Tuesday

Knackered :-/

It`s been a while ?

Well, it`s been a while since i updated the old blog - what`s been going on, then ?

All sorts have been going on - been put on a development programme at work, done a couple of union courses (one is equivalent to an "O-level" (woo-hoo!)) in worthing and have just agreed to getting a band back together !

Lin`s just rung to say she`s in Mitcham - en route to St Helliers hospital where her dad is graveley ill - but has rallied on being pumped full of vitamins and rehydration salts - so fingers crossed :-)

The cat`s asleep on an armchair and the puppy is asleep on the sofa. it`s 2.30pm and i`m drinking wine whilst watching "carry on sargeant" on C4 - blimey- i can remember seeing this film at the cinema !

just got a new dell 9300 inspiron laptop through the HCI (home computer initiative- which basically means it`s bought tax-free through the company you work for). it`s kinda groovy being able to surf the net in bed although Lin`s not too keen on my suggestions for the webcam :-/

Race for Life

Why ?

Click here for a bigger picture

(c) The Independent 2005

Plenty of money in killing people but not a lot in keeping them alive - it`s a funny old world ?

Cruise Missiles cost a million pounds EACH!!! and over 1000 were fired in 24hrs into Iraq.

Bored ?

someone left an egg-slicer in the office

a new line - two bits

one does a trivial pursuit "cheese" cut and the other is a conventional
slicer - 8 or 10 wires

looks like the sound hole on an acoustic guitar

it strums like a guitar

i check the relationship between the "strings"

i plink about for a bit and can get the opening bars to beethoven`s "ode to
joy" on the go

a colleague walks in and i offer to stun him with this musical extravegance

it was like a 747 (completely over his head!)

:-)

Breast Cancer

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I got really fed up with the people at work buying charity wristbands from E-Bay that I decided to start supplying official ones at cost price. This means that the money at least goes to the right place - even if it means I have to pay up front.

£16 in someone's back pocket (+ P&P) for a £1.50 Nike Anti-Racism Band - with none of the profit going to the campaign is an absolute travesty !

I've just got a lovely email from Breast Cancer Care giving me permission to use their images on my blog - which was nice :-)

Kylie*

Sad news .....?

I`m a bit numb about the news that Kylie Minogue has been diagnosed with breast cancer. I'm also in two minds about what this means?

On the one hand, Kylie is a fantastic performer and icon - and possibly Australia`s greatest export. On the other hand, what a way to raise the profile of a very common illness.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

12.15 pm and we`ve taken the nipper and the dog home, been to a football match and visited a garden centre that sells pets - so we had a look at the birds, fish and rodents. I've got to go to sunny Worthing later today to spend 3 days in an hotel on a Health & Safety training course.


Here's a workmate - who has obviously been training hard for the match!

The match was for Chrispin who died recently and we were raising funds for the Brighton Hospital Renal Unit. Chrispin was a student and had worked at McD`s before coming to work for us. It was a bit worrying that the McDonald's team were a lot thinner than ours!

For some more pics from the match - follow these links

http://www.martin.richter.btinternet.co.uk/steveadams.JPG

http://www.martin.richter.btinternet.co.uk/brian.JPG

http://www.martin.richter.btinternet.co.uk/rich.JPG

http://www.martin.richter.btinternet.co.uk/dave.JPG

http://www.martin.richter.btinternet.co.uk/marc.JPG

(probably not very interesting unless you know the people....?)

The Day Today

All over people changin' their votes
Along with their overcoats
If Adolf Hitler flew in today
They'd send a limousine anyway...
©Strummer/Jones 1978

Boys and their Toys

Mad, crazy bonkers woman who I work with has a 15 yr old son who can play the drums and is currently learning to play the electric guitar. He's at it morning, noon and night - sitting in his bedroom strumming away for hours on end. I asked the crazy-lady if his fingers were getting stronger and she replied that she wasn`t sure, although his wrist hurt.

I'm sure that there's a million 15 yr old lads up and down the country, spending hours in their rooms strumming away until their wrists hurt. I know I certainly did ............although I didn`t get a guitar until I was 18 !

May 1st

The people's flag is deepest red,
It shrouded oft our martyred dead,
And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold,
Their hearts blood dyed its every fold.

Then raise the scarlet standard high.
Within its shade we'll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep the red flag flying here

Well, it`s Mayday once again - time for a bar-be-que to show solidarity with the dead things and charcoal workers unions. The sun is shining and there`s some chicken and kebabs on the grill. Lin is reading a Sunday red-top in the garden and i`m reading my camera manual and confusing myself in the process.

