holiday

Not much to say for a while . . .

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When I say that, I mean that I have not done much to talk about really. Work has been just work, and home life has been the usual. We did have a few days in Whitby though. It was for our wedding anniversary. We should have been going from the 6th of November and returning on the 10th. But … I was told that I could not have that time off as the chef I work with was off and there would be nobody to cover for me. I do the washing up !!!!

It was a lovely few days and the weather was kind to us. We were up on the West Cliff side, not far from those famous whale bones. The only downside was the walking up and down the hills to get anywhere. My arthritis was playing up a little and I found it very difficult to walk down the hills. I was not so bad walking up, but coming down I seemed to be putting a lot of pressure on my knees. If you had seen me sometimes, I looked as old as I felt. I should talk to the doctor about this again.

We were in a small apartment on the Esplanade called Amber Rose. It was on the 1st floor and consisted of a living/dining room, kitchen, bedroom and nice sized shower room. The best thing was that when you sat at the dining table, you could have a sea view. We ate out on two evenings and on both occasions we went to the famous Magpie Cafe. I always believed that it was an expensive place, but compared with other establishments, it was extremely reasonable.

It’s the staff night out soon. I’m dreading it! I don’t like being out at night. And I especially don’t like being out at night on a staff party night. I was hoping it was going to be a night when the youngest was home as that would give me an excuse not to go. Although it would not be a problem for me to be out when he is home, there is always that nagging fear that something may happen when K*** was the only one home.

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We are going to a hotel that provides rooms for functions that are away from the main restaurant but as we are a fairly small group we will be in the main function room with other party-goers. The menu is a typical Christmas menu and I expect most people will either go for the roast turkey or the roast beef with possibly one going for the vegan option. Me … I’m going for the fish dish! The beef sounds okay, but these places cook for the ‘masses’ so it will be slightly overcooked. As for the turkey, I’ve not had any this year and I’m already fed up with the stuff.

What I dread the most is that it states on the menu that we can enjoy “… fantastic entertainment from our resident DJ …”. I can say no more!

More strange stuff . . .

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I am currently Home Alone. Mrs H has gone away for a few days, with her sister and father, to a cottage in North Yorkshire. I don’t like that kind of holiday, in fact, these days I don’t really like holidays. So here I am, the ‘saddo’ supposedly ‘enjoying my space’ (whatever that means.)

My sleep pattern does not exist. Some nights I can sleep for seven hours uninterrupted, but other nights it’s three hours then four or five hours of dozing sleep. The kind of sleep where you don’t realise you have slept, but time has moved on.

Well, last night was one of those nights! I staggered off to bed at around 11:45 (wife away, don’t forget) and was soon asleep. I assume I was soon asleep as I don’t remember being awake for long.

At around 3:30am I awoke. Unusually, I still felt sleepy, so after a quick visit to the bathroom, I snuggled down to sleep. After a few moments but could have been longer, I suddenly realised that the room was getting lighter. Sitting up, I quickly noticed that the Amazon Echo Dot that we have in the bedroom had somehow activated and the room was filled with a blue light. It lasted no more than ten seconds, but it was quite disturbing. I spent the next 30 minutes or so, trying to think if I had mentioned the ‘Alexa’ word in my sleep. Very disturbing!

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You may recall, I had a cause to contact WP support over an issue I had. I’m told that the issue has been passed on to the developers. I have now discovered another issue.

I decided that I would like to change the theme I use for my blog. I’ve had this one (Independent Publisher 2) for a couple of years now, and I thought I needed to have a refresh. Endless scrolling followed, but there was a problem! I seemed to be unable to preview a large number of the themes available.

I thought at first the issue was with the ‘free themes’ (I’m not paying any more for this.) But no! The issue affected most of the paid themes too! So I contacted Support! I pay for it so they might as well earn it.

I got a reply the next day (which was good service, I thought). It seems that my current theme is a “Classic” theme. Most of the themes are what they like to call “Block” themes. Support explained, clumsily I thought, that the ‘preview’ only worked properly for ‘Classic’ themes if I was previewing a ‘Classic’ theme. I needed to be using a ‘Block’ theme to preview ‘Block’ themes.

This has also gone to the developers, but as the ‘Happiness Engineer’ explained, they didn’t think there was any chance of it being changed or fixed.

One more sleep . . .

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That’s all. One more sleep and then it’s over. Christmas can become a thing of the past until October 2022 then we do it all again. However, we probably will still be paying for it up until Easter. It’s been a wet one for us. No snow, not even a glimmer of a flake. I put it down to the fact that our village is in a dip, therefore, retains some slight warmth. Well, that’s my theory.

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I’m not back at work until 10th January. The owners close for their annual holiday at this time, and although they are not going abroad this year, they still decided to close. It may be something they regret in the near future. There are no new COVID restrictions in England at the moment, but the Government are trying to be popular and are putting the emphasis on personal responsibility rather than a Government diktat. I fear that come the beginning of the New Year, that decision may have to be revised.

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Nervous week . . .

