feeling the love

It’s been a while since my last post, up until last Friday not much has happened to write about, and then the proverbial hit the fan. For those who aren’t aware, Tea and I fostered a little Yorkshire terrier, she’s called Molly and she’s a very special but very poorly little lass. She has a medical condition called Cushing’s disease, she also has diabetes, she’s blind, baldish and on top of all that she’s 12 years old. But despite all those things she’s a tough little cookie. She never complains or whimpers and she gives the most amazing greetings in the morning. On Friday evening I came home from work and decided to give Molly Pops a bath, so far so good. Whilst we were in the bathroom, Trudes went off to collect her friends that were coming to stay. Molly was dried and brushed and all fluffy and cute. I took her downstairs and she settled on the sofa beside me. About twenty minutes later she was sick on the sofa, I cleaned up and whilst doing so she was sick again. Within an hour she was extremely hot to the touch and her breathing was shallow and wheezy. Trudes decided that she was going to spend the night with her as she continued to be sick and was refusing food and drink. Trudes was having to use a syringe to get water into her. At about 4 in the morning Trudes woke me to tell me that Molly had had some kind of seizure, she stood up, went rigid then flopped over all twitchy and foaming at the mouth. There was more vomiting and a nasty case of the runs so Trudes made an emergency vet appointment.

We got to the vets and Molly was taken in to see the nice lady who took her temperature, 108 apparently that’s not good for any dog, let alone one with Molly Pop’s problems. The vet advised us to get her to the dog hospital, so with the agreement of Tea’s dad, off we sped. We arrived at the hospital in Ashford and were promptly taken in to see another vet. He listened to her heart and said “you’re aware of her heart murmur!” “NO!” we both replied. Anyway since she was now severely dehydrated and clearly very ill, we were told that she would need to stay in for a couple of days. Walking out of the hospital without my little Molly Popples was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do for a long time. We headed home; the journey was very quiet and solemn. About 2pm that same day the phone rang and it was the vet, I passed him over to Tea who was told that Molly’s kidneys were failing, her liver levels were elevated and her white blood cells were very high. Once Trudes told me this I almost resigned to the fact that our girl would not be coming home, and I began to prepare myself for the inevitable. The rest of Saturday remained solemn, although we went into town with our guests, Molly wasn’t out of my thoughts for very long and I’m fairly sure it was the same for Trudes.

Sunday morning arrived, I’d not had a great deal of sleep and I think Trudes had had even less. I went downstairs and pottered about, chatting with our guests, then I phoned the vet to see how my girl was doing. Good news, she’d brightened a bit but wasn’t out of the woods yet. The vet phoned again later in the day telling Trudes that she’d managed to eat something and keep it down, this was also good news. I went to work as usual on Monday morning, whilst there I got a text from Tea simply saying “call me!” My first thought was oh dear it’s bad. I rang her and she said that the vet was happy with molly progress and pending the results of a second set of tests she would be able to come home on Tuesday. By the end of the day Trudes had heard from the vets and Molly’s condition was vastly improved and she would be home soon.

It’s Tuesday now and I came home to be greeted by the best Yorkshire terrier in the world and had to fight to contain the urge to blub. She has to see the vet again on Friday for a blood test and she has more pills to take but she well and her appetite has returned.

It surprises me how much she’s worked her way in to our hearts, I know she as a limited time but it’s down to me and Trudes to ensure that for as long as she has, she’s loved. I also know that when I do say goodbye to my Little Miss Molly for the last time, it will break my heart.

Still the good thing is that for the time being she well and back to her normal self. The vet did say that he was impressed with how much of a fighter she is and that she didn’t complain once about the jabs and the prodding and poking she’s had to go through over the last few days. In fact to look at her now, you’d never know that we probably came very close to losing her.

over the last few days Molly’s blog has had in excess of 500 hits and well wishes from all sorts of places, she’s once seriously loved up pup.

Believe in the power of the paws!

The Tunnel Rats reborn?

In order to aid the growth of new feet after yesterdays hike I’ve had the day off, not done much but I nipped into town to sort a few things out and did a bit of shopping, one thing I was looking for was a decent pair of walking boots. I really enjoyed yesterdays walk, and would love to do more, but the boots I wore were totally wrong for the job. They were bought so that I had some smartish black footwear for formal occasions, they do shine up really nice. So boots are the order of the day. I need to talk to someone in the know, someone outdoorsy and clever where that sort of thing’s concerned, so that’ll be Jim at work. Another area where he’s going to come in useful is sorting out some odds and ends for the return to Lydden Spout on the 15^th of August, oh such plans.

I’ve also received some info on gaining access to the North Entrance lower levels, I just hope that the info is correct and we can get in. I’m fairly confident that the Detached Bastion is still easily accessible, although we may have to play at Indiana Jones to get through the undergrowth, but that should be fun.

It’s going to be great to be a tunnel rat again; it’s been so long since the last time I spent any length of time crawling into holes and disused forts and buildings. Yesterday bought back so many great memories. In my younger days I spent most weekends and the majority of the school holidays underground. I broke an ankle in part of the Northern Entrance; I bet that hole’s nowhere near as deep as it used to be. I expect that many of the holes I used to crawl through are much smaller now, I doubt I’d fit in the Western Outworks drainage pipe but at least I can say I did once, and if the weight loss keeps going as it is I may be able to again. So we have a return visit to Lydden Spout, the detached Centre Bastion and the possibility of getting into the lower levels of the North Entrance. I’m fairly sure that if I can find enough places I may be able to spark up and interest in tunnel ratting with more than a few of the guys that came out on the hike. I’m sure that they’ll get the bug fairly easily as most of them are completely bonkers and up for anything.

There was talk yesterday of a walk from Rye to Hastings in the not too distant future, whilst I’m not sure I’m fit enough to manage the walk, Trudes and myself could jump on a bus and meet the guys in Hastings. It would mean a bit of a trek for Trudes, but she’s going to need some outings and time out of the house when she finishes her hospital appointments and if we stay on the lower deck of the bus the journey won’t be too bouncy. If I can get Trudes to come up to Lydden Spout it would be fantastic. I’m not expecting her to crawl around the tunnels, but she can sit in the sun taking in the views and Little Molly Pops can have a mooch about on an extendable lead. I could probably rustle up tea brewing kit, there’s always a need for tea. This is the problem with not driving, it would be great to meet up with the gang when they do cycle rides and stuff. Sometimes travelling by bus makes it difficult to get to some places or you have leave at the crack of sparrow fart to meet people anywhere. One of the benefits is the fact that you can take in the view as the world passes by.

Well that’s about it for now, I’m off to bed with a head full of dreams of summer days on the heights and excitement over August 15^th.

Sleep well world.

Sore feets and tasty treats

Sunday morning arrived and I arose to tend to the needs of Little Miss Molly, as I sorted missy out the kettle went on for the morning cuppa. Once all had been tended to I set about sorting out for the day ahead. 3 minutes later on went the telly for some mindless trite. Three members of the adventuring party arrived and we head over the road to await our omnibus, I went home again as I’d forgotten my bottle of squash. Back over the road for the bus which arrived promptly, that’s a novelty! I think the best way of getting to the top of a steep hill is on a bus, it’s so easy and not at all tiring. On arrival at the valiant Sailor, which was closed, we waited for Smiffy; He was nearer to the Battle of  Britain Memorial than us so we set off to meet up with him since the memorial was our first port of call. I’ve wanted to visit the memorial for many years, but I’ve only ever gone screaming past it in a car or on a bus. I must say that it’s a fitting tribute to the brave men who defended our skies. It’s also very serene, a quiet seems to surround the whole site. We left the memorial and head toward Dover, however we were a bit peckish, that bus ride must have taken it out of us. Fortunately the cliff top cafe was open so we purchased tea and sarnies, yummo! After taking in the view it was time to head off properly and start our trek to Dover.

It didn’t take too long to find the path along the cliff top and some spectacular views across the channel and over to Dungeness. We passed through huge bushes that arched over the path making natural tunnels and in some places the cliff edge couldn’t have been more than two feet from us. The first historical building we came to was the sound mirror, a forerunner of radar. There are much larger examples of sound mirrors located at Dengemarsh but this one is a fine example, although I’m not sure that it’s as old as the Dengemarsh mirrors, I’m fairly certain it’s only been there for about ten or fifteen years. As we left the mirror we were on a tarmac pathway, this turned out to be a cycle route, we did notice some information points on the ground, one was in the style of a large open book and the other looked like a drain cover, apparently there are more of these things, but if most of them look like drain covers I think they don’t get noticed much. Continuing our trek eastward we headed down a path that was very close to the cliff edge and the girly types were thankful for the railing that had been installed.

