Thank You, Mr. "bathroom"

Why, thank you, Mr. "bathroom" whose valuable feedback on my previous post was as follows:

Cabinets and countertops offer the much-needed storage space in the bathroom to store your toiletries, keep medicines and first-aid box, cleaning milk, moisturizer and deodorants, towels and napkins besides other things that you use daily while showering in your bath. They are powerful accents to your bath décor and help you to define the tone and style of the bathroom wall cabinets and make the best use of the wall and floor surface of the area.

That was most interesting and insightful. Sadly, in my quotation of your comments, I do appear to have accidentally ommitted the URL that you mentioned.

I wonder at the purpose of such a feat.

Yes, the more pages that link to a page with relevant search terms will increase its page rank within Google... But to what end?

To sell bathroom furniture?

It's certainly in a different league to viagra and Swiss watches, I'll give you that.

Hmm. Best guess... To artificially increase the popularlity of such a site so that when people perform a legitimate search in Google (or similar), they arrive on your site... Which I guess contains no real content or products... But would contain a lot of adverts for bathroom furniture. Then you simply sit back and reap the income from the advertising click-throughs.

Bah. What a load of old toilet!

On the Floor with Fate

I guess that it is probably about three months now, since I sat at my computer, searching.

Waiting for that bolt of inspiration to form, to hit me, to sink its undeniable truth before my very eyes.

Searching, I found myself, for some new activity to partake of an evening. "Evening classes", a friend had suggested... Although, by the end of college, I had hoped that I had finished with the minutiae of academia. The forced structure of theoretical learning is not an area I enjoy - at college we had ended up skipping lessons, to learn that which we truly yearned to learn, rather than that they chose to teach.

But it provided a spark, a focal point from which I could expand my search - both the tangible (Google) and the intangible (mental, emotional). Seeking new parameters, adjusting my criteria, challenging Google to give all that it could give, to find something that reached out and grabbed me. I believe the eventual query that led me to my final path was simple - "things to do in [my local town]". I rather fancied... something that I didn't expect to usually do. Something challenging, perhaps something sporty.

As luck would have it, I found something. Not just something that challenged me, though, something that scared me.

Did you ever see that episode of Friends where Chandler and Monica get hitched? That Chandler had tried to learn to dance (despite his unfortunately slippery shoes) always somewhat fascinated me. I'm not entirely sure why. Memories, perhaps, of the times at which I have found myself in a venue at which dancing occurs; the times at which I was happy to lurk at the sidelines, apart from those occasions I found myself dragged reluctantly to the dance floor... But smiling.

I do not feel that I have a great sense of physical skill or co-ordination. To watch me attempt to catch something is like watching a two-year-old juggle - and one which has just swallowed everything in Amy Winehouse's bathroom cabinet, at that.

I mentioned, with some trepidation, my idea to my counsellor.

Well. Bugger me, it only turned out she used to teach the stuff!

Sometimes, things feel almost too coincidental to disregard as mere chance. So I went for it.

I began attending classes that deal in several types of mostly Cuban-inspired dance.

The Lady Luck was smiling when I made that decision. I could not have hoped to meet a selection of more outgoing, friendly, social, and encouraging set of people than these :)

I can find it very difficult... But I also enjoy it immensely :D

Are You Well?

Does anyone else actually remember the Glam Metal Detectives? I remember a sketch with a poor comedian who always resorted to "Anyway... Anyway... Are you well?" after dropping a stinker.

Anyway... Are you well? ;)

How's the cat? Are your plants still alive? Hell, is the cat still alive? Changed the colour of your hair? Are you busy? Did you have to pay the fine you were dodging all the time? Woooah, think I slipped into song there ;)

It felt like time to say something... To say what, I do not know. Is not knowing, so, [clicks tongue] cannot be saying. (Now, there's an obscure reference ;) )

When I think of me blog, I think the word that floats predominently through my mind is "repurpose". Where on Earth I picked up some sort of marketing bollocks-like word like that, I don't know ;) But still, I think I need to "repurpose" it.

