Making a play for Top Dog?

We are starting to wonder if Owen has some evil plan to try and do away with Grumpy as not only did he drag him into a pothole which lead to Grumpy spraining his ankle, he managed to do it again! Fortunatly this time Grumpy didn't cause himself any more injuries asides from getting a lot of scrapes up his leg.

Owen has also started to leave his favourite toy at the top of the stairs during the middle of the night, so each morning we have to remember to look out for it.

Who knows? Maybe we're wrong and if we have nothing to fear or maybe Grumpy should look out if Owen trys to take him past any grassy knolls :-)

It was a interesting day doing training today and I really enjoyed it as it gave me a lot to think about. One of the training exercises we had to do involved trying to describe a object without using any indepth descriptions of it. So we couldn't say it's shape, usage etc. I sucked at this scenario but some others were quite good. One of the best lines however came from someone who was trying to describe a desk, one of the lines he came up to describe it was that it was like a table. At which point me and one of the other people in the room got a immense fit of the giggles.

The main exercise we had to do involved problem solving and how we communicated as a group. No problem, asides from the fact that we were being videotaped. Now as long time readers know I take a lot of photos as I really really don't like having my picture taken. I'm one of these people who even if the best photo in the world ever was taken of me I would still hate it and think I looked awful. So the only thing I like less then that is being videoed and hearing the sound of my own voice as it were.

So as you can imagine when we had to watch the video back to anaylise things I near enough started squirming with embrassment before the video had even started.

Still after it had started and my amateur dramatics asides once I had watched a few minutes I started to relax and realise maybe it wasn't that bad and found it interesting to watch myself from the outside as it were. Especially as midway through the exercise I basically solved the problem. However to get to that point I was doing a lot of internal thinking and I found it oh so amusing to watch myself just sit there for nearly three minutes not moving thinking about the problem. Now you know that moment in cartoons when somebody has an idea and the lightbulb appears above their head well you could see the moment when I solved the problem on the tape that clearly. It was so obivous the moment inspiration struck even I half expected to see a lightbulb suddenly appear.

We went to a lecture at Loughborough uni this evening and yes Drat it was the Pixar lecture and no unfortunatly I couldn't take any photos. It was a really, really good lecture although I did come out with a inexpeciable urge to go any buy some Pixar DVD's. Maybe he slipped some subliminal messages into his presention somewhere, who knows?

Well I'm taking Grumpys car to work tomorrow as on the way home one of my front wipers started to spilt quite badly. So I don't want to take the risk that it would spilt whilst I was driving to work.

And tomorrow evening we'll be off to the cinema to see the new wolverine movie.

I can't wait!

Later folks

Boss man

I mentioned recently that I had got yet another new calling which bought my total to four. Well now it's back to three as my new calling is now official as it were. So for those of you who didn't know, weren't there tonight or couldn't wait for me to say and decided to get 'spoilers', my new calling is.....

Institute Class president.

Which I know probably hasn't been worth the big build up but c'est la vie I guess:-)

So this means as well as being Institute Class president I am Ward bulletin co-ordinator and Elders Quorum Secretary.

Well things seemed to go okay this evening. I was a bit stuck for an activity afterwards but I decided that the old ones were the best and went with the Choclate game. Which did cause a bit of confusion as in total I think there were three different name that people knew the game by.

For anyone who isn't aware ( and I think this is more likely to be my US readers) the choclate game starts with all fo the participants in a circle. In the centre is a bar of Choclate with a knife and folk, a pair of gloves, a scarf and a hat. Going round a circle each person throws a dice, the first person to get a six puts the hat, scarf and gloves on and can only cut and eat the choclate with the knife and folk. They can't use their hands. Whilst they start trying to eat using the knife and folk whislt wearing gloves, the other people continue to roll the dice. As soon as the next person rolls a six they take the scarf, hat and gloves off the person in the middle, put them on and try to cut and eat as much choclate as they can. And this goes on until it's all gone. The participants must roll the dice as quickly as possible as they want to get the person in the middle out before they eat too much choclate and quite often the next person will roll a six whilst the last person is still putting on the hat, gloves etc. It can be a really, really fun game especially when you have some nice choclate.

Work will be interesting tomorrow as in a break from the norm our whole team will be attending a whole day training sesson. Apparently a lot of the training will be based around the results of that personality test we did a few weeks ago and as I haven't done a lot of training like that before I'll be interested to see how things go.

anyway,

Later folks!

Certainly a d'uh moment

I was worried that my computer might have started to go wrong at work this morning as it started to do all sorts of weird things. Randomly moving between emails, documents, even web pages. It took an stupidly long time for the penny to drop as to what was going on. My new mouse had two buttons recessed on either side which some how I had failed to notice. So when I had been moving the mouse I had also been accidentally clicking these buttons at the same time.


D'oh!!


Traffic was still as heavy as ever although there wasn't any rain which was a step up from yesterday I suppose.

As you can imagine all of the newspapers have been full of news about this swine flu thing and they've not been exactly looking on the bright side of things. But then again I'm sure no one would want to hear about the best case scenario as that doesn't exactly sell a lot of newspapers. It is odd how people seem to prefer reading bad news rather then good.

Now I could read every story about this disease and learn all of the gory details but it would probably only frighten me to the extent that I would not want to go outside and I would want to go and hide under a desk but I don't have a desk that I could hide under at home so I would have to hide under my desk at work and I'm sure the boss won't like that as I wouldn't be able to type without looking at the screen although some of my conversations might end up making a awful lot more sense and heck I'm sure I had a point when I went off on this ramble :-)

Well institute starts again tomorrow for the summer course. It should be interesting even if it is a bit short at only seven weeks long. We also have to go on a trip to church historical sites up near Preston in order to complete the course which should be fun as I think the last time I did this course I missed that trip.

anyway,

Later folks!

Back into it

Well with the blare of the alarm I woke up realising that yes 7am does still exist and yes I was indeed going to have to get up.

Still for a Monday morning I was feeling surprisingly full of energy even with it raining quite hard at that point. I also remembered whilst making Breakfast to keep an eye on Owen who had come downstairs to see what was going on. Grumpy is so used to Owen following him everywhere when he went upstairs to get something yesterday morning he thought Owen would follow him and so didn't think to push his breakfast further back on the work top. Too late he realised that Owen hadn't followed him and rushed downstairs to find Owen halfway through the mushrooms after finishing off the bacon.

