Altruism. It's not for me...

Happy New Year everyone!

I've just got back from a very enjoyable break to see the New Year in with Andy, Sharon & little Laura and although I don't usually do the whole New Year thing, it was nice to get away for a couple of days.

So back to the first witter of the year. I'll spare you the tale of how I managed to ruin a completely good set of specs, despite my not feeling overly drunk when I eventually turned in. I say that, but my head the next morning gave a tell-tale clue to the 20-odd bottles of various real ales we managed to put away between 5pm and 3 the next morning.

The nearest Vision Express to where I was staying couldn't repair rimless glasses so I resorted to driving home this afternoon wearing prescription sunglasses. As luck would have it the sun actually shone so I didn't look the monumental tosser the occasion might have warranted.

Anyway, with eye test appointment arranged back in Grimsby for tomorrow, I set off for home then suddenly remembered there was a blood donor session in the neighbouring village. I had to miss the last session at my usual venue as I was out of town that day, but knowing they are always desperate for donations this time of year, I took the chance of just dropping in.

They do operate an optional appointment system now that helps them to organise staffing but you can never be sure how many impromptu donors will show up so sometimes you may need to wait a little beyond your appointment time.

For the first time in my 25 years as a blood donor, I felt truly embarrassed tonight as people started complaining that they "had better things to do than wait around all afternoon" and left without giving a donation. Worse still, they made a point of doing so with raised voices to the poor nurses who were clearly busy enough trying their best to reduce waiting times for the more patient among us.

Where the hell do these morons get off? Before the appointment system, it was perfectly acceptable to wait around for as long as it took, but now they can give an indication of when you might be donating, apparently it's supposed to be exact to the minute. Worse still, what is ever going to be achieved by shouting at the poor nurses? I'm pretty certain they all have places they would much rather be.

Please don't let any of this put you off though. I was less than an hour from getting out of the car to getting back in again, a pint of blood lighter (well, about 470ml actually); a small price to pay for the proud claim that it may save someones life. I make no apology for promoting this at any opportunity so please click on Billy's image below where you can find out more, or better still, see where the next session is near you...

A bit more festive fun...

I saw this on Facebook today and hunted it down on YouTube so I could share it with you here.

This is our very talented friend Richard with his take on Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. In my opinion, this would have been a much more worthy occupant of the Christmas number one spot than whatever eventually made it there.



Oh and when you have finished watching this (and telling all of your friends about it) don't forget to check out Norad Tracks Santa to see how our other festive friend is getting on. At the time of writing he is just leaving Sydney. Who says it's just for kids...

A bit of festive fun...

Well I finally got away from work tonight for Christmas and I've resisted the obvious temptation of hooking myself up to an intravenous real ale supply.

Instead I decided to call in our local kebab shop and walked out with the equivalent of a grilled Turkish farm. Admittedly, my appetite is not what it used to be but I doubt a family of four could have waded through so much meat. Lesson for next time I guess.

Anyway, its been in the back of my mind that this years little festive animation hadn't exactly involved a huge amount of effort on my part and although I've no reason to feel guilty about it, I've had a go at something a bit different this evening.

I've stumbled across loads of clips on YouTube where people have added their own "literal" videos to existing songs so here's my homage to the Christmas Song by Nat King Cole. It's festive and more than a little bit silly, but then what else did you expect...

It's on the cards...

I can't pretend I'm finding it particularly easy to get into the festive spirit this year.

Perhaps it's because we had to say our final goodbyes to my uncle yesterday. Perhaps it was because at that very service we discovered the shocking news that one of his sons in New Zealand is sadly no longer with us either. I'll spare you the few details I know as there has been enough sad news on here of late.

Our Christmas shutdown at work this year is more fragmented than usual so I'll ending up working on and off throughout, where usually we enjoy a bit of a longer break. Still, I suppose I should really be grateful that I have a job go to back to at all really.

I'm acutely aware that finances are a bit tighter this year than they have been for a while, so I've also made a concerted effort to avoid putting my liver through it's traditional punishing schedule. Fortunately, the last time I went out I managed to catch up with most of our friends and bought them all a drink in lieu of a Christmas card (a bit kinder towards the trees and generally better appreciated I find).

On the subject of Christmas cards, I have continued my personal tradition of keeping them to an absolute minimum again this year. I will never understand why people sit down and write hundreds of cards each year, most of which are then distributed out of some kind of obligation rather than need to share Christmas wishes. For example, this is my 4th Christmas in the bungalow and yet I continue to get cards for the previous owners, one of whom sadly passed away a few years ago. I have no means of letting the senders know and clearly they have not heard from them in return for three years, but in the words of Jeff Wayne "still they come".