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It had been a busy start to the week at work. The cafe had been full on Monday which resulted in a later than normal finish. Tuesday was quieter, but we had a few customers that turn up five minutes before we close. They just sit for ages chatting whilst the staff are running around them putting tables away and generally tidying up. So that was another late finish.

The next day the eldest, his partner, and our granddaughter came for lunch. They usually arrive just after the young one has had a sleep. This often means they don;t arrive until about 2pm, which as they go swimming first makes lunch happen around 3pm. By that time, any feelings of hunger have dissapeared and the food just outfaces me. But it was a very pleasant afternoon.

Thursday morning started with a jolt. I received a message from a colleague who is also a neighbour advising that I do a lateral flow test, as another colleague who was working on Monday had tested positive for COVID-19. It was devastating news, as it could have massive consequences for us all. My test was negative thankfully and so was the repeat test on Friday. Another test this lunchtime showed negative again, so I guess I got away with it.

It’s reduced hours at the cafe this week, because of staff shortages. One is on holiday and two are self-isolating, so we are down to three staff on the floor. It’s going to be a long week for them I think.

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I’ve not been following the Olympics much, as I don’t think they should have gone ahead, given the way the pandemic is going in Japan. But with so many Leeds athletes taking part, you kind of get swept up and carried along. Especially when one of the athletes (Jessica Learmonth) is from the same village and has done so well.

It was also good to see the Diver, Tom Daley sat poolsside watching, whilst doing some knitting. He is well known for his knitting and I understand that he is quite acomplished. The only thing that slightly bugs me is that the only male knitters that you see are from the LGBTQ+ communities. Why are all the ‘straight’ male knitters hiding. I know they exist, as I’m one of them, but you never hear of them. If you go back in time to the Middle Ages it was predominately men who knitted. I’ve knitted on and off since my Grandmother taught me at the age of around 6 or 7 years old.

Nearly over …

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I refer, of course to the “Home alone … yet again …” experience in my last post. Well the week has sometimes flown by and then at other times it seems to have dragged a bit. I suppose the hardest part about the week was notAlone having anyone to talk to. S**** and partner came round on Thursday, but they only stopped for a meal before going for their Thursday swim. I went to the quiz-night at the local pub on Tuesday, but it’s been that long since I last went, there was nobody in that I knew. Seems that the pub in the next village that used to do a quiz-night has closed, so all their regular ‘quizzers’ descended on my local. I didn’t stop.

R*** has been marvellous! An absolute star. It looks like the fact that we told him K*** was going on holiday with his grandad Starworked. He was home by 5pm on Friday, and it took him until 10pm on Saturday before he asked where his mum was. I told him again and he hasn’t mentioned it again. I was quite amazed really, as it was K***s biggest worry. It goes to prove a point we have been making for a while. That is, if he knows what he is doing then he seems to accept it. Autistic people like routine and can get distressed if their routine is changed. With R***, it seems that his routine is able to change as long as he knows about well in advance.

It’s that time … again!

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It is just about a year since the last time K*** went away with her sister. She said then that it was a ‘one off trip’ and I thought at the time, that it could not be a one off because of the pre-holiday costs. You may remember (and I forgive you if you don’t) that I posted my feelings about it at the time. However, it all went very well, better than I thought and a lot better than I posted. R*** seemed to accept it without any issues, apart from asking every day where his mum was. Well the time has come around again. R*** went off on respite until Friday and K*** set off to her sisters soon after. So I’m “home alone” so to speak. Again, I have a list of jobs I want/need/have to do before R*** gets back and a couple more before K*** returns. For now, I’m just calming down a little. I have been a little stressed about it during the build-up, but I think I’m okay.Garden Storage

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Got to go out later. We’ve bought a storage cupboard for the garden. We usually keep compost and the like in the garage, but it is a bit of a bind when you’re working in the back garden and 18V-Li-Ion-Combi-Drill-Ahave to keep going to and fro to get stuff out of the garage. So K*** has bought one of those Keter storage boxes. I’m just hoping that I can get it in my car. It is quite a big thing and I’m a little concerned that it won’t fit in the boot, even with the seats down. We shall see, but I’m not sure of the options if it doesn’t fit.

After the problem, I had buying that drill from eBay, I ended up getting one from Aldi. I have had some of their tools before and they seem to be quite good. It’s being delivered today and when I last looked at the tracking site, there were two deliveries before mine, so anytime now I suppose. In fact, it’s just been delivered.

It’s the August Bank Holiday and Leeds Festival …

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This is that time of the year, when the Leeds and Reading Festival takes place. These are two of the largest music festivals in the UK, and take place simultaneous over Friday to Sunday. There are usually the same acts appearing at both sites over the Image result for leeds festival 2017three days. I was going to link to festival, but know of old that these links often simply disappear, so I’m going to make do with a couple of images. We live quite close to the site, so we get all the traffic and noise issues. Happily, Image result for leeds festival 2017the organisers seem to have got the traffic problems under control this year, as there has not (yet) been a repeat of the 5 hour tail-backs on some of the approach roads. The noise? Well it all depend on the wind direction. If the wind is in a certain direction, we do get the continuous hum from the motorway so when  that happens we do get some of the festival noise, but it’s not been loud enough to notice.

