Apologies….

...that I haven't updated, or read for that matter, LJ. And the first post I do post gets a *MIND BLEACH*.

Fortunately, after a quick scan thru, there haven't been any major dramas.
and seem to be doing wonderfully *hugs* ('bout time I found someone for some mutual appreciation)
, I wish I could be of some use. Unfortunately being in the opposite
corner of the country (might as damn well be) means my helpfullness is
limited. Then again my helpfulness usually is limited.

Oh, and the rant about charities, I wholeheartedly agree. The only
reason I flicked over to watch Children in need is for a fleeting
glimpse of a weakness of mine, Fearne Cotton. *drool*

Well, off to find something else to appeal to my immature sense of humour.

Whatever next??!!!

If the question of when during foreplay should I put my condom, or should I make it part of foreplay, has often baffled you, then here comes another complication.

Is this likely to add more confusion to the mire, or actually make putting a condom on (or should that be in) more enjoyable???

Things to do:-
1) Find out where I can get hold of some of this stuff
2) Find a willing volunteer to try it out on.

ok, been a while.... Retail therapy....

And I've spent far too much money this month.

1) Bought a new oven and hob for the flat. The old oven has slowly been dying. Started off with the element at the back basically blowing a hole in the cover plate (that was last year). This year I've lost the fan assisted facility. So when B&Q had their 15% off decided to buy a new stainless oven. As the old oven/hob combo was white, I really had to buy a new hob as well.

2) Bought some funky alloys for the car. OK, a bit overinduldent. The tyres are nearly completely bald on the car, and it would be like £240 for new tyres, decided to cough up a bit more for some new alloys complete with tyres.

3) After three years of no computer upgrades, decided to do a bit of updating. Fairly recent 64 bit AMD, memory, new mobo, n graphics card. Just waiting for them to arrive. Then I should be able to play Serious Sam II in something better that 640x480.

So, I'm now nearing the end of my 9 days off from work, and I'm now feeling really kinda relaxed, positive, and generally good about myself. I guess the fact I've tidied up a bit, got some DIY done, and generally prepared for all my purchases to come in has helped as well.

Who said retail therapy only works for women???

Funny story.

I was taking a short break in the sun at work, and a couple of women were walking accross campus. As they walked past, they asked where we got our lanyards from.
One of my colleagues says "We work in there for a space company" pointing at the building.
"Oooh, I've got a space that needs filling" says lady number one. At this, the guys stod outside and I start wetting ourselves laughing.
"She's got a bigger one than I have" she says pointing at Lady 2.

I haven't laughed so much in ages. :-)

Birthday Blues

Well, another revolution, another year older.

Today was spent at Bisley. The gun club arranges a monthly shoot up there. This month's was a McQueens shoot. This is a 200 yard shoot at a target that appears in any of 5 holes. The target only appears for three seconds. Quite a challenge, and borrowing a friends gun I managed quite a reasonable score (think I came second among the 5 shooters for the competition). Roll on when I can have my own gun set up for me, I might come first.

Mixed bag

Since I've managed to get Cordelia going again, I've been adding a few bits to her. After wishing I had more of my music at work, I've decided to get her streaming some music so I can connec to to the broadcast from work. At the moment I'm in the preliminary stages of testing, and so far so good.

News on the Physicist Phascination (ok, the girl at work that I like). Still not been on a date. Fingers still crossed. We'll see how it goes.

Apologies....

First and foremost, I must apologise.

I've been a bit lax in reading LJ recently and missed a lot of what was
happening until it was a bit late to help. I noticed that
ended up virtually stranded in Southampton. (admittedly I was at work
when everything was going down)  so wouldn't have been much help.
Just wish I could've been more help than I was. Ho hum.

I just hope that my inane ramblings when I do chat with her takes her mind off things a bit and gives some light relief.

AUGHHH!!!!!!

Quick rant on various subjects.

1) Cordelia's gone down. (for those not in the know, that's my server). Looks like it's the HDD with the boot partition. Luckily no non-essential data on it. Thing is tho, it's my mail server, web server, and IRC bouncer. I might be on IRC, and I might not. Depends if I can be arsed to re-configure my client. Won't be able to do anything till thursday on it, as I have that day off, but I need that to....

2) Change the radiator in the car. Bloody thing has sprung a leak. Fixed the obvious one, but I think another has sprouted. Will have to pick one up on Thursday to fix it.

3) I think I pissed of Cheryl at work today. (the physics girl I get along with, well till today at least) I knew she was stresed today, as I bumped into her earlier on in the day. Said "hi" and all I got was a muted "hi" with no smile. I said "Someone's looking a bit stressed" (probably not the best comment in retrospect) "It's not going right, and I'm running out of time" was her response.
Later on she was trying to explain something to a group of four people. I was talking with a friend at the door. (this room is about 3ft by 15ft or so) and we aren't the quietest of people. We got the evileye, altho more seemed to be directed at me. I will go and apologise tomorrow. I know what I did wrong (makes a change) n hopefully fix it.

So, I might make it back on IRC this week, and I might not. I'll keep y'all posted here.

