Yes, an earlier ‘late night rambling’ than usual, but if I get this down, I may sleep better tonight (in an ideal world). Listening to John Mayer and chillin’ out with a small pack of Snack-a-Jacks toffee popcorn (yum!) and red wine. Mmm.. it’s amazing how some albums can make you feel better – not that I’m feeling bad, at all – quite the contrary, in fact – but there’s just something about a good song with intelligent lyrics and a good hook that lightens your spirits and makes you feel good. It can lift your heart and make you smile 🙂

Anyway, been taking it easy this week after recovering from my last assignment…well, almost – unless you count the 2 days I was working in Plymouth. I haven’t been there since I was 9 years old; my uncle used to own a newsagents there, so all I can remember about Plymouth was filling my face with sweets! It’s a shame I couldn’t have stayed longer – had a fabulous view from the Holiday Inn’s penthouse restaurant as I ate breakfast – absolutely beautiful.

One of the things I like about traveling in this job is the people you meet on planes, trains and buses… when my train to London, last week, was delayed at York (due to a fatality on the line!) a very interesting American sat next to me. He worked for the Justice Department in Washington D.C and was in York as the guest speaker at a huge international conference they were having. It’s amazing how much information a stranger will give you about themselves… maybe it’s because they know you’ll never see them again? Even on my trip to Plymouth this week, the amount of people I met in the airport both at Newcastle and in Bristol (still can’t get over the fact they’re checking your shoes now – James Bond’s been hiding things in his shoes for years – how come the airports are just checking now?) who happily chat away to you is phenomenal. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice, friendly, courteous, polite etc. but it’s nice in a strange kind of way – however, it does make your trip shorter – especially as my flight was delayed on the way back. Grrr!

I went to a bank reunion last night. One of the girls left the bank 2 weeks ago (after 20 years) to go into academia and she’s already in culture shock! 😉 It was a good night; drinks in The Blue Lounge which I’ve never been in before (unless it counts that I went in when the premises used to be ‘Booze Busters’?) and then on to the Gate of India, there was about 15 of us so it was fun but it was a bit weird at the same time. I spent a lot of time (11 years) working with these people, some I haven’t seen in the 8 years since I left… and they seem exactly the same… which is good.. it’s just that… I’m not the same… so I was expecting to find more changes… but there wasn’t any… which was unexpected.

—
Ooo… ’83 – John Mayer’ – great song :
Well these days
I wish I was 6 again
Oh make me a red cape
I wanna be Superman

Oh if only my life was more like 1983
All these things would be
more like they were at the start of me

If my life was more like 1983
I’d plot a course to the source of the
purest little part of me…
—

Aye, those were the days – although I confess I went more for the Wonder Woman/ Supergirl look, myself 😉

Right, time to shut up and go and watch TV. Nothing on (IMHO) so think I’ll watch the wonderful Hunting Venus.

Goodnight all!

..yes, I know, most people would be going to bed now if they were bored, but, I’m not most people.

I was studying and then got a phonecall at 10.00pm until 11.20pm – now I feel wide awake 🙁 Have opened a bottle of wine (again!) as I’m hoping it’ll make me sleepy. We’ll see…

Anyway, not much to report so I am probably about to waffle about NOTHING.

Been quite a productive day, caught up with Jim (on MSN) in Australia as soon as I logged on this morning –

“hope the dental surgery isn’t aching too much, petal!? 🙁 ”

Weird day, today ….but got lots of work done; consolidating spreadsheets for most of the morning, very nice lunch with a young man in the Crow’s Nest and then a busy afternoon clearing boring stuff off my desk and arranging my travel plans (work) for the rest of the month. The traffic was a nightmare on the way home [and I was listening to a Michael McDonald album so intently (the song – I Can Let Go Now) that it made me cry – which is always quite embarassing when you’re sitting at the traffic lights with other drivers, but I digress…!] so, thanks to the traffic [not the crying], I got back late, decided to exercise, bath, eat – and then by that time it was 8pm – so I started to study!! Ho-hum, I don’t know how I cope with the excitement. 😀

Just been looking at flights away. Helen, Peter & Jason (Peter’s suggestion, if I remember correctly!) and I have decided we’re going for a COLD holiday in Jan/Feb. Helen was hoping to go for the Ice Hotel (yes, the one they used in Die Another Day!) until she realised how much it would cost us 😉
So…it now looks like we’re going for Budapest – especially before it becomes part of the EU because at the moment it’s still cheap as chips! 😀

Really hoping nobody reads this post as I’m just talking about nothing – drinking wine and listening to the Cardigan’s Erase and Rewind (on my iTunes) – top song, but lyrics are strange so am not sure how to describe the effect…hmm.. leaves a strange aftertaste…

Anyhoo – it’s after midnight, I should probably do the sensible thing and go to bed. I’m off to read my latest book.

night all!

