Tag: TIME

bookmark_borderMystery

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Two things happen to me on a semi-regular basis. Well, a lot of things happen to me on a semi-regular basis but I’m only going to mention two of them in this blog post. Frankly if I was to list all the things that happen to me on a semi-regular basis I’d be here all day and you’d be somewhere else because that would probably be THE MOST BORING BLOG POST IN THE WORLD, EVAH!

So I’ll limit it to two things that happen to me, mainly because there is no pattern as to when they happen and I’ve never been able to figure out what causes them.

Now let me just stress that these things are, in the grand scheme of things, not a big deal at all and they certainly aren’t things that I lie awake at night worrying over (that pleasure is reserved for trying to figure out WHAT THE HELL THE CAT HAS DRAGGED IN THIS TIME).

Well, that’s not quite true as one of the things is precisely that, waking up at 2am wide awake and no matter what I try I just know there is no point fighting it. So I get up, either watch TV for a few hours or aimlessly surf the internet and finally start feeling sleepy by about 5am. I go back to bed and get up at 6.30, bright and breezy and ready for another day at work. Or, you know, not.

Thankfully I’m usually pretty grumpy of a morning so no-one really notices.

I’ve tried cutting back on my caffeine intake but these ‘episodes’ happen on an irregular basis and it’s only a handful of times a year so it’s almost impossible to figure out why.

I won’t dwell on the second issue too much, but I do get nosebleeds now and then, again seemingly at random. I figure they are down to what is probably termed “local environmental artefacts”.

Or maybe I should just stop picking my nose…

The thing is that, in years gone past, I’d have worried and pondered and thought about these two things in great detail, scrutinising every scrap of evidence I could think of to try and understand the cause.

These days I just accept that they happen and it’s just another few things to add to the randomness that is life.

Some would say “older and wiser”, but I just think it’s acceptance that you just can’t understand everything.

bookmark_borderQuiet your moaning

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I hate people who moan.

Which is odd as I do like a good old-fashioned whine from time to time but that’s more a cathartic reaction to a crap day than a perpetual state of bloody-minded dourness. Some people probably spend large portions of their life wondering why they have few friends and why they never really feel happy. Actually that’s not true, the moaners of our world have a habit so deeply ingrained they are undoubtedly unaware of themselves and the annoyed by-standers who would really like them to just SHUT UP.

Of course when it comes to any form of self-loathing, everything is relative. MY life sucks more than yours, MY day was worse than yours, MY luck is worse than yours… and so on.

It does seem to be on the rise, this insistence that I have to listen to every gripe and groan, no matter whether they are valid or not. So I’m doing what I can to combat it, fighting back in the only way I know how.

I’m being the cheeriest bugger in the office.

Admittedly it seems to be freaking people out a little but hey, whatever works, right?

I wish I could understand the motivation behind the constant moaner, surely no-one is THAT miserable ALL THE TIME? Surely there is something that offers them a glimmer of hope, a hint of happiness… I mean something OTHER than Celebrity X-Jungle Dancing, or whatever it’s called.

bookmark_borderQuestions Answered #4

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In a desperate effort to gain some weird form of validation, I stole an idea for a blog post and begged my readers to ask me a question. And they did. The buggers. Now I have to answer them.

Question 4: Neil follows the lead set by Alex and suggests a title rather than a question (honestly, can’t you people read?) but as both were rather imaginative I’ll let it pass, THIS TIME. So, I’ll have a bash at ‘answering’;

The 15th Guinness, table top dancing, questionable headwear and other fun things to do at a blogmeet.

Actually this might be easier than I think. For starters I wasn’t drinking Guinness at the recent blogmeet, there was no table top dancing, nor questionable headwear so that leaves “other fun things to do at a blogmet”.

But what CAN you do at a blogmeet? Well there are some common topics that tend to crop up amongst all the other miscellany and whatnot.

