It's 5:38 am on the morning. It's Saturday. I don't have to work today. I'm tired and in need of a lie in. So why am I writing in my blog? Well one word... CRAMP. It's not a thing I suffer from very often but when I do it hurts like a... well I can't think of an appropriate simile that won't be censored by the language filter, but it hurt LOTS.
It will be a while before I can get back to sleep now, if at all.
Much as I love spending time on UM, I'd rather be in bed.
Okay, I have no one to blame but myself. I knew my hard drive was dying. I knew it needed replacing, but there was always something else that I just wanted to buy first. If it could just wait until the next pay day, or the one after that. And it did, admittedly I've become more practised in reinstalling corrupted software than I would have chosen but the drive kept on hanging in there. Then, at just after ten p.m. on Saturday 14th June, it died. As John Cleese might have said, <i>"This har
Today I had a hair cut. Not that dramatic an event, but I absolutely hate it. I always have. For some people it is the dentist they hate, for me it's the barbers.
It's not really a phobia, I'm not scared of getting my hair cut, I'd just rather not.
I have wondered why I hate it so much. Partly, I suspect, it is because I'm a naturally scruffy individual, but there is more to it than that.
I suspect my dislike of getting my hair cut goes back to early childhood. My father would take me to one
It's funny how, during my long period of unemployment, I craved being around people. I missed the banter that you have between work mates. In fact for a large part of the time I missed conversation full stop. I live on my own (well there is also my cat, Nyana, but she's not much of a conversationalist) and days would pass when I did not exchange a single word with another human being.
Now I have two days off work and I am enjoying being on my own. We are a contrary bunch us humans, we always se
It had been my intention to write about the great day I had this time last week. About the thrills and tensions of watching Wasps win another title and about the enjoyment of celebrating with friends afterwards. That will have to wait. Sadly one of those friends is no longer with us.
Tom was in good spirits and (so I thought) good health when I last saw him on Saturday. Tom was the father of my close friend Simon and a friend in his own right. The word "nice" simply does not do Tom justice, he
It is that time of year again. The English rugby season is coming to an end, Wasps are in a final at Twickenham and I have a ticket.
This year Wasps are in the Guinness Premiership final, to determine the champions of England. Just as with he European final last year (and the last English Final Wasps played in, in 2005) are opposition are the mighty Leicester. Wasps beat Leicester in both of those finals.
So will Wasps finish the season with out a title for the first time since 2002 or will th
As the title suggests today I had a WOW! moment.
I have recently started walking home from work. I want to get fitter and lose weight and walking home seemed a good start, especially as it is a seven mile walk. Not bad for a fat boy eh?
Anyway, part of this walk is through a little park which runs beside the River Shuttle (it's hardly big enough to be called a stream). I enjoy wildlife and this little park is full of birds. I make no claim to be an expert bir watcher but I take an interest and
It has been a while since I visited this blog. That is ironic really because I stopped blogging just around the time I actually had something to say.
I had been unemployed for a long time. In November I returned to work. After a long period without work it was hard to re-adapt, but I haven't been sacked so I must be doing something right. Slowly but surely I am getting myself respect back and the fog of depression is clearing. Hopefully I will be back to my old self of a few years ago soon.
On
A few years I go a sat a psychometric test in work. It told me very little about myself that I didn't already know. I agreed with virtually all the conclusions except one. The test claimed that I didn't care about other peoples feelings. I don't believe that tom be true. I care deeply, I just don't know how to express it. I don't know how to approach people that are feeling great pain, that doesn't mean I don't feel for them or care for them.
In the last two days I have felt very confused by fe
Anyone that knows me knows that I have a passion for motorsport (despite never learning to drive myself).
Rally driving is amongst the most skilful and dangerous of motorsports. Whilst it is a branch of the sport about which I know little, I have a deep admiration for the drivers that compete in the World Rally Championship.
The UK has produced just two World Rally Champions, the Scotsman Colin McRae in 1995 and Englishman Richard Burns in 2001. Sadly Richard Burns' career was brought to a pre
I am scared of heights (I suspect that is why I stopped growing at 5 foot 4) and so I try and avoid them. Actually it's not true that I am scared of heights but like Rincewind I am scared of the ground (if you don't know who Rincewind is it is time for you to start reading Terry Pratchett's Disc World books). As Rincewind points out, it's not the height but the ground that kills people.
Being scared of the heights I try and avoid them where ever possible. When I can't avoid them I take as much
I've been lucky in my life to have been able to see some great sporting events.
