First Post
What's happening in your life today? Has something good happened? Maybe something bad? Are you happy about something, angry or sad?
Whatever today, Monday 22 January means to you, we want to hear about it. Post your story below and we'll talk about the most interesting ones on Five Live.
Never blogged before? it's easy! All you have to do is write your entry in the form below and click on post. Click on preview if you want to check what your post will look like before it's published. For ease of reading online, write short paragraphs. You can read more guidelines about BBC blogs here.
It doesn't matter what time of day you post or where you live, in the UK or abroad. We particularly want to hear from people who have never posted on a blog before.
We look forward to your posts!
This post is closed to new comments.
Jump to more content from this blog
About this blog
Subscribe to 5 live Breakfast
You can stay up to date with 5 live Breakfast via these feeds.
5 live Breakfast Feed(ATOM)
If you aren't sure what RSS is you'll find our beginner's guide to RSS useful.
Podcast
5LNPI: Is socialism dead? 09 Nov 2009
10:38 Mon, 9 Nov 09
The fall of the Berlin Wall was the inspiration for the phone in this morning. With world leaders joining thousands of people in the German capital to mark the 20th anniversary of fall of the wall; was that the moment when Europe changed forever? Nicky was in Berlin all morning and we asked if socialism is dead and heard your memories of it coming down…....
Download or subscribe to this programme's podcast
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~38~RS~)
Comments
I hate working nights! When I get tired I grit my teeth, when I get home my teeth feel like they are falling out.Ah well teeth are over rated anyway.
Id just like to say Mark Kermode is a smug looking bloke isnt he.
Its now 04:41 and as a long distance trucker my week is just about to start.I listend last week and looked forward to posting my blog on the Five Live site.
As I am away from my family all week for the sum of £375 a week its nice to be able to post my views online for all to read.I do this on a weekly basis on my own Jonester website.
Five live is now about to become my family for the next 5 days.I get all I need from humour,traffic reports and the Punch and Judy comedy of Westminster on Wednesday.The 24 hour coverage means that no matter what time of day I start there is always something to keep me company.
Where will I go this week? who knows and who cares, a voice on my cab phone directs me from one road to another.Once I join the M6 at Preston all I know is that I will rejoin it 5 days later,I start work in the dark and finish work in the dark.
Lookout for me if you want - I have a three foot monkey sat in the passenger seat to put of hitch hikers as we cant carry passengers and I normaly have a smile on my face normaly when Peter and Jane come on air.....
Just another Monday morning - I am about to take the dogs for a walk down the mountain below us.
We will have a leisurely breakfast admiring the wonderful panorama of the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean below us.
At the age of 67 I never expected to be half way up a mountain in the South of France enjoying a wonderful life in a tiny village where we are now accepted as part of the community.
Radio 5 Live is on as I type - our idea of heaven!
Passed the on going protest outside Crawley Court, this time I stopped to find out about the people; there now for months. They are from the tiny Atoll of Diego Garcia the Isiand was de-populated by the UK and USA to use as a stratigic denfense base.All the people were moved from the Island in the 70's and granted UK citizenship in 2000. Despite no cold war it is sitll the biggest base outside the USA. How can this not get more coverage? First blogg today and this made me stop and ask.... stop again in the week to learn more.
I woke at 3.30 this morning and think I'll be sleeping at my desk by 11!
It is the first day of a new job. I fear the large amount of emails I will find when I arrive at work, the demands of the new bosses and the possibility of failure. But, fear is to be faced (I tell myself) and it is either move forward, or sit and wait for life to overtake me.
So I've showered, shaved and combed my hair. I look tired but I'm ready. Wish me luck!
Will spend this morning with the head teacher trying to get my eight year old daughter's primary school to finally address over two years of bullying. Elizabeth woke up over half an hour ago because it's Monday - already stressed by the thought of school. She is praying for rain at play time so that they might not have to go out into the playground - she doesn't get teased or pushed or dragged or have her hat stolen when they stay inside.
Monday mornings are the same as any other morning...hard work
have to squueze my ten oranges for the 1.5 litre fresh juice, (100 for 1,50 or pick then if energetic) fresh bread delivered every evening and fresh eggs and chicken every week. Coffe is local grown and roasted, hard work grinding that.
10 minutes time sit down to a fully fresh breakfast, lunch and dinner equally fresh and good
Live a high life on under 600pounds per month, smoke and drink run 2 cars.
Life is sheer hell, hope a coconut does not fall off one of my trees onto my head when I open the gates, maybe pick a banana on my way out to the pineapple fields to get a sack of pineapples for a couple of pounds.
Colin
Today I start the first day of unemployment after being laid off from my job of six months. So here I am in my forties trying to get employment again, no this isn't the life I envisaged when I was fifteen somehow I didn't think I would be alone this far down the line.
I'm spending my Monday at work but secretly wondering if my Marin Mountain bike will actually be delivered by Parcel Force after being posted 15 days ago.
This bike has been sent to Coventry ( head distribution office) more time than I have by my wife for buying the bike in the first place in the past fortnight. I have given Parcel Force my postal address six times and still have no confidence that it will actually reach me. They never even tried to deliver the bike at the 1st attempt before 'returning to sender' .... problem sender had emigrated to New Zealand. Time they were told this.. Five times so what did they do? yes returned to sender!
the wait goes on!
Two weeks ago today, I finally told the new love in my life how I really felt - by text message, because I was away on business on the other side of the world. Since then, I've travelled back, we've met for coffee, held hands and kissed. The feeling that I've finally found "the one" won't go away, and it's just fabulous.
Hi everyone I couldn't sleep properly so this sounded like a good idea... It'll be another average Monday, I am a student at Bristol UWE studying computing, and will be going to my first lecture of the year thismorning (it's been the exam period upto now) and finishing at lunch time. After that I'll go out and buy a new calculator since my last one got stolen, and ordering a new laptop since this keeps turning itself off.. After that I'll be doing more usual studen things like coursework and going to the bar with mates.
I don't think the government's new drive on antisocial behaviour will do much good- most is caused be people who go out deliberately to start fights; the causes of which are probably complex and involved. From the perspective of someone who goes out regularly, any solution would have to be well thought out by scientists rather than a pointless government gimmik.
Have a good day all.
Today I tell my employer I'm emigrating. The UK thus loses another senior physics teacher. My written reasons for resigning from the RAF 13 years ago were that the Government would get us involved in stupid wars, equipment budgets would be cut below safe levels and civilianising the Services wouldn't work.
Told you so.
My reasons for not wanting to be British anymore are that crime is beyond a joke, government education policy is a joke, and I cannot be proud of the average Brit anymore.
I'm off to a pleasant corner of the world where the murder rate is zero.
So long, and thanks for all the good bits. Anyone want to buy a couple of leather sofas?
Monday 22 and I am starting a new job!
Today 22nd January holds particular significance for me. So much so I don't know whether to say in bed or lay in a bath of yogurt until midnight. Why is such bizarre and eccentric behaviour called for I hear you ask?
It's simple really; on this date I've almost twice killed my self in motor accidents. On 22nd January 1970 in Dewsbury West Yorkshire I sustained near fatal injuries in a 'head on' collision. And on 22nd January 1991 a similar occurrence in Banbury Oxfordshire.
If I do decide to venture outdoors please be assured I'll be travelling by bus today!
Dick
Leeds, West Yorkshire
We are less than two weeks away from a Royal opening of a new building at work.
It's chaos. The special protection police (who appear to be completely out of control) are insisting on completely unreasonable measures to the point that many staff are considering taking the day off sick when it finally arrives.
There is a vast amount of work still to be done and no one in overall control and several departments seem hell bent on making the situation worse.
Fundamental issues about the operation of the new building have still not been resolved and this is not helped by an absentee management system based 120 miles away.
Tomorrow it will seem just as bad but we'll have even less time to sort it out.
Like many A-level students, I face another day of lessons, while some how fitting in revision for January exams. At the moment the workload seems neverending and every time I clear the decks, I get set yet another essay. I'm wondering when they'll be time to go out and socialise. Sometimes I wonder what the point in it all really is? If I get good grades at the end of it, I'll only be told that it's because the exams are getting easier. As for going to uni, what's the point in earning a degree that a million other students will have? It's hardly going to make me stand out to employers. But I will go to school and I will carry on because it is important to me and at least I can be safe in the knowledge that when I turn 18, I can help get a better party into government and maybe have a chance of changing things.
Monday January 22nd - a great day.Our new neighbours started work yesterday to remove the huge Leylandi hedge (nearly 30 feet high !) left by their predecessors, and we can look forward to being able to garden in the light instead of the dark.So whatever else happens today, a very happy start !
I'm starting my last week's work at a recruitment consultants in Bristol before moving to London to try and follow my life long dream of becoming a full time writer. The last Monday morning blues? Not likely - I need to get the train from Bath to Bristol!
07:08 UK time, 15:08 local time.
It's a foggy, dull afternoon in Zhangjiagang City, that's about two hours west from Shanghai, China, and a long way from Watford!
My day is being spent talking to people here about supplying a product for my business. It's interesting to see the huge volume of activity here, everyone is busy doing something, and most of that activity seems to be focused on manufacturing. Everything from poker chips to marine engines.
I think that if we don't start 'getting with the program' pretty quick then our economy will be steamrollered by countries such as this. And if fortune favours the brave, then we will deserve everything we get.
Health and bleedin' Safety is a great indicator of how our society is. Everything is dumbed down to the lowest common denominator, and we are encouraged to always look for someone, or something to blame, instead of taking personal responsibility.
Rant, rant, rave, rave.
Anyway...enough of that, I have just heard on Five Live online that BA is going on strike next week. That means that I had better get home pretty soon. I’m off to pack my bags.
Hi Nicky & Racheal
I am spending today with my wife Denise whilst getting her car serviced in Leicester.
We first met on January 22nd 1966. Yep, 41 years later, two daughters and two grandsons and we are still together.
Have a good day, we will.
Love the show,
Bob
from Nueaton
Today's reasons for waking up 2 hours before the alarm:
1. Last week in current job - will the incomplete projects I have to hand over to my replacement fail and be all I'm remembered for?
2. Will our flat sell?
3. Will the gerbil pups we introduced to our recently bereaved old gerbil drive him to distraction and end up in a blood bath?
4. Will I like my new job?
5. Will they like me?
6. Which train will I get? Will I be lucky enough to get a seat, some floor space to sit on or will I have to stand in the fetid toilet vestibule area of a Virgin Voyager?
Hmmm, Monday mornings.
Off to work shortly
Fingers crossed I will return to my house with all the windows in tact.
Never quite sure though. Due to social inclusion in the quite Cornish village of Lanivet, we have to deal with a family intent on tearing the place to pieces.
I think they have put them here so we can improve their behaviour.
We are all hoping here that we will be one of those places receiving the new ASBOS.
Fingers crossed.
Normally at this time on a monday I would have been up at 6 and dashing out of the house to sit on the M6 on my way to work. It's always worse on a monday, especially around Haydock, and I usually curse it and wish I didn't have to go in.
Today however, I am sat at home, writing my first ever blog. I was diagnosed with Leukaemia just before Chrismas and I am about to start the second phase of induction chemotherapy. The wonderful volunteer driver will pick me up around 11 and take me the 45 minute journey to Manchester Royal Infirmary. There I will have a spine injection, an intravenous injection through the Hickman Line in my chest, and start a new course of tablets. I will spend the rest of the day feeling very tired, probably with a splitting headache from the drugs. That is all tolerable though, because hopefully it is one day nearer the all clear. I will remain positive and optimistic about the future as this is only a temporary set back, and all the things I want to do, such as having children, will be possible in a few year's time.
Things could be a lot worse, and I know there are many more people in a far worse situation than I am. I have the support of a loving wife, friends, family, and neighbours in our little village on the moors, and I know I have the strength to get through this. Besides, it would have been far messier and less treatable if I had been hit by a bus!
So I will eat my breakfast and dream of the day I can be parked on the M6 on my way to Warrington, and look forward to all the work related stress that I thought I'd never miss but now I find hard to live without.
I'm just leaving to say last goodbye to my dad; then it's on to his funeral. He was a special, unassuming man. We've been stunned by how many loved him. He was my best friend; life won't be the same again.
Oh Boy. What a day I'm going to have.
Thanks 'Five Live' I work for that company that commutes passengers twix Bath and Bristol. Thankfully my working day doesn't start till 1pm
Till then I will be doing some cooking, ironing and blogging.
So you could say I'm like John Reid.
My work is split into two departments
HOME & OFFICE.
Today is my first day in my new job! I qualified as a Speech Therapist in 1990 and whilst everyone else was off looking for jobs I jumped on a plane and went to Turin to watch the World Cup. I got to see Argentina, Brazil and Scotland and when that was over I hitch-hiked back from Italy to Manchester only to find no Speech Therapy jobs left! I went to work in a school for the blind as an administrator for 2 weeks. 17 years later I leave there and start today as a Learning Manager at the High School where I was a pupil. I am thrilled and excited and my son who attends the same school is stressing that if I see him in the corridor I will give him a big kiss.
Just another Monday morning, start of another week looking for a job. Not that anyone wants to employ an uneducated 20 year old. Anyway enough moanin, my favourite blog entry at the minute...
Being British!!!
Being British is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer, then travelling home, grabbing an Indian curry or a Turkish kebab on the way, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch American shows on a Japanese TV. And the most British thing of all?... Suspicion of all things foreign!
Only in Britain can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.
Only in Britain do supermarkets make sick people walk all the way to the back of the shop to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.
Only in Britain do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries and a DIET coke.
Only in Britain do banks leave both doors open and chain the pens to the counters.
Only in Britain do we leave cars worth thousands of pounds on the drive and lock our junk and cheap lawn mowers in the garage.
Only in Britain do we use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won't miss a call from someone we didn't want to talk to in the first place.
Only in Britain are there disabled parking places in front of a skatingrink.
NOT TO MENTION
3 Brits die each year testing if a 9v battery works on their tongue.
142 Brits were injured in 1999 by not removing all pins from new shirts.
58 Brits are injured each year by using sharp knives instead of screwdrivers.
31 Brits have died since 1996 by watering their Christmas tree while the fairy lights were plugged in.
19 Brits have died in the last 3 years believing that Christmas decorations were chocolate.
British Hospitals reported 4 broken arms last year after Xmas cracker-pulling accidents.
18 Brits had serious burns in 2000 trying on a new jumper with a lit cigarette in their mouth.
A massive 543 Brits were admitted to A&E in the last two years after trying to open bottles of beer with their teeth.
5 Brits were injured last year in accidents involving out-of-control Scalextric cars.
And finally...
In 2000 eight Brits were admitted to hospital with fractured skulls incurred whilst throwing up into the toilet.
God damn im proud to be British!!