I have been before, back in 2011. The Parish Council of Bramham and Thorner are allocated a number of free ‘Guest’ tickets. From BBC NewsThese ‘sweetener tickets’ are then sold to genuine residents at an extremely discounted rate, with the funds going to local projects. Every year since 2011, I’ve thought about going again, but at the last minute, I back down. I don’t think K*** would enjoy it and I wouldn’t want to go on my own. But who knows how I will feel next year? I have to admit, even though the weather was bad that year with some rain on each of the 3 days, it is quite an experience. The weather has been sort of kind this year, except for the 23rd this month, when we experienced 3 weeks rain in one hour! Now that was a wet day!

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I’ve come to a decision! Crochet is not my thing and I’m dumping my hooks (except a 3.5mm and 6mm). I can knit. I do knit. I will have a go at any knitting pattern or stitch that you care to through at me, but I totally fail at crochet. I just cannot get my head/hands around it. I’ve watched all the tutorials and even had a ‘one-to-one’ with a work colleague and I still cannot do it. It looks like the old ‘Granny knots’ we used to do when I was a kid. So I’m calling it a day. I’ll keep the two hooks I mention, as they can be very useful to pick up dropped stitches and the like, but the rest …gone!

It’s been a long week …

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I’m referring to the holiday my wife is on at the moment. As I’ve not posted for some time, I’ll get you up to speed. Around the middle of April, K****s sister and daughter, returned from a week away in Gran Canaria. She returned with an offer that K*** should join them on their next trip. There was much discussion about this, with me having a lot of misgivings about the whole thing. Firstly, it’s a ‘beach, bar and pool’ type of holiday, which I understood was not the type of holiday K*** enjoyed. Secondly there was R*** to consider. How would he react, coming home from respite to find his mother not at home, and not going to be home for another 4 days. Then there is the cost. K*** tells me that it’s a ‘one-off’, but isn’t that waste of all the money it cost for a new passport? And what about all the new clothes … more expense. Anyway, she is back on Tuesday. R*** and me will both be pleased, and as I say, it’s been a long week. I had a list of jobs that I wanted to get done, which I managed to do in between the rain and the wind we had here. I suppose the worst part of the experience is the lack of conversation. I went to the pub a couple of evenings, but there is only so much you can chat about with people that you don’t really know. It will be nice to get back to what we call normality.

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I’ve been a bit lazy with this blog over the past couple of months. To be honest, I’ve not really had much I wanted to say. I wanted to stay clear of politics as that is all that people have been talking about for the past month. I know from past experience, that it is one way to ‘lose friends and annoy people’. That is something I can do without any external help, thank you very much.

I tend to update this blog in the late evening. I thought, that this retirement (early) would give me lots more time to do things like this blog, but it doesn’t seem to have worked out that way. It still late at night, when K*** and R*** have gone to bed, that I think ”I must do a blog post”, and then I get distracted and end up not doing anything. I was going to look for a part-time job. That’s not happened. I signed up with a recruitment agency, but the jobs they have come up with are never appropriate. I promised myself that I would do more writing, but I don’t seem to have had any ideas that I could write about. I have done a fair bit of knitting though. A three beanie hats, five headbands, a pair of wrist warmers, a couple of scarves and I’m a quarter of the way through a sleeveless jumper. So I’ve not been sitting on my hands, so to speak.

I shall stop now as I don’t want to start rambling on about anything. I think I shall make a mental note to think about updating this effort at least once a week. I’ll put a note in my diary. See if that makes a difference!

A couple of days away … day 2

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So, after a good hearty full English breakfast, we set off for Robin Hoods Bay. This is a small cove about 5 miles from Whitby that was used in previous times by smugglers. All very romantic and exciting … apparently.

We had a good look around the few shops that had not closed down for the winter and a nice drink in the pub at the bottom of the main road.

During a break in the rain, we managed to have a look out over the bay at the the slightly turbulent sea. Now here is my moan. It was cold. It was wet. It was windy. But out there in the sea we’re four or five surfers! I can barely understand why people do this in places where the surf is high and the weather hot, but when the weather is as bad as it has been and the waves seldom get over 2 foot high, I just don’t get it. We watched them for a good 20 minutes, in which time they managed to paddle out about 100 yards. Then “the wave” came and they started to paddle back. Only one managed to get to his/her feet and they lasted no more than 3 (and I counted) seconds before they fell off! It is completely beyond me.

Moan over.

Got some great pictures in Robin Hoods Bay which I’ll post later. Need to get them off my camera before I can upload them.

A couple of days away …

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It was our wedding anniversary on Friday. Thirty eight years! So here we are having a couple of days away in Scarborough. Not exactly in Scarborough, but just on the outskirts. 

It’s bloody cold! We were expecting it would be, and were expecting that it would be raining all the time too. But the rain has held off for most of the time, although it was a bit horrendous driving. 

