Mar 31: Gutt-err

It’s a wee bit windy round here at the moment.

4am this morning, my bins decided to have a ltitle dance down the steps of my house and out into the road.

Noisy enough to wake me up.

Dangerous enough to warrant a visit out into the wind to recover the recycling wheely bin from the road….which was nice. Especially as I was in my ‘Lesuire Pants’…

Upon returning home tonight, I discovered a piece of the house by the front door;

From the gutter…

It’s a quite important piece of the guttering…bugger.

I’m going to need to get up there and fix it.

I’ll need a ladder…a tall ladder. Not sure where I’ll get one of those from, and with the wind the way it is, I could be in for some Extreme Laddering! I wonder if that’s a niche sport? Welcome Folks to the Superdome for the 2015 Extreme Laddering Finals. We’ll be seeing gusts of over 60mph, and in the final round, a Whirling Dervish Sand Storm WOOOOO!

It’s got legs…There is extreme ironing that’s an actual sport, why not Laddering in extreme weather? Snow bound, Desert heat, Typhoon…

OK – it’s been a long day, I should get some sleep.

Mar 30: Erection

There’s an erection coming up.

See what I did there?

<sigh>

There’s the UK election on it’s way, and the willy-waving of politicians is heading into overdrive. The airways will be saturated with rhetoric, avoidance of actual valid debate, ‘sound bites’ and verbal dancing around ever actually making a decision.

I’m trying to remain positive and think of the current state of UK politics as a valid evolution of Democracy. Interesting though, because democracy should allow actual freedom of speech, which we don’t see an awful lot of. Mr Cameron will only debate if it’s on his terms. Miliband is already reduced to that most annoying tendency of the British politicians; attempting to gain additional ‘cred’ by ‘using a phrase or word that is in keeping with the proletariat, but utterly not in keeping with the Eton Crew (see what I did there?)… This mornings treat was hearing the spin-doctored puppet expound “Am I tough enough? Hell Yes!”…

Dude….you said that out loud…in front of people.

It’s like Cameron did in the last debacle, it’s a formula; Ask utterly bullshit rhetorical question…answer using quaint lower-classes vernacular… For instance; “Should the UK decline into a poverty ridden mess? Well I “ain’t” going to let that happen!” <queue pompous self-interested sycophantic applause>

Is bollox.

Will we actually see any valid debate on issues that actually have significant bearing?

Unlikely.

Simple question: How do Conservative and Labour policies meaningfully differ?

That’s what I’ll be trying to work out. At this point, it seems this years general erection will centre around who is best mates with UKIP, and as such, will gather their share of the British vote in a….Coalition Government…

Interesting that that is targeted right from the beginning. Think on that lovely prospect – Conservative “Rich grow Richer” government, with a loose collection of xenophobic bigots….in charge.

You know those quaint Human Rights that we rely on…yeah, you know the one’s, the one’s that mean you can’t be sacked with 2 weeks notice for no reason at the whim of a corporate agenda? Those are courtesy of the EU, and remain firmly in place, because the UK is part of the EU…

Xenaphobic Corporate controlled Government…can’t see them wanting pesky human rights to get in the way of a good money making agenda…

But then (as The Dude would say), that’s just my opinion man.

Would be lovely to have my faith in politics restored by a lively, valid and interesting debate that didn’t descend quickly into virtual name-calling and mild slander of the <cough> ‘leaders’.

I’ll be watching The Trews 

I suggest you give it a go…

…and I didn’t have anything to say in today’s blog entry. A slow day evidently…

Mar 29: So-Far

Ugh!

I spent half the day being grumpy.

I went to Dave’s for a cup of tea.

And that LEGEND helped me out with what was a logistical nightmare for one person.

Moving sofas!

O

M

F

G

It really shouldn’t be that difficult right?! Why does it have to involve….thought?!?!! WHHYYYYY?!!! IT WAS A SUNDAY! I don’t use my brain on a Sunday. It’s just not ethical.

Effectively, moving the sofa’s involved dismantling both….then moving them. They are in their respective new ‘homes’, and whilst one is nestled nicely, the other…well….it just looks shit….bugger.

All done now though – and it was a 2 man job.

Job done!

Thanks Dave.

Mar 28: Clam-burring

Dem fingers are hurting now… I went for a climb today.

Strange how the purchase of a PS4 immediately made me want to exercise! Excellent, that’s a good sign…

So, had a “Properly Held up by Shit Drivers” journey up to Reading, and spent a few hours climbing myself into inability to hold anything. Awesome! Feels like the palms of my hand and the pads of my fingers are sunburned. I made the mistake of holding a hot cup of tea eariler – Rookie error!

Properly good session, Anna and Tony were in fine form, but we are all a bit crap at climbing…well…actually, just a bit out of shape. The training I’ve been doing recently has done wonders for general body strength, but finger strength…uhm…I may have <ahem> deliberately left that out of the training. I didn’t forget that bit. Nope, experienced climbers never forget to exercise finger strength. Neeerrrrrp…. bollox.