We then arrived at a disused rifle range, apparently metal detectors will find used shells and bullets even after all these years, and a point on the walk known as Lydden Spout, this was a military installation that had three large guns and served as part of the coastal defences during WWII. We found a hole that may be just wide enough for me to squeeze into but decided against any exploration and pulled the girly type out of said hole and continued walking. The girly type then wanted to have a look around the building that are still standing. However, given the fact that the building are now used to keep cows in  and didn’t smell too nice we chose not to explore them and returned to the path. Just before reaching the buildings Dave had a call from Batty asking where we were, he was told how to find us and then headed off in the opposite direction. Whilst we waited for him to back track we found another hole. This one had slightly better access, and remembering the stand on this sort of thing I had when I was younger, we had to go in! We had to trip down the hole, the second when Batty finally caught up with us so that he could have a look see. After the hole we headed on to Dover with short stops to investigate various look out posts and gun emplacements. Like me, Dave seemed quite shocked that places that were vital to the nation’s defence are simply being forgotten, vandalised and left to rot. I don’t want to sound disrespectful, but I feel there’s more to remembering the people who served king and country than wheeling out a few veterans every November. Whilst many of the buildings are beyond saving there a quite a few that could easily be restored to their former glory with just a little effort and help from the national trust. Like the veterans, when these places have gone there’ll be nothing to show how hard these people worked. But maybe that’s what the people who have a say in these things want. If the buildings are gone then we can forget it all ever happened.

We ran out of building to explore and were soon on the final leg of the cliff top path, Shakespeare’s Cliff, so called because there’s mention of a high cliff in Dover in the play King Lear. As we climbed the path to the top I started to flag a bit and was thankful for a rest stop at the bottom. We headed over to the south military road to walk up to Saint Martin’s Battery which overlooks the western docks, after a few photo ops and a bit of a wander we walk down the site of the Grand Shaft Barracks and up to the Drop Redoubt Fort. We walk around the base of the fort, sadly access is impossible as the place is sealed and padlocked, and the only time that access is by special permission of the English Heritage or when the preservation society has one of the two annual open days. Finally we walk down from the fort and in to Dover town where we decided to hit the eight bells on Biggin Street for a well earned pint and a bit of scram. Steak and chips never tasted so good.

We ended the day on a bus back to Folkestone, my feet are very sore, they almost feel bruised, but not being one to sit around, I’m about to help out with some house work and then head into town to do some stuff and then into Hythe to see Sue to go through some last minute planning for Sunday.

There’s plans afoot to head back to the hole in August and possibly exploring the detached bastion, oh happy day. I think I shall be taking a camcorder for the second visit.

So there it is, I walked almost 7 miles with some very good mates, I had some lovely grub and I have very sore feet and aching legs, but it was worth it. Photos of the day can be found on Mankey Badgers and my facebook pages.

See y’all.

life, the universe and other things that conspire against us!

It’s Saturday night, well very early Sunday morning, and the end of an interesting week. Work has been, well, odd. I’m not exactly sure what my job title is any more and I don’t have a current job description. When I do get one, I think it will read something along the lines of “anything and everything we tell you to do!” I had myself weighed on Wednesday; surprisingly I’ve lost a few more kilos and if I continue to do so I may actually managed to rid myself of the diabetes and high blood pressure. My doctor told me that he’s only had one patient who managed to achieve that goal so I’m determined to give him a second. OK I may slip now and then, but whatever I’m doing I must be doing it right as I’ve now lost just under 2 stones since Christmas, yay me! Another piece of good news is that little Molly Pops has been to see a new vet after the abysmal treatment by her previous one; all seems to be going well with our little miss. Not only were the nursey types cooing over the divine one, but the vet was impressed with how well her fur is growing back. He mentioned to T that it’s very difficult to get a dog with Cushing’s to re-grow fur, so whatever we’re doing we should keep doing it. Yay us!

On Thursday I got home from work and herself said that the Virgin Media box had started misbehaving, oh poop! I switched it off and back on, no joy. A phone call to the customer services told what I already knew and a tech was arranged to call on Saturday between 12:00 and 16:00 to replace the box. Hang on a mo, I thought, that means that I’m paying for something I’m not getting and I will have lost everything I recorded. Another call to Virgin got me a 50% discount on this month’s bill. Today the tech arrived with a new box, he had a bit of a struggle getting it set up, once he had got the thing connected to the telly correctly he more or less just cleared off, saying it should be set up in about twenty minutes. Two hours later the box was still in its diagnostic mode. Yet another call, half an hour later the box was sorted and working properly. The lass on the help desk had me reading numbers out to her, which she repeated back to me completely wrong and then had me looking for numbers that were nonexistent. By this time yours truly had become more than a little miffed and asked said girly if Virgin Media were going to reimburse me for the cost of a call that should never have happened. Initially she avoided answering my question, but after some prompting she relented and said that my next bill will be further discounted for the inconvenience. It seems that the problem with my original box is not uncommon, and after a bit of web surfing I discovered that both Virgin Media and Samsung, the STBs manufacturer have been aware of the problem for some time, but neither were prepared to take blame for the fact that faulty boxes were being sent out to new customers. Still, it seems that the issue has been resolved and I can get back to watching tat on the telly box again.

On Tuesday I went out to the garden to see if i could spot the ISS going over, I did and I was rather chuffed. so I printed of times when it and other bright satellites could be observed, gathered up my binoculars, went into the garden Wednesday to be greeted by thick fog, on Thursday it was cloudy on Friday I missed it. I saw other satellites but they weren’t as bright as the ISS was. still it was good to get some naked eye observing done.

Not tonight though, there had been a plan afoot, before the death of my box, for T and myself to head to Hythe for an evening out, starting with dinner at Torbay, a rather fine chippy in Hythe, and then maybe a stroll along the canal. Sadly T wasn’t up to going out, so we spent the evening in with the prearranged dog sitters. We made up some nosh and then settled into a friendly game of trivial pursuit, which I won! We then watched 10000 BC not a bad film sort of along the lines of apocolypto but in English and considerably less gory. Friends then headed home to get plenty of rest before the walk to Dover tomorrow. I’ll post pics and a report on the event either Sunday evening or sometime on Monday.

Until then, goodnight all.

My tech isn’t techie enough!

Here’s something novel, I’m going to have a rant! Back in October, my orange contract was coming up for renewal. This meant that I could get a shiny new phone. Woo-hoo, so I phoned Orange and said “oi, my contracts up, I want to stay with orange, but I want a shiny new phone!” the blokey on the other end said “fair enough and did some tappity tapping on his computer. After a while he said asked what contract I would like. Initially I asked about the I-phone, it was due to be available with orange so I asked if it was worth hanging on until it was out. Oh no, he said, the I-phone won’t be out on any tariffs under £75. Stuff that thought I and said I’d get back to him. I wanted something flashy and comparable to the afore mentioned I-phone. I’ve had an I-pod touch for a while now and I like the idea of the apps that are available, particularly astronomy apps. I hit the orange web site and had a look through the phones that were available on the price plan I wanted. There was the Samsung i8910HD, 8 gig internal memory, touch screen, 8 megapixel camera plus GPS and loads of other interesting features. That’ll do, back on the phone and after a few minutes my shiny new phone was winging its way to me spit-spot. Huzzah. When it arrived I opened the box and drooled over the shiny blackness, then I went and bought an 8gig memory card for it. This is brilliant I thought, stuff the I-phone this is much better. Well here we are seven months on, and I have to admit that more than a bit miffed and more than slightly disappointed, not with the phone, that still black and shiny and fun to play with. The source of my disappointment is two pronged to be honest. Firstly, the plank at orange was entirely honest with me, the I-phone came out two weeks later available for free on the price plan I’d gone over to. The second is the support for the phone itself. Firstly Samsung release this all singing all dancing “I-phone buster” and then drop all support for it almost immediately. When I got the phone Samsung claimed it as their flagship phone, however, none of the Samsung apps are compatible with it, and as for orange, the apps available there are worse than useless. Unless your main interest in life is football and astrology forget it! And to be honest I’m not I’m not keen on paying £5 for something that’s going to tell me I’m going to meet a tall dark stranger every other day or for something that’s going give information that I could get for free on the interweb. So no apps worth shouting about and all the support of a bridge constructed from rice paper, I have a phone that will never unlock its full potential, and my next upgrade is about 18 months away, will I stick with orange? It depends on what they’re prepared to offer me to stay. Will I get another Samsung? Probably not. Since getting the phone I’ve looked into Samsung as a phone manufacturer, whilst they make some extremely good phones, there’s little or no support for them. Basically you get what’s in the box and hope that there’s enough to keep you entertained. Judging on the way mobile tech is advancing it wouldn’t surprise me if the HTC is the way to go. Still, time will tell. Well there ya go; I’m an unhappy technophile whose tech just isn’t what he hoped for. Why is hind sight always 20/20?

oooh I’m all off kilter!

Well it’s Tuesday evening and I’m sitting listening to a film called “The Bone Collector” not really taking much notice of it as I surf the web looking for interesting stuff. I’m sitting in my spot on the sofa and I’m covered in glitter. A friend known as penny, because she doesn’t know who Stan Lee is and she glazes over when I start babbling about all things sci-fi, has spent the last two days sitting on the sofa fixing her girly face, well, I say two days, it’s really only an hour or two, but where I’ve laid on the sofa the right side of my head is now covered with said glitter. So I’m off for a shower in a bit to clear the stuff off, I shall be having stern words later, so far as waggling a finger and saying “Penny, AAAH!” bless her! She is such a sweet little thing.

