Phil's Life

Obama snowballs a kitty

2009-08-28T22:49:00.004+01:00

I saw this picture somewhere on the Internet (sorry, can't remember where) and it really made
me laugh. I'm pretty sure it's fake though (well, the kitty part anyway).

Chickpea curry

2009-03-15T20:42:00.006Z

We've both been a bit worried about our crap diet recently (too much pizza) so we agreed that we were going to try and eat a bit healthier. Since I enjoy cooking I thought I'd get the ball rolling with something tasty and spicy.

I've found a really cool site that has loads of recipes to try so I thought I'd try a chickpea curry. I deviated slightly from the recipe on the site though (I can't help trying new things when I'm cooking). It was really nice to be cooking something healthy again and I have to say - it was really really tasty! I think there's a big difference in taste between something cooked from scratch and a jar of sauce.

The photo here is the finished product (that's a sprig of coriander on the top by the way).

Ingredients :

Olive oil
two small red onions (finely chopped)
half a garlic bulb (I love garlic)
an inch of ginger root (half grated, the other half finely diced)
4 whole cloves
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of cumin (I ground cumin seed as I didn't have the powdered form)
a handful of finely chopped fresh coriander
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 tin (400g) of chick peas (including the liquid)
1 tin (400g) of good chopped tomatoes (blended to a smooth paste)

Facebook wants to own your data

2009-02-19T14:10:00.003Z

Right now I'm seriously considering cancelling my Facebook account. I've already removed much of my personal information from my profile and got rid of all the applications.

My reason for this is that Facebook recently (4th Feb 2009) changed its terms and conditions to allow it to... well, pretty much do what it likes with your data.

You might think that this isn't a problem - after all, everyone can see your data but many of you (myself included) have limited the visibility of your profiles to friends only. If Facebook were to sell your data to anyone that pays the right amount, you can almost guarantee that all of your friends, email addresses, blog comments and messages will be available to any number of agencies.

If you think spam is bad now, can you imagine the joy of a spammer that has access to your email address, your friends' email addresses and the comments you've made to them.

In Britain we are protected by the Data Protection Act to some degree - but Facebook is not a British organisation and is not bound by the DPA's rules. I don't really know anything about US data protection laws but from what little I have seen, I am not reassured about my personal data being held by any American company that has shown an indication to sell that data.

The fact that Facebook has already tried to sneakily change its Terms & Conditions without publicly telling its members what was doing shows that Facebook cannot be trusted.

I can't say that I like the idea of a spammer (or some of the government agencies for that matter) to have the full personal details of my life. I have nothing to hide but the Labour government in the UK has already shown a propensity to manipulate electronic data to suit its own agenda - take the under-handed attempt at raising council taxes, for example.

Here's some articles about this topic:

PC Pro : Has Facebook really backed down in privacy row?

Datonomy Blog : Writings on the wall for Facebook data

Computer Weekly : About face for data ownership

BBC : Privacy law call in Facebook row

The true price of cheap computers

2009-02-19T11:00:00.007Z

I was shocked to read this article in Computer Weekly about the conditions that Chinese workers have to endure so that we can buy cheaper computing equipment. The article is actually about a report from an organisation called The National Labour Committee that investigated the factory recently.
The image above is from their site (used with permission via email).

The article reveals that in one factory in China that makes equipment for Microsoft, Dell, HP, IBM and Lenovo the workers are only paid $0.61 an hour (that's 42p an hour).

As if that wasn't bad enough, the workers live in the factory compound and only get a half hour off for dinner and a half hour off for lunch in their 12 hour shifts. I can't say that I'd enjoy working the 75 hour week that they routinely endure.

I think we've all heard the comment that factory workers in China only get paid "a bowl of rice a day" but in real terms these poor people are getting paid £5.04 a day. And they get £1.68 of that taken from them for food and board leaving £3.36 a day. They are often not paid for the work they have done - robbing them of between 14% and 19% of their rightful earnings.

I am deeply troubled that in these current times when China's government is making moves to join the world community and advance as a nation, it is still allowing its factory owners to commit deplorable acts of inhumane suffering.

The home of today?

2009-02-18T11:39:00.000Z

I came across this video on another site that I found interesting.
It's a film from 1967 that predicts what the home of the future (circa 1999) will be like.
Although the technology looks dire compared to what we use today, the way in which the family uses it is scarily accurate.

Of course there's also the 1960s sexist flavouring (everything is paid for by the man...) but it's still worth watching for a laugh. :)

If you'd rather watch it on YouTube then click this link.

A Merry Christmas (but not for all)

2008-12-27T17:19:00.002Z

I can't believe that Christmas has been and gone so quickly. It's Saturday already and it's worrying how fast the holiday is whizzing by.

