Blue on Blue

Back from my "paternity leave"...not exactly refreshed I have to say, baby's found his lungs and ain't afraid to use them, mostly in the middle of the night which means I ain't getting me beauty sleep and it's beginning to take a toll...still...shouldn't last too long...Spent the time, while not trying to catch up on me zzz's taking baby number one out and about, Action Tots, feeding the ducks by the river, that sorta thing, bless him..

Went round the mother-in-laws Saturday for Mothers Day meal, the brother-in-law turned up too, minus his other half, "fever"!! keeping her in bed apparently. and we were treated to his opinions on, well..everything really...but one bit that sticks in my memory of the meal was his, seemingly endless, fascination, with all things "Local Produce"...from locally grown carrots to locally raised cows/lambs/pigs etc...all of which seem far superior to anything we might find round our way...or in Tesco's for example..."...Yeah, the thing is with me..I DO like my Cows to TASTE like cows!..." or "...I DO like carrots with my pasta bolognaise, they make the meat sweeter...mind you, the carrots my friend grows in his fields are superb, carrot supplier to Watrose no less and a 9 million pound turnover..."...zzzzzz.....

Right said Fred

Last day this week, gotta take time off to help missus with Fred, which suits me, for "help missus" read lazing about in the garden, feet up ;) enjoying da sunshine innit!!

Went for a wander with me old FT pal yesterday lunchtime, strolling round our old haunts, passed the public swimming baths we used to go to and up towards Uni of London campus where we took some VB evening classes once, in the deluded hope that our enthusiasm would be recognised at work and we'd be promoted out of our dead end jobs and into the glam world of IT...needless to say it didn't work, but in a way it has for him...as Morrissey said, we hate it when our friends become successful...

Crusts from the masters table

Not a bad night last night, woke up mebbe 3 or 4 times, the last time was when the missus decided the baby needed changing at 5:00am, not 6:00am when I get up anyway, no, not when he wakes up and decides he needs changing, no...that would be too easy, no at 5:00am, that's the optimum time to do these things apparently...sigh...so, Christ! may as well get up eh love?...well...he needs changing!!...can't you...er....take him downstairs and do it? saves waking me up...and the neighbours of course...umm?...fuck the neighbours, says she and by implication fuck me n'all..

Read somewhere that journals should log the minutiae of a persons life, the grinding dullness of it, instead of mentioning world events, because they're mentioned elsewhere, no, what should be put here are...what I had for breakfast for example (one slice of toast, crust, with marmite) why one slice? why crust?..well...no...no...that would really be delving into the details wouldn't it??

Shock and Awe

So, in the midst of all the turmoil and uncertainty of work, the missus decides to have a baby! un-bloody-believe-able!! her timing at times I tell ya...so there I was of course, in the delivery suite, 9:00pm Wednesday night, one minute staring at the missus' growler, faint stirrings in the loin region, well, I'm still a man damnit!, the next I'm staring at the ceiling, as I keeled over at the sight of a head poppn' thru her legs!! aarrrrhhh!!...Jesus, the quickest birth ever! 25 mins in total.

Out came this purple, floppy thing, no...not that...a crash team storms in like something out of casualty to revive the wee man...bless...All over now though, I'm doing well now and the missus is dead proud of me n'all!

Think of it as an opportunity...

Afraid some tired old clichéd lines come out at times like this, like the above, or "don't worry, something'll turn up"...or "why don't you go travelling, USE the time off to have some fun"...bla bla...I think those that say it partly do so to make themselves feel better about still having a job..hmmm...met one of the developers for a beer yesterday lunchtime, he came in to pick up his final cheque and he was beginning to realise that he didn't have a job anymore and that things were serious....


Home front, No Baby news, now overdue by 3 days, must be a female.

Wogan

No Wogan this morning, radio 1 is plugging Comic Relief with Romeo from So Solid Crew doing his "Ali G" roaming reporter bit from Northern Ireland...yeah yeah...listen up...these kids yeah, da muslims and da muslims yeah, just wanna get off da streets and stay out of aggro. these kids need your 'elp, send mula to comic relief...and purchase my records! innit..keepn' it rweal...aye!....

jeeeez...had to turn back over to radio 2..

gotta get a handle on it

Went for a wander round Clerkenwell at lunchtime, I swear it's half empty, loadsa For Sale and To Let signs up and plenty of restaurants and bars boarded up, no dot com'ers to sell over priced Mexican lager to anymore?

shoddy... shabby... shit...

Ah well, new week, new... erm...well... nothing's new really. Except the handle's fallen off the office door.... can it get any worse?!?!

slow old morning

Not a bad w/e really, home friday early, thought about a nice pint of lager, but instead wnen straight home...for a nice bottle of red instead...txt from Reeech re: the web from MD "Great job. The new site is a big improvement!!!!. Next time we are out, I will buy you a couple of pints..." which'll probably be our last ever drink but any-hoo...nice to be nice eh?..

Saturday, couple of dry runs to the QE2 hospital in Welwyn Garden City, just s'as I know where I'm going when the baby decides to arrive like..rest of day, bit of Star Trek, made some dinner and watched Insomnia which, typically the missus slept thru, then woke up and wanted to know what had happened!...

