The Plan

1. 'Work for 4 hours'
2. Build one set of draws which arrived early this morning.
3. Wrap Mrs H's Pressies will she fills the draws (That sounded more kinkier than I thought
4. Try and Build other set of draws and study chair.
5. Get ready for a fiesta de Navidad.

Tomorrow
1. Up at 8.30ish (I imagine)
2. 10am pick up Chazza
3. Drive up to Mum's
4. Slap up Christmas dinner
5. Feel bloated and ill rest of week.

Merry Christmas to you all and I hope 2009 brings you all you wish for.

Old duffer

You know you are not one of youth culture an ymore when;

You find Gavin and Stacey totally unfunny and pointless.
Think Russell Brand needs a bloody good hair wash and brush.
Find Russell Brand unfunny and just annoying.
Same for Chris Moyles.
Girls in short skirts just produce "Blimey she must be cold".

Nearly there!!

I was totally knackered last night. Having had very little sleep the night before and having to pull a long shift at work, I left here totally drained. Mrs H had spent much of the day in town and finished our little bit of shopping. Last night was then spent wrapping everything up. I now just need to wrap hers and we are done.

Have one of Mari's work colleagues coming over tonight. He is learning to play the drums and as I am still trying to crack the guitar we thought it might be fun to learn together. I have no idea how good he is and he has no idea how bad I am so it should be fun :-)

Think next year I am going to bring back tales from the tower as it has been a while since I wrote one.

Is Farther Christmas coming??

Seems I spoke to early on the DM's Blog earlier this week when I said me and 'Charlotte's Mum' had things sorted. On Friday I got a phone call from her asking me what time I was returning CN and that it would be to her house. I was then told that CN was 'Being a Pickle'. 'Oh, why is that' I asked. Well it would seem that she was upset and when told that she was going to Daddy and Mari's house. She said No and gave the impression she did not want to come.... very weird.

So there are a couple of things that I am not happy about.
First - Why would you ring someone up to tell them that their daughter didn't want to come and see them. I mean I never knowing told her of the times that CN never wanted to go and see her. Let a lone the times, when I had got to the house she would not get out of the car. Did I make a big issue of it. No of course not coz I can imagine it would make the other one feel like crap. Luckily having lived with years of this emotional abuse kind of washes over me. Sadly Mari still finds it hard.

Second - When I picked her up from the Childminders she ran up and said "Mari's house". Which sounds like she wanted to come to us. Added to the fact that her Mum was sat not six feet away. I also made her say goodbye to her Mum, although she never went up and said bye to her just called from the door.

Third - So I got Charlotte home and asked her "Do you want to go to Mummy's house?". "Yes" She responded. So we asked her why. "Christmas Presents" came the reply straight away.... ahhhhhhhhhhhhh we said. Would seem that my baby things if she comes to us she wont get her presents on Christmas day. So we spent much of Friday making sure she knew that Farther Christmas knew she was at our house and that he would be stopping by.

Hopefully it is all sorted now. I am sure her Mum needs to have this control to feel alive sadly it doesn't work any more. the rest of the weekend was ace. Party on Saturday and dinner and Madagascar 2 in Basingstoke on Sunday. Although I think to glasses of diet coke for CN is her limit. She was up most last night chatting away. (NB we hardily ever give her pop and only on special occasions)

This town is coming like a ghost town

This morning saw Mari's sister head back to Venezuela for the holidays. Actually this place has become very quiet for us as most of the V-Crew head back to the Sun and family reunions. I'm only sad that Mari is not able to go too although as mentioned before we were there in March.

It is really strange having in-laws that are so far away and seem so detached from us. By contrast the ex laws were always poking their noises in and it was very rare that we didn't see them.

Mari's parents are lovely. Both of them used to be teachers so just about everyone knows them in the town. Going around with her Dad there is always someone he is shouting at. By that I mean in a good way. In Venezuela if you see someone you know give them a shout out..literally. Her Mum is more quiet but as always is the rock of the family. They made me feel very welcome and I am sure it must have been very weird for them meeting me as their son in law.

Hoping we can get back there soon but we have to juggle things which is always hard.

So full

Nuff said really. Went out for the workers Christmas dinner which actually was very, very good. Usually these things take forever and taste like shite. However the food in the blackboy was excellent and the service bloody good. I now feel totally full now and just want to nap.

Having nightmares about being Sparky's bestman at his wedding next month. He was a total star at mine and I really want to do him proud. Need to work on the speech as that is the big thing. Well it is not the only thing but in truth it is the one thing that can go totally tit's up. Have an idea what I want to say but there are so many no no's with these things that I am worried I might get it wrong. Still as long as I thank him for his kind words about the Bridemaids I am OK.