On Friday I’m giving my talk on Jupiter at the astronomy club, I’m more than a little nervous and I need to have a couple of practice runs just to make sure that it all runs smoothly.

After that I need to read through my notes for the Dover walk, looking forward to that.

The missus is doing OK, although I’m sure she feels she could be feeling better. I can’t even begin to imagine how she’s truly feeling, so all I can do is be there for her and bolster her when she needs me, easy really!

Some friends have just welcomed a baby boy into the world, and I wish them every happiness, Children are great, I miss my boy, particularly as he was such a good lad when he was little. I’ve missed out on so much with him. But I guess some things just come to a natural end.

Well that’s about it for now, I expect it’ll be a couple of days before my next post, I’ll probably have done the talk, I’ll let you know how it goes.

Nite all!

I must be totally radio!

Friday has arrived and I’ve never looked forward to the end of the week more, the last two weeks have been dire! Work has been awful, there’s been a definite Arctic feel to the atmosphere from the PTB’s, I’m sure things will improve but I would love to be able to point out their flaws, as there are times when they give the impression that they have none and are the perfect employers.

I’m off to the shop tomorrow; I’m going to try to take the lads through some simple objective missions, which should be fun.

I’m making progress on the talk on Jupiter for astronomy club on Friday, I just need to sort out timings and tidy the text up a little. Oh yeah, and two or three test runs, to make sure I don’t make a complete plum of myself on the night. Something else I’m really looking forward to is the walk to Dover on the fourth of July. One of the guys that is joining us has said he’s looking forward to the history snippets I’m preparing for the day. I think I’m just going to bore everyone to tears and they’ll be eager to keep going. Of course knowing how I view things, I’ll be completely wrong and they’ll really enjoy it. I hope as many people as possible turn up, including friends old and new. I think Smiffy’s going to come along which will be good. The one thing that’s worrying me about the day is that I’m nowhere near as fit as I used to be and it’s been a while since I’ve done a long walk, well I say a while, I did walk from Perranporth to St Agnes two years ago. It wasn’t bad aside from the blooming great hill we had to scale on the way back, but given the views of the Cornish coast and the fact that Cornwall is such a fantastic county, it was more than worth it. Fortunately the route we’re taking isn’t that hilly, only one major up and even that’s not too bad. The up on the walk will also be worth it as we’ll be heading to my favourite area in the whole of the south east. With regard to friends coming along, I may chat to uncle Manky about asking people at Astro club if any of them want to join.

Well I’m off to get some sleep so that I’m bright eyed and bushy tailed for the sprogs tomorrow.

Qap’la

I cant think of a title, maybe I’ll put one in later!

Hello, so far this week has been completely pants, I’m not having a good time at the moment. When I left work on Monday, I needed pain killers due to the stabbing pain between my shoulders. After I’d removed the daggers that were causing the pain, I gave my current place of employment some serious consideration. I came to the conclusion that it’s time I moved on. I’ve been in the same job for almost fourteen years now, and I think I’m done! It wouldn’t be so bad if I could get a better position in the job, but it’s a very small company with what, at times, seems like a 9 person management team. In fact rather than getting further up the promotional ladder, I’ve chosen to step off of it. To be honest I felt that my position was nothing more than a figurehead anyway. Any decision I made was either overturned or dismissed. It seemed that the only real way to get any of my ideas and suggestions considered was to get someone else to come up with them.

On a happier note there are plans in place for a walk along the cliff top path from Capel to Dover on the fourth of July. I’m really looking forward to this. It’s been many years since I last did that walk; I used to walk to all sorts of places in my younger days. Sadly I let the past time slip away from me. There’s some fantastic remnant of first and Second World War fortifications and military outposts, I do hope that the people that come along on the walk realise that I plan to bore them silly with short descriptions of some of the places we will visit. The good thing is that it doesn’t involve straying too far off the route as most, if not all, are part of the route. The exception to this is the plan to walk part of the Western Heights trail. Not much, just the area known as Saint Martin’s Battery, down the grand Shaft Barracks, now completely demolished with just the foundations remaining. We would then walk up the steps and head over to the drop Redoubt fort and walk around two thirds of the base of the building. I shall babble on about the history of the area, explaining how and why the defences were built. Finally we’ll head down to Cowgate Cemetery and eventually find something resembling a decent pub for a pint or two and maybe an ice cream on the sea front.

With luck, following on from the brief introduction to the Napoleonic Defences in Dover, I’m going to try and convince as many of my friends as possible to join me in a more in depth exploration of the area, culminating in a visit to the interior of the North Detached Bastion. In some respects I consider myself to have had a fantastic childhood; I had the heights and the Castle as my playground. Me and my mates could lose ourselves for days in the tunnels and buildings and we never got bored. We were always finding new places to clamber into and, with the exception of my broken ankle, we never got hurt. The ankle was totally my fault, I was in a new tunnel, new to us anyway, with my friend, as we were exploring the passage we were in I saw that at the south end of the passage it seemed to head down. So I headed off, with no torch, a promptly fell down a ten foot deep man hole. It took me about an hour to climb out and another two to walk the quarter of a mile to my mates’ house. When we got there his dad saw that something was wrong and immediately ran me to the hospital. He was the only other person who knew what really happened. The problem was that back then, I was about 13 or 14, it was a bit questionable as to if we should have been in there. Beside if the local rozzers had learned that someone had been hurt in there they would have had the MOD and the council seal our playground off, not to mention the prison service getting wind of it. Now consider if you will that one of your best mates has fallen down a deep hole, broken his ankle and is a bit worried about how he’s going to make his way out of the afore mentioned hole. How much support would you give to that friend by way of comfort and aid? Well, the mate in question, and you know who you are! Nearly wet himself he was laughing so much. I must admit that when I did finally get out of the pit, I was sort of half laughing half sobbing in pain. Still when my ankle had healed we were back in there and followed the stairway down, only to find that it lead to a twenty foot long passageway that ended in a vertical shaft heading up to ground level. It will be nice to revisit the NDB after all these years; I’m really keen to see how it’s faired over the passage of time. I’ll post some pics on here when we return; hopefully it won’t be too long after the Capel to Dover walk, which, of course, will have pictures and hopefully some video on YouTube. I’ll get some video of the Heights trip as well. Who knows we may even try our hand at a bit of ghost hunting whilst we’re there. I’m fairly sure Mankey could pull off an Yvette Fielding impersonation. :0)

Until next time

Toodles

insert expletive here!

It’s been a relatively quiet week, I watched most of season 2 of Sanctuary on Monday, the last two episodes were recorded due to other viewing needs and the fact that herself had also sat through the episodes and not enjoyed one of them. Tuesday was the penultimate episode of fringe; I’m looking forward to the final episode. Friday sees the start of the world cup, oh joy! Apparently it will be compulsory viewing in the house. I think that I’ll remove my eyes and ears for the next four weeks. Although it may be longer as the final series of big brother starts next week. So either way the telly box will centre on vacuous idiots with a high sense of entitlement. Where BB is concerned, I can just about manage the entrance night, as for the football, it hurts my finger just typing the word! No doubt there’ll be delays in stuff that’s worth watching and cancellation due to the overpaid numpties not being able to do their job done. They get paid a squillion quid per game and they can’t even do that right. I wonder if they get paid over time. Ninety minutes gets the more money than the national debt, they go ten minutes over and probably get time and half.

Today was a very special friend’s birthday, to celebrate the day we decided that we’d get take out. It was agreed that KFC was in order so myself and a comrade set off to town to gather the meal. Dear god it was like pulling teeth. On entering the establishment we knew it was going to be difficult. The first order wasn’t made by me and took a bit of time getting through to the fella working the till, then I was served, after being overlooked twice, the chap was ready to take my order. It was a painful experience. As I placed the order, he repeated it back to me; I confirmed each part as he did, he then repeated it back to me again. The problem was that the order comprised of around 8 different things. So having it all repeated to you four times gets a bit tedious after a while. Upon returning home after our hunter gathering session I found that, despite confirming the order 8 thousand times and watching blokey read the order from a till print out, he’d got it completely wrong. About the only thing that was in the bag that I had actually ordered were the chips. He’s obviously been trained to serve food by the same bloke who teaches the England footballists to play the game. It would explain the reason for complete ineptitude. Next time I’m going to suggest MacDonald’s! Folkestone KFC was almost worse than le MacDonald’s at Euro-disney, when they stuffed our order up they acted like it was our fault and refused to serve us. It was quite impressive to watch. It was the first time I’d been to a French Macdees, and the person giving the order was speaking French like a native, but as the situation deteriorated he became more English. He explained to la girlie that she was getting it wrong, not happy with him pointing out le tragedie she snatched the remainder of the order from him and told him to leave la shop and never returné. Oh how we laughed.

Off to Astronomy club on Friday night, the weather looks promising and now that my scope is fixed it should be a good night, the problem is that I have just over three weeks to finish and commit to memory my talk on Jupiter. Best get on with it then.

