When we first moved down here I used to spend most of my Sundays making a family roast and I do mean the full works – stuffing, roast potatoes, mixed veg, gravy….mmmmmm. This slackened off though in the new year due to time constraints and the fact that we got a bit busier. Today I’m starting slow towards a build up and I’m making a traditional italian pasta sauce – in other words I started making it at midnight last night – the sauce requires a good few hours of simmering it should be ready for tonight, though I doubt it will be as good as my grandmothers! 
So Friday I had another half day – Kai isn’t sleeping well still so I came home early to help out around the house, thank god for flexi. Friday night was a pretty quiet one in all honestym, its so quiet I can’t even recall what it was we got up to exactly….I think I spent most of the night playing with my anniversary gift. One campaign down, 1 to go basically (as of last night that is).
Yesterday Kai wanted to go to the Home and Garden show at the racecourse so when we eventually arose from our torpor we sorted the kids out and piled into the car and drove down there (was about 12ish by the time we arrived). We spent about two hours wandering amongst the stands gathering a horde of baloons for the kids and trying to avoid being given hard sales by pushy sales people. We didn’t escape with our wallets intact but at least we escaped. Kai bought some vases (ones that are completely flat but gain shape when you water) and some towels (we needed new ones). Then due to the kids we spent another £10 in the cafe – really poor value for money imho- on a sandwich, 2 teas, 2 hot chocolates and a pair of twixs. We had a nice wander round the garden show area – Kai admired plants, hammocks and lawn ornaments, saw the bird of prey area (very cute owl) and then we fled the scene. Our next stop was Tescos, we had a fair bit of trouble from Lexxie at Tescos but we soon got everything sorted and the shopping done. I got the stuff to make my sauce for today and we completed stocking up our ‘man-fridge’ (so named by myself as it’s where I’m keeping all the bbq foods and beer….). We then came home. Kai then made the suggestion of a wander down to the Norwood Arms (local pub) for a plate of chips and a pint out in their garden area. So we went. I really enjoyed that, Lexxie on the other hand decided to be a wee menace again – so after our first pint it was time to take her home. Kai then decided that she wanted a trip to Ikea – it was 430pm by this point and the closest Ikea is at least an hour away. So I said no, I felt that Lexxie had been enough of a handful yesterday that I didn’t want to go far with her, that and it was nearing time to make dinner and the kids would whine and whinge until they were fed….. Turns out she really wanted a hammock, some pretty things and some candles. So I offered a compromise, I’d take her to BnQ, Homebase, Argos or Focus to get her hammock and we’d go to Ikea on Monday (its a bank holiday). After some to-ing and fro-ing we finally agreed that this is what we’d do. By 630pm we were home from Focus with a rocking sun lounger and once again Lexxie and Tom had been sent to their rooms for bad behaviour (just one of those days – they’d not been too bad the last few days beforehand). We then started to make our dinner. We’d bought 4 pizza bases, various toppings, sauce, and plenty of cheese. The kids got called in one at a time to help choose their toppings, then Kai and I made our own. We got them into the oven just in time to setlle in and watch Dr Who. The kids were called in and allowed to watch this despite their behaviour. It was an ok episode, not their best but it was ok. Kai was a bit disappointed to find our Eurovision had bumped it for a week but hey, we may get another Lordi! So kinders went back to bed after eating dinner and Kai and I settled in for the night. She went off to do some writing and I finished off the GDI campaign of my anniversary gift. Kai did come down and join me and whilst I was preparing my pasta sauce, she had another go at the NOD campaign (she secretly rather enjoys RTS games 
). At 130am we collapsed in bed.
So what’s everyone else been upto?
Yesterday Kai and I talked, we talked and talked, we exhausted ourselves with words. Then we went out for dinner. We went to Frankie and Bennies, we ate until 10pm then took the kids home to bed. It was perhaps the closest to a perfect night out we, as a family have ever come. It was a fantastic night. One I was sorry to see end. In the morning I rose from torpor, dressed, fed the kids and tookto school and then went to work.