Hallelujah Run

I am no singer or musician, I try but I know I am far from calling myself that but boy do I think the new version of Hallelujah sucks piles of dog poo. Why? Well let me tell you. I first heard the song in Shrek ( John Cale cover version) and loved it. So simple and yet so powerful. You are left to put your own emotion in the song. So along comes 'Cry me a river' and covers it as the X-factor winners single and totally ruins the song. See some things have more power when they are not forced. I hate the fact that she feels the need to 'Show off' her voice by hitting every vocal octave she can, including those only audible to dogs, dolphin's and fax machines. Leon Lewis is another one ruining a great song Snow patrols run. Another classic simple yet emotive song that doesn't try to hard. Some songs really don't need the theatrics and leave the listener to draw on their own experience to add volume to the song.

By the way JLS version was much better. Simple to the point and even left me with goose bumps.

In other news turns out Royal mail have sent letter back solicitors. Great thanks for the great re-direct service.

Royal Mail Grrrrr

Been expecting a letter from my Uncle's (R.I.P) solicitors which hasn't arrived yet. Apart from anything it should contain the remainder of what is owed to us after the vultures have picked us dry. (Not enough to by a boat and retire but better than a kick in the nuts as they say). Sadly dumbass here forgot to tell them we had moved BUT had remembered to use the re-direct service (so it should be OK). So while my sister had received hers last week, we are left waiting in anticipation. :-(

COME ON ROYAL MAIL it's easy.

Irony or what

Check this out

Meh !!

Feeling rather flat today. Still haven't recovered from Sunday which is a shame.

The man flu thing seems to have halted and I just feel a little chesty at the moment. Charlotte sat down and did all her Christmas cards last nights (which beats me hands down). She sat a wrote them all by herself (OK needed a bit of prompting) and really enjoyed it.... strange kid.

Going down.... not in a good way :-)

Mayday Mayday Mayday. Echo Lima Matador, Humanoid, 1 POB, Cold alert, Sitting at desk feeling like crap.

I have that tickle in the back of the throat just starting which suggest that I may before very long be suffering the full effects of man flu.

Bugger

Cry me a river

I have a confession to make, a dirty admission. You see not only did I watch the X factor final at the weekend, but also the Girls aloud Christmas party in between the shows. Both were as expected pretty dire but never the less entertaining. Sadly cry me a river won the X-factor which was a shame as we were kind of rooting for the band JLS.

The shocking thing about the Girls aloud show was that I now have a renewed respect for the ginger one. I read once that she took a lot of stick for being a) unattractive and b) didn’t actually do anything in the band. However she did a lot of the singing on the show and was by far was one of the better, ahead of Cheryl and at least 2 others. In fact the only one I thought could give it large was the blonde with the short hair.

I will now go and stand in the corner and throng myself.

Sometimes I really wish I could move far away from here, just escape the past but somehow I get the feeling that wouldn’t even help. Another cracking weekend ruined on Sunday but something beyond my control.

101

Best concert ever - OK maybe only if you are a DM fan.

I had the mother of all skull aches yesterday. No Idea why but it hurt like hell from about lunch time.

Mrs H had decided to invite some colleges over to Garland tonight to have a venezuelan dinner fiesta. So I spent most of last night cleaning so that she could pre cook all the stuff she needed to so tonight we are having Arepas and Pabell%C3%B3n. It also took me a while to transfer from the laptop to the new toy and create some playlists of a Latin variety.

Today seems to be dragging though. Might do a tale from the tower later as I haven't done one on here.

Peace

The day after

Today I ache like someone who is too old and stupid to realize he should just get fat and old gracefully. Then you watch the extras on Iron man and realize that RD is 40 in fit like a mofo so maybe just maybe one day I can at least feel fit again. Problem with me at the moment is consistency. I seem to be able to get the gym, get fit and then not do anything for a while.

Last night I spent a large part of my time playing with the toy. Most of that spent running up and down stairs trying to get the 2 units to connect. Could do it when they were next to each other but as soon as I went upstairs nada. Ended up inching my way upstairs but seem to have it licked now.

Forgot to mention poor Charlotte's experience at the weekend. as I mentioned Yesterday my niece had a kids party. It was a swimming party. However thanks to her Mother not telling the school she had had a bad cough, they sent her swimming last week, which of course made said cough worse. So I took the decision that she would not swim but would go for cake and the food. So we arrived at about the time the food was going to start. "They are not finished swimming yet" said the young lady on reception, "but if you want to go to the viewing area you can watch them" she continued. Now Miss Charlotte loves swimming. When we pulled up at the leisure centre she got all excited but understood that she was not going swimming. So I decided that the viewing area was hell for her so we asked if we could go to the room. So up we went. Opened the door and....................... the whole bloody side wall was glass over looking the pool. She did stand at the window looking but was actually very good in understanding that she could not go because of her chest.

Ouch

So I didn't realize how unfit I was until about an hour ago when I decided I would try the boxercise class. Turns out the new gym chap who works there is a bit of a boxing trainer so had us doing all sorts of exercise to bend us into lean mean killing machines. Took about 5 mins before my chest felt like it was on fire and my arms stopped working.

Still to be honest I was expecting it. I haven't done any proper exercise for at least a month maybe even more so I knew I was in trouble. The first time always hurts as George was heard saying in trap 2 in the loo's the other day.

Life is a rollercaster

A jolly fine and chilly Monday to one and all.