I enjoyed blogging about the random things, and I ... "enjoyed" isn't the right word, but could find a sense of... calm?... in posting some of the "bigger" things. I recall someone once said of some of my posts that they were written from the heart, and they were. Some of those sort of thing, just... helped me find my way.

It's certainly been something that's helped me to grow who I am, and that can only be a good thing :) (We-eeell... ;) )

Where now? I'm not sure... There are times I think of things I'd like to blog (especially when you need to climb up on that soapbox and shout to the world ;) ), but then even when I was actively blogging I only got around to blogging around 1% of them ;)

It's getting the balance right, y'know? A blog is a tool, and I need to figure out how I want to use it now. I started a separate blog the other week, but I have a clear idea as to its purpose (it's not anonymous, and its focus is on techy stuff... I've often wanted to voice things on that subject, and then I realised I knew just the medium - contact me privately if you want its details) - unlike my old friend Don't Blame The Stars.

The other thing I'm trying to watch in myself at the moment are the activities I get up to and that I stay in control of them... Two examples from this past week were m' friend trying to persuade me to try (seriously, I think he must have been a drug dealer in a past life) World of Warcraft (aka "that goblin game" in Northern Monkey's lexicon, if my memory serves me correctly) - I'm sure I could play it, and I'm sure I could enjoy it... But right now, I don't want to. Investing that much time in something like that doesn't "do it" for me right now.

Likewise, following on from my "Check out my new HDMI cable!" evening I recently organised for the guys at work (translation: "let's watch a DVD, eat pizza and drink beer!"), one of the others at work helps to run a radio control car club thingy that he invited us for an evening doing last night. Interesting night, and we did it on a night that the club is usually closed, so we had it to ourselves. Nice setup - they have an old warehouse with a few tracks set up in it, monitors around the walls showing race results, PA system... Surprisingly professional... But anyway... It was fun for an evening (plus, pizza and beer were involved again... ;) ) racing someone else's car (uh, and they weren't expecting us to break two of the shells... oops... the cars can do like 30mph, apparently... into a wall... lots of times ;) ) but there's noooo way I'd want to do it more than a couple of times a year, let alone weekly.

On the plus side, they had worked out a penalty system for the evening which meant the first-timers (five of us) could race against the experienced lot (three of them)... Even better was the fact that with that system in place, I won the 1st place trophy ;) (Didn't know they had got some li'l trophies in before that :) )

They also appeared to frown on my "Hey, how quickly can you run 'round the track?" experiment... ;)

...Anyway... (Are you well? ;) )

I want to be careful with any of these activities that they don't block out others. It can become too easy to get distracted and let them control you if you don't properly supervise them, and finding & setting those boundaries for myself can be something I struggle with sometimes. ... Or often ;)

I had some time this evening, and thought I'd sit down and share that good old random splurge with you ;) Hey, it's just like the old days, huh? ;)

So, I'm not "back back" yet, but, I am, probably... Less... not around.. than I was... n't... Erm...

[waves his hand dismissively] I'll play it by ear. ;)

-IM

PS. Can't believe I didn't think to check YouTube before! Shame how the things we enjoy watching when we're young never seem quite the same later in life though...

Like the Moth and the Lightbulb

...I'm going to have a break.

Unlike any previous periods of absence that I may have had 'here', this one is a concious decision.

I've been thinking about this for a few days.  My blog... Represents a way of dealing with things when they became too much for me, and I didn't know how else to deal with them.

I feel it that it is time that I try to learn some new ways of dealing with things.

I'll be back, at some point, and I'll still be thinking of you all and wondering how you're doing.

This, here, all of it, means a great deal to me, but goodbye for now.

I love you all.

Busy Week

Tuesday March 4th 2008 ended for me today sat in a park car park (in my car) with the windows ajar, looking up at the stars.

