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Spent the weekend in Kent visiting people and trying to get Pupzilla acclimatised to other dogs.  Well one other dog, a rather boystrous 5 year old Golden who’s totally loopy.  Everyone is saying Lily is going to be bigger than the other dog, which should be interesting as Memo is BIG.

I’ve caught the sun, stupid idiot that I am forgot the sun block as it was peeing down when we left here on Saturday morning.  So I look like Rudolph, charming.

Not much else to report really.  Was a nice weekend.  Kinda nice to get away, but very nice to be back.  Pupzilla has just been for her walk and she’s now zonked out somewhere.  Not quite the beach (where she spent a good ten minutes trying to dig to China).

Right, best get on with some bits and pieces.

Reading the Observer food monthly when you’re a foody is a bit of a mistake. You end up dreaming of perfectly white langoustines in their delicate pink shells, or steamed trout or, well, just about anything else. Damn… Given the distinct lack of perseverance in my department (thanks to a bloody sore neck… curse the lack of core stability and the pile of laundry the size of the gherkin), I am resorted to some healthy eating thing that does have prawns in it.

Another thing to curse is the wonderful English weather. It put the kibosh on the cricket for the day, and now the Grand Prix is over I have the choice of reading a book, watching a DVD, surfing channels (and wishing I could be slovenly and watch CSI until the cows came home)… Such choices, have settled for watching Star Wars… again… all six of them. Bank Holidays can be great if you’ve got things to do, but when the weather sighs in protest at the thought of everyone but it having fun, you are somewhat limited to what you can do.

So I am back to the sofa, cursing it more each day as it is a monstrosity that does nothing but make me grumpy, watch the endless rain and find things to occupy myself. There’s something salacious about knowing the weather is awful and you can actually stay indoors doing the things you actually enjoy. Boring? not in the slightest!

Well that’s it, the downward, slipperly slide into Christmas is upon us. The last of the bank holidays until the expensive one comes along. Someone in the office decided to share their cold with me. I’m not amused, I’ve felt awful all weekend and I’ve had my cousin to stay. I’ve now passed said cold onto R who doesn’t sound impressed, he’s currently on his way back from Spa at the moment.

Anyway it’s back to the office tomorrow. The news on the job front is that for the first time in, oh about 6 years, I’m not contracting. I’ve wanted a permanent job for ages, but now I’ve got one, I’m not sure how I feel about it. Well I know I’m not happy at the moment. You know you should be careful what you wish for because when you get it, it just may not be what you expected.

The first time I leave my flat to socialise in well over a week… And I ended up getting 3 hours sleep and I ache all over… I ended up at SW4 (I’d link to it but there wasn’t a website… bad show people) on Clapham Common with my best mate and a load of her friends. We were just going to chill out and do nowt as neither of us had been feeling tip top over the last few weeks (both of us hardly leaving our respective flats and being miserable cows… I swear we should be seperated at birth).

Anyway, WOW… Carl Cox, Sasha and Digweed!! Not to mention all the tents with DJ’s and mixing and stuff… anyway very very cool. Had a laugh, got a semi fat lip (was drinking out a bottle when best friend went to wave at someone and twated the bottle into my lip… not her fault and we laughed about it afterwards).

Then ended up in a tiny bar on the common, dancing on a bar and doing mad stuff in the place that was WAY too hot for comfort until we decided to bundle back to my best mate’s place, where a few of us stayed up all night talking… was nice to have company, but it meant I only dozed for about 3 hours then came home. Thinking that if I slept during the day I wouldn’t get any sleep tonight so I’m now sore all over and needing sleep but figuring I’ll go to bed drained and get a good night’s sleep.

Anyway it’s the first time I’ve been out in agest and it was a damn good day out, and instead of listening to other people tell me about their holidays and trips away and festivals that they’ve been to etc… so it’s nice to talk about my day out. I’ll post some photos tomorrow.

Damn good result on the cricket today
You know I typed this out last night and completly forgot to mention the crowd frisbee which was totally nuts!! playing frisbee in a huge crowd and people were joining in. Also doing the conga to get through the crowd with a load of us… well all collapsed laughing.

Sorry for the lack of posts for those of you interested… I’ve been training this week. Seems I’m being cross trained for some new software we’re supporting here. I won’t bore you with the details because we’ll I don’t want you cat napping and drooling all over my blog, I’ll get water stains on it, and it’ll curl up at the edges.

Ahhh… it’s the summer holidays now, quieter on the roads and should be quieter at work as a result of that. I’ve got nothing of consequence to moan about which is quite nice. I’m in a good mood which is even nicer…

Anyhoo… you know last week (if you don’t go back and read it people), that I said that I was going to watch restoration? well I’ve missed three of the dratted things now, on Sunday we watched Top Gear that we’d taped and on Tuesday I was feeling icky so I went to bed. Anyone who watched it could they let me know who they think the best contender is so far? I think I’ll probably only get a chance to watch the final again as I’m off to Hampsterdam on Sunday as well.

Anyone got any suggestions of places to go etc in Hampster as I’ve not been there in eons…

What moron’s decide they want to move abroad, do a little bit of research, sell up, and move out to a new country without already owning a new home?!? The idiots on Channel 4’s no going back last night, that’s who.