Not sure why I am so jolly guess I am just realising life is fab at the mo. Despite Sunday evening.

Friday night saw Mrs H head off on her works Christmas dinner. That left me all alone in Garland and what did I do. Well let me tell you. I watched transformers again. This time moving the Surround speakers into their proper positions so I could get the full effect. Big tub of Popcorn (half was over done) and a nice glass of the Black stuff (no not Guinness but Coke). Mrs H came home at 1am and we chatted for a bit before heading to bed.

Saturday it was up to my sisters for my Nieces Adult Birthday bash IE with the grown ups. It was a bit off fun and had way to much to eat.

Sunday Mrs H and i went to town to do bit of house shopping. Ended up getting one of these.

Then it was off to my nieces kids birthday party where we had a bit of an issue but I refuse to let ruin what was a very good weekend.

A proper post

It is the morning after the night before. Last night was the "Party Animals" xmas do. This goes back to the "What do the department want to do for a xmas dinner". A few said lets get all fancy dressed up and go to this place. The rest of us thought "No thanks". Anyway "Party animal" seems to be the word too as it seems they were thrown out of the dinner for starting a fight. Which now I wish I had gone just to see that..

Gym again yesterday although I let my self down with a brownie and Pie and mash for dinner. Same routine as Tuesday but I added in some arms.

Ok so it wasn't a proper post but it will do for now.

STOP KIPPER TIME

Resident evil

Zombie Apocalypse Survival Test Your Result: You get a B   Your chances of surviving a zombie apocalypse are pretty good! You know quite a bit about the undead and your physical and mental abilities are probably above average. You'll come out of the ordeal with some cuts and bruises and a bit of mental scarring but overall your alive...and that's what matters!
You get an A+
You get a D
You get an F
Zombie Apocalypse Survival Test Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Quiz - how much of a nerd

Ok, so you are 45% nerd.

 

You sort of know what you're doing. You'd like to think you know more then you do. For this reason, give up now, because you stand no chance of being successful on it. You're probably my father.

Just how nerdy are you?
Take More Quizzes

Insane

this has been driving me nuts all morning. Its a quiz and the first part is to find the start. Think way outside the box and good luck.

Insane quiz

No gym yesterday as a day of rest. Going back today.

Matches

Well last night saw me watching 2 British programs on the Rectangle box. First up was Special forces heroes and the recount of the hostage rescue in Sierra Leon. Involving SAS and Para's. I was so taken in by it because a) I featured the mighty Chinook b) In terms of the Army the Para's are considered hard as bleedin nails, but hear then talking in awe about the SAS makes you really think how good these guys really are.

Second up was a British drama survivors. The Mrs said that the people at work had been building this up. I in turn said that British Sci-fi drama usually lacks some sort of OMG I really can't wait for the next episode. In fact I described like this:


and it was very much like that. Plus it meant I missed CSI Miami.

Dragging

It really really is today. Not helped by not being able to get into service centre to figure out WTF I am supposed to be doing.

I have decided (again) to go on a health kick. Thanks to largely feeling really unfit and now having to wear larger pants so.

Day 1
Weight - FK knows but it is shit loads more than 9st I used weigh many years ago (I was 9st wet through when I joined the RAF)
Height - Still 6ft

Since this day one, I am hoping to hit the gym of course it will only be a small session as there is nothing like over doing it one day one. Run and maybe some weights.

Lunch
2 x cheese sandwiches and an apple (hoping to avoid the packet of crisps that seem to be calling me from the shop)

Update

Gym done - Managed 8 min walk, 2 min jog, sit ups, back extensions, push ups and 30kg bench press.

Very hard to resist pull of salt and Vinegar crisps but some how managed it.

We can be Heroes

Nice to have someone you know on the beeb and not in horrible he killed 15 people way.

Sgt Eggleton was a meer raw recruit when I started training him. He arrived at the station or green and wet behind the ears. Hopefully I was able to help him and looks like the boy done good

Whos' going to drive you home??

well me actually. That weekend just flew past way to quick and mostly spent on roads.
Friday night I helped Amigos connection with a gig at the reading student union in aid of the Latin American society. This include new boy Franz on the conga's and me trying really hard to a) Stop everything feeding back and b)getting some lighting effects to work during matador. The place was packed and the crowd was well into it. Got home at 2am up at 6.30 to drive to York.

Drive was ok stopped for brekkie about half way and then completed the rest of journey really well until the fking signs stopped showing us the way. Met Sparky and got measured for my suit for his wedding. Then it was off for more driving but this was fun as it was karting. I won but Miss daisy(Sparky came 2nd Last). Back to the Mess for a combat kip and then out into York for the main Stag bit. Indian and a view pints (well quit a few, me ordering shots for everyone but off course not drinking them). By the end of the night the only thing I can say is I felt rather old. All this time Mrs H was entertained by Lydia (Sparky's future MRS)

Sunday was a late get up, brunch and then drive all the way back. I rather ache after the karing and sitting driving for abou 12 hours over the week end.

A LOT OF FUN though and can't week for the actual day.