Well, been a week or two since my last post, been a bit busy – so sleep (rather than blogging) has become more important. So…what’s happened?

I attended the Fire Training course, have to admit, it was a lot more exciting than the last one I attended about 3 years ago. The Fire Officer was really enthusiastic so that always helps.

Oh yes, wasps! Little b*ggers! Had to get a man out to destroy a wasps nest – there was a teeny-tiny hole in the eve of the roof – but they found it! So I’d been rushing around (or is that away from?) them for about 2 weeks. Quite scary (2nd time I’ve had wasps in my house, last time it was in the extension of the house) – ugh! They’re terrifying when you suddenly realise you’re in a room with them. At least they weren’t in the bathroom this time! 🙁

While on the topic, what is the point of wasps? Bees are fine, they pollenate flowers, they make honey and they only sting you as a last resort…but wasps, they just sting anything…just for a laugh, because they’re evil little b*ggers.

“Bees make honey.
How do they do that?
Do earwigs make chutney?
Do spiders make gravy?”

Wasps sting anything – and then they go back to their nest and make… NOTHING! They just smoke dope all day long… all through the summer… so in the autumn you just get the odd wasp stoned out of his brain wandering across your carpet! Hm, getting a bit Eddie Izzard there, but he’s right. Wasps are pointless.

I went to a Sundown gig at the Newcastle Falcons Rugby club in Kingston Park, last week, it was an all-afternoon thing but as it started late (organisers forgot to provide a generator – doh!) I joined it after work. Free beer and free Nando’s Chicken – it was class! Unfortunately, the locals objected to the volume of the Bhangra DJ who was also playing a little later, so the council “asked for the event to close earlier”. Just as well, it was starting to get a bit cold by that point – what ever happened to August?

Oh, I had a marriage proposal, that was slightly unexpected. Although, gracefully declined, it’s nice to be asked 😉 And while on that topic, Dawn and Graham’s wedding (11th) was great – just like a ‘fairytale’. Literally – there was even a wicked witch and a frog – but at the end of the evening I gained a handsome prince which is always a bonus… but I digress.

The best thing is that I’m off work this week – yey! No daytime plans, just studying, sleeping and exercising but I’m out each night till after the bank holiday now, so it’s a good job I can lie-in!! I love holidays! I fully intend to have some marathon ‘dvd box set” watching sessions – seen all three Back to the Future‘s and Pride & Prejudice so far. 😀

Well, speaking of which, I reckon I’m gonna watch a dvd as I feel wide awake. It’s either Dogma or 50 First Dates – will see which one I can find first.

night all!

🙂

Yawn…yes, I’m still awake, have been for the last 2 hours since I stopped reading my book. (sigh).

So tired, it’s only Tuesday and it feels like it should be, at least, Thursday! Suzanne is re-skinning our website, at work, so I spent all day today (hang-on…yesterday) link-checking. It was okay, just sometimes it’s frustrating when you can’t detect where sites have moved to. Hoping the rest of week won’t be too busy, so far the only ‘appointment’ I must keep this week is a “Fire Training” course, which basically means that I get to spray some fire extinguishers about. You used to have to only do this ‘once in a blue moon’, but new regulations say that everyone has to do a refresher course each year…cos just reading the instructions on a fire extinguisher obviously isn’t enough anymore! 🙁

So, what’s happened since my last post? Err…study, mostly – over the weekend. 2000 words on ‘Roman North Africa’ which was fun…not. Saw Russ on Saturday night for dinner – “pizza-style chicken”, very nice it was too (if I do say so myself). AND I made him watch the “SmileTime” episode of Angel (because everyone should watch it!:P) mainly because he wanted to know why I’d bought this – any Muppet fan should watch this episode of Angel – even if you never watch another.

