So what have I been up to?

Quite a lot really, in the last few months I've;

Looked at some weird bikes,

Enjoyed the weather,

Spent some quality time with my boys,

Been to my brother in Laws wedding in the beautiful Gougane Barra, West Cork, Ireland,


Been camping in France in our new tent and spent 4 days in Euro Disney with G +D and their boys,

Anything else? oh yeah I got a new job.

I've been in developement for a diferent role with the same company for years now but there have not been any vacancies. Last year there were two and I failed to get either. Bollocks. But earlier this year another opportunity opened and I got it. Yay!

Although due to various complicated internal wranglings I haven't actually started the job yet but officially I'm no longer a mere engineer, I am now a Post Sales Analyst, Hurrah!. Which is an I.T based role supporting clients software, print servers, workflows and numerous other things. I'm looking forward to getting started properly in the next 2 weeks.

So what what does the new job mean for this blog?

Well a bit tricky to answer, I'm in two mind's whether or not to continue with it. If I stopped completely no one would notice a difference! I have lost interest in blogging and really can't match the enthusiasm of people like Gemmak who blogs daily, and NML who runs several blogs as a business. For ages I stopped updating this blog but continued to read my favourite blogs but now I don't have the time or the inclination for that either. I do like the idea of chronicling my life to look back on it but that will only work if I make posts, So I think I will see how the new job goes and have a rethink in the new year.

TTFN, and have a nice christmas.

Must. Update. Blog.

AAAHHhhh the pressure!

anyway to pass the time here is a couple of tim vine jokes,

I told my girlfriend I had a job in a bowling alley. She said "Tenpin"I said, "No, it's permanent."

I met this bloke with a didgeridoo and he was playing Dancing Queen on it. I thought, "That's Aboriginal

Batman came up to me and he hit me over the head with a vase and he went T'PAU! I said "Don't you mean KAPOW?" He said "No, I've got china in my hand."

I'll get me coat.

Life begins.

Sunday was my beautiful Wife's 40th birthday and in a break from the norm I managed to not fuck it up.
After months of teasing her about a surprise "pink princess" birthday party, which she would have hated to the point of divorce, I did actually manage to surprise her.
Wifey believed we were going out for meal with our friends G & D but unknown to her I had arranged for some other friends to be at the restaurant already and nice surprise , and an excellent meal with some good company followed.

Don't believe what you read.

The UK paper the Daily Mail has an article on women seeking "e-venge" on cheating boyfriends using blogs or reading their e-mails etc. One of the women featured is NML (whom you will see listed in my sidebar) I have been a reader of NML's blog. "Tired of men" since 2005 and this article does not represent what her site has ever been about. I would therefore suspect that the information about the others is also inaccurate and badly reported (read as "made up").
There are lots of unfair comments left which are solely based on what the commenters have read, I have tried to leave a comment on the article but it's in moderation and I suspect it will never appear.
Another favourite blogger of mine, the girl with a one track mind, was also stitched up by a newspaper and lost the career that she loved because of it, although she seems to have done alright out of it in the long run (I rarely read her blog now as it's blocked by the corporate firewall for being too saucy).
NML is now a mother and in a loving and stable relationship and the site is now more about the craziness of family life, if you've never read it go and have a read and say I sent you :-)

The moral of this post is, don't believe what you read and be very careful if you ever have cause to talk to the press or media.

Vote for London

I'm not a very politically minded person, I really don't take much interest in anything political but if there's one thing in politics I'm sure of it's that Ken Livingstone is a nasty man. He is a horrible arrogant person who seems to think he owns London and thinks he doesn't have to answer to anyone. Some of his ideas are pretty sound, others are badly thought out but overall he is a wrong 'un.
I'm not going to tell you who to vote for in the mayoral election, just don't vote for Ken.

My prediction for the election is that Ken will get back in, but not because the majority of Londoners want him but because there are too many other candidates. The votes will be too divided and even though 70% of Londoners will not vote for Ken he will get in on a technicality. 28% might vote for Boris, 28% might vote for Brian Paddick, 14% will vote for others and Ken will get in with 30%.

Walking fat, Roman witches, fanny faced Ood's and disappearing Bees

Doctor Who is back oh yes!

Pretty good so far, Catherine Tate is different from your run of the mill assistant, not as hot as the lovely Freema Agyeman or as bushy eyebrowed as Billie Piper but still good in a sort of argumentative stroppy way.
Next week starts a two parter featuring returning classic baddies the Sontarans, and I'm gagging for the season finale featuring the return of an Uber baddie, which if you don't know who it is already, I'm not going to tell you.
By the way, why are the bees disappearing? Google it and find out.

Bad Parent's Club

Blimey I was in danger of missing my "next post in Q1" deadline.*



Well as usual lots going on, too much to write about and not enough time.

No1 son has been going to cubs for well over a year, he goes every week and last year got an award for the highest attendance. He is not a fairweather cubscout. The cubs do lots of excellent activities and camps etc and one of the things he was really looking forward to was the upcoming "Kip on a ship". This involves two cub packs spending the night on HMS Belfast and the day in London visiting the CBBC studio all in a fantastic trip. We put his name on the list for this trip last year and had heard nothing since. A couple of weeks ago when I picked him up from Cubs he tried to tell Akela on the way out that he hadn't been given a letter with the final details on it like the others had, but she was busy. I waited until she was free then asked her myself, she said she didn't have any more and would send one out. Half an hour later she was on the phone asking if we had received a letter to confirm No1 son's place etc, we hadn't. The bottom line was, no letter, no confirmation, no place. He couldn't go. He was devastated**. Of course in No1 son's eyes this was all our fault and we are the world's worst parents, why can't he go, he is deprived etc etc etc.
It seems we somehow got missed of the list when the letters went out. Part of the problem is that Akela runs a cub pack of 40 boys all on her own and she didn't have time to chase up people who didn't respond, there is a parents help rota but some of the parents seem to think that this is optional.
So in order to help Akela and possibly prevent any future "administrative errors" I have volunteered to help out at Cubs on a regular basis. There is a fine line between brave and stupid. So far I have survived two sessions and it hasn't been as bad as I dreaded (having three boys of my own is good training) although I've seen a different (not so nice) side to some of his schoolfriends who are in the cubpack. Anyway I've said I'll help out as much as I can, work permitting and I'll just have to see how it goes.

* it was over a week ago that I started writing this post and I realise that now I now have actually missed that deadline. Another nail in the coffin of my career as a journalist.

** just to put this in perspective, he also is devastated if he misses an episode of Ben 10 or Pokemon Diamond and Pearl or finds out that his brothers have gone to Burger King without him (this happened last night, and resulted in tears and sulking in his room). I shouldn't laugh.