My partner and I went to Woolworths today to see if there was anything left worth buying on their last day of opening. As far as I'm aware, everything was reduced by 70 to 80%. It was really sad - the shelves practically empty and hordes of people milling in the aisles seeking any remaining bargains. The way many of them were pushing and jostling other people reminded me of vultures squabbling over a carcass. It was worrying that we passed another store closing down too - Field and trek or something like that. I wonder how many other stores will fail in the current economic downturn.

After the heaving mass of people in town it's nice to get home and relax with a nice coffee.

Caligari Truespace 7.6 for free

2008-08-31T13:27:00.007+01:00

Being a fan of 3D graphics, I've been aware of Caligari Truespace for quite a long time - since they released version 3 in fact. It's always looked interesting and it's been given away at times on magazine cover disks but I've never really investigated it because I was using another application that offered the tools that interested me at the time.

Recently Microsoft acquired Caligari. This was a total surprise to me as I only found out about it when I was reading this month's 3D World. Anyway - the interesting thing about the acquisition is that Microsoft want Caligari to continue developing Truespace so that people can create content for their Virtual Earth application - MS's direct competitor to Google Earth. Oh, and I forgot the important bit - they're giving the application away for free. The full, latest, unrestricted version for nothing.

Needless to say, this seemed too good to be true so I toddled off to Caligari's website to grab the software before Microsoft changed their mind. Something else I noticed while I was there was that they've also made all of their training courses free as well. The only downside that I could see was that you have to register to download the software and they do ask you for your address. They don't ask for any payment details though. :)

I'm going to give it a go (much as I love Blender3D) and I'll comment here about how I get on. Will I abandon Blender for a new 3D application? Only time will tell... :)

Making bread and budgie sitting

2008-08-11T09:07:00.003+01:00

Budgie sitting

Clare came around on Saturday to deliver her budgie, Barney to take care of for two weeks while she's away in Cyprus. He's quite a cute little guy with bright green plumage and an amusing feather configuration over his eyes that always make him look like he disapproves of the world.

He'd settled in by Sunday so I took the chance of letting him spread his wings by leaving his cage door open. I'd been assured that he'd return to his cage once he'd had enough but I have to admit I was a little apprehensive that he wouldn't! :)

He took a particular liking to sitting on top of the kitchen cupboards watching what I was doing from his loft perch. He also punctuated my day with very loud budgie commentary. It was actually really nice - it's made me think that a budgie (or a pair of budgies) would make really great pets.

Making Bread

This weekend I went shopping for milk and bread and was un-impressed to find that the 39p danish loaf that we usually buy had sold out. It's not really a surprise that it had sold out - it's the cheapest decent loaf that Tesco sells now. The next cheapest equivalent was 80p and I wasn't going to pay that for a loaf of bread (not in our current financial situation anyway). I decided to buy some yeast and flour and make my own instead.

I've not made bread for a couple of years now - and it's a reassuring indicator of my mood that I was willing to do it now (what with all the preperation and cleaning up that's involved). I used the bread-maker to make the dough and threw in my ingredients as I usually do. Recipes never seem to work for me so I just put in the base ingredients and set the machine off, adding flour or water until the dough looks right as it mixes. In case you're wondering, this is my approximate base recipe:

750g strong white flour (sieved with a fine sieve)
1 sachet of dried yeast (I used Tesco's)
2 tsp of salt
1 tablespoon of demerara sugar dissolved in half a cup of hot water
one and a half cups of water (I don't bother with exact measurements)

Just for giggles I also added a tablespoon of green pesto to give the bread an interesting flavour. That's why I love making my own bread - it's so easy to make it a little different. If you want a slighty interesting loaf of bread in the shops you have to pay loads for the pleasure.

After the dough cycle had completed (one hour and thiry minutes later) I flopped it out onto a pre-floured work-top, knocked it back thoroughly (that means giving it an extra kneading by the way) and placed it in the oiled bread-tins. I left it to rise in them for another hour before finally baking at 220 degrees centigrade for about twenty minutes.

I was delighted to find that they turned out perfectly - lovely soft fluffy white bread with just a hint of green pesto. Kay thought so too and between us we ate half of one of the loaves with clover melting into each lovely warm slice. :D

Why does it always rain on me?

2008-07-19T13:39:00.006+01:00

A very wet summer
I'm finally on holiday from work and I am starting to suspect that this is one of the wettest summers that I've ever experienced. I'm looking out of the window and it's raining... again.

I'm hoping that it will brighten up soon - I had plans on doing some serious walking to try and get myself back into some kind of shape. Surely it can't rain forever... or perhaps I should start building an ark.

