P.S.

I hope you’re all well.  Those of you that know what I’m upto at the mo will appreciate the total lack of time I have to do anything other than work.

Those of you that don’t have the foggiest as to what I am doing with myself right now, it make me sound kinda interesting right?

RIGHT?!?!

Peace.

;-)

Interesting……

A couple of weeks ago I found out that I had an identical twin brother.

This was a great surprise to me as you can well imagine.

This was of greater surprise to my mother who was convinced that I was the only sprog to appear at the time.

(No, I’m not going mad, its the result of a long and convoluted period of “reasoning” by certain individuals I spend my working day with, and frankly it’s hilarious.  Needless to say I’m not going to disabuse said people of their notions!)  ;-)

Normal service will probably not be resumed for several months………

Hello hello….

Yep. Another 2 weeks fly past. Very busy, loads going on, stuff to say but no time to say it!

I feel ill constantly, permanently knackered, I’ve pulled at least 2 muscles in my neck/back AND to add insult to (ha ha) injury my car may have blown its head gasket (if you’re not a car person that = a fairly steep repair bill & potentially borked inner workings). Oh, and the Phantoms are playing silly beggars with their team roster (again).

sigh

And you?  Hows your last 2 weeks been?  Tell me.  Hopefully you’ve been having fun. Tell me & cheer me up.

I feel glum!

Secretly i’m pleased….

…however I’m not surprised.

But I passed my assignment from a month or so ago that I was moaning about. I’m assuming moderation has happened so the pass stays a pass. Wooo.

Call me smug or whatever, but I kinda thought I wouldn’t have problems (hello, I’ve written a damn 400 page PhD thesis – and then some). However, the guy that was marking (has marked) it, lets say he ain’t the most consistent of people (from stories I have heard & a smattering of personal experience) so there’s always that Russian roulette feeling when you hand the work in.

It also means I don’t get booted from the course just yet.

Oh ye of little faith.

Did I have to work hard to become this bitter & cynical? Did I flip.

Right, back to work…..

Currently Playing: Iron Maiden: Bring your daughter to the Slaughter (Edward the Great -Greatest Hits)

Yes. I’m still alive (as to kicking, that remains to be seen….)

Very brief summary (in reverse chronological order…. sort of):

Went to the Dogs last night (some may say I was there many moons ago….) as in went to watch greyhound racing with the guys n girls from work.  I won a grand total of £1.40.  I “invested” – the program said its not “gambling”or “betting” or “wasting money” (my phrase) but “investing”, go figure, so I “invested” about £16.  Woooo!  Won’t be quitting the UK and moving to a nice tax haven just yet.  Good laugh, love the dogs, I want a Greyhound now, and a Boxer, and maybe a Great Dane too.

Umm…. been on my 1st work placement as part of my college malarkey.  Its been good, so far, 2 7 a bit months left to go until my 2nd & 3rd placements.

The Phantoms appear to have (maybe) sorted their issues now, and lost several players, got replacements in and what have you.  Would give more reports, but just don’t seem to have the time.

And that’s about it since last time.  What a riot.

Blast from the past…

Oh WOW. Just started my lunch today when I heard a plane or planes scootling around above (you know I’m an anorak when it comes to planes right?), anyway, stuck my head out of the window and did a classic double-take.

My ears said to me, hmm, that ain’t a Harrier it’s something I recognise but can’t place it (I’m based near-ish an RAF base that houses Harrier jump jets and they are constantly buzzing around). Looked into the big blue and WHOA! That’s like a giant delta-winged monster out there.

Blow me, if it wasn’t an old friend XH558, the Vulcan B2 that has been restored to flying order, doing its 1st flight in 14 years. I was well chuffed, it made my day (sad aren’t I?).

Haven’t seen that particular beast since pretty much its last flight. Just shows what a bit of hard work & a few million quid can do. I’m looking forward to the airshow season now to get some pictures!

PS check out the BBC coverage here & check out the video top right. Or have a shufty on You Tube.

Dents / Rain / No TV

Well, had my car in for an estimate at the weekend, to see how much it’d cost to sort the dent & semi-dodgy door handle post-ramming. Damn near fell over when the guy said how much! I just hope the insurance company sort it out and get the liability confirmed so that a) I don’t pay the excess and b) my no claim status stays the same.