Targeted guinea pig farm closes

We are facing terrorism in this country at several levels. Here is one of the more disgusting.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/staffordshire/4176094.stm

Yes, I am saying that the reason the farm closed was due to terrorism. Now, I'm not calling all those that protested terrorists, just those that threw bricks through employees windows, intimidated the villagers, and desecrated the grave of one of the relatives of the farm owners.

The farmers were breaking no laws. If the animal rights people want to change this, they should get the law changed. No-one should be able to interfere with the operations of a lawful business.

Lemurfest shenanigans at the weekend.

Well, this weekend was Lemurfest. This is going to be quite long, so the rest is after the Read More link.

40 goats for Chelsea?

OK, so it was yesterday

40 goats for Chelsea

If I were him, I'd take him up on the offer. He's lucky to get offered that much for her.

OK, I’m a slut.

And I've been spending far too much money recently.

Every weekend for the last month I've been out. Either down town or up in Sheffield. (Thanks for that Ric)

Every time I've been out in town, I've ended up kissing at least one girl, and getting a number each night. As most of you know, I have a reputation for liking girls younger than me. And it's one I'll freely admit to.

Until this weekend. I've eyeballed this attractive blonde woman. I'm thinking she's mid to late 20's. She gives me her number and then she goes home in her BMW. (she was tired and still suffering form the previous night.) A little bit later on, I'm with this other woman. Turns out she's 42. I know, me with a 42 year old!!! Althought that is still not the largest age gap I've ever had, altho it was the other way round.

I call the nice blonde yesterday, turns out she's 36 with 2 kids. Suprised, yes. Shocked, no. Not by either the kids or the age. I am being more open minded these days, and accepting the fact that it's more likely I'll be meeting womwn with kids. Am I gonna see her again? I sincerely hope so.

I like pretty things

This is especially true of women. (Oh no, I hear you say, another rant from Ian about women)

Well, the song is for a woman I met last night. Beautiful in looks and cahracter, but with another man. Such is my luck.

Last night was a typical one for me. Drink^h^h^h^hSpend far too much, get at least one number, legit ones as we've checked I've got the right number, and don't hear from them. This used to really get me down. These days, I'm thinking it's their loss. Hey, I keep getting "successful" on a regular basis. If I keep throwing it out there, something is bound to stick sooner or later.

So I'll keep bashing away, so to speak. ;-)

Today is a good day……

...For...

1)...fixing my PDA mount to the windscreen.
I got my suction cup mount for my PDA yesterday. Bought it after my mate has one the same. After crash testing it, with no damage to the PDA, I decided to buy one. (My PDA was in his mount with GPS navigator running when he crashed into the back of someone and wrote his car off) Left a little bit later than normal after cleaning the windscreen and fitting the mount. Got to work a bit earlier than expected.

2)...solving problems.
Last night, before I left work, noticed that there was a problem with one of my projects. This morning, I look at it and find that a wrong connector has been fitted. Find that the correct connector is still in the kit, and managed to get it changed within a couple of hours of being at work.

3)...completing a piece of work you've been trying to get done for over a month.
I've been trying to get together with one guy at work to sort out some work that needs input from both of us. We finally got together today and within a coupe of hours have completed the work we had to do.

4)...asking someone out.
As part of the work in 3, I managed to "bump" into this girl I quite like here. Had a brief chat while looking for my colleague. Anyways, I catch up with her later, and finally ask her out for a "coffee or something". She suprised me by saying yes without hesitation.

So, today is a good day. :-)

quite a funny situation

OK, here's the picture, I'm wearing my suit (minus the jacket at the time of this story) at work. Some of you may know of a girl I might have mentioned recently. Well, she's sat in a lab talking to some guy I'm waiting to talk to. So, I start making faces at her over his shoulder, and I get this look from her. I think "Okayyy, I think I'll hide now"

OK, I know, it's childish.

Anyways, I'm over in a meeting in the building she works in, and as I leave I walk past her desk. I apologise to her for pulling the face at her. "Oh, it's OK. I was trying my hardest not to laugh".

So now I know what she looks like trying not to laugh and thinking "You sod!"

Majour Headfuck

OK, so I'm driving home, thinking to myself "OK, it's been far too long, need to get the ex out of my head. I need to find someone new."

Sooo, I'm off to the local supermarket. Go in, get some shopping, look for some trousers I could use for work, then go and look for a card for my bro. Looking around I see a fine looking rear view of a girl. She turns round slightly, and it's my ex. I think "Oh fuck". Don't think she saw me. As I go over to look for the birthday cards, her new feller goes over to her.

I try to catch a look at him (interested in what sort of bloke she's ended up with). To be honest, he looks a bit of a gimp.

It's been over a year now. After seeing her within touching distance since she last shouted at me with sokmeone else, I'm not sure how I feel. I think a bit embarassed. Jealousy? I don't think so. Longing? nah. Anger? Maybe, briefly.

I was tempted to go over and say "Hi", but resisted. I need to move on, get her out of my head. Here's to a new month, new oppertunities, and who knows, a new woman?

