quiz ironically enough was about which types of alcholic drinks were used to make a certain cocktail.

I'm also feeling quite pleased with myself right now as my latest modelling project is going very well indeed. I'll post some photos later in the week.

Well it's institute tomorrow. If I remember correctly I think we have three more lessons before the end of this course. That reminds me I should really find out what we're doing for thesummer course :-)

Later folks!

D'oh

I'm sure you've all had that feeling where you know you've forgotten something but you can't think of what it is. Well I had that feeling this morning when I set out for work.

I was half way to work before I remembered what it was. For only the second time in six years I had forgotten my security pass. So I had to go and get a temporary one when I arrived at work which did cause me problems for the rest of the day as I kept forgetting that I didn't have my pass round my neck, so everytime I got to a door I kept reaching for my pass and it wasn't there. D'oh!!

I'm certainly not going to forget the darn thing tomorrow.

Work was good as I was able to get a whole lot of stuff done. It was also nice as one of my projects is 'finished' and it's always satisfying to see a project completed.

As It's Grumpys birthday we're about to go out for dinner. It would have been a bit mean to expect him to cook after all :-)

so later Folks!

Amused, Bemused, cmused

Preparing the bulletin this week was a little more complicated then usual due to some shall we say 'communications problems' or to put it another way " Both the left and right hand thought they should be doing and did do the job that only required one of them". Still at least I managed to figure it out otherwise confusion would have reigned.

Not that confusions didn't try it's best to work it's way in this morning as when the sacrement hymn started the organist played the wrong hymn. So you had some people trying to sing the words the correct hymn to the wrong tune, some people just not singing at all trying to figure out what was going on and some people found the hymn the organist was playing and started singing that!

Sunday school was a little quieter then it has been as Physics was MIA today. So the lesson went pretty smoothly.

What I really wasn't expecting was to be collared by the EQ president inbetween Sunday school and Priesthood. I now have another calling to go with my callings as Institute Liberian and Ward bulletin co-ordinator. I am now the new Elders Quorum Secretary( I think I even spelled that right as well) which should be interesting as I've never had a calling like this before.

The weather has been playing up all day again. It started off Sunny, then went cloudy, then it rained, then it was sunny, then it started hailing ( when we were out taking Owen for a walk no less), then back to sunny, then back to hail before then turning to snow.

I'm starting to get the feeling it might be spring.

Monday tomorrow, which means back to work and another week full of 'opportunities.'

Later folks!

Boldly going

I've just seen the new trailer for the forthcoming star trek film and it is really, really, really looking good. So this summer is just looking better and better movie wise with Star Trek, Terminator 4 and transformers 2 are hitting the screens this year.

For once I wasn't woken up this morning by Owen barking his head off as the postman arrived. But that was only because Grumpy had taken him out for a walk so he wasn't around when the postman got here.

Town was quiet again which was nice as it enabled us to get the shopping done quickly. The deals in Iceland continue to baffle me. One was to buy one size tub of gravy powder for £2.50 or buy two of the smaller tubs which equaled almost twice as much as the larger one for £2. The second was a deal on bread, which was buy two loafs for £2. although this was displayed right next to the actual price of one loaf which is a pound. So not so much a deal to save you money more simply mathematics.

It's Grumpys Birthday on Monday so I had to go and collect his present whilst I was in town. Although being a muppet I almost forgot to get any wrapping paper.

I also had a burst of inspiration whilst in town and bought some bits and pieces to do a new model conversion which is currently taking place on my painting station downstairs. And I'm feeling quite pleased with myself at how well it's turning out. Lets hope this isn't the universes way of deciding to show me what comes before a fall :-)

Grumpy also bought Owen a new harness today. When he pulled it out of the bag Owen just say there and looked at him with an expression that almost seemed to say. I wonder how quickly I can loose that one.

anyway,

Later folks!

Captain of the Ship

Well I was the only member of my team in today through various means and reasons which meant it was quiet. It was still a good day though as a load of new books arrived which I had to distribute which is always fun.

I was also able to help one of the guys in the office do some clearing out of some cupboards which is always interesting as quite often your never quite sure what you going to find lying at the back of some of these cupboards. To take today as an example we certainly we not expecting to find a bad of 300+ dice at the back of one of the cupboards. Even stranger was the fact no one knew how they got there and why anyone would want 300+ dice to begin with.