Have never blogged before but have been up since 5 seething at my teenage son's outburst last night! Haven't had the opportunity to 'sort him out' as he went out after the 'mood'. Then the other teenager went into one too. This lone parent thing is not all it is cracked up to be!
Just hope that a day of Primary teaching will improve the mood - Oh Yeah?!
At least I don't have to deal with the threat of my child being bullied though - maybe this blog will teach us all to count our blessings. Good luck to that child and her parents.
Arrived tired after poor night's sleep to find window left open all w/e in office. Speak to colleagues to find that heating has broken-down in cell block (my responsibility) and phones broken. Open e-mails to find 72 outstanding. Happy days!!
Was just listening to breakfast and I thought I would join in.
Im hoping today will mean getting our computer back and it will actually be fixed in a complete change from the 3 times it has been away already, so I can stop using this stupid laptop.
Im hoping today as my first day out of training and with a new team will not be as slow as I am expecting it to be.
Im hoping today will be the first day that I dont email colleagues to moan about my family being here only to make my life harder. Theyve done that all weekend, just think my friends are getting a bit fed up with it all the time.
Unfortunately I know that today I will start to worry about a court appearance later in the week.
Unfortunately I know that today I will have to pick my sons jammies up off the floor when I get on because no one else will have.
Unfortunately I know that today I will be exhausted by the time I crawl into bed after Ive cleaned and tidied up after everyone else in the house.
Well that feels a bit better. Thank you
Today I'm waking alone up in my mum's spare bedroom one day closer to thirty. I'm going to work for nearly ten grand less than I was this time last year. At lunchtime I'm going to view a one-bedroom flat that's going to cost four times as much as the three-bed semi-detached house I owned five years ago and you've just told me that my council tax is about to go up by three percent.
This might sound like I'm having a bad day but I'm not. Why? I'm no longer working for a company that keeps me awake at night with their unethical policies, my new colleagues are helping me feel at home and most of all I have amazing friends and family who care about me. I'm trying not to let it all be about the money :)
I'm blogging early because the electricity in our neighbourhood is being turned off later today for essential repairs; on the coldest day of the winter so far. I normally work from home, but as I can't use the computer or the internet today I am going to find a nice warm cafe to sit in and will write the first chapter of my novel - could I be the next J.K. Rowling?!
Although it's Monday it could be any day of the week and I would not know.
They are all identical.
Up at 5am shower, jeans, tee shirt, no breakfast and off to the office.
As a one man company I work alone all day on my PC until 8pm. Car, home,then first meal of the day. Glass of wine, News then off to bed.
I have to do this continuously to bring in just enough money to pay my children's maintenance from my first marraige, my flat rent in the UK and to look after my wife who lives over in the USA.
I save £30 each month until I have enough to fly my wife over so we can be together for a few days.
Only 3 months to go..........
I'm spending my Monday at work but secretly wondering if my Marin Mountain bike will actually be delivered by Parcel Force after being posted 15 days ago.
This bike has been sent to Coventry ( head distribution office) more time than I have by my wife for buying the bike in the first place in the past fortnight. I have given Parcel Force my postal address six times and still have no confidence that it will actually reach me. They never even tried to deliver the bike at the 1st attempt before 'returning to sender' .... problem sender had emigrated to New Zealand. Time they were told this.. Five times so what did they do? yes returned to sender!
the wait goes on!
Usual start to the day, take my anti rejection tablets. Dont mind though I am looking after my fourth kidney transplant now just about 3 months old.
So amazed to have been lucky enough to receive this kidney and treasure the new life it gives me. Also constantly think about the donor and their familiy and their selfless act which no doubt have made such a difference to so many people's lives.
Everything going really well til last week when little blip could have been critical but just off to the clinic to see if the results are back on track really hope so.
Like others, today is my first day at a new job. Over the years my first day at work have coincided with a personal or public disaster. Examples include, starting work at a supermarket on September the 11th 2001 and starting my university work placement the day Graeme Souness became Newcastle manager.
I wonder what terrible thing will happen today? Personally speaking it may be that I have had to wake up before 11 for the first time in months.
I have just spent all night on the sofa comforting our gorgeous new german short haired pointer puppy. She cried and wimpered when we went to bed and was overjoyed when I returned with the sick quilt. My neck is stiff from resting on the arm of the sofa, and I still feel cold from letting her out at 4am into a snowy back garden, wearing just a waist length coat and my boxer shorts.
She seems to be double jointed and four foot long when she is streched out, and my god, can she snore. What a sweetie.
My youngest son's car has broken down. He works in Settle in North Yorkshire, starts work at 6am and cannot get to work other than by car( no public transport so early). So guess who was up at 4.30 this morning to take him? I am now at my desk with a strong cup of coffee. My consulation is I'm going to Thailand on Wed for 2 weeks. 82 degrees there at the moment, so ask me if I care if we are having snow this week? Happy Monday to everyone.
Kate
monday, off to drop my daughter to her childminder then to work. Working with families and children with English as a second language at a local college. Every family speaks a different language so great fun when it comes to form filling or explaining how to get to the toilets. Very rewarding at end of day or term look back and remember how far each adult, child and family have come since starting with us. very rewarding when a family who arrived as refugees with nothing end up with Mum and Dad in some type of work and children settling in school making friends
Wake up and looking at the health news for work I discover today is Blue Monday, a cracking New Order Track but apparently the most depressing day of the year. Yipee! That'll be something to lookforward to!
Glad it's monday after another totally brain numbing weekend. Living alone is no fun so work is all for me. It's not a bad morning weatherwise but will be delighted when summer comes. Will go shopping as usual after work to kill time then home to bed.
Good morning!
today is the third Monday that I have not had to get up for school since giving up teaching at Christmas. I am under pressure to find a part time job to help out as my husband and I hope to go self employed by March.
It is also the first 22nd of a month that i have not had a pay packet recently arrived which is quite a scary thought really. I am going to put the finishing touches to a busonesss plan, take my daughter to college and then go feed my pony SPICE if anyone wot knows me is listening! I might ride if the wind has gone down. ( she is the prettiest kindest fattest cuddliest pony in thw world)The future is a bit uncertasin to say the least but the chest pains, breathlessness and sleepless nights that my teaching post were giving me have completely gone and I am learning to relax Have a good day yourselves
Kay
I've been really struggling to get the ball off the tee for the past two months but I think I may have sorted out what I am doing wrong. So, at 9.50, I will forget about the pond just 50 yards in front of the first tee and watch the ball 'sailing' over it rather than in it!
SEWAGE!! 22nd January 2007
I live in an ancient historic village near Cambridge. Cambridgeshire County Council and Anglian Water propose to relocate the Sewage Works to a Greenbelt site over the aquifer near us that will ruin the National Trust Wicken Fen Vision and the Award winning iconic Bridge of Reeds for East Anglia. The Anglian Water sewage works is fully functioning in its present location now and for the future and does not need to move - but the land on its site is coveted for urban development under Labour Government’s South East housing expansion.
“WICKEN FEN was acquired by the Trust in 1899 and now encompasses 1,350 acres of wetland. But the impact of drainage and intensive farming on the surrounding farmland has left Wicken Fen with a bleak future unless it can be expanded. To safeguard Britain's oldest nature reserve, the Trust has embarked on a 100 year vision to expand the reserve by 1000% .” THE NATIONAL TRUST .
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-nature_conservation_strategy.pdf.
Despite over 1000 local representations highlighting the short-sightedness and foolishness of this action to the Councils involved, despite pointing out the benefits of the Wicken Fen Vision for Cambridge, despite being contrary to Biodiversity and conservation aims for Britain’s future - ruinous plans are being prepared for a new sewage works regardless.
A large part of my day will be spent - in the same way as the last 6 months - in researching sewage matters on the Internet to try and help stop this unwise proposal from going ahead!!
Another day of grind. At least work stops me thinking about the person I have lost, I can do that in the middle of the night when I wake up. Got a boss who winds me up. Telephone meeting this morning then long doscussions with HR - oh joy
Mummy woke me up this morning, I was fast asleep in my cot. We had to take Daddy to the station this morning, although it was a shock it was nice to see Daddy in the morning. We all listen to five live all the time and I love football or 'ball ball' as I call it.
It's playgroup this morning, I hope I can play in the sand, it's fun. Then I'm going to get my first pair of 'walking' shoes. I'm so excited and wide awake now!
James 15 months
I was going to work - but my daughter had a car accident last night on the M6 - so having driven up to fetch her home am now waiting to take her to the hospital to be checked out - she had had a wonderful weekend and was so happy. now she's weepy and has whiplash. i hardly slept thinking 'what might have been' Us parents never stop worrying about our children - she's 30! Am now thinking about all those families that haven't been so fortunate this weekend.
Most people, before they go to work, don't wonder whether they are going to be kicked, slapped, spat at, dragged around by the hair or,my personal bete noir, bitten.
Most people would be a little surprised if they turned to the person working at the desk next to them and found them covered with faeces.
For those of us who work with adults with autism and learning disabilities it can all be in a day's work. We receive very little money and even less thanks but many of us would not want to work with any other group.
Sometimes a sudden smile, a touch on the hand or seeing someone spontaneously take their cup to the sink for the first time in their lives can be more satisfying than any drug.
Today I am working at a day centre. I like it there because the staff support each other and generally know what they are doing.
The biggest adrenalin rush comes when taking these often unpredictable people out in the community but it can also occasionally provide us with some laughs during the debriefing after an incident. There can be laughs - in fact humour is a good way to keep ones sanity.
We will see what today brings and hope that no one gets lost, hurt or upsets a member of the public. Roll on four o'clock!
22nd day of January in the reign of Tony Smoke-Screen Blair 1997-2007
I am lucky today, no need to go on the bus for daily abuse from Blairs babies (now 10), be spat at and made to stand. I hear it is the first day of Respect campaign, no doubt a close relation of ASBO, a failed spin product.
Being off today doesn't really help as my Council Tax bill will almost certainly increase thanks to underfunding by Government, but I am lucky,I am not one of those in their 70s or 80s deprived of the barest essentials.
Jose L
Sitting in my office trying desperately to find interesting ways of delivering the impact of the Church on sporting development in this country to a group of A level boys who would rather be playing football. Probably would have felt the same at 17. Really great reading what happens on a Monday. Thank you for the opportunity.
I love the Internet! - just sold the 500th copy of my Cosmic Ordering Power Principles eBook overnight to someone in the USA.
Also this is my first week with a Fistula fitted in preparation for my dialysis later this year as my Kidneys finally shut down completely - I hope to be Cornwall's fifth Home Dialysis patient.
I'll have to find something personal to do for four hours three times a week - maybe I'll study for an OU course!
The weather is awful - cold wet and windy - but at leats down here in Cornwall, there's no snow.
The school run is calling.
So a bit of a mixed week already.
Today is my 48th Birthday. My wife died unexpectedly and suddenly in December. I miss her very much especially today.
I wake up every morning worried that I will not be able to manage without her. By the end of the day I am fine because I have managed and have gained confidence that I will manage. The next morning I am worried again.
My family, freinds and work colleagues are very supportive. Thank God for good people.
It's my Birthday today!! Not that this one is going to be particularly memorable (at least not in a good way).
I've just had my application to join the Police rejected and in all likelihood I will going down to the Job Centre to see about signing on.
I do have an interview today, so fingers crossed eh?
Morning all
Been at work since 0725. Got one absent colleague + need to set work for her; a lot of people will be relying on this. I'll spend the day meeting around 150 people in total, reviewing their progress and telling them how to improve. People directly responsable to me will also want to see me. I need to see the boss of the organisation on a personal issue; and although it gets empty around 345 I'll be here until 5 sorting things through for tomorrow, probably reviewing + setting targets on workers' individual performance plans. Then it's home to sick wife and probably another hour or so of preparation for work before it all starts again. But at the moment I'm feeling good + raring to go...
After another visit to my local NHS Mental Health Clinic for treatment of PTSD and depression I am told that I need Psychological Therapy, BUT they do not fund this. To rub salt n the wounds I am told if I lived 2 miles further down the road I would qualify.
So another day starts where I get nearer to the point of no return. I have worked al my life since I was 15 and still work.. (now 48)..but hey who cares..
Meanwhile I hear about concerns about Big Brother from the government.
So as things go at the moment I doubt I will be here to vote this insensitive government out. But at least I will help their wating list..
I’ve just come back from my jog around the block. I’m enrolled on the ArmyFit (http://www.armyfit.mod.uk/) campaign that I heard on the Breakfast programme. I need to lose a few pounds and shape up a little – and after a couple of weeks I can believe it is having an effect.
I haven’t told anyone, and nor do I need a training partner – the thought of a PT instructor calling me all things under the sun is motivation enough.
And as for inspiration, I look no further than Rick from Nottingham (the terminally ill man campaigning for winter fuel allowance). It’s rare to hear someone so eloquent a campaigner. He doesn’t allow his passion to overtake the strength of his argument. I hope there’s many years left in him still.
Keep up the good work, Breakfast.
Listened to 5 live during the night, habit to mask tinitus, Woke to strains of Mick's voice on the markets. My husband went to get coffee - one of the delights of being retired. Sudenly called from my bed to speak on business and the day has sprung into life.
The cat is annoyed to loose her 30 minutes in bed and sitting with her back to me expressing disgust. What a start to the week!
At least the weather team are not correct, yet. No wind and no frost. That must be good as the electric garage door is broken and the cars are out! When, oh when! wil the engineer appear?
Hi
monday morning and first job is to get my son up and ready to go to school. I work from home so already on computer!
Today is rather a sad day as it would have been my mum's 83rd birthday; she died just before Xmas, and I will make sure that dad is not alone today; ( they had celebrated their 6oth anniversary in October.
Later tonight I am collecting 2 of my sisters from Gatwick so they can see dad.
Monday is a teaching day and on this one it is explaining statistical power to help clinical trainees with their research.
Monday is quite often the day to have a bit of a think about whether explaining things like statistical power to people who, for the mostpart, aren't that interested, is really contributing to good in any sense.
Monday is always the day to spend some time planning how I am going to raise some more funds for the cancer charity CLIC Sargent. I'm doing the Barry Sheene Memorial Motorcycle Challenge in June and each Monday since early December I decide who I will write to to see if they want to act as a sponsor. It's mostly individuals who are being incredibly generous.
You can read a little more about it here if you like
http://pcwww.liv.ac.uk/~duff/BarrySheeneChallenge.html
Monday is the start of the best week of your life :-)
Standing there listening to Radio5 live news minutes after getting out of bed and it has finally sparked me to sort out my Long Term Business Visa application so that my family and I can get out of this depresing country and move to New Zealand later this year.
We've been thinking of emigrating for a year now and the past few months have galvanised this....
Our small family business finding no support from the government, in fact the redtape and VAT thresholds making expansion very difficult.
