Phew……

Current Music = The Dubliners – Dirty Old Town

Last Sunday, when I got back from Baycon, I discovered that somebody had broken in. I wasn't too bothered (all they stole was the Wii) but I was more worried about Nobby, who had obviously been frightened and had disappeared. The problem was making the house secure and finding the cat.

I spent most of the night awake with the door open in the hope that Nobs would come back, but he didn't. I secured the door, and had to goto London on Monday morning. I had left instructions for the next door neighbour to "keep an eye open".

When I got back on friday night Nobby was still missing, and I had given up hope. Then, at 7.30 on Saturday Morning I thought I heard a Miaaaoooww. I whistled, and running round the corner came the damn cat!!

I have never been so relieved!

He has lost lots of body weight, but has just eaten 3 packs of food, and is now asleep on the bed like nothing happened. I am now feeling heaps better.

Yes or No

You are supposed to copy and paste this into a new note in your notes, delete my answers and type in your answers. Then see what happens.

1. You can ONLY answer Yes or No!
2. You are NOT ALLOWED to explain ANYTHING unless someone messages or comments you and Asks!

Kissed any one of your facebook friends? Yes

Been arrested? Yes

Kissed someone you didn't like? No

Slept in until 5 PM? Yes

Fallen asleep at work/school? No

Held a snake? Yes

Ran a red light? No

Been suspended from school? No

Totaled your car/motorbike in an accident? No

Been fired from a job? No

Sang karaoke? No

Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? Yes

Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? Yes

Caught a snowflake on your tongue? Yes

Kissed in the rain? Yes

Sang in the shower? Yes

Sat on a rooftop? Yes

Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes? No

Broken a bone? No

Shaved your head? No

Blacked out from drinking? Yes

Played a prank on someone? Yes

Felt like killing someone? Yes

Made your girlfriend/boyfriend cry? Yes

Had Mexican jumping beans for pets? No

Been in a band? Yes

Shot a gun? Yes

Tripped on mushrooms? No

Donated Blood? Yes

Eaten alligator meat? No

Eaten cheesecake? Yes

Still love someone you shouldn't? Yes

Think about the future? Yes

Believe in love? No

Sleep on a certain side of the bed? Yes

Eight go Mad on a Barge Trip part II

Saturday Night.

After leaveing Chirk around 5 on the Saturday afternoon, we decided on a fairly easy first evening with us heading off towards Llandudno, but planning on mooring at The Sun Trevor (a pub) and eating there. We were fine until we got to Trevor Basin itself , where there was a stunningly difficult 90 degree turn which is not the easiest thing to do in a 70 foot narrowboat, however, after a bit of oohing and aahing we managed to turn it left and get it straightened up. Then we were off. I always imagined canals to be about 3 canal boats wide, well not on the Llangollen. there were numerous places where only one boat could travel along at a time, which were also incrediblt windy. Not the easiest first day in anyones book.

Anyway, we stopped at the pub, ate some very nice food, and stumbled down the p
towpath to the boat. Now, given the fact that there were 3 couples and Colin and Me, the 2 bunks that they give for singles are not exactly wide. i spent Monday night dreaming I was sleeping on the edge of a cravasse.

Sunday:

We arrived in Llangollen around 11.30 and went to the tourist infomation place. We bought maps, books etc. After splitting up, well Colin and I split up, the rest went into a bookshop, I todled around Llangollen taking pictures and buying T Shirts, Cheese, fruit etc etc.

After getting back to the boat, we headed out of llangollen and back across the fantastic aquaduct, where we pulled into the moorings and headed off to The Aquaduct inn. We had been told at the boatyard that the aquaduct was under new ownership and that things had been improving, so we went along and had quite a nice meal.

Monday:

Headed from The Aqueduct and back past Chrick boatyard, we travelled most of the day and arrived in Ellesmere, which meant we were just in time for a couple of beers in the real ale pub, before heading next door to the Black Lion for food. As you can see, life on the water consists mainly of travelling from one pub to another, drinking loads, and eating nice pub food. Oh well, shame.

Tuesday: Deathmarch day.

We left Ellesmere around 11 and set off on what was to be the grusome part of the trip. We had been told at the boathouse that the usual stopping pub had burnt down and there was nowhere to stop for 6 hours. Turns out that the boatman knows what he was talking about when, after a bit of a hard day, we pulled into Whitchurch. A bit of a trek later and we arrived at the first pub, The Greyhound. I had misgivings as soon as I saw the sign as it was a Pubmaster pub. We stayed for one, and thats my only comment. Afte that we went for a bit of a walk. The black and white pub at the top of the hill had an interesting menu, but nothing was veggie, so we continued down. Came across another Pubmaster pub, a shut pub and finall stumbled acros The Old Town Hall Vaults, which, as well as being the birthplace of Edward german (cmposer) , had a ghost, had quite ok food, it ALSO had a big selection of real ales. Phew…>Everybody happy.