So Owen, really not in Grumpys good books right now.

The drive into work was quite long as of course as all the schools are back from the Easter holidays. So it was a constant journey of stop, start, stop, start, stop, start..... Well you get the idea.

I got into work to find a couple of changes as I had been given a new keyboard and mouse, which despite the fact that all keyboards and mouse's or would that be mice I'm never sure are basically, feels a little odd. Well I suppose I'll get used to it soon enough. It had also found that my monitor hadn't been running on the optimal resolution so they had helpfully reset it. However this did make me feel like I had gone boz eyed for a little while whilst I got used to the new display. I'm not sure what resolution the screen had been on but it must have been as far from the optimal resolution as it could have been out.

Well asides from that I managed to get caught up with everything by the end of the day so I was feeling quite pleased with myself as it means I don't have anything outstanding to deal with. Plus I got some good news that some new books will be arriving in this week and it's always fun when they arrive.

Whilst driving home I heard that new Britney spears song for the first time on the radio. I had heard that there was some outcry over the song but I hadn't heard what the exact problem was. So I sitting there wondering who this girl Amy was she was searching for and why was she searching for her and maybe the outcry was about the name Amy and maybe it was used as a term for something else. One mile later whilst trying to get through another load of traffic the penny finally dropped when I realised what the chorus was spelling out. D'oh!

We had family home evening for the YSA this evening. Athena was teaching and although she was nervous she did teach a really good lesson. I think it was really brave of her to agree to teach a lesson as if I was in her shoes as a relatively new convert I don't think I would have been brave enough to teach a lesson to YSA who had basically been church members all of their lives.

I've also just been trolling through some of my old links in my favourites list and I found the link for LDS Linkup. Which was basically the place all the cool YSA kids used to hang out before Facebook came on the scene. It was quite telling to see how far it had fallen out of favour as it were as most peoples status showed that they had only been active at some point in the last 12 months or longer!

Anyway,

Later folks!

Busy, busy week

Well Holidays like most things in life have to end and so I will be have to get up tomorrow at a much earlier time then the stupidly late time I have been getting up for the past week. Still I have to admit I'm ready to go back to work as a week at home is about long enough for me to get a rest, have fun and not get really bored.


Plus the nice weather held out all week and only started to get a bit grotty earlier this evening so that was a very nice bonus. Of course this does mean that I will probably be driving to work through a nice load of rain tomorrow but c'est la vie.


I'm also in for a very busy week this week as not only am I going back to work tomorrow, we have YSA FHE tomorrow with a lesson by Athena which I'm quite looking forward to as I'll be very interested to see what it's about and I mean that in a nice non cycinical way, by the way and I probably used too many ways in that sentence seeing as I'm neither Bill or Ted.


On Wednesday Institute starts again for the Summer course. I'll be able to take it nice and slow into Leicester because as the summer course starts later, my quick way into Leicester is too quick.


On Thursday night I will be attending a lecture at Loughborough University that Tap Dance was able to get me tickets for. Appaently they have special lectures held there on a regular basis and as Tap Dance now works there she can get hold of them.

And on Friday night I will be going to the cinema with the other YSA to watch the new Wolverine film. I'll just have to remember not to try and bore everyone with any changes to established background lore for wolverine. I'll just have to remember not to think geek :-)

Still at least this much stuff will keep me busy and out of trouble.

So bring on tomorrow and all of the oppotunities the week will bring.

Later folks!

If you go down to the woods today this is what you'll find

Spring seems to be here. Yah!

850

Well according to Blogger this is my 850 post. Which to be honest is a quite scary number as it shows just how long it's been since I first started. Doesn't time fly when you ramble on :-)

Today was slightly different to usual because as Grumpy was going to be out all day we had to do our shopping yesterday which meant I didn't have to do it today. It did mean that I had to get up very early though to take him into Leicester.

Now I can handle going to the stake centre as it's on the outskirts of Leicester so I don't have to go anywhere near the centre of Leicester which has one of the most confusing traffic systems I have ever seen. Of course as Grumpy needed to go to the train station I kinda couldn't avoid it. It was the first time I've ever been to Leicester train station (by driving) and lets just say after seeing the parking 'facilities' they have there I will never complain about the parking t Loughborough train station again.

Due to the awkwardness of the one way systems around Leicester city centre I decided to go the 'long way home' by going to the motorway then coming back that way. However this did take me past Borders and it opens early and this is basically a long winded way of saying I couldn't resist the temptation of making a quick stop to get some books.

The rest of the day was fairly quiet asides from having to deal with Owen who started to get really unsettled by early afternoon when he realised Dad wasn't going to be back anytime soon.

anyway, Church tomorrow, then back to work on Monday.

Later folks!

It would probably be cheaper but would it be as good?

As all things begin they must also end and my last day of Holiday dawned with a slightly more overcast sky then the rest of this week. However it did brighten up as the day wore on. I have to say that I certainly can not complain about the weather this week. It's been awesome.

I kept myself busy for most of the morning by tidying my room up. Having a quite small room and probably far too much stuff does mean I have to be a bit creative sometimes when it comes to organising stuff . I also firmly embraced the male sterotype by finding lots and lots of odd socks lying around. Of course the real fun will come trying to match them up which I have the feeling will take a while. I suppose I could just pair them up randomly safe in the knowledge that there will be another pair just like them or I could just tkae the lazy way and go and buy a lot of identical socks so I don't have to worry about finding a matching pair as they would all match automatically.

We met up with Tap Dance for lunch as she now works at the uni in Loughborough. I was quite amazed to see the size of the campus map as our forget sometimes just how big the university is. It's certainly a lot bigger then good old Edge hill as Loughborough uni is so large it even has it's own bus route! Grumpy kept asking if it was making me feel nostalgic ( think I spelt that right) for my uni days and if I would have liked to have gone there. Loughborough Uni seems like a good place but I think it would have been too large for me. Edge hill may have been small and a lot quieter but it was a perfect fit for me and I wouldn't trade my memories or my time there for anything.

As my hair was starting to resemble what can best be described as a rather used mop it was obivously time to go and get a hair cut. However the barbers have raised their prices again. It's now £8 for a haircut and lets face it with the way things are going theres probably every chance of it breaking through the £10 barrier by the end of the year.

But c'est la vie I suppose.

Later folks!