The election is only 4 days away and i`ve just received *another* phone call from the Labour Party to ask me, yet again, to make sure I vote.

Wild horses couldn`t keep me from the Polling Station and as it`s only 50 yards away and on the way to work, i`m planning to be first in !

Tomorrow is a Bank Holiday and the town will be busy. Over 10,000 bikers will be around for the annual run and there`s also the "Jack in the Green" festival. This is where there`s a load of Morris Dancers who "release the spirit of spring" (or is it summer?). Anyway, it`s a good drinking day and you are allowed to run about waving your hanky about ! When I was at primary school there was a lad who ran about the playground waving his hanky about - but the poor lad wasn`t quite the full-ticket.

To see grown men poncing about with bells on visit the official site here :

It`s a worry that the May-Day festivities including playing marbles on village greens are the best of English culture - at least the French get the flags out !!

Friday night - Saturday morning

It`s 0120am and i`m sitting here with a glass of wine and an unfeasiably large roll-up, watching BBC4

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/listings/programme.shtml?filename=20050430/20050430_2335_4544_23107_60

Lin is asleep in bed with the telly on and i`m alone downstairs except for the dog who`s snoring on the sofa.

It`s been a funny few days .......

Turnout for Chrispin's requiem was fantastic!

Nice to see so many youngsters there and I was lucky enough to bump into an old schoolmate's father. My schoolmate is now professor of history at a university in Australia, having his 4th book published - i`m working "in retail". I always knew that when teachers told me to pay attention - they meant it !

Just bought a new camera :

A Canon EOS 350DS

It`s got a *few* more settings than my current "happy-snappy" Olympus C-100 and as it`s been a while since i`ve used an SLR i`m at the steep bit of a re-learning curve !

http://www.cameras2u.com/products/details.cfm?product=0210B014AA

Funny Old Day ...................?

It's been a funny old day . We were "on stock" which means we've been stocktaking. This is a delightful 6-monthly ritual which involves all the *suits* in "Britain`s most admired company" running around like lemmings, generally panicking and getting very excited about things they barely understand! I kept well out of the way, although I did shake my head on numerous occasions and say "it's a worry?" at every available opportunity - but, then again - you've got to have some *sport* at work ........?

Tonight i'm going to Church for a Service for a young lad from work who died last week - he had problems with his kidneys and unfortunately he lost the fight.

He was 28.

He was a nice polite lad from Africa who was studying at the local College. He didn't drink or smoke but did like his footie. Before his last bout of illness he had worked for McDonalds and the lads have arranged a football match to raise some cash towards repatriating his body. We're also running a raffle and obviously accepting donations. Our social club has donated £800 - which I think is fantastic - well done.

I hope there's a good turn out for a young lad in a strange country and a long way from home.

Sunday Sunday .....?

We appear to have gained a dog for the weekend



He arrived on Friday and has been hard at work being asleep ever since !

Lin is asleep in sympathy and they are both curled up on the sofa. The cat is asleep at the top of the stairs, not in sympathy with the dog but as a territorial advantage.

Note to Abigail - if you can name `em , you can have `em :-)

VENCEREMOS COMPANEROS Y COMPANERAS!

Welcome to my Blog

.

I`m not sure what to do now that i`ve created this thing so i`ll start with a round-up of the situation here:

I`ve just opened a bottle of wine , Lin is cooking roast beef with all the trimmings and my home-study course is in front of me - as it has been for a week (!)

The new Pope has just been signed-up and i`ve never seen so many big hats and so much bling - it`s like Ladies Day at Ascot - without the smell !

The Hustings are in full swing and the fascist British National Party (BNP) have just published their manifesto - a free *citizen`s assault rifle* to keep at home if you do National Service (conscription).That could be a real vote-winner, but it obviously depends on the gun ? I`m a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to these things and would like to think it will be an AK-47 (or even an AK-M or AK-S if it comes to it) - classic , retro design and a great hookline - "the widowmaker". Unfortunately, it will probably be an SA80 (dull), a M16A2 (ok , but the grenades are a bugger to get hold of) or an HK MP5 (ok if you are a gadget monster?)

I remember in the 1974 election, Alen Coren did a wonderful spoof NF (National Front) Political Broadcast in Punch magazine - the repatriation of immigrants was a huge undertaking - all those dinner-ladies who would have to have their heads shaved and all the school desks that would have to be burnt as they had been contaminated. AND - where do you get a job-lot of cattle-trucks at short notice ....?