Mugs game if you ask me.

It’s been tiddling down all bloody day, only stopped when I was almost back home, thoroughly miserable drive to and from college, with the obligatory collection of suicidal maniacs out on the roads. The sun did show its face though, albeit for about 5 minutes just prior to it vanishing for the night. Wonderful.

Finally, to conclude with (yet) another rant: my TV reception is borked. Over the last few days its been intermittently failing & giving me nothing but snow. It then purely randomly comes and goes for random lengths of time, ranging from a few tens of minutes to overnight. I guess I’ll have to prod my landlord and see if he’ll get it looked at. Not that I watch much TV mind, but it’d be nice to have the choice not to watch, as opposed to being forced to abstain.

Hmm. Coffee time.

Oh, one final thing, Gordon Bloody Brown & the Communist, sorry, Labour party (and Chancellor Darling), did anyone get fooled by the pre-budget spending report thingy today? No? You sure? Wasn’t exactly a copy of the Conservative election manifesto now, was it? Two faced, lying, power hungry shiny suited, silver tongued scum bags – and I direct that at all politicians.

I swear they think the populace is terminally stupid. Oh, hang on a sec, the majority “read” the Sun, ’nuff said in my defence of Joe Prole.

Hark at me, eh?

Currently Playing:  Zurig by Acid Junkies (Unsequenced album)

Up to my Eyeballs / Phantoms All Change / Who Turned out the Lights?

Blergh. Busy, Busy, Busy – just taking a 10 minute coffee slurp before my eyeballs bleed from my head. In the middle of a stack of work for college, what with deadlines approaching and training placements about to start etc. and so on.

That is going as well as can be expected, I’ll reserve my full comments for a later date!

And having to drive for an hour at the start & end of the day means I have to get up earlier than I’d like, but my wonderful carcass seems to have no problem waking me at 5 am every day and I try to get another hour before falling out of bed and stumbling numbly around in the (now) pitch dark. Who turned off the goldurned sun in the mornings? Since the full moon the week before last, the mornings are getting progressively darker and its horrible. Mind you, its only a couple of weeks before the clocks change if my memory serves me correctly. Oh joy. I’m not a morning person, despite waking at a horrendously early hour, my brain takes a hell of a while to reach operating temperature and function in an almost normal manner, rather than on automatic pilot.

Onto the 3rd & final topic of this post: The Phantoms. Oh boy, what a mangled start to the season. So much so our player coach, Dwayne Newman (Dog), has been relieved of his job as coach, however he is staying on as a player. I feel sorry for Dog, he is an outstanding ‘D’ man and talented player and absolutely an asset for the team (not to mention being a true gentleman on and off the ice). I (and others) don’t feel he was given time to work with the team, however, like all competitive sports, results are important and we weren’t winning or even performing as we should, so the management acted and drafted in a new coach from Canada, Phil David.

I think it’s unfair to lay all blame on Dog, I think it’s a teams’ responsibility to pull together and function as a unit. Yes, the coach has to encourage this unity and create an atmosphere that helps, but if you come into a team, as Dog has, knowing of the players, but not knowing how they work together & the group dynamics it is hard to hit the ground running (it doesn’t help that the team only got together as a team immediately before the season kicked off whereas other teams had been training for several weeks). I think it was an extremely hard job Dog had before him and the team didn’t help matters.

That said, having been released and being able to focus solely on his playing, Dog has almost returned to his former self, in the action where it matters and even scored against Telford Tigers on Saturday where the guys won 6-3 (in a better performance than recent weeks). It didn’t sound as if it was a repeat of last Sundays boxing/wrestling/ultimate fighter session where all and sundry were piling in (literally!). So things looked better. Until the home game on Sunday against our perennial nemesis, MK Lightning.

I dunno what it is with MKL, we seem to go to bits when playing them at home (despite drubbing them 6-0 on their home ice last season on one particular occasion).

