Thriller

Zane payed a bit of this tonight - TOP album, or as my mate Steve would say (but not of this) chhhhooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooon!

Especially Billie Jean and Wanna be Startin' Something.

Happy holiday with my brothers and folks when it came out 25 yrs ago and we played the tape constantly!

Hey!

Here's a snap I took at work today - a load of pallets of hay and straw that I worked through as part of my warehouse investigation. Stock comes in and is signed in nice and fast but then it becomes achingly slow as every single item within the delivery is checked and cross-ref'd with two separate dockets. Only then can it go on the shop floor. A whole 2 people work in this warehouse for departments that take 12% of store business and have the largest, bulkiest items coming in all the time, ever day. I worked hard but it seemed to go nowhere; potential for my recommendations at least.

A nice chat with Greg broke up my afternoon and we talked of this and that and visiting each other.

Scone!

Where did the week go? It's nearly scone already.

Thursday already and not long to weekend larks!

Playing Quake on line tonight with Walshy and Bag, two former BS5ers who now live in Lancashire.

I reckon in a straight fight out of three of us, I will only have two others placed above me.

Off to work shortly and in order to give credence to a Retail Operations manual I am writing, I am working the day in our Pet and Aquatics dep't; up close and personal with rabbits, fish, reptiles, birds and lizards

Other things: Nearly got my Sunday reading memorised so it should be okay (Isaiah 2: 1-5). Also, I have washed and dried my bright green work fleece for days on the shop floor, and luckily it has shrunk a bit and is no longer massive!

Warehouse warrior!

This image represents the sort of pace today in the warehouse on my 2nd day finding out and getting on with the tasks hands-on!

I was like a F-16 strike eagle, fully armed, fueled and with course plotted and years of knife-edge special-forces skill at my disposal, used to get in and out, fast, sleek, effective, lethal, accurate and deadly. All at supersonic speed, free as a bird and deadly poised, with a crack team behind me.

Actually, I crashed a manual pallet truck into a fucking massive, bright red 40 ft container that I had seen 25 seconds before whilst approaching at walking pace.

Oh dear.

:-(

Half way through the week

Well, the see saw of the week is definitely tipping towards the weekend now!

A decent evening here in BS5 but nearly chucked the zapper through the tv because the arse-useless 'watch again' feature wouldn't load and I was subject to the incessant nasal whining of the man who does the voice over to advertise it; he speaks in that nasty North London counties accent that we must all now kow tow to whilst pandering to the densest of the planet and those of limited attention span! Fuckers!

And on that egalitarian note, here endeth the post.

A goner?

I wonder if Harriet Harman will have gone by the end of the week? Apparently she took 5k from this recent chap who gave the Labour Party 600k. Some turned it down, she did not and now Gordon Brown won't formally give her his full confidence. I think this lot are a little long in the tooth and tarnished. GB does some good, even some moral things and no doubt he will survive but a political bloody nose is refreshing.

Oopas and I once saw Harriet Harman speaking in a by election rally in Monmouth in 1997 but snuck out half way through to head to The Griffin for a pint instead.

On a mundane note, I had a jolly nice lunch of tuna salad with some cumin seeds as made up last night after circuits.

BS5 goes Global!

My weekly Blog stats report tells me where people who have read my Blog are based; it turns out I have had visits from Colombia and Mexico and Argentina (1 each), Canada and the US (a healthier 2 each)!

I like that but I am not sure how BlogBS5, a little take on Bristol relates to Bogota, Buenos Airies, or Mexico City. Pretty cool though.

A bit of hoo-ha in the news today about debates at the Oxford Union. I have been there three times with my brother and my take is that the building has the finest Gents loo in the country. It's bright, light, palatial and finished to a great detail, a mood reflected in my own bathroom here in BS5. When I was at the Oxford Union the bar was a bit poor but Wavey and I had a couple of beers in some great library room with vast, comfortable sofas. All jolly and Victorian. And a kebab after, I think.

Possible haemorhagging of bloke points.

Last Christmas, and thus 11 months ago yesterday, my brother bought me the product pictured in this post. It is Neal's Yard Olive Leaf Moisturiser which I secretly kinda like. Despite Greg's total success just today in buying something for our mother's birthday, I now suspect Nicola's hand in the selection of my festive gift; the moisturiser which I use most times that I shave has about 30 days' worth left - the perfect gift to last a year. No way Greg would have sussed that on his Jack. I mean Greg likes Phil Collins and busts a move when the he comes on the radio.