Bizarrely, the last thing I had done before that was buy some petrol, shoe polish, and a fruit smoothy. Still, it was nice to do something productive while also getting the air I'd fancied ;)

Had the first of my two introductory counselling meetings today. Talked to the woman about the other, and she basically said she'd recommend just going with whichever had a place first.

Funny way to spend your 2nd anniversary, but there you go.

Car MOT tomorrow, 2nd lot of counselling people on Thursday.

So. There you go. Busy week.

Me?

I wrote, quite some months ago, about Relationship/Couple Counselling.

I remember reading (I think on Relate's website) that because most couples see therapy as a last resort, they can leave it almost too late, when everything becomes harder to fix.

At the same time, I also wrote:

Recently, a day or two ago, someone suggested to me that if our regular PST appointment still didn't become available this week, that I should go talk to someone myself. At the time, it did seem an almost silly idea. Now I'm not so sure.

I think that my first statement above applies just as much to individual counselling, too. All the signs were there. I had a chilling reminder of this less than a year ago, but again, I failed to act.

I was aware of the terrifying enormity of what I did to Quna from the moment I had done it, and I knew that it was something that I, and only I, could be responsible for.

I contacted my GP the next morning to discuss counselling, and am now on their waiting list. It sounds like the counsellor attached to the surgery has a long list, so I have also contacted one place that I have had suggested by my GP, and one that I found on BACP.

Some of the things I have seen inside me scare me.

My behaviour sometimes, not just to Quna, but to other friends too, has been abysmal, shocking, and downright childish.

None of this is up for debate.

If you, reading this, are someone that I care about and I have ever hurt you, than I am sincerely sorry.

I have a lot to learn, and a lot to unlearn.

Lessons from Icarus

The ups were dizzying. They were beautiful and incredible; we soared through the sky together, and when we looked down, we could no longer see the ground.

We encouraged each other to be all we could be, and we grew together and in ourselves.

The downs, too, were dizzying. They were terrifying and scary; they dragged us down with fear, and when we looked up, we could not see the sky.

We both became people that were not ourselves, and it was horrifying.

We love each other, but this is self-destructive.

I shall not mourn the loss of the dizzying downs.

I shall greatly mourn the loss of all the beautiful, beautiful things that we experienced together.

We have to take two steps apart to lose those extremities, and see what we have left as friends.

It is intensely difficult to look at someone you love, to feel the memory of the past highs, the hopes of those future, and to feel that you are sacrificing all of that glorious beauty. But this is not a sacrifice. It is a preservation. It is a preservation of something so beautiful, we could not bear to see it be destroyed.

Old Donny Norfolk

Nope, I'm still not dead ;) I've been musing the last post. It's one of those things where I've been thinking I'd like to say something to explain what happened since then (Summary: :) ), but I haven't really worked out what.

Anyway, it's not likely to be within the next few days - early tomorrow (Wednesday) morning I'm off up to Doncaster with my boss to demo our progress with an application we started writing this month to a new client.
Wednesday evening, rather than heading back home, it's off to a hotel in Norwich so that I'm ready for a Speed Awareness Course that begins at 9:30 in the morning (taking it elsewhere, it seems, was not an option) Incidentally, I did 36mph - I think that the option of doing a course instead of getting points is a great idea, and shows an effort to genuinely improve safety - unlike someone in my office who seems to think that all of the police are out to get you. This has sparked more than a few debates ;)
Myself and another colleague both looked at him slightly gob-smacked as he told the story of one of his mates who "didn't do anything wrong, except speed a bit, doing 100+, but perfectly safe! I mean he was dodging the police stingers and everything, it was only them chasing him that caused a problem! Only stopped because he ran out of petrol."

Aaaaanyway :)

Back in a few days. :)

Irony

Irony.

