the silver lining
just heard back from the engineers who are looking at my car and they've told me that they are going ot give me a decent amount for my car, they've said that they will offer £1715 for it and considering i though it was £1000 at most, it's made me a little happier about things...
went to have a look at a couple of cars last night, but they were all too much, but now they are a little less because i have some more cash available :) hoping to go and have a look at a couple more tonight, looking at a focus and a 206 if the bloke calls me back...fingers crossed!
anyway,
laters peeps
Px

details
so i crashed my car
big deal
it's been written off
bigger deal
need a new car
your chance to vote now, what should i get, at the moment i'm thinking 206 or focus or if i'm being really silly a toyota hi-lux, but i'm open to all suggestions providing they are sensible and affordable, so either leave me a message or mail me what you think i should be getting!

anyway, people keep asking me what happened so i'm going to try and tell you, but i can't actually remember hitting the van, only the bits before and after...here goes!

i was driving on the A418 from thame to aylesbury, the plan being to get to luton, to see luton lass, sat happily behind a line of traffic, doing between 50 and 60, we all started to brake for a corner, nothing major there. after turning the corner, the line of traffic all braked suddenly as on the other side of the road was a similar line of traffic all pretty much stationary with an ambulance whizzing past them with it's lights on. in braking heavily i managed to lock the front wheel sof my, now defunct, rover and skidded it into the back of a 51 plate mercedes van...D'OH!!! i remember thinking that i needed to take my foot off the brake to stop the skid, but then next thing i remember is seeing the van about 5m in front of me, with the driver out of his car and jogging towards me to check i was ok...nice chap actually, he spoke to my dad as well to try and tell him where i was and all that. i called luton lass to tell her i wasn't going to make it and that i had had a crash and i didn't really know where i was so she shouldn't try to find me, at least that what she said i said... i called my dad after and all i remember him asking is where was i, and i didn't know so i started shouting down the phone at him. bearing in mind all this time someone had called an ambulance and told me that i wasn't allowed to move until they got there, just in case like. when they got there they put a collar on me and checked a few things, they asked me if i thought i could walk, i said yes so they were going to get me to walk to the back of the ambulance and get on the stretcher and spinal board there, but when it came to standing up, i just couldn't do it, i had gone into shock and my legs were shaking that much that i managed about 3 feet before they told me to turn around and they would strap me to the bored standing...a weird sensation falling backwards without being able to crumple or put anything out to support myself i'll tell you! anyway they stuck me in the back on the ambulance eventually and hooked me up to a few things to measure my pulse and blood pressure. chunk arrived on the scene a little after i got into the ambulance, i'd sent him a message knowing he'd be the nearest person i could get hold of, it's funny, he's now met both my folks and on both occasions it's been because i've been to the hospital with him!!! anyway the copper came in and did a breath test on me while i was laying down...it was obviously clear as i'd not had a drink for a few days, but they've got to do these things.
in the hospital they eventually took me off the spinal board and told me that they were going to give me some pain relief, an injected pain relief, well those of you that know me know i go a bit loopy around injections and i don't have them unless i really need them, so i refused it! i had a load of x-rays done, of my neck and back and chest and hips and all that type of stuff. it turns ou that the pain in my chect was from a cracked sternum, but other than that there was nothing else wrong with me, yet they did insist on keeping me wired up to an ECG monitor for a while, which didn't work because the sticky things kept falling off because i'm so damned hairy! eventually i got told i could go home though so it was ok. i'd asked chunk to try and call luton lass because i wanted her to know i was ok, but my phone was dead so he had to get it off directory enquiries, but she wasn't in...it wasn't until i called my mum on the way home that i found out that she had been there and was on her way to the hospital to see me, part of me is glad she didn't find me because i know she'd have wanted to stay and she was supposed to be at work, bigger part of me was relieved to know that she was ok and looking for me. apparently she missed me at the hospital by about 15 minutes, don't you just hate that! she also told me that chunk sounded very professional when he called her...lol if only she knew!
now though i'm feeling pretty good, back ache has all but gone, as has the neck ache, chest still hurts when i forget about it and do something like twist around or stretch too far...only real concern now is my dodgy ankle, the one with the metalwork in it...since firday it's been really sore and it's starting to cause me pain to walk on it, tihnk i probably jarred it i the accident, but it's taken a while for the bruising to come out or whatever, but then i'm not a doctor and i don't really know, think if it's still sore tomorrow i might see if i can make a doctors appointment to get some pain killers for it...we'll see

well since then i've been taking it easy, today's been my first day back at work and it's not too bad, there's only me, spanish and the fall guy in the office today, everyone else was either in germany or having a day off and enjoying the weather...but apparently those in germany had rain :o)

thanks to everyone who's been in touch to check how i am, it means a lot to know that there are some idiots out there who a) waste their time reading this, and b) care about me...

anyway, best get off now, take care peeps and remember to get in touch with what you think my next car should be
laters
Px

chalk up another one
i had a car crash this evening
it wasn't good
i think i've written my car off
i spent a few hours in stoke mandeville hospital
i've cracked my sternum
i'm ok, bit shaken up though
anyway, just thought you should know
px

britian, britian, britian...
enough
germany was ok
but i'm back now
the lovely luton lass met me at the airport and gave me a much needed cuddle, i missed her, we spent most of ther weekend together too, which was good, it helped me chill out after being stuck in a foreign country with two other people who spoke english, but not as their first language, so it was great to have someone to spend the weekend with...so thank you baby
started work today
i was pretty boring because there wasn't very much we could do and both of us new guys needed help and kept asking "the fall guy" what we need to do and all that, and he's busy as well so it's getting difficult
anyway
don't really know what else to say at the moment
got my car sorted today, was expensive, but i didn't pay for it, had a new starter motor fitted, can you believe that for all the time that i was away the car started first time every time...and within two days of getting back it takes me 20 minutes to get it started, and it only starts the once...how bad is that?
anyway i'm going now
i've had enough tonight and i want to go to bed
take care peeps
laters
Px

it's big...
...and stupidly hard too




ok, enough with the euphamisms!
i'm actually talking about the project i'm working on. after asking if i could be let home early and the start of last week, i didn't see much point in being here because the training was taking forever and all that type of thing. i got sent to the offices in wangen and skipped the last 2 days of training. on the first day in the office i got given a nice little project that was worth around €30k, piece of cake and i sorted it in about 2 hours and sent it off...nice and easy. that afternoon i was handed the second project, a UK project, something a bit special! i've been working on it ever since...it's currently on €400k for my half of it, the fume cupboards half that my mentor (now to be termed my mental, because she is) was around the €200k mark, so in total this project is over €600k...easy maths, but i thought i'd spell it out for you anyway... ;) (hence the big)
and everything in it is special, there are so few standard items in it it's getting silly. special items take a little longer to set up, but once they are in the system, they can be accessed easily enough, the only trouble is everytime i need something, it's a little different to something i've already got and therefore i have to create another special...(hence the hard)

other stuff...
it's pretty quiet at the moment, it's too bloody hot though and i've been melting in the offices, so i've been swimming a lot with french.
spanish has been out of my way most of the week, mostly due to the fact that he's in a different part of the building at the moment...lol...where i've been doing this big project, his first was for 2 under bench units and 2 taps...worth probably €500 at most! i'd be surprised if it was much more than half that to be honest...that made me chuckle to think that i've been given something so big, while "mr experience" gets the smallest projects!
looking forward to coming home this weekend
went to munich last weekend, found a beer garden, hofbrauhaus, very nice, serving beer in litre glasses, of course i had to swipe one :D had a couple of beers there. we started randomly chatting to these two women who were on our table, that was cool, it meant we got to learn a bit more about munich and where to go and where not to go, spanish was like a dog in heat though and well up for it with both of them...but they seemed less and less interested in him, again i had to play interpreter some of the time...anyway i digress...there was an oompah band and everything in this place and it was huge...woja, you need to go there, seriously, you'd hardly believe the size of this pub!!!

well i guess i'd best get back to work, although i've got half hour left of my lunch break, i want to get some more done on this project
laters peeps
Px

what a lovely pair
of mountains
ok it's been a week, i've been slack, i'm sorry, i've not even written anything on the laptop this week...how bad is that?
lemme see what i can remember though
wendesday-friday training was good
friday after work, we finished at noon, we piles in the waldner wagon and headed for Lindau and Bergenz, the latter being in Austria. in Bergenz we sat by the lake, had a look at some big red stage and then went up Pfänder mountian. after strolling around up there we headed for Lindau, Lindau was very cool, it looked like a bit of a money town, and we went onto the island half ot the town and there, sat outside a hotel in all it's glory was my dream car, a dodge viper rt10, and no that's not one of the new ones that start burning because the exhaust runs under the door sill...Lindau was cracking to look around though and it seemed a different pace of life.
Saturday i went swimming in the morning with french, we had only intended to do 2000m, but i got bored and started to swim at my own pace and i'd done my 2000 by the time french had done his 1600, so i carried on and ended up doing 2500 in the same time it took him to do 2000...oh well! in the afternoon, spanish wanted to go to ulm to do the tourist thing, but it was crap and it was like looking around reading...i got bored really quickly and wanted to leave. he got us lost on the way there, even though i had tried to tell him him which way he should go, but he wouldn't listen, we headed straight though ulm and had to try and navigate our way back into the town. on the way out he had us heading for stuttgart, which is the wrong direction...he went that way for about 20 minutes, i tried to help, but he wasn't having any of it so i sat in the back and plugged myself into the MP3 player... saturday night we got drunk and we started chatting to a german girl and her czech mate, spanish was on the pull with the czech girl, but she didn't speak spanish or english, so the german girl was translating for her while i translated for spanish...great fun...but he didn't get anywhere...lol
sunday was a little more interesting, we went to Hündle and up the mountain there and had a go on the toboggan run thing that was there...it was cool
yestreday i was fed up though
anyway, back to work