However, I haven't lost my Christmas spirit entirely, they do say that the best presents or cards are the ones you make yourself, so I've put together another one of my festive little animations for you all. Despite the absence of a coloured piece of card through the post, I sincerely wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and hope that 2009 brings you continued health, happiness and prosperity...

It's started...

The weekend has got off to a good start with my waking to find that I have effectively shrugged off my latest bout of man-flu within 48 hours thanks to little more than a few paracetamol and a few extra hours sleep.

Keen to maintain this advantage I braved the elements around 7:30 this morning to nip to the bank (cashpoint obviously) and then hit the supermarket for my weekly shop. To my amazement, I had to queue at both, at that time of the morning and with 12 days still to go before Christmas. Realistically, given the days that the seasonal holidays have fallen this year, I doubt many stores will be closed beyond the festive day itself but I'm sure people will still stock up like there's no tomorrow.

The title reminds me of a story about a guy who gets in from work, slumps in his armchair in front of the TV and calls through to his wife "Quick, get me a beer before it starts".
Dutifully, she brings his beer which he chugs in almost one go then says, "still not started yet, can you get me another?"
He polishes off the second can at the same pace then says "Still not started, can I have another?"
At this point his wife slams the can on the table by his chair saying "Who the hell do you think you are? I've been busy all day running round tidying the house, trying to keep the kids occupied, preparing a lovely meal for when you get in and all you can do is perch in front of that bloody TV barking orders"
To which the husband replied "and there you go, it's started"...

Departures...

Almost a month to the day, I posted about the discomfort we feel when we part company with friends and colleagues and how perhaps we should be grateful for the way they have enriched our lives and for their opportunity to move on.

It's not quite the same though when you know you will never see them again. This morning I received a call from Mum telling me that our Uncle John passed away early hours this morning. He has been battling ill health for many years, indeed it must be at least five years since he was told he had only months to live, but his sheer determination and refusal to give into his illness often disguised any physical clues whatsoever.

We had been told on Sunday that he had been admitted to hospital and we decided there and then to take a drive out to see him that evening. Sure he was in a hospital bed and occasionally a little short of breath but that didn't stop the stream of tales about how they had been teasing the nurses, or his trying to work out whether mobile phone frequencies actually would interfere with hospital equipment.

Rather like Little Sis has said, I will always have fond memories of him, from the extravagant tales of his travels across the world to the ingenious tricks I could have tried to beat the exhibits in the Science Museum as a child. A generous man to the extreme, ever willing to help you through a financial scrape or to treat his family and friends to some of the memorable restaurant meals I've ever enjoyed.

As our busy lives take us all our separate ways, its all too easy to feel guilty and wonder why perhaps we didn't keep in touch more often, but it's probably more important to realise that he is now free from the pain and discomfort he has battled with so bravely in recent times.

So I'll raise a glass to you tonight Uncle John (single malt of course). God Bless and I'm sure that you and Grandma have got some real catching up to do...

License to print money...

It's been a good day, probably something to do with not having to go to work.

Ever mindful of how long it took to sort out last weekend's quick plumbing task (eventually sorted by paying the plumber a handful of notes Monday night), I decided to set forth this morning with a little electrical task. OK, no big deal really, just changing a couple of light switches over to dimmer switches as my contribution towards saving the planet. The screws that came with the switches were too short for the pattress but fortunately I had a couple of spares in the garage that obliged and it was sorted in about 15 minutes.

Every other little "get out of the way" job I tackled went according to plan until I decided that perhaps it was time I set my printer up with the laptop. Should have been straight forward, the printer was still perched on the desk along with cables and discs, fresh from the time a set it up with the previous laptop only a few months ago.

However, Lexmark obviously had other ideas. No discs, cables or any other accessories could cater for the fact that there are no drivers released for my all-in-one printer to run with Windows Vista and by all accounts it looks as though they have no intentions of doing so either. Oh bugger - it would seem I need to buy a new printer.

Am I alone in thinking that is a bit naughty? I'm now stuck with having to replace a perfectly good printer, well OK, it isn't really that good to be honest but the scanner has been really useful and best of all, it was free when I bought my first PC. Fortunately my old laptop hasn't breathed it's last yet so I do have a protracted means of printing anything that won't wait for me to send to work to print there and when it does come to upgrading, I think I'll pick another manufacturer. Or at least see if anyone is still giving away free ones...

On and on...