Irony is thinking back to Saturday, to the big row with your girlfriend. Irony is mentally going back over the events of the day, trying to analyse your behaviour and what she told you. Irony is trying to isolate what behaviour it is that leads to these bouts. Irony is trying to stop thinking of things that you could ask her to do differently, and trying to establish what you can do differently.

Irony is remembering back, plucking out the constructive from the unconstructive, seeking for the lessons she may have imparted upon you.

Irony is recalling the one point made more than any other.

Irony is hearing that phrase over and over again, repeated as 'though stuck in a loop.

And above all? Above all, irony is remembering that "you just don't listen!"

---

That's the bit that made me chuckle. I used to find writing to be somewhat therapeutic, and it could help me to work things through in my head. So, I write this as much for me, as I do for you. This is the bit which, I hope, may help me to process this information in a useful manner.

This, I believe, seems to be Quna's single biggest consistent complaint against me.

And, and I'm letting you in on a secret here... I don't understand why.

You see, this is (what I perceive as) a common weakness in many men. I know people like this. They don't listen to their other halves because they don't care about what they're saying. This is something I decided, many many years ago, to try to do differently (along with always putting the toilet seat & lid down).

I do care. And because I do care, I try very hard to listen.

So I am actually quite upset to keep being told this (and have told Quna this many times). But it leaves me not actually understanding what this problem is, nor what to do about it.

I wonder if it's actually a small wodge of things together that get lumped under this generic heading of "not listening":
- Genuinely not remembering something (E.g. I talked before about The Christmas Run-Around for a bottle of champagne - Christmas Eve morning I went to Quna with a pen and paper and asked her for the name of the champagne. "You see! This is what I mean when I say you don't listen!" - I can tell you why she wanted champagne, I can tell you why it's special to her on Christmas and how this tradition started. I had never bought champagne before in my life and simply couldn't remember the name from the day before)
- Mis-understanding something. After all, we all make mistakes sometimes.
- Having listened and understood what she has said, the ultimate crime - disagreeing. This goes along with other top problems I have - "you always have to have your own way" and "you always disregard my opinions". Again, I find I struggle somewhat with this one, as I do try to be open, to discuss things, and to find a compromise. Of course, the fact that I try to discuss these things comes back to "having my own way", as Quna would sometimes prefer not to discuss what-ever it is at all, thank you very much, and my desire to discuss it is an example of my disregarding her opinions.

Hmmm.

New relationships are just a minefield of fun, eh? ;)

My way of attempting to deal with an angry Quna who is shouting at me for some reason is still evolving. In the beginning when she began to question some of the qualities I hold dearest to myself it was just plain distressing and could sometimes reduce me to tears ("stop being whiney!"). As I try to establish how best to respond to defuse these situations, I find I am fast running out of options. I have tried to remain calm, to talk gently ("that just makes me feel more stressed!"). At the moment, I seem to be in a phase of responding to her in a fairly similar manner (it's been a lot of years since I've really shouted at someone), and try making the random digs to her as she does to me ("stop trying to score points!") (although I have tried to avoid the name-calling and the impressions).

I fear that at some point, the ultimate solution to these problems, the ultimate cure to arguments, and the ultimate irony, may finally, unwittingly, unknowingly arrive.

To simply stop listening.

Merry & Happy

I find myself having had a merry Christmas, and I am looking forward to a happy new year.

There are, of course, always less fortunate individuals. This year I seem to have had reminders from many around me as to just how unfortunate these things can be.

Allow me please to start with the slightly 'mixed' news brought to us by Northern Monkey, whose sister left her husband (a John Simm look-alike, apparently) of five years (and partner of ten) earlier this year for a married father of two.
As the new twist in the tale became known to Ms. Monkey on Boxing Day, I hope she managed to get enough sleep. Or vodka.

I remember AnnieSeed and of wishing her hope in 2007, let alone 2008.