Alas, as I had taken the laptop to chrge it I decided to cll a cab to get back to the boat. Colin now wishes he had come in the cab also, as he fell over on the tow path on the way back to the boat, and ended up at hospital this morning for a couple of hours. Luckily the diagnosis is a sprain rather than a break, but it could have been worse.

Anyway, more tomorrow

8 Go Mad in LLangollen.

Day One.

Music = The Town I Loved so Well by The Dubliners
Weather = Sunny

Day one. It's 8.57 and I am still in bed. Yesterday was supposed to be the first day of my holiday, but I had to go into work for a meeting. However, after getting to work the meeting was cancelled, so I did my expenses and called it quits.

I headed off to Manchester after deciding to spend the rest of the day at The Castle on Oldham St. Alas, The Castle had been open the night before, but had decided that drinking during the day was bad for you and so wasn't opening until 6 pm. Oh well, thats X number of zlotys that they won't be getting from my pocket.

Plan for day 1 is to meet at Joobys and the Man with no Name, meet up with Colin and drive to Chirk. From there we will collect our sturdy boaty thing and set off for a week exploring the Llangollen Canal. Hopefully with much beer, food, games and entertaining arguing as we can manage.

Pictures to follow….no doubt

More to follow.

Jim Carey was RIGHT!

Current Music = Shine on you Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd

When I first saw "The Truman Show" with Jim Carey I preicted that it was a defining moment in cinema.

A film parody of a tv programme in which cameras followed a person as they went through life. Pathetic idea, would never catch on.

Well it did, alas.

We now live in a world where entertainment is watching someone else suffer. Cameras probe every moment, from the birth of a child to the end of someones life. Watching people go into accident and emergency wards with a leg missing, watching someone stay in a house that doesn't really exists in order to beat 12 other people to some prize, watching someone who is terminal ,head off to Switzerland, in order to end their life. All of this and much much worse has now come to the tv as an entertainment programme??

Apparently someone who embraced this form of entertainment died last night. Its a shame, but the last thing that should have happened was that she should be doing it in the glare of publicity. She wasn't famous for anything other than not being famous???

Confused of Peckham

Current Music = Dog is my Copilot by The Art of Dying

Ok, maybe it's me being stupid, but, if the President of the good old USA announces to the world that all troops will be out of Iraq by the end of 2011, if you were a member of the Taliban etc, wouldnt you just keep your head down until the last trooper leavs, and THEN cause hell?

Or maybe they will get bored by then??

Current Muisc = The Age of the Understatement by The Last Shadow Puppets

I had a day off, so went into Manchester and had breakfast. Went to the Abergeldie, which is a famous cafe in manchester. Had loads of dead piggy and some deep friend chicken ovulation. Was yum.

Virginity is like a bubble in the stream of life…one prick, and it's gone forever!

Current music = Calm like you….The Last Shadowpuppets

I have been busy. I know I should post stuff more often, but really, I have been busy.

I'm starting to sound like an 80's zine editor. They used to make loads of excuses as to why the magazine that they prodce was late. The fact that it was an amatuer magazine, that they dd for fun, and that there was essentially no real reason for them to stick to a deadline never stopped them from having to explain themselves.

I miss the PBM magazines. Some of the games we ran were incredibly good fun. You would think that, given the fact that these days we could all send orders in without any hassle would mean we should still have a thriving hobby. Alas, it means we don't.

Well, what have I been doing? Work mainly. I have been down in banbury for 6 days a week for the last few weeks. Adding to that the snow, which caused lots of problems travelling and delivery wise, means Geoff has been a busy boy. I like travelling by train. It gives me a chance to get my head into gera, play hearts for an hour, and recover from the hours and the problems. Needless to say you can never fully relax when you are away. Even though the beds at the hotel I stay at are INCREDIBLY comfy, they are still not as comfy as your own.

Current Tune = Street of Dreams by Guns N Roses

Apparently it's 25 years since good ol Richard Branson formed Virgin Airlines. Shame he doesn't own most of it these days. The man is a brilliant self ublicist, and has just had a 10 minute slot on BBC news at 8.30 in the mroning, which was basically one big advert for the Virgin brand? How the hell do they get away with it? Why can't 3663 have a 10 minute slot ? lol. Seems only fair.

Current Music = Sweet Child O Mine by Guns N Roses

Nobby is lying on my back as I type. He is snoring. There is nothing quite so relaxing as a snoring cat. I am taking some time off work at the start of April. We are going on a narrow boat trip along the Llangollen canal. 10 of us. It will be interesting to see if we are all still friends at the end of it lol No doubt there will be loads of pics to be put up when I arrive back.

