Mileage and Food

Posted: Tue 30 May, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Sociable, Travel | Leave a comment »

Another weekend of driving, food, and changed plans.riday was a drive up to Newcastle, primarily for a dinner at Solstice, which was as excellent as ever. It’s a tiny little restaurant nearly under the Tyne Bride, and only serves a maximum of 14 diners per service. It’s always a lovely welcoming place though, with great food, and a place I thoroughly enjoy going to.

Saturday involved a drive halfway back, for a meal at The Angel at Hetton.  The original plan had been a simple two foodie things and then home, but then another friend in Manchester had said that the Sunday was the best day for their availability, so things changed and meant I’d also stay over somewhere in the vague vicinity (and ideally without spending a king’s ransom on a hotel) which meant I ended up driving from Newcastle to Burnley in order to check in, then up to Hetton (about another 45 minutes) for the meal and then back again.

As it was, the drive between Newcastle and Burnley was an absolute pig – although admittedly nowhere near as bad as if I’d reversed the locations. The road from Leeds to Newcastle was pretty much solid slow traffic, and can’t have been any fun for anyone.  In my direction it was just heavy, and then a motorway closure sent me on all kinds of interesting alternative routes.  In the end it meant it was pretty much the same time as if I’d just opted to drive home.

I was, however, deeply underwhelmed by the Angel.  I’d gone on the recommendation of a couple of friends, and for me it just didn’t work. It was generally OK, nothing actually bad, but also nothing great.  And a lot of little niggles combined to make me feel more like an annoyance, like they thought that the table would’ve been better if it had two people on it.  Little things like being on a table shoved into the far corner of the restaurant,; being only table to not be greeted by the restaurant manager; and not being offered a menu for the table (and to keep) once I’d ordered when every other table was given one. It soon adds up to a Not Good Conclusion.

(In fairness, I’ve sent this feedback to them already, and they’ve so far seemed to be quite positive about the entire thing)

Once I was done there, back to the hotel overnight, and then down to Manchester the next morning. Spent the day there with friends, and then got home at about midnight, after a weekend of about 700 miles, all told. Knackered, but worth it.

Aging

Posted: Mon 1 May, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Food, Getting Old(er), London, M1, Sociable | 1 Comment »

This weekend was one of my dafter ones in a while.

On Thursday I did my usual ‘site visit’ to the office where my primary client is based – which is about 100 miles drive each way. Makes for about four hours driving as well as most of a working day.  At the same time I’d somehow sort of knackered my foot – slightly swollen, almost like a gout attack but nowhere near toes. Odd, but nothing major.

Then Saturday was a trip down to London – a good lunch with friends first before going to the theatre in the evening and then home.  Again, 100 miles-ish driving each way, plus London transport and walking.  Got home about 1am, but didn’t get to sleep til after 3am.

Then Sunday was a trip up to York to meet another friend for more food and drinks. Entirely my own choices, and I’m blaming no-one, it’s just how it all worked out.  But another 100 miles each way, another 2 hours each way in the car, plus a shitload of walking.

So between Saturday morning and Sunday night I’d driven the entire length of the M1 (London to York).  Twice.  I’d walked just under 23Km over the two days, but it was the driving that took it out of me the most.  I got out of the car here and everything just hurt and pretty much shut down – indeed I ended up with a reaction like shock – shivering, cold and clammy, and not really all that functional.  It eased off, but I wonder if it was that sudden “everything hurts all at once” that dumped the body into a state of surprise and “What the hell’s happened there?”

It’s all been fine by today – aching legs and so on, but nowhere near as bad as last night – and I’ve spent the day doing Not Much, along with rehydrating.

But I think I might just have to admit to myself that I’m getting a bit older – and that eight hours of driving in 48 as well as a load of walking and general alcohol and idiocy is perhaps no longer as easy as I’ve usually found it.

Repeat Locations

Posted: Thu 20 June, 2019 | Author: | Filed under: 2018/19, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, London, Music, Sociable, Theatre, Travel | Leave a comment »

In the last eight days, I’ve been at the Barbican centre for three of them.  I don’t mind – I like the Barbican – but it does make for an interesting feeling of deja vu.

Last week, I spent two days there attending the Lead Developer conference (again) – it’s been running for five years now, and I’ve been to four of them.

Then last night, I was back there to see “Conversations with Nick Cave” – a different type of concert, with Cave performing songs solo with just a piano, interspersed with lots of questions from members of the audience.

I’ll aim to write more about both things (and a couple of other things that have been keeping me busy and/or a dirty stop-out) but right now I’m absolutely knackered. So those bits of writing will come later. Probably.

Ten Years Back – The Changes

Posted: Wed 16 January, 2019 | Author: | Filed under: Bankruptcy, Change, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Looking Back, Sociable, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Having whanged on about things from Ten Years Ago, I thought I’d have a quick sum-up of what’s changed in that time as well. It might be interesting, it might not.

So anyway, since Jan 2009 I have…

  • lived in five different houses (a couple only short 6-month tenancy things, but still)
  • been a lot more settled of late, and now been in the same house for nearly seven years. Which is faintly terrifying
  • changed jobs and contracts more times than enough – by my reckoning I’ve done 17 jobs/contracts in that time, but I’ve still probably forgotten at least one.
  • been through the whole bankruptcy process from start to finish
  • gained three cats
  • lost one cat
  • changed car. Twice.
  • driven lots (and lots and lots) of miles
  • Started going to see more plays and theatre stuff
  • Been to a whole load of Michelin-starred restaurants (as well as plenty of other places) as part of that whole “solo dining” thing

There’s other stuff as well, but that seems to be the key points, at least.  All told, I’m pretty happy with that list – some of it’s not been great, but even those have been better than the alternatives.

I wonder what’ll come in the next ten?

Already Scheduled

Posted: Fri 11 January, 2019 | Author: | Filed under: 2018/19, Do More, Domestic, Driving, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, London, Single Life, Sociable | 2 Comments »

Because I’m still a lunatic (despite clearing some projects off the list and so on) I’ve also just been looking at what I’ve already got scheduled for this year – and as usual, some of it is daft.

There’s one week in February that’s looking particularly silly, as it already includes

And that is in just one week. *sigh*

Apart from that, most things are a bit more spaced out – but I’ve still got things in the list now until mid-November, what with plays, concerts, food festivals, and a walking marathon.

There’s just no hope for me, really. Daft to the core.

Phoneless

Posted: Fri 30 November, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Business, Domestic, Gigs, I Don't Understand, People, Security, Sociable, Theatre, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Via an article on Raptitude ( The Simple Joy of “No Phones Allowed”) I came across a company called Yondr whose idea/offering seems simple and pretty brilliant.

Basically, they create “phoneless areas” for concerts (as well as other events, but mainly concerts) by locking them away.  The smart bit is that they’re not stockpiled somewhere (which would be way too tempting for thieves etc.) Instead, they’re put in a pouch that locks, and the phone stays with the owner.

If the phone is really needed, there are unlock-stations outside the concert area, so the bag can be unlocked and the phone used.

But – as per the article, and as per my own experience – people in general are fucking lazy, and even that extra effort of moving twenty yards to unlock the phone to use it is more than most can be bothered to do. And so those people stay in place, watch the concert (or whatever) and aren’t distracted by their phones.

I’ve griped (on several occasions) about concerts now where more people seem to be filming the gig through their phones than actually watching it and how distracting that is for those who actually want to see the performance (although Yondr won’t fix the other issues mentioned there of people constantly chatting to their mates while the show is on, or keep going to the bar etc.)  and this seems like a really good way of reducing that desire.

Yondr don’t say how much their service costs to install – I assume it’s not going to be cheap – but I really do hope it’s something that both venues and artists support and promote.  I know I’d be more likely to go to a gig/venue that was ‘phones-free’…

Another Daft One

Posted: Tue 5 December, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, M1, Sociable | Leave a comment »

The weekend just gone was another in my long list of silly (but enjoyable) ones, with a fair amount of driving. (Well, that’s no shock)

Saturday was spent in London, with a good friend, M. We had lunch at Mere (Monica Galetti’s new restaurant), which I’ve been to far too many times this year since it’s opening night in March – but it was M’s first time, and it was (as always) great.   From there, we walked down to the London Coliseum, but took a small detour to the Fitzrovia Chapel, which I’d found on a previous visit, and is fabulous. We were lucky there, as it was closed for events and so on, but the member of the events team who opened the door let us pop in quickly to look at the place, and was lovely.

Then we went down to the Coliseum, to see the ENO’s production of Aida , and then we split and went home. A very good day.

Sunday was the sillier of the two – a flying day-trip up to see other friends just outside Manchester, leaving the house at 6am and not getting back til midnight. But again, it was worth it – it was the last chance I’d got to see them this year, and I’m really glad I took the chance to do so.

I was knackered by the time I got home, but it was absolutely worth the effort and time. So yes, a good weekend all round.

Downtime(ish) Follow-up

Posted: Wed 29 November, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Single Life, Sociable | 2 Comments »

Of course, following on from that ‘quiet’ weekend, this week so far hasn’t stopped at all.  And I’m really not in the mood for it.

I’m doing the normal work stuff, but I’ve also been out in the evenings of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I think tomorrow I’m home, and then I’m out again Friday evening, and Saturday.

Not only that, but I’ve now realised that I’m fully booked for every weekend between now and New Year (and actually through to February).

So it’s looking like last weekend really was the calm before the storm.

I really am a bloody idiot.

New Year

Posted: Wed 15 November, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: 2017/18, Cynicism, Domestic, Festering Season, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, New Year, Sociable, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Normally, I don’t celebrate New Year – I couldn’t give a shit about midnight, Auld Lang Syne, fireworks and so on. Entirely not my thing.

However, over the last few years, I’ve been going out for meals on New Year’s Eve, and being back home (or, more usually, still driving home on beautifully clear and empty roads) by midnight.