Almost done

Well the weather wasn't quite as good this morning as it has been the rest of this week but I didn't mind to be honest. All it needs to do is to hold off for one more day and I'll be happy.

Grumpy and I went into Derby today for well no particular reason whatsoever, it just seemed like something different to do for a change. We went to the big shopping centre they now have in the town centre there which is just awesome. The main problem I had was resisting the temptation of all of the gadgets shops they have and all of the shiny gizmos which I could have bought but didn't really need.

On the plus side however they do have a HMV which meant I was finally able to use a gift card I had gotten for Christmas. Not being in a massively original mood I decided to buy myself the CD Now 72. Which for those of you not in the know or just don't care, the Now albums are usually released twice a year and contain a selection of music from the charts. Most of them usually top ten hits. I started collecting this series way back with Now 28 ( which was on tape!) and it's also longer ago then I care to remember but I ddidn't really start collecting the series on a regular basis until Now 48 and if I remember correctly I switched to CD's with Now 50.

and that's probably a whole lot of random information that you didn't want to know but oh well :-)

We also decided to go out for Tea to the Harvester resturaunt in Loughborough for a change. We used to go there a lot but stopped when the quality of the food started to go down and the prices went up. We were pleased to find that this trend has been reversed and it's back to the high quality of food it used to have. It was so good that Grumpy is now sitting on the settee complaining he is FUFTB, which is a old family saying that means Full Up and Fit To Burst.

Well I have one more day of my time off to go and I have to admit I've been throughly enjoying myself this week. Well asides from the challenge of having to take Owen for a walk everyday. Grumpys foot seems to be all but healed now so he's going to have to get used to walking him again. I'm sure however if Owen does play up once Grumpy has to start walking him again next week I'm get the blame for it :-)

anyway,

Later folks!

So near yet so far

Well it was budget day in the UK, which is basically when the government tells us how their planning to spend all of the money that take from us in taxes and how much more they will take from us next year. Yes, yes cynical I know. The only usual saving grace is that as I don't smoke or drink I don't have to worry about those duty rises.

That does however leave me with fuel duty which is going up once again in September by 2 pence a litre. I did also notice that they haven't said anything about what will happen when the VAT goes back up in December because when they cutit last december they increased the fuel duty to offset the loss from the VAT. Now some people reckon that the fuel duty will be cut when they put the VAT back up but the cynic in me says 'Keep dreaming'.

The one thing I was really interested in asides from noting the monumental pit the government has managed to get us into debt wise was that they are offering £2000 off a new car for anyone with a car that is ten years or older and scraps it. However this offer only goes onto March which means my trusty old KA is not quite old enough to be able to come under this scheme darn it!

Oh well I suppose as the saying sort of goes, if I didn't have it to begin with I shouldn't miss it when it's gone.

It was yet another beautiful day today, in case you haven't guessed this yet I am really enjoying this week off, even if my hands are becoming steadily more battered by taking Owen out for walks every day. Well at the very least it gets me out of the house I suppose.

Later folks!

Weathers Good and I feel fine

I was more then happy to see that the sky was still very blue and the sun was shining when I woke up this morning. It certainly helps put you in a good mood for the day ahead. Plus I've just found out that according to the weathermen this good weather is supposed to continue for the rest of the week. So I think it's safe to say I really, really lucked out there.

Grumpy is still insisted that his foot isn't totally better despite him now having no limp whatsoever. I've giving him until Friday and then I'm declaring that he's milking his injury for all it's worth. So I still had to take Owen out for his walk with all of the fun and games that it entails. Especially today as he seemed to be a 'pick a fight with everything that crosses his path" mood.

I spent most of the day reading as I bought home a couple of books, well I say couple, actually five in total to read over my holiday. I'm already halfway through what I have to read so I'm quite pleased with myself.

We also popped in Loughborough this afternoon, which on the plus side meant I got to drive Grumpys car which is always joy to drive in warmish weather. It has air conditioning which is actual air conditioning unlike my KA whose air conditioning consists of a fan which is great at blowing hot air around and opening the sunroof and side windows. If and it's a big if based on the performance of the past couple of years, a hot summer I might have to badger Grumpy to let me borrow his car on the really hot days.

anyway,

Later folks

Blue Skies and Free time

It was rather nice waking up this morning as I could see blue skies out of my window and why I say blue I mean really, really blue. In fact probably the bluest I've seen in a while, plus there were no clouds. So it was a empty blue sky with a blazing sun.

There are worse things to wake up to on your first day of Holiday.

Grumpy's ankle is starting to go down so he can take Owen on the green which runs down the side of our house. However it's still too swollen for long walks which meant I had to take him out this afternoon. Still it could have been worse, it was still sunny and just warm enough so I could leave my coat at home but not so hot it was unpleasent walking along after the dog. Who is still pulling as badly as ever and that stupid lead has started to bruise my hands. It looks like I'm getting three or four bruises on each hand. Needless to say Grumpy has not been sympathtic in the slightist.

I'm still trying to figure out why he hasn't got arms the size of the incredible hulks with how hard Owen pulls on the lead. He can drag me pretty well and I have to fight to hold on sometimes and I'm not what you could call a light weight.

Still it was a nice walk along in the woods, wearing my sunglasses enjoying the afternoon. What slightly tempered this good mood was when Owen suddenly got the scent of something and shot off into a field disappearing over the horizon and refused to come back for nearly 15 minutes.

Sometimes admitally church can drag but at least we've never had a situation like this in Loughborough which faced the saints in Swindon ward. ( and yes photoshop I did borrow the link you posted on facebook. sorry :-)

anyway,

Later folks!

Stalemate

As Grumpy has gone and sprained his ankle it means he can't take Owen out for walks right now. So I have to do it and unfortunatly despite my best hopes Owen has no respect for what time it is and when he wants to go out it's usually much earlier then we would like.

Which is why I found myself much earlier then I would like taking Owen for a walk over the fields this morning. Still the cold air helped me wake up quickly and as I would have to get ready for church I wasn't planning on going too far. However Owen was in one of his moods this morning and proved to be difficult right from the off, he keeps jerking on the lead which started to really hurt my hand plus he decided he was in no mood to do any 'business' while we were out. In fact he ran into the middle of the field and just sat there looking at me as if to say " Na, na, nah, na, na I'm not going to co-operate". I'm sure if anyone had been around at that point they would have had no illusions as to who was in charge.