The following week is the annual trip to Exeter for Baycon. However, we are going a day early as some friends are getting married. All in all should be good fun, and will provide the much needed rest I probably need.

Current Music = Rockin Chair by Seasick Steve

Ok, am off to Manchester. Will kick Nobby out to play, and go and drink beer. Oh dear, beer…Hmmmm

Here comes another one, here it comes again, here comes another one, when will it ever end?

Happy 2009.

2008 was interesting. i spent most of it working away, which was good fun, but bloody hard work. I met some fantastic people, and also one or two arseholes. I suppose that is not too bad, given the percentage.

Ho Ho Hum

Today saw me venture into Manchester in order to do a little shopping. Now, I only have to buy a couple of presents for some secret Santas, and I couldn't be bothered. Instead, I bought some CD-R's and a mini hoover for the laptop. Whilst i was buying some food, I saw a christmas stocking for the cat, so I bought that as well.

I got home and whistled Nobby inside (he comes to a whistle, clever cat)

Anyway, he went rooting inside the bag, and pulled out the cat christmas stocking. He was going apeshit. I decided to open it up and give him one of the treats, and he bit me….not nipped, actually sank his bloody teeth in and drew blood, because he was so excited at getting at the stuff.

Whilst I was trying to attend to my wound, I looked, and discovered that one of the treats was catnip biscuits. Christ did they work. He was slavering by the time I opened the pack, and when I refused to give him another one he was awing at my leg and trying to bite my steel toe caps.

Wierd!

Sign on, sign off

Current Music = Knocking on Heavens Door by Guns N Roses

I had my appraisal at work yesterday, which was a bit of a pisser seeing as how we were due to go out on Friday night for the Lichfield depot Christmas party.

Anyway, I have a very understanding boss who moved it forward, got it over with pretty quick, and even arranged for someone to give me a lift down to the station so I could get an early train to Lichfield for the party.

All this was carried out successfully and off I went. Ticket bought, and an hour or so later I was in Lichfield. I had a missed call from Janine, and, after calling her back, a lift was arranged for that evening. I went shopping for few bits, and then headed over to the hotel. A few beers and headed upstairs to get changed.

Janine had arranged to pick me up at 7.15, so I had a shower and, with still 90 minutes to go before she was due to arrive, I lay on the bed and started to watch the news. MISTAKE!!!!!!!! I woke up at 6.59, and realised I had 15 minutes to get changed etc. Luckily I had a shower BEFORE I fell asleep else it could have been a very soapy Geoff when she arrived. I headed downstairs at 7.18 expecting a bollocking for being late, when the phone buzzed (no signal in the bedroom) It was a text from Janine saying she would be 45 mins late…phew!.

Current Music = Late Night in Soho by The Pogues

I went down into the bar and it was quite busy. Nat was run off his feet, so I went behind the ba for half n hour to give him a bit of a breather. Started chatting to a customer who turned out to own a pub, and was quite pleased when she said I was a natural behind a bar. I should hope so, I have done it often enough!

Anyway, at 8 o’clock we were off and we soon found the place. There were a fair few people already arrived and then I realised, bugger! I had left the damn camera at the hotel. Oh well, that’s life. I will just steal some of the other peoples pics.

We drank, we partied, we danced some more and we ate food. I arrived back at the hotel about 12.30 and everyone had gone to bed, so I headed upstairs as well. Woke up at 5.30, I can’t help it, it’s just the way my body works. Anyway, I watched the news until around 7, then headed downstairs for breakfast. Funny, no sign of anyone, so I sat and waited, whilst updating FB from the mobile, around 8 still no sign, so I wandered into the bar and a discovered a note telling me to ring when I wanted breakfast, in the end I decided not to bother, so I wrote them a note detailing what I owed them and left the money in the till. I will sort the bill out with Nat next week.

Current Music = Gotta Be Somebody by Nickelback

I caught a cab into Lichfield and the a train to Birmingham. I had a fair while to kill whilst in Brum so I went for a walk around the shops. Now, it’s cold..In fact, it’s bloody cold , and foggy, so when trapped by one of those annoying old ladies who always stop me and ask if I wouldn’t mind answering a few questions (where the response is usually no) I was asked if I would like to go and test a new product. What was the product? On a freezing cold day? Soup? Nope! Tea? Nope….Cornetto’s! Why the hell would anyone want a Cornetto on a day like this?

People never fail to amuse me.

So, I went back to New Street and, after boarding the train and finding it standing room only, and not much of that, I walked straight into 1st class and sat down. The train left, and it was after Wolverhampton when someone came to check the tickets. There were still people stood up in standard, and obviously they had no idea that you can get a 1st class upgrade on a Saturday for a maximum £10. Even then they don’t usually charge you if the train is busy. I was even offered free drinks and snacks??

I doubt I will make it to the games club as I am shattered, so I will probably just go home to bed.