On the upside - we still seem to find stuff to laugh about. Here's a picture of Kay laughing herself silly over something (neither of us can actually remember what about but it left her in tears). Don't you love digital cameras? :D

A surprise comment
I've not logged into Blogger for a while, mainly because I've been focusing on doing well at work now that I've finally got back there. It was really nice to discover that someone had left a comment on one of my earlier posts about my agoraphobia.

He suggested that I should look at my food intolerances as a possible root of my depression and agoraphobia. He might be right - I already know that I'm lactose intolerant - maybe that intolerance goes beyond just the occasional throwing up if I eat too much cheese?

Plans for the summer
Now that I finally have some time to myself I intend to catch up on some drawing. I've been so focused at work on helping the students achieve the course that I was asked to manage that I've put everything else on the shelf until I was satisfied that there was nothing more I could do.

I'm a member of an ink drawing group and they've been setting challenges each week - I think I must be about six or so pieces behind. I'm looking forward to it. :)

Rabbit with pudding in its belly

2008-06-17T22:09:00.004+01:00

I watched a crazy program on BBC2 tonight about what food was like in Elizabethan times. Basically it was about a food critic (a self confessed "fatso") and a radio presenter that had to live a whole week eating as a wealthy Elizabethan merchant would have lived.

Their meals were... interesting. The highlights seemed to feature an entire sheep's head (including the oesophagus and lungs), most kinds of fish and beer with every single meal. Tea and coffee weren't due to arrive in England for another 100 years.

One of the most bizarre servings was a fish (and on another day, a rabbit) with a suet fruit pudding cooked in its belly.

I'm not sure if the funniest part was watching the two presenters try to stomach some of the (quite frankly) foul oddities from the table of history or their occasional tantrums due to caffeine withdrawal. :)

Quite frankly it was vile and I'm glad to be born in this century. What was noticeably absent from their meals was any kind of vegetable. It was meat, meat and meat cooked in cloves, nutmeg and various dried fruits (including, in large quantities, the prune).

Both of the guinea pigs lost 4 kilograms over the course of one week and I'm not surprised. It was pretty much a Shakespearean Atkins diet.

Here's the BBC's description of the show:

Restaurant Critic Giles Coren and writer and performer Sue Perkins spend a week going back to the food of Elizabeth I and William Shakespeare. Cooking for them at home is top chef Paul Merrett. Giles puts on his codpiece and Sue makes up like Queen Bess.

The duo discover the joys of sheep's head decorated with offal, the dish that bleeds and leaping frog pie. Giles tries some cupping and Sue learns the lute. With so many exciting foods to try out from the New World, the intrepid Supersizers find out how healthy the Elizabethan diet was.

Happy Birthday to me

2008-05-27T02:04:00.006+01:00

It was my birthday this week which saw me rack up another year on the odometer of life. Fortunately I'm not really at the 'I hate birthdays' stage of life yet so it was quite nice to feel special for a day. :)

I got a couple of cards from family and a lovely gift from my sweetie that I really wanted - a Lamy Safari fountain pen. They're supposed to be really good for drawing with and I have to say - it feels lovely to write with. :)

She knows me very well too - she got me the limited edition funky lime green one. I doubt I'll see many of those around. It's great! If you like writing with fountain pens then I highly recommend a Lamy. =D

As far as birthdays go it was pretty uneventful but that could be because we're utterly and completely skint at the moment.

A brief political whinge...

Thanks Gordon Brown, you money sucking tax-happy despot. Roll on a general election. I'd vote for the Smurf Party, the Free Chocolate For All Party or even the Liberal Democrats if I thought it would get Gordon Brown out of number 10.

Blackbird update

We were worried about Colin's progress so eventually we phoned a wildlife sanctuary that we know that has its own medical centre. I know he'll get the care and attention he needs there, poor little thing. They assured us that if he recovers they'll release him around here (where he came from) and if not, he can hop around their sanctuary.

Bad news about Colin

2008-05-18T11:26:00.004+01:00

Now that Colin is a little more relaxed about us (he's not even pecking me when I change his food) we decided we couldn't wait any longer to look at his wounds and see what we could do about them.

Kay held him while I carefully extended his wing. The good news is that the wing clearly wasn't broken. The bad news is that the wing muscle and skin was badly torn and not smelling too good. I carefully cleaned it out and treated it with anti-septic anaesthetic cream but it left me really worried for him. Seeing the area of skin that's damaged and the number of feathers that are missing I doubt he'll fly again.

The fact that he's still eating is a good sign - he's even started making small singing noises in the morning. But the wound clearly isn't good and we're going to have to keep a close eye on it. We don't want to take him to a wildlife sanctuary because we're both certain they'll just put him down because of the wound and the unlikely chance of rehabilitation.