I left work early today, at lunch time as it so happens – something I had planned to do a few days ago, sadly this meant I missed out on lunch with S but meant I got to go home home. The purpose of this blatant disregard of responsibility was so that I could spend time with my beloved. Kai and I rarely get to spend time with just each other these days, so I made of point of taking this afternoon off – and boy was it worth it. We had a couple of small errands to run but after that we spent a pleasant hour in town. We drank coffee, wandered around the shops, bought pretzels and just generally hung out. Something we haven’t done in an age to my mind. Oh sure we spent time together but the smalls generally kept us busy so it wasn’t just us. After we picked the kids up from school Kai and I took them up to the top of Crickley Hill to let them run around like maniacs whislt we renewed our handfasting. The ceremony was a simple one but one cherished by both Kai and myself. As we wandered around the green hiltop stopping on occasion to allow Kai to take some photos I began to feel tired. I wish I knew what caused it and I know it caused some concern to Kai and to this point I still can’t explain what cased such a lack of energy to befall me. So there I was, enjoying myself – as much as I can surrounded by nature with young family members present and completely exhausted. We returned home, happy with ourselves and in our renewed vows of love to one another. I prepared dinner and Kai, very kindly, cooked for us. We had fajitas, then after dinner played snakes and ladders with the kids. Kai then kept the kids out of my hair for a while – which I felt bad about, she needs her space at the moment, but I was just so exhausted that its what I needed. As I sat there playing computer games in a near vegetative state I came accorss an old yearning – one to be out in pubs and clubs. In Edinburgh I used to go out every Wednesday night to the pub and almost every fortnight to some club or another. Down here we don’t really get the opportunity to. Don’t get me wrong, I love being where I am now I just miss social interactions brought about by being within a close proximity of alchohol based beverages. Which leads me on to my next point. Turns out the local goth/alternate nightclub down here is next on, on the 11th – hopefully I’ll make it to that.
Tomorrow beckons the pair of us, sleep, topor, call it what you will pulls on us like an anchor, and it is a call we intend to answer. We’ll see what the dawn makes of the world again soon enough.
Guess what I’ve been doing?
Yesterday was fairly stressful, I had one final course to do and another issue with the car – it broke down on my way to the course – reason the fuckwit mechanics had ‘forgotten’ to replace a clip attaching the primer lead from the ignition to the starter motor solonoid. I was not impressed. I was in a red hot fury by the time I eventually got to work – 1 hour later and an RAC call out. GAH!
The course was only a day but seemed to drag out due to the fact that once again the technical content was something I felt a school leaver could manage without breaking a sweat let alone an IT graduate and technical support monkey like myself. *Sigh* My only relief from the monotony of the class was a reasonably pleasant lunch with my friend T. After work I had to collect Kai, visit the garage, shout at them, collect and re-attach my missing clip, go to B and Q as Kai wanted plants, seeds, pots and fertiliser, then race to go get groceries that had been overlooked before dashing home in a frantic rush to cook for 4 people, do the dishes and make the house (mostly the kitchen) a bit more presentable for another friend of ours S who came over to help take her mind of stuff, chill and play Mah Jong and boardgames. By the time she arrived I was fairly tired from all the running around I had done. However, we had a fantastic night, we chatted about a number of things, found out a bit more about each other, our pasts, our likes, our dislikes just getting to know each other. By the end of the evening (1130ish) S said her goodbyes and drove home. We (Kai and I) felt that we had found another really good friend and we got the feeling that it was a view shared by S. We eventually collapsed in bed after sharing a glass of mead each and sharing our mayday vows of love towards each other.
This morning I got up at 640am and got myself ready for work. My word what a day, I had piles of paperwork awaiting me – I won’t go into detail cause paperwork is dull. I was concerned over how T and S had been as they’ve both had some rough times of late. I spoke to Kai at about 11am and found out she wasn’t feeling well and also was a little down. In any case work pushed on and eventually I left for home. I called Kai before setting out and found out that she wanted me to drive us to the Asda some distance away as we needed milk and she wanted to get some Summer clothes for Lexxie. Now I’ll admit I was a bit cranky at this, I’m generally tired after a full day at the office and generally I like to relax a little before I have to cook and do the dishes for everyone. However Kai asked and I agreed to do it. THe kids had been ok today Lexxie is still a handful but I think she’s getting a bit better as time goes on. We got the shopping done and started on our way home, the traffic as you can guess by this point was a bit of a pain – another reason why I prefer not driving places after work on weekdays. But we eventually made it home, I think Kai is coming into one of her low periods she’s feeling a bit down at the moment and generally wants to be left alone. I’ve come downstairs, done the dishes, dinner is cooking and hopefully tonight we’ll put our feet up and just veg together, maybe I’ll manage to cheer her up maybe not but I’ll try and just let her know I’m here for her if she needs me. I’m not perfect and I can get damn cranky when I feel tired but hey I have a family and I can’t put me first all the time.
Tired, very tired.