After twenty minutes of this non-coperation I had no choice but to take him home which proved to be a challenge all in it's self as he kept jerking on the lead all the way and for a dog his size he has a lot of power. By the time I got back to the house my hand was feeling very raw and stinging and I was not in a good mood. This mood was not helped by Owen bolting as soon as we had got into the house, he rushed up stairs without waiting for me to take the lead or harness off and took a flying leap onto Grumpys bed. Fortunatly he didn't land anywhere near his ankle otherwise the end results probably would have been painful.

I didn't have to get to Church quite as early as usual as the photocopier has finally given up and broken for good. This means that until a new one arrives in a couple of weeks the bulletins are on a hiatus.

I had my interview with a member of the bishopric for my institute advanced diploma so that's now all sorted. It will mean I'm going to have to get up again in front of lots of people but I guess I'll have to get used to that. I also got my form signed for this years national YSA convention at the same time. Well it saved me having to have another interview in a couple of weeks as I want to make sure I get the reduced price again. It already looks like hardly anyone from Leicester will be going again but I had a good time last year so I'll give it another go. As the saying goes nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Apparently the theme of this years conference is Be thou an example.

Well I've read one of the four books I have to read while I'm off this week, so three to go. I might actually be able to do some reading in the garden as it's supposed to be sunny for a fair chunk of this week. I don't know what it is but I do seem to be lucking out when it comes to weather and the time I take off so far this year. The last time I took some time off it snowed so I avoided having to drive in snow and ice and this time it looks like it's going to be sunny.

Anyway,

Later folks!

Hop along Grumpy

Shopping was a little more difficult then usual to organise today as Grumpy whilst walking Owen this morning forgot about a pothole on one of the grass verges and managed to trip in it badly spraining his ankle, the thing must be at least twice as big as normal. Owen then also managed to injury himself by stepping on a thorn so I know I shouldn't find it funny but I can't help but smile the pay of them one the way back to the house limping in unison.

Although Grumpy decided to come shopping he couldn't actually get out of the car which meant I had to do a awful lot of running around. I also had problems in the car park behind Iceland because as we were driving Grumpys car it's much more difficult to park as it's a lot bigger then my trusty old KA. After spending four minutes trying to get into a parking spot which was a difficult fit thanks to the genius parking of the person who had parked in the next spot, I migt have uttered one or two bad words as that person promptly drove off. He had sat there the whole time watching me trying to park and did nothing.

So we got home a lot early then usual much to the confusion of Owen. I then had to get everything in as Grumpy was hobbling around. He's spent the rest of the day with his foot up resting on one of our small tables. I would say he's milking it for all he's worth but seeing as his ankle is definatly swollen I wouldn't say that just yet. I'll give it a couple of day :-)

Still even with Grumpy out of action Owen still had to go out for a walk so who did that leave? Oh right that would be me. For a dog of his size he has a stupid amount of power. Based on the size of the sprain I think I'll be walking Owen a lot this week. Still on the plus side at least I'm off this week to do it otherwise I don't know what we would have done.

I've just seen some new footage from Transformers 2. It looks awesome! I really can't wait.

Primeval was also good this evening. It may, just may survive the plot twist from last week. That's assuming the writers can get over their love of bad guys with evil plots that are over comlicated and take ages to be revealed.

Anyway,

Later folks!

I can't Dance, I can't drum or play the guitar very well either

I had one of those moments this morning that most people know all too well. That argument with that little voice in your heard that say " Just five more minutes, just lie here for five more minutes" . This particular argument always worries me as I'm sure one of these days I will decide to listen to that voice, go back to sleep and find that five minutes has turned into two hours and I would have some awkward explaining to do at work as I don't think the explanation I listened to the voice in my head would would cut much ice with the boss. It would possibly more likely end with my getting a all expenses trip to a room with soft walls and soft food but I guess I digress :-)

The trip into work was once again extremly fast, I have the feeling I'm going to really miss those clear roads when I go back to work in a weeks time, as I am now on Holiday for one week. Ahhh, bliss. However before I got to the fun part I had to make sure that I had everything cleared as I didn't want to leave anthing for anyone else to have to deal with. Fortunatly I managed to get everything cleared, or at least as certain as I can be. There's always the possibility that irony might decide to sneak in there but there's not a lot I can do about that now.

Still I have a week to myself now and I've also been able to get hold of some nice books to read as well. I have five in total which should be enough to last the week even for me :-)

In the news today apparently eight police officers filled in their religion as 'Jedi' in some voluntary diversity forms that they had been asked to fill in. Me thinks they might not have been taking the forms totally seriously.

We had our first 'YSA get together' probably not the official title and not terribily orginal I know but it's late and me brain no workee good at mo :-) The aim seems to be that we'll have one of these every Friday, whether or not this continues is anyone's guess right now. We're supposed to be going barn dancing next week ( oh good another chance to impress the girls with my lack of co-ordination) and the cinema the week after.

Tonight we were at the chapel and one of the girls had bought their nintendo Wii and set it up using a projector to show the image on the side of the cultural hall. We tried guitar hero and I managed to firmly prove that I can't drum or play the guitar ( they ended up finally setting the guitar on beginner that wasn't embrassing in the slightist oh no..) so I think this might be a good indication that off my many talents none of them fall in a musical area. We also tried Wii sports and I also proved that whether it's real or virtual my bowling skills also suck as well.

Well on the plus side at least it was a very fun evening and I still gave everything a go. I have been considering getting a nintendo Wii but I always imagine the havoc which would result if I tried playing with Owen in the house. He's probably want to join in!

Social did also put forward a very interesting theory as we were talking about how a baptism has had to be put back due to a investigator struggling with a couple of things. The theory that social put forward was that it's obivous why a lot of church members are overweight, as we don't smoke, we don't drink and we don't do drugs so what does that leave us to help deal with stress? Why food of course?

It's probably truer then most people would want to admit :-)

anyway,

Later folks

I think I missed the point

The traffic was still very light today, so I got into work nice and quickly. Of course this won't last as the kids will be back to school as of next week but at least the summer holidays are around the corner which usally means almost three months of nice clear roads.