The guys came out and played the first 2 periods almost like their old selves, shutting out MK and keeping it 0-0. We missed a couple of one-on-ones which should have given us goals, but the 2 min penalty at the end of the 2nd meant we came out in the 3rd one man down and it hurt us as we started on the back foot. It also didn’t help that the Phantoms fitness isn’t as high as it should be (and it showed), which allowed MK to edge their first across the line (with the defence being asleep too by the looks of it!). This knocked the guys a bit and was followed shortly by MK’s 2nd of the night. With 42 seconds on the clock, and a 2 min penalty underway, Stephen Wall was pulled from the net to give us a full squad on the ice allowing MK to get the obligatory empty net goal (ENG). 3-0 to MKL, end of match.

A better performance by Phantoms it has to be said, but to give MKL their dues, they were better than us and it showed. However, we are beginning to pick up so things might look a bit better in the next few weeks. The new coach has his job cut out, but has a great team to work with, just so long as they put their egos back in their kit bags and get on with playing hockey and not trying to be alpha male in a team of 20 alpha male types.

GO PHANTOMS!!

Currently Playing: 2 Minutes to Midnight by Iron Maiden (on the Best of the Beast album)

Long Time No Proper Edit / Just What the Hell Am I Upto??

Evening All

Brief synopsis of stuff I said I’d mention and never did:

Birthday in August, presents I was going to mention: a really funky corkscrew, it takes only 2 seconds to open a bottle, looks not unlike something used for brain surgery, used a fair amount to be frank (for bottle opening, not brain surgery if you were wondering). Cool pressie (and some what unusual too, but eminently enjoyable): tickets to attend a lecture by Simon King (he of various wildlife progs including, but not limited to Spring Watch with Bill Oddie & Kate Humble) at the 2007 British Birdwatching Fair in Uppingham. It wasn’t entirely about birdwatching (his lecture), in fact there was very little birdwatching on offer, more like tales from his travels & experiences as a wildlife photographer & cinematographer. One clip I’m sure you have probably all seen, is the one where the Orcas (Killer Whales) race up the beach to snack on seals, then proceed to throw one about for a bit like they are playing (believed to be something to do with training the youngsters apparently). A bloke who has done loads of great & interesting stuff and is down to earth and “normal” with it. Also someone who really believe in what he does & preservation of the environment and protection of wildlife. A great evening!

Started college (again) whilst moving house. Splendid timing there by me. Never one to do things by half eh?

Erm, there is other stuff I’m sure, damned if I can remember though, oh yes, a neighbour rammed my car yesterday and nicely reshaped my driver side front door & borked the handle. Annoyed? Me? Just a tad. I’m not going to say anymore or go into details, suffice to say I’m really not a happy camper right now.

Oh yes, the Phantoms, having a few teething troubles so they are, alternately getting battered then losing by a mile & staging astounding comebacks (4-1 down in the first to win 6-4, 5-1 down in the first to win 7-5, that kind of thing).  They just aren’t firing on all cylinders right now and don’t appear to be gelling properly.  It’s a slow process that they really do have to get sorted asap or they will be stuffed this season.  However, I have faith, and I think they will sort themselves out and get up-to speed and start hammering the opponents again (both goal-wise and in fisticuff sessions!).  Sundays game was, shall we say, a little heated.  At one point the ref & linos were watching 10 guys jump on one another whilst throwing punches (their gloves, helmets & sticks were all over the ice, looked like a bomb had gone off) and the two net minders were placidly scooting the puck up and down the ice to one another to pass the time.

Speaking of hockey, went at the weekend to the 02 (the building formerly known as the millenium tent) to see the Anaheim Ducks and LA Kings play proper NHL ice hockey in the arena.  Fab.  The arena is ac, the game was fairly good too.  I’ll be posting a few pics on Flickr in the next few days.  if you get the chance to watch sport there, do so, its amazing.  Apparently gigs there are great too.

Erm….. hmm, sure there is other stuff, still can’t think what.   Oh well, more as and when!!

No, no,

I haven’t forgotten, its just that everything has gone just a leeeettle bit pear-shaped this week and life has become complicated on the work/college front and on some domestic issues too (like the neighbours’ relative reversing into my car, sort of thing). The Phantoms are causing me and the rest of their supporters no end of heartache & stress, and I’m sure there are other things I’ve forgotten to add.

I promise to add in the next day or two when I hopefully will get half an hour to myself to do something not related to sorting out some sort of issue that has arisen.

Peace.

PS Have wordpress been monkeying with the back-room gubbins? It looks & behaves a tad different like.