This year though, it’s all a bit underwhelming – even the offering at Helene Darroze (where I went last year) is disappointing, as there’s very little change from what I had last year. There’s nowhere else that’s massively grabbing me as a “want to try” (or at least nowhere that’s currently released their menu)  so for now, I’m really not sure what I’m going to be doing.

Mind you, right now I’m actually quite OK with that, of actually doing sod-all for New Year.

“Quiet” August

Posted: Fri 25 August, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Day Trips, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Getting Organised, Gigs, London, Sociable, Stupidity, Travel | Leave a comment »

When this month started, I said it was going to be a quiet one, before the storm that is my September.  And of course, me being me, it hasn’t really worked out that way at all.

Instead there’s been several visits to the cinema, a bundle of social evenings with food and the like, catching up with people, three or four London days, and all of that jazz. In some ways I’ve been busier in August that I am in usual months – the difference has been that I’ve been based from home, rather than weekends away.

Looking back, it seems like this is actually pretty much standard – last year was the same, and so was 2015. (although there’s no ‘busy’ post as such, I was still doing a lot of stuff)  So that idea of a ‘quiet’ month is… pretty much bollocks, really.

And then yesterday was a late afternoon / early evening visit to the National Burger Day event down in London (which will be a post all of its own, I’m sure). Still to come this month I’ve got another big walk over the weekend, a cinema visit, and a social thingy, and then the idiocy of September, which currently includes (but is not limited to)…

  • Meatopia on the Saturday and Sunday  (although the Sunday is somewhat based on what’s going to be on, but I haven’t bailed on one yet)
  • as well as seeing the Sisters of Mercy on the same Saturday evening. (Yes, I’m a lunatic)
  • possibly a pub-crawl of sorts
  • Seeing Coriolanus in Stratford-upon-Avon
  • Walking a full marathon overnight in London at the end of the month
  • Two other concerts as well as the Sisters of Mercy.

So yeah, daftness abounds. As ever.

New Zealand War Memorial

Posted: Wed 23 August, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, London, Photography, Sculpture, Sociable, Travel, Walking | Leave a comment »

Last Sunday, I was in London to meet friends and eat food. (I know, it’s a shock)

I was hugely early (also not a shock) but semi-intentionally so, as I’d originally planned to do a decent-ish walk (still no shocks) and then meet up.  But other plans from the day before had changed, so I started off by knocking the planned 8-miler on the head, and instead taking the Tube in to London, have a smaller more sensible walk, and then meet up.

And then I walked, and it all changed a bit, so I ended up still doing a nearly-eight-miler. Because I’m an idiot. (Hey, where are those shocks? Nope, still not happening)

The route was a bit different to my usual ones though, and on a couple of occasions ended up with “Oh, I could go that way, but I’ve done that before. So let’s go this way instead”.  On one part of that, by Hyde Park Corner, I opted to cut through by Wellington Arch instead.

And in there, it turns out that there’s a huge sculpture piece for the New Zealand War Memorial. It really is quite epic – and yet dwarfed by the buildings, arches and other stuff nearby.

I really liked it – and although this time I was on a bit of a stomp, I’ll definitely go back on an occasion where I’ve more time, and look at them properly.

Filling Time

Posted: Fri 31 March, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Do More, Domestic, Driving, Food, Getting Organised, Gigs, London, Sociable, Stupidity, Travel | Leave a comment »

(no, that’s not a euphemism)

So – this is a perfect example of how my life suddenly ends up getting busy…

As long-term readers know, I’m a regular at the Meatopia cooking festival at Tobacco Dock in London, which is usually on the first weekend of September. I’ve got tickets for both days (again, as usual) which would usually be enough to keep me out of trouble for that weekend.

Except now there’s a gig I want to see on the Saturday night, also in London. Which is also utterly doable – but makes for a rather busier and more complicated weekend, it’s safe to say.

So my plan was

  • Saturday
    • Drive down to Barbican, park up
    • Walk to Tobacco Dock
    • Eat Lots
    • Walk back to Barbican, check in to hotel
    • Travel to Camden for concert
    • Gig
    • Travel back to Barbican
    • Sleep
  • Sunday
    • Walk to Tobacco Dock
    • Eat More
    • Walk back to Barbican
    • Drive home
    • Die quietly.

Except it turns out my cat-carer can’t do that weekend. So….

It now consists of

  • Saturday
    • Drive down to North London
    • Travel to Barbican(ish), then walk to Tobacco Dock
    • Eat Lots
    • Walk/Travel back to Camden
    • Gig
    • Travel back up to where the car’s parked
    • Drive home
  • Sunday
    • Drive down to Barbican, then walk to Tobacco Dock  (or maybe get the train, depending on other stuff going on)
    • Eat More
    • Back to Barbican / Euston
    • Home, and Die Quietly.

And that is how my weekends suddenly get silly. (We’ll also mention that September already has every weekend booked with stuff to do)

Theatrical

Posted: Sat 18 March, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Day Trips, Domestic, Driving, London, Milton Keynes, Sociable, Theatre, Travel | Leave a comment »

This week has, again, been somewhat theatrical (and with a fair dollop of travel, just for balance)

On Wednesday I finally got round to seeing the Harry Potter play, which was very good (and I’ll write some thoughts about it later on) but made it into a seriously long day. Because of the size of the story/play, it’s been made in two parts, both just over two and a half hours.  Including the break between plays, it meant I went in at 1pm (for performance starting at 2) and left just after 10pm.  Then including getting back to Euston, and the Train Of The Damned to get back to Milton Keynes, I got home at about half midnight.

Yesterday I was down in London, going to see Hamlet at the Almeida Theatre in Islington.  I’d gone down earlier in the day, which was fine, and the play itself – again, very good, although I still need to formulate my thoughts and reactions to it a bit – was pretty complete, and ran to nearly four hours, including intervals.  So again, starting at 7pm, I didn’t leave ’til 11. Driving home was easier, but still, I wasn’t back ’til gone midnight.

This evening I’m back down in London for a friend’s birthday thing (and another late return home) and then tomorrow morning I’m over in Reading supporting another friend who’s running the Reading half-marathon (again) and raising money for the Multiple Sclerosis Trust.

So yeah, busy, and there really is no sign of sanity impinging on my life at any point soon…

Changeable

Posted: Sat 11 March, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Business, Domestic, Films, Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Seeing Films, Sociable, Stupidity, Theatre, Travel, Work-related | 1 Comment »

The last couple of weeks – and the coming one – have been… chaotic, to say the least.  I’m used to this in general, but it’s felt like it’s been even more frenetic than usual this month, and there’ve been a lot of contributory factors that have all conspired to make it so.

Work-wise, I’ve been ending up on-site at least twice a week, rather than the usual one day a week, and that’s just disturbed things a bit. Usually I can take my work laptop on-site on a Monday, and then leave it in my own office for the rest of the week, rather than constantly lugging it around.  This month though it’s been on-site, in-office, on-site, in-office etc. etc.

Around the work stuff, there’s been a lot of other bits going on, with stuff in London on some evenings, as well as other social stuff and going to the cinema.  And it all adds up.

For example, this week has involved…

  • Monday – on site
  • Tuesday – working from home, then going to London to Mere in the evening.
  • Wednesday – in office
  • Thursday – on site, then seeing Kong: Skull Island in the evening
  • Friday – in office
  • And then just my usual idiocy in the coming weekend, another trip to London to see friends, and a social-and-food even locally on Sunday

Next week is no different really, including two London trips to the theatre, as well as all the usual work. I’m vaguely hopeful that I won’t be on-site more than once, but I’ll only find that out during the week.

Once next week is done, I’m hoping that things will be a bit quieter again. That’s certainly the plan – if nothing else, I need some downtime – but we’ll see how it goes.  In fairness, I can handle the multiple days on-site or I can handle the other stuff – it’s just when it’s both things at once that it gets somewhat harder to deal with.

Varied

Posted: Wed 15 February, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: 2016/17, Day Trips, Do More, Domestic, Driving, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Getting Organised, London, Single Life, Sociable, Theatre, Thoughts, Travel | Leave a comment »

So, this week is somewhat varied in its activities.

Yesterday was John Wick Chapter 2.

This evening I’m off to see Neil Gaiman at the Southbank Centre, talking about his newest book, “Norse Mythology“, his latest book. (And collecting a signed copy into the bargain)

Tomorrow, I’m off for a meal at the Fat Duck with friends, and driving them all there and back.

There’s stuff lined up for the weekend too, but that little lot should keep me going for a while anyway…

Surf vs Turf, Blues Kitchen

Posted: Wed 1 February, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Day Trips, Domestic, Food, London, Reviews(ish), Single Life, Sociable, Thoughts, Travel | 2 Comments »

Last night, I went with a friend to one of my favourite places, Blues Kitchen in Shoreditch.  I’ve been going there fairly regularly over the last eighteen months or so, but usually on a weekend. This time was different though – they had organised a three day “Surf vs Turf” event, bringing in the chef team from Extra Fancy in the US to ‘do battle’ with the team from Blues Kitchen, with a special menu (including cocktails)  to play with.

And it was epic.

Once it had been announced on Twitter, I had booked in straight away. For me, it was a no-brainer, I wanted to try it. And I am so glad I did.

As well as the food and drinks, it meant we got to spend time with some of the people we’ve been talking to on most of the visits, talked about what was good on the menu, what they should be keeping, and even got introduced to one of the owners of the group that owns Blues Kitchen. For me, that’s what makes Blues Kitchen stand out from every other place in a similar vein – the people make it, even more than the food.

Between the two of us, we had everything on the menu – including the cocktails. Plus a couple of things that were so good we had two…

I’m hard-pressed to even decide what the best things were – it was all good, and most of it was great. Hell, even the cocktails were awesome.

All told, a great night, and a type of event I hope Blues Kitchen repeat – there’s plenty of opportunity, with lots of different kitchens and teams that would be up for it, I’m sure.