I thought I really ought to post something today seeing as it is my 4th Blogday today! As usual at this time of year, it's hard to believe it's been another year since my first post and it's all the more remarkable that people keep looking in even though, by my own admission, posts have been a lot less frequent and less inspired of late. However, I'm continually grateful that you all do keep dropping by and proud to remain the "I'm Feeling Lucky" or first search result on Google for the word "Seany". Perhaps the popularity of reality TV "celebrities" is short lived after all.

I'm not sure that you could call it a celebration, but today I also find myself the owner of the biggest fridge I could ever have dreamt of. Perhaps the situation would be more accurately described by saying that the snow has settled outside on the very weekend my central heating system decided it doesn't want to play any more.

Determined not to let another weekend disappear into combination of beer swilling and sleeping, I decided on Friday morning to put my day off to good use by getting a replacement radiator for the dining room. The old one had developed a tiny leak quite a while ago and although it wasn't doing any significant harm, it clearly wasn't going to get better on it's own and equally, would be unable to heat the room once the weather took a turn for the worse.

I took Dad up on his earlier offer to help with replacing the thing and although it took a little longer than expected, by teatime we appeared to have reconnected a brand new radiator with no sign of water leaking from anywhere and any residual air removed from the system. What I didn't discover until later that evening was that now, none of the radiators were working and it was getting bloody cold outside.

After a brief review again yesterday morning, we couldn't see where the problem was and as neither of us are qualified plumbers, I've had to resort to calling a professional in. So now I'm playing the waiting game until he replies to my message and then ultimately to find out what the damage to my wallet is likely to be. It's not really an emergency as I do have a solitary gas fire which is going it's best to keep the living room warm, but it isn't up to the challenge of heating the entire bungalow.

It could also prove a good excuse to plug in the Nintendo Wii in as all that jumping around provides some natural warmth...

Have you ever wondered...

...where mobile phones go to die?

By the look of this little lot (which isn't exhaustive), it would seem there is a veritable cellphone graveyard developing in my house.

It's not that I keep changing them to keep up with fashion, but I'm not as careful with them as I ought to be and all too often end up replacing them rather than going through the hassle of trying to find a repair outlet or worse still, trying to convince an insurance/ warranty company that I had been less careless.

But there is good news ahead, all the more topical to tell you about it today. If you have any old mobile phones lurking around the place, put them in an envelope, marked Freepost BBC Children in Need and pop it in a post box.

Apparently there is an organisation called Regenersis (formerly Fonebak) who have the licenses to unblock phones from all networks and if they can repair them, will send them off for use in developing countries. If not, they break them down and their constituent parts and they are recycled.

They have agreed to make a donation to Children in Need for each handset that can be economically repaired. So I've cleared out a load of handsets I'll never use, potentially improved communication in developing countries, added to my existing donations to this year's Children in Need appeal and if nothing else, they will be more environmentally responsibly disposed of than they would have been otherwise.

Everyone's a winner...

All change...

We are all somewhat resistant to change and goodbyes are never easy, but I guess it's just a question of perspective.

My manager retired on Thursday after 40 years of service and I think we are all a little nervous of how on earth we are going to fill his shoes. Sure, his replacement is very capable, but it has always been easy for us all to pick up the phone and tap into those 40 years of experience whereas now we are going to need to be more resourceful. On the positive side, he has worked damned hard and is certainly deserving of a long and happy retirement so who are we to deny him that?

Secondly I was surprised to hear that our beloved Tap and Spile is closing tomorrow night as Dave and Rose have decided it's time to move on. We are all going to miss them both and it's unfortunate that circumstances have dictated that the pub will actually close (hopefully just short term). As I have posted numerous times on here before, I truly believe it has been home to some of the best ales, food, music and of course regulars. But again, the sale of the pub has been ongoing for years so from their perspective it must come as a welcome relief that they can put the pressures of running a pub behind them and get on with their new lives.

Perhaps the reason we find such goodbyes so difficult is more to do with our own discomfort and insecurity at being left behind rather than considering the positive prospects for the leavers themselves...

Motivational thought for the day...

I just had to share this email I received at work today which provided some much needed cheering up:


This little animal is called the Naked Mole-Rat and is from Africa





So if you're having a bad day and feeling sorry for yourself, just remember, you could look like a dick with buck teeth...

Far too excitable...

I suspect that unlike many of those who have been very opinionated on the subject, I have actually listened to the Brand/Ross phone incident for myself before choosing to comment.

Did they go too far? Well yes in my opinion. It didn't offend me personally but I would have felt considerably different in Andrew Sachs' position.

