party

Not much to say for a while . . .

/ Tony / 1 Comment

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!

No excuse this time . . .

/ Tony / 11 Comments

The title refers to the Christmas staff night out. Just after the last night out in September, I ‘predicted’ that the date would be the 18th of December, which is the last Saturday before Christmas. The manager confirmed that the 18th would be the night. Over the past years, our youngest has been at home on the nights they have chosen, which gave me the perfect reason not to go. As I have explained before, I’m not one for social events and dislike eating out with a number of people, that are not family.

With the youngest (RH) now only coming home every fortnight instead of weekly, the 18th falls on his weekend away. Hence ‘no excuse this time.’ It was okay last time, but this time it will be a little different. Two of the people that I got on well with, have now left and won’t be going, but the three people that I cannot stand are still there and will be invited. All the others, I can take or leave them.

It looks like we will be going to the local Italian for their Christmas menu, then on to a local function hall for a ‘Disco’! I think I can just about manage to cope with the meal, but dancing !!! Not these days.

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DST

Thursday was a difficult day. It was the day of the youngest son’s funding review. For the past 10 years his placement has been fully funded by Continuing Health (CH). It’s part of the NHS that provides social care for adults who need full time care and assistance. There are now question that are being asked is whether CH should be fully funding this or whether the Local Authority should part fund the placement. This meant, that we had to got through a process called the Decision Support Tool or DST to identify who funds what.

It was very distressing, as RH has not ‘got better’ he is still Autistic and still needs the support he has been getting. What is different is that since the pandemic started RH has become a lot more receptive to changes that have occurred. This has been mainly down to the core team that work with him. The things he has done with them would not have seemed possible five years ago.

He has been to Centre Parcs for a few days, then a week ago he was at LegoLand, Brighton and walked the street of Central London, which was amazing.

An interesting day . . .

/ Tony / 5 Comments

Everything was happening yesterday. My granddaughter, S***** had her 2nd birthday and came around for lunch with her parents and other grandma. And the youngest R***, came home for the weekend. He usually comes home every other weekend, but the dental work he had done upset that routine.

He got home around 11:30 and as usual he took himself off to his room to use his laptop. I went up about 10 minutes later with a drink of water for him and everything seemed fine, although I did notice that his TV was showing no signal. He was listening to a music CD through his DVD player and didn’t seem to be bothered. I went up to tell him his lunch was ready and saw that although the satellite box was on, there was still no signal. So while he was having his lunch I re-booted the box. Nothing changed. I then did a reset and still nothing. by this time he had finished his lunch and was back in his room, asking me to “Fix Sky!”

I spent a while looking through manual, and Googling the problem but nothing seemed to work. We told him that we would have to ring the ‘engineer’ to get it fixed fully believing that he may need a new box.

Meanwhile the lunch party was in full swing downstairs. Everyone was having a good time but because one of his autistic ‘quirks’ (for want of a better word) R*** didn’t join in. He is not very good with a lot of people. I was up and down most of the time, trying various other Google solutions, with no effect.

I was about 15:00 when something clicked. When he played a CD before, through his DVD player, the track listing came up on the screen, but this time there was still no signal. I then thought, that the HDMI cable to his TV had come loose, but it couldn’t as it was a fixed cable. That’s when it hit me. I picked up the TV remote and clicked on the ‘Source’ button, which by it’s very name is the place where you decided where your TV feed is coming from. The screen lit up and showed that the source was set at the TV’s default which was Freeview. Now as this box is not connected to an external ariel, Freeview is not available. I scrolled through the option, then knowing that I was looking for the HDMI-2 feed. Once selected the screen started to show all the programmes it should show. Everyone was happy.

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Back downstairs and the lunch party was nearly over and little S***** was starting to open her presents, of which there were many. to say she is only 2 years old, she certainly knew what to do, and soon the room was filled with torn wrapping paper and scattered presents. She is fascinated with books and with a TV character called “Hey Dougie” so most of the presents seemed to on those lines. Her other grandma left around about 16:00 and her daddy told us that K***’s father was going to pop over with a present, which was a nice surprise all around.

Initially, the idea was that the ‘Birthday Party’ would have been today, but she had been poorly with a throat infection which meant cancellation. However, given the effectiveness of the antibiotics the doctor prescribed I think the party could have gone ahead as planned. But never mind, I think it all went well.

All went well …

/ Tony / Leave a comment

The staff party went as well as could be expected, even the short time I was there. I think subconsciously I knew that it would and I also knew that there would be no problem with R***. He was the excuse I used to get out of going for the full evening. I know it’s wrong of me to use the possibility of him having a ‘melt-down’ to get out of something, but it was the only thing I had. The problem is, that I’m not a fan of social get-togethers. They just don’t have any appeal these days. It must be an age thing because when I was in my early 20’s you would not have been able to stop me. Anyway it seems that they were glad I went and wished I had stopped longer.