My boss, meanwhile, has discovered that he has exertional angina. Of the four arteries to his heart, two are apparently 90% blocked, and the other two 70% blocked. Apparently the doctor is amazed that he can even stand up - we assume this must be due to his general good health - he still plays (well, until recently) Friday Night Football, and still loves to go for a good hard run during the more pleasant months.
He is booked in now for a quadruple bypass.

Today, January 2nd 2008, marks three years since I proposed to my wife. Tomorrow her birthday. This week, I plan to read back over a letter from my solicitor to try to make a decision as to whether to pursue divorce or annullment.

I logged in today to a forum of which I am a member. A thread caught my eye - a tribute to a member. "Is this silly?" I wondered, "Or serious?"
Serious, it would appear. A separate thread marked a note from the member's husband that she had died that day.

December 31st. The end of the year. And the end of employment for my redundant colleague, with whom I have worked for five years. He leaves us with no new job prospects as yet, and a partner at home who cannot stand nor sit for more than 30 minutes without needing to lay down afterwards. Despite more time at the hospital than I have had holiday, and more of their own time spent researching it than I have played Oblivion, still nobody knows what is wrong with her.
Still, despite m'colleague being almost twice my age, I suggested that we all went to the pub for lunch. I bought both his lunch and his pint, but more proud was I of the fact that I overcame my inhibitions before he left that day to initiate a quick, manly hug.

Meanwhile, a friend of a friend prepares for a disciplinary meeting at work over trivialities, in spite of what seems to me to be the whole department singing their praises.

My other boss had family over for Christmas day. His brother-in-law felt ill, and went back to bed even before the turkey. Eventually, the paramedics were over. "Man flu," I am told they diagnosed.

He died an hour later.

To all who must suffer pain at this time (or any other), I hope that the words "merry" and "happy" do twist, do not sour, do not leave twinges of hurt and regret.

Sometimes, perhaps, the darkness can seem so blinding that the light cannot be seen.

I would like to say something inspiring. Something stirring, something to make the bad things seem better, something to turn this post around, to produce smiles over sorrow.

Sadly, no such words seem to appear before me.

No matter how small or large our problems, may we all find things to bring us comfort, may we find the things that we love, and the people that love us right there, whenever we need them, no matter the reason.

We all have our load to bear, but no matter how you may feel your load compares to that of another, it does not matter. Comparing problems may make them feel smaller, less important, but that does not mean they weigh less to ourselves.
I hope simply that you have the things and the people around you to help you bear their weight.

All who read this, my readers, my friends, my family, no matter how it may seem to start or end, I wish you all again a very happy new year.

Happy New Year

Hope you all had a good Christmas and begin the new year well.

May 2008 bring us all a step closer to whatever our dreams may be.

That's not the month of May, you understand. Well, it could be. I'm not saying it's NOT the month of May that will bring us... erm... Happy New Year ;)

The Christmas Run-Around

Thursday: Lunchtime: Buy turkey. Finish work: Head home, do and check a few bits before dashing out to town to pick up a few bits and bobs.

Friday: Day off. Hoped to have time to blog, but didn't have the time between making some things and wrapping others. Well, and some of the things that I made. Friday evening: Off with Quna to her place, about 2.5 hours away, where she had wanted to hop once more before Christmas.

Saturday: Head another couple of hours north to see Quna's grandad, parents, and sister. On our way home, a policecar sped past us - as it was roughly Ing's patch, we wondered if it could have been him :) It was then roughly four hours back down south to see my parents, where we stopped for the night.