It might just be that I quietly buy some more Neal's Yard Olive leaf moisturiser - now a secret admission known only to the handful of people reading this (mind you as Walshy is one of them, I fear a wider circulation of this possibly poncey admission).

You ronks!

As the Welsh element at my school said of their pungent school friends, 'you ronks!' and indeed, I ronk now. No bath today (day off) and just in from circuits so it's not that fragrant here. Nice.

Circuits was a bit of an easy time - Dave didn't really push us as hard as usual, so that means he'll over compensate on Wednesday!

Tuna salad and new potatoes (carbs everywhere) and a bit of Monday TV to follow!

Hound

This is the hound mentioned in recent posts - called Toby, a chocolate Lab' who is owned by my fine brother Greg and his equally fine other half, Nicola - they all live in Prestwood near High Wycombe in Bucks and have had Toby for about 22 months - Toby is 2 a week on Friday. He is almost sensible but not really fully so, which is why he and Greg click.

Greg and Nicks have enjoyed the recent delight of their friends Carl and Tara moving close to them. Carl is the dude I mentioned aaaaaaaaaages ago when I had a dream he became Prime Minister (see early Oct' Posts), he is currently a senior dude at M&S.

Greg meets a chap on dog walks who is now 80 but when he was a lad in the fifties he and two mates bought a car and drove from England to Calcutta and then got a boat to Australia to watch the Olympics!

And that bloody dog had the in soles from my shoes again! Little fecker.

R, N, T and a wall.

Just an addition to the post below: this is yours truly and Nicola standing on an old house wall on top of the hill with a small hound trying to join in. (Dad, if you click on the pic' it will open in a new window in nice detail, ditto all pics on this blog).

I am now back on my hill (Barton Hill) and will enjoy the rest of my Monday off before circuits at 5.45 and the Gadget Show after. Ironing to do as well because when I did the ironing at 5am yesterday (prior to going to Goodrich) only 3 shirts were really dry enough.

My friend D the V has emailed, I now know that my reading this coming Sunday is Isaiah 2: 1-5 so I will have a gander at that and see what it's all about.

Update: 1.52 pm: Have had a gander at the reading mentioned above - it's quite smart; it didn't happen quite yet because I don't see a stack of US Swords being hammered into ploughs but the sentiment is elegant. I will try to memorise it so that I don't spend the reading looking down at the page.

Weekend at Goodrich

Just home from a really tops Sunday and Monday at my folks' house (to celebrate my Ma's birthday which is today).

We had a top time and I got there and met Greg and Nicola who are pictured here. This is a snap from our Monday morning dog walk up the hill opposite my folks' house. It was a slippery muddy walk and very misty and fun. Toby (said dog) tried to uproot a tree and was his usual hooligan self!

Girls' Knees

I have just had a couple of half decent pints of Guinness in the 'Hostile', the secondary (to me) local pub in Goodrich. The Guinness was on form and I enjoyed a read of the Sunday Telegraph and listening to an ongoing discussion about the merits of red wine in gravy, a discourse undertaken by the voluble people at the bar - much discussion over restaurants in 'London' versus a proper restaurant with real people. The clever, witty barmaid I rather like came in and was her usual polite self, reading the room elegantly, so that was nice.

As I type, Gregory is in Bucks trying to cajole N put of the house in a timely fashion so they can make it here for 8.00 and we can all go out for dinner for mother's birthday (which is in fact on Monday).

All is well generally.

I fancy a bit of steak later!

Writing this on an apple mac - a machine plain full of wrongness, especially the mouse.

Breakfast action and news from Abroad

This is a pic of my breakfast which I am looking forward to in about 15 minutes. With a top cup of tea too!

Just been on Google Talk with Lummox; Cas has been in KL for about half a day and he already got caught up in riots there, just near Lummox's flat and put down by the Malaysian Rozzers just a few hours ago.

Drama!

Happy Chap!

I am a very happy chap after a productive, logical and well worked Saturday!

