Recently in Whinge, Whinge, Whinge Category

Wow, it's really been a long time since I was last here, which means as usual I have so much to report that I'll probably forget half of it by the time I get to the point where I may have considered writing about it, and if that is the case I can only appologise in advance for the small amount of detail that is missing regarding the last month of my life!!

This weekend has been quite stressful in many ways - I have a progressively bad cold, the outlaw is here, and then there's the whole housing/work stuff going on.

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I so hate that message!! but the good news is, it's not there any more when you try to read my blog.

Woohoo!!

[Techie bit - It turns out that the persmissions on my weblog folder had been changed so php wouldn't work properly]

I always thought that clowns were a bit scary, but I never really knew why until I accidentally saw a programme all about them on tv the other night.

It seems that most clowns take up the role because they're either broke and need a quick buck, or they believe that they are actually very funny when actually they're just quite sad. And the really weird bit, is that none of the entertainers on the bbc show seemed to have any interest in actually entertaining children!!

Even the first 2 minutes of it had me with my chin on the floor, and it pretty much stayed that way until it was al finally over.

So, I can at last put to bed this concern that I have an irrational fear of clowns, purely because it appears my fears are well founded after all.

If you didn't see the bbc2 show about entertainers on Monday evening, you HAVE TO watch it on iplayer.

Here's the link...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b009r2kf.shtml?filter=txdate%3A07-04&filter=txslot%3Aevening&start=1&scope=iplayerlast7days&version_pid=b009r2jv 

A friend of mine has just recieved a new nokia smartphone that he's wanted for ages, and had to hassle orange in order to get the one he wanted. (retentions are a wonderful department).

Anyway, yesterday I decided to go into a few phone shops to take a look at this marvellous new beast, only to discover that only the T-mobile shop actually had one in stock.

So I ask to have a look at it, and the guy point-blank refuses to go get one from the stock room, because "You want to get a Windows Smartphone, not a Nokia". I mean, maybe HE wants to get a Windows device, but he doesn't know what I want - in fact, yes he does - I just told him I want the Nokia one.

After 10 minutes of this guy telling me how amazing the Windows phone is (I decided not to tell him that I actually had that exact phone in my pocket already)  I finally leave the store knowing nothing new, other than that mobile phone salesmen are fatheads who will only talk about the phone that THEY think you should have.

So, where do I go to actually get a look at this new "miracle phone"?

Let me know if you have any ideas (and yes, I'm very aware I didn't mention the model number - surprise me).

Today, I've had the most interesting day I think I may have had in nearly a year!!

I have spent the last 2 days (and one full evening) putting together a training session for the NSYFC team on "How to use Microsoft Outlook" as we run a MS exchange server at the office, but no-one uses outlook except for email, which is crazee when it is such a powerful programme for running schedules, tasks contacts etc.

Anyway, I put a presentation together (a mere 90 powepoint slides) and turned up at the office this morning, ready to help people discover how amazing Outlook really is.

I titled the presentation "MS Outlook for dummies (& NSYFC people)" - you have no idea how inaccurate that title was - it literally took 20 minutes for people to turn on their computers and load Outlook from the programs menu!!

Anyway, after a LONG training session that for some reason people found extremely amusing, certain (paper diary fan) members of the YFC team announced that they were "Converts", which was exciting, but I was left feeling physically exhausted. It really did feel like teaching old people how the new nursing home toilet worked!! (lots of "ooh"s and sharp (but positive) intakes of breath).

And eventually, I came home, only to find that Lara had already told Zak about the new bike he was going to get!! GREAT!!

I have been waiting months to see Zak's face when he's presented with his first ever bike (something that won't ever happen again), so it has to be said that I was (slightly) gutted when I discovered that Lara had told him he was getting one - it's one of those "first time" type moments that I usually seem to miss as I'm at work for most of the day.

Anyway, I got home, went to lie down for an hour (I really was exhausted), our friend Derek came to visit for an Audley special and I accidentally trod on his nuts (the edible type - he'd left them on the floor), and we now have Zak's new bike -  I've hidden it in the garage in the hope that he'll forget what Lara told him and he'll get all excited when we give it him at some point, but I guess if he knows, he knows!! Grrrr!!

And that's it. Sorry it was a bit long!!

I really feel annoyed today, primarily because we've had to re-call the boiler repair people.

The thing is, it's to fix a problem that I told the guy about when he came out on New Year's Eve, and he simply ignored. So why do I have to pay another £50 callout fee to get something fixed that should have been fixed last time?

The basic problem, is that our hot water is only hot when you turn the taps on just enough to get a ridiculously weak stream of water. Any faster, and we just get cold water again. We've always lived with that before, but now we've got this new shower to fit, we need to get it sorted.

Everyone I speak to says that the hot tap should produce very hot water, even when turned on full (and yes, we've tried turning the taps on gradually), but no joy - above a certain flow-rate, it comes out cold every time. If this isn't correct, and it's perfectly normal to get cold water from the hot tap at high speed, please comment and let me know. Then I can cancel this call out before we get charged again!!

Grrrr, I hate boilers!!

Well, as you will tell from the date of this entry (and possibly from the title), today is valentines day. So, after a pretty hectic day at the office I spent the evening doing the most romantic thing in the universe - making beer!!