Sunday: We were in the car for 10:05 so that Quna would be able to listen to The Archers (She's so Radio 4! :) ) - myself, Quna, my sister, and a big pile of pressies. For I am having all of those at my home for Christmas :) The drive back to mine to slightly longer than usual - 3.5 hours, rather than the more usual 1.5 hours.
My sister and I hopped out to Tesco while Quna went up to Waitrose. She didn't want to have to worry about me taking my time, or screaming children running around. As it happens, we actually did encounter a screaming child - she'd lost her mummy. Awhhhhh :( I asked if she was ok and looked up a couple of aisles to see if I could see anyone dashing around but not looking at food, but the girl was more content at running around shouting, and seemed to meet up with some other children after a short time. We managed to pick up what we wanted though, as well as a couple of ingredients that Quna couldn't find in Waitrose - she wanted to bake ginger muffins, phwoooar :)

Then it was back to mine, via a Majestic Wine Warehouse that is just around the corner from me. Quna walked over to meet us there. We had a good wander around and chose eleven bottles of wine between us (you have to buy it in twelves, but I figure it's nice to be 'forced' to buy so many as it means I don't keep buying the same things or something :) )
The twelth bottle was a bottle of champagne that Quna had wanted. She found Waitrose didn't do it, so had then phoned the wine place to check that they had one, and what price it was - £17, they told her.

It turns out that £17 is the price for two (or more) bottles. So, how much would you think for just the one? £20? Perhaps £25? Keep going - £30.

Quna was not impressed, to put it lightly - it was now late enough that we now couldn't go anywhere else to look. Had they have told her that in the first place on the phone, we could have continued looking elsewhere first. Quna explained her frustration to the bloke behind the till, who then went and got his manager. Quna again explained her frustration to him (I think she didn't - quite - call them "cretins!"). The shop staff refused to help, so we chose a twelth bottle of wine instead and left, with Quna vowing never to use them again (it's a shame too - the last time [which was also the first time] we were in there, they were actually quite helpful), and complaining about the smug assistant as we walked out the door.

Fortunately, none of this prevented Quna from making a deliiiiicious chicken lasagne, or from baking yummy ginger muffins.

After we'd eaten, Quna and my sister shut themselves in my living room to complete something related to a Christmas present for me, while I shut myself in my spare room and tried to finish some things related to Christmas presents for both of them. Ok, so I didn't finish, but I did make good progress :) We stopped after a while to eat profiteroles, complete with generous lashings of chocolate :)

And today, Monday, Christmas Eve, my sister has my flat to herself, whilst Quna and I are both at work. Oh, speaking of which...

70.2

Ok ok, so I didn't quite manage it by Saturday :) But it's the thought that counts! ;)

So, that was the Thursday daytime. Which I spent longer talking about than I'd intended, because the more significant part was the Thursday evening.

This was the Birthday "do" back at my boss' home - us lot from work and our spouses ("or girlfriends, but not both please" *cough* ;) ) were all invited to dinner. Quna left college a couple of hours early so that she could get over here on time. Yay! :)

Now, Quna has met some of the people that I work with before - one Friday lunchtime when she was over, I invited her over to the pub with us - however, this was the first time that she had met some of m' colleagues, and her first time for meeting any of their "other halves".

Obviously, Quna was a little apprehensive about such an occasion - especially when almost everyone there had known old Mrs M for several years.

She did superbly.

Whilst the majority of the talk afterwards concerned one chap's partner (she was also, apparently, really nervous about meeting everyone for the first time) who had ended up being seated next to me. Now, I don't know when she started drinking, but her partner (with whom I work) said he'd be surprised if she'd drunk anything beforehand. Well. That's certainly the first time I've had pepper ground into my lap by someone using an electric pepper mill whilst claiming, "It's a bit like a vibrator! Did you get that? I said, IT'S A BIT LIKE A VIBRATOR!"

This was at the point that we had only just sat down to the starter. From someone whom I have met, briefly, once before.

Oooookaaaaay... ;) Personally, I just tried not to encourage her ;)

So, the real question left hanging in the air after that night... How would things with everyone go come the company's Christmas dinner (paid for by the company, for all employees and their other halves) on Saturday the 15th?

70

The 'least young' of my two bosses had his 70th birthday yesterday.

Well, I say yesterday, I mean last week.