Still, loads of fun. We even got to boulder with Jon Partridge (British Climbing Team) for a spell. The incredibly friendly and helpful chap gave me some advice working a problem I was struggling with… It bally well worked too! What a total Gent! Thanks man, never expected to send that one! 🙂

I’m going to feel it in the morning…but after utterly failing to have any kind of lie in in the last couple of days, I’m hoping that the body shredding will tire me enough to get a decent nights kip…

Here’s hoping!

I’ll ask Jan if I can borrow Charlie for the evening….we’re mates me n’ Charlie, and there really is nothing like a purring cat to relax the soul;

Force Ten Purr-fest.

Mar 27: Per-chase

I caved.

I bought a Playstation 4.

It’s very good.

….wish me luck having a life.

Mar 26: Daze-off

Unexpected day off tomorrow!!

Get in!

Many things I can do. Probably many things I should do. What am I going to do?

I have no idea.

Sweet!

Who knows what the day holds. I do intend to start with a lie in. I think any good day off with no plans should start with a lie in. A lie in followed by a cup of tea. It is the British way! I’m not much of a nationalist. In fact, I’m not a much for the National Pride thing. Always seems to be it ends up in xenophobia and fear, and as the great prophet Yoda decreed; “Fear leads to Anger, Anger leads to Hate, Hate leads to suffering….”… So I’m not much with the national pride.

Not that I don’t love a good tradition!

A Cup of Tea is the root of for solving any problem, that is FACT….and tradition!

Washing up by candlelight at Christmas with Benj – Tradition!

Pretending to be a 19th Century Colonial British Officer when I’m in America? Fantastic Tradition!

Hmmmm – Clearly having a George Carlin Brain Droppings moment.

To calm myself and you, here is a photo of some swans at Sunset;

Isle of Wight Swans no less…..

Mar 25: Holy-day

Etymology.

Not to be confused with Entomology, which isn’t the study of Tree Folk, more the study of insects. Nope, Etymology, the study of words and their origins…

I wonder if the term Holiday originated with the Holy Day’s being days off. Days of worship that later, or probably sooner I would imagine, became days off work and therefore, days of leisure… I remember those.

Whichever way, I need a holiday. I actually have some vacation days to take and I fully intend to enjoy them. A few of them are going to be taken up with the April Challenge, but more on that…well…then.

So, what to do with time off?

Well that would be telling, but I do know that china will be involved. The porcelain type, not the place, and I will be having what I hope to be a series of Lie In’s so long I’ll need an Intravenous Drip.

Films.

Music.

A Speedboat.

Beer.

Sleep.

A Doge.

….something to look forward 🙂

Mar 24: Challenge Update – Slowed

I’ve slowed down a bit on the Uke practice.

Mind you, I’ve slowed down on a lot of things recently. That’s actually a good thing because the space it leaves is allowing thoughts to occur rather than being forced. The January and February challenge is working, and that feels good.

I’ll get on the Uke practice before long, I’ve been running the song I’ve chosen a bit, and the vocals are proving interesting. In order to give the correct feel, the Uke is used sparingly – I.e. not a strummy strummy classico Ukelele jam. So, new instrument with limited muscle memory for chords, and a vocal line that’s also new…good fun as it happens, and an appropriate stretch in musical ability.

Such a small instrument too, and the strings are all….nylony. I’ve played nylon string guitars before and they are lovely. Shmoooth! The Uke feels very different.

Not sure if I’ve taken to it. Certainly, it’s beginning to sound more like I’m playing an instrument and less like I’m a resident of Bum Note City, but remains to be seen if it takes on long term… Having a project without vocal stretch would be useful. Perhaps learning a picking style Uke tune would open up some more options…hmmmmm…I’ll thunk on it…

Whichever way, I’ll be ramping up the praccy this week.

Better warn the neighborhood.

Juussssst enough room to maneuver…

Mar 23: Bowl-ed

Free bowling tonight. Moll got a staff thingy which gave us an hour for free – sweet!

I was bad.

No change there then!

However, I did get to meet someone famous;

Sammy Saints!

He crept up on us – my training kicked in an I almost Karate Chopped him in the nuts! Luckily, caught myself just in time and gave him a massive hug instead….I think that might have been worse, but not so bad that he didn’t let me Selfie it up…Legend 🙂

Mar 22: Front-line

I’m not sure if I have an addition to the front line troops in the House Protection League, or an invasion!

A Wasps Nest in the loft…

This required some investigation…

The diminutive nest appears to be a Common Wasps nest. I’ll try and get a photo but at the moment, I’m not sure if it’s active or not. It’s small, about a tennis ball size, and I watched it for a bit this morning and there was no activity. I was put onto looking around for it when I found a dead wasp in the bathroom. It’s been too cold to leave windows open so the only real access with through the light fittings… Yep, Wasp Nest in the loft…

I’m reasonably sure it’s from last year, and I suspect that the dead wasp in the bathroom was the queen. Apparently, the queen builds the nest. I’ll need to watch it again during the day to be sure it’s a dead nest, then remove it such that it doesn’t get rented out to another queen.

Fascinating stuff!

If it’s not live – I wonder of the Spider Bro’s took care of it for me?

Likely I think.

Legends!

I’ll report back…

It’s about a third of the size of this…but with no wasps…