Somebody found a link today to a video about a place in the USA called the heartbreak grill. Now I watch Ramsays kitchen nightmares and I have to admit even the food in the very worst of the resturants did not make me feel as quesy as the food this place serves. Apparenly this resturant sells food which is as unhealthy as it can get. For example the burgers they serve go by the names such as the " Triple bypass" and the " Quadruple bypass" which contains a mere 8000, that's right 8000 calories. This place also doesn't have a salad bar, it has a all you can eat french frie bar where the fries are fried in pure lard. All I can say is ugggghhhhhh. They showed a reporter eating one of these quadruple bypass burgers which seem to have equal amounts of cheese and fat flowing off it. He really did not look well once he had finished.

But that wasn't all, anyone who weighs more then 350lbs eats for free, and the food is served by 'nurses'. Now I say 'nurses' as I've never seen any real nurses wear uniforms like that. For a start the uniforms were totally not practical but then again by saying that I guess I missed the whole point of the 'nurses' uniform :-)

I was glad I had eat my lunch by that point otherwise I don't think I would have been able to after seeing that 'food'.

It was once again a busy day but it was also a lot of fun. We also had some new books arrive including a new audio book which strangly enough I'm listening to while I'm typing this post. It's very good and it's also odd as I'm more used to reading books then listening to them.

anyway,

Later folks!

So he was right

I am seriously considering investing in a SatNav as I think it might prove to be useful specially with my new calling. There I've finally said it, I've admitted that Satnav could be useful and I'm sure where engineseer is right now he's doing his I told you so Dance.

It was another good day at work even if I was very busy. However I was able to get a lot done so I was feeling pleased with myself by the end of the day. Still I have two days to go before my holiday and I want to make sure I get every thing done as I don't want to leave anything hanging which someone else might have to deal with while I'm away.

I was also able to get the new book I was waiting for. The downside was getting it at the start of the day I spent the rest of the day wanting to pick it up and read it. I also saw some other cool stuff in other part of the building today which is very very cool and I really want it now. Of course I can't have it now as it's not released for a while. Which is the small problem sometimes working at the HQ where they make your hobby, you see all these cool stuff ahead of time and you then have to wait to get it. It's the same problem with the novels sometimes, that novel sounds so cool, what do you mean the author hasn't started writing it? I want it now!

Still on the plus side seeing all these very cool new stuff has inspired my again and given me some fresh ideas for one of my projects which I'm now feeling quite excited about as I think these ideas are awesome.

This evening? Well to paraphrase mr wolfcastle from the Simpsons " I spent the evening with many beautiful ladies" As there was a YSA get together at one of the YSA's houses which was a lot of fun and I had a great evening. Even if I felt a bit uncivilised that when we offered drinks by our hosts my first thought to the Smooth cream soda was " What the heck is that?" Still nothing ventured nothing gained and I decided to give it a go. My second thought was " Is it supposed to taste like melted ice cream with bubbles in it?" Which left me wondering if that maybe, just maybe I need to work on my suave and sophistication skills.

Despite the orginal plan being to watch a DVD we ended up spending most of the evening talking and swapping stories. We also have a new plan with regards to YSA that we will be holding some sort fo get together every Friday. The first one will be this Friday and if I understand correctly it's going to be at the chapel and we'll be playing guitar hero on the nintendo Wii which wil lbe projected on the side of the cultural hall. No doubt I will display my complete lack of co-ordination when it comes to musical instruments to all and sundry. However I suppose to be fair to myself I did learn the piano when I was younger and got to a fairly good level. I wasn't able to get any farther when it came to using both hands and playing different notes alternatly ( worse description ever there me thinks).

anyway,

Later folks!

Oops

Well it was back to work this morning for a somewhat shorter week then usual. Still I was fairly sure I would be able to get everything I needed to do this week as there was no rush to get anything finished before Friday which couldn't wait until next week.

All I can say to that thought is Oops, because as I looked at my calender I suddenly remembered that in a effort to use up my last bits of Holiday I've booked all of next week off. So I don't have as much time as I thought which means this week I certainly can not allow myself to dawdle.

and this is probaby also a good example of proving my opinion of my memory right. When it comes to the not so important stuff it's near enough photographic but when it comes to the useful stuff, like where's my pen? where's my keys? Or when did I book that time off? it can be a little shaky occasionally.

We also had some new books arrive today which is always fun especially as one of them is one I've been really looking forward too. However I couldn't give them out just yet so it was a case of so near yet so far :-) Not that having to wait another day will make that much difference as I can usually power through a book of that size in less then a day.

Thinking about it this particular series is quite unique as most readers myself included already know what's going to happen at the end. Rather then the destination this series is about the journey, okay that sounds very deep and philisopical but it really is the best way to describe this series. Plus the books come out a awful lot quicker then my other favourite series of books where the next book isn't due out until next year. A mighty five years since the previous book was first published!

anyway,

Later folks!

Knowing when to stop

I have just watched the new Red Dwarf three part special and I am not impressed at all. It just seemed to be a mismash of ideas they've previously used, sci-fi cliches that have been done before and done much better by other series and it ended with what seemed like a blatent attempt to try and get the show recommisioned. The only really amusing thing I found was when a hologram which was trying to replace Rimmer told him she had no problem in killing him because as a Hologram he was already dead, so he took her at her word and promptly pushed her under a bus.

At least the Doctor Who special was good. However apparently it is also coming under a fire as the character who Michelle Ryan plays ( and I'm trying to be as vague as possible so not to spoil anything for scully) has been accused of not being a good enough role model to be a companion to Doctor as she may encourage children to take up her 'profession'.

That banging sound is me hitting my head on the desk wondering what's going wrong with the world.

I've also just watching the last episode of primeval again and I'm still frankly baffled at what happened. I'm starting to lean towards the idea that this may be the death knell for show. Especially as the bad guy seems to have learnt her trade from Doctor evil with ridiculously complicated plans that serve no purpose except to give the good guys the maximum amount of time to foil her. The other problem is that three series in and we're still no closer to understanding what her motivation is or what's she up to. The mystery only goes so far.

While we're on the subject of sci-fi TV, it seems that Demons will not be renewed for a second series which to be honest I was half expecting and Terminator the Sarah connor chronicles also seems destined to not be renewed which is annoying as it was finally getting good.

It's been a quiet day today as I've been mainly taking it easy by being as busy as possible doing nothing :-) Sad I know but a day off is a day off whether it's actual holiday or a 'freebie bank holiday'

Still it's back to work tomorrow which should be interesting as we'll have a lot to discuss about the weekend events.