Tonight we are staying at The Copper Horse in Seamer and then we move to The Plough at Scalby. Both are on the outskirts of Scarborough.

I have couple of photos, but I’ll post them when I do a full post later this week.

BTW … still not quite got my head around this retirement idea yet.  

… and then it was over …

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The holiday came to an end on Friday. Was it a success?  In many ways it was. The celebration lunch on Thursday was great and everyone enjoyed the meal and general get together. However, it did have an effect on me that I will come to later. Some of the family went home Thursday, which left room for S**** and A**** to stay over for one night, which was nice. They were off early Friday morning as they were having a day in York. K*** and me and C**** and J*** (‘the in-laws’) visited a nearby garden that was open to the public and had a pleasant time.

At around half past two, we went our separate ways. K*** and me needed to get some shopping from the supermarket. We did that and then went on to Tadcaster and that cycle shop/bar/café that I may have mentioned before, for a drink before home.

R*** was home a little earlier than expected and there had been ‘issues’ in the taxi. He had been picked up a little early and the driver had had a problem with her ‘sat-nav’ which resulted in them taking a route different to his usual routes. This caused all sorts of problems and both the driver and the escort suffered for it. I’ll not go into too many details, but many will know that people that are Autistic do not cope well with change. I shall leave it at that. K*** is taking him and bringing him home on Monday, and we will await what the transport company make of it.

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Now to the ‘effect’ I referred to earlier in this post. The pub we went to was (as I’ve been told) the same pub we went to for my birthday back in April this year. I had no recollection of the place! Granted, we were in a different room, different time of day and we approached the place from a different direction, but I could not remember any of it. Apparently we had our order taken by the same waitress that took the order on my birthday. Nothing! I got the usual “Don’t you remember blah blah” and “You must remember blah blah blah.” But I didn’t. Even when someone said “You’ve ordered the same as last time … remember?” I had to say that I did not.

At first, my memory issues were put down to my operation and what is commonly known as ‘Pump-head’ but this usually clears up after a few months, and it’s been over two years since the op’ so it seems an unlikely cause. So what is left? One immediately thinks of Alzheimer’s and the worry starts to creep in. It is certainly something to mention at a future meeting with my doctor, and at times it can be extremely stressful and worrying.

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Back to work tomorrow and it’s getting close to the close down of the project that I’ve been working on for that past eighteen months. After this it will be back to being a ‘senior application support officer’ and all that that entails. Not something I am looking forward to.

I hope to hear something regarding my Voluntary Early Retirement (VER) application this week. It goes to the Corporate Panel on Thursday and as I understand, it is merely a rubber stamp procedure. I intend to chase up my Head of Service first thing on Friday morning for an answer and then the real planning can start.

Some good, some not so …

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I took the car in for service and MOT on Friday. All passed without any problems. Tyres might need a check before Christmas but other than that, all was goo. Eldest lads car went in at same time. His, not so good! He needs new tyres again. That will be the second lot in three years. Driving style, road quality and luck are the most likely culprits,or so the service department said.

As I was off for the full day, K*** thought it would be a good time to go into York whilst we waited. So we did the ‘Park & Ride’ which was a first for us. The garage dropped us off and promised to pick us up and it cost £2.80 each for a return ticket. A bargain, I thought.

We had a nice lunch, and then did a tour of the shops. That is were the ‘not so good’ came in for me. I’m still looking for a couple of pairs of lounge/jogging pants (mainly lounge as opposed to jogging) and we started to look in the obvious sports type shops. Ridiculously expensive for both the brand names and the unknown and nothing in my size. I was now starting to get a bit fed up. We then went into one of the major well know high street stores. I won’t ‘name and shame’ because they are all the same really. Found a pair that were exactly my size, and I totted off into the changing rooms to try them on. As usual, the size on the label bore no resemblance to real life. I asked the assistant if there was a manger available and I explained to her the problem. You see I have an inside leg measurement of 29”. The pants I picked up said they were a 29” leg. I asked if she would measure the pants. She reluctantly agreed and to her amazement they actually measured 34”. Apologies followed and she went looking for more styles. Five more 29” pants were measured, with the sizes ranging for 31” to an amazing 36”. To make those fit, I would need armholes instead of a waist band. This size problem seems to be an issue in many stores, and I’m of the opinion that the leg size is just an estimate or possibly an opinion.

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Well today is Bank Holiday Monday or as it is now called the Bank Holiday Weekend. In fact Bank Holiday now start around 15:30 on the Thursday before and lasts to around 08:00 Tuesday morning!

This weekend saw the annual Leeds music festival, more commonly known as “Leeds Fest”. It’s held in Bramham Park, which is literally just over the road from where we live in Bramham village. Apart from the traffic disruption as thousands of people descend on the park, it has little effect in my opinion. There is the noise issue, but if the wind is in the right direction we hear very little. We hear more noise from the A1 (the road I mentioned earlier) which seems to have a continuous drone with the amount of traffic.

