New computer/ New resolve

New computer/ New resolve.

Can't promise anything, but the resolve to post is slowly coming back.

My old computer was so slow I couldn't be bothered switching it on. I would rather watch re-runs of "Have I got news for you" or the "South Bank Show" on TV than wait the 20 minutes or so before my 64mb RAM computer decided to wake up. That has all changed with my new 1GB RAM computer. I can actually watch videos on U-Tube, without the characters looking as if they are doing that robotic dance thing.

That's the computer part of the strapline, the hard part is the resolve. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since I last posted. Hell, I even had to Google Blogger in order to get a password reset. What I will promise is.....

slowly resolve to start posting again!

On my travels again

Well I'm on my travels again. Tomorrow I'm up at the crack of dawn and driving down to HO in Nottingham for a 2 day course.

On my way I always call in at Tibtree services because they have a nice Costa's coffee shop there. I'm hooked on their Cappucino. £2.85p for a large one to go. Last time I was down there I got a Costa lotta coffee and placed it in my cup holder in the car. Trouble is, the cups are so large, the top sort of just wedges in and leaves it at an angle. Of course I forgot and went around a bend to get back onto the motorway and it toppled over. Capo all over the car floor. I ended up with a coffee smelling car for the next week until I managed to clean it.

Might get a medium one tomorrow.

Pet Names

As I've stated in previous posts, my little lass makes me laugh at the things she says.
We were talking about names she calls members of the family. This is what she said-

" I call Mummy, 'Chef' because she cooks nice meals for me. I call Daddy 'Cushion' because he's nice and soft when I sit on his knee and I call my grown up sister 'Teddybear' because she's like a big teddybear when she's in her bed."

"You've missed out your brother, what do you call him?" I asked.

"A pain in the neck" she replied.

The Scowl

I have to drive to Bradford everyday for my work, a total of about 12 miles, which doesn't sound much but 7 of those miles are on the busiest stretch of motorway in the North, junctions 24 to 27 of the M62. The other 5 miles are inner city driving. You very rarely get up to 40mph on the motorway, and although the speed limit on the city roads is 30mph, you'll only ever get that fast on Christmas Day at 3 am. Usual speed is between 0 and a terrifying 10mph.

So I laughed at a story I heard on the Terry Wogan show this morning, when I was crawling along the A6177 in Bradford at a dizzy 5 mph, trailing a skip-wagon. A guy in similar circumstances to me, travelling into work, same speed, different city, been doing the same route for years, noticed a white van at the side of the road in the distance. When he got closer, he saw that it was a Traffic Policeman pointing a radar gun at the oncoming vehicles. The speed limit on the road was 40mph, but the traffic was stopping and starting, and couldn't have got up 5mph never mind 40mph. When the guy got alongside the copper, he waved to him and gave him a big smile.

All he got back was a scowl!

Mustn't have had any customers that morning.

A Day in York

Part of my job working in the photo-hub is to go and visit the stores that send me the photos to develop and today being such a nice sunny day I decided to go to York.

York is the capitol city of Yorkshire and goes way back to the Viking times and beyond, consequently it is also full of tourists. Mind you, even I like going to York. There are plenty of attractions to see, museums to visit, some of them free, also , if you like touristy type shops, your well catered for.

Today though I didn't have time for all that, I was on business. I parked the car up in the park and ride, paid my £2 and let somebody else negotiate the traffic in the city centre. In places like this you tend to get a lot of buskers, someone playing a guitar or violin or blowing a trumpet, but today, I kid you not, was the first time Iv'e seen a busker playing a grand piano on the pavement. True! He could really play it well, as well. He had quite a crowd around him, so I think he would have got a fair bit in the hat.

Probably needed it at the end of the day to pay for the removal van!

Swimming Lessons

Last September we got a message from the school saying that my lad wasn't very confident in the pool when his class went swimming. They suggested extra lessons on a Saturday morning with me in the pool with him, to give him that confidence.
On the first lesson I soon sussed what the problem was. He could swim fine but he insisted on wearing floats on his arms stating that if he took them off he would drown.It took 3 months of Saturday mornings to wean him off those floats until one Saturday morning he swam a pool length un-aided. The class cheered and clapped him, the instructor congratulated him, I was proud of him, and to prove it wasn't a fluke , he swam another 2 lengths. The instructor thought he was showing off then.
The following Saturday, the instructor came up to me and told me that in his normal school swimming lessons he refused to swim without floats. He must have thought that because I was there, I would save him from drowning. It took him another month before he finally discarded the floats, with or without me.

His extra lessons finished before Christmas, but now the little lass is coming with me on Saturdays. She's so skinny that the armbands keep falling off.

I think she'll learn fast...or drown!

Ruminating

After a nice bottle of Californian red and a chicken dinner with all the trimmings, plus chocolate sponge with choc sauce for afters, I began to ruminate on what has happened in my life for the last 7 months.
It was June of last year when I last posted to this blog, and not a lot before then either. I can't even begin to explain why I stopped blogging, especially when I really enjoyed posting and reading other peoples blogs. Was it posters block?-- I don't think so. There was a lot happening at that time to provide enough material. Was it lethargy?-- mmm possibly. I used to think, shall I post tonight. Then almost immediately I'd think--nahhh I'll post tomorrow night. I used to put a lot of energy into my work as a photo lab manager back then, that I would feel drained when I got home. It's only now, 10 months down the line, that I can understand why. After blood tests, my doctor diagnosed me as having an under-active Thyroid Gland. I think the medical term is myxadema or hypothyroidism. Anyway, the symptoms are reduced brain function, feeling tired all the time and weight gain. I ticked all the boxes there. Your thyroid gland produces hormones to kick start your metabolism, unfortunately my kick start had fallen off. I am taking tablets to control this and am now feeling 200% better and sharper than I have done in months. So hopefully it's business as usual. Hooray!

Anyway, going back to my ruminating, the last post was all about the bomb site. Well the builders went away £2000 better off, but the outside of the house looks brilliant. We get the odd few hundred pebbles showering us occasionally, when we have high winds, but you always get that after fresh pebble dash, don't you?

June turned out to be the hottest June on record in the UK and July wasn't to bad either, but by the time my holiday came around in August, the British winter started. I was off for the first 2 weeks in August and it chucked it down everyday, cold with it as well. I don't think the weather has improved much since.

Anyway, it's nice to be posting again. Lots more to come now that I feel "rejuvenated" (sic)

See you tomorrow or Tuesday (oops slipping)