No excuses...

I have no other reason for posting this tonight except that I just found it on YouTube and figured it was too funny to keep to myself



I've no idea why this advert was banned, but then you all know that I think censorship is a load of b...

No other word for it...

If you were to have asked me a few years ago, I'm sure I would have told you that the mere idea of my getting out of bed half an hour earlier each weekday morning just to get some time on a running machine is a bit silly.

If I was to admit that after an early night on Saturday, I woke up early yesterday morning and took the opportunity to sneak in an extra half hour on the same said machine (given that that I don't usually bother with it at all at the weekend), you would probably agree that was quite silly too.

There is hope for me however.

This morning, on the last 3/4 mile of my drive to work which is up a bloody great hill, through the blustery winds and torrential rain I spotted a crazed individual who was actually running up there. It was bad enough in the car so other than giving Kate Bush something to sing about, I have no idea whatsoever what possessed him.

A very silly man indeed...

Back to blog...

I'm pleased to report that I've survived the recent celebrations and emerged at the other end another year older, but otherwise not too worse for wear.

Having dropped the car off Thursday morning for a service I opted for a bus ride home rather than risk being in town when the Tap opened which could have kicked off the partying for Steve's 50th a little earlier than planned.

As it was, three of us met up at Cleethorpes Bowl where contrary to some of my earlier experiences there, we had a great time. The staff were friendly and helpful, not in the slightest bothered that we'd arrived one short of our booking and were quite happy to let us extend our booking for another hour or so. Despite my horrific start, I was as surprised as anyone to make an expected comeback to win one of the games. From then on, it was back to catch up with the others in the Tap, grab some food, sink a few ales and you can probably guess the rest from there.

Fortunately, my autopilot had kicked in early on Thursday night so I was able to surprise Mum by taking her up on her invitation to meet her in town for my birthday breakfast the following morning. It's certainly the first birthday I can remember sitting down in a bar to a cooked breakfast and a pint of real ale at 9:00 in the morning and enjoyable as it was, it's not something I think I'd want to make a habit of, although there were clearly plenty of other people there who thought otherwise.

Ever conscious of the celebrating that lay ahead, I decided again to head for home after just the one pint and returned to the Tap mid afternoon for another great meal and some more celebratory drinks. It had worked out quite well being Andy's leaving do too, so between the two of us we'd assembled a good crowd of well wishers. [Quite] A few beers later and I was on my way home again, mixed kebab in hand for the second night running. Well, at least you get salad with it.

Yesterday, Andy was out for another session with some of the guys who hadn't made it the night before, but I'm afraid I was beaten. Not physically beaten (although it felt like it first thing Saturday morning), but there was just no way I wanted to even look at a pint, let alone face the idea of another full day in the pub.

I'd like to say a quick thanks to everyone for the numerous greetings over the past few days either in person, by card, text, email or comment on here and now, here I am having reached 42, which apparently is the answer to life, the universe and everything. Personally I'm just grateful that I didn't have Zaphod's extra head over the last couple of mornings...

Tick one...

The clock is still ticking and we're getting closer to the busy end of this week I mentioned on Monday.

To start things off, I've completed my second week back at work having escaped with two three-day weeks in a row and in both cases I managing to trade off some of my extra hours to get away early.

I may not be at work in the morning but given the pending activity over the next couple of days, I think an early night might still be prudent...

Life goes on...

On this morning's news they reported the results of a recent study of 20,000 people over 10 years which stated that you could effectively add 14 years to your life by:
~ Stopping smoking
~ Taking regular exercise
~ Eating five servings of fruit or vegetables per day
~ Not drinking too much alcohol

So there's a bit of goods news then, as Jim Steinman almost said, three out of four ain't bad.

And who am I to turn my nose up at an extra 10.5 years...

Coming soon to a screen near you...

We're a week into the new year already and the reason I've not been on here to say anything is that there's been nothing new going on worth talking about.

However, over the next 96 hours, I'll finish my second week back at work, the car will be serviced, Steve will turn 50, my cousin Helen will turn 42, so will I, and we will have a few beers with Andy to wish him well as he prepares to leave Grimsby for pastures new.

So there's plenty of things about to happen, it's just that nothing much has happened just yet...