Bye for now all.

X

Gorram it read the signs!

This morning I woke up with a pounding headache, I didn’t sleep too well. I think I was a bit restless due to the disruptions with the household. Still normal service has been resumed and a certain little chap has headed off to stay with a friend and tomorrow he heads off to what will, hopefully, be his forever home. I have to admit that I’m missing the little fella; he’s such a playful and happy pup that he will bring a lot of joy in his new home. Fortunately we’ll get regular updates on how he’s doing so it won’t be too bad.

At the shop today, two victories to the Necrons, woo hoo! I’m starting to think that I should have concentrated on them as a primary army as opposed to the Space Marines. Although I don’t think we were as busy today numbers wise, we were very busy.

Anyway, on with todays rant! Oh no here we go again I hear you cry with despair, but yup there’s a rant coming, and this one’s about law breakers.

For those who don’t know, Hythe high street is a pedestrian area between 11 am and 3 pm. There’s usually a gate that gets closed by the local rozzer, but recently he’s been a bit lapse in his duty and the gate hasn’t been closed on Saturday. Despite the fact that there’s something like three signs clearly explaining that there’s no access for vehicles between these time people seem to think that if the gates open then it’s ok for them to drive along the high street and sound their horn and hurl obscenities and the people who are walking in the middle of the road. Oddly enough the majority of the offenders seem to be the older road user driving Jags, BMWs and high end Mercs. The other type are people driving MPVs, whilst I acknowledge that not all MPV drivers are complete twonks who think they’re above the law, there’s a few who give the decent road users a bad rep. Sometimes I find the whole situation on the high street amusing, there have been times when old folk have almost come to blows over who can and can’t drive along the high street. The best one yet was when a fella, of quite mature years, took it upon himself to run over a sign that was blocking the entrance to the road. When the owner of the sign had a bit of a rant at him he started threatening all manner of things, including fetching his son down to have “words” with the signs owner. Then there was the fella who, realising that he couldn’t drive along the high street, decided to turn his car around and drive the wrong way along the road. When he discovered the gate shut and locked he was going to drive onto the pavement with the intention of squeezing a four and a half feet wide car through a four feet wide gap. When I explained to him that what he was attempting was not only physically impossible but also illegal, he questioned my parental lineage and suggested that I may be an unintelligent copulating habitual masturbator. I was shocked; I never expected to hear such things from a man of the cloth!

After club 40k, ooh that makes it sound a bit saucy, I headed home for tea and Doctor Who, though not in that order, without giving too much away, it’s a bit of a shock ending.

So there you have it, a rant has ranted and I sign off for the night.

Fair thee well all.

I’m totally sonic me!

Yesterday I took a trip to Dover, headed to Argos to acquire an eleventh Doctors sonic screwdriver. Being successful in my quest I waited at the bus stop for a bus home, I did my usual thing of gazing into the river Dour, watching the brown trout doing its own thing. It’s quite relaxing and I like the Dour, Ok it’s not the tidal estuary it once was but it’s nice to know that the river’s recovering from the pollution of the last century. I’m going to go to Dover again and walk the river from Kearsney to the docks. It’s been many years since I’ve done that, I may even stop off on the way for an ice cream.

I got back home and put the batteries in my new toy and waved it about a bit. It’s well made and seems quite sturdy, considering the target user I guess it should be. Anyway it occurred to me that as I now have replicas of the last three doctors’ screwdrivers, River Song future sonic and the Masters laser screwdriver, I need some sort of display stand for them. So when I arrived at work this morning I set about designing one. The early stages were simple, I have access to a fully kitted out wood work shop. So putting the thing together was no problem. I then had the rather clever idea of making the stand appear to be made from coral, just like the interior of the TARDIS, with the help of one of my colleagues and a couple of scoops of something called bonding coat, which was slapped liberally over the wood and then patted into a roughened finish with a dustpan brush. When it’s painted it should look rather good.

Whist working on my masterpiece I was called out to the courtyard, I found a workmate chatting to a lady from the RSPCA. He mumbled something about a complaint about the goldfish we keep at work, then started chatting to girly about sparrows. At this point I figured that a sparrow had been injured and somebody had called the RSPCA to rescue it, so I went back to what I was doing. A few minutes later I was asked to go speak to the lady about the fish. It turned out my colleague wasn’t joking and there had been a complaint made about them. I was advised to get the two largest fish into a larger tank of their own or get them re-homed to a pond or similar environment. Simple enough, unfortunately when said lady arrived I was preparing to carry out the weekly maintenance on the tank, so it wasn’t looking as pristine as usual which is a shame as the tank is well maintained and the fish look, and are, healthy. The brightness of their colours is a bit of a good indication, and the fact that one of them lost all of its fins through rot only to grow them all back except the tail flukes. Whilst I’m aware that they need a bigger tank, the two larger ones are living in much better conditions than they were. The thing that puzzles me the most is who made the complaint in the first place? It’s obviously someone with more time on their hands than they need, if the only things they have to worry about are a few fish. Well I hope that they’re happy now, the fish bring a great deal of pleasure to the guys, some sit watching them for ages, now they won’t have that little moment. Well done you miserable git! After speaking with the PTB’s it has been decided to re-home the fish completely, I may have convinced the missus to let me have them at her place, and the two big boys may have a pond they can go to, Here’s hoping. Otherwise if any of my readers know of someone who would be up for caring for some well looked after goldfish, contact by leaving your email and I’ll get in touch, or you can email me at the usual address. I’ll post a pic of the tank either tomorrow or Sunday.

Until then, glug, glug, glug.

Oh for humps sake SMILE!

I set off for work this morning, a little later than I should, and missed the bus I should be on in order to get there before 9. Oops! I stood waiting for the next one and pondered various things like the weather, what to do about lunch, and whether fringe was recorded last night. The bus arrived and I stepped aboard with my usual joviality, only to be greeted by the most miserable bus driver in the multiverse. I swear if this man had even attempted to point the corners of his mouth upwards, his face really would have broken. He glanced at my pass with the absolute indifference, I’m not even sure he noticed if it was in date. We moved on to the next stop where a lass who was quite easy on the eye got on, told misery guts where she wanted to go, she put her dosh in the tray next to him, he picked it up then virtually threw her change at her. This was more or less repeated for everyone who got on the bus. When I get off the bus I make a point of thanking the driver. Where this chap was concerned, I was half tempted to offer him a handful of my antidepressants and a bottle of vodka. Fortunately they’re not all unpleasant, most of the local drivers are quite amiable and usually have a jolly greeting themselves. I’m sure it’s a taxing job and doubtless it must get quite monotonous, particularly on the local services. They just drive around in a huge circle all day. Captain Grumpy however was coming back from Dover; you’d think that was reason enough to be a bit cheerful. But no, I’m fairly convinced that he spent the rest of the day being his morose old self. If you’re not the sort of person who interacts well with people, why on earth are you doing a job that means you’re doing just that, he probably doesn’t like driving large vehicles either, or handling cash.

In a complete change of rant, I wonder how many people are aware that when they buy a game for their mobile, if they upgrade the phone and they want that game on the new phone, you have to buy the game again. Does this not seem a little unfair? Surely this is a bit like buying a game for an x-box, wanting to play the exact same game on another x-box, but having to buy another copy of the game. It’s a bit of a con really; you buy something but sort of don’t actually own it. Surely these mobile phone companies make enough money from monthly fees and the PAYG services to be able to allow you to transfer a game, you spent good money on, to a phone with the same OS? Yes, I know I’m being a ranty thing but sometimes things infuriate me so much that I feel I have to let off steam, after all isn’t that the point of having a blog?

When I arrived home today I settled down in front the telly for a couple of hours, at about 7ish my phone started going bonkers, the missus was, apparently, desperate to contact me. When I finally got to talk to her she babbled something about someone being on there way up and I was needed there ASAP, oh it’s nice to be wanted. It transpired that the someone who was in Hythe was Eileen from TLDR, this meant only one of two things, A: something was drastically wrong with Molly or B: we were about to have extra canine company. Given the fact that Tea wasn’t blubbing like a blubby thing, it was clear that Molly was OK. I guess the arrival of a dog was imminent. Oh joy, I headed up this hill, and less than ten minutes after I got home², Eileen arrived with Harry, a wire haired Jack Russell, he’s staying for a day or two until a permanent foster can be found. Harry is about 18 months old, very cute and, I suspect, part Tigger. Bouncy isn’t the word for it, he went into the garden for a, well what dogs tend to do in the garden, and was up and down like a mad thing. At one point he jumped sideways over the low wall onto the grass. He needs a lot of exercise but he’s very sociable and affectionate. There’s a pic on this blog to show his royal cuteness off. So if any of my readers know of anyone who can offer a loving home to a very friendly young pup, please get in touch and let me know and I’ll put them in touch with TLDR.

Fringe didn’t record by the way, I think it got replaced by the final episode of lost, something I plan to watch, even if only to see how it all ends.

That’s about all for now, thank you for reading.

TTFN

Could Uma thurman be the new Winona?