Home From The Holiday

Posted: Sun 2 October, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: 2015/16, Do More, Domestic, Driving, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Insomnia, Sociable, Thoughts, Travel | Leave a comment »

So, after a week in Cornwall, I’m back in the land of the living.  It’s been a good week away, with a lot done, and a lot of thinking out of the way. (Still more to go on that score, but it’s been good)

I’ve driven over a thousand miles in the last seven days, visited a bundle of places, had a great time, and even managed to build up some sleep.  (That’s one of the things that needs some thought for the future, but it’ll take a while)

A rough itinerary of the last week is :

  • Saturday 24th Sept – Head down to Oxford to meet the friend I was going with, then down to Truro. A four-hour drive door-to-door from Oxford (about 5½ from home). Having made good time, an exploration of Truro city (and their Cornwall food festival)
  • Sunday – visiting the Eden Project. First time I’d been there, and found it thoroughly interesting. Well recommended
  • Monday – visiting Newquay. Another place I really liked.
  • Tuesday – down to The Chocolate Factory, a craft-based place with a whole range of different things, including (unsurprisingly) a chocolatier, but also galleries, glass maker, jewellers etc. Then on to St Ives for an explore (including seeing a seal in the harbour) and then back to Helston to meet up with other friends.
  • Wednesday – Lost Gardens of Heligan.  I’ve been here before (about ten years ago, admittedly) and it’s grown and improved significantly since. Again, thoroughly enjoyable, and a lot of walking
  • Thursday – St Mawes and Falmouth – two more places I’d never been before, we went down to St Mawes, and got the ferry over to Falmouth. It’s somewhere I’ll go back to, and want to explore more, although it was full of bell-ends on the actual day, but I suspect being a bit more out-of-season, or earlier in the day, and it’ll be better.  St Mawes is lovely, a much smaller place, but somewhere I could happily stay for a proper visit
  • Friday – Wheal Martyn China Clay museum, which was interesting. I didn’t know the history of china clay in Cornwall, so it made for an interesting morning. Followed up by a visit to St Austell (frankly, never again – it’s like the retirement village of The Damned) and then a much better visit to Charlestown, which is really pleasant and attractive – another place I could happily stay longer.
  • Saturday (today) – Driving home, again via Oxford. Another good run, four hours door-to-door to Oxford, and then onwards to home.

As well as driving that 1,000 miles, we’ve walked about 40 miles all told, visited a bundle of places, and had a good time.

I’ve got a bundle of stuff lined up now for the next three months, as well as a load of stuff to think about for the future. Next year’s looking interesting already.

A Sort-Of Slowdown

Posted: Sat 17 September, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: 2015/16, Day Trips, Do More, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, London, Single Life, Sociable, Theatre, Travel | Leave a comment »

This is the last of my properly busy September weekends – next week I’m driving a lot, but it’s not properly idiotic. Indeed, even this weekend is a bit more sensible than the last few – still busy, but with a big dollop of domestic sorting, rather than being out’n’about quite as much.

Mind you, that doesn’t mean it’s sensible – indeed, it’s just the finale of a fairly mad week.  I’m back in London today and tonight, for food and another theatre visit.  This week I’ve already been to the cinema after work on Monday, been to see friends in London on Tuesday, and to the theatre for Little Shop of Horrors on Wednesday. Safe to say, I’ve been busy, and got a lot done.

After this, it’s a bit quieter.  The coming week is less frantic (well, until Friday) and the rest of the year, while busy, isn’t quite as hyper as the last three months have been. Indeed, I’ve still got things booked for pretty much every week, but it still feels like a kind-of slowdown.

Note, I’m not complaining. It’s been a hugely busy and hectic year through my own decisions, and I’m enjoying it loads, but some quieter time is also sounding pretty bloody great right now…

A busy week

Posted: Thu 8 September, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: 2015/16, D4D™, Do More, Domestic, Driving, Films, Food, London, Media, Own Business, Single Life, Sociable, Solo Dining, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Suddenly, it’s a week since I last updated anything here – and there’s a good reason (or ten) for that.

Mainly, the good reason is that I’ve been sodding busy.

Since last I wrote here, there’s been (in no particular order)

  • Driving to Marlow for a late lunch at the Hand and Flowers
  • Driving to London (Saturday at ungodly o’clock)
  • Visiting Meatopia – on the Saturday, along with several friends
  • Seeing The The’s “Infected” film at the ICA in London on the Saturday evening
  • Staying overnight in London
  • Visiting Meatopia on the Sunday, just me, but ended up meeting several other people, as well as starting some business discussions (Win!)
  • Driving home from London, having walked 20 miles over the two days
  • A vaguely normal Monday, with added shopping and faffery
  • A normal Tuesday working, then meeting friends and going to the cinema to see Hell or High Water – heartily recommended
  • A semi-standard Wednesday, and then cinema to see Morgan – also recommended, for different reasons, and thoughts on both films will follow
  • And tonight, being at the Milton Keynes Geek Night, just to top things off.

So yes, not much going on at all.

It’s been pretty positive all round, but it has left me feeling like a stunned monkey. So there’ll be more writing as and when I get round to it.  I’m back in London this weekend, but look like having one day that’s (currently) quiet, so that’s at least vaguely promising…

Planning Stuff

Posted: Sat 9 July, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: 2015/16, 2016/17, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Single Life, Sociable, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

As well as slowing down a bit for the second half of 2016, I’m also starting to plan stuff where possible for the first half of 2017. For me, that’s scarily organised.

Part of it is looking at stuff I want to do – and places I want to go – and starting to put things in place for those to happen. I’ve got a couple of breaks booked for the second half of 2016, a week in Cornwall at the end of September, and a weekend in Dorset at the end of October (in which I’m hoping to break the back of some writing ideas – that’s the current plan, anyway) but I’m also looking at what I want to do in 2017, and starting to book it up where/when I can.

So far, that’s looking like a long weekend down around Bath and Bristol (an area I like, don’t know enough about, and want to know more) and potentially a week each in Lake District and somewhere in the North-East. I may do something abroad as well, but we’ll see.

I’m also looking at things I don’t want to carry on – in particular the restaurant project I’ve been doing this year, with at least one Michelin-starred place per month for the year, part of my whole thing about eating alone. I’m still really enjoying it for this year, and I’ve no intention of giving it up completely – but it might go down to a quarterly thing, rather than monthly.

There’s a bundle of other stuff getting prepared for next year – but not stuff I’m going to write about just yet. Most of this is just in the contemplating and planning stages, rather than actually happening, but I’m going to spend time this year sorting out next.

Which, for me, is disgustingly organised…

 

Another Quiet Week

Posted: Fri 4 March, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Driving, Health, Sociable, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

This week has been another ‘quiet’ week – or at least one where I don’t seem to have stopped long enough to do a decent post. Which means ‘quiet’ here and… less so in reality.

It started off well – driving home on Monday from a long weekend in Dorset. A ‘quiet’ ‘break’ that resulted in 600ish miles of driving – but also enough necessary downtime and peace to have made it worthwhile.  In fairness I could’ve split the driving, or whatever, but it’s never the driving that tires me, so *shrug*

The place in Dorset will definitely be re-visited though – it was great, and all told thoroughly enjoyable.

The rest of Monday was less fun – once I’d got home I started feeling pretty rotten, and ended up having a sleep on the sofa. Felt a bit better when I woke up, but rapidly got worse again, and ended up with gastric explosions of an epic standard. At least it had the good grace to wait til I got home, rather than expelling my innards into a hire-car.  Thankfully, there was only the one major dollop, so I was able to sleep etc.

Tuesday was a day on-site with my current client – could’ve done without it, but needs must and all that.

Wednesday and Thursday were back to almost-normal, but also included taking the bloody Saab back to the garage (another Engine Management light issue, which was why I had the hire care for the weekend) and going to the cinema, as well as a day where it seemed like people were all trying to kill me. (More of that in another post, perhaps)

And now Friday, and back on-site, as the boss is then away for two weeks.

And that, my friends, is a ‘quiet week’…

Slowing Down – Allegedly

Posted: Mon 8 February, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Day Trips, Domestic, Food, Getting Organised, London, Sociable, Solo Dining, Travel | Leave a comment »

Last week, I wrote about how things were slowing down a bit at last from the madness of January. And that’s true – well, kind-of.

As it is, before the end of February I’ve got scheduled (in no particular order)…

  • A very fancy meal in London, which I’m looking forward to (and for the faffing about I’ve had to do, had bloody better be worth it)
  • A birthday event in Oxford  (it’s hard to call them birthday parties when the person isn’t a child!)
  • A gig in Manchester (another mid-weeker, I must be fucking mental)
  • A gig in Oxford
  • The final bit of work on the car for this session (I hope)
  • New glasses to collect
  • A full weekend break on the South Coast

So yes, not really all that quiet after all…

Slowing Down – Sort of

Posted: Fri 5 February, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: D4D™, Day Trips, Domestic, Driving, Music, Sociable, Travel | Leave a comment »

For the first time this year, I’ve got a weekend that’s being spent primarily at home. It’s about time.

As I’ve written before, it’s been a chaotic start to the year. I don’t regret a bit of it, and it’s all been my choice, but at the same time I’m definitely knackered and glad of a pause.

The last couple of weeks have involved mid-week concerts – one in Manchester, one in London – which have made for late nights (well, early mornings) so having a weekend without a lot of mileage is definitely a boon.

I’ve still got more stuff booked in, but it shouldn’t be quite as manic for the next couple of weeks, at least.