I had a good old look at my central heating on Saturday and whilst the radiators in my room and the loft worked, the others were less productive. Trev' came over and helped me after I had helped him shift a load of furniture at his house. We did an initial bleed of the top radiator but to no avail, and then rather spectacularly we took the floor up (pictured) and had a gander at my hot water pump. This seemed in good order. Trev' is a chap with a firm grasp of engineering and logic and between us (I am not entirely sure what I contributed) we pumped the system, switched the pump off, released the air in the system and gradually coaxed all the radiators into life. This took about 4 hours as we needed to repeat the process several times to gently get things going. It is about 80% there but after 4 hours, the house was warm and a pint was called for so we rewarded ourselves at the Rhubarb, after which I returned to a toasty house and a fine dinner.

Unrelatedly, I may pass on my decent sofa bed to a pal at the Rhubarb who is moving to a house just a street away later in the week. This came up in conversation during our post-radiator analysis pint.

5.04 as I write and I am up for Sunday with washing on and stuff. A bit crazy but I am happy and content. Tomorrow off so I can have a lie in on Monday - yippee!

Cold and Frosty morning.

Running on a frosty morning is a tricky business. The ground is not very forgiving and the grass is hard; given that 7 times the body weight effectively goes through the feet, springiness is a factor!

I liked my run today but it is always hard stuff - the legs and lungs and heart feel great but it is some freeze assed chillin' shit (as Jules says in Pulp Fiction) on your nose and cheeks. It would be rewarding and easy to go on but your face just freezes up and your cheeks fall off!

I said hello to Walshy's old house when I ran past it.

We like the weekend - zero need for responsibility!

The Big Man.

Hey, I am taking a reading in church a week on Sunday. I had expressed an interest and have consequently been put forward by Debbie, the interesting, articulate, seeing and welcoming Vicar. I like that and trust the reading is a decent one and thank her for her thoughtfulness. More G than JC, I hope.

The last time I read aloud in a ceremony was at the wedding of a very good friend of mine; I couldn't mention the Big Man at that ceremony but got the essence of togetherness and love across in a shout from A A Milne. The time before that was very hard work in Cornwall, and prior to that, in Lancashire for my dear Pa's best friend.

Friday night as I type and thank feck for a good bed and a lie in!

The pic' for this post is the building where the whole sense of church I have was pleasantly taken-on over many, many a contemplative Monday morning.

This post sounds churchy and right-on but it is written with a complete sense of the delight of gooning about, getting pissed, being daft and not really taking any of anything at all too seriously!

if I could ask God for anything right here and now, I'd hit him for an S Class Merc' with AMG tuning; that's devotion!

Ophidian Injustice

Today I am working on my Retail Operations guide for all our stores and in particular their Pet and Aquatics departments.

Part of the research invloves the 'Minimum Density for Species Accommodation', or in English, how many terrapins can you lob in the tank? Walshy already pointed out that an MPL for a terrapin is a tricky one as they will keep scooting off the shelf and into the space for another facing, maybe a semi-terrestrial frog or something.

Now on this front, the mimimum accommodation in length one should have for a snake is 2/3rds its length, or 1/3rd if the snake is an arboreal variety. My point is this: what if the snake has had a hard week in the office? Maybe his boss has been at him about the week's sales numbers, or maybe Mrs Snake was at him about not doing the chores. If the snake wanted to relax and have a nice stretch to his full length (always a pleasure in the morning or evening) then he can't because The Petcare Trust only recommends a third of his length as the accommodation minimum.

That seems harsh.

BS5 on Tour!

It's 6.20 on Friday morning and I have just stepped out of a very nice wallowy bath! Last day of the week for work and it's been a cracker!

My sage freind Trevor has suggested to me (over a Thursday pint) a new route to cut traffic and get back to BS5 more speedily from the A370; this involves going around Cumberland basin, past the Nova Scotia pub and on past the river. If I hadn't been so idle of late, I could have programmed this into the Sat Nav Ipaq Washly set up for me. I will set it up in the car one day! As it is, I will Google Map the route after posting this post.

Fellow BS5ers Trevor and Cas were on a mission this morning; Trev' dropped Cas into town for a 5am bus that will ultimately get him to Kuala Lumpor at 9am Saturday for his two weeks with Lummox. The Rhubarb awaits news of foolishness and Tequila! All of this to be contemplated over an evening pint, I suspect.

Back on office work today after my day in the warehouse (where I will work again next week) . I have volunteered a couple of hours to help out with job application letters - it's a stunningly dull job, but Jayne for whom I have volunteered my time is kind and fun company and I like her so that's just fine by me.