Because of the location, Bramham is allocated a number of weekend VIP tickets and residents can take up the tickets with a donation to the various causes in Bramham. These tickets are at a extremely discounted price and go very quickly.

I’ve been the festival twice, in previous years and seen fantastic acts such as Sea Sick Steve, Madness and the first year I went, Ed Sheeran was a new and upcoming musician.

The line-up this year was not to my particular taste, and there was no-one I was particularly interested in watching. Maybe next year.

All going along nicely …

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The hospital appointment went well. The doctor has always had a knack of being ‘a little behind’ as the nurse politely put it. So it was no surprise when the appointment was delayed by about 30 minutes. I had blood pressure taken and the (same) nurse observed that the ‘bottom half’ was a little high, but nothing to worry about. I put it down to driving through the centre of York. Why is it, that visitors to that grand city seem to like wandering into the road for no apparent reason?

Anyway, the ultra-sound scan I had the previous week was just what the doctor was expecting. He listened to my heart, and that was fine, and he never even mentioned my blood pressure. We had a chat about how I was feeling as opposed to before the operation, and what was going to happen in the future. That was it! In his words, it was ‘all going along nicely!’

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That is about it really. I’m on leave for a week and I don’t really know whether anyone will pick up the work I do. My line manager (gnash, growl, spit) should do it, but I can’t see it happening unless she is forced. I would say I don’t care, but I do! I know I will be checking my emails every day, and I’ll try not to answer any of them, but for the past ten years, I always have kept in touch while on leave. It’s just something I do.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Symbol

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I thought I would have a go at this. I’m not sure if it will work (fingers crossed I’ve got it right.)

I have been a fan of old British films for a long time now, and the first one I remember watching and enjoying was Brief Encounter. For those who don’t know the film, it is set in the Forties, when a suburban housewife and a doctor meet at a railway station and fall in love. Their love is doomed as both of them are from backgrounds that shunned extra marital affairs. The film starred Trevor Howard (real brother of Ashley Wilkes from Gone With The Wind) and Celia Johnson, and was written by Noel Coward.

The station where they meet is the station at Carnforth in the North West of England. K*** and I were having a few days break, and I wanted to see the place. It was a great few days away (a wedding anniversary actually, but don’t ask me which one) and the trip to Carnforth was one of the highlights.

I have a lot of photos from the trip, but this one is of the station tearoom, where the couple met and ultimately parted. The tearoom has been faithfully restored to the same as it was when Brief Encounter was filmed, and it was quite an unusual feeling to be sitting in the same room, effectively where two famous stars of the classical days of British film sat. I have tried to work out the actual position where we sat, in relation the film, but that was too difficult. A beautiful symbol of a bygone age that has been lost forever.

Clueless !!

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So, I was going to take up this challenge that a fellow blogger Mel Cusick-Jones had devised on her blog. It is called “The Sunday Write-up”. Mel provides five words, and you (ie me) have write a blog post and include those five words. It’s a monthly challenge and it seemed simple enough and it would encourage people (ie me) to write something regularly. Just the type of thing that I needed to give me that little push. Well guess what? I forgot! I did joke about forgetting in the vain hope that the joking would serve as a reminder. It didn’t!

But, in the end, it has given me a bit of a push to write. Hence this post.

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Last time, I was a little concerned about going back to work, and any little surprises that may be lying in wait after my “Big Day.” I had planned to go in, thank everyone for the birthday wishes, get embarrassed and then nip out at lunchtime and buy a supply of cakes! I didn’t want any fuss, as I mentioned before, and I did not get any. In fact nobody mentioned it at all! Now I know they knew, or at least my previous line-manager knew, but nobody said a thing. I thought at first, that they were waiting until most of the team were in, but no. Nothing!

“But it’s what you wanted!” I hear you say, and it was, but I have to admit to feeling a little disappointed. So the cakes went by the wayside.

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What else? Not a lot really. I went to the doctors today. K*** has been going on about me going to basically find out if my medication has caused me to put on over 2 ½ stone in weight over the past ten months. That and should I have had a follow-up from the hospital.

Well I knew the answer to the first issue, and the Dr just confirmed it. At the end of the day (and during the day also) I’m just eating too much of the wrong type of food. He did put a different slant on the reason though. He thought, that the increase could be partly due to the fact that my body was functioning better after my operation, and that I was processing and absorbing foods more. You know what? I almost believed that. It wasn’t until a lot later that I realised that he was trying to take the “blame” away. To try and stop me from feeling guilty. As I say, I’m just eating too much, and it has to stop. Instead of reaching for that Kit-Kat, have a banana! Instead of having a banana sandwich for supper, just have the banana. He also mentioned, that often people mistake thirst for hunger. Sometimes when you feel like you want to eat something, you really need to drink something. Well that one was new one on me, but it kind of makes sense.

With regard to the second query, it seems that I should have had a follow-up appointment in February! He was partly surprised that it had been missed, but I suppose these things just happen sometime. A bit philosophical I know, but the way the NHS is at the moment, nothing surprises me.

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What else? I was going to have a rant about “other drivers”, but I think I’ve exhausted that previously. Cyclists were going to come in for a bit of stick again, but they all seem to be behaving themselves at the moment.