Not Always Sensible, Though

Posted: Mon 2 November, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Fog, People, Shopping, Sociable, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Of course, following on from the post about trying to be more sensible and have a bit of down-time, I was still busy all weekend…

As it was, the weekend consisted of

  • Braving Ikea on a weekend, for a present for a friend’s young child. (New range, cool stuff, needed to be done) In particular, this. Which is nicely warped, and amused me lots.
  • Driving across to Oxford to see a friend
  • Then going with her to a quiz-night thing
  • And getting back at well-past midnight, then also not getting to sleep ’til nearly two (get your minds out of the gutter, nothing like that!)
  • Driving back home on the Sunday
  • Generally geeking out and working on stuff

So fun, but not really restful, per se… 🙂

Busy January

Posted: Thu 8 October, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Gigs, London, Music, Sociable | Leave a comment »

Having bought the tickets for Massive Attack yesterday, it’s looking like January 2016 is going to be a busy one…

Alongside normal life, I now have tickets for

  • Henry Rollins in Bristol
  • Henry Rollins in London
  • Massive Attack in Manchester
  • Massive Attack in London
  • Billy Connolly in London

So yeah, that’s going to be pretty eventful…

What Comes Next

Posted: Fri 2 October, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Business, Domestic, Getting Organised, Own Business, People, Sociable, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

This week I’ve secured and extended my current contract through ’til the end of the year – which is a pretty decent situation to be in.

However, I know that at some point in 2016 I’ll be looking for something new, and it’s making me think a bit about how it’ll work out.

The thing is, I’ve now been working in the current one for a year, and I’ve very much become used to working in my own office, at my own speed, with my own company. One day a week of on-site work, which has been enough on the whole workplace socialising thing for me, and the rest of the time I’ve been able to avoid general inanity and bullshit – which has been lovely.

I’m convinced it’s one of the things that has resulted in my general equanimity and contentment this year (as written about recently) so in some ways I’m really not looking forward to a return to four or five days a week on-site – which is the likelihood for the next contract, unless I can get very lucky and another ‘working from home’ contract – but we’ll just have to see how it all works out.

I’m not going to borrow trouble, though. It’s just something I thought about while looking at the contract extension and so on.

And really, only time will tell how things work out in the new year.

Meatopia – A weekend of meat (and walking)

Posted: Mon 21 September, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Day Trips, Domestic, Driving, Food, London, M1, Sociable, Thoughts, Travel | Leave a comment »

The weekend just gone was primarily spent in London, as it was the weekend of Meatopia, a festival of barbecue, meat, and music. Now in its third year, and I’ve been to each one.

I like the Grillstock festival (which is similar) but it’s still not a par on Meatopia, which really does bring in some of the star chefs in the barbecue/steak/brisket/burger sector of the industry, and there’s always some spectacular stuff on the list.

Meatopia is also more about smaller dishes – it’s more like a set of courses on a tasting menu, and you get to try a bundle of things. Grillstock’s stuff tends to be more meal-sized, so you don’t have as many, although there are also less/fewer (whichever) stands/cooks, so it kind-of balances out.

But if the two were ever to run on the same weekend, Grillstock would lose. For me, it’s that simple.

Because I knew I’d be eating a fair quantity of meat, I was (vaguely) sensible about it, and parked at the Barbican Centre (my new favourite parking in London) and walked to the venue at Tobacco Dock – about a 5km walk – which I really enjoyed. I know most people don’t see 5km each way as “a stroll” but for me that’s what it was – and improved by fun things along the way, like turning a corner and seeing the Tower of London, with the Shard directly behind it, which was a nice surprise.

As for the food, we did well. In no particular order, I had…

Saturday

  • Kid Shwarma (Shwarma from Goat Kid)
  • Chargrilled Herdwick Lamb with Smoked Cream Potato
  • Picanha (cut of beef)
  • Smoked Shortrib Sandwich with Pickles and Sriracha Cocktail Sauce (awesome)
  • A fistful of pigs (pig cooked different ways)
  • One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer (Beef, Bourbon-braised peppercorns, beer cheese) – awesome
  • Anatolian Spiced FlatIron Steak with Babaganoush
  • Chicky Chicky Bang Bang (Barbecued Chicken in a bun, but with extra burger because the chef decided it wasn’t meaty enough)
  • Hawksmoor’s ‘Spitalfields Burger’ with braise short rib (excellent)
  • Bourbon-glazed Tomahawk steak surf’n’turf
  • Oh, and ice-cream, and a cider

Being a bad, bad person, I think also stopped of at Honest in Liverpool Street (it was kind-of on my route back to Barbican) to have their new Oktoberfest special burger, which was also ace. Although I couldn’t face the chips that came with it…

Sunday

  • Dirty Jerk Ribeye on Beef Dripping New Potatoes (Amazing)
  • Pit-roast Middlewhite Pigs, Yorkshire Pudding, Onion Gravy
  • DuckHearts with Apple and Kohlrabi salad (my least-liked of the weekend)
  • Aged Venison Shoulder, Leek and Potato (Excellent – Joint Favourite of the weekend)
  • Herdwick Lamb Chop with Lamb Fat Hollandaise (Mega)
  • BBQ Chicken Shawarma, Garlic Tahini, Dill Pickle, Chilli Sauce (Joint Favourite of the weekend)
  • Spicy Old Cow (48-58 (opinions varied) day aged beef, chillis, beef dripping, sourdough roll)
  • Hawksmoor Tomahawk Steak with Bulgogi (I don’t know) Hollandaise.
  • And ice-cream and cider again

All told, an excellent weekend, with a total of 30km walked over the two days – which balances out a lot of the food intake!

Ker-Fut 4 – Organising The Return

Posted: Wed 8 July, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Car Repairs, Cynicism, Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised, Single Life, Sociable, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Things like hire-cars and the like are the only time I can currently think of where it would be more useful to be in a relationship, to have a partner who could help out.

The logistics of collecting the hire-car were easy enough – taxi to hire place, drive home.

However, the whole thing for getting Saab back, returning hire-car, and having Saab accessible for other things that need doing (while also reducing the cost of taxis etc) has turned into something a little more mind-melting, to the point I actually had to write it down to figure the best way of doing things in a timely fashion.

All things going well, I’ll sort it all out tomorrow (Thursday) and then it’ll be dealt with.

Mind you, if that’s the only time I really think it would be more useful to be with someone – that’s not a good sign for my relationship prospects, is it?

Receding Mania

Posted: Tue 16 June, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Driving, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Sociable, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

The last couple of months have been pretty manic and busy for me, as has been shown (kinda) by the paucity of posts round here.  Thankfully, it’s now slowing down a bit, and should be considerably calmer over the next while. I hope that’s the case, anyway.

Since the start of April, I’ve been to :

  • Somerset
  • Edinburgh
  • Newcastle
  • Manchester/Stockport (3 times)
  • Brighton
  • London (3 times)
  • Oxford (twice)

That’s as well as working during the week, and at least one trip to Chesham per week for work purposes. There’s probably also other stuff I’ve forgotten about, too. (Hell, I know there’s stuff I’ve not listed, which is other more local sociable stuff etc.)

This coming weekend should be the last busy one for a while – and I can’t deny, while I’m going to enjoy it, I’m also looking forward to some down time, to having some anti-social space for a bit.

I’m still going to be busy and doing stuff, but I’m fairly optimistic that it’ll gear down a bit as well.

And from there, well, it’s more about sorting out some of my own odds and sods – some jobs round the house, that kind of thing. (And yes, I know, it’s a rented place – but there’s still a couple of things that need doing by me!)  With a bit of luck, there’ll be more writing time too, both here and on Other Projects…

Pooh and Pooch

Posted: Mon 8 June, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Animals, Day Trips, Domestic, People, Sociable, Travel | Leave a comment »

Yesterday was a warm and rather relaxed and pleasant day. All very surprising.

One of my friends is involved in the organisation of the World Pooh Sticks Championships, which was held yesterday at a new venue for the first time in thirty-odd years.

pooh_monday

She’s also recently bought a new dog, a Cavachon (Cavalier King Charles mixed with Bichon Frise) who’d had her final jabs and was finally allowed out in the world. So it seemed like a great idea for getting her to meet lots of people and dogs, and see how she did.  And that was my work for the day, which was obviously a real hardship.

And it was a good day all round.  The competition was a success in its new venue – with loads of people visiting and watching – and Pooch was excellent. She’s had a really positive first Big Day Out, and was knackered by the end of it.

Now that is what weekends are for…

Burger Crawl

Posted: Mon 27 April, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: BurgerCrawl, Day Trips, Domestic, Food, Getting Organised, London, Reviews(ish), Sociable, Travel | Leave a comment »

Over the weekend, I took part in a very silly event that I’d discussed and come up with – a Burger Crawl in London.

It started off with a conversation about alternatives to pub crawls – I can’t even remember why it came up – but it seemed like a fun idea.

Originally it was going to be four of us as a trial run, but two dropped out, so it ended up just being one friend and me doing it, but that was fine.

Because it was the first one, and my idea, it ended up being my plan for where to go. So I made the choice that it was going to be all new places, nowhere we’d been before, and all in a similar area of London, rather than roaming all over the place.

As it turned out, it almost started badly. The place I’d picked for the first one – breakfast at Honest Burger‘s place near Liverpool Street – wasn’t open, they only do breakfasts Monday to Friday.  So, a bit of a trip on the first hurdle, but we had other places on the list of possibles, and went for one of those instead.

So the final list was

We did well – much more food and it would’ve involved exploding stomachs – and was a brilliant day with all the new venues being excellent. I plan to return to all of them – just maybe not all in one day again.

Oh – and we covered a fair amount of distance as well, which probably helped in dealing with the amount of food…

Distance Covered

There will be more BurgerCrawls in the future – and we’ve had a couple of other related ideas too – but for a first go, it all went really well, and definitely a success.

Month of Madness

Posted: Wed 8 April, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Day Trips, Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised, Sociable, Travel, Weirdness | Leave a comment »

This month is actually quite busy for me outside of work.

Last weekend, I ended up doing a daytrip to Somerset.

This coming weekend I’m in Edinburgh – I may have mentioned that before

The weekend after, I’m in Manchester.