Idiots! Sell everything, move out to Spain with a car and a caravan, £90k of money, buy a house for £30k which is only worth half of it because there are no foundations and the building is falling to pieces. Give up on the idea of producing painting holidays and open an estate agents that doesn’t seem capable of selling anything.

Oh and their sons… nice sovs mate, mmmmm and LOVE those gold chains. (can ANYONE spot the sarcasm here?!?)

there’s something strange about the spring, one minute it’s over cast and cloudy, not to mention freezing cold. The next thing you know everything appears different, from the light, the smells, things are waking up and coming back to life after a the winter gloom.

There’s a tree outside our living room window, it’s a reasonably large tree, and when in full bloom of leaves it blocks out some pretty unsightly views. One minute you notice that there are no leaves on the tree and it appears to be permanently sodden from the winter rain. The next minute there are buds and shoots appearing on the tree, you have to blink just to make sure that what you’re seeing is right, can it be? has the winter FINALLY ended… Then nature plays a cruel trick on you, as you make a mental note to watch the buds grow in size, it seems like the next day there are bloody leaves on the damn thing! when the bloody hell did THAT happen? sneaky bugger mother nature is. It’s not just that though, when it rains, the sky seems lighter. In conclussion, I like spring, I like May especially, don’t know why really, maybe it’s the summer on the way, maybe because when I was at school it meant little time to the holidays, maybe it’s because it seems everyone’s birthday is this month (mine included if you are counting), I don’t know, I just like May… so Happy May to you all!

As last week was easter holidays, and there was little or no work to speak of where I work, Ross and I took another day off (hey being a contractor means you don’t get paid for holidays so taking the odd day off here and there is pretty much akin to taking holiday). Woke up early and lay there with the “what do you want to do today” hanging over us. So we decided to trot off to Oxford for the day. I say the day, we left mid morning but didn’t actually get there until about 2ish. We stopped off en-route to have some lunch at a rather nice pub near Wantage, nice pub, served lots of fish dishes, but we settled for a rather nice open sarnie.

We made it to Oxford then braved the park and ride into the city centre. Having never been to Oxford before, it was an experience for me. It kind of reminded me of Canterbury, but a lot more upmarket. I did however feel rather stupid in amongst the throngs of uber intelligent students wandering around. It was a lovely day and a good deal of wandering in and out of shops ensued. How nice that was. I think it was just lovely to be there, you could feel the intelligence oozing out of the buildings surrounding you. I want to go back, and spend longer there. In Blackwells especially, their art shop is to die for, loads of coffee table books with beautiful prints in them, Franz Lanting & Yann Arthus-Bertrand books in abundance.

The next time we go back I’m determined to get lots of photos of the area as it was nicer than I thought, I also want to punt down the river, as I’ve never done that and it looks like fun…

Well whoop de doo… it’s easter, another Hallmark sponsored holiday. Being that I’m barely religious, I seem to be taking these holidays with a pinch of salt and using them for much required sleep. Well what else is there to do? You could of course join the traffic queue heading for no where in particular and sit in your cars for the next four days.

Coming from Somerset (no, you can’t borrow my combine harvester, it’s in for servicing since some twonk decided that it would look good with tree “mods”, ie they wrapped it around a tree), you tend to notice the coming holiday season because the volume of traffic on the M5 seemed to get busier. My childhood home being near the motorway, it used to be fun to go and stand on one of the motorway bridges and wave at the traffic. Goodness knows there was sold all else to do.

So happy chocolate egg eating holiday to you all. May you keep Rennies in business with indegestion remedies. Ah just think in a weeks time they can start advertising for Christmas trees and stuff (considering Cadbury’s cream eggs seem to go on sale on Christmas eve). The advertising person’s dream!

Woo Hoo it’s Friday!! which means… IT’s the WEEKEND!! wooo yeah!! Ok that was my bit of excitement out of the way. I’ve finally done it! I’ve got hosting, and I’m waiting for my DNS to be transferred over… so this week my evil plan of world domination becomes one step closer to reality… ok well I mean my website will, but in the grand scheme of things, s’not so bad.

I am thinking of revamping the design on the site as well, I’ve found a nice template I was thinking of having a doodle with… ah what a fun weekend I have planned. I’m over looking the fact that tomorrow is Hallmark day, oh sorry I mean Valentines day. I’ve never had a “real” valentine, the ones from whoever you happen to be adjoined to at the time doesn’t really count, and I’m somewhat cynical now, so like every other holiday throughout the year, I see it as just another day. I have nowt planned (other than having my hair chopped) and sleeping for as late as I can without a. the idiot post boy waking me up, or b. the idiots in the other flats making tons of noise. I certainly won’t be woken up with breakfast in bed, that’s for sure (well not inless Santa’s got amnesia, forgotten, he didn’t go anywhere near my flat at christmas and is trying to make ammends - heck Santa’s not real either, who am I kidding).

Anyway, I was thinking perhaps as I’m failing miserably to celerbrate any real holidays so far this year, I should perhaps celebrate the fact that it’s Friday the 13th! I like to think of it as my lucky day!

I am actually revelling in my new purchases from HQ Hair. I got some great lip balm that’s making my lips go all tingly (menthol one)… and no crude jokes men!! An excellent pore reducer for large pores, a groovy hair brush, some new conditioner and non snag hair bands… all of which I’ve managed to use.

I’ve just realised I’m babling aimlessly… again… as usual… I guess a trip off to find some hopeless distruction to cause would be a very good idea right now.