A rush of blood to the head

I did something really silly today - I've booked up to take an airship flight over London this coming weekend.

My mate Brian sent me the link this morning, by lunchtime he'd booked his seat and then after lunch I'd done the same :O)

http://www.staroverlondon.co.uk

So next Sunday morning I'll be gliding over London taking pictures like some crazy tourist, weather permitting !

and now I'm quite excited about the idea - it makes me feel quite young and impetuous ! ha ha

a nice hectic weekend

This weekend was quite a busy one for me (which makes a pleasant change).

On Saturday I went to the British Motor Show over in Docklands with a couple of mates. I'd been looking forward to going quite a lot, as there were quite a few cars there that I wanted to see - despite only having bought a new car less then two months ago. My argument was that it never hurts to have a wish list!

Despite TFL's best efforts to scupper our day with train delays, cancellations and having to go on a bus (I physically feel sick saying it, lol), we all met up at around twelve and stayed until just after four pm. There was a lot to see there and I highly recommend it - its just on saturday it was so hot both inside and out that we started flagging after four hours. The best of the pictures can be seen on my Flickr site.

Sunday was slightly more sedate as I was going to a friends for a birthday BBQ. I thought that I'd made a cake as something to take, but something went horribly wrong between getting it out of the oven and onto the plate :O( Instead of it being a perfectly risen feat of baking excellence, the middle flopped out when I tried to get it out of the tin, so all I was left with was a three inch circle of cake surrounding a big hole. I could have iced it and claimed it was one of those ring cakes but that would really have been cheating !

Anyway I had a great afternoon, nice food, good company and plenty of sunshine - what more could you ask for !

Out brothers Out !

For the past two days, Council staff who belong to the Unison union have been striking in support of our pay claim.

Now I’ve never been one for unions – it probably comes from growing up through all the strikes at British Leyland in the 70’s (look where that got them) and then the miners strike in the 80’s. Living in London, unions were for people in the North who always looked grim when they were on picket duty. Hard faced men jeering at the ‘scabs’ and waving their fists at anybody who dared to cross the picket lines.

Since I’ve been in this job I think there have been three strikes and they’ve never really been that noticeable. The most you’d have is a few people milling around outside the main building handing out leaflets and holding balloons. Not very intimidating and quite a nice way to get your point of view across. This time however its been quite different – they were quite a large crowd of people outside the main building, accompanied by a rather vocal woman on a megaphone. Ok, it’s a bit of a novelty at first, but after 20 minutes of “Whaddoo we want, fair pay, whendoo we want it , NOW” I was sitting here wishing that she’d get a flat battery, or laryngitis or both. It didn’t help that yesterday was quite humid and we had to have the windows closed in order to drown her out.

This morning the pickets got really brave, making their way around the car park to come and stand outside our building – oh joy. Megaphone woman was back and in full voice, thanking us for all our support whilst stomping up and down the pavement.

Things like that don’t happen in Harrow – we should have had sweet, blue rinsed ladies in tweed two pieces handing out leaflets along with tea and a slice of cake, who would apologise to you profusely if you didn’t want to take one of the handouts.

Come the revolution…………

Sunday night, Monday morning

I've never really felt that the weekends are long enough. Not that I usually do anything very exciting, but I could do with more than just the two days off from work - do you know what I mean ?

This weekend was quite busy for me. I went to my brothers in South Harrow yesterday for a BBQ and to see his two new rabbits Smokey and Sandy. They are a real handful and want to be into everything, bless 'em. The BBQ was good and as usual, there was far too much food on offer - thankfully I showed a great deal of resolve and didn't over stuff myself.

Today I've been very industrious ! Anybody that knows me will tell you of my love for getting a bargain and stocking up on things that are on BOGOF in the supermarkets. As a result my very small kitchen often looks like a corner shop with stuff piled up on top of the units. So my plan was to buy a couple of kitchen wall units and put them up in the lean to next to my kitchen. Anyway, I wandered into Watford to begin with and found a bargain carpet shampooer thing in TJ Hughes which was going for half price (Since I've had the cat, she brings all sorts of stuff in on her paws and its a bit too much for the hoover to cope with) HALF PRICE, well it was rude not to :O)
Then I went to Wickes and bought a plain white cabinet which although cheap, turned out to be very solid when assembled. Getting it level on the wall was a bit of a performance but it looks straight and hasn't fallen off yet.

Then I decided to give the carpet shampooer a go - after ten minutes using it I can see why it was half price ! Well to be fair it is very effective at sucking the mess off the floor, but the racket it makes it unbelievable. At first it just sounded like a regular vacuum cleaner, but then it started to whistle - and the whistle got louder and louder and more ear piercing - in the end I had to plug my ears with cotton wall balls to stop them from bleeding ! Thankfully the noise was worth the effort as the carpets and rug are drying up very nicely.

Last job of the day was to cut the back lawn. Since the demise of Chunky and Fluffy I've had to buy a mower and cut the grass every couple of weeks - I just never realised that they ate so much of it ! it makes me hanker for getting another couple of rabbits before too long :O)

So now its 7 pm on a sunday night, I'm just letting a rather large dinner of sausages, mash and fried onions with gravy settle down, them I'm going for a quick walk round the block - like I said, two days off just isn't enough !

Two hundred and seventy days !

Well will you look at that, three quarters of a years gone past since my last post and I bet you didn't miss me at all !

And so much has happened, went to the lake District with Odd Thomas, adopted a cat, had Christmas, had my birthday (don't ask - ok 46th !), bought a new car, had Easter, lost Chunky and had to have Fluffy put to sleep.

So now I'm getting used to being 'rabbitless' for the first time since I moved into my house nearly 11 years ago. I will get another one or two eventually, but not for a couple of months yet. I did go to a place called Fairydell Farm just outside of Apsley last weekend, as they have a big selection of rabbits, but there was nothing that really grabbed me. Its going to take something special to replace those two bundles of fluff and hair.

Still, my brother and his girlfriend bought two bunnies a couple of weeks ago, so I've been invited over there this weekend to give them a fuss (the rabbits, not my brother!

I've got to get back into the swing of this blogging aagin !