14/6/5
I’ve taken to writing this on my laptop at the end of the day and then ferrying it in to work and updating it from the memory key thing I’ve got, think it’s easier that way.
Right, well today has been the first day that I’ve actually felt ok about the stuff we’re doing, bit of a rocky start, the godfather, so called because he looks like a Mafioso was supposed to give us 2 hours of training this morning, but it only lasted 1¼… typical! But when the next training started it ran all day so that was ok. We actually did a full day’s work today!!!
We started working on the KalkMC6 program and the VMS as well, apparently we won’t be doing much on the VMS, but it’s useful to know, according to the woman taking our training anyway! And I actually enjoyed it and I was able to get on with the stuff without having to worry about it. Spanish cocked up right from the start and instead of using the training number that we were shown to use he put an offer through on Waldner France’s thingy…genius! So me and French had to wait for him to redo it in the proper section… what a muppet!
Anyway after lunch we went into the KalkMC6 program to start learning how to put estimates together, and it was fairly easy, French had a problem because parts of his program were coming up in German, but that’ll all be sorted by tomorrow the woman said…we’ll see! Spanish kept over complicating things and asking loads of questions…meanwhile I was doing all the work that had been set as exercises for us to do and when he’d finished asking questions about side panels I’d done about half the work set and he’d only done the first question, still he covered well by asking more inane questions while I sat there and emailed chunk, Luton lass, daisy and various other people as well…still it was a better day than I’ve had so far and the woman taking the session had much more enthusiasm and energy than the other people who’ve taken our sessions so far, I think that helped too.
Like I said we did pretty much a whole day today so when we did make it home I wanted to just sit and chill, but some muppet came out without a key, now Spanish has got one, and the other is usually hidden outside so we can all get in, but someone had used the key and not put it back and Spanish didn’t have his key on him! So I waited while they went and explained that we couldn’t get in to the people who own the house, bearing in mind that neither of these two speak German and the owners don’t speak anything but German…still after a couple of minutes we got in the house and now I’m just chilling and keeping away from them a little bit…being with them non-stop is starting to get to me a little, funny that!
The weather has been pretty changeable again, there was another thunder storm last night, but I’d only just gone to bed so this one didn’t wake me up, and then at lunchtime it was really sunny, but now it’s trying to rain again…it’s almost like being at home J
Why is belly button fluff always either grey or blue? Why isn’t there ever any red or yellow or green? Someone told me it related to the colour of the clothes you’ve been wearing…well I’ve had a black t-shirt on all day and the fluff was light grey…and I had a shower last night so that’s not it either…dodgy stuff huh?
Feeling pretty good today, managed to get a fair amount off my chest with the last blog I guess and mixed with the good day I’ve had it’s making for a better mood. I feel like going out for food tonight, but I think the other 2 want to cook, that’s fine, but all we’ve got in is meat and either rice, pasta or chips…no other veggies at all and I’d like to go out as I’ve had a good day and I want a beer, might ask them what they think about it in a minute…
The flies are still here, but I can’t be bothered to kill any today, I think I’ve only seen one anyway so it’s not really causing a problem, not like the swarm that was around yesterday! Or them bloody ants…there are still some casualties of the war on the table heh heh!
Well, I got the boys to go out for dinner so I could have a beer, it was really good actually! We went to a place in town that served chicken, really good chicken, it was fucking superb! For chunk, it was opposite Moritz, but I can’t remember what the hell it was called. We each had half a chicken which looked like it’d been deep fried, and chips…and of course a hefeweizen just to wash if down with J
Tonight I go to bed a satisfied man…well, partially satisfied ;)
laters peeps
Px

long blog covers the last few days...you were warned

10/6/05
It’s Friday, I should be in the pub having a drink/getting wasted, but I’m seriously not in the mood, in fact as soon as I’ve finished this I’m going to bed…
Today was boring and pointless, we were at the office for 8, training started at half past and finished an hour later, and that was it for the day…really! I spent less than an hour on the computer and phone combined and then had to wait another 90 minutes while the other two did stuff, one of them had been online for the hour I was online and the 90 minutes I had to wait with no apparent regard for anyone else…cheers for that, I really wanted to wait around for that long! Chatted to chunk and filled him in on a few things, he seems to think that if we worked full days we’d be able to have everything done in 2 weeks, and I’m inclined to agree with him, especially as the stuff we’ve done so far has been pretty basic “ this is a fume cupboard, these are the benches, this is the service spine and service wing, the parts around as the are all modular and providing the appropriate connections are available in the spine/wing/whatever the parts are interchangeable” …and who can forget the “these are our new colleagues from Waldner ltd. and Waldner France…” episode?
So things have been fairly easy going, the hardest part has been trying to stay awake!
Speaking of which I’m off now, laters

11/6/5
Saturday, everything is quiet
Today we got up late, lunchtime I think, headed into town for lunch and beer, a good combination as always!
After lunch we headed to the office, no not to work on a Saturday, but to have a look at the local car boot sale which was taking place in the “parkplatz” (car park to you and me) where Spanish got some clothes, I got a pack of cards and French got sunburn! Then it was into the supermarket for some food for the weekend, Spanish declared he was going to cook carbonara for us and proceeded to buy a load of things which would go into it while I wandered around looking for thinks that would be a) easy and simple to cook, and b) would be cheap and use ingredients that could be used more than once if we didn’t us all of them at once…French just wandered around, think he ended up buying another bottle of vodka seeing as we’d polished the other one off the other day…in a couple of hours, which is why he was sick, Spanish was hung-over and I felt ok ish…so shopping was uneventful
We also decided to actually go swimming today, instead of just talking about it and getting lost on the way! We found the pool, it’s outside, big and cold, Spanish sat and read his book, me and French got in to pool…it was fucking cold I’ll tell you, we did 20 lengths/1000m and got out to have a go on the flume/slide thing, it was cool, and after a few goes we got Spanish to come and have a go as well, but all the fun that 1 slide can generate fades after about 15 minutes and so we decided to leave
We got home and Spanish cooked his carbonara, it was pretty good, it smelled amazing, but he cooked way too much and it was a little bland for my liking, but at this point I was starving so I ate all I could. The plan for the evening had been to go to the piss up in a brewery, but at 9 we were still sat in the house, Spanish was making some rumblings about getting ready, French was asleep and I was sitting right here playing silly computer games, eventually Spanish decided that because no-one else seemed bothered about it he was going on his own, by this point I didn’t care, I was feeling tired and swimming in the cold outdoor pool had made my cold come back and French was still asleep…so off Spanish went…French went to bed and I blogged, now I’m done and I’m going to bed too…laters
12/6/5
It’s Sunday afternoon, I’ve been out of bed under an hour and I so can’t be bothered today, Spanish is reading his book again and I’ve not seen French yet, he’s either still in bed or he’s gone out for another run.
Sunday’s in Germany are dead, there’s nothing to do because pretty much everything is closed, I know that the bar’s will be open, but that would involve driving to town and then I can’t drink too much, I want to get away from the other two for a little while, just to have some time on my own I guess, that’s probably why I didn’t get out of bed until something like 3pm
I’m getting tired of translating Spanish’s dodgy English for French and vice versa
It looks like quite a nice day outside, but Spanish says it’s too cold to sit outside so once I’ve done this I’m going to hunt down my book and read some more, I might read outside, contrary to Spanish’s warning that it’s freezing, a least outside I’m on my own and not cooped up in my room again, and anything’s got to be better than watching some American programme heavily dubbed into German for Austrian TV, but the Grand Prix is on later so I’ll watch that in German, just have the sound down low…
Think I’m going to cook tonight, so them how food should be done as it were, not sure what I’m going to cook, but I’m going to have a go, fingers crossed it’ll turn out ok. Don’t want to head into town again for food because we’ve done that every night so far and although the food’s been pretty good, there’s only so many time I can hear Spanish saying “do you speak English?” with his dodgy Spanish accent before I’m going to want to rip his head off and insert it up his own arse…he’s not that bad, but I think he should at least ask them in German like I have been, they seem a little more accommodating with me when I’ve asked in German than when he’s asked in English!
Still feeling homesick, I’m wavering between feeling homesick and feeling ok, but having only these 2 to spend my day with over the weekend has been pretty dull, although I’m getting on with both of them in small doses it’s bugging me having to spend all my time with them…hopefully when the “KalkMC6” training kicks in things will be more interesting, at work at least!
Right that’s me done for now, but I expect that I’ll probably blog again later…
…I was right!
Just finished cooking and eating, it was nice we were going to have a bbq, but the stupid thing didn’t light very well, but then what do you expect for €2.99?! so I did most of it in the frying pan…we ate it all and fingers crossed no one is feeling rough tomorrow J
Been messaging LL again today, she had some bad new yesterday so my heart goes out to her and I wish I was there to help her out…but I’m stuck here!
Actually feeling better this evening, not sure why, think it’s probably down to the sun, spent a couple of hours our in it this afternoon, proving Spanish wrong…it wasn’t freezing J and I’ve given myself a bit of colour…might even come bad with a tan, how good is that considering I can see snow topped mountains from my window?!?! I’ve got a couple of pictures of what I can see from the front door, I’ll see about uploading them when I get home…
Chunk, maybe you can help me out here, ok, so I’m in Germany, and I don’t know the language, but I know enough to know that they keep using Italian, ciao, to say bye, but ciao means hello…and why do they say (what sounds like) “choose!” instead of ciao sometimes? It makes no sense…chunk help would be nice…
Just a quick note about something that has made me laugh…TV
So far I’ve seen a film with Samuel L Jackson, king of cool, which was dubbed and I’m sorry Sam, but the guy who did it made you sound gay!
We watched the Canadian GP this evening and it’s just nowhere near as good as the UK coverage, there is no Austrian Murray Walker…and that’s a shame…Murray, you’re missed greatly!
And finally we’re watching James Bond now, and although some of the voices are fairly similar, Dame Judi Dench is one, Pierce Brosnan is pretty close too, but unfortunately he’s closer to been Roger Moore than Brosnan, it’s just not the same at all…I miss English TV, might have to watch a dvd on the ever trusty laptop after my shower.
Speaking of which that’s where I’m heading now…laters/ciao/”choose”