Anyway,

Later folks

And that makes four

I had to get up extra early this morning as not only did I have to get to church to do the bulletins, I aso had to fill in the HT figures on the computer, plus have a interview with someone from the stake high council which was a little worrying when I first got the phone call as I couldn't think why somebody from the stake high council would want to speak to me. Grumpy was very helpful and suggested that maybe they thought I had done something naughty. Which made me start to think of potential excuses in case they had made this mistake, " It wasn't me it was the one armed man" or alternativly " It wasn't me, it was bigger boys who ran away and got eaten by wolves which is why you don't see them :-)"

The filling in the figures on the computer turned out to be the easy part. I wasn't able to print off any bulletins as they photocopier seems to have well and truly died now. On the plus side however the bishopric have finally admitted that the photocopier does need replacing and we will be getting a new one. Hopefully not as tempermental as the old one but I guess we shall see.

The time for the interview came around and fortunatly Grumpy was quite wrong ( as I had already guessed mind you so I didn't need any excuses). I now have a stake calling which means that I now have four callings although I guess I will shortly be released from one. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to say publically as it were what the new oone is yet so i will err on the side of caution and refrain from doing so for the time being.

Sunday school was interesting as we've just had a member of the ward return from his mission so this was his first Sunday back. It was also scary in the sense of " He can't be back already, he only went the other week not two years ago, time can't be moving that fast can it?"

I was set apart after church for my new calling which was funny as the high council mans young son was sitting in the room and as soon as we had finished immediatly bounded up to his Dad with a large bag of sweets asking him to open them with a look on his face that seemed to say " You've done that, now do the important stuff :-)"

It was nice after church as I started talking with some of the YSA and social joined in as well. Things are starting to improve there which I'm very glad about as I've really missed talking to her. It's still not as it used to be but hopefully things will get better. I can't remember how exactly it came up but one of the girls related that she thought a lot of guys in the YSA were 'players' and were simply getting as any dates as possible ( if it were only that simple, wait, blast said that out loud :-) She also related how one guy she knew said he was worried about getting married as he was afraid that the girl he married might put weight on after they got married and then what would he do. All I could think to ask at this point was just how badly she beat this guy when he voiced this stupid opinon and if she had to get rid of a body.

Despite resolving to try and so something constructive this afternoon I ended up falling asleep and spend most of the afternoon snoozing. I'm guessing the long day yesterday caught up with me. I know that sounds sad but hey what can I say? I work in a office all day, I'm not used to being on my feet for that long.

Anyway, no work tomorrow as it's a bank holiday. So I think I'm just going to sit back, relax and make the most of it.

Later folks!

The boards were set, the pieces starting moving

I was initially worried that I might struggle to wake up this morning as it was a Saturday and I'm used to waking up a lot later. But I didn't. I actually woke up with no problems like it was a normal work day which it wasn't but it seemed like it and I was going to be at work but not in the usual sense in a different part of the building so it wasn't a normal working day even though it was. And by this point I had managed to throughly confuse myself and came to the conclusion that some mornings it is better to leave the complicated thoughts until after breakfast.

The roads were almost totally empty on the way into work, which I suppose makes sense as it was Saturday and lets be honest most people unless they have a pressing need will not be on the road before 8am and are much more likely to be in bed.

Still the day was most like days which you spend months preparing for. Over in what seemed like a flash :-) Even if everything had gone totally, totally wrong my day was pretty much made when as one of the officially designated area managers for the area I had helped organise, I was given a radio which was awesome as it made me feel really important as at other shows I've been too only the really important team leaders had radios. Yes my feet might have hurt by the end of the day and my ear feels a bit funny from wearing a earpiece for nearly 7 hours but I had a radio. Not that there was much need for it and my lack of proper radio terms would have earned me a gibbs smack from my old ATC instructors but still I had a radio.

However the day did not go wrong. Not in the slightist. In fact as far as I could tell my section that I had organised with one of my colleagues seemed to go very, very well indeed. It was hard not to feel a real sense of pride as I watched the long weeks of planning, preparing, painting and phone calls come together. By the end of the day my colleague and I decided that we would rate things as 8 out of 10. Not perfect and there were areas that could be improved if we do the event again but still pretty darn impressive for the first one. Of course we could be totally wrong but I'm going to choose to go with the feeling of pride for now.

Driving home was 'interesting' as it's a bit difficult to drive with numb feet where the feeling is slowly returning. Still I managed to make it home okay though. before it go too bad to find that Grumpy had tea already for me.

Due to timing issues I missed the start of Doctor who so I decided to wait and watch it on the iplayer instead. It awesome and Michelle Ryan was surprisingly good as the companion for this special. She certainly suits a posh english accent rather then the dodgy american one she had in the bionic woman. Lee Evans was also good and kept the lid on the zanyness right until the end which probably helped the story no end. The special did end on a big note of foreboding which I won't say a thing about as I wouldn't want to spoil it for Scully. The next special is apparently due in November time(ish) and will be called 'The Waters of Mars".

I also watched primeval which was surprising for it's major twist which I hope will serve to give the series a boost but it could also be it's death kneel as well. It's a double edged sword and to be honest I'm not sure which way it will fall right now.

Anyway, Sunday tomorrow.

Later folks!

Funny Friday

Well it was nice to wake up by myself this morning rather then being woke up by the strident blare of my alarm clock. However what wasn't so nice was the weather which has remained grey and miserable all day.

As I'm working at a event tomorrow we went into do out shopping in Loughborough today and it was very odd as I didn't have to buy a paper and the market wasn't on so the whole of the central market place was empty. Well almost empty as there was some church putting on some sort of service on a stage that had been set up right in the middle of the square.

Some shops were open as it was good Friday and some weren't, there didn't seem to be much of a pattern to who was and wasn't open. Well asides from the banks although I noticed that according to the sign outside of my bank it is no longer a bank rather a Private personel banking and business centre. Quite why there trying to make a bank so more impressive by giving it a long winded technical name I have no idea.

We decided to try Pizza hut for lunch but it was only when we go in and sat down that we found out that they weren't doing the buffet deal as it was a bank holiday. We just decided to stay as we were already there.

I almost burst out laughing as the, shall we say forthrightness of a child sitting on the table next to us. He had got under their table and his Dad looked under to ask what he was doing. The Dad then said it looked like fun and did the lad think he could join in. The Lad replied that he didn't think the Dad could fit and when the Dad asked was it was because he was too tall the lad responded bluntly that no it was because he was too fat.

well it's our big event tomorrow which should be a lot of fun. Seeing as I do get a bit paranoid about things I'll probably be mentally checking everything off the list again and again until the doors open, still paranoria asides I'm sure it's going to be great.