Should it come as a surprise that these two characters didn't know where to draw the line? Not really. I usually find them both very funny as a rule and largely because their humour is so near the knuckle, but this was more like listening to a couple of schoolkids messing about on the phone while their parents are out of the house.

Are the current outcomes appropriate (resignations, suspensions, etc.)? Well I don't think that's for us to decide. I guess that is down to exactly how offended Andrew Sachs and Georgina Baillie are over the issue and certainly nothing to do with the millions of people jumping on the bandwagon crying for heads on platters.

Why is it headline news all over the country? I've absolutely no idea, there are far more important things going on in the world at large than the offensive antics of a couple of celebrities. Sometimes it seems to me that the media in this country is just a self perpetuating beast that thrives on the very drivel that it creates.

It has provoked some hysterical comment on internet forums though...

Is she or isn't she...

Fair enough, given my hairstyle I couldn't really give two hoots about hairspray but I've always held a soft spot for harmony where music is concerned.

My recent trawls through YouTube have uncovered a couple more great examples; maybe not as emotionally stirring as the Dixie Chick's truly stunning version of their national anthem I posted a while back but examples of great a capella music.

First off are the Kings Singers, who I seem to remember had a weekly guest spot on some comedy show or other, but I particularly remember them for their version of Blackbird on a Beatles TV tribute (this is clip is actually more recent). Oh and [Capital] Em - if you're reading this you may want to skip to the second one!



Until a couple of nights ago, I'd never even heard of The Real Group, but they do an amazing version of Dancing Queen and were lucky enough to be accompanied here by one of the original singers

[Edit:]
Sorry - YouTube have deleted the original video, but you can find another here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM6TtKTqELo

I know I'm seldom short of something or someone to complain about and think that maybe we could all do with a bit more harmony in our lives...

They will rock you...

I've just got back this afternoon from a superb long weekend away with Little Sis & family. We usually enjoy our time with them but this was something a bit special as last night I went to the O2 with her other half to watch Queen and Paul Rodgers.

Firstly, I ought to say that the O2 is an excellent venue which also boasts some superb food venues to be tried whilst you're whiling away the hours between turning up as enthusiastic and early as we did and the doors opening about 6 hours later. We eventually settled for a couple of burgers from the Slug and Lettuce, which I highly recommend (especially on Mondays when food is half price and therefore, nearer to prices expected in Grimsby than London).

At 5:30, we were both surprised to receive a text from O2 telling us we had won a mobile text competition and had been upgraded to a VIP lounge. We verified this at the desk and it was correct. Well, to a point. I was already on the phone trying to text everyone I knew saying that we had been upgraded to better seats, with VIP passes and who knows what other perks, when I overheard the "actual" prize being explained to another winner. What we had actually won was access into a separate lounge to wait in more comfort before making our way to our original seats. Still with its own reasonably priced bar (by London standards), some O2 bank notes to flutter on the casino tables and an abundance of free chocolate dice and chips on offer, who was I to complain?

After another brief burger stop (from the huge selection of food counters available within the actual arena complex) we made our way to our seats on the 4th tier and although that sounds a mile away from the stage, we had an excellent view and the little distance there was didn't diminish our enthusiasm for cheering, clapping, shouting, singing and generally getting into the spirit of it all. Hand on heart, I think I would have preferred one of the standing tickets, but perhaps my ageing bones may have thought otherwise after a two and a half hour show.

The band themselves? The word awesome is severely overused in conversation these days but it is well deserved here as they all gave a truly outstanding performance both collectively as a group and individually with solo performances. They sang all of the old Queen favourites you could have asked for, liberally interspersed with tracks from their new album, a couple from the Paul Rodgers archive and not forgetting of course the obligatory guitar and drum solos.

I'll not spoil it for anyone who is planning to go and see them by giving too much else away, but if you're interested, Brian May has added the whole set list here to yesterday's post on his website and of course, YouTube is already crammed with video footage from the tour so far.

I really would recommend you go to see them if you're lucky enough to track down any available tickets but I understand that even the extended dates have practically sold out now. Not bad for a bunch of blokes with a collective age of nearly 350...

Rise and shine...

Having spent the best part of the last week recovering from man-flu the last thing I really should have been doing is messing around outside in the cold and rain early this morning.

That said, I'm sure the last thing my neighbours wanted was to be woken by my garage alarm going off about 6:00am this morning following a power cut (not that it was the only one I hasten to add).

And it's not as though you can go back to sleep once your mind starts racing through all of the gizmos and gadgets that will need resetting, or worse still, how long to leave it before doing a mercy dash to save the contents of the fridge and freezer

Still at least I've done my bit for energy conservation by consuming absolutely no electricity whatsoever for at least an hour and a half this morning...

