Category: Life

Saturday morning, a list clutched in my hand as we ventured out early. A few things to buy, a couple of things to do, a productive day stretched ahead.

Saturday afternoon, things have been bought, and one item on the list has been started but not finished.

This is largely due to the rapid onset of a sore throat, possibly brought about whilst trying (and failing) to wash the car using a Karcher pressure washer that we inherited from the my in-laws.

I always know when I’m not well, I tend to be a ‘sleeper’ when I’m ill as I very quickly lose all sense of energy and waves of complete lethargy wash over me. My legs become wobbly and unstable, and so I sleep. And sleep.

Admittedly the Calcutta Cup game didn’t help with said lethargy…

At this point I should probably tell the story of the time I was very ill, knew I was very ill but my Mother sent me to school anyway.

Long story short, I had the chickenpox and a day or so later I was bed-ridden and delirious. It might well have been the most ill I’ve ever been. And my Mother sent me to school. Happy Mother’s Day? Sheesh!!

Looking back, whilst I didn’t realise how ill I was, it was the same type of symptoms that I get today. Doesn’t seem to matter HOW ill I am, it’s the same type of thing, and the same solutions apply. Sleep and cravings for comfort food.

So, after 11 hours sleep last night I managed to crawl out of my death bed and visit my Mum to make sure she knows just how fab she is, and that I really, truly, don’t hold any grudges about that day.

Now, have I ever mentioned how my Mum wouldn’t let me have a denim jacket when I was younger?

And there I met some people I know, and some I don’t know, and hobnobbed with celebrities (not really), and ate and drank and walked about a lot and even went and stood in a big black box that was very very dark indeed.

The main reason I was in London was to attend a book launch, at the Groucho club. You know, the ones celebrities (and as it turns out, non-celebrities) fall out of a lot. The book in question was Girl with a One Track Mind Exposed which is a most excellent, moving and filthy read. It also marks the second time I’ve been mentioned in a book (in the Acknowledgements no less!) which was something I only found out on Monday night at the launch itself and which I’ll happily confessed I’m hugely touched and honoured by.

The party was fun and after arriving a little later than others (and spoiling their moment) much free drink and merriment was had. Obligatory name dropping follows. I didn’t talk to either Ben Miller (of Armstrong & Miller), David Mitchell (of Mitchell & Webb), Jay Rayner (of Claire Rayner’s womb), or Heather Brooke (of that whole MP expense scandal (as in she worked on it, not was involved in it) at least I think it was her).

There may have been other celebrities/people who have been on TV there but I’m terrible with names. I’m pretty bad at keeping up with people at the best of times, this is something made a lot hard when said people are bloggers, so I hope my surprise at hearing that two bloggers whom I’ve read for many years are, completely unbeknownst to me, happily married was taken as exactly that. I really wasn’t kidding, I didn’t have a clue.

There is a tale involving David Mitchell but I’ll let the perpetrator tell it. I did feel a bit sorry for the parties involved, a bit. And as usual it was good to put names to faces, although I do now wish I’d been wearing a cravat…

Tuesday and I spent the day wandering random parts of London, stopping off for a quick perusal of a large steel box in the Tate Modern. I’m still very much in the learning phase of ‘art’ and perhaps I should’ve taken mike up on his offer of spending sometime wandering the Gorky exhibition. It was via Twitter that he realised we were both there at the same time, but I didn’t want to intrude on his day too much and I was also quite enjoying wandering about on my own .. another time though, I do badly need educated on that whole ‘art’ thing (hmmm, perhaps I should stop ‘quoting’ it like that for starters).

And then to the National Film Theatre bar where I spent a quite hour nursing sore feet and a large gin and tonic, and waited for a very random group of wonderful and most excellent people who I’m still amazed can be arsed to trawl to a somewhat hard to find bar just because I’ve said I’m there. It still baffles me somewhat and I console myself be remembering that they are all there to see everyone, and that I’m more than happy to be the catalyst for such an event, rather than the main attraction (god forbid!).

All in all a good couple of days in London, which was all down to the company I kept. You guys are fantastic.

I must be getting old, life seems to be speeding up. I remember thinking, yesterday, that I should really post something here and I’ve only just realised that wasn’t yesterday it was Monday, which is four days ago.

Bad blogger!

Work (capital W) continues to suck a lot of my energy but I’m still enjoying it so that is far from a complaint. The other work (small w) is also starting to pile up so I’ve gone for a divide and conquer approach, also known as “they can chase me if they really want something done”.