Our very bright 8 year old son is doing very well in school but is being severly held back by the lack of any individual attention - hat realy kills us!
House prices being ridiculous, interest rates rising monthly, stealth taxes, and high cost of living here in the UK especially compared to somewhere like New Zealand where in the suburbs of Auckland, we can buy a house nearly twice the size for HALF the cost!!!
The theiving neds that terrorise our communities, the comeplete lack of respect for adults from kids as young as 8, the chek we get from neighbours kids is just astonishing.
Yes, it really is time to get that VISA application and take our business out of the UK and start a fresh new life in New Zealand.
Thanks Radio5 's depressing news, now where's that biro......
The end of the beginning starts today. In 2 hours I start cognitive behavioural therapy for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I was not in the military, have not been involved in a bombing or a train crash. I was sexually abused at the age of 12 whilst at boarding school, I am now 53. PTSD is common with those who have experienced sexual abuse. I only spoke of the abuse when I was 48, but was misdiagnosed. You cannot imagine how much I am hoping to develop a coping strategy to put memories of the awful experiences to the back of my mind, as opposed to having them dominating my thinking.
What does Monday, 22nd January mean to me?
Well, for the first time in years it means bliss!
My younger son has passed his driving test and he has offered to drive my teenage daughter to school.
I prepared her lunch last night so - for this particular poster - Monday, 22nd January means a cup of tea and back to bed with just the radio (5 Live) for company.
Shan't surface again until around 11am.
Heaven!
Hi all, this is my First Post and it is my birthday! One year away from the big 5-0. Oh where do the years go? I have to go to work today ARRGH! Back home in New Zealand my birhtday is in the summer and I usually get a day off. Oh well. Today I am going into work in a SKIRT, shock horror! I NEVER wear skirts. But today , my boss dared me to so I am. It is cakes at tea break day, but we are all going to habr to go on diets as there is a birthday tomorrow and Wednesday as well. Gotta go and take my son to school. Happy birthday to me.
22nd January 1990 our beautiful baby daughter was born. 17 years later she remains as beautiful inside and out. She's a source of constant joy and the perfect antidote to the stresses and strains of everyday life - my wife is one of those much-maligned NHS managers and I teach. Enough said.
Today is my 39th birthday. It would have been my bothers 36th birthday as well today had his heart problem not taken him away just before his 18th birthday. Wish he was still here to celebrate and I wish I could spend the day with my gorgeous wife and 2 lovely kids- that would be a good birthday!!
Just driven 110 miles to get to work. I enjoy what I do, but I left the house before my wife and kids were awake and will get back in time to put the kids to bed and flop out in front of telly. Then I will do it all again tomorrow.
This from Peter Bate
Sixty-three years ago, dawn was quite exciting for a 20 year old - bobbing up and down in the breakers off the Anzio beach - no Gernans machne-gunning us, just a few 88 mm shells splashing harmlessly into the water. Up the beach in our American DUKWS, off-loaded the 25 pounders, all ready to change the course of the war, thankfully, not knowing that we would still be there , banging away ineffectually, four frustrating and noisy months later.
Happy Anzio Day.
Another Monday and another day in a 13-year campaign of letter writing to relevant government officials to try and get justice and - badly needed - compensation for my mother, the widow of a Hepatitis C infected haemophiliac who perished in the biggest medical scandal this nation has ever known. Seems really unfair, you know, that my mum hasn't been recognised by the government just because my father contracted Hepatitis C from infected, dwell on that word, NHS "blood products", whereas her two sisters-in-law have been duly compensated for their loss because their husbands, my dad's two other haemophiliac brothers, contracted HIV-AIDS and duly perished. Three brothers, three widows, three deaths, two diseases and only two compensation recognitions. Maybe it would have been better for dad to have acquired HIV-AIDS. He dieed anyway. And mum wouldn't have had to endure grief-on-grief since. Feel a bit guilty, sometimes, in these litigious times to be pleading for financial recompense as well as justice, but mum is counting every penny and she should never have been left like this. I keep thinking that someone in the media must surely latch onto this story - it's not like I've not tried every single major outlet since 1994 - especially as there's a parallel call for a public inquiry into the whole scandal and we need answers as to why the Dept of Health "accidentally" managed to shred all of the relevant documents, but I guess the story is just too complex and not catchy enough for the rolling news era. Even though it's a massive, massive story. Strange. Until it's exposed - if ever - I'm sure the faceless bureaucrats at Westminster will continue to ignore and hush it all up. Anyway, more letters to write (must make them snappier) and more stamps to buy. That reminds me, I'm still waiting for replies from Mr Blair and Ms Jowell from last October (memo to self to follow this up)
I want to start writing a blog for my business this year, so this is my first attempt, in the safe haven of 5-Live!
What's special about today? That being given this outlet set me thinking about positive outlooks and keeping things in perspective. I'm optimistic about long-term business prospects but worry a lot about short-term problems - until I heard this morning's news about more BA disputes.
Compared to what BA's Chairman must be dealing with, and the rough start to the year some of my friends are having, my situation is blooming rosy! So I can already see the possibilities of blogging as a way to sort one's thoughts.
Once I get going for myself I may draw mine instead on our own mapping tool "think rich" (at www.extremedialogue.com)
Good luck Chair of BA - I'm glad I don't have your job this morning! Mine seems quite easy by comparison. Thanks 5 Live. Diana
I'm having a day off work as a scientist here in Copenhagen and enjoying listening to Radio 5 and shouting at the radio whenever I don't agree with any of your contributors! It's snowing at the moment and I'm looking out on to a scene reminiscent of those found on Christmas cards. It's lovely to be warm and cosy inside, although travelling wouldn't offer too many problems as most drivers have Winter tyres fitted and of course, all the roads have been cleared! Actually, what's more impressive is that the cycle lanes - which are separate from the roads - have also been cleared.
Today my wife and I celebrate being together for 23 years. Not bad for 41 year-olds.
just come off the phone to try and book an appointment to see the doctor. No luck this is the 4th day in a row. What a you did not bring this situation up last week when talking to overpaid doctors.
Come to think of it would you allow me to nominate the programme for the Quistling of the week award for presenters that failing to stand up for the ordinary people.
Another day at work. Sinking feeling in my stomach at the prospect. I am currently doing the work of three people. We have been short staffed for the past four to five years, and in the last few months my colleague left, and I have been asked to take on his work as well. Not sleeping well with the stress of wondering what the next day will bring. Not keeping up with all that I have to do, and no-one to talk to about it. Boss tells me he is not good at dealing with people, and just keeps giving me more to do. Not sure where to turn for help. Not sure how long I can go on like this for.
Woke up, looked in the mirror and saw the same fat bloke that looked in the mirror on New Years day. We decided that we would only drink on a Friday and Saturday night. This Saturday I ate enought to feed 3 men, which might explain why I still look like a sailing dinghy. In some lights, however, I still look fanciable. Going to the gym this morning to firm up the fat. If I time it right I might get to watch the 9.30 aerobics class from the comfort of my cross trainer. Hope my headphones work today. What shall I cook for tea.
After working long hours over the last few weeks I've finally managed to finish updating my online job hunting guide!
http://www.onlinejobhunting.co.uk
Time to catch up on some sleep!
Mike
Have had a highly unstable stomach since waking up, possibly due to a takeaway from a national pizza delivery chain yesterday. Several trips to the bathroom have ensued. Going to work would be risky, gonna have to ring in sick. At least I can watch Murray.
I said goodbye to my youngest daughter last Sunday. She has set off around the world on her gap year. I spoke to her last night in Costa Rica where she had just flown in from Washington via Houston. My older two children are at university and this is my first week since they were all born of having no children at home. Having spent the last 22 years totally devoted to their care (although I do have a full time job!) it is difficult to let go and to realise that I can no longer sort out all their problems for them. On the other hand it is quite nice to get home to find the house as I left it and to have more time to do the things I want to do. I feel that it is a real turning point for me.
After 15 months of trying for a second child since the last miscarriage the Pregnancy Test shows Positive!!! I'm going to be a daddy again!!!
(Must get the wife a bunch of flowers)
Jerry.
I am going to visit my only brother in hospital later this morning. On Tuesday I donated him my right kidney which looks to have ended his 3 years on dialysis. We've travelled from Ireland for this proceedure, and although I hear a lot of complaints about the NHS in the UK media, I can honestly say it has been an excellent (and life changing) experience for us.
Anyway, we are both making excellent progress, I got out of hospital on Friday and I can't wait to make the trip to see my brother today.
Thanks 5Live!
JOHNNY.
Was planning to see the Pink Fairies at the Roundhouse tonight in Chalk Farm; reformed after some 30 years...but it has been cancelled. Oh well, guess i will get to see the 2nd half of Trial & Retribution instead!
I've been a Practice Manager for a very busy GP's surgery for 12 months. It must be the busiest job in the world.
I work flat out all day and take work home to try and keep abreast of the administrative burden placed on us by government targets and thier need for us to prove we do our job.
Longer serving managers in the area all say this last 12 months has seen a monumental rise in workload, and contrary to popular belief for precious little rise in income.
GPs and all thier staff put in a hard days graft with a lot of stress with a lot of people far too quick to citicise.
My day will be another blur involving everything from paying the tax bills to changing light bulbs. My hardest task will be to keep on top of everything. My predecessor now lives by the sea in Greece. MMMMMMMMMMMM!
Woke up early, finished a piece of writing to develop an inclusive financial sector in Pakistan.
Tidied the kitchen because my housemates always leave it dirty after having breakfast.
Weighed myself... not good. Must work harder at the gym this week.
Shower, change and head out the door.
Cold and icy outside and the M8 motorway is block westbound after a fatal accident earlier this morning (that poor guy willn't be posting this morning). Thankfully I will be working from home today and I have already logged into the office via the VPN. Surely this rather then traffic charging is the future way of cutting congestion.
Going to try and get back to Sheffield from Glossop, Derbyshire after spending an unscheduled night with family following 4 1/2 hrs trying to cross the Woodhead Pass yesterday evening due to 4 inches of snow coupled with a distinct lack of gritting. Hope the highway agency and the local authority get there act together today ! My husband has to get back to work and I have a midwife appointment as I am close to giving birth. Was hoping last night whilst stuck in snow that our baby didn't decide to come 6 wks early.
It was apparent yesterday that drivers have totally lost the ability to drive in snow, some driving too slow and others overtaking !!
Today is my 50th birthday and it is Monday and I have to go to work.
Look forward to a steak dinner for two cooked by my wife tonight.
I hope that traffic is kind to me tonight. Last Thiursday in the gales it took me over two hours to travel 12 miles from Preston!
My wife is going back to work today after one week off with a broken toe, her boss is picking her up and our daughter as she cannot drive just yet. She probably should not be going back to work yet, but she is bored of staying at home now.
I am already at work, been here since 7:30, adn now as everyone else arrives, it's interesting to note that there are many more chelsea haters around that Man utd these days. Even a gooner was disappointed to win! what a strange world we live in ! Happy Monday everyone
22nd January is my birthday. I'm 33yrs old today, and even my own mother told me yesterday that I'm an old man. I think she was surprised because she thought I was younger!
I do have to go to work today though, I'm a police officer on a late shift so I'll have to buy donuts for everyone. (because it's my b'day not because it's a late shift, that would be expensive over the course of time).
It's my first day at work in a new office too so I'm sure my colleagues will instantly warm to me. or rather to my free cakes.
Well, that's my first blog. Now what happens?
Sat at the computer doing the Guardian Online Crossword and enjoying a good cup of coffee.
On my last week of "gardening leave" so I have not had to suffer the back-to-work-January-Blues, just the got-to-do-the-bloody-decorating-blues! Tell the spouse you've got a month off and out come the paint charts. Whats wrong with a month of Playsation?
I have just had telephone call from my friend to cancel our walk as she has a virus. We are three retired District Nurses (early retirement).We have formed a walking group to keep fit, but we seem to spend more time gossiping than walking!. As one of us can't make it the other two are going house hunting as one of us wants to downsize.
Turned on the radio at 7am to listen to 5Live with Sheila and Nick, heard Rachel Burdon's voice and tuned into Planet Rock instead.
Feeling rather grumpy this morning as Husband left the lights on and Dog thought he should get up at 5! I sympathise with the chap and his new puppy as I too was out in the garden (luckily without the snow) well before dawn. I'm off to take the car to the garage, then to a class at the gym. I shall be walking home, hopefully in time to see Andy Murray beat Rafael Nadal (whilst doing the ironing). That'll cheer me up!
First blog ever. This is the best time of day, silence in the house. Packed lunches have been prepared, gym kits found, the children driven to school, the arguement over who sits in the front, over. The dog has been out and is now curled up in front of the fire. Foul weather outside. I sit and serenly contemplate the cereal bowls and general bomb site in the kitchen over a cup of tea, plenty of time to clear those. This will be the last Monday for a while that I can afford the luxury of doing what I want when I want - I am going back to college next week to learn to teach English to speakers of another language. Am I mad to give this up or does a fulfilling new career beckon at the end of the course. Only time will tell. Happy Monday everyone.
I am new to this blogging, but I think that its a good way of expressing one's views to others. I am not working today, but will be going for a walk to post a few letters. I also distribute catalogues too, and am doing quite well with sales from that. At present I am expanding my customer base locally. I look forward to when that really takes off and I can do it full time. I will be beholden only to myself then. Since I left continuous work last yaer my outlook on life has changed. I take each day as it comes and am just glad to be alive.
Hello,
Have woken up as usual to five live and am beginning a feverish four hours revising for my philosophy exam later in the day. Is it possible to hold so much knowledge on Nietzsche in ones head?
Must admit however my post seems irrelevant in comparision to some on here professing deeply personal insight.
Take care all,
Mike
hi great start to the week received a call from eldest son who is currently cycling from northampton to cape town.his call from addis abbaba was a few days behind schedule and the line was a bit dodgy but great relief to know all is well apart from broken spokes on wheel.read more on davestravelpages.com
Mine is a bit soft really, but four and a half years ago we were told that my wife was likely to miscarry our third son. Tommy is five years old today and we thank our lucky stars that he wanted to fight so hard to be here.
Hi,
Another day at the chalkface.
An education tip for the Government.
To improve reading make sure all schools have properly funded libraries with qualified staff in charge. Librarians are cheaper than teachers (unfortuately)! All secondary schools should have properly qualified librarians. Another thing that is done better in Scotland than England!
Yesterday, in a menapausal moment I put cleaning fluid instead of wetting solution on my contact lens before I put it in my eye.This morning I am looking at the puffy red half closed mess which doesn't hurt now and wondering if I can get my lenses in today and use alot of makeup or wear my glasses which I only wear at weekends in the house because they are so awful - Decisions, Decisions !