I know some people from work were going to see the new Watchmen film today. I know the reviews have been mixed. Most either loving or hating it. Or in the case of one reviewer who stated;
"This despicable trash will find an audience among sad sociopaths, deranged pseudo-intellectuals and brutalised, immature men of all ages"

really really really hated it.

Well it's the weekend now which means I have two whole days all to myself.

Later folks!

Stompa it flat

The latest project to occupy my painting station at work is my latest addition to my Ork army and likely the last addition for a while as the army now masses over 5000 points, is the brand new Ork stompa. This hefty kit will be one of the centre pieces of my army and is absoutely huge.

To try and give you and idea of how big this model is i've put my mobile ( which is hindsight is not a good reference if you've never seen this type of phone) and a £1 coin by it's feet.

and before anybody asks all the paint marks you can see underneath the stompa are on the paint station not my desk.

And for his next trick

I came home this evening to find Owen on his best behaviour and doing his best to look all sweet and innocent. Of course I was immediatly wary and checked with Grumpy to see what had been going on. It seemed that Owen had managed to do two quite notable things this morning. The first was with the post where he proceeded to tear open every bit of post ( it came when Grumpy was out) and scatter said contents through the house.

Now we've been having some problems with Owen pulling when on the lead. Now I say some problems but he's own his seventh collar now. For a little dog he has a surprising amount of pull. so in a effort to try and stop this we decided to try a harness to see if this would help stop him pulling. Owen really didn't like this harness and as you may have guessed the second thing he did today involved his harness.

Whilst out on his walk he ran into a bush and without breaking stride came out the other side, without his harness. Apparently it was that quick, he went in one side with it on and came out the other with out it. Of course this remarkable quick change might have had something to do with the fact the bush he went through was so thick Grumpy couldn't even get his arm into it alone see through it. Quite how Owen was able to fit through it was a mystery.

So the Harness remains lost somewhere in the depths of the hedge no doubt to cause great confusion to the farmer next time he cuts the hedge and Owen has got rid of the thing he hated so he's happy. Grumpy however is not and even now is pondering what to do next in his attempts to get Owen trained and to stop him pulling. I'm not too sure who to put money on at this point as their both as stubborn as one another.

I'm going to be in charge at work tomorrow by default. As I'll be the only one in from my team. Everybody else is either out on business, taken the day off or coming down with 'manflu'.

We also had some new books arrive today which is always good. I was especially pleased to see these books as one of them is from one of my favourite series and as you can imagine I'm very keen to read it to see what happens next.

I saw in the news today that they are considering moving the set of 'coronation street' from it's present location to a new site in manchester. I remember when we went to the Granda studios as part of one of my GCSE's. It was very weird to be standing on coronation street. Random fact you may not know but at the time we went the payphone at the end of coronation street actually worked and was a proper pay phone.

anyway,

Later folks

Pot calling the Kettle

The weather changed again this morning after the howling wind and driving rain of last night. Although it was cloudy it was okay but it had been icy so Ispent a few minutes trying to figure out where I had put my de icer as I had taken it out of the car thinking as we were in March the chances of me needing it again were pretty slim.

I know, I know I really should have seen this happening a mile off shouldn't I?

I've gone off my favourite garage at the moment as the cheery women who used to be behind the counter has been replaced by some guy whose general mood can at best be described as glum and worst completly and utterly miserable. I know that this seems like a rather classic case of the pot calling the kettle black by labelling him miserable but that should give you an idea as to what a 'happy chap' this guy is.

It was a very long day at work. I don't know what it was that caused it to feel like that it just was. I'm sure all of you readers who work know what I mean and have also had days like that. Those of you who are students and do not yet know the joy of full time employment and having to get up on a set time each morning during the week, all I can see is enjoy the lies in while you can. Your time will come, mwah, ha, ha, ha, ha.( okay thats enough)

We're also about to have some time training so I had to fill out what of these mutiple choices things that they use to determine your personality ( I'm a stereotypical geek. There saved them a job :-) Now they tell you the same thing everyone says when you have to take tests like these that there are no wrong answers. The trouble is whenever they say that all I can think off is the Simpsons episode when Homer has to take one, gets Bart to fill it in for him instead and is declared insane and shipped off to the asluym! Still joking aside I guess it will be interesting to see what my 'results' will be.

The weather actually turned somewhat sunny during the day and it was still surprisingly light when I left work which made me realise that the whole clock changing malaky will probably soon be upon us.