13/6/5
I forgot to take the stuff with me today to actually blog…so I’ll have to do it tomorrow now…
So far today has been as dull as all the rest of the training days! Now there’s a surprise!!! We started at about 8 as usual, and by 9.30 we’d stopped again, and we’d even had a 10-minute break! Then seeing as lunch wasn’t until 12, that gave us 2 ½ hours to ourselves, being the first one at the computer I proceeded to check my emails and spent 2 hours sat there to make up for the time the other two had made me wait the other day, they went into town and did some shopping or something, I really don’t care what they got upto to be honest. Lunch at 12 for a hour or more, it took us less than 30 minutes to eat…so we went back to the training room and I sat and read some more, Spanish went off to read his emails, French just sat there looking blank! This morning’s training was supposed to have lasted until 12 by the way! The next session of training was actually quite interesting and I was getting into it, but then I found out it’s not really something that I’ll be doing in my job role…great…why bother to show me it then??!! The whole session was booked for 2 hours and again only took and 1½ hours and again we took a 10 minutes break!
So that leaves us with “personal business” which appears on our timetable a fair amount and it’s time we are supposed to use to get on with our work, of which we have a combined total of none, geeeeeeeeeenius! So after checking my mails for the second time today, I didn’t take very long this time knowing that the others would like to have a look at theirs too and I’d spent a while online this morning, finished, I pass over to French and take up his position of reading, our computer number has shrunk to 1 between the 3 of us for some reason…Spanish was downstairs reading, and the guy who’d set out our training programme, chunk you know who this is I assume, came over and said that he thinks it’d be a good idea if I just went home instead of reading, I think yeah that’s a fair comment, but I haven’t got the keys to the car, Spanish has. So off this bloke goes and finds Spanish reading too, he says the same to him, stating that it wouldn’t be a good idea if the directors saw us reading and with nothing to do…at this point I think hang on a minute, didn’t you set up the whole training programme? Didn’t you give us all this time with which to do “personal business”? Even though we’ve only just started with the company and therefore don’t actually have any work to do? All of this info he knew, and still set aside time for us to do effectively nothing…clever! Now that just pissed me off because he made it seem our fault, even though it was him that cocked up!
Now do you realise why I think this training could be done better in 2 weeks?
Now do you realise why I don’t see the point of flying me out to Germany, putting me in accommodation, spending 2 weeks training me in things that I don’t need to have a huge knowledge of, paying me 4 weeks worth of wages for doing something that could probably have been done in half the time in England, saving on various costs?
Now do you see why I want to come home?
Now do you see why I’m pissed off?
I mean…come on people, aren’t Germans are supposed to be renowned for their efficiency…give me a fucking break here people, this is ridiculous!
So far I’ve not worked passed 3pm on any day, some days I’ve only had 1 ½ hours “working” and I use the term very lightly…and for this I’m being paid a full wage? I know it seems like I’m whinging about nothing, but think about it, I’d rather be working, not training, I’d rather be earning my money, not wasting someone else’s. I’m pissed off about this now and I think that the “training” programme is a big pile of shit which I could re-organise and make more efficient in about 20 minutes by cutting out all the detailed crap to do with the service spine/wing and everything else that we sell, the AutoCAD session I had today, the 2 ½ hours of sitting on my arse this morning, the “personal business” and I could have this training done in about 2 weeks. I could have it set up so that someone in each of the subsidiary companies, of which one is Waldner Ltd., could deliver it just as easily, if not easier. I mean I’ve learnt more about the products from looking at the catalogues than from listening to a German bloke telling me about the “FAZ Functions” and how everything is “executed”…Chunk, what the fuck is going on here?
Right, I’ve calmed down a little so I’m ok now, but I’m still pissed off about it…
Popped into town this afternoon after writing all the above, went shopping, got some food (mine all mine, French keeps eating things that are for everyone when he’s on his own) and sweets and some postcards, that’s about it though, took my time walking around taking some pictures, mainly of fountains as there are so many here…not sure why though, it also gave me a chance to be on my own for a while which was cool.
When I got back to the house French had gone out, funnily enough he was in town…but I didn’t see him and I did tell people I was going out (via a note on the table)…oh well! Did a bit more sunbathing when I got back with Spanish, we both sat there reading until French got back. French and Spanish were playing chess when I finally came in, French was having his ass handed to him on a plate proper style as Spanish completely wiped him out. So I though it was only fair that I returned the favour, after a dodgy start and a couple of mistakes during the game it ended with me beating Spanish with only a queen (from a pawn) and a king against a king…the usual end game when I play woja, except I was winning!!! Yes woja, I did use the standard opening that we’ve perfected over the years.
I’m also pleased to report that the ants have disappeared, maybe they realised that no-one was coming back from the table or in fact anywhere near where I had been, I was being fair, I didn’t kill them all, only every other one, flicking the other ones as hard as I could off the table may have killed them though… but now it’s flies! I’ve killed about 5 today, and I have less sympathy for flies and I’m killing them all, they just bug me…literally! But I think seeing as they can fly and are quicker than the ants they don’t need the edge of my only getting every other one…
Had a massive email from Luton lass, took me ages to reply, but it made me feel pretty good and made me smile so I can forgive her for that. Also had emails off chunk and, strangely, penny from the abbey!!! It was odd to hear from her, but cool, so I replied to everyone and I like it when I hear things from home, it doesn’t make me feel as distant…hint hint…I like to get emails…hint hint…send me some more emails!!!
Right I think dinner is ready…wurst, egg and chips, but I think something was burning a little while ago L
Laters

it's the "wurst"!
not had a sausage yet though
but last night we went out with the intention of going to a swimming pool in lindenberg, unfortunately we were heading to lindau...the wrong direction! and even when we did find lindenberg, the pool was closed! so we consoled ourselves with beer and traditional food in Fidelisbäck...a nice place, very noisy and busy, unlike the pizza place the night before!
anyway it's early and we've completed our training for the day and now we have nothing to do, we need to buy some food for the weekend and that's about it
we're thinking of heading to the pool in wangen this afternoon, but it's open air and i think it's too cold!
just a short one today because i'm not in the mood
laters
Px