I came downstairs this morning, drew the curtains let the cats out, made myself a cup of coffee, and turned on Radio 5.
Disappointed to note yet again how much the programme has changes since Julian and Victoria presented it.
If I wanted to listen to a comedy double act at that hour, I'd listen to BBC 7.
Ho Hum, off to Classic fm as usual, once I've checked the headlines.
Being an accountant this is a bad, bad time of year for me. 132 tax returns to file before 31st Jan (thanks Gordon Brown!). Tried to explain Big Bang theory to my 11 year old daughter who looked at me as if I was some sort of "freak". Had a long think about it on the way to work and realised how preposterous the theory really is, so tried to come up with another theory. Took me all the way to work to realise that my brain just isn't big enough to cope and more importantly it's got nowt to do with me anyway.......131 and counting!
today i woke up
First blog! I have just completed what should be the last ever Monday morning commute to work from the house that my boyfriend and I have been renting for the past 3 years. The next time I commute to work on a Monday it should be from our first home as we have taken the plunge and signed up to our first mortgage. Ouch!
Andy Verity - I do the money news on Breakfast and Wake up to Money.
There are at least two rules to observe when talking on the radio, one that we all learn at primary school and one that I learned from my dad. I broke both of them this morning at about twenty past seven. The first goes: only look up if you know the answer. Rachel Burden was reading out an interesting newspaper story about Father Ted and I'd sort of taken some of it in - something about a battle between two Arran Islands, over which was the real Craggy Island. I looked up and Rachel, understandably thinking I had something to contribute, prompted me for an opinion. Alas, how I had misled her. With a mind suddenly quite free of any memory of Father Ted whatsoever, in spite of having watched it dozens of times, I muttered incoherently about it being "below my radar". Then I broke the second rule: "when in hole, stop digging". "Oh! Father Ted's below your cultural radar is it?" said Nicky, threatening me with a lasting image as a snob who'd be more at home on Radio Four. "No, honest, I've watched it loads of times," I protested, failing to consider that this might make it all the more remiss that I didn't know what Craggy Island was. If if carries on like this, they'll be getting Father Dougle in to do the money news.
4 hours sleep on sofa, woken by wife at 6.00 with cup of tea. She's a financially harrassed ward sister at city hospital and didn't sleep too well. I drove her to work for 7 a.m. start and returned home to repeat procedure for 19-year-old daughter. She's a shop assistant who can only get part-time work. She'll be home again at 2 p.m. - but until then, the day is mine. Time for Breakfast, housework, washing, etc., then on to computer for emails and writing the book that will solve all our problems. It's my own discovery, a missing link in European pre-history, probably THE most important discovery in 2000 years. The Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh, the Greek Argonautica, the Roman Labours of Hercules and even the Christian story - all based upon one single graphic design, a storytellers template. It's the earliest zodiac in the world, the earliest star map in the world, and exists precisely where it shouldn't be, at the centre of southern England.... Academic history books? Humbug!
9.03am. I have this morning off work and had planned to get out in the garden early but I was so shattered, I slept on and have only just now got up and started breakfast. I WILL do some gardening later - it's always a struggle to get myself out there but I find it relaxing and therapeutic when I've started, and then I find it hard to stop.
But I'm really just waiting for 12 o'clock when I can go and see my wife again. I'm hoping for even more improvement today. Hope! Hope! Hope! Yesterday she was sitting in a wheelchair with her head in a more upright position and she wasn't just putting the food on her spoon in her mouth, she was also doing it unprompted! Even if sometimes there was nothing on the spoon. And she was back to growling at me when she looked at me - not every time, but enough to show that she is getting back to how she was before Christmas. As I always say to her "You can growl at me as much as you like, love." It shows something is going on in there and I'd far rather being grrr'ed at than being met with vacant silence. I hope her walking has improved today. God I want her back!
It’s been a good start to the day. Writing code, saying hello to friends and still thinking about how to make my next million. And thank God I am still awake. Got up by 4.15am!
burps, farts, dirty nappies, being amusing, making silly faces - cuddles, smiles, watching him sleeping - all part of my Mondays now when I have sole - and somewhat scary - charge of my first grandchild. O lucky me!
woke up
got out of bed
dragged a comb across my head
found my way downstairs and walked the dog
looking up i noticed i was late
then listened to a beatles CD in the car on the way to work.
Expected snow and icy roads so set off little early, no snow en-route so made the earlier train into Sheffield. Whay! Result was I got to my desk 10 mins earlier so am able to post this blog before it gets busy.
Was greeted by the usual full inbox... which slimmed down to no more than half a dozen after the spam was removed (why do they do it?!).
I've been blogging for a while now on watfordgap.wordpress, but think this is a great idea to capture the mood, random thoughts and way the country is feeling on this - just another (non) Blue Monday! (Will link to this from my blog!)
It's going to be a long day. The phone went at 1 am...i woke with a start; was it bad news of an elderly relative being taken ill or worse, has she died? No it was a wrong number. Hours later i still couldn't sleep.
I've just made two spelt flour loaves of bread to take to the Buddhist sangha tonight. We meet every Monday night for a Pureland service, followed by a shared vegan meal. I'll be very sleepy for the service - but it will still be a wonderful experience. I've been very ill over the last 14 months, and my Buddhist sangha has supported me through this difficult time. So no matter how tired I am today i'll be there.
I have just received my results for my PHD in drums. I am now Dr Evans! You shall know be by 'The Pacemaker'
Deadlines
I'm a Chartered Tax Adviser from Southend-on-Sea and fairly stressed at the moment because of the personal tax return filing deadline on 31 January. January is always awful. I'm self-employed and it is always a major "challenge" to get my clients to give me their information and process it in time for the filing deadline. I never get enough sleep so I snap at my family. It's unpleasant generally.
So, this morning I was running my daughter through to school - and before everyone nags me for the school run it's the only practical way of getting her there without costing an arm and a leg plus it gives us 10 minutes each way every day where we can have father/daughter time.
We cut through to the seafront and were driving along when we saw the blue and white "Police Line" tape everywhere around the Sealife Centre like some grisly type of bunting.
As we went past the front of the building there were police officers, an ambulance and a blanket draped form on the cold pavement. My 13 year old daughter said "He's dead isn't he?" I told her not to look and got past as quickly as the rubber-necking ghouls in front would let me.
I dropped a very quiet and thoughtful daughter off at school and made my way back home. The tape was still everywhere and the blanket covered shape still there. I passed it with a shudder running down my spine and the thought of two types of "deadline".
My own work stress deadline and the poor bugger on the seafront surrounded by police tape - his own dead line that made mine look fairly inconsequential.
The usual vaguely surreal start to the week: woken up at 5.30 by nine-year-old son asking whether he should stay up or go back to bed. I counsel the latter, muttering about the watch I bought him. I go back to sleep, only to be woken up by eight-year-old son asking whether it is still Sunday. Together we lament the fact that it isn't, I replace my head on the pillow. Sixty seconds later the alarm goes off.
Stumble downstairs, followed by elder son, telling me about the audition he did for Death in Venice at the ENO yesterday. He has also started French lessons and asks whether I will tell him some French swear words. I refuse, then relent and give him 'zut!'
I begin making the packed lunches, opening the lunch boxes to find most of Friday's still in there. Son munches Special K (red berry edition).
Younger son now in bed with my wife discussing Dr Who. He refuses to come out for his Golden Nuggets. Later I catch both boys watching Malcolm in the Middle instead of getting dressed but miraculously we get to school on time.
Get text from friend saying his favourite Page 3 girl is back today. Set up mac in front room so I can watch Andy Murray while working...
Monday 22nd January 2006
First day of rest of my life.
Am currently in bed recovering from major surgery (7 days ago) that is the final stage of my transition from Male to female. A long, lonely and difficult road to find my true self. The first few stages of a new a happier self. (privatly funded)
Great medical staff, great nurses. I have been helped by some wonderful friends - mainly new friends as my older friends tended to avoid me.
Great to be alive, so much to look forward to, feeling "up" after what I had seen as such a big hurdle.
After a weekend of acting as taxi driver to various birthday parties and being swamped by 100's of Tupperware containers, many without lids for some reason and other sorting out of household junk that we do not intend to take out to Tenerife when we move out there in 3-4 months it's nice to be back at work in a cold office with miserable customers on the phone thinking about that beach I can visit every day in the warm sunshine having said goodbye to tax returns and VAT returns!
Oh no, Monday again, slightly harder than usual, because I stayed up late to watch footy last night.
Alarm goes off at 06.30. I unfortunately, roll over my phone and cancel its snooze. Its a slightly cool and pretty overcast, but not enough to make me think about closing windows. Cold shower wakes me up, wonder if I want to buy a heated 1.
My 8th week in school starts with 40 9-10 year olds, Not too bad, I think that they understood some of what I said and I'm sure that there were lights on when I explained the past tense again.
Also talked about weather, a good day to do it, for a change, we have some, rather than the usual hot with clear blue sky, I even used cool in the first 2 lessons, though it was only just true by the 2nd.
By lunchtime, it is hot again, and terribly humid. It is still officially winter. Afternoon is very hot and my school isn't air conditioned. 2 classes of 7-8 year olds passes smoothly, finished at 3.30
Walk home past 600 year old ruins and think that I am pretty lucky to be working as an English teacher in
Ayuthaya, Thailand.
Sit in internet cafe, listening to 5-live while checking my e-mail.
Feeling great after a weekend reunion of people who have become great friends through climbing Kilimanjaro 2 years ago. Having never met before the climb, we now have a real affinity for each other.
11 in a hot tub is close friendship!!
Opened my emails when I got to work to find one from old friends of 30 years ago. Where does all the time go and how many people do we leave behind in the hurly burly of the daily drudge? Never really stopped to think of that before. So in the last two hours I've contacted four others who have meant something to our family over the years who I haven't seen for over a decade to arrange visits in the next few months. Better do some work now - just spotted Nadal vs Murray live on 5. Perhaps I'll work later.
Today I am going for a short walk - at last. Broke my ankle on 3rd Dec, have been in plaster over Christmas and New Year.I don't like having to rely on others for help. I should be caring for my husband who is in the early stages of MND, but he has been helping me - we have been like an elderly couple hobbling around and we are only in our 40's.
So now the plaster is off, I am going to try to take my dogs Jake and Elwood to the park. 2 rescued border collies, me on crutches, should be interesting. My mother has been excercising the dogs for me and I really miss my daily walks.
It's hard to excercise and feel my ankle getting stronger,as my husband has no chance of his legs getting any better, all he can hope is that things dont get worse too quickly. He is taking part in a new drug trail, so we have a little hope.
10.05. Just fielded a tearful phonecall from my mother who had gone to pieces, ostensibly because she hadn't had a statement from her bank and didn't know what her balance was and had a lot of bills coming up and hadn't felt able to spend any money on herself and the women in the local branch wouldn't help her and the call centre people wanted a passnumber that she had turned the house over and still couldn't find. But really because my father had died in the summer and he took care of all the finances and she is feeling very alone and lost after more than fifty years of marriage.
Fortunately I was able to calm her down and let her see that she was worrying unnecessarily and we finished the call on a positive note, otherwise I would have been on a downer all morning.
Now, to finish my breakfast and get out and do some gardening. At this rate I'll only have time to just get dirty and have a bath and a bite to eat before going to visit my wife in hospital at 12 o'clock.
Got up feeling great. Set off to work and my mood darkened with each mile.
The traffic was terrible. A little bit of drizzle and the everyone seems to lose all abilty to drive. When I get to work I check my email to be told I have just won £5.5 million in a lottery that I had automatically been entered into.
You lucky so and so, I hear you say.
Not so. This lottery was drawn on 13th December and evidently my email address was registered against the winning ticket. However I didn't set up my account until last week. Clever eh?
I have just forwarded the details (full email header and the message) to Fraud.Alert@Met.Police.uk so that maybe something can be done about these scammers and fraudsters.
So I have gone from good mood to bad mood, even worse mood and now thanks to the thought that some low-life may eventually get his just deserts, to a slightly more cheerful mood.
I shall now go outside into the cold for a ciggie.
This morning I have just completed the repair of a beautiful Longcase (Grandfather) clock belonging to the 82 year old mother of a friend. It is one of the nicest I have ever seen in walnut with a seconds finger, date hand and a beautiful upper dial that shows the phases of the moon. The reason for this was that it indicated to potential travellers when the moonlight was at its fullest, as in the 18th Century (when the clock was made),there was no street lighting and travelling or walking in the dark could be dangerous! The clock had not run for 20 years, tragic. So I set my friend and her mother polishiing the woodwork whilst I lubicated the dry dirty movement. I 'un stiffened' all the wheels, oiled all the bearings, got everything moving and replaced a pin holding the painted dial to the movement which was missing and possibly causing the seconds finger to 'drag' on the dial plate. Put everthing back together, set the beat and hey presto the clock ticked beautifully and is still ticking half an hour later with no sign of stopping, the moon dial appears to be working also. It will need dismantling and a proper clean soon but at the moment it is now working perfectly and the old gentleman will continue to do so for a very long time. Very satisfying early morning, nothing quite like it.
Well, I'm sitting here in men's pyjamas and a woolly hat, ( I'm not a man.) The heating hasn't really been right since the storms on Thursday. Now it's most definitely OFF, along with the hot water, and life in the 21st century - or so it seems.
I've spent the morning so far washing up in water boiled from the kettle. It was a depressing task, as I kept imagining how my carbon footprint was growing every time it boiled.
To make matters worse I'm trying to EAT HEALTHILY - this in order to stave off the inevitable ravages of age.
I'm 38.
I'm just about to cheer myself up by having two boiled eggs - does this constitute healthy eating? I'm having to eat them out of cocktail measures, because, even though I'm 38, I don't have any egg cups. I do evidently have cocktails.
I was cheered this morning by something of an epiphany. Here I am, off work, feeling forlorn and poorly, when the jovial postie comes round the back of the house and tries to shove a parcel through my cat-flap. When I go to relieve him of said parcel, and to discourage him from breaking the cat-flap, I demurely slip my hand around the door, and cautiously peep one eye at him around the door. This subterfuge
is all pointless as he's already seen me through the window, and knows I am sporting men's pyjamas and comedy hair (this was before it was necessary to wear the woolly hat.) My fingers too are now feeling the chill.
These boiled eggs are a revelation. I've eaten them really quickly, the waay my dad eats soup, and they've warmed me up nicely. My stomach is feeling a little Cool Hand Luke-ish, but this is a small price to pay.
Anyway, I opened the parcel and discovered a 'talking book' by one of my favourite authors (Niall Williams), sent by a friend. Who needs heating when you've got boiled eggs and friends? (Just for the record the book she sent was 'The Fall of Light', my favourite of his is 'Four Letters of Love.)