Sunday, went to feed the ducks on the river, then to the park, then pub! 2 pints and 4 cans later, we're all asleep. Nice day though, felt ill in evening, so went to bed early, taped "24"

All bar Skint

Not too bad last night, managed to leave 9:00ish...went to Liverpool Street and had a glass of wine while I waited for the train, went for a waz...came out...Oh! my bag...I couldn't believe it! GONE...some waitress yapping on at me..bla bla...yeah, yeah love, I'm glad you've found safety in the UK, well done for getting here, I'm not a Daily Mail reader, so good luck with your asylum application yeah, but if you don't mind, I've my own crisis going on!!...so I walk out of the bar, spin around and think, what the hell, I can always ask, go back in the bar and say that I've lost my bag, has anyone handed it in?...you never know do you?..."Yez, iz wot I am trying to tell you, I 'ave bag 'ere.." and with that, up comes my bag from behind the bar! Bingo!!...phew!!...my life's in that bag...well...2 books and some slips from the cash machine, but to me, it's my life I tell ya!

Noddy train to Broxbourn, ALL OFF!! coach waiting, come on, wake up you!.....yep, engineering work closed the line, so onto a coach for the rest of way home, in at 11:00pm having left the boozah just after 9:00pm!

Marmite, food of the gods

got me some marmite toast from the nearest local cafe this AM...guess how much...£1..!!! keeeerrrr-ching! thank-you!! jezus, yesterday I went in there and like, toast was 50p, so I'm thinking, ok, with marmite it's gonna be 60p right?...WRONG...won't go in there again, what a mark-up!

Blisters

So, gardening Saturday, father-in-law, 9:30am start, me hung-over from the night before, got home early, started on another bottle of wine! yes please!!...bad move though, 'cos I was rough that day...anyway the plan for the day was to remove the top soil from a section of his garden, then remove a coupla feet's worth of "good" soil, make two piles see, THEN start digging out and bagging up the "bad" soil, the clay like stuff, or the clay like stuff he was expecting to find that far down, but...didn't really...anyway, NO MATTER! out it came, him chuffing all the while, parping like a good 'un!...no "pardon I"...or "more tea vic'har?"...nothing, which leads me to believe he must have what his daughter has...an inability to acknowledge her own emissions, not me!..no never!!...so, like ...dig dig dig.....phew steve, I tell you what, must've been some old sewer down here at one point, it don't 'arf reek, this mud, don't it?...jezus!...

Managed to get out of there about 3:00pm, knackered...stagger home, straight into the bathroom, running me a bath, foaming up nice, thinking, god this is gonna be sweeeeeet...really need this, as I lower my considerable bunk into the water....but wait!...what's this??...cold FECKING WATER!!...missus - oh yeah, pilot light's gone out, we've no hot water, kept meaning to switch it back on!...(i coulda wept, i tell ya)...then, like, erm...any lunch going like?...been in YOUR dads garden all day, gonna do owt for Meeeeee!!...her - yeah yeah, alright! god!...settling down for a spot of star trek, but bugger, seen it before, no matter, it's comfort tv innit...ring ring...who's that? she - oh...it was me brother...he coming over, will be here in half an hour!...THAT was when things started to go really badly

5 easy pieces

5th wedding anniversary time and Friday I took the missus out for a slap-up meal at a little local Italians', booked in for 8:00pm, me in a whistle she in a maternity thing, looking the dogs the pair of us!...

So, down we sat, would you like a drink zir?...ooo yeah please, beer for me and a small white wine for she..certainly zir..settled down to look thru menu (no cod by the way!) then the restaurant proprietors wife came along and read us the riot act, what was "on special" this evening, rattling the options off in break-neck speed before moving onto the next table...we duly ignored what little we managed to catch, and continued looking thru the menu...we ordered a starter, well, special occasion innit, (me, prawns wrapped in salmon, she...er...forget) which cam less than 5 minutes after we ordered it and very nice it was too...then the wine came, some surly yob who said "..s'right" every time I said thank-you after he's topped me up, brought me a beer, or whatever..."...s'right"...before slouching off...

Main course, tricky, she (paella) me, afraid I opted for the steak + veg (fried potatoes and peas ) and a bloody good job the missus was at close hand to interpret for me, for god's sake, call a spud a spud's I say!...which also all came within ten minutes ( I kid you not )...then the pud, me a glass of wine, bottle done!, she a chocolate cake, then bingo! the bill was on the table £62+tip and I one thing she said to me, the only thing really, before we got in there was, do NOT rush me! let's take out time eh?...well...I've spent more time in a greasy cafe!..more time in a MacDonald's for gawdsake!...and it wasn't my fault, honest!, there's a fine line between efficient service and rushed and I have to say, Dino's was a little rushed for us...and then, then right, the proprietors wife, at the door, totting up the takings, us, waiting for our coats to be collected, she, not looking up...us waiting...she...calculator..tap tap tapping...us thinking, nope, she not gonna say thanks for coming, hope you had a nice time...until the coats came and she DID look up...er...and say just that!..but it was a close call I tell ya!...ah well, next year we'll try another place, no point spoiling ourselves eh?