First up there is usually a round of camera drooling. This can feature all or few of the attendees but always ALWAYS happens. Murmurs of f-stops, double bracketing and “nice lens cap” can be overhead at this point. No, I don’t know what they mean either.

After that there is usually some discussion about blogging. Whether it’s “adverts – good or bad?” or dealing with comment spam, or any number of possible related topics, there is ALWAYS some talk of the mechanics and technicalities of blogging.

Beyond that, well it’s difficult to say really as it largely depends on the people who attend. Life experiences and stories are regaled, alcohol is consumed (by some) and general merriment ensues. And then the really weird thing happens. Time zips forward, in a way that would live Einstein baffled, and it’s time to leave. That, for me at least, is the startling thing about blogmeets; you spend a worried hour or so getting to the venue, worrying that no-one will turn up, and as the first of many unfamiliar faces approach you nervously you wonder what on earth you are doing, meeting complete strangers in a local hotel (bloggers? doggers? the comparison was made at a previous blogmeet). All of a sudden it’s dark outside and people are leaving and all you can really remember is laughing a lot and having what is generally referred to as “a jolly good time”.

That’s the real reason blogmeets work. We all share the same base hobby but, unlike other hobbies, we have such a hugely diverse group of people involved. Meeting fellow bloggers offers the safety of a level of familiarity – we all do this weird blogging thing even if some of us aren’t really sure why – whilst allowing us to interact with people we might not normally get the chance to… unless you are the type who will happily chat to strangers on the bus. In fact, you probably are.

To summarise, and try and find and ending to this rambling nonsense (I’d have given up ages ago, so thanks for reading this far) I’d say that there is one fun thing to do at a blogmeet. Turn up.

bookmark_borderToo much

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I’ve had enough. So has Louise.

We generally reach this point at the same time, which is quite handy, although if I’m honest I possibly reach it before she does, I just ignore it for longer (or maybe she does that too).

Tonight the house is GETTING IT BIG TIME.

I should probably explain what I mean, right? Well we live in a three-bedroomed semi-detached house. The smallest bedroom is the ‘office’ as it has the computer in it. The largest bedroom is ours, and the spare bedroom … well that belongs to Louise I guess. We have a single bed and a couple of wardrobes in there, and it’s mainly used as a large walk in closet by Louise. It’s also where the clean clothes go before they get put away. Well, when I say “before they get put away” I really mean, “where they stay until they get worn”. It’s a bad habit we’ve both gotten into, and currently you can’t see the bed for the clean clothes strewn over it.

It came to a head this morning when it took me 10 MINUTES to find something to wear. 10 MINUTES of cursing, swearing and much pulling and messing of the piles of clothes. Including several brief pauses where I thought I’d found what I was looking for only to realise, having pulled the item from the pile, that it was in fact NOT my dark blue shirt but a bra.

That, coupled with the growing daily accumulation of bits and bobs and this and that, has turned our house into somewhat of a midden. So tonight we have vowed to tackle the house head on and tidy it within an inch of its very being. It may even get hoovered and dusted as well.

And then on Saturday the Christmas tree goes up and we’ll mess it up all over again.

bookmark_borderPUB TIME

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It’s Friday, it’s 5 o’clock, what other excuse do you need?

Well for us it’s the imminent departure of a colleague to the sunshine land of Australia. All the best Laura. Yes, I’ll repeat this when you officially finish on Tuesday (cocktails that night?) and of course on the 21st at your official leaving do… but hey, it’s Friday, and there’s a pint of alcohol with my name on it.

bookmark_borderHalftime Extra Time FULL TIME

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Flippin’ ‘eck! THEY might even win!

UPDATE: EXTRA TIME. Unlucky Sol Campbell though, didn’t see much wrong with that.

UPDATE: It’s all over. Lost on penalties. Again. Oopsy.

Well I said I was supporting Portugal as they were the host nation, but I have to admit that England were unlucky. No way Campbell’s goal should have been disallowed. In saying that, Portugal probably ‘deserved’ the win, but sometimes you get the luck, sometimes you don’t.