About last night...

This afternoon I feel the need to set the record straight about my previous post as I'm aware that most of my regular visitors look in over the weekend.

All too often I've read posts proclaiming the end of a blog which quite frankly appears to be little more than a lightly veiled complement fishing exercise by the author. Delcatto and Jeremy have already left some very kind comments, but I'd just like to clarify that this was never my intention! It was simply carrying on my tradition of blurting out whatever had been going through my mind at that particular time.

As long as I have anything [in the slightest bit] interesting to share, I will keep posting. As a certain Mr Mercury (almost) sang once, "The Blog Must Go On".

In fact, that reminds me that it's only a couple more weeks until I go to see Paul Rogers & Queen (well, Brian & Roger) at the O2 in London and on the Friday of the same week, I'm meeting up with Pete Frenzy who's visiting from the USA.

So there's at least another two posts in the making...

So what's new...

When I first started this blog nearly four years ago, I had no idea it would still be going after all this time. I've certainly never managed to keep a diary this long.

One of the first principles I promised myself when I started this off is that I didn't want it just to become a catalogue of whines, but rather somewhere to share my thoughts and opinions on whatever happened to be going on in my life at the time. Hopefully, some of these tales would have proved entertaining, maybe even informative to a few of you out there.

If I'm going to be brutally honest, my lifestyle of late has become a little too predictable with nothing really worth writing about:

Work? Expectations are running ridiculously high with my having to cover five people's workload for far too long now (all free of charge) and there has been virtually nothing suitable new on the horizon. Needless to say my search continues.

Travel? I'm too busy in the UK office for any overseas jaunts and I think I've pretty much done the commuting stories of lousy driving along the M180 to death. Having just paid through the nose for a car service, I'm inclined to delay updating it now for a while so there's another fun-filled adventure that will have to wait.

Social Life? Sure, there have been a few nights out, still restricted to Fridays or Saturdays and on those nights probably still drinking more that I ought in one night, but again, that's hardly news. I also can't deny that as the global financial situation gets closer to home, it is having a distinct influence on where my money would be better spent.

Health? Well I've had a couple of days off work this week when what started out as a cold suddenly developed into the sweaty, shaky, sneezy, coughy, man-flu it always seems to. Beyond that, I can't grumble. Staying off the smokes has been an unexpected challenge of late, but I'm still hanging in there and the weight has stayed pretty static since my dramatic loss earlier in the year.

So I guess the big question is whether it is time to finally give up the blog? I hope not as I'd like to think there's a few original stories left to tell yet. Perhaps the aforementioned credit crunch will provide the basis for some interesting stories - hopefully nothing too dramatic!

Facebook is my latest preferred forum for more frequent (if less verbose) updates of what I'm up to (apologies, but you need to register with them to read it). Otherwise, please keep dropping by - who knows what blog-worthy adventures are around the corner. And of course, I'll always need to find an excuse to put together another one of my silly animations...

What?...

Well I know I haven't posted anything in a while but there's nothing much to tell you.

Still, when you least expect it, there will probably be three posts all come along at once...

That can't be good...

Driving up the hill into work this morning at 8:30, I'm ashamed to admit that I felt somewhat disappointed that the world hadn't actually disappeared with a big bang and I would have to face another day in the office.

When I reached my desk, I was somewhat disturbed to discover the number of colleagues who had been sharing the self same thought.

It really is time to start making some changes...

Back from the farm...

Despite the apalling weather, I've just spent a superb weekend staying with a couple of friends on their family's farm in the beautiful Peak District. Even though the weather prevented us from travelling very far or doing too much outside, the whole family made me feel very welcome and it provided a much needed break.

Situated where they are, it's about 10 miles to the nearest town, so evening entertainment was courtesy of the TV, the Wii I'd been asked to take along and a few bottles of well chosen real ales from the local supermarket (local being about 15 miles away). Of course the plus side to it being remote is that it's also incredibly quiet. So if you're looking in, thanks again to Andy and Sharon.

I ought to add that if anyone reading this is thinking of taking a break in the Peak District, there are a couple of beautiful holiday cottages available for booking - details can be found here.

On a completely unrelated note before I sign off, I've been amazed how many people in the last week have told me that they have also seen Mamma Mia and were surprised at what a great singer Meryl Streep is. Well it wasn't the slightest surprise to me - I distinctly remember being impressed by her singing for the first time whilst watching Postcards from the Edge. Take a little look at these two clips I found on YouTube this evening...