And so, it's nearly the weekend already! The weekend holds pleasant prospects; running, relaxing, helping Trev move furniture, bleeding my radiators, a pint or two, Church, and last but very much not least seeing Greg, Nicks, Toby and Ma and Pa on Sunday night. And I have Monday off.

I had a look at this Blog on my phone last night - top spod action!

Righty-ho, best get dressed (yeah, this post is written in the buff)

Warehouse man.

I am just grabbing lunch before going back to our Warehouse where I am spending a couple of days prior to making supply chain recommendations across all our stores. Scary stuff and also flattering given that my Ops Director gave me this task with no demonstrable supply chain knowledge on my CV or in my 16 weeks' work to date. Still, I think it is a case of looking, learning and doing it for a bit and then working out a solution. So far my research has involved booking in half a dozen deliveries, baling plastic and tidying up pallets into those we sell on, and those we return to a leasing company. I have not been let near a fork lift truck just yet; probably a very sensible policy.

It has been good to work hard at work today and I know my beer light will come on by the end of my somewhat more physical than usual shift. More blogging later!

A sense of place.

And that is where it happens...BlogBS5 likes Google Earth.

Oh bugger, where's my 25 million name list?

The Government (loosely) appears to have lost two discs with 25 million names on them. That's gotta be a real strain on the week and it's only Tuesday. Some junior person lobbed it carefree in the post - that's the gamble, huh?

I heard all about this as it was taking me over an hour to get home tonight (a whole 14 miles) and 40 minutes of that was the last three miles. It rained and flooded some roads in Bristol tonight so I think that was why. I was completely chilled about it as I was in a nice, warm car with the radio on and just chillin'. And I hadn't lost 25 million sets of data. It's an easier hour than the hour on the M4 used to be with all the complete lunatics who used to hammer along at speed!

I got into the house to the usual post I didn't want (it was for Bag) and felt pleased to be in and behind my own front door. I finally had a proper go with my phone and sussed the old predictive text, not only that but it predicts the next word too and isn't bad at the guesses except when you are swearing at people and then it's well off the money, so I had to call somone a Can't.

Stevie Hopes is around for dinner tomorrow so I am saving the rather nice chicken pie (see previous post) to share with him over a bottle of wine and a chit-chat which will no doubt focus on women, work and the politics of The Rhubarb, as it often does!

Spooks tonight but I'll have to concentrate as I watched Series 5 on 'watch again' last night and will now skip ahead a year to watch Series 6 on BBC1 tonight but I daresay I will be able to cope. I just found out Heston Bloomers is still on; kinda thought his series finished two weeks ago but now realise I just got Tuesday mixed up with Wednesday - spaz!

3.1415927

I have a pie for dinner - a chicken and something pie, I think. I am going to have it with spuds and broccoli which is rather a tasty prospect right now at a cold 7.07 a.m with the working day stretching ahead of me. I am quite looking forward to work, actually and want to crack on with this and that today.

I had a top Monday night after circuits just watching a bit of TV and then chatting with Walshy on line - he was in good fettle and was excited about ASP.net (yeah, I know!)

With satisfactory childishness I have made my text alert on my new phone the 'Say what again!' tirade from Jules in Pulp Fiction; hardly suitable for the office but pleasingly juvenile nevertheless!

I think my folks are home tonight after three weeks away together on holiday in the Med' and Greece.

Quality Street

Well, this is a pic of my festive bowl of chocs that usually lasts me until well into the new year. I bought them on Sunday on a whim at JS and haven't eaten one yet. In March all that will be left is a little pile of the orange creams that no one likes. I took the snap with my new phone; at least that's one feature of it I can work. The bowl is one I saw being hand made in the Burleigh pottery factory in Staffordshire and then bought, along with a milk jug which I subsequently gave to the delightful and endlessly lovely Gigi who lives in Athenry, Galway.

Work was okay today - got in at 7.45 and started re-writing an Operations Manual for one part of our business. Compared to the observation above, it was, and will ever be, nothing of consequence.

Just about home in time for my Monday fix........

Circuits tonight and it was a real work out. Usual long run to start and then a new form of being totally knackered: we ran a third of the way up the gym and back, then two-thirds and back, and then the full length of the gym and back - repeat that 5 times to warm up and then run again, a third of the way up and sneak in a press up, two thirds and a press up and then all the way and a press-up, building up from one, to reps of 5, and then back down, 4,3,2,1 again. I think that makes for 77 press ups and a lot of running! We did that, then had a rest (a 2 minute run round the gym) and repeated the lot with star jumps. Feck! I love it though and didn't skip one. 144 reps and running - it's addictive.