The weekend after, I’m in London.

And then it’s May.

I’m not quite sure how that’s all happened, but it’s going to be fun.

Office Space

Posted: Mon 19 January, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Introspective, Own Business, Sociable, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

With the way work is going this year, I’m going to be looking again at renting some office space for the time being.

Last year I rented a desk in a shared space for a while, and that worked fairly well, but wasn’t perfect for a number of reasons. So while that’s still an option, I’m looking at stepping things up a bit this time round, and actually doing a proper office.

As with all large towns, there’s a number of options available in both Milton Keynes and Bedford, and I’m looking at my first one tomorrow.  It sounds promising – designed for small and start-up businesses, monthly contract, central Milton Keynes and so on – but I need to see it and figure out the necessities.  I’ll write more about it in the coming days, I’m sure.

Why do I need some space like this?

Well, I’ve got a lot of work coming up, and while working from home is OK, I find that it’s occasionally difficult to keep up motivation when there’s no real push to be “at work”. Also, I find it’s suddenly very easy to not actually interact with anyone for several days a week, and that’s not ideal either.  I know I could easily become very hermit-like and insular, and I don’t actually want to do so.

So renting an office space will at least give me back a commute, a journey to/from work, and because the building is shared with a number of others, it’ll probably allow me to make some connections and interactions along the way. Never a bad thing.

Renting a desk is OK – but limits me to the times the main office is open, which I found more restrictive than it could’ve been, and limited the available hours I had.  I’m hoping that a rented office will give me more flexibility, enabling me to do longer hours when necessary and so on.

Anyway, we’ll see what happens and how it all shakes out. I’ll know more by the end of Tuesday…

What Kind Of Year Will It Be?

Posted: Thu 1 January, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: 2014/15, 2015/16, Business, Creativity, D4D™, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Photography, Resolutions, Sociable, Thoughts, Travel, Weigh Less, Work-related, Write More, Writing | 1 Comment »

As regular readers know, I don’t really do New Year’s Resolutions. It’s partly my knee-jerk response to the whole “Everyone else is doing it” ethos, which means I won’t. But also New Year is just an arbitrary day for making plans – and I tend to do it from birthday to birthday, for no better reason than that it’s an easy day to remember as a start/finish date.

Anyway, with that said I do have plans for 2015. Sometimes plans work better on a calendar year instead of birthday-to-birthday – although there’s also a couple of ideas and plans this time that would also work better to a fiscal year, April to March. But for the sake of argument I’ll stick (for now) to my usual resolution/plan structure, while also acknowledging the whole 2015 thing.

What I won’t do is go into reams of details – I know what I want to do, and I’ve got most of it written down in to-do lists and the like – but it can all be summed up in four key points, which can be summarised as:

  • Create More – includes writing, photography, and web-based work/business plans
  • Do More – includes activities, day trips, longer weekends, and perhaps even a holiday or two.
  • Save More – working to rebuild finances, build up some backup savings, and restore the credit score.
  • Weigh Less – the goal is to lose another two stone in 2015, which is what I also lost in 2014. So it’s feasible.

And that’s “it”. Obviously there’s details, sub-plans and sub-goals in there as well, but they’re the key points. They’ll do me for now.

I’m hoping that 2015 will continue in the positive direction that started in the last quarter of 2014.  I’m quite sure there’ll be some hiccoughs and roadbumps along the way – that’s realism rather than cynicism, my life is never a truly smooth process – but with any luck at all it’ll be a positive year, and lots will get done.

And if not, if things go wrong, then I’ll just do what I can, and keep on in the same way as I had to with 2014.

But I do hope that 2015 is positive and constructive. That’s the intention, at least. But we’ll see.

Solo – Dining

Posted: Sun 21 December, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: 2015/16, Change, Cynicism, Domestic, Festering Season, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Food, Introspective, New Year, People, Personality, Single Life, Sociable | Leave a comment »

As I’ve said many times before, I’m pretty comfortable with being single, with living my own life, and not really needing any company for a lot of things. I’m happy going to concerts on my own, and to the cinema – indeed, doing most things like that. It suits me and the way I am.

However, there’s one thing I don’t like doing on my own – and get your minds out of the gutter, please! – which is going out for meals. I don’t know why it affects me more than other things – there’s not really any logical reason for it – but it does.

So, in 2015 I’m going to be addressing it a bit, and forcing myself to do it. There are places (both local and further away) that I really want to go to, and so this coming year that’s what I’m going to do. There’ll be a list of places I want to visit – which I may put on here, or may not – and we’ll see how I do.

And I’m starting the way I mean to go on. Earlier this month on Twitter I saw a New Years’ Eve menu that I *really* fancied at a place in Cambridge, and I’ve been wavering on it. But having decided to get my arse in gear with this, I got in touch and booked myself in – and I’m really looking forward to it.

It’s also the first time in *cough* years that I’ll have been out on New Years’ Eve – although it’s quite likely I’ll bugger off before midnight, because I’m still an antisocial bastard who doesn’t like people all that much…

 

Signs of Progress

Posted: Sun 14 December, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Business, Creativity, D4D™, Depression, Domestic, Geeky, Introspective, People, Sociable | Leave a comment »

Last week, I had a couple of indicators that things are definitely in a recovery pattern for me again. (And not just that contract offer a month before the current one expires)  This year’s been pretty up-and-down, albeit with more ‘down’ than was feasible or expected, so it’s good that it appears to be closing off on a period of much-needed ‘up’.

The first real thing has been the ability/desire to get out a bit over the last month or so. As already blogged, I’ve been off to Felixstowe and Brighton, as well as two London concerts. That’s a massive improvement over a lot of the year already.

Next was the MK Geek Night last Thursday. I’ve been going to this now for a couple of years, but this year had a couple of wobbles – one where I didn’t want to go because of Too Many People, and one where I was simply too busy/overworked to go (although that one also had the potential for Too Many People as well as A Couple Of People I Really Didn’t Want To See)   Me being me, I usually get myself a bit stressed about it due to the whole lots-of-people thing anyway, but those couple of times this year it felt pretty insurmountable.

However, this time it didn’t worry me at all – just turned up with some other friends, and all was good. That, I think, was the real ‘lightbulb moment’, that showed me I was doing better now than I have been in a while. Indeed, I even commented on it to one of the friends while we were there.  Definitely A Good Thing.

And finally, I’ve started writing again. There’s a couple of ideas on the burners, and as yet I’m not sure if they’ll actually go through to completion – but they’re being written, which is another major sign of things being better.

So yes, it’s all a bit positive.  Of course, the pessimist side of me is now just waiting for the other shoe to drop, for something to mess up a bit, but that’s par for the course – and I’m not hiding away or sheltering and trying to avoid the shoe when/if it does drop, I’m getting on with things in the meantime.

Signs of Life

Posted: Mon 10 November, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Bankruptcy, Cynicism, Domestic, Driving, Finances, Getting Organised, Sociable, Stupidity, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Now that work-based sanity appears to have made a return, things are coming back to a more even keel – both life-wise and fiscally.

For me, the first major sign of this came this weekend, which went thusly…

On the Saturday, I went to meet up with friends in Nottingham. When I left home, it was a decent day, so I didn’t bother checking if I had a jacket/coat with me. (You can see where this is going already, can’t you?)

By the time I was halfway up the M1, it was absolutely slashing down, waterlogged roads the lot. “Bugger”, thought I, “but at least I’ve a jacket or coat in the boot”.

Once I got to Nottingham, it was still pissing down, but I parked up, and opened the boot. Jacket, there was none. Coat, there was none. Fuck it, thought I.

Due to being (as always) pathologically early, I still had the chance to go and buy a new jacket, so I did.

And that was the sign of being OK again. It wasn’t a worry, I knew I had the available money. I could afford this extra unexpected expense, and it didn’t mean I was concerned about what’d happen at the end of the month, what would be needed to counteract this item.

It’s still annoying, because if there’s something I really didn’t need, it’s another bloody jacket. I don’t even wear them most of the time. But needs must when the devil drives, or when the clouds open. It’s one of those things, a bit annoying, but better to have a day of not being soaking wet and enjoying things far less as a result.

But it was positive for showing the process of recovery after the shitty job…

Feastless

Posted: Mon 4 August, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Food, Getting Organised, London, Sleep - or lack thereof, Sociable, Travel | 1 Comment »

This weekend just gone, I was planning to go to Feast in London, but events conspired against me.

I was going to go on Friday, but didn’t even get out of work ’til gone 8pm. It would’ve been at least 9 by the time I got there (by which time I could also have been home), another hour to get back to wherever I’d left the car, and then an hour to get home. And frankly, I was knackered anyway.   So no.

Saturday was never going to happen – I was seeing parents during the day, and getting domestic sluttery out of the way in the afternoon/evening.

Sunday was a maybe. And turned into a no. Work stuff rose up to bite me, along with a general disinclination to travel back into London on a day when I didn’t need to make the journey.

And so I missed it.  I think if I’d been really enthused I’d have made the time/effort to go (as I will with Meatopia at the same place in a month’s time) but everything else just made me think “Blah”.

Of course if I’d booked it in to go with anyone else, things would’ve been different. But I hadn’t, so they weren’t.

And that’s that. I’ll try to go to the next one instead.

Leisure Mileage

Posted: Sat 31 May, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Gigs, M25, Sociable, Thoughts, Travel | 1 Comment »

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve covered over a thousand miles just for social stuff.

Last weekend (the Bank Holiday) was notably mental, even by my standards. It involved :

  • Friday. Go to work, come back at lunchtime, drive down to the O2 to see Nine Inch Nails in concert, and drive home.  Home at 1am.
  • Saturday. Drive down to Tunbridge Wells for a friend’s birthday do. Enjoy that, not drink much, then think “sod it” and drive home at the end of the night rather than sleeping in a tent. Home at 1.30ish.
  • Sunday. See the parents for a fleeting visit, just so we all know that each other is alive.
  • Monday. Drive over to Brentwood to meet up with friends. Drive home.