6/6/05
I got the grand total of 3 hours sleep last night, in fact I’m not even sure I got that much!!!
Went to mum and dad’s first thing this morning, that was sometime before 5am for a bacon sarnie and a lift to Stansted. We got there at stupid o’clock this morning, between 6&7am…wasn’t too impressed, but considering it didn’t take all that long and we didn’t go stupid fast, like I would’ve done in the past, but after the policeman incident I’ve calmed down a little…not much though J Had to wait until 8 before I could check in, and it sometime round then that I realised I’d left the my Euros at home, only 100…but that was enough to get my goat up!
The flight was pretty good all in all, the take off was nice and smooth and the crossing was cool, the landing wasn’t much fun though; I think the mix of a cold, sinus troubles and the changing altitude/pressure was the main cause of the massive headache that I got which nearly had me in tears, it was all around my right eye, throbbing and evil, it was still there at 9 this evening, 9 hours later L
We were met at the airport, I say we because there were 5 people flying over…me and Antonio and 3 clients who are here for some other training…more on Antonio later…anyway like I was saying we were met at the airport by the biggest taxi I’ve ever seen, it was like an MPV mixed with an estate car. And it was driven by a guy with the biggest handlebar moustache I’ve ever seen in the flesh…I’m not kidding the fucker had to be about 2 inches long!
On the drive to Wangen, I had to smile. Out of every window I could see hop fields, it was a wicked sight and I took it as a very good sign J
We got to the offices around 1pm ish and dumped our luggage into one of the company cars, which we have adopted as ours for the first week at least. It’s an omega estate, 2.2tdi and it shifts nicely. I took it out last night and afterwards I found out that there isn’t a speed limit in this country!!! Might have to go out again and see what it can do…maybe! It’ll take a while to get used to having the gearshift on the right though, but it’s a sweet ride.
Spent most of the afternoon and early evening feeling tired, fed-up and lonely…at one point I was ready to pack up and leave. But we went out for dinner with the guy who’s been looking after us a little and doing some of our initial training here, and had a laugh and a beer, so I’m feeling a bit better about it all now, but I’m still missing home.
We’ve got a house to stay in, which in some ways is better than a hotel because we can do what we like and it’s huge, in some ways it’s not so good though because we’re miles out of town and so one of us has to drive if we wanna go out for a drink like we did this evening, but seeing as I took my turn tonight someone else can drive next time if we go out J we’ve got to switch to a hotel for 2 of the 3 weekends we’re here though because the house has been rented out or something…should be ok, and it’ll give us a chance to all get drunk together J
It’s really strange being the only English guy at out here, especially when ALL the training is being delivered in English. There is: Antonio, he’s Spanish, but will be working in the oxford office with me; Nicholas, he’s French so his name is pronounced Nicola, haven’t got the heart to tell him it’s a girls name; and all the training is being delivered by Germans…so there is a veritable plethora of dodgy accents for me to listen to and try to understand.
Right, day 1 is over and although I still want to go home I’m not as desperate as I was earlier, I’m hoping that as the time goes on it’ll fade out and I’ll be sorry to leave when the time comes. We’ll see!
7/6/05
Today is our first day actually working/training and you’ll never believe this, but we were late! Not entirely our fault, the traffic wasn’t good and we only left ourselves 5 minutes to get there, which blatantly didn’t help!
I got a call from Luton lass last night which was cool, only trouble was I was knackered and asleep when she rang so I have no idea what was said, which means I was probably talking bollocks to her…
It’s lunchtime at the moment and we’re waiting for the next training session to start. So far this morning we had a presentation about the company, not actually as boring as I thought it might be, most of the other PowerPoint presentations I’ve seen companies do have been dull, but this was something new to me so I actually found it interesting…shocking I know! We were taken on a tour of the office building where we were introduced to whoever happened to be around at the time, this usually consisted of Andres calling out al the people in the corner of the room and introducing the “3 new colleagues; Pete and Antonio from Waldner Ltd.; Nicholas from Waldner France. They are all calculators…” not sure I really want to be a mathematical aid, but it’s ok I knew what he meant as did they. Although some of them did seem to be fairly miffed at the intrusion into their working day and I think that’s understandable, I was getting a little miffed that I was being introduced to a lot of people who’s names I don’t know because I wasn’t told them.
We had a tour of the factory the offices, this was a little easier as we weren’t really introduced to anyone. It was good to look around, but I was struggling to look interested all the time, the other 2 were looking at things and picking them up, I was thinking ‘it looks like flat-pack Ikea furniture, I‘ve got that at home, I didn’t need to come to Germany to see it’ and as we moved around I was starting to get bored, even when Andres pointed out the obligatory naked woman poster, it’s good to see that no matter where the factory is the men still put up posters of women J but I came to the conclusion that the showroom was the only place that I was really interested in, after all I’m hear to learn how to help sell it, not make it…but I guess it’s good to have some background knowledge of the product, although seeing how it’s made isn’t really what I’d expect.
Right, it’s about 6pm now, we finished at around 3 and after a quick shopping trip so Antonio could get some new clothes, he only brought more formal wear…fool! We got back to the house and I’ve not seen either of the other 2 since. I’m waiting for a call from 2 of the guys from the oxford office who are over here as well today and tomorrow, we’re on about going out for a drink tonight which will be good, think I’ll feel better as I get to know more people in the company…I guess that’s not helping as to why I’m feeling bored/lonely. Went through a phase of thinking that I have done the wrong think this afternoon, that’s while I was trying to stay awake during the last training session of the afternoon, it’s not that it was boring, more that I’m still knackered L but as long as I can sleep well tonight I should be ok and ready for tomorrow, we’re more in depth information regarding the products for the remainder of the week, including a whole day on fume cupboards, these are apparently the company’s “Rolls Royce” I didn’t have the energy to explain that he meant they are the cash-cow, because it I’d told him that I’d have had to spend the next half hour or more trying to explain what a cash-cow is…for those of you who don’t know it’s a company’s best product…it’s from business studies…and although that seems easy to explain to you, think about trying to explain it to a German who gives you a blank look when you use vaguely long words like “majority”…guess I’m going to have to learn some more German…not had to use the phrase book yet, but then most people I’ve spoken to have spoken in English anyway, but I will have said something soon, I promise! Not sure what, or even when yet, but I will!
Chunk called earlier and used the last of my credit, but that was cool, I added some more, didn’t realise how much it costs to accept a phone call, let alone make one! And a text message is 49p…so please don’t call me unless it’s urgent and if I don’t reply to a message it’s not because I’m being rude, it’s more likely that I can’t send something, been having trouble today…I don’t think the German networks like me that much L T-mobile and O2 have been ok, but vodafone has been pants today! Anyway, like I said, chunk called earlier and that’s made me feel a bit better too, I guess I’m just missing everyone at home and all that type of stuff…it’s weird, but I’ve promised myself I’ll cope and I think that writing thinks down every day will help a little, I hope so anyway.
Luton lass has been in contact most of the day with the odd message which is great because it has made me smile, as has lena-poo, add that to chunk calling it’s almost as if I’m still at home J

8/6/05
Bloody ants are pissing me off, they are everywhere in our house, it’s fucking ridiculous!
Anyway, been training again today, and again it wasn’t anything particularly interesting…but I’ve got some more background though of the products, it was better than yesterday…tomorrow it’s fume cupboards, all day!
We went out with Neil and Ingmar last night, had a nice meal and a few drinks with them, it was a real good laugh and I enjoyed last night, suffered a little this morning for it though, really didn’t want to get up as we were out until something like 3, wasn’t paying much attention to the time to be honest, but had to be p at half 7 again to get to work on time…and we were on time today, but someone had changed the room we were training in so it looked like we were half hour late when we finally got in the right room.
Found I hard to stay away in the training today, was looking forward to getting back to the house, nearly fell asleep at one point L
Luton lass is now in Spain for the rest of the week with her work, so at least we’re in the same time zone, she’s still sending me a few text messages, but again I‘ve been having trouble with which network I’m attached to today, same as yesterday…vodafone=pants
We’ve got some computers and internet access now…but it’s a bit pants, and the numbers don’t add up very well, 3 people, 2 computers, 1 password, so we were al waiting to get on the one computer that we could access. And the keyboard was dodgy, with extra letters and accents over some of them and they have different positions for some of the letters and punctuation, which didn’t help!
Going to try and upload all this onto the internet tomorrow and send a couple of emails out to people…had a chance to read mine today, but I didn’t want to hog the computer too much so I only sent 2 emails, one to chunk and one to Luton lass, sorry guys, but the rest of you will have to wait until I get more free time to access them and then I can reply to everyone who’s sent me a message so far.
Feeling a bit pants today, mix of feeling ill, tired, bored and homesick, I think the training is going way too slow for my liking and I’m not enjoying myself at least half the time…I’m sure this training could’ve been done in oxford!
Have decided that I need to do something to either take my mine off things, cheer me up, chill me out or just stop me from being pissed off…there’s not a lot I can do about the situation so I’ve got to lump it, but I wish there was a way to feel better about it, more comfortable…that would be nice. I’ll have to have a think about it all.
Anyway, I’m home now so I’m going to go to bed now to try and catch up with the sleep I’ve been missing since Saturday.
Right we went out for some food this evening…pizza…nice and typically German food ain’t it! It was really nice though, but we were the only people in the whole place, I think there were more staff there than customers…
Haven’t done anything else this evening, going to head to bed in a minute, need to try and get a sensible night’s sleep and be ready for tomorrow…can’t sit there yawning all day again, even if it is boring, don’t really want to look uninterested if I can help it, even if it is going to be a whole day talking about fume cupboards!

9/6/05
right i've managed to copy and paste all the stuff over from the last couple of days, might keep doing this providing i can remember the german for paste!
today hasn't been too bad, managed to get a decent night's sleep and other than that the actual training has been pretty good considering it was all about fume cupboards...not the most interesting topic in the world!
i think we're heading to a swimming pool either tonight or tomorrow, should be ok if we can find it!
and this weekend we've been given directions to a piss up in a brewery which has been organise by a local radio station as a "dancenight"...hmmm...sounds dodgy to me, but i'm sure it'll be a laugh