I was present at Spa-Francorchamps in 1992 when Michael Schumacher won his first Grand Prix. I've seen the cream of the worlds motorcycle racers in both GP and Superbikes. I've watched Thierry Henry score a wonder goal at Maine Road. I've seen Ian Botham destroy a bowling attack. I've watched Henman and Rusedski on Centre court at Wimbledon. I've watched my beloved Wasps playing in nine major finals and win 8, and I
On Saturday my sister and I helped my aunt clear her garden. It had become very over grown with brambles. Equipped with various gardening implements we cut the offending blackberry bushes down.
Two days later and I am still finding thorns embedded in various parts of my anatomy. My lower legs and arms look like I went 15 rounds with a hundred feral cats... and lost. And, despite the fact that I was wearing gardening gloves, I am still finding new sources of pain (and small, pointy bits of wood)
After hurting my ankle on Tuesday I had a virtually sleepless night. I felt tired so I decided to have a bit of a lie in. This attempt to reclaim some of my missing sleep was thwarted by a lot of noise from outside. I came to the conclusion that the noise was caused by road works. Eventually I decided to give up on the lie in.
When I finally got out of bed I made my way down stairs. I was less than half way down when I started to bemoan the fact that I live in a 3 story house and my bedroom is
I realise I had a few beers yesterday. I know I wasn't 100% sober but I wasn't really drunk. I was fully aware of what I was doing all night. I can remember everything I did. I know that I didn't make a fool of myself (I was with friends all night, if I had they would have rung me up by now to laugh at me).
So if all this is true where did the big bruise on the back of knee come from? I guess I'll never know.
If you want to go to heaven when you die,
If you want to go to heaven when you die,
Wear a black and yellow bonnet,
With Wasps written on it,
If you want to go to heaven when you die.
Singing I will if you will, so will I,
Singing I will if you will, so will I,
Singing I will if you will,
I will if you will,
I will if you will, so will I.
(sung to the tune of "She'll be coming round the mountain).
That is a song traditionally sung by Wasps fans. It is considered bad luck to sing it be
It's gone midnight UK time, Sunday 20th May 2007. In just under 14 hours the biggest club game in English rugby union history will kick off. For the first time ever the European Cup Final will be fought between two English teams.
The first of the finalists are the most successful English team of the professional era, the Leicester Tigers. Before the 1996/97 season rugby union was (theoretically) an amateur game. Since the game went professional Leicester have won 5 of the 11 English Championshi
Anyone reading my posts on the forum will know I have a passion for space and astronomy. I am, however, a passionate sports fan as well. I love cricket. I was brought up on rugby union (that tends to happen when you have Welsh grandparents). The rugby is the reason for my user name, I am a supporter of the London Wasps team (more about them very soon). However my first great passion was motor sport, more specifically Formula 1.
I know many people find F1 boring. I can understand that, the racin
It's a Bank Holiday in the UK and so. of course, it is raining, There has been virtually no rain for weeks but as soon as we have a Bank Holiday the heavens open.
I wouldn't mind so much, after all it means I don't have to water my garden, but I have to go out in this. It is a friend's birthday today and I am meeting him in Earls Court for a drink (or several). I am going to get soaked.
Wow! Is it really 3 months since I last posted here? It's funny how when you let things slide a day soon becomes a week and a week becomes a month.
Not long after I made that last entry I came down with flu. It took me five weeks to fully shake it off. Although I continued posting and moderating on the main board I kept putting off making a blog entry. I very soon got out of the habit.
When I was last posting regularly I was worried about my cat, Zeta, who had been ill and gone missing. I foun
Sorry about the title!!
Back on Wednesday I said I would post some pictures of my local woodland in the snow once they were developed. Well they've been developed and scanned so here are a few:
The last 2 may look like they are not level, but the ground really does slope that much.
My Next door neighbour but one has a garden which shares a boundary with a school field. Both the garden and field have trees along the boundary. Back in the late summer or early autumn I was in my garden when I heard a rustling in the trees. To my surprise there was a grey squirrel in the trees merrily munching on acorns. There are plenty of squirrels in my area but this was the first time in the 30 years that have lived here that there has been one in the gardens.
I came inside and grabbed
A Happy Burns Night to everyone.
Family tradition has it that I am a direct descendant of the great poet and so I shall be off to the pub in a little while. I shall meet one of my oldest and closest friends and we shall have a few drinks (including a drop of Scotch of course). We will also have some haggis, neeps and tatties which are always laid on in the Robin Hood and Little John on Burns Night.
Address To A Haggis
Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!
Ab
Even though the forecasters predicted snow, I was a little surprised to find a white covering this morning. I live close enough to London that it rarely snows here and even more rarely settles. There was a good 1.5cm on my shed roof.
I packed my camera and walked to my local bit of woodland. If the photographs are any good I will post them here once I get them developed.
It's 13:45 and the last of the snow has melted from my garden now. It was fun while it lasted.