Kai and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary sincewe started dating each other today.  As I said earlier, her present to me was a copy of Command and Conquer 3 – yes I’m a bloke and I’m fairly easy to buy for, either a computer game I don’t own and quite like the look of or something for the kitchen/house. My present to Kai though was a little trickier – well from my point of view at least. I was going to get her some of those wooden 3d puzzles that she seemed to enjoy playing with at a friends house but after a brief chat with her this proved to be a poor choice. So with my thinking cap on, I went off in search of something special for her. Now if you knwo Kai then you may know that for her the greatest gift I have given her to date, other than her laptop is her camera which I got for her Christmas. It struck me as I wandered about that Kai did not have a photo album, so I went for one of those, some 6″x4″ photo quality card paper and a caligraphy pen set. The idea being Kai could take photos on our anniversary, printout the ones she likes, stick em in her new album and then anotate them in pretty script.
So presents out the way we decided that we’d mark the day with a picnic. After some to-ing and fro-ing  we settled on a visit to Wales at the Brecon Beacons Mountain Visitor Centre. So nearly 2 hours later we arrived. We had a fantastic picnic lunch, walked for just over two hours over some stunning scenary, endured the kids whinging about being tired, climbed to the top of a hill at 1203 feet and enjoyed the view even more and then returned to the car. All in all it was a fantastic day and I’d recommend the hikes for everyone. We all had a good day. I’m exhausted now though, I drove about 170 miles in total, walked several miles with Kai and the kids but frankly it was all worth it! Tonight I’m going to relax with a beer and just snuggle with my beloved. Work tomorrow  - joy but with some luck we’ll have some friends over in the evening.
We have it back – we spent near 2-3 hours at the garage this afternoon as when they gave us it back the speedo had stopped working – despite their claims it worked fine when they tested it. I let Kai loose on them. They replaced it the same day and at no cost….
Note: Never piss off Kai, she’ll nail you to the wall faster than I can blink! Damn I love her.
The rest of the day was spent in Asda – getting food for tomorrow’s picnic and me cooking a bbq. Its been gorgeous today – minimum of 20 deg. C, easy. From what I’ve heard of Scotland its not gotten over 13 deg. C. today – poor poor people. This is our 3rd BBQ since mid-March – I do love the climate down here! We’ve stuffed ourselves with food, drank copious amounts of cider, watched Dr Who with the kids and now we’re just wishing our garden fence was solid all the way round and that the kids were away so we could celebrate our anniversary in our backyard
We’ll settle for the family picnic though.
Anyway, hope everyone else has had a reasonable day.
Kai bought me Command and Conquer 3 for an anniversary present and let me loose on it last night. Our brains went into Geek meltdown, 2 Cylon human agents, 1 Lost survivor, 1 Star Wars Refinery Owner, 1 Starship Troopers Leuitenant and 1 Physician off of House and not to mention the story man himself, Cain and well bleh….. throw in Doctor Who tonight and well it may be some days before we recover….
I’ve decided I’d like to compile a list of my favourite quote – I’d quite like you folks to add to this with some of your favourites. So the rules of this…. Your quote can be from any of the following mediums – movie, tv show, song or book, try to include who wrote/said/sang the quote and and if necessary give some sort of context tha relates to it.
I’ll start it off with 2 of my recently found favourite Quotes.
Prince of Wails
Sliders, episode 5 (1.5)
Maximillian Arturo -Â
‘The Reason the sun never sets on the British Empire is because God doesn’t trust the British in the dark!’
Terry Pratchett’s Wintersmith
Random Nac Mac Feegle on a boat in the underworld in the middle of a river…
‘We’re right oot in the Styx noo!’
Go on, tell me some of yours… ;)
Why oh why do these classes never finish when they say they will?
I’ve said before that I don’t mind these things, I enjoy learning about the tools that I’ll help use and troubleshoot I just hate it though when we lose 30 minutes due to incompetence as people can not spell the relevant sql commands. Maybe I’m being to harsh but I feel that if you’re on these courses you should have some competency. I’m all for training up people and ensuring they have the skills they need to do their job but I am a follower of the ‘people are born with talents’ school of psychological thought. That you don’t master something just by practicing it, you are born with an innate leaning towards those skills. Yes this niches certain ppl and cubby-holes them but then again Picasso couldn’t make violins and Stradivarius couldn’t paint. That isn’t to say you shouldn’t try and it isn’t to say you must never do something your bad at (but then again if your a talented surgeon you may want to think twice before becoming a porn star or construction worker – not that they aren’t worthwhile jobs, porn stars can be argued to make as valuable a contribution to society as surgeons or construction workers). That is not to say you are born a master at your art, it’s still a skill but you can damn well bet that a person with natural talent will reach higher in their art than someone with no talent after the same amount of practice – chances are they will also complete that practice in a shorter time too. It can take a lifetime to find your talent, some people never do. I’m damn good with computers, bloody awful with languages but I have no idea how good I am at farming – I could grow crops and farm animals like Caine and Abel or I could be the worst disaster to farming since the Christian God flooded the world and forgot to snorkel the animals…. As for being a porn star, well that’s for the women who know me that well to comment on.