Ich Bin Ein Berliner*
right then peeps, this is my last offering before i head off to Germany, land of beer and sausages. I have no idea what to expect when i get there (hopefully not DVT from being cramped on a Ryanair flight for a few hours) and seeing as i can just about say hello in german at different times of the day...it should be an experience!!!
I've as always left everything to the last minute and with under 5 hours until i'm supposed to be at my parents to be taken to the airport, i've nearly finished my packing! once the packing is done i've then got to tidy the flat up, including doing some washing up from earlier yesterday, and sleep...sleep is for losers though and so i'm going to go without that essential until i'm on the plane and it's taken off...or until i fall asleep when i crawl into bed with 3 hours until i've got to be at my folks place...
"so why" i hear you ask "are you inline and blogging?"
well, i'm bored of packing, i've just finished ripping some more cd's to the hard drive and i wanted to make sure i had all the names of the songs and everything, so i came online to get them. also i thought it would be just downright rude of me not to have blogged before i left, seeing as i may not be able to blog for a fairly long time (ie about 4 weeks)
well with the stress of packing and everything like that, i've forgotten how bad a day i had yesterday...when i lost my bank card in oxford, only to realise that it didn't really matter as i have no money in the account anyway...this month my money seems to have evaporated into thin air! (or bills, tax, insurance, tv license, food, rent, the list goes on) but thankfully mother came to the rescue with a sub into my account which i have got the card for, which also has no money in it, and a loan of cash as well...ain't she great? hell yeah she is!
wish i'd gone to see SOAD this evening, but alas if i'd have done that then i'd never have packed...
went to my nan's 90th birthday, only to have hernot actually remember who i am anyway, i can forgive her, she is 90 after all. but since getting back from the party, i seem to have developed an upset stomach and have been in and out of the bathroom more times than it's comfortable for you to read...needless to say it's just adding to my worries of flying tomorrow.
had a panic this morning and decided that i wasn't sure if i really wanted to go, but having not spoken to anyone and having to listen to my parents argue over how bad my dad's driving was...and i was sat in the car, it was bad...i thought it wooud be far worse to have to stay here and listen to them for the next 4 weeks, than spending 4 weeks in germany, where i don't speak the language, don't really know anyone and can't afford to do anything anyway!
i'm going to miss you guys...and i mean it, hopefully i'll be able to blog while i'm out there, i'm going to take my trusty laptop with me, mainly so i can play games and watch dvd's on it in the evenings...but never-the-less i'll see if i can plug it in somewhere and update you all.
besides, just because i'm not around, it doesn't mean that you can't email me people, i still want to hear from everyone and all that stuff, i'll be right pissed off if i don't hear from you...but if i've not got a connection then i guess i won't know until i get back anyway...hmmm, more thought needed there me thinks!
well i suppose i should finish everything off...not sure i'm going to be able to shut my case yet :(
take care peeps
Px
(*I am a donut)

beer lairyness
woja came round last night for food and beer and to have his ass handed to him on a shiny silver plate after having is severely whipping invarious ps2 games...
the prospect of beer did it for him i think
it certainly was the prawn curry i made, although it was an awesome prawn curry which tasted very nice and i think he'd concur seeing as he actually managed to eat it quicker than i did!!!
muchos beer was imbibed...looking aroud me i can still see the bottles, really should get rid of them...there's empty 1664 bottles (my lager of choice), spitfire bottles (woja's offering for the evening, which wasn't too good, but we drank it all anyway :)), big hoegaarden bottles (a very nice brew), rebellion red bottles (a cheeky little ale which i like) and worthingtons white sheild (allegedly an IPA, very nice flavour, though not what was expected)...really must get rid of these empties...
we played many games last night...it was all good
went to bed at 4, got up at 9...sleep is for losers!!!
with that i think i'm going back to bed
laters peeps
Px

star wars episode III
quick review
i liked it
some funny bits in it, made me laugh
ewan macgregor was good, although his english accent was a little forced and sounded like cary ewles in robin hood men in tights...but he did have some corking lines, i was waiting for a bond-esque one liner after he dispatched of the droid general...and i wasn't disappointed :)
fight scenes were very good, the only major drawback i found was the lightsabres were moving way too fast at times to follow the action clearly...but it was very cool
the settings were awesome and i liked the little touchs through out the film, subtle things that seemed to link things together nicely
although, as G said, the ending seemed a little rushed to get things wrapped up and to tie into the other films
right that's it
take care peeps
Px

Battered & Bruised
well i finished at abbey last thursday, things have been fairly busy since then, busy as in i've done nothing really...so lets break it all down
thursday: a poor show by the guys at work who totally failed to ge me in the pool...but i got a card and a germany phrase book, some beer and lots of hugs and cuddles so i wasok with that
friday: a real do nothing day, spent some time online, did nothing, gave myself an hour to get to milton keynes, an easy task i assumed, except nearly 2 hours after leaving home i had only done about 25 miles...how bad was that! to top it off the girl i was meeting hadn't given me her number so i couldn't call her to say i was running late...but she text me and so i called her straight back, can't believe i was 90 minutes late for our first date! but thankfully she stuck around and we had a really good time, chatting over food and a drink or too, not much drinking though as i had to drive back and she was working nights (yes chunk i lied to you, no-one knew what was happening and that's how i wanted it to be until after)
saturday: paintballing...in high wycombe...very cool, the bruises are just turning yellow/graan now...it was awesome and i want to go again...soon...so if you wanna come out and play/get shot gimme a shout and i'll see what i can organise
sunday: dinner with my folks then a trek to luton to see the girl again before she went on holiday, her request, so i must've done something right on friday... we met with a couple of her friends and all went out for a curry, it was cool and i enjoyed the evening, she was more relaxed around her friends and so i got to see what she was like in a more natural atmosphere which was cool :)
monday: i slept, i'm sure i did something else, but probably not
tuesday: went shopping with my mother, we got lots of things for my impending trip to germany...all good...although not sure about some of the clothes i've got, but hey, who cares if i don't wear them, i didn't pay for them...mother's are great things to have around
wednesday(today): i'm going to see the latest star wars with some of the newbury peeps, should be good, but i've not seen the 2nd episode yet...although i'm sure i don't need to...i've been told that anyway...
rest of the time until i head to germany...
got a party to go to on saturday, hell's 18th
and it's my nan's 90th on sunday...got to get her something yet, although i've got her card :)
think i'm seeing the luton lass again, depends on how tired she is when she gets back from her hols...
right that's it, i think everything is pretty much up to date now
laters peeps
Px

my ASC swansong
right, as some of you may be aware now i'm leaving ASC a the end of the week for "bigger and better things" well that's my story and i'm sticking to it! but anyway as a bit of a swansong i said that regardless of what happens with me leaving i would assist in every way possible, falling short of sexual favours, in getting the centre a better score in it's recent QUEST audit, our previous score had been 62%, this was done abou 2 years ago and about a year before i started at the centre. haveing been through the process a few times while i was at the wave (btw if you know these people or work there please tell them that they info on the website is out of date as Nick Guiry hasn't worked there for a while and nor has Laura Bray) anyway seeing as i'd been through it a few times i was asked on ways to improve the centre and all that type of thing...I'm not saying the score that we have got is my doing, ubt i like to think that i had some input into us doing so well...well i came up with a plan and read and re-read the various reports and action table that had been given to me over the last year and when it came round to the audit which took place thursday and friday last week we scored a massive 72-78% (final score to be confirmed). my boss nearly fell off his chair, he had to leave the room as well...i think the score came as a bit of a shock to him...and to be honest it was an awesome acheivement for the centre and the staff and it goes to show what a great team we have there and i guess now i'll be a little disappointed to leave, but i know it's the right thing for me to do now and i can leave this score as a bit of a legacy knowing i played my part even though i had days left...the best bit for my boss though was being able to say to everyone else in the company that although our centre is probably the oldest in the company and isn't in the nicest of areas and really is a bit of a dump...we're the best in the company so FU! (obviously he didn't put it quite as well as that, but he did have a little gloating session via email when we got the result and it's still going on now)
needless to say after working my arse off the last couple of weeks making sure everything was in place for quest and for my leaving and getting stressed with the boss stressing everyone out over the whole quest thing (he know's he does it now and he has promised that he will sort it for next time) a bit of a session was needed on friday evening...the boss bought a couple of pints for us on the way home, i say us but it was only really me, him and Kay (the gym manager) and 3 people from H/O or other centres...but still it meant that i managed to get a couple of beers in before chunk and his bro appeared, we hit a couple of pubs in didcot, the waterwitch where i bumped into a few people from the wave which was cool and then broadways, the first time i've been in there for ages, well over a year...and bumped into a few people in there too...it was a good night, well what i can remember was good, acually i can remember pretty much everything, including dropping the pizza i'd cooked when we got back to the flat (we being me and chunk, not me and some random woman that i'd met...and no woja, chunk isn't a random woman either!) still i managed to salvage most of the topping and put it back on ready to eat, to be honest at that time i didn't really care what it looked like, it tasted ok and we ate it while playing GT4...although it was more like lawnmower racing as we were spending more time on the grass than on the road!
saturday lead to more GT4 in the morning while i tried to lose the headache from the night before...followed by the cup final at chunks place, after which i left in the vague hope that i might get an early night so i could go out with chunk on sunday to watch chunkie's other half and her mate run while we babysat...but for some reason i woke up at 4.30 am and started puking my guts up and didn't make it back to bed until around 8am...spent the rest of the day trying to keep some food down...not good
well that was my weekend
this week i'm working out my remaining 3 shifts and i'm going to attend training tomorrow and that's my excitment over and done with...then from friday i have a glorious 10 days until i'm due to start my new job in germany, during which time i'll need to sort out a few things and get drunk :D
laters peeps
Px

accrington stanley...who are they?
eggsactly!
right people i've been given the following option, do i leave work early and suffer a distinct lack of funds for next month or do i stick it out until the end of the month?
leaving would be good because i'm getting really hacked off with it at the moment, it's stopped being fun a while ago and now it's just getting really stupid, everytime i sit down to try to sort things out so that i can leave the place in some sort of order i get someone asking me to do more work which is "urgent" and "needs to be done now"
leaving at the end of the month will mean that i've actually got some money next month, which i obviously need...but it's going to stress me a bit more...
anyway, i've got to stay really as i need the money, so it's a bit of a redundant question

the title is in honour of not only the milk advert from many moons ago, but also because the question regarding said milk advert was just on the weakest link...genius

really got the munchies...at the moment, but haven't got much in the flat, trying to keep the stocks low so that i don't leave a fridge full of food when i head to germany, but that also means when i'm in the mood for something to eat and i have an urge for something i haven't got it...like now i've got the urge for spaghetti and meatballs now...dumb huh!