Home now and I made a chilli yesterday which I am going to eat shortly along with some garlic bread and plonk, and then it's The Gadget Show. I am also going to google God's Architect, a biog' of Pugin (who worked with Charles Barry on the Houses of P). The book was on Book at Bedtime last week and was really good. Nice buildings and only partially taken out by the Jerries in 1941 (they had 14 goes during the war but didn't destroy it, and we beat them in the world cup too) .

I am getting on only so well with my new phone. I keep trying to text Greg to say hello but each time about eight words in, I go all spazzy and write the word' ghskdyf'. Patience is required.

All in all a decent Monday.

Any old Iron

It's ten to seven on a Sunday morning and I have been up for an hour. Mental! I am waiting for the light so I can go for a run, having skipped it yesterday. The plan is a turn around the streets while there is no traffic and then come back for a wallow in the bath. After that I am going to make a chilli ready for dinner this evening, and I am going to do a load of ironing. I like a nice planned day like that because then I can slide into an afternoon of idle with the the week ahead already prepped.

Church at half ten, of course. Whilst there last week, I met an interesting architect who has a very attractive wife and has stopped architect-ing to train to become a vicar!

My new Sony Ericsson phone (as made in China) is now charged up and ready to go and it's really different to my Nokia (as made in Nokia) so there's lots of stuff to spod about with and get used to, and I want to try to transfer the pics from my old one so I can have the same wallpaper picture.

I think Walshy will rightly observe that it is pointless to have such an advanced phone when I will use about 3 of its many, many features.

I may squeeze in an episode of Spooks Series 5 which is there in its entirety on 'watch again' on my TV package, and for free!

The weather-woman on Radio 4 has just said it's probably worth staying in bed as today will be cold, wet, miserable and windy, with a chance of snow. I'd stay in bed if the right person was there to stay with but otherwise I am going to ignore her advice and spend the day gooning about!

Oh yes, I am pretty happy with my new barnet!

Saturday Barnet

Thank feck it's Saturday! I managed a top lie in today but I confess to missing my morning run on account of being super idle today.

I am off shortly to have my barnet done by a fine Italian outfit and will then pace into town to change my phone and contract (I think I am going for the Sony phone pictured here) .

A fabulous day of potential is ahead - no work, don't have to go shopping and will make something top for dinner later on. And take a pint, of course.

I may actually buy my annual tin of Christmas Quality St today which lasted until March last time.

Foxy Duck

I am impressed at this but it might seem mundane to those with proper cooking skills.

I took off the fat from the duck I cooked on Sunday night and have refrigerated it to use on roast potatoes. Now I have seen Nigella do that so I reckon it's probably okay to do even though it might not be terribly healthy for one.

I will freeze said fat and I had planned to use it on Christmas roast spuds but as I plan to be on my own in the house on Christmas day (by happy choice) then I can't see roasties being on the menu that particular Tuesday so I will use them on another occasion.

In fact as for Christmas eating plans - it will be pretty normal fare - just having a few days off back to back will be delight enough!

Circuits later and really don't want to miss it this time (see stroppy Monday night post).

I think my good freind Folats is coming over for a beer or two tomorrow night - top stuff.

Mushroom cloud layer.

Missed circuits tonight owing to really crappy traffic and only in the last mile of the journey. This reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally irritated me especially as it had not even been a particularly valuable working day and I finished as close to the wire as I could to work’s advantage.

I’ll get a load of stick on Wednesday about that but more than that, I miss the banter and the real delight of an hour’s hard exercise, and I don’t like letting the gang down when they have been so nice to me on joining.

Consequently I look like the bloke in this image (which is in fact me) and not a dude in running shorts and t shirt.

Bollocks!

Mortgage drama

Quite an efficient morning....I rang the Nationwide with whom I now have my mortgage and asked about a new mortgage product. I am gonna go fixed and I am selecting a 5 year product. This will save me £100 a month on my current payment level and I like the idea of that. There is also no fee to take this product on so I will have a look at the paperwork and also talk to my Mortgage juggling friend and ex BS5er Seamus who is now back in Wexford, Ireland (see Back in the day' post). Whatr he doesn't know about Mortgages isn't worth knowing. Alas the pictured 70s fox did not answer the phone at Nationwide but Lisa with whom I did speak was pretty good.