So that’s it for this time. We are going away for a couple of nights when R*** goes on respite. Two nights in Cartmell, Cumbria. Should be nice. I think I may have mentioned some time ago, that R*** no longer wants to go away with us. In fact, apart from his fortnightly respite, he does not want to go away with anyone. So every so often, when he goes on respite, K*** and me have a couple of nights away. It’s not ideal as holidays go, but it’s what we have to do at the moment. Who knows what will happen in the future?

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One last thing. I do wish that those who visit this blog, would actually make some comments. I would be disappointed if the comments were all negative, but I get visitors, but no comments. Makes me think, at times, if it is worth the effort.

Satisfying week

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A great week off from work. Used the last 5 days of leave for 2014/2015. So we had two nights in Whitby. It’s a place we both like and have done for quite a long time. Whitby has lots of history about it, and I’ll mention some of that later.

We stayed in a hotel called “The White Horse and Griffin” which is a very old coaching inn, located near the harbour. The bar is interesting, as it is quite a narrow room. In fact the doorway you can see in the picture, is more or less, the width of the bar. There two seats at a table to the left of the door as you enter and to the right there is room for what can only be described as a shelf with stools. There is a gap between these that is suitable for two slender people to walk down together.

The room was good and comfortable and the food was excellent. The only downside, if you could call it a downside, was the Wi-Fi. It was really, quite poor. You could only pick it up in certain parts of the room, and whilst the hotel information said it was available in the public rooms (which was the bar, restaurant and breakfast room) it was very hit and miss there also.

Still, we did not go there for a technological experience, and one day, I will simply leave my tablet at home and forget about everything that is going on elsewhere. I say that now, but I don’t think it will happen soon. We are all too reliant on these things today. It’s true! I feel quite naked, if I forget to take my smartphone when I go out of the house. It’s a little bit scary really!

Now, a little bit about Whitby. It is the place where HMS Endeavour, the ship that James Cook sailed to Australia and New Zealand, was built. It has a ruined Benedictine abbey, which can trace its roots back to 657AD. Jet, the compressed remains of ancestors of the monkey-puzzle tree, can be found in the cliffs and on the moors and has been used since the Bronze Age to make beads. It was the favoured mourning jewellery for the Victorians. Of course, one cannot mention Whitby, without mentioning Bram Stokers Dracula. The famous gothic horror/romance was partly set in Whitby, and the ruined abbey has been used in many film and TV adaptations of the tale.

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It was K***s birthday yesterday, and she had mentioned the day previous, that it would be nice to have a pork chop for dinner. We had two in the fridge, which she had got at the beginning of the week, and I was to get some veg when I went out. This was the plan. However, the night before, S**** had texted me to say that him and his girlfriend were coming over on K***s birthday and could stay for dinner, if it was okay, but it was to be a secret. No problem, I thought, we could have the chops today (Sunday) and I would cook the ham joint, that we were going to have, on the Saturday. Simple. But it was not to be. K*** wanted the chops on Saturday. So my trip to the shops, involved sneakily buying a couple of extra chops, extra veg and hiding them in the fridge in the garage. K*** quizzed me a bit about the number of potatoes I had got out, but I explained that I was using up some of the ones that were getting old. I think I got away with it.

All in all, it was a great surprise for here, and it all went as well as could be expected, even though I slightly overcooked the chops.

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Today sees the start of BST or British Summer Time. It is the day when the clocks in Britain are put forward by 1 hour and nearly everyone gets up 1 hour earlier than usual. It goes back to the Summer Time Act of 1916. I say ‘nearly everyone’, because this time, we forgot! I put it down to having S**** and his girlfriend here the night that made me forget. It was not until K*** was listening to the radio after her shower, that she realised, she was one hour late! I will not repeat the language used, but it was not quite lady-like. We shall say nothing more about this.

Back home …..

/ Tony / Leave a comment

Well, back home. Yesterday in fact. It was a pretty uneventful day. The weather, whilst not bad, was not as good as it had been. It was going home weather. We stopped off at a gift centre for a look around. My god, these place do depress me at times. Here we are at the start of November and the place was full of Christmas decorations and gift ideas. I don’t know about you, but I think it is far too early. Some of these places have had Christmas stuff for sale since mid-October! Most stores have been planning for the Christmas period from around the end of May. Takes all the symbolism out of the occasion if you ask me. I remember when I was young, there was a department store in the centre of Leeds called “Lewis’s”. On the top floor, at Christmas time, there was Santa’s Grotto and Santa used to arrive on the 1st Wednesday in December, with the Grotto opening the following Friday. Christmas time started in December not November or October. How times have changed.

I digress. I was going to start this post by talking about what I call the “Twat Gap”. How big should the Twat Gap be? Should its size depend on certain conditions? Should there be a minimum size? Maybe a maximum size? What about penalties for abusing the Twat Gap. Now I know some of you will be wondering what a Twat Gap is. Well, you know when you’re driving, you leave a space between the front of your car and the back of the car in front. That is the Twat Gap! Why is it called the Twat Gap? It’s because it does not matter how small that gap is, some twat will try and squeeze into it when they overtake. The Twat Gap!