Finally, I'm waiting to hear from my sister about my nephew - he was taken into hospital with suspected appendicitis last night. He's 21, or thereabouts, but he was the first grand-child in the family, and we all feel we have a little of ourselves invested in him. His mum tells me that they're operating on him later today. I've been very rational with her, told her to get some rest and that his dad is with him. My stomach is churning though. I can't help but bring to mind awful scenarios with Hieronymous Bosche-like endings...
Coffee now I think.
Took the Rally car to have its MOT this morning. Now I have sit at work and worry until 15:30 this afternoon to find out if it has passed. Less than 3 weeks to go till the Rally in the Wyedean raly in the Forest of Dean.
I teach Mechanical Engineering in a Glasgow College and this week is the week between the 1st and 2nd semesters. It`s mainly for getting results in and preparing for the new subjects starting next week. So far so good, it`s a nice day and nothing unusual has happened.
I listened to 5Live this morning and it`s a fairly good way to start the day. I would listen to Radio Scotland if there`s cricket from Australia on, though.
Oh yes, this morning I heard Nicky say `yeh, right!`, as a Scot he perhaps would have been expected to say `aye right!`. Get it sorted, wee man! :-)
I also heard the Father Ted story and this reminded me that there are nice wee snippets on Your Tube.
Question: The week after the race debate about Big Brother. Is Celtic Park the only place in Scotland where Scots with an Irish background are allowed to be Irish?
It`s worth coming to work this week to get the marks done and the reward will be on Friday. Pay day at last!
Cooperatives SW is the regional council of cooperatives and mutuals in South-West England (Gloucs, Bristol, Wilts, Somerset, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and the Isles). I attend on behalf of the small workers' cooperative partnership that I work for.
At the 2006 AGM, I was elected to its steering group and today (2007-01-22) is my first meeting. I'll be going along and learning about how coops are communicating and marketing in the region, and hopefully something about the nuts and bolts of structural funding. I think that's what BASIS bids are.
I'll be travelling to the meeting by train on First Great Western, who have hit the headlines this morning because of a mass protest against overcrowding on the Bristol-Bath route. It'll be extremely unusual if there's any overcrowding on daytime Bristol-Taunton trains. I'll bike to the easiest station, but I can't remember whether I can take my bike on these trains.
Hi to you all ,
I wake up every morning listsen to your show ,
What bugging at the moment is the oil price has gone done nearly 25% more that 2 months ago ,We still pay a high price of petrol at the pump. The pounds is higher that the Us Dollars , In the America the petrol is at $1.82 to a gallon and there the petrol price went down at the pump months, Why we stiil paying a high price , Shoul the Office Fair Trading look in to this matter .
Loved reading all the 'Blogs' - must go should have been doing something else - always finding a distraction - should do better! Happy days.
Well today being 22 January I'm celebrating having achieved 10% of my 100 days of not eating any conventional food whatsoever - and lost over 10lbs already and over a stone just in January, thanks to the Lighter Life programme. Oh well, only another 3 stone to go, but at least I'm heading in the right direction. Pulled on a skirt that was too tight at New Year and this morning it fits me perfectly, what an incentive! Will keep you up-to-date with progress over the next 90 days! Happy to provide support to all you other dieters out there.
Today being a Monday means making a to do list for the rest of the week. These lists will of course not get done and the writing of the lists will take longer than doing the jobs themselves. This is because I have a toddler. So, I am actually spending the morning getting my hair done 6 times at the pretend hairdresser and playing mums and babies 7 times and that's just so far. Currently I am getting a perm and my daughter is consulting an old diary of mine to see if she can fit me in for a cut and colour after. She has just noticed I am on the computer so is wanting to 'get her emails', which involves her tapping buttons randomly and confusing the PC. Lovely.
I work in a mainstream school as a teaching assistant working with children with special educational needs. Our department operates out of a temporary building that has rotten walls, and window frames. The rain comes in and during the recent storm the door blew in and was so badly damaged we had to have it propped open all day.It will be patched up yet again. When I opened my email this morning there was a message from Alan Johnson, Education Secretary saying "In 2007 we will be investing in school buildings". Our building is not due for replacement until 2010. So much for Education, Education, Education.
Never blogged before so not sure about this!
Going to be a good day for me, my 18 year old daughter gets back from a month spent working with AIDS orphans in Malawi. I can't believe how much I have missed her! She can be a total pain in the rear but after all she is my baby.
My youngest daughter has gone to spend the week at an army camp learning team building skills. I guess I got 4 weeks one on one with the youngest and now I get a week of one on one with my eldest (if she can fit me in around her social calender!).
So I think I can count my blessings at having two wonderful daughters, who cares if I'm broke, it's going to be freezing and work is too busy. Life's too short for worrying about trivial things make the most of what you've got.
Today I'll be going to work at my residential home to organize for one of the residents to come back from hospital for TLC. Don't know how long she's got left but she wants to come "home". Fortunately for her she's been spared the trauma of a peg feed and a catheter - the doctors actually listened to what she and her family wanted. She's 96, had a severe stroke before christmas and has very little speech and poor swallow reflex but her mind is still as sharp as ever, and she still has the energy to give her 70yr old son a telling off! Hope I'm like her if I get to 96.
Woke up at about 7am to 5Live - on all night because of my sleepless patches. Concerned it was raining - will the Cam rise up as worryingly as last week? I live on a boat and at the height of the storms the river was inches from overflowing and the water had WAVES!
Up, washed and dressed. Check nufc chatroom to see how we Magpies are coping with transfer rumours/take-over rumours and Freddy Shepherd.
Renew bird food on bank. Collect Guardian and milk from local Co-op. On return I have two ducks (m and f), two squirrels (indeterminate gender) a robin and a blackbird (m).
Entering my 70th year feels weird - 69 last week. Still teaching on supply at my previous school occasionally (very welcome money) but mostly trying to get into the writer market. One publisher has expressed an interest so I'm crossing fingers.
The river is exquisite in all its moods. As I sit at my computer a tiny beautiful wren has just fluttered all over the table and chairs I have on the bank!
Must stop this to write to my London two year old grandson, (other grandsons of 22, 19 and 18!). The sun is shining, there's an eight pulling its muscular way past my boat, the river is glorious - what a good decision, to sell my house to live on the river!
Hello
Oh well, my weekend was awful, got the sad news that a friend lost her life from miscarriage.
I am sooo angry with the NHS, cause my friend should not have died, if only the hospital(basildon) had not decided to induce her into labour, why they did not perform a d&c on her beats me, for God's sake the baby was 17weeks old.
Just one of the NHS ways to cost cut and it has cost the life of my good citizen, tax-paying friend. She sure did not deserve to die like this.
Got up at 6 to make sure car started after being charged properly after not starting yesterday works so that girlfiend can take her son on his paperround as its too cold and his bike doesn't work properly. Went back to bed, got up at 8.30 to do the school run, followed by a trip to the local mechanics to be told car needs new battery and it will cots about 5£50. Off to the local library to surf the net some more looking for a new job. Picking car up in afternoon followed by the afternoon school run
Good day to you
Made a cup of tea ,took it to my computer read my e mails some are very intresting as i am doing my family tree .
Had a shower ,dressed and put on my make up even thoe i am a great grandmother i never go out with out doing my face .
Now i am going into town for a wander round as i tell my grandchildren ,might pick up a ready meal from M&S ,If i see a bargain i will get it for my new great grandson ,i havent forgot how expensive a new baby can be. The sun is shining and i am happy .Marj
Another Monday, usual start at 0400 listen to Radio 7 (dozing) 0500 to Fivelive (stil dozing a bit) 0700 Rise, Loo, Dress, Tea, Toast, Medication, with Breakfast TV.
Then prepare Recycling Bags/Boxes (Household, Paper & Plastic, Glass) & put otu for collection. (Weekly.
Collect Daily newspapers, browse Front & Back pages, usually heard details anyway. Cereal then wash-up,makebed,shower/wash/shave/loo/
Dress. Interesting so far eh!
Log On to internet to browse Inbox,nothing pressing today (4Family,Edinburgh,Leeds,Poole,&,
Canada & 3 National Newspaper E- Headlines.Reply Later
About to prepare Lunch,(&medication) after which go to Library to add a few more twigs to the Family Tree, (Free Access provided..excellent. Reurn home (medication) , have Evening meal(medication) intend to watch Masterchef, attend Council meeting(as a memeber of Public, discussing Budget proposals tonight so should be interesting), return home hopefully in time to see Waking the Dead, then end the daywith a nightcap of Fivelive & Radio7.
My wife (carer) followed a slightly different path in addition to what I need her to do for me, she rose a bit later than me for a change but started as usual with phone checks on elderly & disabled friends, she went to Northampton (20 miles up the M1)to help an elderly Aunt who had had a domestic spillage needing heavy cleaning. When she returns, after a quick snack she will be off 'Line-Dancing', before doing her evening calls & visits to her friends.
Hardly earthmoving but not bad for a disabled guy and Pensioner wife, I can think of and indeed know many in poorer circumstances. The Raio means a lot to us but I wish I could find a Digital 'Walkman'(showing my age)to while away the inevitable waits at Bus Stops.
Regards
Today I will play golf, run for half an hour, spend half an hour on the exercise bike. Then promise to tell the truth from now on.
Got a call just before going to work the servers are down.
So spent half the morning fixing the servers and the database.
Then Catching up on my reasearch on blogs/social media (its a large part of what I do for a living)
noticed this :-0
btw tony lockwood is that you Pooh Neuro from the Telecom Gold Nb
On a work front things are beginning to progress with the Church I'm the Vicar of in inner-City Bristol. More people coming and a real sense that God is working in our community. Lots of new initiatives in the Community centre, new Pilates class this morning, new work with school next door, and we have had good news about funding for our administrator today.
Home wise my wife has just started working with the Big Issue in their finance department, and the kids are happily settled in the school next door to the church and vicarage.
Football wise, I am a Brentford supporter of 30 years and go and see them when they are in the area. Saturday was another travesty, when you are at the bottom nothing goes right. Have just found our from BBC sport website that we are now being bankrolled by a professional gambler!
That's probably too much information but heh.
Peace and blessings
Philip
Was woken up during the night by my son, frequently! He's 5 and still cries out at night. My wife and I don't feel great at the moment with bad colds and so need to sleep and to be woken wasn't great. He got a bit of a frosty reception this morning before I took him to school. Yet sitting here at work I look at his photo and think perhaps we shouldn't have been so hard on him, we love him dearly. That's just life I guess.
Planning the week ahead and where the next sale is coming from is hard, with the boss breathing down the neck for results but I have read other peoples blogs about Aids care and elderly care and know that my job is nothing compared to the love these people have to give and the hardships they must see.
Oh for the day to fly so I can go home and see my son, forgive him and have him forgive me.
11.42am. Just been out and done a bit of tidying up in the garden. Not quite the start I was hoping to make on the garden, but a beginning. I've cleared an area where I can store the large rocks which are covering the ground I want to use to grow our own fruit and veg on. I've got tired of the often bland produce on sale at the supermarket.
But I've spent far too long this morning going through the blog here. It is fascinating to read the variety of issues occupying the minds of the contributors and I'm astounded that both of my previous scribblings have been included in the 133 entries there so far. From this I conclude that either not many people are contributing or the editor is selecting pieces that are deemed to be "interesting".
Either way I am delighted that my little life has made it in there. I don't have a blog but I have been writing about my wife's illness in the Health & Well Being part of the It's Not Easy Being Green forum and have received a lot of support and very positive vibes from the lovely people there: http://www.itsnoteasybeinggreen.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4114 - there's cheeky, putting a URL in the blog. I wonder if it'll be included, edited out, or will bar the whole contribution from inclusion? Anyway, thank heavens for the internet and the online communities - even after such a short time, it's hard to remember how life was like before they came into existence so that interests (and obsessions!) can now be shared across borders and time with like-minded people.
OK, I'm going down now to see how Julie is today. And then off to work for a few hours, then see Julie for her evening meal, and last thing this evening it's eating out time for me - I'll try the Greek restaurant in the town centre which, if it is any good, I could take Julie to when she's better as it is in easy walking distance for her. Not looking forward to eating out alone though.
it was my birthday at the weekend. i'm 43 and i'm fed up.
Ive been single for 18 months, at the W/E I went on a blind date set up by a friend, The girl in question was pretty, witty and gorgeous. We both had a loverly time and plan to meet up again, today is supposed to be the most miserable day in the year, Gloomsday the papars call it, the cold weather, the rain, another week until payday, but guess what, I woke up this morning with butterflies in my stomach thinking about this girl, today is a loverly day.
First ever blog. Prompted to post after listening to 5 live as I regularly do.
Another Monday morning began with our girls (one and three quarters and three and three quarters) waking up at 6.30 and demanding attention as usual. My partner Karen looks after them on Mondays and Fridays. The other three days in the week they go to nursery while we both work. The elder one Illy has just started pre-school and loves it. Her introduction to school life will be so much easier and enjoyable than mine 40 years ago. I was at home until I went to infant school: no nursery, playschool or playgroup of any sort, so that school was a real shock to the system and traumatic for a while as a result.
I am back to work today after a week off in between contracts. I am a freelance video editor. Usually I work on broadcast television programmes in London and face up to an hour and a half commute each way on my motorcycle from our home in South Oxfordshire. This makes the day long and exhausting and I don't get to see the kids or Karen much duting the week, or have much of an evening. But today I am working not ten miles up the road - a mere twenty minute drive! Bliss - a lovely feeling to be so close. I'll be able to get home at 6.30 and put the girls to bed, for the next two weeks. The downside though is that I am working on corporate videos...
I ought to get back to work. I hope my ramblings are of interest to someone...
Peace and love and Axe Big Brother for good!
I have never blogged before and my husband (Peter) bet me that I would not do so. I have! So pay up!!
Hi
Guess even this vague I am to controversial for you turning your back won't make the problem go away it will only get bigger and worse but hey nobody seems to mind.
See Ya
John
I should be at work today, as a Clinical Psychologist in the NHS. However, I am at home, as the Psychology department that I work for has been told to balance the books using all possible means. This meant asking staff to consider redeployment or a temporary reduction in hours. I opted for the latter, in order to avoid the risk of redundancy.
In contrast, the media continue reporting calls for increased psychology input for all, whilst our waiting lists grow, full of people who are distressed, disturbed, unhappy and traumatised.
Whilst this move is not great for my career, bank balance or morale, the greatest sadness in this is for the people who want to talk about their difficulties and the things that have happened to them. Those that want to make changes in their lives, come off benefits, leave hospital or just get back to work and start living. They are going to have to keep taking the tablets and hope that things somehow get better.
In the meantime, I'll use my many years of education, training and experience in Psychology for cleaning my bathroom...