Time flies and blogs get overlooked; it’s been some time since my last entry, oh well such is the order of things. I’ve had a pretty crap time at work and feel very unappreciated by the powers that be. But they own the company I work for so I guess I’ll have to grin and bear it. I’ve worked there for almost 14 years now and whilst most of the time I really enjoy it, every now and then I get very down hearted and wonder what the point is. Fortunately I know it won’t last and I’ll be back in the swing of things soon.

This month sees the final astro club before I give my talk on Jupiter, so I really need to get on and finish it. Fortunately the planet has been in the news recently, I won’t say why, it’ll spoil the surprise for the people who go to astro club.

Something else I need to get on with is the work I need to do for the 40k tournament in July that should be fun. I really need to get to work on my buildings for the display table.

Trudes has got 2 more treatments to go, so far it’s all going well, and at least that’s what she tells me. Chemo should be done in a month and Tea can head down the road to recovery. It will so good to have her back to full health. Then we can start our wedding plans and, hopefully, sort out some sort of break. We do have a provisional plan for a trip to the Isle of Wight next year. This will give me the chance to visit a couple of good fossil sites on the island. Something I’m really starting to look forward to. We also have the plan to visit Alton Towers later in the year, oh I do like a good fun fair and it’s almost two years since I went to Euro Disney.

We’ve had the virgin TV installed, I think Trudes is adjusting well to the service, she’s recording all sorts of stuff, and all we need now is a new TV to match.

I’m still enjoying the current run of doctor who, although I think that the vampires of Venice was, for me the weakest of the episodes so far. Ashes to Ashes finished on Friday, I’m going to miss gene Hunt and, if I’m honest, not seeing Keeley Hawes on Friday nights is going to be a bit dull. The confusion that is Lost ends on Monday, whilst I gave up on it halfway through season three, I’ll probably watch the end just to see what it was all about.

Well that’s about it for now, as soon as something exciting happens in my wacky world, I’ll let you know

Ta ta!

I wish I could regenerate!

I’ve spent the last week or so worrying about something, I just wish I knew what it is I’m worrying about. Those in the know are aware of the fact that I have problems with paranoia, but I’m not sure if that’s the problem! I can’t put my finger on it; something is really stirring up a bad feeling about something. To be honest I fell like having a really good rant with lots of colourful metaphors included. Not that it’ll solve the problem, in fact I suspect it may have quite opposite result.

The misses is suffering at the mo, she’s aching from her toes up. She has a chemo session tomorrow so that will knock her for six for a few days and by the time she starts to pick up, she off for more. Including tomorrows treatment she has four to go, then we can start focussing on getting back to the wedding plans. They’ve been put on hold since the treatment started so it’ll be nice to be able to get back on track with that. It may even help with the lack of happy that’s sitting on my shoulders.

Things are going well with little miss Molly, she all better after a weekend of lack of appetite, the runs and a rather noxious wind problem, it’s good to see her picking up again. She’s a cheerful little lass who is starting to wag her tail at me and has just taken to jumping on the sofa and sitting beside me for a few minutes, Much to Doogie’s dislike. As if that hasn’t miffed him a bit, the little madam managed to clamber up the stairs to the bedroom this morning. She may be blind but she’s not stupid. I think she’s going to assert herself a bit quicker than we first thought. I have noticed a little change in Doogie, he seems a little quieter than usual and he doesn’t seem to get so shouty when I say goodnight to Trudes.

The weekend’s nearly here and I’m quite looking forward to it, if I can manage to get up early enough on Sunday morning I can give Trudes a bit of a lay in, I am happy to give Molly her insulin jab so she won’t need to get up for that. She’s on half dosages at the moment as it’s possible, apparently that the symptoms of Cushing’s disease can appear similar to diabetes, so there may be a chance that she can come of the insulin all together or at least be on lower amounts, this is a good thing because if they can get her meds just right, she may grow some of her fur back. This will mean that she’ll become a fluffy pup again, I think Trudes is a bit worried that if she takes Molly out and people she the condition she’s in, they may think that it’s a result of the way she’s been treated, and that’s not fair on Trudes as she’s not responsible for the way Molly looks or her ill health. In fact if Molly had been Trudy’s dog from the start or at least with someone who provided the proper care she needed, Molly nay not have ended up in such a poor state. But then I am being a bit bias as I don’t really know a great deal about her before we fostered her. What I do know is that she hasn’t been treated at all well over the last few years, so it’s down to Tea, Doogie and me to ensure that the our little old lady’s treated right for the time she has left.

So dear reader, at some point I’ll be adding a link to an e-bay page that has been set up to take donations for Molly, so far as I know a very high proportion of raised funds will go towards Molly health care and other needs. If ever you find yourself with a quid or two that you don’t what to do with it, spare a thought for a rather gorgeous 12 year old Yorkshire Terrier who will appreciate every single penny that’s raised for her. I case you have any doubts; I’ve added a couple of pics of her, so that you’ll feel guilty if you don’t donate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is probably my favourite picture of Molly, what a cute grin.

If that doesn’t melt your heart, nothing will.

 

Nite all

XX

Presented in glorious technicolour and now in HD

I’m on a long weekend as of today, so this morning I spent a few hours with DTWP whilst Tea took little Miss Molly along to the vet. She needed blood tests and general checkups to ensure that the meds for Cushing’s disease is right for her and that she is having the right amount of insulin. We’ll know for sure tomorrow. Tea has to ring them in the morning to see if the tablets are in and to get the results of the tests. Molly’s been with us just under a week now and so far so good. DTWP has been absolutely brilliant with her. There’s been no aggression from him and he’s even attempted to encourage her to play. When they go in the garden he runs around like the mad pup he is, come to a dead stop watching Molly then he runs away from her, stops, looks for her and tries to get her to chase him. To no avail! Bless him, he hasn’t figured out that she can’t see him, he drops toys for her to play with, which she just walks over, and Doogs looks all downtrodden because she won’t play. But I’m really pleased that the whole thing’s gone down so well. Despite the views of certain people who think that Doogie’s going to be treated differently, quite the opposite in fact. If anything Tea and myself are showing more affection than normal to him to ensure that he doesn’t feel left out. He’s still the best pup in the world and nothing will ever change that.

There’s been a development on the home entertainment front at home, after much discussion and negotiation; Tea’s given me the OK to get a few more TV channels in. To be honest 4 stations is rubbish especially at the moment when every single blooming channel is covering the bloody election, YAWN! The only problem is that it isn’t being installed until May 12^th, by then the election tat will be long done. Oh well, at least it’ll be in before the world cup. Although Tea has said that she will be watching the England matches. I’m sorry but no matter how hard I try I just can’t get enthusiastic about football. I never have liked it and I never will. I get told that as a patriot and someone who’s passionate about England I should get behind the “team” but I don’t think I should. 15 seriously overpaid idiots kicking a ball doesn’t rouse my sense of national pride, and I doubt they’re doing it for their love of the country, more for their love of small portraits of the Queen.

Friday is astronomy club, we’re off to Cranbrook tomorrow night, apparently they have a large ‘scope and are desperate to show it off. So I’ve taken tomorrow off work, in the morning I think I’m pup sitting if Trudes has to go to the vets, then I’m off into town to pay bills, oh joy! Then I shall drop into Hythe to have a quick cuppa at the shop before jumping on the bus to Ashford. I could go on a train but I like the bus journey, it takes about an hour and a half and uses a lot of back roads and goes through the countryside. You don’t get to enjoy that on a train. Once I get to Ashford I get a connection to Cranbrook. I say connection, I mean meet up with a couple of friends from AAS who’re also going.

Then Saturday I’m down the shop for the day and then home to settle down to Doctor Who and hopefully some form of take away, Yummo. I’m certain I’m supposed to be doing something on Sunday but I can’t remember. I expect it’ll come to me, hopefully before Sunday.

TTFN peeps, I hope you have a good, if somewhat damp, bank holiday weekend. Yes it’s a bank holiday and it’s going to rain for most of it.

PS. It’s Virgin HDTV I’m getting; now all I need is a HDTV 1080p with a minimum of 2 HDMI slots. It’ll work without a HDTV but I won’t benefit from having the HD channels until I get a compatible telly box.

Night all

I want that one!

We have a new member of the household! On Friday we welcomed Molly to the Wolery, she’s a 12 year old Yorkshire terrier, bless her it shows. The first problem this poor little lady has is that her right eye is completely covered with a cataract; this means that she has no sight in that eye. Her left eye was injured at some point in her long life, so she’s blind in that one too. She’s also diabetic and has to have insulin shots every 12 hours. Finally, she has something called Cushing’s disease, and no. I don’t know what it is. What I do know is that she has to have a pill for it every morning at 7. So this means that she’s going to be hard work, but I’m sure we’ll manage. The biggest concern is DTWP, he’s so used to being the only pet in the house, he may take some time getting used to her being around. We do have an understanding that if DTWP hasn’t settled with her after a week or so then Molly will have to be returned to her previous foster care. It will be a shame as the poor old lass has been shunted from pillar to post recently. What with her being a bit tatty, there’s major hair loss on her hind quarters, and the eye’s are a bit off putting. But she has a strong character and something about her which does make her quite loveable. I’m certain that with a little time the two mutts will grow use to each other and there won’t be any issues, they just need to find a common ground. Doogs will, no doubt, assert himself as the alpha again and Molly, being an older dog, will let him think that’s how it is. Every so often she’ll remind him that he is a youngster and needs snapping down a bit.