speaking of heading to germany...is anyone going to visit me before i go? you're all welcome, just give me a little warning to i can sort things out and that

right got to go, really need to find something to eat
laters peeps
Px

i'm going
i've taken the new job and i'm going
training starts in 4 weeks in germany and i can't wait
alien said she'd be worried going to germany for 5 weeks on her own, but i'm looking at it as an extended training course, which just happens to be in a different country, where they speak a different language, one i don't speak, where they use different moeny, but then that's easy as it's only the euro, where i'll be on my own, but i'm on my own here, it's not like it'll be much different, it's not like i see any of my old mates very often and the newer ones will mostly be left behind when i change jobs
someone mentioned that i'll be able to live it up with all the german ladies, then she also pointed out that they're hairy...not good...speaking of hairy, that was a nasty pic the little welsh fella sent me yesterday, i'm sure woja knows what i'm on about
as for me, i'm tired again, think i'm subconsciously stressing about taking the new job, dunno though... things might just be getting me down a little anyway, not sure...we'll see...that's also the best explanation you'll get for the previous blog, i've not had a brilliant few days!
anyway i have nothing else to say
Px

and the point is...?
i dunno...
do you?








i was going to leave it at that, but i thought that would be a it lame









but i don't care...i'm leaving at that

decision time
do i or don't i?
been offered the job at Waldner, the one i went for the other week, now it's down to money, they've offered me the same as i'm on now, but i'm due a payrise if i stay...
also i would have to spend the first 5 weeks in germany, learning what the hell it is i'm supposed to be doing, which does sounds cool though, need to find out how i'm getting there where i'm staying and all that, because if i've got to pay for it there's no chance as i can't afford it
anyway, i'm leaning towards taking it, but i need to sort out these minor things first

flogging molly were as awesome as ever, but that's going to have to go down as the most expensive gig i've ever been to as i broke my specs while i was there, had to get some new ones on saturday, cost me £275, but that's including the insurance that i took out on them incase i break them again...cunning plan ;) the only disappointments for the evening were the lask of some very wicked songs...we're talking salty dog and delilah mainly, but there were others missing...and the woman who plays the fiddle wasn't there either, she's one something nasty to her hand...i wish her a speedy recovery, not that she'll ever read this i expect, but you never know, but everyone must see them though...that's the rules

in other news...nothing much has been happening, nothin much at all...shame really, i was after something exciting i could put in here...going to the dogs this weekend...might win some money, so i might have something exciting to put in here next time

well that's about it really
laters peeps
Px

fuck it
this is the second time i've had to write this post, the first time it wouldn't save!!! (stupid aol)
anyway the boyz have just left after playing gt4 for a while, the original version of the blog had them playing nurbergring while i was writing, but obviously seeing as they've left i'm not playing anymore...
it was cool havingthem come round, we went to the witch to play some pool and hooked up with a few people from the wave and had a good time
anyway, this week has been fairly boring so i'm not going to say very much, i did say loads before inthe other version of this blog, but it got wiped and i can't remember what i said and i'm not in the mood to make it up again
laters peeps
Px

mmm...greasy fast
ok, i've settled into the flat nicely, took me a little while to feel like i belonged here, but i do now. got myself an internet connection, 2mbps so i'm told, which is greasy fast and so i'm enjoying it, looking at some trailers for some new films, i'm not sold on any yet, but i'll let you know if there are any that i would recommend
feeling generally pretty good, although i'm having my problems wiht things, but then isn't everyone?
told the boss that i was becoming disillusioned with work and was no longer enjoying it as much as i had been, various reason, but basically i've told him that i'm looking at leaving, not just the centre, but the industry as a whole. it's going to be difficult to change the things that i do and i know that i'm going to find it hard to find something else to do seeing as i've spent the last 0 years working in the leisure industry. i guess if i were to move away i migh stay in the industry, but indoing that i'll be looking at moving a fairly long way away, ie out of the country...
on the job front i had an interview this morning at chunck's place of work, it seemed to go fairly well, but i'll have to wait for a week or more to find out just how well. if i get it i might have to go to germany to complete my training, which will be great, a working holiday type of thing, but i don't know any german as yet, and if i get the position i'll have to learn some, but i like a challenge...
well i think that's pretty much all i have to say and update with today so that's me down
laters
Px

hey hey peoples
hope everyone is enjoying the joys of spring, the weather's starting to look up, shame i'm stuck at work and can't be sat in a pub garden somewhere enjoying a tall frosty one, but such is life
anyway, the weeks been pretty good, bit on the quite side, but that can't be a bad thing. suffered from random insomnia this week, not been able to get to sleep before midnight, and usually awaye somewhere around half 6, with several jolts during the night...thursday was the worst when i couldn't get to sleep until gone 2 and woke up to the noisy kids down stairs screaming about something at 6 ish...little buggers!
other things that have happened...not much to be honest
went to the pub last night with the usual suspects, only trouble is that we are getting bored of the usual pub, hopefully next week we'll have a change of venue and be able to have a bevy somewhere else, with a nice pool table and plenty of people to watch...ifyernowotimean...
work has been ok tis week, a little stressful, a little boring, a little of everything really. had to sit in on a disciplinary, but that's P&C so i can't really talk about it, but it was funny, nothing happened and there was no nasty outcome either...shame i was looking forward to a public flogging ;)
got an interview in 10 days or so, need to hunt out my suit and a clean shirt ready for it, shouldn't be too hard. the interview though will be different, i have no idea what i'll be asked or anything, it's going to be a completely new experience for me, a job not in leisure!!!
yesterday was cool, it was the first day that i've been on my own and felt comfortable in the flat, also managed to have a decent dinner of pie, mash and peas, got some left over for today
sat and watched the games on tv once this week some surprisingly FIT women on it, none of the jodie dogruff marsh that they had last time, although lady hervey was mighty fine, mmmm kirsty gallacher, princess tamara...sweet! even mel from mel and sue fame was looking pretty good, but the royalty was by far the best on there
right...that's about it for now
laters peeps
Px

friday...alledgedly good
been at work all day, still am now, it's been dead, it's been boring, it's not been emotional though
spent the whole day sat on reception taking the few pennies that have come through, people just don't seem to want to come here today and i don't blame them!
the moving idea seems to be doing nicely, just need to bring the ratties over at some point, not sure when though, might get them tonight, might get them tomorrow, probably should get them tonight really though
got the flat stocked ;) spent some money getting the beers in, spent some time drinking them too
in the news, my cousin had her baby this week...which is an awesome thing and i'm happy for her and her family
work is going slowly, very slowly as you can well imagine
not much else has been happening in my life, been spending the week moving stuff or at work, nothing interesting there then
got my finances sorted out nicely after being skint for ages
GODDAMMIT!!!!!!!!! IT'S SO BORING TODAY!!!
booze up at my place on sunday if you're interested...just ask where i live and you're welcome to come on over...byob though, i know i've sorted my money out, but i'm not paying for your beer... :)
anyway
take it easy peeps
Px

visitors passes will be forthcoming...
genius
started moving on monday
couldn't be bothered to blog about it
am going to staty there tonight as i don't have to be at work until 12 tomorrow
tv, hifi and that type of stuff was first in there, assist kindly given by woja, had to get the essentials in there otherwise it would've been unbearable
moved some more stuff in last night, but not a lot though, wasn't really in the mood to do much
tonight i'm packing my suitcase and going to get some clothes and stuff like that in there, along with more dvd's and cd's, haven't got enough of them in there yet, in fact, compared to the actual amount i own, i've hardly got any in there...shocking, this will not do!
visitation rights are open to all, but please get in touch first otherwise you'll not know where you're going, with the exception of woja, who's been there once now and might just about be able to find it again...if pushed
so people on that note i'm going to leave you for now
take care peeps
Px