We'd rather try to make him happy, treat his wound and if he lives we'll keep him as a pet rather than let some cat take him as an easy meal.

I'm just really glad that Kay learned a lot about keeping sick birds from her uncle. He used to be a prize-winning pigeon keeper that (unlike some pigeon 'lovers') would never put a bird down unless it was absolutely necessary.

A blackbird called Colin.

2008-05-17T22:58:00.006+01:00

We have a new arrival in our home. It's a poorly blackbird that we rescued from the alleyway behind our yard. One of its wings is badly torn and its tail feathers are in a bit of a ragged state too. I'm guessing that a cat got him.

We've got him in a cage at the moment and we've treated it with tick and mite powder, washed the worst of the mess off him and fed him plenty of meal worms (he seems to love them). Someone has said that they'll bring us a bigger cage for him to hop about in but for the moment he seems pretty happy considering what he must have been through.

Our aim is to give him time for his wing to mend (getting help if necessary), to strengthen up and ultimately release him back into the wild.

I kind of felt he needed a name so we eventually decided on Colin. I don't know why but he kind of looks like a Colin. :)

New doodles in the sketch-book

2008-05-02T17:11:00.006+01:00

It's good to have the sun shining and feel my mood improving day by day. I've even starting doodling again and I'm hoping to do a full drawing soon.

I recently acquired a dip-pen (basically a handle and two metal nibs to slot into it) to use with bottled ink. I thought it might be fun to explore a medium other than ballpoint when I'm working with ink.

I've already created a doodle with my new tool. It's in my sketchbook blog (click on the image below to see a larger version).

Life in ink

2008-04-30T01:54:00.004+01:00

I've been feeling my motivation starting to return recently which is really good news.

As a result I'm actually feeling positive about returning my life to normal and re-engaging with reality (for want of a better term). I just feel like my life has been on hold for the last several weeks because of the effect that my illness has had on my motivation and even ability to do what should be simple things.

One of the areas that I'm noticing an improvement is my ability to create. I've blogged here before about the frustration I've felt when I've tried to draw but I feel that is improving along with other areas of my outlook.

I enjoy drawing with pens, particularly ballpoints and I thought I'd explore this area of interest by investigating dip-pens. I already had some inks from years ago (I never got around to opening them) and a holder and couple of nibs cost next to nothing. I'm all set. I know how I draw normally with a ballpoint but I thought I'd take a look around at how people that use dipping-pens regularly use them.

I was stunned at how little information there was. And what is available on the Internet seems to be restricted to drawing comics (particularly anime and its ilk). Don't get me wrong, I like the anime style sometimes but when it's all you can find it gets a bit boring. It looks like I'll just have to play around with my new drawing tool and see what happens.

An unexpected visitor

2008-04-16T18:50:00.005+01:00

We've been trying to get the backyard of our flats looking nice by growing some plants, cutting back the overgrown shrub and putting out bird-feeders to attract a bit of wildlife.

We were delighted when we discovered that a Greenfinch had discovered the black sunflower seeds and was filling its face on the feeder today. I managed to get a photograph before a gust of wind dislodged it from its repast. Cute! :D

Poor tiny little bird

2008-04-07T16:55:00.005+01:00

My girlfriend was cleaning out some old plant pots in the backyard recently and came across a pot half full of soil. In the process of emptying it out she discovered a number of tiny little bird skulls. No bones, just skulls. Strange, huh?

Because I wanted to capture the intricate delicacy of a bird skull I took the opportunity to photograph it. You can see the result here).

Because it's difficult to appreciate how tiny the skull is from the main photograph, I took this photograph showing the skull next to a normal UK penny. I wonder what type of bird it was?

Wow - I actually drew something

2008-04-06T21:56:00.005+01:00

I started doodling earlier with the intention of creating a cartoon of Robert Mugabe.

The cartoon was intended to be a commentary on the political situation in Zimbabwe where democratic elections were recently held. Robert Mugabe's party lost to the opposition which is not surprising when you consider his systematic destruction of the country during his term in power. Rather than admit defeat gracefully and hand over power he instead is demanding a recount. I would not be surprised if there's some nasty dealings going on in the background.

Anyway - the cartoon never happened because I got carried away with the pen. I ended up creating a sketched portrait of Mr. Mugabe. Trust me, it certainly isn't in honour of him. I think he's an inhumane scumbag that should have been ousted a long time ago. Oh well. That's Africa for you. O_o

My new bonsai potato

2008-04-03T23:01:00.009+01:00

In an effort to find inner peace and harmony I have decided to learn the way of the bonsai potato. ^^

Yes, you read that correctly. I've started growing a bonsai potato. It's kind of like a bonsai tree but you don't have to wait years for results (in fact the whole thing only lasts months).