Work has been absolutely bonkers this week, not so much the guys, more the actual work side of things. It has seemed that no sooner have I finished a task and achieved a goal, I get another one. So although I’ve got an awful lot done this last week, because there’s been so much to do I don’t feel as though I’ve done anything.

The shop has been good this last couple of weeks, regular readers can keep up to date, well sort of, by visiting the Hythe tyrant blog. We’ve had two sessions for older players and the dad’s of the lads that come. The first was a bit of a letdown, the second was a roaring success. I had six players turn up, not including me. I’ve set another session for the 16^th of May, and I can’t wait. I have also solved the problem with my gaming table. Two pasting tables are in the offing, they’re £9.99 each as opposed to four A type legs which would set me back about £50. So now all I need to do is get to work on the blooming buildings.

That’s about it for now, more as and when something exciting happens.

42!

There’s been some time, again between posts. yes I really am that dull.

anyways we’ve had 2 episode of season 5/1/31 of Doctor Who, so far so good, Matt Smith’s quirky and bonkers and I think he’s going to be slightly darker than his predecessor. don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy DT’s stint but I’ve been looking forward to the new season for sometime now and for me it hasn’t been a let down as yet. quite a few of my friends were very anti Matt Smith, but most of them have admitted to being wrong and saying that he’s well suited to the role. we’ve also had 2 episodes of the final season of Ashes to Ashes, oh sweet joy! This i really like. The character of Gene Hunt is superb. there’s just something about him that makes him very watchable, that is, of course, my own opinion and others may have different views, but this is my blog so it’s my opinion that matters. so ner! I think it’s also got something to do how Philip Glenister portrays him. Gene Hunt’s a bastard, but that’s what makes him so likeable. he’s also a complete good guy, his methods may be questionable but he gets results and he looks out for those who are important to him. my theory on the Gene-Genie is that he’s some sort of ferryman type character, helping those who have passed on to find their way. if you’ve been following the series you be familiar with Jim Keats. he’s a bad man, the fact that his office is dark and appears to very well heated with a rather menacing red glow about it, and he’s trying to turn Genes’ team against him. I don’t trust the bloke and neither should they. the scripts for this final run appear to be trying to show Hunt as a bad guy and some how responsible for the death of Sam Tyler. A2A is well written and extremely watchable, at this point i remind of the earlier “ner”.

I had a day off today, Smiffy came over and we sat painting, he made a start on the last tactical squad for 40k and finished of the Terminator squad. that brings the total up to 16 termies, death shall stride across the battle field in my next game. only a few more models to go and i shall have finished the space marine army. this will mean that i can make a start on what is turning out to be a rather sturdy Tau force. I will also start on the building, I want to have them ready for the tournament in July so that i can put together a demo table. once done I can get the Land Raiders started, the main one is going to need some careful thinking as it’s going to be the personal transport for the Chapter master and as a result, it needs to look a bit special.

so the non gamers who read this will have no clue what I’m babbling on aboot, so if you’re confused and befuddled, my work here is done eh!

Every silver lining has a bloomin’ cloud!

Friday was a bit bonkers really, work was hectic as usual. Most of the guys had been at the blue smarties and cheap orange squash again. This brings all manner of chaos, trying to encourage a 40 year old to settle down is hard enough, throw in the fact that the 40 year old is as strong as an ox and thinks it’s fun to see if he can squash your head makes it all the more difficult. It’s strange what the guys view as a fun social activity. Seeing as how Friday is generally P.O.E.T.S day, I managed to get away at about 15:45, woo hoo! When I got home there was a red card from the postie telling me that I had a letter that wouldn’t fit through the slot. So off I trotted into town to collect the mystery package. I couldn’t recall ordering anything and started trying to work out if I’d entered any competitions. The puzzle was soon solved when I collected the thing from the sorting office. I hadn’t won anything, I had been sent a pot and a letter from the doctor asking me to return it full, I won’t say what with, but I think my doctor’s taking the p*ss. Especially as I gave them a similar pot, with contents at the beginning of the week.

On my return journey my dearest betrothed rang to say that she was taking DTWP for a stroll and had decided to stroll down for a cuppa. This was a welcomed event as I wasn’t expecting to see either of them until sometime on Saturday. So a brew was had and then I said ta ta to herself and wonder pup and headed off to Woodchurch for astronomy club. This month I was going armed with my scope so that it could be collimated and then I could use it for a spot of astro-photography.

The clubs talk was being given by Manky, I really enjoy his talks and I was particularly looking forward to tonight’s as it was about Saturn, which was the first thing I saw through the scope I had with me. As usual the manky one excelled and gave yet another fantastic talk. After the talk I collared the club chairman so that he could sort out my scope and get it all set up right. It was actually easier than I thought. This surprised me considering the beatings it’s taken over the years. Once the job was done I headed outside to test my newly aligned instrument. I got about two minutes observing time before the sky clouded over. PANTS! Eventually I headed home somewhat disappointed by the clouds.

When I got home I settled down to a large mug of tea and an episode of Dead Like Me. Then a bit of work to prepare for the 40k group, with that all done I realised it was way past bedtime. All too soon the alarm was shouting at me about getting up to go to Hythe, so I gathered up books and models and set off.

The shop was good and we had a couple of new lads in who seemed to enjoy their first battles. Later in the afternoon Tea arrived accompanied by mum, they were off for a bit of a wander along the high street and a cuppa and a bun. Before she left, Tea mentioned that there was a telescope for sale in one of the (many) second hand shops. I arranged to meet her and walk down to take a look. I was hoping it would be an altazimuth mount so that I could use it as spares for my Tasco. It turned out that it was, and it’s possible that it’s the same type. All the numbers seem to match up at least. So I relieved Trudes of £32, which will be returned as soon as my bank details are sorted. Yes I’ve changed my bank. I’m now with Think Banking, they can offer me a debit card which means that I will be able to manage my finances better and make online purchases without relying on other people. Hoorah! The new scope is stored in a rather natchy case and will have to be put together each time I want to use it, but it’ll be worth it in the long run. Now all I have to do is save up some dosh for the wedding and then I can start saving toward a Meade with GOTO tracking.

Sadly there was a bit of a low point as i was travelling to the future in-laws. one of the centre’s service users was on the bus, a cheerful chap who almost always has a kind word and a warm smile. he greeted me in his usual manner, a cross between blissful happiness and wild excitement. whilst i was sat staring out of the window, watching the world whizz by, i thought he called me. Sadly. to my disbelief, it was actually a teenager who thought it would be amusing to mock the bloke. The service user has learning difficulties and as a result his speech is a little slurred, add in the excitable demeanor and he can be a little difficult to understand and somewhat loud. this is something that never bothers me as I encounter it on an almost daily basis. initially i chose to ignore the behaviour of the idiots at the back of the bus, until i heard discussing how hilarious it would be if they all took the p*ss at the same time. i now felt it was time for a gentle word, so I loudly advised them to Grow up and show some respect. unfortunately they took no notice and continued with the name calling. although one of them did voice concerns that i may be about to exact some violence on them. maybe they would have understood that a bit better. however i wasn’t prepared to sink to their level. i was once told never to argue with an idiot, he’ll bring you down to his level, then beat you with experience. when i arrived at my stop I told the service user to ignore the little scrotes and then mentioned to the driver what had been happening. he promptly shut the bus down and gave them all a “you should know better” look.

it surprises me that in this multi-cultural world where the youth of today are supposedly taught about acceptance and equality, that there are people who still think it funny to mock someone who’s not as fortunate as themselves. do they get some sense of acheivement from it? I wonder if the next time i encounter a similar situation i should explain to the offenders that it only takes a slight blow to the head in the right place and they won’t be in full control of their own faculties. based on the behaviour of the twonks on the bus, it’s clear that their gene pool doesn’t have a life guard.

so there’s my rant for today. but, if ever any of my readers witness such a situation, please slap the annoying gets responsible. preferably with an iron bar!

So that’s pretty much it for now, I post an update on the new scope once I’ve had a chance to field test it.

Ta ta peeps

War has never been so much fun

Ok, there’s been a bit of a gap between posts, mainly because not a lot’s happened over the last week or so. Well I say not a lot, what I mean is, nothing drastically exciting. I saw the boy last Saturday and had a brief chat with him. He asked if I would like for him to come up over Easter, I told him that was a ridiculous question, I would love to spend some time with him. So he’s going to get in touch and let me know when he’s coming and what he’s like to do. Huzzah! Smiffy and I finally finished the Orcs for the shop, and I’ve also made headway into DSS’s Necrons. I had the stonkingly brilliant idea of altering the stance of one of the warriors. I have a spare skull from a set of terminators, so I’ve repositioned the legs of one of the models so that the left foot is resting on the skull. This meant that the right leg had to be straightened. So far it looks good and I hope DSS will be pleased with the end result. When it’s finished I’ll post a pic of it alongside a standard warrior so that the difference can be seen. Once the Necrons are done I can crack on with Mike’s Mumak and then I can alternate between finishing the Space Marines and starting the Tau. There have been some significant additions to the Marine army. Including the new plastic venerable Dreadnought, it is a rather nice model and will make a fine addition to the force.