Elsewhere life continues, and I can happily report that the new car is great. It’s very nice to drive and has a much better ride than the Civic had, I am missing the 2.2 litre turbodiesel though! I’m still getting to grips with all the voice commands mind you but that’s all part of the fun.

Speaking of fun, I will be launching myself in the general direction of London next week. I’ve been invited to a book launch party (what WILL I wear! Seriously, WHAT WILL I WEAR!!) on Monday, and I will be wandering the streets of said city on Tuesday (anything good I should visit?). I’m planning to be in the Royal Festival Hall bar on Tuesday evening from around 5.30pm and as I’d rather not sit there and drink alone I’d like to invite you all to come along and ply me with alcohol. That’d be great, thanks.

That’s my car. An ’06 plate, Honda Civic 2.2TDi ES model. It’s a wonderful car to drive, with a very good engine and a good level of equipment. The reason I have a diesel is because of the high mileage we do, about 380 miles a week, and it was supposed to be cheaper in the long run and, well, it might’ve been but for one thing.

Being the ‘first’ of the new model Civic, it’s fair to say that the car has been plagued by a lot of small niggles. On average it’s been back at the garage about once every two months and whilst a lot of the work was carried out under warranty (and some was, I admit, my own fault as it’s the most powerful car I’ve ever owned and I did… er… ‘over’ drive it on occasion) it’s not out of warranty and the niggles keep on coming.

Time for a change then, but what?

I’m tempted to get a newer Civic, with the presumption that the niggles have been ironed out. Honda have a good reputation for build quality because they do change production to take account of these things, so it’s a reasonable bet that if I did get another Civic, it wouldn’t give me half as many problems as the current car has.

But with fuel prices continuing to bubble upwards, perhaps now is a good time to look at some of the ‘Eco’ cars. The VW Golf BlueMotion gets a good write up (better than the Prius or Focus) but is still quite pricey. The Honda Insight is a proper Hybrid (the BlueMotion is a diesel with ‘smart’ technology to help boost MPG), which again makes it pricey and by GOD it’s ugly!

So I started looking at smaller cars. The Fiat 500 to begin with, which is super cute but just too small for the amount of travelling I do, I need something comfy. The Fiesta gets good reviews all over the place, and it’s looking like that might be the best option.

Ultimately, it’s about money. The monthly cost of ownership is key, and I’d like to lower my monthly payments as well as get a car that will help minimise ‘running costs’. Which brings me to the Kia Cee’d, which gets reasonable reviews, has a good level of equipment and has a seven year warranty. Seven years!

It’s a bloody minefield though and I’m still searching and comparing all sorts, with a reference copy of AutoExpress at my side. Perhaps that Skoda Octavia is the best bet after all?

Glancing down at the readout I notice, with some dismay, that I’ve still got 4 minutes left. I glance around me, at the huffing man on the treadmill, the two girls gossiping whilst idly spinning the wheels on their bikes, and a middle-aged woman staring in bewilderment at the exercise sheet she is holding.

And then my gaze carries over to where the muscle boys are. Bedecked in their uniforms of vest tops and jogging bottoms they silently grimace and sweat, methodically lowering and raising dumbbells. They don’t talk, preferring to stare at themselves in the large mirrored wall, the only noise is the occsional heavy clank of metal.

Finally I finish on the bike and swap a few pleasantries with one of the staff. The middle-aged woman is pondering which machine to use next, so I politely enquire if I may use the rowing machine and we swap pleasantries about how knackered we are and how, yes it must be making a difference, mustn’t it?

I don’t go to the gym for the small talk, but it does help. I sometimes wonder if I should be more like the gym hounds, silent in concentration, focussed on the reason they are at the gym. There is a strange zen-like quality to their workouts, their notebooks scribbled inbetween sets, the precision of their movements, the repetition.

But I’m wary of such obsession, it’s not healthy. I used to work with a couple of guys who spent a lot of time in the gym, drank protein drinks and all the rest. They talked about it a lot, to the point of being boring.

Perspective is a wonderful thing, innit.

Back from a leisurely week in Spain, it’s now February and, frankly, I need to get my ass in gear. I have plans, I have website clients, I have resolutions, and ain’t no-one but me that can do squat about them.

I need a little focus though, but that’s coming, things are becoming clearer and with a better view of what lies ahead, I can plan accordingly.

I’ve no idea what any of that means to be honest, other than now having a direction rather than aimlessly casting about depending on what grabbed my interest.

In other news, I read books. Four of them. Books are good, aren’t they. Not sure I could read one on an electronic device like the Kindle or iPad, although I can see an iPad in my future, but it’ll be version three or four I think, you know, once they’ve figured out just what the hell people would use it for.