One positive (probably the only one) aspect about being awake at this time is that I get to iChat with my friends in other time zones – which is pretty cool and better than asynchronous forms of communication..oo..I see one from Oz has just emailed!

Speaking of friends, I gained a new ‘myspace’ friend recently – Mr Rob Schneider – who just spoke out about the Mel Gibson incident last week. Now, I know people can be different when they’re drunk – be it morose, cantankerous, whatever – and I like Mel Gibson, a lot, but I’m sorry; his outburst had to have come from somewhere.

I’m feeling good now that I only have one more assignment then an exam to go on my studies – and I feel even better knowing that I have a week off this month…perfect time to catch up with my sleep..can’t wait!

Whilst online, I should also mention that my friends, Graham and Dawn, are getting married on Friday – congratulations, love and best wishes for your future together!!!! – I’m looking forward to the party! 🙂

Err.. what else is on my mind at the minute – oh yes, the distinct lack of the cute doctor (Joseph) on Holby City tonight – sniff 🙁 – that’s disappointed me all night, was still a good episode though.

Well, I guess that’s enough waffle for now, going to try to get some sleep (again)…

“We are such stuff
As dreams are made on and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep…”

(Shakespeare’s The Tempest)

night, night
😀

I’ve never really thought about having a blog until recently but I thought I would try it out and see how it goes..mainly for therapeutic reasons. Now before you get bored, it’s not as sad as it sounds. Since the age of 6 (almost 30 years ago!), I’ve struggled with insomnia – I can be physically exhausted; but my brain takes a few hours to shutdown. It goes through my day, my life, my worries, my concerns, my studies, tasks I need to complete, bills that need to be paid, stuff I have to do, life, the universe and everything that goes with it…until my brain finally decides to shutdown and then I sleep. Which doesn’t sound too bad if I don’t have to get up for work the next day…otherwise I survive on an average of 3-4 hours sleep.

Therefore, as it’s getting late, I thought I’d give this a try. Perhaps if I can put some thoughts into my blog, I may con my brain into shutting down a little earlier tonight….or not, that’s the theory, we’ll see how it goes…

—

So, there’s nothing on TV tonight and I’m not in the mood for a dvd so am currently listening to the Changes (Mike Lindup) album. Yes, it’s old (1990) but it’s a relaxing kind of CD to listen to with a nice class of red when you just want to chill out.

I love listening to music. There are some albums that are the soundtrack to your life and when you hear them, even after a long period of time, you are suddenly transported back there. You remember the people, the sounds and the smells of the time period when you first heard the music. There’s a song on this album called ‘Life will never be the same’, which has a calming piano melody, the lyrics are:

“Days, I love these golden days – they won’t be here forever, so savour them, I must”

– this album was released about 3 years after I started working full time in the bank. Banks, in those days, were still one big happy family (job for life, etc.) before they all decided that “Call Centres are the future!” (obviously, the less said about that the better, needless to say I left the bank years later) however, besides thinking of the “golden days” and listening to this music, I’m suddenly thinking about work. I changed jobs 6 months ago and I’m still getting used to it, I’m enjoying it, but I think it’s going to take some time to adjust. It’s a busy job, and I also study part-time so am exhausted, but this week one of the projects I carried-over from my last job ended, so I’m hoping things might calm down a little now. In fact, the two projects I carried-over from my old post have now finished and I’m due to complete my studies (after 6 years) in October – perhaps I’ll have so much time on my hands, I won’t know what to do with it? That’d be nice, but there again, I still doubt my brain would relax. 😀

One thing about lying awake a night is that it gives you a lot of time to reflect. You think about the past and decisions you’ve made. I make it a point never to regret anything. I may have made decisions that turned out to be wrong or a bad idea, but I can never regret something that felt right at the time. This week’s been a time for reflection…

..I was going to elaborate but as this is my first post, I don’t really want to put up personal information that concerns someone else. Also, this blog is just meant to be for my inane ramblings, so I guess the personal thing will just have to go around in my head for a while. Which is ironic, considering I know there are other personal issues I should be dealing with (in my own head) but there are just some things you try not to think about….I guess it’ll come out at some point…perhaps on the blog, perhaps not.

Anyway, I think I’ve rambled enough for one night and I know I’ll still be thinking about stuff for a couple of hours – and my alarm is set for 6am.

ho-hum

night!