DSS came to the shop on Saturday, he had a game, playing my Necrons against a small marine force, I got first strike, but on his first turn he decimated my force, wiping out one full squad, and half of the second. I lost the other half of the second squad when they routed after failing a moral test. My second turn saw my third squad attempt retaliation, but they only managed to take down four Necron Warriors. Fortunately I managed to immobilise and then stun his Monolith, effectively removing that threat. However, on his second and final turn, he realised that my Devastator heavy weapon squad were a significant threat and proceeded to eliminate them. He then turned the rest of his force on my third and final squad, cutting them down in a frenzy of gauss fire, reducing the squad to just four men. So DSS had a clear victory, hopefully, he’ll be back next week so that I can exact some revenge on him for such a crushing defeat. The Chapter Aurelius are thirsty for blood and no Xenos is safe.

Well I can’t think of anything else so I shall sign off.

Night all

War has never been so much fun

Ok, there’s been a bit of a gap between posts, mainly because not a lot’s happened over the last week or so. Well I say not a lot, what I mean is, nothing drastically exciting. I saw the boy last Saturday and had a brief chat with him. He asked if I would like for him t come up over Easter, I told him that was a ridiculous question, I would love to spend some time with him. So he’s going to get in touch and let me know when he’s coming and what he’s like to do. Huzzah! Smiffy and I finally finished the Orcs for the shop, and I’ve also made headway into Bens’ Necrons. I had the stonkingly brilliant idea of altering the stance of one of the warriors. I have a spare skull from a set of terminators, so I’ve repositioned the legs of one of the models so that the left foot is resting on the skull. This meant that the right leg had to be straightened. So far it looks good and I hope Ben will be pleased with end result. When it’s finished I’ll post a pic of it alongside a standard warrior so that the difference can be seen. Once the Necrons are done I can crack on with Mike’s Mumak and then I can alternate between finishing the Space Marines and stating the Tau. There have been some significant additions to the Marine army. Including the new plastic venerable Dreadnought, it is a rather nice model and will make a fine addition to the force.

DSS came to the shop on Saturday, he had a game, playing my Necrons against a small marine force, I got first strike, but on his first turn he decimated my force, wiping out one full squad, and half of the second. I lost the other half of the second squad when they routed after failing a moral test. My second turn saw my third squad attempt retaliation, but they only managed to take down four Necron Warriors. Fortunately I managed to immobilise and then stun his Monolith, effectively removing that threat. However, on his second and final turn, he realised that my Devastator heavy weapon squad were a significant threat and proceeded to eliminate them. He then turned the rest of his force on my third and final squad, cutting them down in a frenzy of gauss fire, reducing the squad to just four men. So SS had a clear victory, hopefully, he’ll be back next week so that I can exact some revenge on him for such a crushing defeat. The Chapter Aurelius are thirsty for blood and no Xenos is safe.

Well I can’t think of anything else so I shall sign off.

Night all

You wanna know the difference between right and wrong? Easy, I’m right you’re wrong! What part of that confuses you?

It is said that we are judged by our actions, whether you call it karma or divine retribution, some believe that we pay for the hurt we cause others through our misdeeds.

The other day I was having one of those intense conversations with the missus, we were talking about our pasts and how they have made us what the people we are today. I know she’s no saint, and that she has a history, but hey, don’t we all? Personally I don’t agree with holding someone’s past against them, it’s the here and now that matters. She also knows some of my previous history, which to be honest, why she didn’t run away very fast when she learned about it I will never know! Still, we are polar opposites and it is said that opposites attract, so that explains why she never ran!

On a brighter note I returned to work after having a couple of days off due to being slightly dead, and only a few blogs back I was saying how I’m never ill, well I was quite poorly and needed, and received, lots of TLC from ‘erself, Lord bless her. She was a superstar, considering that she’s not well herself she really pulled out all the stops in nursing me back to health. So with my ailments resolved I can return to ensuring that her royal gorgeousness has her every need pandered to. Well as best as I can anyway.

Regular readers may notice that a second blog page has been added, this is primarily for the benefit of the guys at the shop on Saturdays, hopefully the guys will be able to check the blog at least once a week to find out what’s planned for each week. Whilst it is an open blog it is aimed at the 40k players I know and a lot of it won’t make sense to the non gamer. It’s another plan to encourage the lads to take notice of what’s happening at the club, once the blog is established and the guys are aware of it, I will post game plans and the missions they will be playing and the points values they’ll need.

Still, the best laid plans of mice and men and all that.

Missy has been talking about having some time away once her current treatment has finished, we’re looking at a couple of places to visit. She has said that she would like to go somewhere she can indulge herself in developing a new interest. Whilst it would be lovely if I could convince her to catch the fossil bug, I don’t think she’ll be up to smashing rocks open. Having seen what the first two doses have done to her, by the time the course finishes I doubt she’ll have the strength to lift a hammer. So we need to find her something a little less intense. She’s mentioned that she might like to take up bird watching. Fortunately this won’t be as hard as it sounds. As an amateur astronomer I have two very good binoculars so all she needs is a comfy chair, (Cardinal Biggles has one) whilst the thought of sitting still for hours on end in the hope you may glimpse the tail feather of a lesser spotted throat warbler does not appeal to me, I’m sure we can find a location that will suit her wish to stare at sparrows all day and allow me to go off and look for the remains of their ancestors, well sort of! She’s not keen on the idea of a certain town in Dorset, so that means looking for a new dig site. Having consulted friends at the UKGS and have a few locations in Wales that may be interesting, the earliest rocks being Ordovician and the youngest fossil bearing rocks being Jurassic. Whilst I’d like the chance to get stuck into some Cretaceous rock, Tea’s very keen to see Red Kites. My sister is a keen twitcher and has said that some of the best places to see them are in North Wales; the good fossil grounds are in the south. So we may have to meet in the middle. I don’t like leeks, and daffodils make me sneeze. Unless I can find a way of persuading a couple of these Red Kite things to nest on the Isle of Wight. Or I could ask a few friends to take some red flexifoils there. That’s a kiting joke for the benefit of one or two of my readers. (Tee hee!)

Anyway, I’m off to write an entry for other blogs and stuff.

Cheerio

Some say that each of his toenails are exactly the same as a woman's nipples, and that he thinks that "credit-crunch" is some kind of a breakfast cereal.

Hello everybody peeps, well I’ve recovered from the long queues and madness that was the SFX Weekender. despite a few shortfalls I did have a very good time. Tea thoroughly enjoyed herself, although it has taken its toll and she’s totally knackered. On a brighter note she has officially been transformed from a minor geek-girl to a major one. she spent most of Sunday looking for the next Con, bless her.

Also in the news, Mickey, who i went to London with a few weeks back, rang me last week and said that he has a couple of tickets for a ghost hunt on Sunday 21st Feb. It’s at Dover Castle, Woo Hoo! Sadly this will entail a lot of climbing up and down some very steep stair cases and I’m not sure Tea would be able to managed it. So I’ll be taking my future stepson. he’s rather stoked with the idea.

I’ve started a new project, you can view its early stages here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalon1701/. please feel free to take a look, and leave any (polite) comments. I’ll add to it as and when i get new pics. I'm also going to sort out some that I already have.

enjoy the pics, I look forward to your comments.

Bye for now.