Here's hoping.

Bank Holiday “stuff”

Right, thought I'd do a quick "Yayy, done stuff" post.

Well, weekend stuff - while round a mates on Sunday, get a call from the folks. Turns out they've got their boat cleaned and painted and wanted a hand getting it in the water on Monday. Like the dutiful son that I am I said, without hesitation, that I'd help.

Come monday, I go round at about 1pm, all ready with shorts and a change of clothes. Help out with a few bits, and we head down to the sailing club. Turns out the folks got the tide times wong. Spend a couple of hours chilling out on the balcony with a beer, enjoying the sun.

Eventually the tide comes up enough to get the boat in. Dad, with a bit of guidance, reverses the boat round to the slipway, and manage to slide the boat in with no trouble.

Once cleaned up, we go to a local pub for som dinner. Fit barmaid, sweet as anything, although a bit dizzy. Typical me, do a one-line flirt thing then calm up. >.<

God I hate being me sometimes.

First post in a while......

Well, as everyone else has posted about the weekend, I thought I would.

My second journey up to aber didn't take as long as last time (that was about 8 hours after getting immensely lost, with my GPS sending me down the smallest roads I've ever been down) with it only taking 5 hours, after a detour along the M25 taking in the roadworks.

Saturday during the day we took in the rather damp sights of Aber, and got some more booze for the party. The evening, well what a blast. OK, I started drinking about an hour before everyone else, ended up giving a few impromptu performances singing along to a few choice tracks, before heading down to a nightclub.

In the club was kinda bizzare. After a brief dance, I go to the bar. Get my usual JD and coke. This girl overhears me ordering, says to me "Good choice, lets have a dance later", kisses me and walks off. Walking past a guy and a girl, the guy turns to me and says "You wanna see my sister's snatch". Turns out he's actually her step brother and he does it all the time. I have a good chat with the girl for a while. A bit later another girl come up to meand we end up talking for a while (this last encounter was witnessed by most of the guys that went down to the club)

Truly a bizzare evening. Mucho thanks to thevoicewithin and chewbeaker for hosting a tuly wonderful partay. Oh, and it was great to finally meet ficlogic.

A weekend of highs and lows

It's been said by various people on several occasions that I will find someone special at some point.

I bumped into this girl on Saturday night that I've known for a while. There is a substantial attraction between us. Is she "someone special"? I dunno. There is a spark between us, and we spent a large ammount of time kissing on Saturday, ranging from immense passion to sweet tenderness.

Fast forward the clock to Sunday afternoon, I get a message from heer saying that "We should only be friends" as she doesn't want to upset her ex.

At my age I still find women immensely confusing. :-/

Psycho (ex) Girlfriend – resorting to stalking?

Well, been a while since I mentioned her. The thing that's brought her up again is my journey into work this morning.

On the drive in to work, I slowed down to give way to a car on the roundabout. As I drove off behind it I thought, "That car looks familiar". After a few seconds I realised it was my ex's.

Now, she used to live in a "village" the other side of the motorway from me, about 3.5 miles away. Now the direction she came from is from a fairly new development in the village I live in. Now I know one of her friends lives down there, and it may just be coincidence, but it really fucked me up for a bit.

The weird thing is that it's just gone the first anniversary of me being at this job, I haven't seen her for about 10 months now, and the last message from her (I sent a text wishing her a happy christmas) was basically "I thought we were getting on with our lives - fuck off".

Now, for those that have forgotten, we were together for 2½ years. Believe me, I am over her. It's just that as I'm still single, little thing like this remind me of that fact, and when I'm in need of company or a hug, she's the first thing that comes to mind. Familiarity and all that.

Ho hum, roll on Saturday night, and look out ladies, I'm on the prowl. :-)

Quick catch up……

Hokay, I've been meaning to do an update for a while, but keep forgetting. This will be a mixed bag.

Right, Dad came out of hospital on the 27th (parent's aniversary). Stayed round my parents for most of the week, then came home to give them some peace and quiet. On monday (3rd) he has another attack, and ended up back in hospital. They managed to make him comfortable quite quickly, as we managed to go and see him in casualty a lot earlier. I went to see him on Tuesday, and he was looking a lot better and feeling a bit silly for making a fuss, but they did notice something on his ECG. He's staying in till at least the 20th, as that's the earliest he can get an angiogram and they want to keep an eye on him till then.

I get back to work on Tuesday, and I find out that one of staff was on holiday in India when the tsunami hit, but she's ok. There was another staff member on holiday with his girlfriend and parents in Phuket. Unfortunately he's missing along with his parents. His girlfriend was found up a tree, and is in hospital in a critical condition. Kinda brings it closer to home when that happens.

On a slighlty more upbeat note, watched Desparate Housewives last night.
First impressions - weird. And my, Teri Hatcher is looking old. Not sure if I like it yet. Humour was good, and can't remember much else about it. Was knackered. Anyways, I'm gonna give it a chance.

Oh, and Yayy! for me, I've actually made a non-ranty comment for a change. :-)