Holiday week post from away ….

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Well what a good day. First we went to Carnforth. The home of Brief Encounter. Was a bit emotional as it has always been one of my favourite films. Always gives me the goosebumps when ever I hear the music. Warsaw Concerto Actually ‘Piano Concerto No2’ by Rachmaninoff (oops). Gives me the shivers.

Then onto Morecambe. Bit of a disappoint there. It just seems like all the Chavs in the north are walking around, looking for somewhere to spend their benefit money. I know it sounds like a cliché, but that was the impression I got.

Holiday week …..

/ Tony / Leave a comment

Well that’s the first day gone. Six more and it’s back to work. Last week was the first full week of work since coming out of hospital, and to be perfectly honest, I could have done that full week the week before. But ‘Occupational Health’ said four weeks at 50% hours and I almost stuck to it.

K*** and me are going away for a couple of days (we don’t do big holidays because of R***) so that should be nice. The last time we did that was just before going into hospital, and I think it was then that K*** and I realised how bad I had got. We did a walk that normally would have taken 45 to 50 minutes. It took me over an hour and a half and it was really hard work. We then had to walk the same distance back!! This time it will be different.

Really getting into blogging again. It was good doing the Blogging 201 challenge (challenge or course??) and now being part of “The Blogger’s Network” means that my rants and raves are getting to a wider audience. Not sure if that is a good thing for the ‘wider audience’ but it is good for me.

Now all I need to do is find a topic/theme that I can explore and post about. Something to think about over the next few days.

Catch up time

/ Tony / Leave a comment

I’m on holiday this week. We are not going anywhere, I’m just using up the last of my leave. I have my interview tomorrow (Thursday), so fingers crossed. Neither job I’m applying for, covers what I do at the present, but if I get one of the jobs, I think I will be doing a lot of the same work. Well that’s what both my line manager and service manager think. That is what they want, and they somehow are under the impression, that I have some influence over what work I will be doing. I don’t think that will be the case. If I’m successful, I will have a new line manager and new service manager, and it will be those people, that decide what I will be doing.

R*** was a bit of a pain on Sunday. He did not want to go out with D**, his support worker. D** has not been well over the past few weeks and we suppose that R*** has got out of the habit of going. From the moment he awoke, to the moment D** arrived, all we heard was “No out with D**”…”No D**’s house”…”Poor D**”…”No out. R***’s house”. However, he did go, and D** seemed to think he had been okay. Monday, school took the class out for a walk, by the river. R*** decided that it would be a good idea, to throw his headphones into the river. So, £270.00s worth of Bose, noise cancelling headphones, were last seen floating down the river Wharfe, in Boston Spa. I am tempted to think, that it may have been a payback, but then he was out with D** on Tuesday afternoon, and came back as happy as anything. So who knows, what goes on in an Autistic mind.

Mrs Me and S**** are out tonight. They are going to see Calendar Girls at the Grand Theatre, in Leeds. It was not something that I wanted to see, but Mrs Me did, and as it is her birthday, S**** said he would go. Last report, was they were sat outside La Tasca, eating Tapas. I’m having Egg & Chips I think !!! Make of that, what you will.

All went well ….

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The weekend in The Lakes went quite well, although, I’m not sure how you can spend nearly three days in the souThe hillsthern lakes area, and only visit Bowness !!!! The ‘Lodge’ was better then expected. You see, from the brochure, it all looked a little bit … ‘up-market’ would be an appropriate phrase. However, when we got there, it was a lot more homely than we thought. The weather was excellent, and could not have P1010126been better. The views were amazing, as we seemed to be situated, half way up the side of one of the hills. There were some really beautiful sky views in the evening. I quite enjoy taking photos of the cloud formations in the evening. Especially when the sun is quite red. The colours can be quite stunning.

R*** coped very well, considering that we left within minutes of him getting back from school. It was lucky, that the place had free Wi-Fi, and we were able to set up his laptop. He spent most of the time sat at his computer !!! Only had one blip, and I’m afraid, that was probably our fault. We were having dinner on Sunday evening. R*** was at his computer, in another room (he doesn’t eat what we eat and generally does not eat with us. It is too stressful for him.) He kept popping into the dining room, and asking to play his game ‘Hide and Seek’. Everyone kept telling him, that we would play after we had finished. So what happened ?? We finished dinner, and almost everyone disappeared before he could start his game !!!! No wonder he got upset. So would I!!

The travelling was a bit of a nightmare. Google Maps (good old Google) told us it would take us about two and a half hours, which is what we expected. However, given that we were setting off at around 4pm, we were expecting a bit of slow heavy traffic. What we did not expect, was that a journey that would normally take 25 minutes, took us nearly an hour. Then we had to detour into Settle, as the bypass was closed because of an accident. So all in all, the journey took over three and a half hours. Coming back was not much different. Slow traffic and road closures, not to mention the idiot that thought it was okay to drive around narrow country roads at over 30 mph and clip the wing mirror. They claimed it was our fault, and that we were in the middle of the road (we were on a blind bend doing about 20mph if that). They were still going too fast for the conditions.