I've carefully selected my potato based upon its harmonious shape and its pleasing distribution of eyes. All is ready for the crafting of my masterpiece.

I thought it would be fun. I'll be posting regular updates here as the potato develops. By the way, I was joking about the finding inner peace and harmony bit. It's a spud.

Getting back in the artistic saddle

2008-04-02T15:34:00.007+01:00

I've been aware recently (and even blogged about it) that I'm struggling to climb back in the artistic saddle. I've been creating a couple of cartoons in Xara and taking a lot of photographs but I haven't been seriously drawing anything.

To combat this I've put a notice on the DA account that I use for displaying photographs stating that I won't be uploading anything new unless I draw one serious picture per week. And it can't be a doodle. It's got to be at least a sketch.

I feel good for making this decision although I now have the problem of making myself pick up a pen.

Maybe I should play World of Warcraft instead? O_o

Lack of sleep and fearing the market

2008-03-25T14:21:00.008Z

Lack of sleep

The inability to sleep is really wearing on me. I'm starting to get bags under my eyes which I don't recall ever having. I'm in bed for hours at night but I don't sleep and spend the day feeling like a zombie. The only nights I get a good nights sleep (and feel much better for it in the morning) are the nights when I take a sleeping tablet. Trouble is I don't want to get dependant on them so I don't take them every night. Phooey.

Fear of the market place

I learned something interesting today at the doctor's. Apparently agoraphobia doesn't mean a fear of open spaces. It actually means a fear of busy or crowded places. The misconceptions comes from the fact that it's actually the greek work "agora" (market or assembly place) that the phobia takes its name and not the latin word "agra" (which means something to do with fields).

Anyhoo, the reason I was having this interesting discussion is because the last place I want to be right now is out in public but my doctor insists. I really struggle being around people currently because of the stress that such situations bring - and ultimately a panic attack. This all came about as part of my depression and it's probably the hardest part for me to get over as it's sometimes a mental struggle to force myself out of the door - especially if it's on my own. Both my doctor and I are determined that I'm not going to let this conquer me. I want to get my life back and get back to work. I feel so useless right now.

The good news is that overall I'm starting to feel better. I actually have days where I feel relatively up for most of it. The fact that I can come crashing down again later or the next day doesn't worry because of the fact that I can actually see there are up moments during the days. I'm hoping this will improve rapidly (although I've been warned that progress isn't linear).

Eating hamsters

2008-03-22T12:17:00.009Z

New Deviant ID

I thought it was about time that I created a deviantID for my DA account. In case you don't know, a deviant ID is like a personal profile picture for your gallery. Because the account I intended it for was more for my artwork than photography I wanted a fun picture so I created the image here.

The hamster was Smudge, our pet. Needless to say, he wasn't harmed during the making of this and he was happily munching a raisin moments later. :)

My artwork profile is at http://sickfish.deviantart.com.

Weather

The weather recently has been truly weird. When I woke up this morning at about 0945 it was snowing. An hour later it was bright sunshine. Now it's grey and cloudy. And strangely it's warmer than it was yesterday.

Artistic intentions

The cartoon ID aside I'm still struggling to pick up a pen and draw something. It's starting to feel like a driving need to do something by hand now and it's really frustrating me. I've been doing stuff on the computer but it's not the same. I want to actually draw something on good old traditional paper using a lovely black pen. I miss the tactile sensation of nib on paper that you can't get with a graphics tablet. Somebody suggested putting a piece of paper over the tablet to get that feel but I still don't think that will be the same - I won't be able to see my artistic intention flow from the pen as it moves. It sounds stupid, I know but it's something that's important to me.

New cartoon

2008-03-19T15:35:00.005Z

It looks like I managed to get over the creative block. Last night I was just staring into space, picked up a pen and started scrawling an idea for a cartoon. I was actually thinking about cancelling my mySpace and Facebook accounts because mySpace is full of a certain type of person and because Facebook seems to have degenerated into a playground of annoying idiot games. I'm sick of being contacted by people on Facebook that want to hug me, poke me or turn me into a pirate.

Anyway, that kind of developed into the idea that the Internet is a place for all kinds of social subcultures to thrive and survive when real society looks down on them or at least finds them moderately irritating.

This cartoon isn't meant to be a pop at the emo group specifically. It's a commentary on how certain groups saturate areas of the Internet that were never specifically designed for their kind.
Personally I'm a bit of a goth but you don't see me painting my web-pages black... *sigh*

Creative Frustration

2008-03-18T09:55:00.004Z

This is getting frustrating now. I've been wanting to pick up a pencil and draw something for a while now - actually most of the time that I've been signed off from work but the same problems that stop from working seem to be having an effect on my creativity too.