So in true poor styling, I’ll answer the question I posed at the start of my post. These classes don’t finish when expected because there are people on it who’s primary strength is not programming. Its not that they are incompetent, despite what I said earlier but merely because they are having to work harder to get the same level of understanding as those of us who have an innate ability to comprehend torrents of technobabble at a high rate of input – you can tell I’m a geek just from that sentence. Due to their lack of innate skill we have to move slower, which – as I’m a person who loves schedules, loves being early or on time and gets downright irritable if I’m even a minute or two late and really hates moving at speeds less than my own. Yes I’m impatient when it comes to my art but the paradoxical thing is I’m as patient as humanly possible. Thank the gods I’m not a social worker, psychiatrist or any other sort of profession where my art is people yet (I do want to be a manager one day…).
In any case if your brain hasn’t melted yet from reading this and you feel like debating the point with me then feel free.
David
Its been another long day down here in Reading, classes took an age and quite often my mind wandered throughout the, day never concentrating on what we were doing for long. This would be a bad thing if I actually was struggling with the course material but despite being ‘away with the faeries’ when it came round to doing coursework based on the lecture and demonstrating that we knew what was going on and how to do the work I still breezed through it and had the work successfully completed in about a quarter of the time of my classmates. I’m not saying that these courses are a waste of the tax-payers money – far from it, I’m a tax payer but never-the-less I do have the impression that these lessons are devised for people with close to no technical aptitudes. Hence why I sailed through it. The qualification for attending these lessons is worth every penny and the work is just interesting enough to be worth learning – this is after all a subject I have never tackled before but aim to do so in my current job, but I could hardly call it challenging. I define my job as challenging, mentally stimulating and overall enjoyable.
Anyway so I was wandering through my head – not a pleasant experience sometimes – minding my own business, peering in through the windows of my imagination and seeing where bits of my mind were exploring and visiting old memory lane. I should point out that I have never found it hard to daydream multiple dreams at once but keeping track of what goes on in any of those dreams is often difficult. I guess I just have a quantum imagination – ie. I can either know where my imagination is or I can know whats going on (or where the dream is going) but not both at the same time. Its odd and very disconcerting sometimes, but I do find it useful for plotting story arcs and metaplot for the rpg’s I run.
Anyway I stopped at a window on an old townhouse on memory lane dating to about 7-8 years ago. In particular towards my first I suppose adult life friends, namely Edith, Rob, Gerald and Mairi. I met these people through Rob as it happens – notably in Black Lion Games in Edinburgh whilst it was based in the basement at Flip. We were just chatting about old Amiga’s as it happens and the conversation moved on to battletech a passion of both mine and robs. Now as it happens Rob was about to run a Werewolf game and he didn’t live far away from my parents so he offered to let me join in. I accpeted. As I recall – and I may be wrong here. That is when I met Mairi, Edith and Gerald. Edith was Robs landlady, Gerald was a kiwi nutball – but a solid bloke and well Mairi, well Mairi was (at that point) Rob’s secret other half (they hadn’t made it public to anyone yet). There were other people there who I got to know but they sadlky didn’t leave as big an impression as those 4. As time grew on My friendship with these 4 grew and aged. Like most friends we fell out over small things, and big things, made up, argued, laughed, cried and hugged. Fast forward when I went to Uni, well Rob had moved away, Mairi had moved on, Gerald was still about but I rarely saw him and Edith, Edith had remained a solid – abeit less seen constant in my life. Fast forward to present day and Rob’s married and has an infant, Edith is engaged, Gerald is in Oz (last we heard, several years ago – I miss the big lug) and Mairi has returned from working in France and is back in Edinburgh last I heard. So much has changed and worryingly I feel so detatched from it all. I’m still in touch with Edith a fair bit and I occaisionally hear from Rob but frankly its all rather – sad to say, distant. I can’t help but wonder what life would be like if we were still all hanging out together, shooting pool in Edinburgh Uni’s union, playing rpgs/boardgames and generally spending time in the pubs. They were good days for me, thats not to say I’m not happy with my life – don’t get me wrong I’m really enjoying my life, but I do miss my old, old friends.
…Awake (just)
…Up (Barely)
…Dressed (looks like it)
…About to go to breakfast (mmmmm cooked breakfast) – staying here is so bad for me!
…Going now (Bye).