All told, that little lot amassed some 750 miles – and meant I travelled the same section of M25 (from M1 round to Dartford Crossing, or thereabouts) no less than three times in four days..  And then a meeting on the Tuesday down in Hampshire.

This weekend is a little bit calmer, but still consists of

  • Friday. Normal work travel, cinema in the evening, then home.
  • Saturday. Into Milton Keynes, collect new glasses and do some other domestic tat. Then drive down to Somerset for a house-warming thing, stopping off at Bristol to collect a couple of train-travellers and get them there too
  • Sunday. Come back. (Unsure yet whether that’ll also be via Bristol or not)
  • Monday. New job, new office, similar commute to the last month.

And next weekend involves a trip into London to meet up with friends and visit a couple of galleries with exhibitions I want to see.

I must be bloody barmy…

Hectic

Posted: Fri 21 March, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Insomnia, London, Own Business, Sleep - or lack thereof, Sociable, Work-related | 1 Comment »

Another busy week, what with one thing and another. Lots of prospective work, lots of paperwork, and being sociable as well. It’s a tough life.

As it is, it looks like I’ve now got work in from two ex-clients, as well as the ‘proper’ job, and some prospective bits along the way – and there’s still the other prospective bits I want to do for my own company/business.

Other than that, the week has also involved trips to see friends, cinema visits, and tonight I’m in London to see Bill Bailey do a test-run of his new show.

Hopefully the weekend will involve down-time – although I’m not convinced – and I’m currently debating taking a day off next week just to catch up on some sleep and other stuff.

So yeah, back to business as usual next week, I think. Or maybe some updates over the weekend too – depends how things go.

Surprised

Posted: Mon 17 March, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Sociable, Sweary | Leave a comment »

Over the weekend, I saw one of the funniest things in ages.

Grabbing lunch in a restaurant, a family were sat near me. Parents and two daughters, about seven and ten (at a wild guess). The children had obviously been bickering, and it had carried on into the restaurant. Not loud enough to be annoying, just children noise, with the older one snarking at the younger pretty much constantly.

Obviously it all got too much, and the younger one yelled at full volume “Oh, just FUCK OFF!”  Impossible to miss.

It was hilarious. Obviously the parents didn’t think the girl knew language like this, and the elder one was pretty shocked too – enough that she shut up, obviously knowing that things had Gone Too Far.

And I’m sure I’m not the only person in that place who was just about crying with laughter.

Peak Mileage

Posted: Mon 10 March, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Sleep - or lack thereof, Sociable, Travel | Leave a comment »

A good weekend has been had, allbeit with a fair number of miles involved. Nowhere near any of my super-heavy-mileage weekends of previous years, but still not bad.

A very good friend was having her wedding (technically her second wedding, but we’ll gloss over that) up in the Peak District – just outside Darley Dale and Matlock – so Saturday morning was a quick drive up the M1 and up to the venue in plenty of time, so I had a wander through Matlock as well. Sadly, it turned out that Matlock was having Dipshits Day Out, leading to whole hordes of fuckwits in the shops and pub where I went for a drink while wasting time. Ye Gods.

A great wedding (and venue) made the rest of the day really good, along with meeting up with old friends and so on.

Sunday was glorious, and a trip over to see another old friend in New Mills ensued, including sitting out in the sun and putting the world to rights. Then a drive down to near-Oxford to see the parents before they bugger off to the US for a couple of weeks, and then finally home. All told, just over 400 miles in two days…

  • Home -> Peak District (130 miles)
  • Peak -> New Mills (40 miles)
  • New Mills -> Parents (200 miles)
  • Parents -> Home (40 miles)

And then just the usual 40 mile commute this morning as usual!

Going Solo

Posted: Wed 22 January, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Introspective, Own Business, People, Sociable, Thoughts, Work-related | 2 Comments »

Assuming that everything comes through OK (I’m still awaiting final confirmation) one of the interesting things about the new job will be how I handle working from home (WFH) for four days a week.

I know I gripe (regularly) about colleagues and so on, so in some ways it might be nice to not have to deal with people for a while. But at the same time it is good to have some social contact, which wouldn’t necessarily be the case with a WFH role.

Time will tell, I’ll find out how I do. I’ve still got other options, potentially including renting an office space that I can share and get some social interactions in that way. We’ll see.

Quiet(er) Weekend

Posted: Sun 15 December, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised, Shopping, Sociable | Leave a comment »

As I said earlier this week, the last month or so has been pretty manic and sociable, including lots of driving and the like. It’s been great, but it’s left me absolutely knackered this week. So the plan is/was to have a quiet one – or at least quieter.

Of course that still means that this weekend includes

  • Shopping in various places, including
    • Cat supplies for the next month
    • Minor domestic food shop
    • an early (and high-speed) visit into central Milton Keynes *shudder*
  • Getting the car’s tyres replaced/refitted
  • Sorting out domestic bits along the way, including
    • library book return/renewal
    • posting invoices, expenses claims etc.
    • Bloody bins
    • Collecting various parcels etc. from the local Post Office
  • Visiting the parents

So it’s not exactly been quiet – but at least it’s been on my terms, and I feel much better for having got a load of stuff done while also having down-time, and not covering more than a hundred miles or so.

Staybridge

Posted: Mon 2 December, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Sociable, Travel, Work-related | 2 Comments »

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity (for which read “I paid to use”) a new(ish) hotel concept in the UK, a IHG brand called “Staybridge Suites”.  (They do have their own domain name, but it just points to the same IHG one – major missed trick) They’re aimed primarily at the business market – which currently over-run with Travelodge and Premier-Inn level ‘no expense spent’ rooms.

Currently there are only four in the UK – London (Stratford/Olympic area), Newcastle, Liverpool and Birmingham.  From what I saw over the weekend though, there should be a lot more of them – they’ve got the potential to kick Travelodge’s arse into the next century.

Basically, for not much more than a Travelodge, you get a small suite. Bedroom, bathroom and a living room. What makes it stand out that is that there’s also your own small well equipped kitchen area, including two-plate cooker, microwave, fridge/freezer, dishwasher. If you’re staying in the area for a while you can buy your own food, and have what is effectively a home away from home.

Even more importantly, there’s also a breakfast bar that doubles as a desk, including a decent office-type chair. There’s plenty of power sockets, wired internet connections, and wifi is provided as part of the cost of the room, rather than being the extra cost it is in most places. They’ve thought about the ‘travelling business person’ market, and aimed the rooms right at it.

They provide the breakfast – undersold in the blurb as “complimentary continental’ – which really is a breakfast buffet on a par with (and somewhat better than) the competition.  They also have a 24-hour “pantry” with food, snacks, frozen meals, and drinks – at reasonable prices. Sure, a supermarket is cheaper, but we’re also not talking rip-off hotel mini-bar levels of pricing.

Additionally, they’ve organised ‘meeting times’ in evenings during the week, giving you the opportunity to meet other hotel users, ‘do some networking’ and all that. There’s food and drink – and again, it’s complimentary. I know that in this case ‘complimentary’ means “it’s all in the original cost/bill”, but even that is pretty radical in comparison to the competitor’s “Here’s the price for the bedroom, now we’ll charge extra for everything else”.

All told, it’s been very well thought about, and I don’t think there was anything about it that I didn’t like.  Taking into account all the ‘complimentary’ stuff that you’d pay for anywhere else, I think it’s also a cost-effective solution.

Staybridge is definitely a brand/concept that I’d like to see more of in the UK – I know that if I end up working away from home again, I’ll look for a Staybridge before I look for any other accommodation options.

Following the Crowd

Posted: Fri 15 November, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Charity, Charm School, Cynicism, Introspective, People, Sociable, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

For many, many reasons – none of which I can really be chuffed with going into right now – I’ve grown up to be horrifically independent, both in action, life, and thought. One facet of that is that I’m sensationally bad at group activities, at doing what ‘most people’ do.

Today’s a case in point. I know I’ve waffed on about it before, but it’s Children in Need day, which is one of my particular bugbears.

“But it’s for charity, isn’t it?” is the calling-card of the day, assuming that if you’re not taking part and dressing up (or whatever) then you’re A Bad Person, and Uncharitable to boot. “Why not dress up, everyone else is doing it”.

And that’s part of my problem with the entire thing – it’s that ‘everyone else’ is doing it. Like Groucho Marx said, I’m not interested in being part of any club that’ll have me as a member. In the same way, if everyone else is doing something, you can be pretty damn sure that I won’t be.

The other side, when it comes to these days of charity and fundraising, is that I don’t like being conspicuous about which charities I support – and I like even less being forced (or attempts to force) to support charities because of how their perceived. I don’t publicise what I do, or who with, or why – because it’s no-one’s fucking business but my own. Being pushed to take part in something popular, into some fund-raising activity or other because everyone else is doing it, that can fuck right off.

So today, I’ll be in my corner, “Bah Humbug” hat and all. If you don’t like it, sod off. Go on, everyone else is doing it.

Neil Gaiman, “Fortunately, The Milk”

Posted: Wed 16 October, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Gigs, Literacy, London, Reviews(ish), Sociable, Words, Writing | Leave a comment »

Cover for Fortunately, The MilkLast night I was in London to see Neil Gaiman‘s one-off reading of his new children’s book, “Fortunately, The Milk” at the Methodist Central Hall in London, (also known as Central Hall Westminster) which was also fortuitously a friend‘s birthday (I won’t say which one)  As it turned out, we also bumped into Clair

It was excellent. I’d been lucky enough to get tickets when they went on sale, but I know it sold out pretty quickly. The tickets also included a special signed copy of the book as well, so definitely value for money.