Institute was 'different' to usual as we had a substitute teacher, Bro RH instead of Bro H. He has a very different style of teaching. I'm not sure what everyone else thinks but I like it.

In the news today a group of volunteers found something a bit different at the bottom of a pond compated to the usual rubbish, bikes, shoes, shopping trolleys etc. They found a Dalek Head and no they have no idea how it got there. Or where the rest of it is.

Having a quick through my blog roll I noticed a few things. The Mcnuggert Diet hasn't been updated in nearly a week which means he's possibily either given up, or it was 'decided' for him (by the wife) that he would give up. Sian has posted pictures of her new Baby, Drats 25 things you never knew about him continue at the rate of one a day and Engineseer's blog is still firmly routed at the bottom of the list having not been updated in a massive 5 months! So if you have a few minutes please be sure to stop by and visit their blogs as theres nothing better bloggers like then recieving visitors.

I also noticed it's been a year since I added Rhonda to my blog roll as well. Time certainly does fly.

anyway,

Later folks!

Rain, Rain go away. Please?

Well the weather has taken a rather large turn for the worse this evening. It's raining, really rather hard and the Wind is also quite bad as well. In fact it was so strong it blew the car sideways a bit a couple of times on the way home. As you can imagine I was rather glad to get home.

Still I'm home now and there's nothing that improves bad weather as being able to watch it from behind double glazed windows with the heating on :-)

Well in the news today the Chinese have revealed their plans for their first military space station which will be launched to co incide with the halt in US spaceflights as the Shuttle is retired. ( gee I wonder if that timing was coincidental?). Of course most people responded with a resounding, meh! Of course I suppose there will be lots more interest if and when China actually launches the thing.

A singers car was vandalised at a hotel by having it's window smashed. Seeing as the car cost £1million and he owns like a dozen or so please excuse me if my cup of sympathy doesn't exactly runneth over.

I've also just seen the new trailer for terminator: Salvation (i.e terminator 4) which as far as I'm aware is following the movie continuity not the TV series continuity. If you have no idea what that means you probably don't care anyway. Plus are also likely not to be a geek :-) Wait where was I? Oh yes the trailer looks really cool. It's going to be a good summer of movies I reckon.

Somebody at work got their '5 year vets mug" yesterday. That's vets as in veteran not as in person who deals with lots of small animals. It made me realise that I've just crossed my six year mark with the company. Time certainly seems to pass quickly these days.

Institute tomorrow. Bro H is off on the road again as they've given him yet another stake to oversea. So that means for the next four lessons we're only going to have him for one. Well it will be interesting to get substitute teachers as you always learn something different from someone new.

Anyway,

Later folks!

The real reason Calvin and Hobbes ended?

This made me smile

Irony really doesn't like me

Long time readers might remember the ‘one or two’ problems and general incidents of bad luck that have dogged my home teaching efforts.

Things seemed to be improving when I was partnered with Chemistry despite one or two problems ( i.e being given someone to home teach who has since moved back to China). We ended up with a list of three people, two of whom although being brothers we could never get hold of. Leaving us with one person which meant although we can get out home teaching done relatively quickly ( when the elders haven’t pinched him to go out teaching converts) we can only ever get 33% home teaching.

However with a recent spate of baptisms the Elders Quorums presidency needed to assign these converts to some home teachers and as chemistry and I are not exactly blessed with the biggest list they have assigned us two new people. Hurray!

But as you may have guessed things are far from that simple and Irony couldn’t pass up this chance to give me a kicking.

Not only are the two brothers being left on our list ( even though it turns out they have left the ward) the two new people that will be added to our list have been out of contact for sometime and no one has been able to get hold of them. So it looks like we’re going from two unobtainable people to four. Which means out of five people we’re only going to have one we can actually visit, which in turns means no matter how hard we try we’re only going to be able to get 20% home teaching.

That’s assuming the Elders don’t take him at the last moment for teaching as they have done the past two months running.

Mind you this situation is still a vast improvement on the best part of a year and a half I had to wait get a home teaching companion. Although that happened three home teaching companions ago now.

Still I suppose the most important thing is that we still have one person we can home teach and even if we only see him every month that’s still a success.

Technical problems

I actutally managed to get up this morning fairly easily considering it was a Monday morning. I'm stil lgetting used to waking up to daylight outside rather then it being all Dark. Although I usually think this every year and of course I get used to it just in time for it to start getting Drk again. Oh well.