Other stuff: an exciting huge plume of smoke over London owing to a gert massive fire (no one dead so that's cool). I have also discovered that our Chrismtas grotto at work (opens this w.e) cannot show any Christian symbols, or mention the Big Man in any stories the kids sit down to hear. Now I am not one for foisting Faith on another person as that is not how it works for me but given the first six letters of Christmas, I think banning anything religious it is a bit silly. Oh but you might offend somone. Bollocks!

Also on the work front , George our swearing parrot is safe and well. I had seen an empty cage this morning and assumed he had been sold or that one of the snakes had eaten him but they were just cleaning his house, so that's all well and good.

I now have aphone at my desk after just 112 days.

Cicuits in a little bit.

Woohoo!

Thirty Stories High!

A strange morning! All the usual stuff - woke at 7, went for a run at half past. Had a soak in the bath and then my favourite Sunday breakfast - cold curry (remainder of last night's dinner) , a coffee, and brown bread and butter! I ate this watching the first ever Godzilla cartoon on You Tube! Godzilla was a top cartoon - a close call between Godzilla and BOTP but I think BOTP edges it for Saturday morning thrills back in the 80s.

The Captain of the Calico is kinda' like Will Riker!

Off to church shortly and Spence, Trevor and Shelagh are coming along too what with it being Remembrance Sunday.

Rhubarb shocker!

This would appear to be me in the Rhubarb drinking a pint of filthy chemical lager. Rare as you like and rarer still to have it caught on camera. Fetch a Guinness! I am sat on the bar stool with Lummox (L) and Cas (R) . Lummox is now in Kuala Lumpor and Cas is off to see him next month for two weeks of massive idiocy and 'Tequila Pool', a Rhubarb sport now exported to the Far East. Cas thinks he might come back in a box.

You're Oven a laugh!

This is my oven which looks deceptively clean on the outside but is probably a bit of a minger on the inside.

Today I have resolved to clean it.

I will faff about in the house doing all sorts of other things and putting it off, deluding myself that I am being purposeful but secretly knowing that I am just plain lazy. Eventually I will break and face this task. At least I can look forward to feeling smug about it afterwards.

I will also do all sorts of other exciting housework, but more interestingly, I want to take another look at Walshy's stylish and witty new Blog which he started on Friday; it's by Walshy so it's gonna be sharp, witty, undiplomatic and smart (and loyal of course) !

That Morpheus fella and his arms.

Why is it that on a school day, I can always easily sleep another hour but get up anyway some time before 6 a.m? Yet on a Saturday when I don't have to go to the office and should by rights sleep easily until 9 or so, I bounce out of bed completely awake at 6.15. Not fair!

Come Monday morning my reluctance to get out of bed (pictured here (with Clarke) for any voyeuristic Blog readers) will be enormous.


Right now it's half six and I am waiting until a decent time of day to go for a run. Chiefly when it gets light so I don't run into stuff. Given that I ran for 55 mins on Wednesday, one turn around the Netham won't really hack it this morning and I will feel a fraud if I come back in after that.

Freeeeeeeeeezing!

This is yours truly waiting for the bus in Beijing.

My brothers and I were off out for the day to climb the Great Wall of China (well, a little bit of it) and it was -15 degrees! Still time to catch the Obituaries and letters to the editor in the local free paper.

I had more layers on than a good lasagna but nearly froze to the seat before the bus came.

Thursday night - COOL as!!

What a great Thursday night - not a step taken out of the house and it was still a complete blinder!

Fuel-light bingo on the way home and will barely make it to the diesel pump at JS tomorrow, and then a fine, fine evening once parked-up.

A bit of coaxing of the router first of all but then he came into his own in his own special wireless way. Walshy was online and we excitedly chatted about Quake! Quake was still a bit dicky on my PC so from Manchester, some 170 miles away, Walshy remotely took over my PC and fixed it up while I made dinner. What a top spod and a top geezer he is!

In the meantime I cooked a fantastic curry and listened to Zane Lowe winding up Radio 1 ready to play Led Zeppelin IV in full, uninterrupted for an hour. Loads of great tunes and samples prior to it and a vox pop on the album with Dave Grohl as chilled as ever. Ate said curry listening to the Led Zeppelin IV - really very good indeed and my first full listen through. You can hear Oasis in them!