My wife and I booked a Cruise some months ago which leaves next monday, so a week from today we will be boarding the MSC Musica, being taken to our suite with a balcony to look out across many of the delights of the Meditteranean coasts and the detinations we will visit.
There will be a welcome cocktail when we board and get settled before we don our smart clothes and go to dinner to meet up with our fellow passengers who will be seated with us for dinner each night for two weeks. This is always an exciting time as it is the first time you meet new people who may become friends over the length of the journey.
The only blot on our particular landscape is that in order to get on board our ship, we are due to fly to Nice from Heathrow on B. A. 342.
Should the strike go ahead we are unsure as to what the contingency plans are by the cruise company to get us to our ship. As yet there is no real information offered by B A, only that they will allow you to change the date of travel if you are affected by the strike. Not a lot of good as the ship will be in Athens the day the strike is due to be over, a flight to Nice then isn't going to help.
I am sure that MSC will get us to the port by one way or another but it is this period when no-one knows what is going to happen that makes us unsure and is taking away a large part of our enthusiasm in looking forward to our holiday. The anticipation, which has been growing for some months is now put on hold.
I should be working, but a few minutes aren't going to make a difference. Most of my day seems to have been wasted so far anyway: Software not working properly, people not at their desks when you need them and other people's problems to solve - not mine. Still, I get paid for working in this comfortable environment, so mustn't grumble! Nice rural view out of the 2nd floor window too.
Tonight, I shall be meeting members of my archery club for a pasting session in a friend's garage. I hope she'll have the heating on. We'll be pasting paper targets onto cardboard, to strengthen them, before we shoot them to pieces! Archery, particularly field archery is great. You should try it.
Cheers,
Dave
well hello everybod, spent this morning walking,Ive just had a Varicose Vein operation, my third and im only 42 (!) and whilst recovering at home have been advised to walk and walk and walk......its great, you get time to think and solve all the worlds and you`re owns problems. i tend to walk for half an hour hit a cafe, a cappachino, read then off again. I will eventually get out in the car later to pick up my son from school and back home for a cuppa, chat and a game of pool with him, Im 5-2 down so need to claw back some pride here. Oh highlight of the day so far was reading Charlie Bookers column in the Guardian, the mans a genius and should be knighted....anon...mwa mwa
impressed that so many people are on their computers so early in the morning and not night shift workers. first chance to get on the computer(lunch break - if lord and masters checking my computer). supposed to be the most depressing day of the year but not for me.
Why?
my daughters birthday tomorrow (28) and my sons birthday on thursday (27). and....
burnley have just anounced a new signing. for most people nothing exciting but for clarets fans amazing. Burnley usually sell our best player during january, most often the main goal scorer so to be actually buying players is bizarre.
all we need now is to actually play a game!!!! not actually seen them play this year despite travelling to Reading for f a cup match and a couple of trips to turf moor.
oh well back to work
Today I came to work by train, First Great Western from Newport to Trowbridge. FGW have been under a lot of pressure and there has been a lot of passenger action group protests, today being the biggy. Local TV was bound to be at Bath to cover that.
What do you know - after weeks of my train being delayed or cancelled or failing on route without enough carriages, today its on time all the way, there's an extra carriage and its comfortable.
I wonder if it will be the same when the media go away - in fact I wonder what the journey home will be like tonight. That is usually like the Tokyo tube - sardines would strike if packed in the way we are. Its something to look forward to.
If its a good journey, I'll be able to have a meal then relax enjoying my local pub quiz. If its like last week, I could still be travelling home when the quiz starts.
The joys of commuting ..... if only all journeys could be like this morning.
i've turned the radio off because the tennis is on. no one in this country is interested in the this "sport" why the bbc waste air time on it is beyond me.
My Monday is another day spent with a condition I've had since I was 7 years old, called Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It is being pretty quiet today and the intrusive thoughts about nightmarish scenarios that often get stuck in my head like a bus trapped under a low bridge haven't bothered me today.
No-one I work with knows I have this debilitating anxiety condition. Tonight, when I go to my night class at college, I'll smile and be happy, knowing that however mad this condition makes me feel, I will never let it stop me from leading a normal life.
First Blog
Welcome to my world
Up at 6.15, shower, shave, then feed the girls (5 and 3) before mum takes them off to school at 8.15. In the office today but other days out and about.
Might have an hour or so tonight (after the kids are fed, their reading done, their bath done and they are in bed to actually talk about decorating, holidays to be booked etc.
My main gripes? Other than the usual lack of form from Rochdale AFC (not many of us around!!) but the whole celebrity for being a celebrity non-entity scene. Oh, to be well known for actually doing something worthwhile!!!
Radio 5 Live gets me to and from work everyday - Thanks a million.
Interesting blog...so many things happening to so many people.
My only decision so far was whether I could wear flat cream shoes with a black knee-length skirt to work...I'm training for the London Marathon and my feet sre a bit sore so I'm trying to stay in flatties as much as poss.
Unfortunately, they didn't look right, so it's black heels !!
Following Andy Murray on 5Live's online feed. Rollercoaster of a match...go Andy !!
After about five months of flat hunting, my fiance and I have just got the news that we've finally had an offer accepted on a lovely flat in South East London.
This is such a relief. As first time buyers, we've been totally frustrated by the whole process. Since we starting looking in the Autumn of last year, prices have risen so quickly that we nearly find ourselves priced out of the market for a small 1 bedroom property. Not to mention the competition; we found four great properties in our search, only to miss out on the first three thanks to greedy vendors and this country's ridiculous buying process (anyone else out there left exasperated by the 'Best and Final Offers' system despite being the first through the door to offer the asking price??).
Now we face the long, nervous wait until contracts are exchanged. Fingers crossed, it'll all go smoothly.
my name is sexgod or pumpkin!!!
I am in my media studies lesson now..quite borred. i wish they would allow is to listen to music while in the lesson..that'll be cool!
I've never written a before. although i've been told by the purple wearing shirt man infront of me. Mr Dunne. What a leg.
Just also want everyone to know that on friday it IS austrlia day. Everyone must celebrate.
i had a great day and wish all of you the same
Hi Nicky & Shelagh,
Monday, Pick up my pension and curse Brown for the measly amount after 50 years of toil and worry.
Read my morning paper to find smoking cannabis for under 18's is now acceptable.
This government is crackers.
If cigarettes are a health hazard, what is cannabis?
Can you imagine all the cigarette smokers in the street and in the office, cannabis smokers happily puffing away.
Drug pushers can,t believe their luck.
you know i think that i need some time...
everything comes to my head, i can tell you whatever i want but u wont respond, dont you think that it is weirrd?
I allways tell my friends that my relation with the fiveliuvebreakfeast is the best Ive ever had,but is it true, you cant give ne anything, ure just the only one who talks to me and the thing about friends was a lie, because I dont have any, u and my hand is all I have, i hope no one in my school or family will find this out, so keep quiet fivelivebreakfast:):)!LOVE YOUUUU
Waz upp:)
Its weird.
and boring
WICKEEED!
People what is wrong with you! does a complaint cheer you up? so much better to post smth like "dnt worry, be happy" rather than "im fed up"! it seems that everybody@s life in this country is miserable! it is so not! prove it! cheer up
Fancy a winegum bud?
hey
that's my second time, trying to post the text:
so I am from Germanz and am in a boarding school in the UK...
One of my subjects is Media Studies. At the moment we are talking about blogs-that's the reason I am writing...
I'm pretty upset and tird at the moment. I stayed up until 3.30am this morning watching my American Football team the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game. We started the game brilliantly and pulled out a 21-6 lead at half time but the Indianapolis Colts managed to get back in the game and beat us with a last minute score to win 38-34. It feels pretty awful to come so close to another Superbowl appearence and especially to loose to arch rivals the Colts. Credit to the Patriots though, considering at the start of the season they had to overcome losses of some key players, and they still managed to get this far. We will be back better and stronger next season.
Patriot Pride!!
It's Monday afternoon, the sun is streaming through the windows and I wish I wasn't in the office but outside somewhere feeling the sun on my face and the chill breeze through my hair.
Back to reality. Woken up by the dulcet tones of Nicky and Rachel.
Husband gets tea, daughter wants to play baby tigers in bed, drag myself up for shower & start the working week. Breakfast, lunchpacks. Husband loses car keys (again). Quick toothbrushing, combing anti-nit stuff though daughter's hair. School run fairly uneventful. Work, telephone conference, more work, check on the tennis, check if my beloved footy team have signed or sold anyone.
Another telecon - how to do appraisals - fantastic.
Soon by time to leave to take my beautiful 6-year old baby tiger to Kumon.
Not very eventful, but a typical day. As soon as I get home, it'll be kettle on, try and find husband's car keys and check the humane mousetraps after finding several of the little chocolate munching monsters camped out under the stairs yesterday. Then get dinner ready and try to remember if I've been good and should have lost weight at the weigh-in tonight at Fat Fighters. Then it'll be the second episode of Waking the Dead.
Oh no! It's Tuesday tomorrow! I hate Tuesdays....
Thanks for letting me blog - it's my first time too!
Hi all,
I thought I'd share with you that today is my first day back at work after Maternity Leave. My son is now thirteen months and finally I feel just about ready to rejoin the world of 'working outside the home'. I would only work three days a week because daycare is sooo expensive (£30.00 per day in my area) that working anymore does not make any financial sense. I would not want to anyway because I really enjoy the time I spend with my son and I think it is good to that he is with me more than not, if you know what I mean.
I resent that the Maternity Leave pay is very poor in this country (only up to six months in a reducing scale). The UK is a very rich country - one of the eight richest countries in the world, so we are told. Surely this government could afford to provide at least a year of same salary pay for parents as they already do in some countries. It is important to provide parents the means to spend that crucial first year with their children without facing financial difficulties.
Today in the office the time is passing very slowly although I do not miss my son as much as I thought I would. He is at home with his dad because he was not well this morning. From my last phonecall home today (yes! I have phone several times) I know they are doing well, having a bit of a 'boys day' which would do them the world of good.
And that is my day, so far. Thanks for the opportunity to share it with you all.
Usual sort of Monday.....did not want to get out of bed rather heady from to much port with the cheeseboard last night
Got to work at seven and shall be there to about five constant barrage of moaning staff
Great news my beloved Brentford FC have been refinanced to the tune of 3million by a supporter, nothing I know in the terms of the big boys in the premiership but this deal will save the club £150.000 a year in interest and could possibly be the difference between keeoing going and falling by the wayside...all we need now is 10 wins from the remaining 17 matches that we have left a tall order I know when we have so far mustered 22 points from 29 games
Anyway shall wile away the next couple of hours and think what I can do with a piece of cod that I took out of the freezer yesterday for my tea
22-Jan-2007 from 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM in Miami Florida. The morning started with my wife and I having Breakfast [Papaya Milkshake and Coffee] before going to work.
The traffic is heavy [secondary to the population increase] on the way to work. The Police stop people in order to fulfill their ticket quotas or to check for illegal immigrants. People seem to be more preoccupied with arriving at work. There appeared to be a small group of demonstrators [Libertarian/Green and other Parties] asking for the resignation of Bush, Cheney, and the rest of the US Government [all Republicans and Democrats].
Upon Arrival, I am preparing everything in the Administrative Realm of Medicine. The people at work are talking about the arrival of the Super Bowl [American Football] in Miami Florida. [I wanted to add that I took some photos in my digital camera of the preparations for the Super Bowl and the Nextel Races for BBC Breakfast on the way to work].
I was thinking about the US Victory over Denmark in Football [what the USA calls Soccer] during the weekend. I was also thinking about the arrival of Beckham to America.
There were others who were commenting about Cuba after Castro and others who compared the American Continent at present tense with Europe in the 1930's.
I will send more impressions of my day in Miami Florida as the day progresses.
Welcome to life in limbo:
I'd normally be at work today, fielding customer questions like "I was in the shop last week and I saw a book that I want. I can't remember the title or the author, but it had a red cover. Do you still have it?" The shop is as big as a football pitch, there are miles of shelves, thousands of books and a lot of them have red covers. I have never said this to a customer, but there's always next week...
I booked today off in the expectation that I would be moving house. I have been expecting this for the last 4 months. Every problem imaginable has come up, including our buyers choosing solicitors unacceptable to their mortgage lenders, our buyers' mortgage offer expiring, and our buyers' buyer suddenly pulling out.
We were told last week that exchange would probably happen today. But the phone has not rung. And our solicitor has emailed to say he hasn't heard anything. I can't book a removal firm. I can't start packing. It's impossible to make plans.
Every week we think that next week we might be moving. Every week nothing happens. Why is it not possible in this country to introduce some certainty in the house moving process?
Woke at 5.40 and caught the 6.31 train from Stratford to Birmingham. No frost on the car, thank goodness - despite the forecast. Sat with the usual people and reviewed the weekend. Mine had been better than usual, having been to Bath to celebrate the 29th anniversary of the day my husband and I met. We'd had a packed weekend, done loads of interesting stuff, but didn't want to hog the conversation, and so there was more train chat about shopping trips and routine stuff, like trips to the gym and leaky roofs....
8 o'clock meeting was supposed to agree some targets for improvement, but the data guy hadn't quite got the final baselines ready, and nobody other than me seemed to want to discuss appropriate percentatges until they'd seen real numbers, so that's built in another frustrating delay, as it's taken ages to get the key players together at all.
Being away all weekend means normal things haven't got done, so had to pop out for some groceries for tea in the lunch-break, and the washing machine will have to go on this evening.
Why do days back at work after interesting weekends always seem to be longer? Decided to do something different and positive and post my first ever contribution to the blog scene! Probably bore the pants off any potential reader, but it's lifted my spirits, and selfishly that's been worth the 10 minute distraction!
Not a particularly exciting evening to look forward to - husband's squash night, Corrie on the box and second half of Waking the Dead, washing, finishing unpacking and putting the case away til we holiday at Easter - fist ever trip to USA! - and probably an early night with a book. How appropriate that I've just started Libby Purves' 'Radio - a true love story' - quite a departure from my usual fiction.
I spent the day being frustrated by tradespeople who didn't turn up or who turned up (without warning). Living in France and trying to find a qualified and reliable plumber, electrician, carpenter, and a host of others is a real nightmare. I've aged 7 years in the past 7 months.
Bring on the Polish plumbers!
Angela in burgundy
Thanks for all these great stories! Keep them coming.
This page is getting long though, so we're continuing your posts here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/fivelivebreakfast/2007/01/more_posts.html
Thanks,
Richard
8 years ago today my husband and I got together. He'd been my best friend for a while and it just felt right.
Unfortunately at 5.30 this morning our 2 and half year old son woke up feeling poorly and has been sick. I've had to stay at home to look after him, whilst my husband went to work.
My son is still looking ropey.
I suppose the chances of a romantic 'anniversary' evening will be out of the question now!!