It’d been billed as “with special guests”, but with no real clues as to who might turn up – and it turned out that (among others) Neil’s wife, Amanda Palmer came along as a surprise – even to Neil –  and Lenny Henry was also there, along with Mitch Benn, and live drawings from the book by Chris Riddell. (who is just ridiculously talented) There were several others who I didn’t immediately recognise, although some research has helped on that score.

The book itself is brilliant – if you’ve got spawn, add it to the Christmas list – and the performance of it was great, with lots of humour, and a brilliant atmosphere all the way through.

As for the venue, well, I want to visit that again and look at it properly – it’s quite amazing in and of itself, and even more so when you look at the history of the place. It’s spectacular inside, and totally not what I’d have expected from the name. It’s about as restrained and subtle as Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

A brilliant evening, even with a jam-packed train ride home. (Apparently there was some sporting event on at Wembley as well, which meant lots of happy football fans)

Solitary

Posted: Fri 4 October, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Introspective, Media, News, Sociable, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

This week I’ve seen two stories about the ‘Angola Three’, and in particular Herman Wallace, who has just been released after 41 years in solitary confinement, after a judge ruled he didn’t get a fair trial. In 1972.  (Bizarrely, the reason it wasn’t a fair trial is because women were excluded from the jury, in breach of the Fourteenth Amendment.) Oh yeah, and he’s only got weeks to live, as he’s got advanced liver cancer.

The first story was in Reuters, ‘Dying ‘Angola Three’ inmate freed after 41 years in solitary confinement‘. The BBC picked up the story too, and has also had a couple of supporting pieces, one about what solitary confinement does to a prisoner, and one asking how people survive solitary confinement at all.

It makes for interesting reading, as well as a pretty damning indictment of America’s methods of jailing and punishing people, some of which I still feel hails from that Puritan background of the original settlers.

Honestly though, you can’t really imagine being in that kind of situation, of hardly having any human contact for 41 years. It’s hard to conceive of a lifetime (near as dammit my lifetime, anyway) with minimal human contact and interaction, being confined to a 9′ x 6′ cell for at least 23 hours a day. Even more so when it’s for a crime that they say they didn’t commit (and for which there’s no evidence to say they did) But that’s what these men have lived through.  The final one of the three, Albert Woodfox, is still there, still in solitary confinement. He’s been there since 1972, and there’s no end in sight.

I’ve sometimes wondered how I would handle solitude and solitary life – in some ways I’m quite close to it anyway, not needing or wanting much in the way of physical interaction. But that’s on my own terms, and it’s my own choice. If I want to go out and interact, I can do. Most of my contact with friends is via t’internet, Twitter, Facebook, mobile phone and the like. It’s still interaction, just not on a physical level in general.

How would I handle it if that solitude were enforced? If it was in a cell with a locked door? Honestly, I don’t know. And I really wouldn’t fancy finding out.

[Updated : Herman Wallace died, less than a week after being released.]

Summer Noise

Posted: Sun 21 July, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Charm School, Domestic, People, Sociable, Thoughts | 2 Comments »

Every time it gets warm, I find there’s one behaviour of people around me that grates more than most. I know it’s primarily me being a grumpy and antisocial swine with no real desire for family/children, but still. it grates.

The thing is – basically – other people being ridiculously noisy.  I don’t mean they should be silent or anything similar, but why does any summer time have to involve super-loud conversations, screaming spawn, and so on and so on.

Yesterday, I was out at the local Forestry Centre – I’d had to go somewhere, as the local school fete ensured there was nowhere I could park near to my house, so I thought screw it, and went and sat in the sun. (There’s a side rant needed about that at some point, but that’ll be another day) While I was out there, there were no less than five family groups all yelling and shouting, letting their kids run riot, and generally just being asshats for no good reason.

In the evening I was sat back at home- having finally been able to park- and again there’s people yelling and screaming, and there seems to be no real consideration for the people around them. It’s like a “Fuck you, matey, we’re having a good time in the sun”, and that’s all there is to it.

M25 Circumnavigation

Posted: Sat 1 June, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Driving, London, M1, M25, People, Politics, Sociable | Tags: | 1 Comment »

This weekend, I’ve driven round most of the M25. The only section I missed out was from M40 to M1 (which I do on a regular basis anyway, so no major loss)  and by then I was sick of the road anyway.

It wasn’t just for fun, though. Yesterday was a drive from home (M1) to Chislehurst, in order to attend the wedding reception of Merialc. That particular run was OK, thankfully – even with the prevalence of roadworks etc. – until reaching the Dartford Crossing, which was as shafted as always, and took half an hour on its own.

Today I went round the other half, having decided to visit my parents who live off the M40. The roadworks on that section were far worse, although at least we were moving, if slowly.

It’s been a fun weekend (which I know means I need to either get a life, or get out more) but Lord above, the M25 does annoy me.

Weirdly, it’s not because of the generally shit quality of the road, the ongoing road works, or the tossbag drivers. What annoys me is that the M25 had the chance to be a great road, a great future-facing way to deal with all the possibilities relating to the increase of traffic round London for the next thirty to fifty years. And instead, it’s a lofting great white elephant. Why? Because no politicians or planners had the guts to stand up and say “Look, this is what we need, but let’s future-proof it, let’s make it all five carriageways each side, plan for a huge increase in traffic, and make it work properly”.

It could’ve been so good, and instead it’s just a bag of shit.

The Rebel Rebels

Posted: Mon 29 April, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Food, Gigs, London, Music, Photography, Public Transport, Sociable, Thoughts, Travel | 1 Comment »

Over the weekend, I went down to London to see the Rebel Rebels perform their final show.

Conveniently (for me, at least) it was held at the Elixir Bar, just round the corner from Euston – ideal, and meant I didn’t even need to consider overnighting in London.

As it was, I met up with Merialc and Erzsebel beforehand, and went for a curry at the Erzsebel-recommended “Diwana Bhel Poori House“. (round the other corner from Euston)  The food was excellent – although I can honestly say I have no idea what the hell I was eating – and made for a good start to the evening.

The evening itself was a fun time too – and while not being ‘official photographer‘, I still had the camera with me, and got some good shots. I’ve missed the Rebels’ previous shows for a number of reasons, so I’m glad I got to be there for the final one.

The journey home was OK too – albeit incredibly long, due to the train service stopping at every single station on the way. Being sober on the late train’s an experience in tolerance, not rising to any number of inane pisshead conversations and the like, but thankfully there was only one puker, so it could’ve been a lot worse all round.

A great evening all round, and it’s a pity that at the moment there aren’t more planned.

 

Ansel Adams, National Maritime Museum

Posted: Sat 6 April, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Creativity, Domestic, Photography, Reviews(ish), Sociable, Thoughts, Travel | 1 Comment »

Yesterday involved a trip into London, meeting a friend, and going to see the exhibition of Ansel Adams’ work at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

I’ve been a fan of Adams’ work for a long, long time, and have a couple of books of his work, but have never really seen any of the original work – so when the exhibition was announced, I knew it was something I wanted to go to.

I’m really pleased that I did go – so many of the photos in the exhibit are absolutely stunning. It sounds odd, but I was surprised by how many were actually really small. Logically I knew that they’re mainly taken on a 4″ x 5″ plate, but when you see the huge landscapes he’s taken, you always imagine them being epic in scale. And some of them are truly epic – prints 3 metres high, and absolutely stunning, including a triptych of photos that graced the foyer of an insurance company in San Francisco.

Honestly, I didn’t know some of the story of his work, of how ground-breaking and radical some of it was at the time, his influence and work on changing from the more ‘impressionist’ style of Pictorialism through to the more modern “Photorealism” and the f/64 movement (partly founded by Adams) for landscapes and so on, maximising the depth-of-field for the maximum detail throughout the frame.

It’s a stunning exhibition – there’s only a couple of prints I didn’t like, and so many that would love to have on my walls.

 

Catching Up, and Updates

Posted: Sat 22 December, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Sociable, Time | Leave a comment »

This year, I’ve actually sent out Christmas Cards – not something I always do, by any means. It’s also been a way of making sure people have new address details, as I know in some cases I’ve been utterly crap with keeping friends up to date on where I am. (And in some cases I know my addresses take up more than a page in their address books)

It’s been a good thing, too. I’ve caught up with a couple of friends whose situations had changed quite radically – one who’s now married, and one who’s now separated, as well as another who’s had a number of relatives with hospital-based issues and the like.

All told, it’s been a worthwhile exercise. I do feel slightly guilty for being a shit mate and not knowing these things already, but at least I know now, so it could be worse.

And now just to get on with the actual catching up…

Being Sociable

Posted: Sun 25 November, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Getting Organised, People, Sociable | Tags: | 2 Comments »

For the first time in way too long, last night I met up with a bundle of friends I haven’t seen in – we later worked out – two years.  Not since Pixeldiva‘s wedding in fact.

This time it was in London, at the Founder’s Arms, meeting up with (in no particular order) Gordon, Kirstie, Lori , Topper, Amanda, Claire, Karen, Pete and even a brief appearance by Svetzi (originally mistaken by me for a homeless person)

Thoroughly enjoyable, very silly, and definitely to be done again much sooner than every two years.

What’s Next ?

Posted: Thu 21 June, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Depression, Domestic, Getting Organised, Resolutions, Sociable, Thoughts, Time, Work-related | 3 Comments »

Looking back over the archives, it’s now five years (nearly 5 years 1 month, in fact) since I moved (with Herself) into the first house I’d owned, or been involved in owning. (And still the only house, actually) Which means that it’s eight years since I got together with Herself – and it’s also seven and a half years since I left Manchester, but that’s less relevant to this post.

Now, five years on, I’m back to being on my own, back in a rented place.  It wasn’t entirely my choice, more a conclusion to plenty of events in the run-up, but it’s where things are, and I’m going to try and make the best of it.

The thing is, I don’t really feel like I’ve made any progress in those eight years. Sure, there’ve been lots of changes, and lots of stuff has happened, but when all’s said and done, have I progressed? No – indeed I’d say I’m in a worse situation than I was back then.