Well. I say last week, I mean two weeks ago.

Still, that was when I *thought* about blogging about it, and they say it's the thought that counts... No? Bugger. ;) I was going to try writing this last night, but ended up getting distracted buying some kitchen knives from Amazon. And making my Christmas list. And eating. And doing some washing up. And reading mobile phone reviews (I think I've got it down to a choice of two...). And talking to Quna. And talking to my parents.

...

Bloody hell, I did quite a lot last night after all :)

It's tradition at my company that you have to buy cream cakes on your birthday. A tradition that m' boss upheld in his usual manner - by not buying cream cakes (in fairness, I doubt he knows what a "soo-per-marr-kit" actually is). Instead, we had some of his birthday cake and some doughnuts. Personally, I didn't think the birthday cake was too bad (it was one of those with an old picture on the top that his family had bought when they had a big get-together in honour of his birthday two weeks ago), and had one-and-a-half helpings.

A couple of days before his birthday, I'd suddenly been hit one evening with "ARGH! What happened about all of us putting our money together to buy him a present?"
Apparently, I was on holiday when my other boss had found out that he didn't want anything from us, as he had things on his 60th and 65th, and it seemed wrong (he felt) to get something every five years.

Still, I decided we really ought to at least get him a card from all of us (hey, we're all men here now - the women used to think about that sort of thing ;) ), so I hopped out at lunch to get one.

Eeeeven better than that, I ended up buying two cards (one for all of us to sign, one from me), and, AND... Some balloons! :)

As there were eight of us and eight balloons, I gave each person a balloon to blow up as I had them sign the card. You'd be surprised (well, I was) at how many spoil sports there were :) Still, my other boss had fun blowing up the ones that other people didn't want to :)

And then we all had a good laugh at my piss-poor attempt at blowing up my balloon :) Crikey, it's been a while since I've done that :) Whilst some of it was down to technique, there was one other tiny problem, as it transpired... There was a hole in the damn thing! I can't believe I bought eight balloons and I never got to properly blow one up in the end! :)

(More to follow...)

60

"Right then," I thought, "I've got the present ordered. That's sorted. Hmm, I'll get a card while I'm thinking about it and in advance."

I found a birthday card quite quickly. I do seem to be getting better at that. Come Christmas, I can spend HOURS literally just umming and arring over cards. It doesn't help that there are too many card shops ;)

So, I had my card. Within due course, still with loads of time to go, the present arrived through my door too.

Excellent. It was Dad's birthday in a couple of weeks time, and I'd got everything sorted.

The Sunday a handful of days before his birthday, I was on Messenger in the evening. At around 10:30pm, I get a message from my Mum.

Mum says
Don't forget it's dads 60th on thursday

60th. See, she has this habit of reminding me things like that just after I can realistically do anything about it. I work about 15 minutes from town, so I can't realistically pop in for lunch. I work from 9-5:30. There were no weekends between then and me. If I'd actually completely forgotten, I'm not entirely sure what she'd expect me to do about it. "Look Dad, I got you some... Apples! And... a turnip! AND! AND! Some 'sports for schools' vouchers! Hoh yeah. Isn't this just the best birthday ever?"

Well, Tesco's selection of "60" cards isn't great. Certainly not with both "60" and "Dad". Hmmmmmmmm.

So, my little connundrum was solved by posting the (non-60) birthday card that I did have, and making a second card - that way it said both "60" AND "Dad". Hah! I went down that weekend and took him his card and pressie.

But the thing that gets me...

I can't believe my Dad is 60!

I mean... 60? I must have looked up the history of the Messenger conversation at least twice to make sure that my Mum actually did say 60. 60's like ten years older than one of my bosses! And only ten years younger than the other! And I'm only 27 (well, only just... oh! it's a month today until a new number ;) )! He can't be 60.

Can he?

Apparently he can ;)

It was a good little house

I always liked it, anyway.