Everytime I pick up a pencil or pen a little voice in my head seems to tell me that I can't do it and I give up before I even start. I've tried forcing myself to do it but even that doesn't work.

It's not fair. I really really want to draw something!

Ironically I did manage to doodle this cartoon to express how I feel. I added the colours and lettering in Paint Shop Pro.

Catching up

2008-03-17T14:35:00.003Z

Health

One thing I'm phenomonially bad at is keeping in touch with people. It also seems that I'm really bad at keeping blogs too. I guess I better catch up.

I've been having problems recently with my mood - being down all the time and fighting that. It's really hard to motivate myself to do anything. That's depression for you I suppose. I'm determined that I'm not going to let it control my life. I have to keep forcing myself to do things but it's hard.

The worst part is not sleeping. I've not been sleeping well (if at all sometimes) and I think that has had an accumulative effect on how I feel. The doctor has given me some tablets to help me to sleep and already after a few good nights I actually feel better. Yay!

Photography

One of the tasks that I've given myself is getting some of the many photographs that I've taken off my hard drive and onto my online gallery. I have an account at Deviant Art that I've been gradually populating with my images. People seem to like them which is quite good for my self-esteem. :) If you want to take a look, my DA page is at http://philemerson.deviantart.com.

Computer problems

My computer's had problems recently. In the course of a backup I suddenly started getting error messages about the files. I jumped to the conclusion that the hard disk was failing but after further investigation it turned out to be one of the RAM modules. The sad part is that I've lost a large number of files (mainly my photographs) due to the hardware failure.

I've removed the faulty RAM module which means that my system is now running on 1Gb. I've really noticed the slow down in XP - and this is a clean install. :(

Another problem is that the computer sometimes doesn't want to start-up. I shut it down correctly (I always do) and when I come back to it the next day (or sometimes just later in the same day) the power switch does nothing and the LED on the motherboard isn't even on.

The only solution is to unplug it for a few minutes. After that it often starts as it always did. I suspect there's a problem with the PSU.

Relationships

One thing I've continually grateful for in my life is my relationship with my partner. She makes a huge difference to how I feel about myself and about life and I love her to bits. I love to see her smile. ^^

Christmas

2007-12-28T13:42:00.002Z

It's all over - it's now the 28th of December and Christmas is pretty much over. I managed to find all the presents that I wanted to get for my sweetheart on our very limited budget and more importantly, she liked them. :)

She got me some lovely presents too - including a couple of good books that I hope will help to motivate me towards picking up my pencils in the new year and start drawing again. I am sick of depression demotivating me from doing the things that I love to do.

One of the other books is amusing. It's like a collection of those jokes and things that litter the Internet. I had a good laugh reading some of them yesterday.

I spent Christmas day and Boxing Day at K's parents (with her of course). That was fun. The food was excellent and the company was nice too. I had a really good time. It was really lovely that her mum was careful about my milk allergy when it came to pudding. I felt a bit the worse the wear on Boxing Day. I think that was probably due to too much food in my tiny tummy. I'm not used to eating so much good food in such a small space of time! :)

What was strange for me was being surrounded by a large vibrant family at Christmas. Previous years have been quieter and less rowdy. At times I found the noise a little hard to get used to - but in all honesty I really enjoyed myself - especially singing with them on the PS2 (Singing Star I think it was called).

By the time I came home on Boxing Day (K's mum was kind enough to bring us all the way home from their house 20 miles away) I was knackered. It was good to be home but I wasn't feeling great and I ended up throwing up later on that night. Not great.

Hot as hell and twice as toasty

2007-11-06T22:47:00.001Z

The letting agency have finally got our heating fixed which means that for the first time since we've moved in (over a month now) we're toastier than a slice of toast fresh out of the toaster (butter anyone?). =D

K is loving it - she's a bit of a lizard when it comes to temperature. She doesn't like to move until her blood has been warmed above ambient temperature, bless her. As for me... it's a little too warm at times so I'm having to spend alot of the time at home sans-pantalons to keep my cool. ;)

I've been a bit worried about K recently, she hasn't been feeling well so I'm hoping a doctor's visit will find the root of that and a Serum of Perkiness can be prescribed. She's so lovely and deserves to be happy.

Hooray - I'm back in the fast lane

2007-10-26T00:43:00.001+01:00

After a long period of Internet abstinence I'm finally connected to the Interweb again. I've felt awfully displaced, relying on the extremely filtered service at work so it's so lovely to be able to check my email and play World of Warcraft again.