Later folks!

Getting that Friday feeling just a little early

It's been a odd day, with it being Good Friday tomorrow and today being the last day of 'official' work this week it really felt like it was friday today and I had to keep remind myself that it wasn't.

The weather also decided to change as well today. It's been murky, cloudy and rainy in a somewhat stark contract to the weather the rest of this week. Of course it would just happen before the easter weekend when everyone would have the weekend off and enjoy nice weather instead of during the week when everybody would be at work and not care.

It was also extremly busy as we were getting lots of stuff ready for the event on Saturday which meant lots of running back and forth and moving lots of stuff that ranged from quite light to quite heavy. Also through various events which would take far too logn to explain I ended up in the main warehouse helping to hand count 900 copies of a single book. It's amazing how much room 900 books take up even if the process of counting threatened to send you into a trance. It was an interesting experience and to be honest one I hope I don't have to repeat for a very long time if ever. I'll stick to dealing with books in case qty's thank you very much.

later folks!

In a Jam

Now as annoying as traffic jams can be I'm okay with the ones which actually have a reason behind them, like being caused by roadworks or a accident. The Jams that I'm not okay with are ones caused by people slowing down to gawk at accidents " Yes it's a car accident, their car has gong bang but hurry along now as your day really will not suffer with out you having good long look at the wreckage" and the traffic jams that just seem to start for no reason. I was faced with the later on the way into work and got stuck in a jam that lasted nearly 20 minutes before it suddenly just stopped.

Still the weathers been really nice all day and it's amazing what blue skies and bright sunshine can do to improve your mood.

Work was good, we've done our final few bits of planning for the weekend. All we have to do now is to set everything up tomorrow ( as it's good Friday the office will be closed so we're going to have to get it done in advance).

The Funniest moment of the day came when I had to politiely point out to someone who had come into our office from another department that the reason he couldn't photocopy his documents was that he was trying to use the printer instead of the photocopier.

My 'd'oh moment of the day, came when I was carrying a rather large box into the office. I quickly asked someone " Where do you want this?" his response was " what is it?" leaving me to realise that maybe rather then asking where did he want something put, then telling him what it was, I should have told him what it was before asking where he want it put. As I said " D'oh!"

I've been having a look at the TV for this coming weekend and it's well rather annoying, because there's a new three parter of Red Dwarf on one of the digital channels, the first is on Friday at the same time as NCIS, on the Saturday Primeval is on at the same time as Robin hood and Doctor Who, the 2nd part of Red Dwarf is on at the same time as CSI and on Sunday the last aprt fo Red Dwarf will be on at the same time as Lewis. Based on the likelyhood of Grumpy playing the " It's my TV so I get to choose" card I have a feeling I'm going to have to wait for the DVD of Red Dwarf.

Anyway,

Later folks!

I want one of those

Well top news of the day, it's one of those new stories that makes you think that a group of scientists " obivously have too much time on their hands", but you don't care because if this works it's awesome. A company has come up with a choclate 'inhaler' , which basically allows you to inhale a choclate aroma which means you get all the benefits of choclate, i.e taste, aroma etc but theres zero calories. Or as one reviewer put it " It's a way for chocoholics to get their fix without gaining and ounce. Of course the downside for men is that this inhaler does look a bit like lipstick.

and just when you thought it was safe to turn the TV back on a new series of hells kitchen is about to start which will be a 'celebrity' version and I use that term in the most loose sense possibile. Great another new reality series which will probably take us to when Big brother hits our screens yet again. Aaaaahhhhhhhhh. Couldn't they do a new version where instead of a house they have a island which they just dumpy all these wannabes on and we forget about them?

It was another busy day at work as we get ready for the event at the weekend. I also got my feedback from our training department about this personality test thing I had to take as part of our training which turned out to be a lot more interesting then I was expecting to be honest.

anyway

Later folks!

Technology

In the news today apparently 'thousands' of people have complained about the ending of a recent storyline to eastenders. The response from one of the producers included the line" EastEnders, like all good drama, contains a balance of storylines, both happy and sad.' Quite how he managed to say this with a straight face I have no idea. However quite why some people were expecting a happy ending is beyond me. This is a place where your chances of dying around Christmas and New years must be the highist of anywhere in the UK, why anyone chooses to stay there around the Holidays I have no idea. I think the only more dangerous place in the UK must be if your a police officer in the Bill at Sun Hill Police station as your more likely to be carried out in a box rather the get transferred.

Also in the news the rights to Jade Goodys autobiography are apparently up for sale and there are three companies bidding for them so they can make 'Jade the movie'. I know it was tragic that she died so young but can't we just let her rest in peace now and give her family the privacy they deserve?

Anyway, the roads were still nice and clear in the way into work today. Work itself was slightly busier then usual because as the school have now broken up for easter we had a lot of visitors today.

We did have one or minor technical problems today as the computers decided that they weren't going to co-operate in that difficult way technology decides to act sometimes. I was perfectly willing to try the engineers approach to try and get them co-operating again but something told me the IT department might get upset :-)

anyway,

Later folks!

Get used to it

It's strange once again having neighbours as we had got used to the quiet. Now it seems very odd to hear noise again from next door, not to mention the fact that their driveway is now occupied by a huge white van!

Owen was initially unsettled by it all but now seems to take it in his stride ( as long as they don't come near 'his house' of course.

It's been a nice day once again, mostly blue skies and a bright sun. Unfortunatly according to the weathermen this is unlikely to last and we'll be back to the usual english weather soon enough. Oh well I guess we'll just have to enjoy it while we can.

It's Monday tomorrow so it's back to work and the oppotunities the week will bring. It will probably get very busy as we have our weekend next Saturday and only four days to get everything ready and in place as it's Good Friday on well Friday unsurprisingly and we'll be shut.

So I have a feeling it's going to be a interesting few days.

Later folks!

Bright Sun, Clear Skies

Well theres nothing like waking up on a Saturday morning after having a nice lie in with the knowledge that you don't have to go to work and the day is all yours. The fact that I woke up to find clear blue skies and the sun shining made it all the better.

Loughborough was surprisingly quiet today considering it was 'pay day' weekend as it were. Still on the plus side it did mean that I was able to get round all of the shops that I needed to fairly quickly.