I got to work to discover that the office was colder then outside, on the one day I hadn't bothered bringing a jumper. Basically Gremlins or I suppose in our case Grots had caused the cnetral heating system to break and all of the water had leaked out. So this meant our poor maintence guys having to do a lot of crawling around underneath the building trying to find the leak. They managed to find it and emerged looking like they had been caving, complete with 'head' touches. After the fix they had to refill the system, now imagine a time when your radiators have had air in and the noise it makes. Now imagine the noise all of the radiators in a office being full of nothing but air being slowly filled with water would make.

Those people who sit next to Radiators were giving them nervous looks as it didn't sound a especially comforting noise.

However despite those technical problems it was a good day. If very busy but as long term readers will know that's what it's always like on a Monday.

I've seen some clips of the forthcoming Wolverine: Origins film and it looks great. For those of you not in the know or not geeky enough to care about this ahead of time, Wolverine: Origins shows well basically the origins of Wolverine and how he came to the point when you meet him in the first X-men movie. There's a great line in one of the clips
" You were sentenced to Death at 10.30 hours by firing squad. How did that work out?"
" It tickled."

I've been pondering a suggestion Grumpy has made. He's suggested I ought to try writing a book. The trouble is I've got no idea what to write about and it has been a while since I've written any fiction. So I'm way out of practice and don't know if I could write well enough. Still I suppose I ought to give it a go. The worst that can happen is that I'll be terrible at it and nothing comes of it :-)

anyway,

Later folks!

Pinch, Punch, First of the month

I woke up this morning to realise that it's the 1st of March. We're in March already. How the heck did that happen? I'm sure it was only new years eve last week not two months ago!

Oh well, I guess it just goes to prove that old adage that Time flies etc, etc.

There was another queue for the photocopier this morning, although the Elder who was waiting behind me to use it did prove that patience wasn't his strong point as he started tapping his foot, sighing, then finally walked off in a huff whilst I was still running hte bulletins for today off. I must be getting more tolerant in my old age as I was tempted to say something to him once :-)

Sunday school was interesting. Especially as Physics was in fine form today. AS we were talking about the organisation of the church the teacher asked us all to think about if the church hadn't been organised where would we have been at that precise moment in time with out it. Physics response
" 10% richer and at home, getting a lie in"

After Church I gave physics a lift home as I have been doing for the past few weeks which was very fortunate as it turned out. As we tried to leave the car park we got held up temporily as there were two cars in front of us. So we were stationary at this point. I turned to speak to physics and realised with some alarm ( okay a bit of a understatement here) that a 'older' sister from the ward had just got into her car and was starting to reverse and wasn't stopping. I almost went for the horn but realised that would be far too late and quickly shoved the car into reverse and gunned it, skreeching backwards getting out of her way with Cm's to spare. She almost rammed into the car side on. I then realised to my increasing alarm that she still wasn't stopping and had now swung her wheel round and was stil lcoming without stopping. I had to gun it again and shoot backwards again missing her by cm's. I was very lucky no one was behind me as otherwise I would have been in deep trouble. She then pulled over to talk to someone leaving me just enough room to get past her and out of the car park asap. I wanted to be as far away as possible from her as quickly as I could.

I still can't figure out how she missed seeing me as I was driving Grumpys car and it's twice the size of hers. And I was stationary. I guess she just didn't bother checking before reversing. Physics take on the whole situation was typically physics
" I don't know why you were surprised by that. Don't you know that's how oaps reverse. They wait until they hear the bang and that tells htem it's time to go forwads."

Tapdance popped over this afternoon as she needed some help with her new laptop. Owen found the whole process highly interesting as he wondered waht she had on her lap. So he kept poking his noise over the side of the chair to see.

We also took Owen out on a very very long walk as for a change we had some nice weather today. Yes the sky had even changed colour to this strange blue colour and this giant yellow thing appeared in the sky. Apparently it's supposed to be up there it's jsut been a while since we last saw it. In fact it got so warm we were even able to put some washing out on the line ( yes my life is that sad right now :-( )

I bought the last Futurama DVD yesterday and it was actually really good. Dr Zoidburg actually got some funny lines in this one
" I'm sorry Fry is dead"
Fry groans and moves
" No wait, not dead the other thing"

Well Monday tomorrow which means back to work for another week and all the oppotunities it will bring :-)

Later folks!