They are a great team to work with and I enjoy their company. Pomfret'sThis job is just what I wanted from a part-time job. The hours could not be better. The location is ideal and the wage, well I don’t expect any more for what I do. Its quite a physical job, but for two days of 6 and a half hours, I seem to be coping. They made me extremely welcome for the first day, and usually that kind welcome doesn’t continue more than a couple of weeks, but I still feel the same as I felt the first day, which can’t be bad.

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It’s that time again …

/ Tony / 1 Comment

Tonight is the ‘works’ Christmas Party night. They’re going for a Christmas meal and dance at a local venue, all paid for by tChampagne-Glass-Remix-4-by-Merlin2525he boss. I’m not going for the full evening as social events are not my thing. I am not the biggest fan of Christmas either, so having a party with people I only see for a couple of hours a week, to celebrate Christmas, is possibly not going to be the fantastic fun time everyone tells me it will be. I will of course do my best to give the impression that I am enjoying myself and laugh at all the old jokes, but deep inside, I’ll be clockwatching.

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I don’t get the whole idea of ‘compulsory enjoyment’. By that I mean, people seem scroogeto tell me to “just enjoy yourself” and “it will be fun” or “it’ll be good”. It’s as if they know what I like better than I do. But I’m sorry to say, they don’t! And if I say that I’m not going to enjoy myself or have fun, then out comes one of the most over used phrases “Bah, humbug!” Someone even call me a “Grinch” but as I’ve never seen the film I had no response.

So I’m out for an hour between 7pm and 8pm, on a day that the first snows of winter are set to arrive (or so the BBC Weather-planks tell us). Wish me luck.

… and so to the end of another week

/ Tony / Leave a comment

   It seems to have been a long week. Usually there are days when I struggle to fill the working days, and then other days, I struggle to fit all the work in. But this week, every day has been busy. Well, steady anyway.

   Youngest home from his adventure week today. From all accounts, he has had a good time. His photos look good, and he has done quite a lot of activities.

   Back on the decorating tomorrow. hopefully, I can get the bits of painting done in one day. That will leave me free to do the wallpapering on Sunday. House looks a tip though. The next stage, is the one I’m dreading. The staircase !!!! It’s not the fact that it will be tricky painting, it’s just that the walls there are even darker.

    Eldest is due home for the night tomorrow. One of his drama friends is having a birthday party, and he is invited. So it could be late when he gets in, if in fact he does sleep here. There has been many occasions, when he has slept elsewhere after night out. We shall see !!

First day over and done

/ Tony / Leave a comment

   That, as they say, is that. Day one down. Only 364 until 2011 !!!! When you think about it, it’s not really a long time. Or is it just me, dreading the countdown to next Christmas smile_sad

   Eldest lad goes back to his flat tomorrow. Mrs H is not going to be to happy about that. She hoped he would spend the day with us today. That did not happen. He went to the New Years party at the village hall, after we had had a few drinks in the pub. I think we expected him home around 2am or maybe 2:30am. Mrs H rang him at 3:30am, just to see where he was, and he texted back to say he was at a friends and would be sleeping there. Now, would you not think he could have let us know ? Anyway, we thought that he would be kicked out about 10:00, but no, he arrived back at just after 2:30pm. A quick hello, and it was up to his room to chat on the computer with all his friends. Saying that though, it was 2:00am when I finally stopped chatting this morning smile_embaressed

   So it has been quite an odd day really. We did not get out for a walk. Youngest would not go anyway, but he has been a bit off today. He had his medication for the first time in 5 days, as he seemed to be getting quite upset. He started with a cold sore, and both of us think that this may have been causing him a bit of pain. Mrs H has been attacking it with Tea Tree oil, and it seems to be working. He goes to his weekend group tomorrow, which is useful. It means me and Mrs H can get the eldest, and all his washing, back to his place without too many problems. He is then on respite from Monday until Friday, so it is going to seem a very empty place next week. Shall Mrs H and me do the quiz-nite on Tuesday ? Probably not, but never say never.

Saturday comes and goes

/ Tony / Leave a comment

   Eldest got home at around 1:30 this morning, and it was about 12:00 when we managed to get him up. Apparently, the party had not been that good, and had ended around 11:00pm. However a friend of his mate got very drunk and they felt obliged to get him home. Hence the very late night.

   My Notification of Intended Prosecution came through this morning. It looks like I could get away with going on a ‘Speed Awareness’ course. Hopefully, that will mean I don’t get any points on my licence. It will still cost be £60.00 pounds though, the same as the fine.