Ok, so it was "cosy", or as less diplomatic people would say, "quite small", but I liked it none-the-less :)

And ok, so it had more of a steep (almost vertical) few feet of grassy bank instead of a garden... But still. I liked it :)

It was our home. It had four rooms, two up, two down. But it was home.

I saw Mrs M several weeks ago. She was moving the last of the things from it, and they'd hired a van for the day. I almost had the impression I may not see her again. I asked whether she'd be back over this way at any point, and she said "I've not got any reason to."
I asked if she wanted to see me when I was over her way, "Well, there doesn't really seem any point."

Oh well. It's kind of a shame, but I'm not unduly bothered. Whatever helps her get through it, I guess.

Anyway, the sale was completed on Friday.

They've just received the cheque, and she'll be zapping across the amount upon which we agreed to my account once it has cleared. (Without going through official-dom, we agreed a split which equated to roughly 50/50 of major assets that I'm happy with).

And that, as they say, is that :)

Jedi by Night

So, Quna and I were out last night when all of a sudden, much to our astonishment, we witnessed a Battle of the Jedi:


Well, ok, I thought it looked a bit like that anyway :) It was actually fireworks, of course :)



I was pleased that I managed to find a display that was on last night. I'd assumed that they would be fairly well balanced between the 3rd and 10th in terms of proper displays, but actually it was a real struggle to find one - fortunately, my boss knew I'd been looking for a display, and happened to speak to someone else who was attending one on the Saturday, and then txt'd me with details :D

So anyway. I'd wanted to go to one because a few weeks ago Quna had asked if she could come to a fireworks display with me. Unfortunately, we were both busy last week (remind me to to blog about that if I don't do it within a couple of days...), hence the reason for looking for one this week.

So, Quna's been over this weekend. Meanwhile, I've been so busy at work recently. I just seem to be running around all day on a hundred different things. It's kind of nice ;) On the other hand though, I have been there until 7/8pm a lot recently, which makes the evenings very short (Again, contributing to my silence).

My most sincere thanks goes out to all of you who have kept checking for updates and giving me a poke in the comments ;)

Thank you for sticking with me :) Sorry I'm not all caught up on reading other blogs yet, but I do try to at least read them if not comment on them.

-Me :)

That Still and Settled Place

After she had gone, I found a card that Quna had left hidden for me.

Regarding it, when I spoke to her about it afterwards, she said "I've always quite liked Edward Monkton cards, and he says it far better than what I ever could."

But still, I think that what she wrote inside, and what she told me, was also very beautiful.

Weekend Rainbows

I notice this on weekends when the sun comes in above my curtains. How cool is that? :)

And also: Welcome to Cognidubnus who has (I assume) found his way here from Roses' blog :)

Should get back to normal reading/writing soon. Quna's here for a few days, at the moment... :)

I'm Not Dead

Hello! :)

Yes, I am back, and am not dead or anything :)

I have a couple of ideas for blog posts I'd like to do re. my holiday, but haven't quite got around to creating them yet.

Been busy recently. Part work, part pleasure... Over the last few, erm, months, I've been slowly watching 24 Season 2. It hadn't grabbed me much, but now, towards the end, it did, so the last several nights I've watched an episode or two (erm, or on one occasion, four) in a night ;)

Meanwhile, while I was on holiday, our office got completely done over, and all our PCs nicked.

They even took the Crunchies from my desk drawer (ripped off of its runners). Heartless bastards.

So, work has been a bit busy recently too ;)

On top of that, I'm still cooking (properly) a decent proportion of the time too, which eats another hour (hey, it takes me a li'l while, but I get there) of the evening.

Oh, and I'm back into reading again, too.

Partly though, I've just felt so knackered by the time I get home recently, that I've not really had the time - or energy - to work out what I'm saying. And then it all sort of tumbles out a bit randomly ;)

Fancy that ;)

I feel happy... ;)