Walshy and I then played Quake in a deathmatch online stylee, bouncing all over the place, falling off stuff, laughing, gooning and shooting the life out of each other. He kicked my butt as ever but I still had him stylishly once or twice and, as ever in combination with a good game and a top laugh that'll do me. C'mon Bag, join in one night next week!

Glass of wine now and heading for bed - might just listen to Led Zed once more..

It's Friday tomorrow with all its potential.

Check out the chequer plate on that image. Get in!

If this post made no sense to you then don't worry about it and pax tecum to you anyway...

:-)

Long time no see (and a lack of Mercedes)

I met a good pal from my Somerfield days today. Sheridan had been HR Director and unusually for a senior director she had style, charm, wit, common sense, great people skills and her feet on the ground. All that and she worked in HR, the most removed from common sense function in most (all) organisations.

I had not emailed Sheridan for a year or so and we used to get on well at Somerfield. I used to tell her about daft weekends gooning about drinking beer and 'cheating like Arabs' at poker in the happy days of living at Seven-Oh with Walshy and Seamus (both ex BS5 and ex Somerfield - but they both kept on going back).

I was in a meeting in our restaurant talking about Retail Operations and wham! Sheridan just appeared and said hello and we had a good chat after that. It was good to see her as I had lost touch.

Alas Sherdian has swapped her sporty SLK Mercedes Benz for a people carrier - such is the inevitability of having two children!

Meep-meep!

Circuits was FANTASTIC tonight! I was really (and quietly) pleased with my performance. Tonight we just ran and ran and ran the perimeter of the hall for 55 minutes and as we went along, Dave our instructor made us memorise 5 exercises (press ups, crunches, star jumps, spot jogging and a change of direction) and then with the exception of changing direction we had 5, then 7, then 10 reps of any exercise number or number-combo’ he called out; first one in a sequence then 2 numbers then a combo’ of 3 or 4. And we got 20 press ups in the middle if we cocked it up. Only 4 of us ran the full 55 (Debbie, Pippa, Wayne and yours truly ) – I also got two combos wrong (who said Public School chaps could count?) so I had 40 press ups as well.

I can honestly say I loved it and once into a rhythm I could have done another 15 minutes of running pretty easily. I loved it and it is fast becoming v.addictive indeed as is weekend running.

My small beer-belly is going fast!

Bullying in the work-place

At work reading about the management of aggressive and bullying reptiles when introducing new stock into the community. This is for a manual I have to re-write and re-issue to all stores. More on this exciting topic soon.

Back in the day...

These are some of the chaps from The Rhubarb, essentially the more physical element of the Rhubarb Tavern football team a year or two back. Actually if April 3rd was a Monday (see screen) it was 2006!

Left to R is Spence (Heston Blumenthal) , Lummox (who now lives in Kuala Lumpor) me, Seamus (now living back in Wexford, Ireland) , Uncle Cas (still a BS5er) and on the front row two of the lads from the team who have now moved on, I think.


Clearly this was another intellectual Sunday in the 'Barb but it must have been early and for the 9am football briefing as everyone is looking focused and there is only one sneaky beer to be seen in the shot!

Killer!

Circuits was a killer tonight - my arms ache like an acre.

Going to recover and get on with my stir fried duck!

Rockets a plenty whizzing up and down the street.

An irritating day at work! Office timings might threaten circuit attendance but I am hoping for a bit of flexibility on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Muchos gracias to Walshers for directing me on rebooting my router and for Sending Quake which I will install later on!

Oasis on Zane as I type: top quality!

Northern Exposure!

This is Walshy's front room; it's on my blog because it is a cool pic and he is a good man! No other reason! :-)

Quack!

I am going to cook a duck today, suitably inspired by Heston Blumenthal on the TV last week. I am not really sure what I am going to do with it, but I reckon it'll be good for a sandwich or two next week at work and for an interesting stir fry dinner this evening.

Not a great deal on the agenda today - Church shortly then I might just chill out for a bit, possibly taking a pint later on! I had a run at 10 to 8 and really should have gone around the Netham twice because I wasn't at all knackered when I got back to the house.

Talked to my folks from Sardinia last night - that was cool!