Rgds

They say your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the moment before you die? That might be true if you're terminally ill, or your parachute doesn't open…

A couple of weeks ago a friend asked me if the missus and I would be interested in attending the SFX Weekender at Camber Sands Pontins. Naturally I said yes! Since then we’ve been in regular contact finalising details. Pick up times and such like. Friday morning started with the arrival of mum and pops who were picking up DTWP, who was going to spend the weekend with them, he’ll be back Sunday. Richard & Carol picked us up at about 10:30ish and we were soon speeding along the A295 to Camber. There a brief stop in order to purchase the nosh for the day and a second one to visit a cash point. We got to Pontins just before noon; Carol had to go to reception to register us. Apparently this was a bit of a shambles as the staff had no clue as to what they were doing. What should have been a five minute book in took almost 20. Whilst waiting for Carol I indulged in a game of spot the geek. My goodness it was harder than I thought! Firstly I think the stereotypical geek is becoming extinct. There were very few attendees dressed up and most of the crowd would not have looked out of place at a rock concert or some chav magnet night club. It seems the days of a dozen people turning up at an event like this as characters are a thing of the past. There were a few Storm Troopers, Clone Troopers and dodgy looking Jedi, and later in the evening I spotted four people in Starfleet uniform. Not a single Klingon to be seen. Perhaps the Empires foothold on this planet has slipped. By far the most popular character to pose as was the tenth doctor. However, this only applies to tall, skinny lads with big hair. Stick on a suit and a pair of converse and you’re sorted. Well, you have the big hair but David Tennant you clearly ain’t! After a brief look around a poor show in the way of merchandise and trader stands headed down to the screening room to watch the very first episode of Red Dwarf. I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed it. A bit more mooching about before we headed back to the main hall where we sat down to listen to a debate on the effect that the current series of Doctor Who has had on sci-fi, namely good or bad. Whilst this session was enjoyable and, at times, quite humorous the main point of the debate was never clearly defined. So I guess it’s down to the viewers to decide. The current DW series has certainly caused a run of other sci-fi based shows. Some good, some not so good. I’ll let you think about which is which! After the “debate” off for a spot of lunch. Now I mentioned above that we bought nosh off site, thinking the prices would be extortionate, but this wasn’t really the case. Whilst watching Red Dwarf, Tea and I tucked in to some rather tasty hot dogs and a glass of OJ. The OJ was because they didn’t serve hot drinks at the bar. However lunch was the sandwich I bought earlier. Then we returned to the main hall for another browse of the traders stand. This included a stand from forbidden planet. I have to say that I thought the traders turn out for Friday was extremely poor. Even the stall from FP had very little to offer. Hopefully things will be better on Saturday. Before I get to the next thing we sat down for I feel I must mention the venue. Appalling does not describe accurately enough! The place is dire! I used to go to Camber Pontins twice a year when I was but a lad. It hasn’t changed at all. It even smells the same! What on earth possesses people to spend a week or two there I have no idea. I’m not sure I’d want to spend the two nights there. The facilities are in a poor state of repair, in some parts of the main hall the lino flooring had bubbled and raised creating a possible trip hazard. The area being used as the screening room had the same carpet down that was there when I was 12. In all honesty the venue is poor, I have a few more grumbles but I’ll get to that later.

After lunch we decided to sit down to hear what a fella called James Marsters  had to say. For those that don’t who he is, he played Spike in Buffy and Angel and Captain John Hart in Torchwood. He was very entertaining and amusing to listen to. He spoke highly of all the people he has worked with, particularly Anthony Head (Giles) and John Barrowman. The latter of which he had a lot of praise for. It was also very clear that he really appreciates the fans and at the end of his 45 minute stint there was the impression that he wanted to stay longer. He apologised to the audience,  explaining that he had to head off for another engagement. A bit more walking around, I personally felt that there was too much time between events. There was a lot of time when nothing happened. We were also feeling a bit peckish by now, so we managed to find a burger bar, a cross between MacDonald’s and KFC. Now having worked on a funfair, for a considerable amount of time, I’ve eaten some very dodgy burgers. This, however, was the first time I’d eaten a crispy one. I’d like to say that the crispiness was down to the freshness of the lettuce. Sadly, no! The chips were nice though. After the crunchy burger we were entertained with a showing of “Once More with Feeling” the musical episode from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I really like this episode, and as an added bonus the subtitles were being displayed so that the audience could sing along. Not that I did, but Trudes and Carol gave it their all. After much discussion, Trudes and I decided that we’d go halves on a signing pass for the next day. She desperately wanted to get her John Hart action figure signed by James Marsters but we didn’t have the pass at the time, so sadly she missed out. We went to the reception desk to ask about passes. The chap behind the counter said they were £40! My initial thought was “bloody hell!” when I protested the price, I was told that the quoted price of £30 was only valid if the pass was bought online. I told Trudes this and she was upset as she really wanted to get Elisabeth Sladens autograph for her son. Then I remembered that in the event handbook it states that signing passes are £30. I took the book to the desk and pointed this out to the nice lady, the chap had gone. I explained that nowhere in the book does it say anything about an online purchase price. She folded and let me have a pass for 30. Back upstairs again for something described as “The Imaginarium Funfair and Cabaret. The event organisers really should have some comprehension of the trading standards act. To me a funfair has rides and side stalls, there were none of these. What we were seeing was a stage show featuring a few scantily clad girlies jiggling their bits. Granted they were fire eating and spitting jets of flame everywhere, there was also some madman juggling with burning sticks. This was impressive. Then there was a re-enactment of an alien autopsy, the problem with this was that it was on the stage and you couldn’t really see what was happening. More dancing girls and juggling then an homage to King Kong, more dancing girls and a rather poor Frankenstein effort. Then they bought out a Derren Brown type bloke. He was surprisingly good, we I thought so, I’m not sure my companions would agree. More dancing girls, this time they were scantily clad in fairy lights and accompanied by some sort of robot, also covered with fairy lights. After that came some blokes dressed as Egyptian market traders who performed what must be the most appalling rap ever. Then more dancing girls, with one of them carrying a rather nice, if somewhat bored, looking albino python. Then a few more girls with flaming sticks. At this point it seemed to be that the show was going to follow a pattern so we decided to make an exit. Richard and Carol dropped us at home at about 23:30 and arranged to pick us up just after 9 in the morning.

SATURDAY

Re-entry to the event was fairly painless, apart from the main gate being closed. Carol drove to the secondary gate. A security guard asked for a name, which was provided, and we were directing into the complex. Trudes and I got out of the car and headed for the main hall. To find Darth Vader, a couple of Storm troopers a rebel soldier greeting the punters. Lord Vader took the pee out of Tea and me for having a heated debate, so I told her to go and stand with him for a photo opp. Bless her. The first call of the day was the signing line with the intent of getting Tom Baker, Lis Sladen and Gareth David Lloyds autograph. Oh dear! Firstly there was no clear indication of where the line started or ended. It was announced that one of the two lines was for VIP guests and the other was for everyone else. I stood in line for around two and a half hours only to be told that the guests had stopped signing for now and if we wanted their scratch on our picture of them, we’d have to come back later. Fortunately they wrote numbers on everyone’s hand so that we could rejoin the queue at the point we were stopped. This plan sort of worked, I got Ianto’s and Sarah Jane’s with no trouble. Getting Tom Bakers was a different story. For him there were three lines. VIPs, people with numbers on their hands and everyone else. I foolishly thought that there would be some sort of structure to the system, but no. Firstly the line for everyone else was moving much quicker than the other two, and the people who’d had numbers written on their hands were milling about in no particular order. I had 65 on my hand, behind and in front of me were people with both higher and lower numbers. We were being over seen by security guys who had two four main problems. 1. They had no idea on fairness or what the word “priority” meant 2. They saw the whole event as a chance to chat up the “pretty” girls and be downright rude to anyone that didn’t have a trim figure. 3. When not ogling the girls they were making negative comments about the people in general. I clearly heard one of them describe the people in the line as “nutters”, “weirdoes” and “idiots”. 4. They had no clear system in place and were letting people through at random intervals. Sometimes 4 or 5 from line, then 8 to 10 from another and three from another. Now and then they let people in from two lines i.e. VIP then everyone else the VIP and everyone else again. Completely ignoring the line of people who had a number on their hand who were supposed to have priority. Eventually I got to Tom Baker and he signed my picture of him surrounded by Daleks. Hoorah! Earlier in the day tom had been on stage being interviewed, the man is completely off his trolley. It’s a shame to describe one of my childhood idols this way but there’s no other way to put it. He is totally bonkers. When asked anything about his tenure as The Doctor, he either avoided answering or answered the question very quickly and the babbled on about copping off with old ladies. I missed the interview with Gerry Anderson due to queuing.

But I managed listen in on Gareth David Lloyd and Elisabeth Sladen, both of them were very interesting to listen to. Elisabeth was very keen to talk about her work on Doctor Who, both old and new. She also talked about K9 & Company, with mock terror and the Sarah Jane Adventures. She mentioned that when she was approached about SJA she thought that she may get offered a part in Torchwood. I like the sound of that; we’d get to see Sarah Jane in a whole new light. She may even be a little naughty. Snerk!

The guy who plays Ianto was hilarious; he did say that it was extremely unlikely that he would be reprising the role if another series comes along. Although Trudes came up with the idea of Ianto contracting immortality as an STD! We left about 19:00 and decided to pick up DTWP and give Ben the things we’d bought him, he was very pleased with it all. So that’s it! All in all the weekend was fairly good, the Trader stalls didn’t get any better on the Saturday and nothing really appealed. I bought a couple of 8” x 10” photos and got my photo of Tom “bonkers” Baker signed. Trudes is knackered and I plan for her to rest as much as possible on Sunday. I shall, at some point have to go home to take care of Obi; he’s been a bit neglected this weekend. Fortunately a friend had offered to pop in on him for me. But he’ll still need to see his main provider. Aw bless!

Apparently the SFX weekender 2 is already in the planning stages, I’d be happy to go, we may even stay in the complex next time. Although I really hope that they will have sorted out some of the hiccups this one had. Overall it wasn’t a bad event, a bit poorly managed but it was the first one. I don’t think they’ll hold it at Pontins for a third year. They may even relocate 2011’s.

Well it’s been a very long two days for me and Trudes so in the words of Zebedee, “time for bed!” well maybe a cuppa first.

Night all!