"hindu coming through"
been playing too much of the simpsons hit n run game...apu was the main character in the last level, hence the title...it's one of the things he keeps saying.
right, few things today, not much though...
had to escape from m parents place yesterday, they are arguing a lot at the moment, but there was no-one around that i could turn to or go out with yesterday so i spent a few hours driving around and window shopping in reading, they are fighting over silly things, or at least that's what it feels like, and i feel like i'm stuck in the middle at the moment
the sooner i move the better, still not sure when that's going to be though...it's starting to really piss me off not knowing though, might suggest that i'll find somewhere else and not wory about moving into my brother place...maybe mum will help me out with the deposit for it...maybe not, we'll see
everything else is pretty boring and shit like that
had a chat with mum about how i'm feeling at the moment, mentioned about the continuous arguing, the living at home, work and shit like that...
didn't find anyone to go out drinking with yesterday, not really bothered, was a bit short notice i guess, still it's a bank holiday weekend, and maybe if people are free we can organise a drink one day out of the 3 (i'm working the friday at the moment, although i might see if i can get it off...seeing as i'm contracted and they can't make me work a bank holiday)
still looking forward to seeing flogging molly...
anyway
nuff said
i'm outta here
laters peeps
Px

urgent plea
i need some drinking buddies...
i've had enough and i want to get totally shit faced tomorrow
skint as i am i need to unwind and get totally fucked and i need people to do it with
please help
i have no plans though

happy st paddy's day...hence the lurid green colour
i'm not irish, i have no irish blood in me, in fact the closest i get to being irish is my aunt (she's irish) and my cousin who married an irish guy and lives there. still like most people it doesn't stop me wanting to get fired up and lairy in true irish fashion...however i'm working tonight so it's not going to happen.
as for me i'm doing fine
might be moving this weekend, but i feel like i've said that so many times recently that it's starting to lose it's gloss/meaning, but fingers crossed, seeing as i've already put some stuff in there already...
lena-poo...forgot to tell you you should be able to leave comments now, think i sorted i so that anyone can leave a comment...so if you're out there and you feel like saying something...go for it
chunk...i know i missed you out ast time...you weren't the only one though!
woja...man-flu, monkey-flu, whatever, you're not getting any sympathy from me because you've just been away for a nice long holiday...bastard!
jenfer...weight ff your shoulders now?
saw vic on tuesday, with the baby...my mum reckons she's getting big, but she still looked tiny in my arms...although we did manage to raise a smile and giggle from her. it was good to see them both though. the baby is lovely, just like her mum.
need a holiday, can't afford one though
my boss is pushing me to give him my leave dates for the next year, i'm not sure what they will be yet, anyone got any suggestions for time off that i can have? they cheaper the better
i need to come up with a plan of action too...a life changing plan as it were... sensilbe suggestions for that would be appriciated too
right...i'm off, but i'm going to leave you with some flogging molly lyrics, them being kinda irish and stuff...it's a cool song and i like it so that's why it's here...
laters peeps
Px
If I Ever Leave This World Alive
If I ever leave this world alive
I'll thank for all the things you did in my life
If I ever leave this world alive
I'll come back down and sit beside your feet tonight
Wherever I am you'll always be
More than just a memory
If I ever leave this world alive

If I ever leave this world alive
I'll take on all the sadness
That I left behind
If I ever leave this world alive
The madness that you feel will soon subside
So in a word don't shed a tear
I'll be here when it all gets weird
If I ever leave this world alive

So when in doubt just call my name
Just before you go insane
If I ever leave this world
Hey I may never leave this world
But if I ever leave this world alive

She says I'm okay; I'm alright,
Though you have gone from my life
You said that it would,
Now everything should be all right

She says I'm okay; I'm alright,
Though you have gone from my life
You said that it would,
Now everything should be all right
Yeah should be alright

nothing much really
but i've been told off for not blogging for a while, so i'm blogging now!
been pretty much bored for the last few days
feeling a mix between empty and narked off
went to the cinema last night, that was cool, saw Robots, it made me laugh, that's all that matters. also managed to spend my chili's vouchers...thankfully. the service was much better last night, felt a bit on the bloated side afterwards, felt a little rushed to be honest as as soon as our starters had been cleared our main was there in it's place...but the food was good and i enjoyed it this time. the company was good to, many thanks mojo for suggestion the cinema and film and all that, next time it's my choice and you're paying ;)
a few notes to other people:
dk - when's your test, keep me posted, it seems like ages since we chatted and i know it's ages since we met up...get in touch
woja - i hope you had a nice holiday, but right now i dont want to hear about it...you'll be using that new tray of yours as dental floss if you try!
alien - thanks for getting the f'ing molly tickets...i now have something to look forward to :)
jenfer - keep smiling, don't worry about making plans or shit like that...things will happen and it'll all be good...you know it will! and don't worry about your dissertation either
mojo - thanks for the cinema, make sure you post that thing off...or there will be trouble and remind me when i next see you to bring them films with me
daisy flower - hope you're having a good time in france...remember to keep in touch though!
right i think that's everyone, but if not leave me a comment and i'll say hi next time.
i'm outta here, although the only place i've got to go is work...and seeing as i've already been this morning...i'm realy looking forward to going back again this afternoon...honest i am!
fuck it
lateers peeps
Px

it's time
to start
RUNNING!!!

i'm feeling really hacked off and fed up and shit like that today, got to go to work in a bit and i don't really want to, got to sort out a few things in my head, but i can't be bothered

everythings a bit fucked at the moment

i'm debating on not moving out, if i do it'll only be for 6 months and i don't see the point in that

but i don't want to stay here anymore either

if i could i'd be gone by dawn, dunno where i'd go, but i wouldn't be here anymore so you wouldn't have to worry about me, i'd be fine, i can look after myself and i'd cope and survive, i just don't want to be here anymore, living with my parents, working at the abbey, shit like that is getting me down and i wanna get away from it all

i'm not sleeping very well at the moment either, that might have something to do with wanting to get away too

guess i'm just generally feeling hacked off

and no i don't want to talk about it so please don't ask me to

laters
Px

ffs...this is the 3rd time i've started this blog today, but somehow i just can't get it started right
"those who take no chances recieve no rewards" - bleachers by john grisham
the last few days have been a bit weird, there is no other way of putting it, it's the truth! weird is as weird does
the quote is important, but i'm not sure how important it will be to everyone, but i like it
i've been told some stuff over the last few days that has made me smile, think and worry...not in that order and not in the ways some of you will thing
i'm smiling because i'm happy sometimes
i'm thinking because i do that all the time and i wish sometimes i just wouldn't
and i'm worried because it looks like in 6 months time i'll have to move home again as my brother will want to sell his place...although i've been told that i might be able to get some help to buy the place off him outright, but it'll depend on being able to get a mortgage and that looks like a slim chance, going to speak to my boss today see if he can give me more money than he really wants to, it'll give me more chance to buy the place
i'm worried about me as well...but then everyone worries about themselves...right? and at the moment i'm not really in the mood to talk about it...not like this to everyone, there are people who know who they are and i'm willing to talk to them, but for now...it's just me
the pay & go things seems to be working, but i've just used my last 10p to give someone a cryptic message which no doubt she'll eventually work out, but it means that at the moment i can't give her anymore help or reactions to things she might say...evil is good
i've been lazy and not done anything at all about looking for a job abroad, i've been lazy in looking for one in this country to be honest...but i need more money and the only way i can see of getting it is by getting a new job...my boss is too tight to pay me more, but i'll ask anyway
people have been stirring recently...you know who you are and it's not appricated
last night was weird...only because of the number of times it was on and then off, then on again...i enjoyed the evening, we did a pub quiz...there seemed to be some really bizarre and harsh questions though, but we made the opposition teams laugh with a couple of answers...including "stalker" being someone's occupation...still we didn't come past and we got over 50%, but only just, we scored an amazing 42/80 and most of those were on the picture round which was football shirts...scarily i managed to get nearly all 20 right! but that tells you how bad we did in the rest of the quiz...heh heh...we kept making up names...the kept asking a lot of questions about irish people who we didn't know so we made up the names...very convincing irish names they were too...like sean o'driscoll...very irish, not as irish as paddy murphy, but that was a bit too stereo-typical for my liking. i hope that there are more evenings like that in the future
moving sometime next week hopefully, maybe the weekend, maybe just after the weekend, not sure yet
need to finish my NPLQ trainer/assessor course soon by running a course of my own, then i can really start earning some money. speaking of money, i'm getting some back pay this month, for some reason i'd not been paid the £12.something that i'm supposed to get each month for being first aid at work qualified, so i'm getting 11 months worth in one hit this month...sweet!
right...i'm done for now...people who i feel i can talk to will be talked to, people who worry about me...don't tell me about it...i don't want to know...people who think too much...shouldn't...people, i'm done
take care peeps
Px

NEW MOBILE NUMBER

I'm fairly certain that i've got in touch with most people, but if you've not been contacted via text or email with my new number then email me...the email address should be around here somewhere, or you can leave a comment or whatever and i'll get back to you with it

take it easy peeps
Px

nothing but trouble...
heh heh
should be changing my number soon i know i keep saying it, but i forget, i'll text or email you all when i've got it all sorted...alien i need your number again, for some reason my phone has deleted it, although it's kept your name!?!
phone up chili's last night to complain about the poor service on saturday and all that, they've apologised and told me to go back, calling beforehand and they'll make sure i enjoy the evening, they're even sending out some food vouchers...about twice the amount dinner would've been if i'd stayed there, all in all i think i've cost them around £60 what with the wastage from saturday...heh heh...what more can i say!
for some reason i'm totally tired at the moment...not sure why though either! dodgy, i'm still blaming mojo for keeping me up all night friday chatting to me and watching the ratties, although she'll say it's my fault and i should've just gone to sleep! (which i think i did in the end anyway)
my memory is pretty poor at the moment, and i've no idea why, this morning i was chatting to mojo again and i said i had nothing planned for this weekend, but i'm moving. I had post this morning from the university of glamorgan, it was an application pack which i had requested, but forgotten about...i think my brain is fried! like in hannibal where hannibal sautees a blokes brain in front of him...the book was better though!
finally finished my book, did i mention that already? started the new one last night or sometime yesterday anyway...john grisham again, this will be my 4th book this year
i hope i do get to move this weekend, looking forward to chilling in my own space again, like i'm sure i said before peeps, you're all welcome at some point, don't all come at once though, i won't be able to cope with that...
anyway, i think i'm doing alright today, felt a bit crappy when i headed in to work yesterday, but it was fairly busy and there were people there who could distract me either face to face or on the phone...so it went fairly quickly and stuff. also i got to race my xmods around the sports hall, it still tends to the right for some reason, i've tried to correct it and it's not having any of it for some reason...but it's looking good and the foam tyres are cool, adding grip on the carpet and making it slide nicely on vinyl flooring, like in the sports hall, the boys are getting jealous!
right...should be training tonight, not sure if i really want to go though, we'll see and i'm supposed to be spinning tonight with the new gym manager, we're doing the easy class, partly because it's about the only one we can get in on and partly because of my foot and her never having done it before...should be fun though, looking forward to it i guess. training had better be an improvement this week on the one 2 weeks ago otherwise i'm sure there will be a rebellion/revolution/uprising (delete as appropriate) by the staff in attendance, so it might be worth going along just for that!
i'm off now though, think i'm going to play on the ps2, but i might have a game on the laptop...decisions, decisions!
laters peeps, take care and eat sensibly...you know who you are!
Px

