I'm still standing

But I'm not better than I ever was...

Things are not going great, but I am looking to the positive and that is what counts.

Proper post soon, about Iceland and other things. I promise

Snow blind

The UK has ground to a snowy halt with people panic buying the bread and eggs. Seriously, the weather hasn't been that bad, we've had around 4" of snow here and that's it! Why is the UK so poorly equipped to deal with the bad weather?

Last year, I went to Iceland for a few days, had an awesome time, there was snow around but not as much as you'd think. When it came to flying home, the flight was cancelled because Heathrow couldn't cope with the weather.

Ok, fast forward to this year, Heathrow have been cancelling flights around 10% of there flights, I can appreciate that for safety reasons there are issues, but have they learnt anything from last year?

Anyway, grumble over.

I went out yesterday and made a snowman and had a snowball fight, all things that you should do! There has been enough complaining about the weather, I love it when it snows. Everything is clean and silent and gives everything a weird level of equality. I love leaving my foot prints everywhere, and looking at other tracks left in the snow. I did have the idea that I should make some giant animal feet to wander around in, just for giggles!

Anyway that's all

It'a alive, Alive!

Well that's the holiday season over thankfully, and because I am writing this you can assume one of three things:
1. I killed them all and either got away with it or am on the run;
2. I killed them all and got caught, but my prison has wi-fi, or;
3. Everyone behaved themselves...

Putting you out of your misery, it was option 3. Which actually freaked me out a little at jus how well behaved everyone was.

I consider it a triumph, I cooked everything, this in it's self is not something to gloat about, I usually cook everything, as do a lot of people. But I was cooking for some fussy eaters and no-one had a bad word they could say about ANYTHING that was put in front of them. That is a success!

New year has been and gone, and I usually don't make resolutions, but this year I've promised myself that I will get fitter and lose a couple of inches from the waist line. I've also promised myself to be more social and make more efforts to keep in touch with my friends and not to lose contact with those who are important to me. I've started the plan, last night I went swimming for the first time in about 18 months, I've joined a jogging club at work which starts next week and I'm arranging nights out and keeping more in touch with people than before.

So that's the plan going forward, I'm going to keep track on things here too.

They came from outer Spain

Well, it's Christmas eve eve and the outlaws are coming to stay for a while...they are arriving this evening at some point.

We have spent most of the week cleaning, by we I of course mean she, she has moved things and tidied things and move things back and tidied things that were already tidy. The house looks great for it, but seriously, I tidied my clothes last week, they didn't need re-organising, re-fold and then put back all my clothes, complaining that I have 40 t-shirts in the process.

Oh well, at least now it's all done and dusted. Now we just have to deal with the outlaws, which will be so much fun. Last time they stayed here for Christmas, m-unit (the mother-out-law) declared that it had been the worst Christmas ever and she wasn't enjoying any of it. Bear in mind she had previously said she was looking forward to it because she wouldn't have to do anything, she could just relax and put her feet up. I cooked everything and banned her from the kitchen, this isn't unusual, I hate having people in the kitchen with me. But, because she wasn't in control or able to do anything she complained.

Last year she was much happier because they rented a house in York and we all went there instead, meaning she could cook everything and be in charge and in control the whole time.

Oh well, I'm sure it will be a great week and we will not kill anyone and just enjoy the time that they are here.

But if you don't hear from me again, the week hasn't gone to the plan above and I'll have killed someone and either be on the run or locked up.

Happy holidays though, I hope you have a stress free time and enjoy yourselves (responsibly and in moderation)

Tyred

(I amfully aware of the incorrect spelling)

This week has been a thoroughly mixed bag, I've had some very good training in different ego states and the ways in which we should engage people depending of the ego state they are displaying. I painted the kitchen, this was the last of the major jobs to do with the new kitchenand although it will need checking over and maybe touching up, it signifies the end to the kitchen work. I had my second Christmas meal, with another on the way tomorrow.

Today, though I've had a failed attempt at Christmas shopping, I succeeded in getting nothing of any use to anyone apart from me. I spent £340 on getting new tyres (hence the title) and having a new rod fitted on the car, all things that needed doing, and surprisingly, I had the money to do them at this time of the year!

For tomorrow's Christmas meal, we've all been given the secret santa challenge of buying/making/restyling a Christmas jumper, so part of my mission today was to find a suitable jumper that I could alter, I got my jumper at just before 5 after wandering around many shops and failing to find anything. Just another reason why today hasn't been a great day.

Anyway, I've got to decorate the flaming thing tonight, ready for tomorrow now, so this post really is done, if I can, I'll post an addendum photo of it later.

"Maverick" man

Today I had my 6 month review and it was pretty good, weirdest bit was being called a maverick. And do you know what, the first thing that came to my mind was? I feel the need, the need for speed!

Seriously though, apparently I don't copy in my line manager in enough when I work on things and send them out. But if I did that she'd have an inbox full of my emails. But she did comment on how well I'm doing my job and that she is aware that some of the work I'm doing is above my pay grade. But she didn't say she'd pay me more...

In the rest of my life:
Weekend was good, we got the last stuff completed at work on our project, no more Saturday working.
Failed to make a pumpkin cake, actually, that's not completely true, I made a pumpkin cake, but the mix was way too wet so it didn't really work, but I did get the flavour spot on!

Well, it's the start of the week and I'm actually quietly confident that this will be a good week, it helps that I'm off for a day and a half AND I've got two Christmas dinners coming up :-)

Last week was a Dropkick Murphys kind of week, this week I think will be more of an AC/DC week

Thank Friday!

So it's finally Friday!

This week has been a mixture of feelings. Monday came with good news, my team at work had been told that our service was being considered for outsourcing several months ago, but Monday saw the end, when it was confirmed that the company bidding for the job couldn't make the cost savings work. Tuesday saw me get grumpy at work as the realisation that although my job was now safe, I would also be stuck in it, with little room for advancement and even less challenges and opportunities. Wednesday saw this grump get worse when I inadvertantly found out that my line manager appeared to be holding me back, saying that a new challenge that had been suggested by another team member would have a "detrimental affect" on me, yeah, thanks for that! Thursday was an improvement though, mainly because you just can let the bastards get you down! Today has been in a similar mindset, I'm just going to continue doing what I do, and continue to do it better and faster than my line manager could dream of doing it.

So that's been my week, and now I'm ending it with AC/DC live show on my tellybox. Man, I hope I get to see them next year when they are touring, hell I'll travel to another country to see them if I must! (Although, not the US, but that's a different story!)

Right tomorrow I have a few hours overtime, and then the remains of the weekend are mine, with lunch at mum's on Sunday being the ONLY planned thing.