I finally get my own desk at work tomorrow having had a couple of itchy days hot-desking in the IT department (short on panache, that's for sure) . I will also pick up my Quake 3 CD as posted to me by Walshy (and underpaid by 6p, hence having to go to collect it) for some evening on line shooting action! If Walshers and I are in luck, Bag will join us and we can all goon about in a virtual stylee. When we used to play Quake on line together I always got shot to shit because I would stop to look at smart walls and lights and stuff! Bag and Walshy know deep down I could have them in Quake, though.

Elton and Kikki

Rhubarb Karaoke last night. Oh dear!

It was a surprisingly quiet night at The Rhubarb on Friday just gone; no Cas', Trev went early, Stevie H went early and so did Spence. Amazingly I stayed until midnight - chat-chat-chat. I sang a bit of Wonderwall with Spence and then 'Don't go breaking my heart' which I rather butchered with Debbie who had come along for a Friday night glass of wine. I'd like to think Debbie (particularly) and I were a good deal better attired than this pic'!

Woke with a bit of a headache at 8.00 so I went for a run and that seemed to do the trick and get rid of it. Cleaned the car too (at last) and did a load of housework. I am now all done and ready to watch Arsenal Man U at 12.45! Go on you Gooooners!

Tea and Coffee

'Yorkshire Tea - like tea used to be' That's what it says on the side of the tin next to me at my new desk.

How the feck are people conned by this marketing ploy? HTF would tea grow in Sheffield, Bradford or Leeds?

On the Coffee front, Lara my freind at work (who has recently moved to a sassy flat in Clifton and is on the wine tonight to celebrate the fact) has 'fessed up to being the culprit in the 'hair in the coffee' shocker from a few posts below. Her hair does always have that salon look, it has to be said.

Gotta love The Rhubarb!

It's Friday, it's 7.11 in the morning.

Here goes the usual waste of time thought process...I think I'll stay in tonight and be sensible and then I just know I will leave work at 5, get home 40 mins later (how cool is that compared to 110 mins on the M4 on a Friday night?) and RUN to the Rhubarb for Friday night foolishness and banter!

I think I will be planning store visits for November today - off to Devon, Cambridgeshire and here and there for this 'n that. But not when it's a night for Circuits, obviously.

Let's play Daaaaaaarts!

Well here we go - after 96 days ad hoc, 180 days of a temporary contract kicked off this lunchtime. I hope it will go permanent in May 2008!

My new role is all about Retail Operations across our 7 Garden Centres. Biggest task is to try to improve stock turn in our warehouse and to ensure all deliveries are booked in, avoiding all sorts of issues. I also have to re-write a couple of Ops manuals and sort out a plethora of suppliers into some manageable National Accounts. Plenty of store visit action and hopefully a few 'quick wins' from 'low hanging fruit' as the bullshit peddlers of Somerfield used to have it.

Pork and Egg Pie

An a-egg theme this morning, it would seem.

Now for dinner tonight I am having tuna-salad, new potatoes and pork and egg pie. When I was a small chap my brother told me this pie was specially made and they way they did it was to insert the boiled egg into the piggy's bum and that was the part you were eating. I believed him (I was only 27) .

I can never get away from this image nowadays!

Sixpence the richer

My good friend Walshy sent me Quake 3 in the post so we can play on line games next week (top!) When I got home there was one of those 'we missed you' postcards on the mat from the Royal Mail.

Now I have to cock about on a Saturday morning to pick the parcel up and pay the shortage on the correct postage.

All this for 6p! No wonder the buggers keep striking.

Thanks Walshy, that's comedy-irritation!

(Walshy blames his (lovely) wife Caz, so I feel I ought to publish that!)

A-Egg and my front door.

Had my front door egged and floured by urchins. That's because I wasn't in to answer trick or bloody treat! With initiative that surprised me, a certain BS5 shiny Mercedes-Benz was parked two doors down outside a house with a family in it, as I knew they would answer the door to Trick or Treaters so my car remained un- (a) egged unlike the one that parked outside my gaff.

Last night I was at Circuits (along with new recruit Debbie - see Luke 2 29-32 Post) . We played keepie ups with a football, and all stood in a circle. Every time we dropped the ball it was down on the floor for some exercise or another, mostly press ups all night long. I am the most uncoordinated man in BS5 (heck, in BS anywhere!) and I think I caused pretty much most of the pain! Mind you, I was somewhat distracted!

Made dinner for Stevie Hopes after that and he came around and we talked a load of old horse about women, work, music and Queens of the Stone Age.

Start my new job today!