Oh dear, back to business as usual as far as regular updating goes!!
Still, had a most surreal morning this morning. Arriva trains started a new timetable today, which included a loco-driven 4 carriage train – the type with the clunk-click doors (that you have to lean through the window to open). Nothing too odd about that – but they decided to launch this service with a brass band (!), and then give out fake leather Arriva credit card holders to all the passengers(!!). It wasn’t an unpleasant experience, listening to a brass band (pom pom pom!) while waiting for the train, and it probably says something about the state of our railways that they burst into “congratulations” as it pulled into the station (2 minutes late, incidently). And in all fairness it was loads more comfy then the usual trains.
The best bit of the journey, however, was defintely the lovely young lady who sat next to me. As you know, the great British public don’t speak to one another, least of all on the trains, but a brass band and mock leather credit card holders where enough to break the ice, and we had a jolly chat for the whole journey. She seemed to be a real sweetheart, no more than about 23 or 24, and just happy with life. Oh yes, she was dead cute too. 🙂 In a former life I would already be planning to get the same train as her every morning, get her name, number, suggest getting a drink after work or something like that (none of which I would of actually done – far too scary – but I would have planned it <g>).
Anyway, if anyone wants a pseudo-leather credit card holder with “Arriva” written on it, do let me know….
Lovely weekend. Sister-in-law came to visit, which was nice, and we didn’t really plan to do very much, but ended up getting quite a bit done on the house. The ladies did a bit of weeding, I (finally) fitted our night-light to the front porch (which, incidently, is light sensitive, controlled by a circuit I built!), and generally did a bit of tidying up.
The damp people are visiting today, to see if the damp patches that have appeared on our wall are their fault or not, and in any case to treat them. This unfortunately means we can’t decorate that room for another six months, but in some ways that takes the pressure off, and means we can concentrate on other rooms.
Oh yes, and the seemingly obligatory random thought – I’ve been pondering the nature of these bloggy type things, and moved from the idea of a column to the idea of a letter. But I recently remembered that I originally started this thing as a diary, inspired by my friend Penguin. In one way the whole concept of a diary is pretty odd, especially a ‘public’ one like this, but it is a useful way of recording progress (or lack therefore) towards goals and/or ambitions. I actually greatly rue not keeping a diary when I was younger though, there’s so much I’ve forgotten, and so much that’s confused. I have a sort of time-line type thing, with notes back to 1987 or thereabouts, but I would love to know when I met people, what I was thinking and feeling, as well as exactly when things happened (did I snog anyone at PGL, or didn’t I?). In recent years I have started keeping a spritual journal, which probably only gets a few entires a year, but even that stretches back probably 6 or 7 years now. Tempus Fugit. Anyway, the upshot of all this is that I shall strongly encourage our children to keep diaries – of course I’m not going to force them to do so, but I think they’d thank me for it later on in life.
Well, PGL trekker from 11 years ago’s response was: “I’m sorry – I don’t think I remember you.. Did you have longish black curly hair, and did we sleep together?”. What an awesome response – made my day! (she was joking, by the way.)
We swapped photos, and she did remember me, and we’ve been having a jolly time remembering all the crazy antics – it’s been nice actually. After I sent her a photo, she said “Oh yes – of course I remember you. You’re right, we didn’t sleep together, but I think we did have a drunken snog”!!!
Oh dear, I hope I’m not giving the wrong impression of PGL staff – the cardinal rule was always that wherever you were on site or there were kids (`guests’) around then you were on duty and had to behave accordingly, but after the kids went to bed and we all went down to the pub there wasn’t much else to do but to drink (and snog). I wouldn’t say that the staff slept around, but I think the feeling was that the only differentiating factor of being in a romantic relationship was in its physical expression – nobody had enough money to go out, and so the only place to go out anyway was the pub where everyone went!
I’m not sure she’s right about us snogging – I was very young and innocent then, and far too scared to indulge in that sort of activity… but I did fancy her, it was 11 years ago, and while I never really got drunk, I didn’t entirely avoid alcohol either. (that said I do know for a fact I didn’t sleep with anyone, which is why I can be so certain I didn’t sleep with her!)
There was one particular group leader (called “Sasha”) who was based down the road at Royal Oak, who I fell madly in love with, and wanted to be with forever! She was so gorgeous that I developed a complete mental block over talking to her, and for the entire season I just couldn’t remember her name – it was ok once or twice (“what was your name again?”), but after spending 3 months with the girl and STILL not remembering her name, it got a bit beyond a joke. In the end I took to grabbing the nearest member of staff whenever I saw her and asking “quick – what’s her name?”. They’d look at me pityingly and say “James, you saddo, it’s Sasha”, and I’d run up to her muttering “sasha, sasha, sasha, sasha” so I’d remember it until I said hello. Actually they probably thought it quite sweet that I had such a crush. I did write to her once or twice after the end of the season, but she never wrote back – ahh, unrequited love, such bitersweet sorrow (or something). 🙂
But she was one of these hateful people who are dead drop gorgeous (like breath takingly stunning), great at her job, fun to be with, always nice to people, and generally such sweethearts that you can’t help loving them, even though you actually want to hate them.