The end is nigh ……

/ Tony / Leave a comment

   That of course refers to the weekend being nigh. It seems to have been quite a long four days. I think the late night on Wednesday did not help, although, I did not feel as tired on Thursday morning as I did this morning. I suppose it’s catch up.

   Eldest came home tonight, which was a surprise. When I say ‘came home’ what I really meant, was that he arrived about 7:30 had a bowl of soup, and got changed into his fancy dress outfit (a pirate, Johnny Depp has a lot to answer for) before going out to a party, with his ‘best’ friend in tow. We have no knowledge if he is sleeping here tonight, or what he is doing tomorrow. I am supposed to go with the flow. Now I don’t know whether it’s my autistic tenancies, but I don’t do ‘going with the flow’. I like, nay need, to know what is happening. I always have been like that. Even as a youth, when we went out for the evening, I always needed to know which pubs we were going to, or at least where we were going to start. I need to be able to follow a plan.

   I tried to buy my car tax online again today. Only to be told, that as my insurance is due to expire soon, I have to go to the Post Office to buy the disc. Now that is 21st century Britain for you. Here I am, debit card at the ready but without any success. so now I’ll have to make a trip to the nearest Post Office, next Saturday. I may try again, mid week. My new insurance starts on the 24th, so I’ll try then.

   Not heard anything about the speeding yet, although it is probably still early. I’m not sure how long they have before they inform you. I hear it can be up to 28 days from the date of offence. I think it will be a £60.00 fine and 3 points. Just wish I knew.

Christmas parties ……

/ Tony / 1 Comment

   The subject of the works Christmas party/night out has begun to raise it’s ugly head. First of all, it was discussed, that we should join with another team, in our department. That was going to cost in excess of £40.00, so the discussions on that quickly dissipated. Then we got a ‘Blues Brothers Party’ offered. Sounded interesting, and at around £30.00, a bit better price. But we are not doing that. Instead, we seem to have opted for a sumptuous feast (?) at a major hotel in the city. That is going apparently going to cost £34.95.

   I of course, being a ‘miserable sod’ (their words, not mine), have again, declined to grace the proceedings with my presence. For many years now, I have failed to understand why we go through this annual rip off.  By December 28th, everybody is sick of turkey and stuffing, so why on earth do we insist on paying huge sums of money to have more ????? It is, apparently, the social aspect of the evening, that is important. Really. I have also, never understood, why after spending five days a week with people, even ones that you actually like, you would want to waste good money, being with the same people in a ‘social arena’. Nothing, that anyone has tried to tell me about this ‘social occasion’ has ever convinced me that this would be an enjoyable time.

  Maybe, I am the ‘miserable sod’ that people say, or maybe, just possibly, I have better things to do ?????

   Ranting done, although this subject may be revisited.

Successful, but expensive day …

/ Tony / Leave a comment

   A day out in Harrogate today. We bought a new TV !!! We have gone for a Sony Bravia, 40” LCD model. It’s not going to go on the wall though. To be honest, I don’t really like wall mounted screens. S****s always look out of place, and the one at work is similar. No we are going to see what it looks like on the current stand. We get an option to ‘upgrade’ our Sky box to a Sky HD box, but unless it’s a Sky+ box, it will not be worth it, and we don’t want to be paying another £10.00 a month for HD. Going to pick it up tomorrow as we were not prepared to fork out £25.00 for delivery !!

   I upgraded my phone too. Mrs H convinced me to go into the ‘3 Store’ to have a look. Fifteen minutes later, I came out with a new Nokia E71, a new 18 month (+ 2 month) contract, and a free Pay As You Go (PAYG) sim card. As from Wednesday, I will have 200 minutes calls, unlimited 3 to 3 calls, unlimited texts and unlimited internet access. All this for £20.00 a month. It is the phone and contract I have been looking at for a while.

   I also ordered some new RAM for the PC. Play.com finally had the 1gb module I needed. It had gone up in price, by £1.00, but it is still a good price. Looks like it will be delivered next week. It has been an expensive day !!!!!

   Eldest had his ‘house/flat warming’ party last night. Sounds like it went quite well. We have not spoken to him, but I texted him at lunchtime. He said it was around 6am when the party broke up. I don’t know if anyone stopped  after that, of if they went home then. Mrs H was hoping that he came on line tonight. She wanted to try and talk on Skype, but he went offline around 8:30pm, and has not been back on.

   Have changed my blog theme again. I will see how this one goes. I am going to try and indent each paragraph, just by a couple of characters. See if it scans better.

   All done for tonight.