Unpacking progress

The flat is now comfortable and most of the boxes are unpacked. There's still some boxes that are full of junk but I'm sure that in time I'll empty those (either by finding a home for said junk or just disposing of it). Being warm was one of the issues here which was not helped by the fact that whoever had installed the double glazing hadn't bothered sealing the bedroom and bathroom window frames - leaving a 3mm gap between the brickwork and the uPVC frames. I sealed the bedroom one today. Hopefully it should be warmer in there from now on. :)

Throwing up fun

I'm still having fun with my stomach. We had a tinned chicken Korma with brown rice earlier but my tummy wasn't happy with it - I ended up power-hurling it (and lunch) into the toilet within a scarily short space of time. Thanks to sweet Kay making me drink lots of water the actual throwin up part wasn't as bad as it could have been. It's easier throwing up when most of it's water. I wasn't aware that Korma was known for its dairy content but maybe it had cream in or something. I wish I could eat whatever I like just as I could a few years ago. I really miss cheese. :(

A change in scenery

2007-10-03T15:56:00.001+01:00

Still unpacking...

I've been in the new place for a week now and it's just starting to feel like home. I'm really enjoying the novelty of being able to get to work in about five or ten minutes but it's still strange living somewhere new after enjoying the comfort of the three bedroomed house that I used to live in.

I'm still surrounded by boxes (well, actually they're all piled against one wall in the bedroom) but I can't really do anything with them until I have some shelves to unpack the books onto at least.

I've been able to unpack some boxes and get the living room/kitchen looking relatively normal but I still feel stuck in a bit of a transition until I can unpack the rest and have a bit more room in the bedroom. Come to think of it - unpacking the rest of my clothes might help there instead of leaving them in the huge holdall that I moved them in. :)

There are some wonderful things about my new home that make the piles of boxes bearable so I'll just have to look forward to getting them unpacked when I have somewhere to store things.

Eek, No Internet!

One of the biggest frustration is the filthy state of the flat when I took it over. The agency claimed that it had been cleaned thoroughly and then inspected. Quite frankly that was a blatant lie. The tops of the cupboards were thick black grease and the kitchen surfaces were sticky. It's much cleaner now (thanks K!) but there's still stuff to do. Another HUGE frustration is that the idiot that had the flat before had his telephone line with some obscure telephone company that had also taken the line rental away from BT. This means that I won't be able to get the phone line connected until the 16th. No phone line means no television (there's only a sky dish, no aerial) and no broadband.

I really really miss the Internet and not just because of World of Warcraft. Being able to update my blog when I like (and insert pictures easily) is something I'd taken for granted in my old place). Being able to unwind after work in WoW is something I miss too.

Now, if I can just get a telephone line and could stop feeling like I'm half asleep all the time, I'd be well on the way to thinking life is pretty good.

Life in boxes... and more rain

2007-09-21T09:41:00.001+01:00

Life in boxes

The packing has now progressed to a stage where just about everything I own is in boxes. There are still some junk boxes left over but they could be moved as they are. I'm not sure I can even be bothered sorting through them anymore. ;)

Anyway - seeing the stack of boxes in the spare bedroom made me kind of got me thinking - now that I've got my life all boxed up, what's actually left? And then I realised that for the first time in my life - everything in those boxes (which mostly amounts to a mountain of crap anyway) didn't matter half as much as sharing my life with the first person that has genuinely made me happy and loves me unconditionally. I have to say, the shallow part of me would miss the bits and pieces I've acquired along the way but I feel that my focus has changed. :)

Anyway, I'm moving to my new home tonight and in all honesty I'm quite excited - it's the start of a new chapter of my life although I do feel a little sad to be closing the old one. I foresee a future with the potential of great happiness if I stay focused on what's important; my sweetheart. :)

Miserable weather

And it's still overcast and grey. This downturn in the weather really sucks because it affects my mood. I wake up to a grey miasma and on the way to work the damp seeps through my jacket and makes it feel colder than it really is.

I think the weather reflects this summer for me. It's been miserable with occasional bright spells. Thankfully things are looking brighter for me even if the weather remains the same.

Thank you Kayleigh - you've brightened my life in so many ways sweetheart. I hope I keep making you smile as much as you make me smile. :)

Bugs, rain and boxes.

2007-09-17T18:15:00.001+01:00

A random encounter

I was just minding my own business in the park when I felt something tickling the hairs in my arm in a way that suggested something very alive and very fast. Looking down I saw this cheeky little creature wandering through the hairs of my forearm and heading towards my elbow. Thanks to the mirace of mobile phone technology I managed to snap it before I removed it to the more appropriate environs of a bush. From what I know of shield bugs they prefer vegatation to flesh. This particular example is a forest bug - it prefers the leaves of oak and other deciduous trees apparently. ;)

A narrowly avoided soaking...