Yes, it's true, I've finally got round to making a new batch of beer - and this time it's lager - after openly admitting that the last batch I made was pretty "naff". Trouble is, I can't work out how to clean the empty barrel, as it still has quite a lot of sediment from the first batch, and the neck is so small that even Zak can't get his arm in there to clean it (did I actually try that? Well, I guess you'll never know).

Anyway, today was a good day at NSYFC. I spent a fair amount of it sorting through the piles of paperwork on my desk (and around the desk, and on the filing cabinet, and even on the bookshelves). It always amazes me when I do that, how much of the stuff I've let pile up can actually be dealt with in less than 5 minutes - it just always appears when I'm half way through something else.

And that brings me onto my main point.

Today also saw my latest NSYFC line management session, and I have to say it was quite a tough one. Primarily because I'm presently feeling a bit like "butter that's been spread over too much bread" (thanks J.R.R Tolkien for that one). The main trouble is that I have several BIG projects that I need to push forward, but I've spent pretty much all of this year so far putting out fires (that was a metaphor) and doing "bits" of everything, rather than spending extended periods on any particular one project. So, from now, that needs to change. Arrrggghhh!!

I'm also aware that I've fallen slightly behind on the "Bible in a year" thing. Not that badly, but enough that I need to do some work on catching up. I also need to finish the various projects and book assignments for the MLS course I'm doing, and the truth is that my first project fell at the first hurdle, so not really sure whether I can write about that, or just have to say that I didn't do one (which was not the plan, before you ask).

Maybe I'm being a bit hard on myself, and maybe I shouldn't really be blogging about work stuff, but hey (like bum-fluff), that's what's happening in my world, so why not?

Some positive news - Our friends, James & Katie are coming to visit this weekend. It's gonna be so good to catch up with them and have some fun together.

I've also eaten lunch every day for 2 weeks now - which really is amazing for me. It hasn't really made much difference, but I guess the daily cravings for KFC at 12.30pm have died away (slightly).

Boy, this entry is exciting isn't it. You all now know about the devastatingly dull life I lead. Woohoo.

And as for the Granny Mechanics, there's nothing really to tell, other than I'm considering blogging more about it in the hope it'll inspire me to actually do something about it.

And that's it for me. See you all again soon. (maybe). lol

Right. A whole 9 days since my last entry, and mainly because it's Christmas.

Our Christmas has been quite eventful really. We more-or-less got the bathroom finished (apart from the flooring) in time for Lara's family descending on us, and I thought it'd be good to get the radiator back on the wall. That bit went without a hitch, but when I came to refill it, Lara shouted me to say the bolier was leaking. Great!! And it really was - pouring out - turns out that refilling the radiator had completely drained any water from the boiler, so after a couple of hours of panic and looking through yellow pages I prayed a "God, you need to do something, and NOW" type prayer, and a random plumber guy called me back to tell me how to get the water pressure in the boiler back up, and it all started working again. Woohoo.

What a result.

And being happy to have heat again, we nipped out to get a few of the remaining essentials, only to discover when we got back that the radiators were cold again and the red "error" light was on the boiler. And this time the reset button doesn't fix it.

Bummer!!

So we have spent the whole of Christmas so far sitting in a full, cold house with no heating or hot water, and it doesn't look like we're gonna be able to get a plumber to look at it till mid next week, and using all that money we don't have. GREAT!!

So, for now, with Lara's family back in sunny Haywards Heath, we've retreated to the warmth of my parents house for a few days. I dread to think how cold the place is gonna be when we go back.

And also, our friends, the Olds, are supposed to coming over for new year celebrations, but that's not nice if we have no heating, so no idea what's gonna happen there (on a positive note, it does appear that the more people in our house, the warmer it seems to be).

So, if anyone knows anything about combi-boilers, give me a call.

Otherwise, I'll keep you updated. but for now, the future's cold - the futures "expensive".

Ciao my darlin's!!

(oh, and Merry flippin Christmas!!)

Very occasionally, I have a week that I really look forward to, and this week was going to be one of them. That's until I woke up in the early hours of Monday morning with, let's call it the "tummy bug from Hell"!!

As a result I pretty much spent the whole of yesterday either in bed, or in close proximity to the porcelain. Nice!!

And the most annoying part about it, is that I was supposed to be having line management with Liz (the director of NSYFC) in STARBUCKS yesterday morning. How annoying, especially as we've re-arranged this meeting about 4 times now, and the next re-arrangement may well not involve nice coffee shops.

Anyway, what else have I been up to?

Well, I've been quite busy getting prepared for the festive season - making cards, buying pressies, doing balance transfers to our 0% credit card - just the usual stuff really.

And tomorrow is team lunch mk.1 and secret santa. We always have this stupid limit of £2.50 - I mean, what can you get for someone for £2.50 that won't be bin-fodder within a day? - Well, I managed to find something a bit different, and it'll either be well received, or met with looks of "this is a dumb present!!". And the wierdest thing of all, is that everyone is then expected to tell each other who gave what present. Where's the fun in that? All it means is that you're less likely to buy an unusual gift 'cos everyone will know it was YOU!!

Anyway, bizarrely I actually enjoyed the whole secret santa thing last year, and who knows, maybe this years will be fun too. I'll get back to you.

Finally, a question for those of you who know my wife - What do you buy for the woman who claims she "doesn't really want a Christmas Present this year?"

Ideas by comment please (and yes, I do want ideas).

Ciao for now!!

ps. If you haven't received a card from us yet, it's either in the post, we've forgotten about you, or we simply don't think your friendship is worth the price of a stamp!! (joke)