Happy anniversary anyway Marky! I love you much more today than I did way back in those early heady first days together as a couple xx
Hmm, What I Did on January 22nd 2007
Yesterday one of our cats died, consequently this morning started badly as she didn't come and bounce us as soon as the radio came on @ 7.30-ish.
Got spouse his breakfast and make his sarnies, have shower, dress, put on waterproof jacket and he drops me in the village on his way to work.
After picking up the paper (Guardian) I made myself a mug of strong milky coffee, feeling the need for comfort. Then I posted news on the site where I am a web administer http://www.joinmust.org/. It's the independent Manchester United Supporters Trust site. I post news items based on football politics rather than football match reports and transfer speculation. Nicky's great articles in the Guardian are usually there!
I kept breakdown in tears today because I had used a picture of Fleurie as my avatar, it had to be changed.
This afternoon I've cleaned the blanket she slept on and rearranged what was Fleurie's room back into a spare bedroom.
I discovered spouse has been reading the match program from Anfield (he’s a Chelsea fan) which he brought home on Saturday. I seriously considered using it for the only purpose he can have left it in there for, but there are some places I can’t face Craig Bellamy’s face going
I have washing on the line, I did it because the weather forecasters told me it was going to be sunny today, this morning was wet :-(( Since lunchtime though the sun has peeped out and the blanket is nearly dry, the rugby shirts are just freezing cold and wet still. It’s very chilly, and we’ve been told it will get colder. I am so glad I live in Cornwall rather than chillier places in the East on the country.
Lunch was a bowl of the best muesli in the world, Carley's of Cornwall own mix, tastes brilliant with water.
I couldn’t bear to listen to Andy Murray’s match today, had he won I’d have regretted it but ….. I hope he doesn’t have the English disease.
I’ve just heard Chris Paterson will captain Scotland in the 6 Nations, our injury list is incredibly bad so typical as we’d got things together and looked so promising.
I’ve been looking at the complicated plans for my nearest city, Truro. Trying to get my head around what they want to do to “develop” it, I hope they make a better fist of any rebuild than St Austell has.
Back to the site to check on Help Desk Tickets, which are usually questions related to MUST’s Phoenix Fund, which is a savings scheme intended to be there to pay for part of the club when Malcolm Glazer’s gigantic debt finally explode in the hedge funds faces. Born from the ashes of the fans' shareholdings in the club, the Phoenix Fund is the seed from which supporters' dreams of ownership can grow into a financial reality.
Do we want to run the club? No, of course not. We believe that the club's day-to-day affairs should be professionally managed by qualified individuals who understand the operational side of running the world's greatest club. But we do believe that the priorities should be ours; that the football and the future of the club must come first and never be sacrificed for a parasitic investor.
Just heard there’s been a bit of chaos in Truro, from the Beeb: Collapse fear of damaged gas wall A wall containing a gas pipeline is being demolished in Cornwall amid fears it was in danger of collapsing.
Emergency services were called to the scene at Garras Wharf on Morlaix Avenue in Truro, following a telephone call from a local shopkeeper.
The Staples and Curry's buildings have been evacuated and members of staff moved to safety as a precaution.
Police said the A390 was closed near the Tesco Roundabout, and motorists should avoid the area.
Dinner tonight will be cold roast chicken with mash, leeks bacon and baked beans, comfort food! And a few glasses of plonk Burgundy (for my arthritis ;-) ) We’ll watch the Simpsons, a Star Trek TNG episode on DVD and listen to I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue on BBC7. Then we’ll play Neverwinter Nights mods until bedtime.
Another uneventful shift at the supermarket - all human life passes before in such a short space of time!! Happily most of the customers are lovely (it is a rather nice supermarket!)but i often get the impression that from the other side of the checkout people are looking at the "ladies" and imagining that there is very little between the ears and indeed that is how they speak to us!! If only they knew that i had had a life before in Air Traffic Control and that does take a certain amount of grey matter - granted some of it has turned to sponge now but it would be nice if all across the board people didn't assume so much about each other and took the time to at least be couteous - particularly when we are only trying to help them!! Have a nice day!!
I am a blog virigin and today is my 42nd birthday.
The started like alot of other peoples.Up, lunch boxes done for the children,chase them downstairs for breakfast, upstairs to clean teeth, downstairs, again and out the door to the car and the school run. Back home today as I'm not working. Say good-Bye to Mum and Dad as they were here for the weekend to go and see Cirque du Soliel at the Royal Albert Hall. Fantastic show.
Went into to town to have alook around and bought Dr Who cards as promised for the boys and my birthday present to myself- a frying pan!
Was feeling quite down about it being moday and another year older but reading the blogs on this site has really cheered me up. There so many people out there today having good days bad days and so so days that i think my day in comparison is pretty good.
So for my positives I have a job I love, even though the office politics of it drive me mad, I love my family and I know my family loves me, I have a warm place to live and most importantly I have my health.
My negatives I worry about my childrens future I am giving them a good childhood, like i think i had. Are they going to be good people who will contribute to society. I worry about the blame culture here that if some happens someone else is always to blame. What has happened to taking responsiblity for ones own actions. I work in the NHS and am costantly worried that my actions will affect other people. But why to I have to chase people to see me when they don't want to. Because I have a thing called aduty of care, so I waste my valuable time on the 'phone for hours trying to talk to people who don't care about themselves.
I'm rambling, however, I'm basically a postive person who sees the good in people and I hope everyones hopes and dreams for today big or small can be met, and if not then the next best thing there's always tomorrow to try again.
Hello
Over half way through Monday. I jinxed Andy Murray and he lost. No, really, I did. And so I'm cross with myself. It happens all the time. Whenever I listen or watch to our 'home' side playing a sport, they lose. My jinx rate is well over 75%, so it can't be random.
I tuned in to 5Live at 2pm hoping to hear Mayo but heard instead the tennis with Andy Murray in his 4th set. He was 2 sets to 1 up and on a roll to win that set and the match. From then on it was downhill - he lost the 4th set and so I turned off at the start of the fifth, hoping the damage could be undone but the jinx was set and he lost.
Sorry. I don't like Mondays.
Rog
To work by train and engaged in Monday Morning Conversations with various colleagues. This is what we discussed:
1. Was Big Brother really about racism or was it media whipping up a story? After all, racism makes juicy headlines; catty girls having a rant and a bit of a bullying don't. We all agreed that any "racism" displayed was more or less on the same scale as hundreds of similar conversations we all have about Polish Plumbers, jokes about the French, "bloody Aussies", or just using a phrase like "Johnny Foreigner", all of which are acceptable targets and labels used in newspapers.
2. We decidced that the most interesting Big Brother moment was when the housemates saw news helicopters overhead and were realising the Jade issue had become big news. One of them (the American actor) said something like "Well that's really good because if we are so important then they must have stopped the atrocities in Darfur, Iraq is fixed and global warming has been solved."
3. The Railways (well, we are commuters). I didn't know government subsidies are now 5 times what they were just before privatisation. All that extra money, plus our increased fares must be going directly to fund the profits of all the private train operators and the hundreds of subcontracted companies now involved in running our railways. It simply can't be going into the basic operation of the railways themselves. How depressing.
4. The weather (of course!). We compared wind damage over the last few days. Everyone had seen trees down in their neighbourhood, one of us had trees down in their garden.
And so to work.
Rog
Blog. Did anyone think about this word before they threw it into mainstream usage? It’s a bit odd isn’t it, sounds almost like an insult - cue school-playground fight, hair-pulling, protagonists kicking at each others ankles and the scream of ‘You blogger! Blog off!’ Yep, seems perfectly suited to me. But, sadly, that’s not the case and here I am blogging away, a blogger-extraordinaire, the first blog of my life. By the time I’ve finished writing this – or blogging this – I’ll have blogged! Now let me be frank with you, I’m really not comfortable with the label – I feel like I’m the recipient of a new disease without a cure. I suppose it’s only a matter of time before we have a ‘Mr Bloggy’ bouncing around on our TV screens being heralded to us by a bearded game-show host. I wonder if he’ll be pink with yellow spots…. Mr Bloggy that is…
Which reminds me - I passed a pink car on the way in today. A pink car. Think about it. Pink. Who decided pink was acceptable? And this was pink pink, not even a kinda cooler metallic tone of the full strength colour, hmmm. Then again why shouldn’t pink be acceptable as a car colour? It’s alright for bubble gum and candy floss, why not cars? Have we been too conditioned by mainstream society? Imagine having the same feelings about black instead of pink. Armed police dressed top to toe in black jump-suits would never seem the same again… hello officer!
Anyway, I should start blogging about my day. What did I do? Well I listened to Nicky and Rachel this morning in glorious DAB - makes them sound frighteningly close - and then stumbled into another week of post graduate study. The sun shone, the train ran on time and I had a mighty fine lunch. Nufsed, bring on tomorrow!
So have I blogged now? Can I go? Am I now eligible to move onto my first moblog (mobile-blogging)? I hope so - it’s all been so easy!
Time to blog off, I’m getting the blog out of here!
A fairly usual day today = get children up and ready for school - not the usual shouting match which is good. Drop them off then off to walk the dog - very cold and windy and muddy. Home via pet shop to buy more food for said dog. Cup of tea and finish reading the Sunday papers, then into village to do a bit of shopping and get some new books from the Library. While there learn that our vicar will be retiring in March which makes me feel sad but curious as to who we will get next. Lunch of Ryvita and pate, then cook the dinner - no time later as Monday is Rainbows and Cubs night for my children so pretty chaotic. Then a few domestic chores - trying to fix the childrens Freeview box with no success - then off for the school run, tea, taxi-ing around then later home for snacks and bed. Husband will be home by 8pm when we will have our dinner and go to bed around 10.30. A normal day for a typical stay at home Mum.
Thanks to everyone who have shown an interest and support for the campaign to expand entitlement for winter fuel allowances to long-term sick and disabled people.
It's been a long day - and I get tired easily. Realistically I'm good for 3 or 4 hours before I need to lie down.
The Winter Fuel Campaign has only just started - so I've spent the day working on the next phase of the campaign.
A Winter Fuel Justice website on which I'm working with a group of friends.
It's going to be interactive, ith readers being able to register their opinions and join the debate.
So keep listening to Breakfast and reading the Five Live website for more information.
And once again, thanks for your support.
A day in the life of a special school support assistant. ("special" in our case means emotional, behavioural and social difficulties)
A tentative slither down my one in four hill this morning, and joined the trail of cars out of the village into town. Nothing gritted, loads of snow - why does it always drop into the car when you open the door?
Three staff members down this morning - a teacher and a classroom assistant off sick, another assistant sent to the secondary centre for work experience. Our psychiatric worker can't get in because of the weather. No supply - at all.
Cath and I will run the art session this afternoon - glad I had something planned. Cookery cancelled. Owls class split. One boy excluded, one sick. Two new little ones in Wrens class.
One of my year five boys "went off" big style after break. Nearly called dad to take him home. Head of Centre's been out all day, when we could have done with her support. Got called all the names under the sun, but the boy came round and had a good afternoon.
Racist language to the fore again, but I think it's out of ignorance, not malice. They know swearing isn't allowed, but random racial taunts, aimed at no-one, seem to happen, bit like tourettes.
Got through the day without damage, injury or exclusion. Just a mess on the classroom floor from the art activity. Glad we didn't do clay, as the Head wanted. Dry pasta and beans make interesting texture, and isn't as damaging.
Hey hum, home now, snow slushy underfoot but roads better. Still no sign of gritting.
The end of the first day of the week. Out Thursday and Friday which means everything I need to do in the office is concentrated into three days rather than five. But better to be busy than bored! And better still, no-one here mentioned Jade Goody...
My friend and work colleague once again helped me get to work.
Over the last 3 weeks my friend, Kevin, has been helping me out. I've got nine days left till my leg cast is removed so not long now. As a serious cyclist I ride my bike to work each day. I've sustained an injury whilst bike training on new years eve day and fractured my knee.
As you can imagine I rely on my fitness and health to commute. Thank goodness for friends.
I dedicate this Monday to friends.
Monday at work has been pretty much as normal, although next week will be much more exciting as we find out if we still have jobs with our billion pound profit FTSE top one hundred company. Tonight is quiz night at The Ratcatchers Inn,nr Cawston in North Norfolk, where I am the resident quiz master. We hold the quiz over 10 weeks every Jan, Feb, Mar. There are always lots of disputes over points and allegations of cheating. The Landlord Peter's team usually win although I often manage to grade the questions in the grand finale so that he loses overall. We all have fun and charities benefit by a few quid. A couple of questions from last weeks quiz. Q) Which drugs name is derived from the name of the Greek god of dreams? A) Morphine (Morpheaus). Q) Which Bond Actresses real name was Joyce Frankenberg. A) Jane Seymour.
As I could have time on my hands soon, if you need any quizzes compiled for the BBC, or for a local charity, drop me a line. Better still, send someone along on a monday at 21.00 in the next 8 weeks and you can join in.
All the Best, Keith Gamble, AKA Colin the Quiz Master
Back to work today after a week's holiday in sunny Seville. The cat woke me up at 5.45am and it was cold. I thought I'd be grumpy, but just got home and realised it wasn't so bad after all. In fact, I was pleased to see my colleagues again.
Why can't single mums or dads be able to check whether their new partner could be a threat to their children?
My friend is still off work as she checked where she shouldnt have after being told her new partner was a paedophile by someone who knew him from before.
I know this could lead to all kinds of difficulty but I see how lonely she is as she is frightened to get close to anyone after this debacle and also it's had a huge influence on her career, life and general state of mind.
My Day? You want to hear it? Here goes…..
I suppose that it starts at about 2.30am. That’s when I first wake up and look at the clock. Still 4 hours to go but I am a bag of nerves and cannot sleep. I try to think of ANYTHING other than my job to get me to sleep but I can’t. I lie awake, dreading the day ahead. I even went to bed late, firstly to, hopefully, make me sleep until the alarm goes; Secondly, to make Sunday night last longer so Monday doesn’t come so quick.
6.30am Time to get up. Knot in stomach. I have had other jobs and not wanted to get out of my pit, especially on a cold morning, but my current career has that special, twisting feeling which I had never experienced before. Up, shower, breakfast, make lunch, dress, into the car and off. Wogan maintains my sanity on the half hour drive to school.
Yes, I am a teacher at a “bog standard comp”.
Free first lesson. A bit of prep but mostly counting down the minutes until I am “On”. Year 8. Not a bad group but they are silly and do little work. They, like all the others do ANYTHING to try to stop me teaching them. No book here. No pencil there. There are 30 all individually asking me for attention when I need to tell the GROUP what to do. Ironically, if they shut up and listened they would get the info they needed. But they won’t. A more experienced teacher sends me 2 of their kids who were disrupting his lesson. He says they’ll just sit on the side and do their work. They start chucking pens and disrupt mine (further).