Heading home today after being out, I just knew I was going to get rained on. It wasn't the grey clouds that were a clue or the increasingly damp smell in the air - it was the fact that I could see a curtain of grey heading towards me as I headed down my road. The good news is that I got home just before the serious rain hit - big fat juicy drops that would have soaked me in minutes. Yay!

A lesson well learned

The attempt to go through the spare room and sort out the boxes of crap that I've accumulated over the last five years continues. I'm pleased to say that I feel I've made serious progress - I can actually see the floor now! I'm amazed at how much I've thrown away. It's quite scary that I've let so much accumulate over the years. A large amount of the items that have been disposed of, I haven't seen for months if not years which should tell me something. I'm certainly going to be much stricter with myself in the future.

Don't take your hugs for granted folks!

2007-09-05T12:05:00.001+01:00

One thing I love is hugging my sweetheart. There's nothing that cheers me up more than a lovely snuggle with K. I don't care if it's in public, in private or anywhere in between. Oddly some people seem to take exception to the sight of me hugging in public - all I can say is such individuals must lead very sad lonely little lives and have obviously never found someone that truly loves them.

The thought of not being able to hug the love of my life is inconceivable - it's something that, in all honesty, I take for granted because we love each other. It's just fortunate that I happen to live in the UK. In China they're not so lucky as the news report I read this morning suggested. Three policemen arrested and fined a couple £329 for hugging in public! Apparently public displays of affection are frowned upon there - yet another demonstration that communism is a steaming crock of shit. [Source news article]

I don't want to live in a world where I'm not free to hug my love whenever I spontaneously feel like it. If other people don't like it, they don't have to look, do they?

And another two piercings

2007-09-02T20:10:00.001+01:00

Not content with the two that I already have, I thought I might as well go ahead and get the other two in the ear lobe that I'd planned on. That's it. I'm done now. No more piercings for a while (well, I don't have plans for any in the future really).

I'd always intended to have three in the bottom of the ear, kind of following the curve and I'm quite pleased with the result. When they've healed I'm going to put three rings in there. Black maybe or something else that's not gold.

The one closest the bottom one didn't hurt at all - but the second one (at the top of the three) was quite painful for a few minutes. Maybe my earlobe was already objecting to the second and was totally unhappy about the third one. :)

Boxed crap, lunch and piercings

2007-08-26T13:10:00.001+01:00

Sooo much crap

The continued need to stuff all my crap in boxes means I'm still beavering away in the spare bedroom going through boxes that haven't been opened in years. This point was particularly illustrated when I opened a box yesterday morning and discovered two inhalers with an expiry date of 2003. I won't be using them. ;)

Lunch and piercings

At lunchtime I went into town to meet my sweetheart. We had a lovely lunch at our favourite cafe - mmmmm curly fries. You can't beat them. It was so nice being able to relax with K after a boring morning of sorting the old crap in the boxes. Just for giggles we decided to go and get another piercing. I got one at the top of my right ear. K got hers done half way up the same ear. I think she looks really hot with the new one but then to me she always does. :)

An evening of fun

In the evening we went to meet a friend of mine. He's sooo funny. We had a good laugh catching up (and in K's case, drinking double vodkas and coke - I was driving). I couldn't believe how fast 11pm came around. Time always seems to fly when you're having a good time.

K declared that the problem with vodka and coke is that the vodka sinks to the bottom. The nice thing is that K had a jolly good time. I hope her head doesn't hurt too much this morning, the poor thing.

It seems so unfair that when you're bored out of your head time drags like a dead sheep stuck to your bumper. When you're really enjoying yourself it flies by. How is that fair? You should be able to enjoy the good times and get past the gnarly times as fast as possible.

Another perfect morning

2007-08-24T23:58:00.001+01:00

Amazingly the sunny weather remained for another day so I met my sweetheart K and we went to the park together. It was so nice and warm that for a while it was lovely to just snuggle on a bench together and enjoy a coffee. It was really cool to see some Peacock butterflies landing on some flowers in front of us. I've not seen any of them for a few years. It's nice to see they're still around.

We laughed when we saw the sycamore seeds spiralling down from one of the nearby trees. It was like a gentle reminder that we should enjoy such sunny days while we can because summer was on its way out and autumn was waiting in the wings. Talking with K, I discovered we both love kicking through the fallen leaves so that will be a blast. It just seems that just when I don't think there's anything else we could possibly have in common, I'm wrong. She's my perfect match. :)