Something new ……..

/ Tony / Leave a comment

For the past 18 months or so, I have been using Windows Live Writer (WLW) as my blogging client. Why ???? Well it was free, it was easy to use and many people say it is the best client, working with WordPress (ya……shout out for WordPress.) However, since Monday or maybe Sunday, WLW has been giving me problems. Serious pain in the arse !!!! What was happening, was that I would be hammering away on the keyboard, and suddenly WLW was no longer running. It shut down !!!! There was no warnings, no request to save, no ‘are you sure…’ just disappeared. A frantic Google search, hinted that the problem lie with IE8. So off I trotted to the Microsoft website and I re-installed IE8, together with all it’s updates and such. Did it work ????? Well if I say, that I’m now blogging via a desktop client called “BlogDesk“, then I think that the answer may be obvious. I have a strong suspicion, that the problems may be Firefox 5 related. I updated to FF5 around the same time !!! Hmmmmm.

At first glance (and I will know more when this post has been uploaded), it is striking similar to WLW. So it will not take too much getting used to, which is a blessing. Seeing is believing !!!!

Holidays start tomorrow. I have a half day, and then all the next week offImage. We are having a ‘family’ weekend away to the Lake District from tomorrow. That should be interesting. There will be fourteen of us in, what they call ‘A Lodge’. This is basically a seven bedded house with six double beds, and two twin beds. The sleeping arrangements are going to be ‘fun’ to say the least.

We come back on Monday, and R*** is then on respite until the following Monday. I don’t know how he is going to deal with that at all. I have to go into work for an hour on Friday (sodding IT) and Mrs H is at a meeting on Tuesday, so the week is a bit split up really. What with that and the fact that S**** has got drama rehearsals all week, the holiday is going to be different.

Well here goes. Let me know what you think.

Day one …….

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     The above refers to this being the first day of Mrs H’s Bulgarian holiday !!! She has gone off, with her sister, her sisters two kids and her sisters partners youngest, to Borovets (hope I’ve spelt that right) for a break. It’s a well known ski resort, but her and the sister are not skiing. That’s just for the kids. Hmmmm.

     So, I’m here with the youngest, who is going on respite on Monday for four nights !!!! Party time, I hear you say !!!! Nope !!! Youngest is having his bedroom decorated and floor done. So the plan for the week is:

  • Monday – strip out the bedroom, paint the ceiling and hopefully most of the woodwork
  • Tuesday – at work, then out with the eldest
  • Wednesday – wallpaper, and finish any painting
  • Thursday – at work, start to put back the bedroom
  • Friday – finish rebuilding the bedroom, youngest back home.

Busy time for me then !!!

     The next door neighbour has been at it again with the chain saw. This time he has cut down the laurel at the from of his garden. He’s been really savage with it, and taken it down by a third in height, and at least 60% off its bulk. He’s promised to cut down elderberry tree too. It causes a real mess on the drive and the car, and to be honest, it looks out of place.

     The youngest new laptop, is proving a great success, with one exception. Why did MS decided to take out the original Movie Maker program ? The versions that ships with Windows 7, is not a patch on the XP and Vista version. After YouTube, it’s R…’s favourite Windows program, and he hates this new version. Apparently there is a stand alone Vista version, so I’ve promised to download it and install it for him. Fingers crossed it works as everyone says it does.

…and so to work (bleaugh !!)

/ Tony / Leave a comment

   All in all, the holiday went very well. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were the best days for the sun. This must have been the first time, Mrs H needed to buy some sun-tan lotion !! We avoided the usual tourist traps, such as the Tower  Blackpool Towerand the Pleasure Beach, and tended to spend more time out of the centre of Blackpool. And there wasThe Big One no way, we were going to pay an entrance fee just to walk round the Pleasure Beach. I don’t do the big  ‘scary’ rides since I got my diagnosis (not that I did many before), and The Big One was never something I really fancied !!

   We did Lytham and St Annes twice, which was good. Only real problem was R*** and the charity shops. He was looking for an kids old video, from the early nineties, and charity shops are where he usually find them. No luck this A Tram !!time, so it was a bit stressful at times. We also walked the promenade from the south shore to the north shore a couple of times.  Tuesday to Friday wasn’t too bad, but Saturday was very busy and crowded. But they did bring out the heritage trams on Saturday,which was good to see.

   One thing that worked well. I had downloaded a number of kids videos, from YouTube, and installed them on his iPOD Touch. He loved them !!! That enabled us to sit and have a drink at some of the pubs. He was quite content, to watch his iPOD while we relaxed a little. A stroke of genius, even though I say it myself.

   So it was back to work today. Lots to do, but quite a satisfying day. There had been a couple of problems last week, but between them, it had all got sorted. Made for a better atmosphere, not having the guilt thing. Thanks to K***n and D**n.