Back in 2004, I was working – admittedly at a job I didn’t much like – and doing OK. My finances were up-and-down, more so than they should’ve been, but I really only had debts of £1,000 at any one time – my bank overdraft, and that was it. The house was rented, and was OK. I didn’t drive (ah, OK, that’s progress) – but I didn’t need to, with a decent transport system at my door. Sure, longer travel was more of a pain, but I was used to that.

Now, I’m working – at a job I like, but don’t want to do Forever – and my finances are shit. I owe a significant amount of money, and know it’s going to take a long time to sort that out. That debt has been my own choice, to a degree, but I’m not happy about it, and I want to get rid of it. It’s just that sometimes that looks like a bit of an insurmountable task.  The house is rented, and is OK. I do drive, and have a car, so yeah, that’s progress.

I don’t have any assets, realisable or not, and I don’t really have anything of merit going for me right now.

The job? It’s OK – even good – but it’s not really what I want to do any more. Except I don’t know what I do want to do, either.

And with everything else going on, I most certainly don’t feel like I’ve anything to offer anyone else. I don’t want anyone else either, so it’s not all bad, but it’s the feeling that’s just a bit grim right now. All I’m going to focus on for the foreseeable is getting myself sorted out, figuring out what I want to do/be, finding what (if anything) makes me happy, and all that jazz. It’s not reinvention time, but it is – I think – rediscovery time.

What’s going to come next? I honestly don’t know. This is either a new beginning that leads to something interesting, or it’s the beginning of the end. Who knows which way it’ll go? Not me, that’s for sure.

[Note : I’m just having a down day. Not great, not by a long chalk. But I’ll get through it, one way or t’other]

Mileage Tot-Up

Posted: Mon 19 July, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Sociable, Travel | 3 Comments »

This month (as I’ve mentioned before) has been a bit of a hog when it comes to mileage done.

So far (and excluding the normal 350 miles per week for work/commuting) it’s involved…

  • Down to Berkshire to drop off Hound – 300 mile round trip
  • Odds and Sods for party organisation, ferrying stuff and the like – 50ish miles
  • Across to Peterborough to collect Herself’s brother for the party weekend – 75 miles
  • Down to Berkshire to collect Hound – 300 mile round trip
  • Down to London to deliver Herself etc. for her break – 200 mile round trip
  • Down to London to collect Herself etc. from her break – 200 mile round trip
  • Up to Manchester and back – 600 mile round trip

That’s just over 1,700 miles this month.  If you include the work commute, we go up to just over 3,100 miles.

I don’t mind the driving, it’s not resented or anything – for the most part it’s actually enjoyable (except for a small dollop of aquaplaning on the A1, but the less said about that the better) but it does amaze me on occasion just what kind of mileage I do knock up over time – although this July has been pretty excessive, even by my standards.

I probably need to check when the car’s due for its next service, don’t I?

Gone-age

Posted: Fri 16 July, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Sociable | Leave a comment »

Away for the weekend.

Little to no chance of updates.

Enjoy the peace and quiet.

Out Somewhere, Being Busy

Posted: Sat 26 June, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Norfolk, People, Shopping, Sociable | Leave a comment »

Out of action today because of

  • More Driving
  • Shopping
  • Sociable Stuff
  • Family Stuff
  • Barbeque Stuff (May be associated with the two items above)

Life getting in the way of writing. It happens.

Blog/Tweet Meet

Posted: Sat 12 June, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: D4D™, People, Sociable, Travel | Leave a comment »

While I was down in London this time, I organised to meet up with some long-standing friends, most of whom I hadn’t seen in far too long.

I’ve known Lori and Topper since before the first Mancunian Blogmeet (October 2003, fact fiends) , known Pix since I met her at Karen and Pete’s place in Wokingham in around 2004 (I’ve looked back in the archives and can’t find that one mentioned at all – how strange) and Sevitz since Mancuian Blogmeet 2 or 3, I think.

Since then we’ve all met on occasion – and I was able to meet Lori and Sevitz last time I was in London too – but it’s always good to do so again. We do all get on really well, and we really should meet up much more often I think – the time always seems to fly past (and so does the beer) while we all gas and put the world to rights (again).

As Lori says in her own post on it, it’s also interesting to see the way the technology has changed for organising these things. Where it used to be all done via blog and comments, this time it was initially done by email, with final decisions done by email, Twitter and texts on mobile phones/smartphones.

Anyway, it was (again) a really great evening with a dollop of beer consumed as well as some gin and wine (on the part of Lori and Pix) as well as meeting Carl, Pix’s fiancée, which was a joy too.

Hopefully we’ll organise another one within the year!

Changed Plans (Again)

Posted: Sat 27 March, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Geeky, Getting Organised, Sociable, Thoughts, Travel, WHC2010, Writing | Leave a comment »

This weekend I was supposed to be at Brighton Shock, the 2010 the World Horror Convention.

Next weekend, I was supposed to be at Odyssey 2010, the SciFi Eastercon.

As it happens, plans have changed (now there’s a common theme) and I won’t be at either.

This weekend ended up clashing Brighton Shock with both WebSourceEast and the Peter Gabriel concert at the O2, plus I figured I couldn’t really justify being away for two long weekends on the trot with work and home. So Brighton Shock got the boot.

As for Eastercon, when I signed up for it I hadn’t realised that Easter was the date it was, and it would’ve meant being away for Herself’s birthday. (Less charitable souls might suggest that me not being around would be a good present in and of itself, but that’d be nasty) Additionally I did some maths and figured out that the cost of it all would be feckin’ expensive, as it’s at the Radisson hotel at Heathrow – not a venue known for its low prices, I think it’s fair to say.

So instead I’m at home for the next two weekends and not travelling round the country like a loon. In some ways that’s disappointing, in others it actually makes a lot of sense.

Bowling

Posted: Sat 6 March, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Introspective, People, Sociable, Thoughts, Work-related | 2 Comments »

The bowling night on Thursday was actually quite  a lot of fun – helped by the fact our team won, but still, quite a laugh all round. I know, you lot never expected me to say something like that about a work-based social event. Truth be told, neither did I.

I do find bowling fascinating though. Any time I go, there’s always at least one lane of people with absolutely no fucking clue whatsoever about throwing a ball down the lane. Pretty much all the time, they’re in the lane next to one with at least one decent person playing – by which I mean someone who knows what they’re doing, and scores over about 125 or so in a game. Not perfect, but a damn sight better than the people next to them.

And yet those people with no clue never (and I do mean bloody never) take a look at the person next to them, and see if they can figure what they’re doing wrong/differently. It’s bizarre.

When I first went to bowling – admittedly, many moons ago now – I did exactly that. I watched some decent people and figured out most of it from there. It’s not difficult, just watch and learn. As a result, I’m not bad now, (I tend to average around 110 – 120 per game) pretty consistent in how I bowl, and if I went more regularly I’d probably be a lot better. (Which might be something to think about doing, I don’t know yet) There were other people on Thursday a lot better than me – and others a lot worse. So I’m probably somewhere in the midle.

But even there, the people who were really bad at it didn’t seem to want to figure out anything about how to improve it.

For me, I always want to learn, want to improve on what I’m doing if/when there’s someone around who’s far better at [activity X] than I am. Maybe that’s where I differ with a lot of people, I don’t know.

Sociable

Posted: Thu 4 March, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Sociable, Work-related | 2 Comments »

Tonight after work I’m actually socialising with ’em too, and we’ll be off ten-pin bowling.

As has been previously noted, I’m not the most sociable of people when it comes to colleagues, so this comes as almost as much of a surprise to me as it did to Herself when I told her.

Still, it should be amusing one way or t’other.

Quiz Night

Posted: Sat 27 February, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Norfolk, People, Sociable | Leave a comment »

Last night we went off to another quiz, this time in benefit of Dereham Operatic Society. It was a quiz night with fish-and-chips, and turned out to be quite a fun night all told.

In the end we came second (well, joint second although we’re not quite sure how) and had a lot of fun – along with a fair amount of alcohol for the non-drivers.

The query about coming second was/is because the other team with the same score were right next to us – and we’d scored their sheets, so we’re pretty damn sure that they did worse than us. It’s not something worth protesting – we’ve seen that happen in other quizzes, and know that our reaction is always “What a bunch of tosspots – it’s not that serious!”.

Even with that minor doubt on the scores though, it was a fun night.

Sociability

Posted: Sat 3 October, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Sociable | Leave a comment »

This last week in London has been one of the more manic of the last couple of months.

Coupled with feeling rather rougher than the average badger’s arse due to a vile cold of snot-exploding proportions, I’ve ended up meeting up with friends on two out of the four nights – not that I’m complaining at all. In fact it’s been good fun, and I rather wish I could’ve done more of it during my time here.

On the Tuesday I met up with Lori, who I haven’t seen since the days of the Manchester blogmeets. (A disturbing five+ years ago, we realised) As a result, it was really good to catch up, put the world to rights, and generally talk and drink. Mind you, by the end of it my voice sounded like I should be working on an 0898 phone-sex line, it was that hoarse and rough. Very scary.

On Wednesday I met up with Sevitz (Or Svetzi, as he should be known) and Dragon. He’s another of the ones I’ve known online for years and always got on well with, so it was grand to meet up properly at last and properly put a face and voice to the name. (Mind you, think “Bottom-era Ade Edmondson”, and you’ve pretty much got Dragon in your mind – very odd, but absolutely no bad thing!) Having started off in the Concrete bar at the Hayward, we ended up eventually grabbing some food in the nearby Wagamama at about 11 before going our separate ways.

It’s been a really good week for being sociable – allbeit while also being an utterly crap week for both being a sneezing/coughing wreck, and all the crap about contracts etc. But it’s been enjoyable, re-connecting with old friends and connecting ‘in reality’ with others.

Who said the Internet’s anti-social, eh?