Mind you, I was only just 18, fresh out of an all boys school, and .. well need I say more? 🙂
But it is a lovely feeling when you see someone coming, or the phone rings, or a letter arrives, or you walk up to someone’s door, and your heart just leaps up into your throat and you half want to laugh, and half want to cry, and are just exploding with anticipation of seeing her, or whatever. I must admit that getting married and living with someone does diminish the effect somewhat, but I still quite often run down my road on the way home so that I’ll see the missus more quickly, and I just love waking up with her every morning.. Yeah yeah, pass the bucket!! And although I loved all the excitement and angst of courting, I wouldn’t go back now.
Lots to say today, but I’ll probably forget it before I get to the end!
I was writing to some old friends last night, and it suddenly occurred to me that I’ve got the wrong idea about these weblogs type things. I was thinking of them in terms of newspaper columnists and fame or fortune, whereas I think a closer analogy is writing a letter to a friend, or one of those round-robin type things. The upshot of which is that I think I’m going to rename this blog “Letters from Leeds”, in homage to Alastair Cooke’s “Letter from America”. Ahhh no – just let my secret Radio 4 habit out of the bag! Actually it’s my wife who’s the R4 junkie – but then radio alarm clock is on her side of the bed, so I don’t get much say in the matter!
On the same note, I’ve been thinking about some friends who I’ve lost touch with, and scouring the Friends Reunited website. Sadly most of the people who I find there I’m already in contact with, but I did discover a old friend who I met 11 years ago while we were both working for PGL Young Adventure at Tan Troed, in Wales. She was a smelly trekker then, but I was only a KA, and so am no-one to speak! Those few months at PGL were an extremely happy time of my life though – there was such a sense of community and combined purpose.. at the end of the day we were all there to serve the ‘guests’ (ie kids), and (food and accomodation aside) got only paid beer money – but then there’s nothing else to do in the middle of Wales anyway but drink beer, unless you are interested in sheep, that is! It almost seems a bit strange to say I spent a summer sleeping in a tent and cooking for 150 kids, and then chose to spend my time off joining in the activities with them (pony trekking, sailing, walking, archery, … the list is too long!) Still it was a great time, and if you like the outdoors, don’t mind spending several months essentially living out of a backpack and slogging your guts out so that kids can enjoy themselves then I would highly recommened it. In fact, if my circumstances permitted I’d go and do another season with them next year!!
But I digress – anyway, going to drop her a line later on today, which will give her a shock if nothing else (always assuming she even remembers me!)
H’mm – well that’s probably enough for one entry – no time to mention my new job (with office!!), centre parcs, or anything else… perhaps tomorrow.
Ok, so that’s not strictly true – well actually it’s a complete lie – but this morning was the first time since January that I have had a shower at home where I’ve been able to stand up and not have to hold the shower head in my hand! I removed our old bath and fitted our new one in January, but we’ve basically not got around to tiling the bathroom since then. And of course with no tiles you can’t seal the bath in or fit a shower screen, so you have to squat in the bath and try not to spray everything.
But last week it finally got tiled, and I put up the shower screen over the weekend, and – praise the Lord and hallelujah – this morning I got stand up in the shower and wash my hair with both hands.
Our bathroom (which I started upgrading in February 2002) is now but a whisker away from being finished – there’s some minor making good jobs (fitting skirting boards, for example, and boxing in some pipes), but then it just needs lino AND THEN IT’S FINISHED!!!
I’m very happy that nothing happened yesterday – I had the BBC News ticker going on my desktop all day, dreading a gas attack in London or something like that. It would be very easy to get depressed – the Israel/Palestine situation seems to be getting worse every day, Iraq is an ongoing cause for concern, and that’s you consider all the other wars going on around the world.
But on a lighter note, I’m becoming a bigger fan of Nemi every day – she really rocks! Lise Myhre is not only a babe, but is freakishly funny, and the strip translates from Norway’s culture perfectly. It’s like the hey-day of TGI Friday’s, when Chris Evans could hit the button smack on (e.g. getting “Nicole” from the Renault adverts on). Nemi is somehow a character you end up really caring about, in all her different moods and crazy stunts.
H’mm – still no luck finding any decent info about Claudia Winkleman – the best I’ve come up with is some stuff on the BBC website, which has got a nice-ish picture.
I’m a regular reader of the Metro newspaper (mainly because it’s free and gives me something to do on the train), and they have just started carrying a new cartoon strip called Nemi (that site is actually an unofficial fan site, but it has English translations of the strip). It is a work of comic genius rivalled only by Dilbert, and the occasional Peanuts or Garfield. Particularly good ones are lord of the rings 1, and 2, tattoo, and let’s finish with studentloan, and her nipple!
Thought I’d give a quick mention to Claudia Winkleman. As I’ve mentioned before I am kind of into Fame Academy – but I think the real star of the show is the aforementioned BBC3 presenter. She’s absolutely barking mad and totally surreal, but in a cute furry animal type way. I am hugely enjoying watching the daily update shows, mainly because she is so entertaining. Anyway, I tried to find a fansite for her to link to, but Google came up with a link to pictures of her with her tits out (and you don’t want to get me started on how much it bugs me that almost any search you do ends up with porn these days.)
H’mm – there was another website I was going to mention, but once again I’ve forgotten it. Ah well. Happy Wednesday (I’m happy ‘cos I’m going out for a meal with the missus tonight).