1 1000, 2 1000, 3 1000...
went to see hide and seek last night...very, very disturbing. excellent twist in it which i won't give away, but i truly didn't see it coming and although it made the film make sense and a little less scary, it is awesome, and i felt really uncomfortable watching it until the twist was revealed, it's that much of a thinking/scary film...very very good though!
also went to have food last night, sat in chili's in reading, never been there before, was quite busy though and we were told that there would be a half hour wait to get a table...which we were ok with, it turned out it was only 10-15 minutes before we sat down...good...placed our order, i thought i'd have the tuna, looked like a good option. after 45 minutes of waiting for the food i complained to the waiter as other people who had come in after us had started eating their food, he told me it would be about 5 minutes and he'd just had a go at the chef to find out where it was, ok no worries...10 minutes later i told him that if it wasn't there in 2 minutes i was leaving! the 2 minutes elapsed and i called for the manager, he came over and i explained the situation to him and told him that i wasn't interested now and i'd had enough, as i said this our food turned up and i told him to take it back as i was through waiting and it was too late at that point, they offered the meal for free and i just looked at him and walked out. I don't usually complain much when i'm out for a meal, but last night was really taking the piss, i've never had to wait that long in my life, i nearly asked them to show me into the kitchen and i'd cook it myself, probably would've got it quicker!
we ended up in macdonalds
should've gone to nando's to start with, much better in there
i know i should've taken the free food, but by the time it came out i was so pissed off at them that i just wasn't interested anymore and i had already said that i would leave
anyway
i also heard about the job in andover, didn't get it, wasn't really expecting to and i'm glad i didn't really, it'd mean moving away and stuff which i don't overly want to do at the moment and i would've had to ask for more money than they were offering me...still they are going to pay me mileage for the interview which i hadn't expected, it's only 38p a mile, but that's better than a kick in the balls seeing as i did around 80 miles return journey!
still looking for other work though, might try abroad again, could be more interesting than what i'm doing now, always interested in going to cyprus to work, if i get a job out there you're all invited to come on over for a holiday...someone suggested that i start by going to the travel agents and finding out which tour operators and that are in cyprus an contacting them directly and then contacting the hotels directly as well as some of the resorts and things like that, going to have to give it a try, also need to update my cv at some point seeing as it's been out of date now for something like 10 months, but i just can't seem to get round to it!
right i'm off now...
take care peeps, laters
Px

flavour of the weak
song title...just been listening to it
got drunk last night
sat up talking to mojo half the night too...it's all good though, just feeling really tired now though, will sleep well tonight!
i keep trying to finish my book, but i've not managed it yet, think i'll probably head off in a few minutes and read as much of it as i can before i fall asleep
things have been weird for a while and i'm looking forward to moving out next weekend...should be good, at least when i'm in my own place again i can do what i want when i want and all that, it'll also mean that i can chill and organise my head properly, which is much needed
by the way you're all invited to pop in whenever you feel like it and i'll have to try and organise some sort of social gathering, i'm tempted to have a dinner party, but everyone will have to bring their own crockery and that seeing as i have a limited amount which i seem to break fairly regularly, but i guess i might pop down to IKEA to get some new stuff, god know i need it and it'll be cheap as well
right enough blogging, time to read
laters peeps
Px

anger management...yeah...right
for some reason i'm just getting really narky at the moment, i'm thinking it could be because of various reasons...following...but whatever the reason i'm not enjoying it and i'm getting really pissed off at myself for getting pissed off at everything else...make sure? no...exactly! that's why i'm pissed off and angry!

reason #1
work
yeah i know i bitch about work more than i bitch about anything else in the world, that's because it pisses me off more than anything else in the world...most of the time anyway...there's either so much to be doing and it's all got to have been done yesterday or there's nothing for weeks on end, i'm tired of it, i'm tired of having great ideas which would make the place better to work in and all that, and then having them shouted down because SOMEONE doesn't like them so they shout them down at every opportunity making it so hard to impliment that it's easier to just say fine, forget it. I'm tired of not being allowed a pay rise, even though the boss has told me i deserve more money than i'm getting, and again this is because SOMEONE is whinging because i get more than they do...i get more because i do more, i have more qualifications relevent to the job, i have better experience, more skills...get over it!

reason #2
women
second biggest peeve of mine is women. why do some say one thing and do another? why do some try too hard? it's a turn off! why do some seem so right and then turn out so wrong? and why do some have the power over me that makes me act like a complete and utter twat? (note to woja...piss off i know i act like a twat most of the time...i mean more specifically where they are concerned!) i know i've said i'm through with women, but that's like a really wrong thing, i can't think of the appropriate simile...was going to link it with going bald, specially for woja, but couldn't be bothered to work something out!

reason #3
living with my parents
it's just getting me down, the sooner i move out the better, options are at the moment...moving into my brother's place which he's vacating soon to live with his partner (sounds gay, but she's female and i don't want to patronise her by calling her a girlfriend)...the other is getting a new job somewhere miles away from here, from my folks, from my current job, from the women around here that are doing my head in...this would seem to be the ideal option however getting a job is proving harder than it looks, still not heard back from the interview on tuesday though so there is a little ship of hope sailing on the horizon

gripe over
going to bed
need sleep, lack of it probably isn't helping my moods either
later
Px

i feel sick and i want to get off this ride

life is pretty boring at the moment, in fact the most interesting thing i've done for a while is...well...nothing really

interview yesterday went ok, got lost on the way there, twice, but that's because the directions i got didn't tell me which turn off i was supposed to take so i have an excuse...

spent some cash on stuff yesterday...probably shouldn't have done that, but who cares!

feeling really tired today

over indulged at dinner as well, hence the feeling sick bit in the title

getting off the ride as all about work, my boss is a numpty, he's been stressing all week about the QUEST Maintenance Visit, which was today, and in getting stressed he's stressed me to near breaking point...one day he'll go too far and then there could be a mess

very tired, spelling is going wonky and i keep having to read back through every line to make sure i've not missed out any more letters...going to hit the sack i think...might be a wise move

laters peoples
Px

heh heh
thought'd i'd better blog seeing as i've not done it for nearly a month and someone will be telling me off soon for not doing it (dk)
right well...things are a bit weird, but then it's my life and when aren't they!
well i've decided to give up looking for a woman, it seems that whenever i find one that i like there's a problem...she's a slapper...she's got a boyfriend...she's irritating as hell and can't be bothered to do anything, won't make a decision, won't cook, wash-up, get out of bed in the morning...not that i'm speaking from experience or anything like that...i'd never do that ;)
anyway women...i'm through chasing you for the time being...i want to be chased...come and get me
i'm changing my mobile number at the end of the week...going pay and go to try and calm down on the sheer number of messages that i'm sending each month, my plan is that if i've got no credit i can't text anyone...there's logic there...somewhere
i've had the stereo fitted, felt a bit of a trevor for a while, then i remembered that kev's and trev's only have bangin' hard house tunes blaring from their stereo's and not the subtle complexities that make up the flogging molly tunes, the funky sounds of the chili's or the pure aural assualt provided by the likes of rammstein, white zombie and korn...so i calmed down a little and turned the volume up :)
not moved yet, but i'm moving fairly soon i'm assured
got an interview tomorrow for a job at a school, not really the position i wanted, and the pay isn't much better than what i'm on at the moment...but it should give me a little more experience for when i want to run a centre myself...i wish i'd sent off the application for the other job too, but i forgot about it until the day it was supposed to have been back with them...bugger!
other than that stuff has been pootling on nicely i guess, went away for a nice relaxing weekend, took loads of pictures with my lovely camera, but i've not got round to printing them off yet, they're all hiding on my laptop, using a nice one of a shark as my background. had to buy a bigger memory stick though so i maxed out on a 256mb jobbie so that i don't have to lug the laptop away next time
my boss has been stressing me today, we've got a big audit coming up on wednesday, could mean a lot of brownie points for me if we ace it, so today he's been asking me to check through files and documents and that which will be looked at, but his trouble is that he asks me to do about half a dozen things at once and then wonders why nothing is getting done...foolish man
got red dwarf 6 in the post today...life is good
also got C.H.U.D II: Bud The Chud, not sure what it'll be like, but it looks like a laugh and it's from the tacky horror genre so i'm in there then
saw Bubba Hotep last week...funny and touching...surprising really considering what it's about!
also spent money on an XMODS RC...got a supra, and all of the mods i can find for it in the UK, which means i might have to import some stuff from the US...we'll see, i've mailed them to ask what stuff is available in the uk and where i can get it
right i've still got to pull the directions off the net for tomorrow so i guess i'd better get on with it, so laters peeps