We got home from town to find Owen lying on his back in the lounge window looking as though he was sunbathing. As we walked past the window to the back door he opened one eye and looked at us as if to say ' It's about time'.

We had problems when we took him for a walk as he suddenly took off and refused to come back. We're starting to become convinced that he was trained as a gun dog because as soon as he sniffs a pheasent he's off after the thing. Not that he would probably know what to do if he ever caught one mind you. We had a heart stopping moment when we thought he was going to run onto the road but fortunatly the bird he was chasing changed course and came back towards us. Not that he actually did come back to us he simply ran by and it took nearly ten minutes to finally herd him back towards Grumpy who was able to catch him and put the lead on.

Primeval was okay, it's still not quite there yet. The 'baddy' seems to have fallen into using one of the main movie bad guy cliches. Come up with a ridiculous planthat takes ages to carry out giving the good guys the maximum amount of time to stop it.

Now when it comes to certain things my memory is usually very good, like the plot of nearly every book my company has ever written. However when it comes to other stuff my memory can be quite bad, like where did I just put my pen. This is a roundabout way of saying that I've got a problem with facebook at the moment as I've recieved a friend request from somebody but I really don't know who he is. Now I'm fairly sure I know him and he's not some random person but as to where I know him from I have no idea. Not that this is the first time this has happened, I was in a supermarket once and somebody came up and starting talking to me, it was only half an hour later on the way home that I finally remembered who he was and that he used to be in one of my school classes.

It's something I've never been quite able to figure out, why do I have seemingly photographic selective memory.

I was going to finish with a bad joke about memory loss there but I won't :-)

Maybe I'm maturing in my old age.

Later folks!

Long may it continue

Despite a rather unexpected bout of fog this morning the journey into work was agreeably quick as the traffic is still very light. It may be down to the students leaving uni or maybe just the easter holidays being especially long for schools in nottingham but either way I am not going to complain.

The fog had pretty much gone by mid morning and the sun appeared which was nice as lets face it we don't get a lot of sun here in Egnland sometimes.

I was able to get a lot done today, although not as much as I was hoping for as the printer in the office was playing up something rotten. Despite trying everything I knew, I still couldn't get the darn thing to co-operate. The thought of throwing it out of the window did occur but considering it's huge and probably weighs the same a mini car that probably wouldn't be a viable option and the only thing ending up broken would have been my back. So I end up settling for giving it a evil glare.

I arrived home to find Owen sitting in the window trying to look as innocent as possible which instantly worried me. After checking with Grumpy I found out that Owen had decided to run off during their walk this afternoon and hadn't come back for nearly 20 minutes. Leaving Grumpy quite worried and muttering about whose idea was it to get a dog like a spaniel in the first place. I decided to not point out once again that it had been his idea :-)

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

Later folks!

I wonder

I was doing my daily trawl of news sites today and happened to come across a report of the new show by the osbournes ( sharon, ozzy, etc) in the states which has been badly slated and in fact sixteen American TV stations have refused to air it, calling the show 'pathetic'. Now I have to admit that I wasn't a fan of the osbournes the first time they appeared on a reality show and I think I watched only a couple of minutes of it before turning it off. Which does make me wonder that if the show then was considered fine for broadcast so how bad does this new show have to be for it to be called pathetic?

There was more news on the entertainment front as it seems a early copy of the new wolverine film has been leaked onto the internet. However as every early copy of the film has a special coding/ identifying symbol so at least they should be able to track down the genius who did this fairly quickly.

I was able to see a list of the characters who will be appearing. I'm pleased to see Gambit and Deadpool will be appearing in the movie as their great characters. I was also surprised to see that the character of Emma Frost will also be appearing. Now hopefully they will have been able to adapt the character for the big screen well and her full complexity will appear and she's not been turned into a weak character who will be only defined by her extensive wardrobe of revealing outfits.

I also heard a rumour that Stan lee might not be appearing in a cameo. All I can say to that is WHAT!! You can't have a film based on a marvel character without Stan lee, it's not right.

Work was good today if a little quiet as a lot of people from the office were either out and about or stuck in meetings all day. Still I was able to get a lot of work done on the next one of my projects which meant I was feeling quite pleased with myself by the end of the day.

I've also kept my inspiration as it were and I'm motoring along with my latest modelling project. I've even settled on a name for my new army, Angels Excalibur which is actually quite good for me as it usually takes weeks if not months to come up with a name.

I also saw the trailer for the new Doctor Who special. It looks awesome! I can't wait!

Well it's one more day until the weekend.

Later folks!

Getting away with it

Fortunatly and to be honest I'm not entirely sure how I managed to get away with out being caught out by an April fools prank today. Two things however did spring to mind this morning when I got up, the first was 'It's April already' and the second was I didn't have any meetings today as no matter ow important it is, it's always a bit hard to take seriousily a " very important meeting" which is being held on April 1st.

I did see a news story yesterday which if it had been broadcast today no one would have believed it. Apparently there is a bit if a dispute on the international space station, The Russians can not use the toilet in the American section of the station, there gym or have any of the US food, and the reverse applies for the Americans. Now quite what caused this squabble is unknown but it's stupid as due to the design of the space station neither side could operate without the other. The Russians provide the basic modules, the engines and the craft that carry crew too and from the station and serve as lifeboats. The Americans have provided the Solar arrays and connecting modules that have allowed the European and Japanese labs to be attached to the station. One russian cosmonaut even commented in the newspaper that first carried this story that the Russian sections are constructed using quite antiquated technology compared to the US Sections. So I guess that this cosmonaut never wants to fly again.

Of course there is nothing wrong with some older forms of technology, the Soyez has been flying for 40 odd years and proven to be very reliable. Plus most people would be a lot more comfortable being in what is essentially a sealed metal tin then the modules on a commercial space station which is being planned then are essentially blow up modules. Yes that's right,they get blown up. The makers of this station insist that the fabric used to make these modules is more sturdy and protected then the old 'metal can' style modules. Whether or not people will believe that is another matter.

It was quite odd driving home from Work as it kept feeling like I was going the wrong way because I was going home rather then to Leicester. I got home to find Owen trying to look all innocent sitting in the window. Apparently he's developed a taste for clothes pegs. Oh Joy!

Well I suppose it might take his mind off rock cakes.
anyway,

Later folks!