Ahh. Break! I hate it. Just 20 minutes to dread the next lot.
Year 7. Not a bad group but silly and chatty. Difficult to make them listen. Oh, I know the drill. Don’t shout. Wait for silence. Etc, Etc. I’d still be there now if I waited. There is a fire alarm 20 minutes in and we troop out to stand in the cold for 20 mins before coming in. Lesson now dead.
Year 10. Most of the reason for the bad night. I might as well not be there for all the attention they pay me. No books. No equipment. No Idea. Abusive, obstructive, all the negative adjectives which you could possibly apply to a group of people apply here. They will not let me discuss the topic as a group so I tell them page number and exercise and try to help those few who will let me.
Lunch. A further 45 mins of dread and then….
Year 10. A different group but these ones are CHIMPS. They show few human attributes. There are only 4 who turn up but even then they will not listen. To them, I am not there, except to have insults directed at. I throw out the main troublemaker, a girl, for making an obscene comment but this has no effect on the 3 remaining boys. They “swear on their mothers’ lives” that they will do the work if they can listen to music. I put on the music, they do no work. I switch off the music. Massive complaints!!!! “We were working!” They were not. Huh! What is the point? They leave and I go to confer with my colleagues.
That last group is the same for everyone, they say. So why are they still here, I wonder?
I get home and see an advert on telly which makes me laugh. It is the one about the questions that kids ask about Physics - made in order to sucker more idiots into the world’s worst profession. It makes me laugh because that is what I have been doing all day – “Teaching Physics”. Ha! I have not had a single science question asked of me all day. I have not been stretched mentally, just wound up and the worst of it is that I am crabby to my family when I come home.
I was out with some mates over Christmas, and one said that I should stay in teaching, despite being offered a much lower paying job (but with good prospects) in a financial institution. I didn’t answer him back at the time but the more I thought about it the more it annoyed me. He, a non-teacher was happy to condemn me to this awful life while dealing with humans and machines all day and saying that a move like the one I was contemplating would be a waste. He talked of opening minds and the promise of youth with no knowledge whatsoever.
The next time I see him, I have thought of the correct analogy.
Imagine, I will say, a company in which you deal with the shareholders. You, and your boss and colleagues are paid no matter what, but the shareholders, as in all companies, get paid by results. You, and your boss and colleagues do your best to raise the value of the company for the shareholders but they ACTIVELY try to derail and halt the process. Oh, I know that anyone in industry (I have worked there) would say that their boss knows nowt and gets in their way but I think that it would be a rare one who is fundamentally opposed to expanding the business and moving forward.
That is the position of most students in schools today. The MAD shareholders who have the biggest stake but will do anything to prevent learning occurring. I have had (and this is 100% true) a student walking away from me when he realised that his knowledge had increased – I had made him realise that he COULD calculate 10% of a number and he could never forgive me.
Another teaching friend keeps his payslip in his pocket. When chimp-like behaviour occurs, he looks at it and relaxes. He advised me to do the same.
I look at it from a slightly different perspective. How much would you have to be paid to be ignored, abused, not challenged mentally and generally treated like scum all day? Write down your figure and then look at the NUT’s website for the teaching pay spine. See if the two match…..
(Please don't include my name, if possible)
Washed my hair this morning, its getting very long. In fact it has never been so long! It normally grows for a couple of years and then all comes out.....chemotherapy. Living with a chronic form of cancer means that most days i can live life to the full but with some regularity the cancer, lymphoma, rears it's ugly head.
The cancer remains part of my life but doesnot rule my life, should think not after 16 years of treatment.
Monday 22 Jan 2007, nearly 47 sat here writing to cyberspace.
Andy Murray failed in his first bid to become the 2007 BBC sports personality of the year, well three
more Grand Slam tournaments to go.
The day passed very quickly today,
no sooner had I got to work this morning than it was time to come home. I work for a freight forwarding agent so everything that had arrived was cleared through customs, the goods we had collected were despatched around the world. Still trying to think of ways to raise the profile of my friends attempt to walk the Spey Way to raise money for the Scottish MND charity. At 47 he was diagnosed with the disease in November, a great shock ! Maybe someone at Five live could join him on his walk , that would raise the profile !!
Winter came to Sheffield yesterday. I know this because it snowed. Or rather, I know that because the cars outside all carried a layer of the stuff when I left for work this morning: if I had actually bothered to open the curtains yesterday I might have seen it fall myself. Instead, I spent another dull Sunday under the duvet, resisting the perfervid desire to stove my head in with the nearest available blunt object. I've hated every single Sunday of my life: this one was no different. The only lacuna of optimism came with Time Team and the prospect of early night speeding me into the new week, thereby renewing the distance between myself and Songs of Praise once more.
The post today brought a letter from my mother and train tickets for Saturday's trip to London. Worryingly, the contract for my new job still hasn't arrived and every passing day increases the doubt that an old employer has savaged me in a reference, or that some date on my application form clashes with some other on my Cheat's Visa, thus causing an alarm somewhere to flash next to a sign that reads Untrustworthy Liar! and before I know it I'll be out the door and back on the skids.
There was once a time when one of the first things I'd do of a morning - apart from reaching for the cigarettes - was to flick the radio on. That routine, like the tobacco, has long gone. Now I prefer silence, nursing a cup of coffee before taking a shower. Once I'm dressed and ready I head online, making the rounds of all the blogs and columnists I read each day. This morning I left the house slightly early, still eager to impress at work. The bus into Sheffield costs a staggering £3 return for a journey of around fifteen minutes; I really should walk instead. Onboard, I grab one of the free-sheets, flick to the back and discard it moments later. They really are risible: at lunch I buy a copy of the Independent instead.
One of the benefits of training for a new job is that invariably one is allowed to leave early and today is no different: I'm heading home just after four.
Suit yourself - I made a contribution earlier, but it clearly wasn't acceptable since it hasn't appeared ... I didn't realise you had to qualify. I thought you just wanted to know about my day ...
Wonderful Monday here in Scotland, bright sunshine and scraping ice off the car before heading out to work.
Walked son to school, best conversation of the day walking with my 10 year old to school in the morning.
Work is work and still enjoyable though telling people that we owe money to that we will pay them next week is getting more and more tedious.
Anyways first ever blog and maybe wont be the last.
Snow on the way, son so excited.
This is my first contribution to any blog.
I went out for a walk this morning and it immediately started to rain heavily. I headed straight for the only pub in town that sells old ale. I walked in, caught the barman's eye, noticed he wasn't serving anyone, put my sopping wet hat and gloves down anticipating he'd take my order, and - am I allowed to say "blow me" these days? - when I looked back he'd seen me do that and headed into the other bar (full of office types in suits) and offered to serve people who weren't even waiting. WHY? Is it cos I is a woman? Did I take my eye off the ball as it were by putting my wet things down? Did he think I was looking for someone I was meeting who I expected to buy me a drink? Did he think he'd make more money serving groups of men in suits? I think it's between (1) and (4). When a barmaid took pity and asked "are you waiting to be served?" I said "Yes. I'm desperate!" at which everyone in the bar swung round to look at me. Naturally there was no old ale. The Red River was good though.
Later I spent a few hours in a Quaker discussion group - what do we actually believe and how do we promote Quakerism? - and then came home to put my partner's weekly doses of her seven different medications into one of those wonderful 4 times of the day 7 days in the week medicine dispenser boxes. Fun.
I aAm finishing a hard earned glass of Calvados as I type. I love Five Live. Matt in the bathtub! Magic!
I went to work today! This is the first time in 4 (and 3/4) years I have worked on a Monday.
At 1:00pm I received a phone call from my son's school informing me he had had an accident and could someone please collect him and take him to hospital. In my 4 (and 3/4) years of being a mother this is the first major crisis I have had to face and I thought I was coping with it quite well until I came to reverse my car out of its parking space and realised I could not remember which way to turn the wheel. 5 sweaty minutes later I was finally on my way to A&E.
I would like to say a huge "thank you" to the nurses and radiologist who treated my (uncooperative!) son in Kettering General Hospital. They did all they could to help him understand what was going on and were infinitely patient when he refused to be x-ray'd. He was given a teddy bear - named Mr Ambulance Man - (and a sling) for being a brave boy. By the way, he has broken his collar bone.
I am now quietly decompressing with a bottle of wine and will probably spend all night lying next to my son watching him breathe - such are the pleasures of motherhood.
Reading all these very real reports from real people with real lives I wonder whether I should be joining in. I'm an artist, cartoonist, writer, blogger and Older Woman and if you combine those things with what is currently a solitary life, much of which is spent in front of my computer writing or drawing, there isn't much to tell that seems real in the way that all these other people are real. It's now 8pm in London and the last meal I had was breakfast so I'm very hungry but I'll put off eating until I've finished this. I spent the day writing emails and self-promoting blurbs which I need in order to get my new book out into the world. It's a comic/philosophical cartoon book but if I say any more about it, it will look like self-promotion, which I suppose it is, but my daily life is all about the kind of work I do so there isn't much else to talk about. I'll now go and make my dinner, read a newspaper (the Independent), watch the news (which will infuriate me as usual). post something on my blog, and by the time I move away from the computer screen it will probably be about 4am. For some reason, it's always 4am.
My first blog.
5am up and out for work at 6am. load my lorry and off to high wycombe, gosh its cold out side.
1030 ish still listening to 5 live and its time for andy murray to try and win at tennis.
back at base and sandwiches then off to heathrow. listening to radio 2 now. its all about downs syndrome children, and the love thats given to them by their parents. im in the lorry thinking how lucky i am that my daughter was o k at birth and would i have been a strong enough parent to have kept a downs baby.
the weathers really cold , lucky enough to unload in warehouse out of the wind.
1545, back at base to debrief and have a chat with other drivers as they get back from there journeys.
1700. home time and am looking forward to having the rest of my home made stew and dumplings and sherry trifle that i made yesterday.
spent the evening relaxing and writing this blog. off to bed at 9 45 pm. start the day again at 5 am,
thats my blog for 22/01/07.
It's clear to all of us now that we all need to do more to cut carbon emissions. Our family have been doing our bit for the green effort for years, but over the weekend it became clear how much of the food we eat is freighted many, many miles before it gets to us. So today me and His Nibs have decided that next week we will eat only local, seasonal food. We are now discussing what 'local' and 'seasonal' mean. Are we allowed preserved foods like pasta? Does local mean food grown in Worcestershire, food grown in Britain or food grown in Europe? The veggies among us will be fine with local eggs and cheese for protein, but how will the vegans fare without their soya? Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. We have four teenagers in the family. Two of us are vegans, three are vegetarians and one is a fish-eater. Wish us luck!
I'm watching my team, Plymouth Argyle play Coventry on Sky and we're still winning 3-2 with 15 minutes to go! I only live a stones throw from the ground and can hear the cheers from here which means I get to enjoy my nice warm real fire and still feel part of the atmosphere. hold on...shot from Norris...saved...I really believe we can go up to the Premiership this season you know.
Can you imagine the shock for the rest of the country WHEN that happens. I seriously reckon that most people believe the island stops at Bristol - Well hello World, you'd better get used to hearing the name of our great city. C'mon Argyle!
Sitting as a delegate at the Oxford Media Convention, I listened to Ch 4 telling us that "racism is a complex issue". Refusing to try to pronouce someone's surname (even if only 2 syllables) because it is "different" counts in my view as a manifestation of racism. Someone in the delegate "audience" challenged Ch 4 on this, and all they could say is they were "performing a public service" by bringing this all to light.
All what, exactly??
I have spent some of Monday trying to decide whether it is in any way worth writing to "the media".
So there it is.
I’d like to think that as a teacher, that I’m paid a professional wage for doing a professional job. Yet again, working as a supply teacher, I come to doubt that.
Today it was off to an “improving” secondary school in the South West, well that’s what the Headteacher would have you believe. He’s done well in the past year in inviting the press and TV in to show how things have been turned around. I haven’t been on supply there for over nearly two years, so I was looking to see the changes first hand. At least the welcome was organised, work and class lists ready. For the first time ever in a school, they even asked me for identification to prove who I was, and took my photo. Who knows what they will do with that. Added to some computer file somewhere I suppose.
Today it was mainly science teaching to a range of classes between years 9 and 11. Thank goodness for the teaching assistant who expectedly, but very fortunately, stayed with me all day. I don’t if it was planned, or whether she just took pity on me. I didn’t see anybody else from the faculty (not an unusual occurrence), so couldn’t ask that question. The day was so depressing. I just got in the way of the students talking about their lives and playing with their mobiles. I stood at the front at the start. I gave one class the starter about acid rain, another class one about recycling, but as I looked around I realised that few, if any, were listening. I couldn’t get their attention; not a spark. So it was straight into questions out the book. I’m sure nobody in this classroom learnt anything at all today. Behaviour was tolerable, but they just weren’t interested in learning. So on this evidence; things had got worse not better.
I know there are always be a few bad supply teachers, but most of us do the job because we really want the students to learn. I still enjoy that buzz when I know that a pupil is learning something new. However I’m really starting to wonder why I’m still doing supply after 5 years. Two years ago I got £122 for a day here; today it was only £100, then take off another £6 for petrol to get here. The agency blames the introduction of cover supervisors in schools, but I bet they’re still charging the schools as much, if not more. Most supply teachers are in a union, but they do little for us. At least in the past, if job satisfaction was poor, then at least I could keeping myself happy by doing some mental maths to work out how much I’d just earned by working with that awful class. I did some coach driving in the past and now I wondering whether to do it part-time again. Sure the money is less, but it’s an honest day’s work, and just driving up and down the motorway at 62 mph does have some attractions. No constant moaning from students, no lining the pockets of the agency on my hard work!
so i am back home after a long day!!!. As usual the day flew past and had to deal with the same stuff. thankfully i wont be back at work for another 6-7 hours, here at home i can be treated with some respect and dignity unlike at work where the "jade Goody" syndrome rules - you know what i mean - racial discrimination.
i remember when i started law school in sept 2005, one of the top guys said to be "With your age and the kind of name that you have, i will rather go back to my country" this played on my mind for the whole session, the only reason i did not withdraw then was that i would have to pay the fees irrespective.
Jade is just a scapegoat for what is seemingly pervasive in this society and probably the going to get worse before being better.
take a look at the level of graduates from the universities and what number of them get job in their area of training.
i marvel when you interview those who have never been at the receiving end to give opinion on the matter.
Please do me a favour ask someone like me or people who have been to law school but cannot get training contract - "all dressed up and nowhere to go"
have a good day
thanks
I got to spend time with my children tonight.
Hurrah, usually work hours dont allow it!
I used to hate Mondays after working them for 35 years, but now Mondays are a day off so I just mooch about wishing I could give up work altogether. I listen to Five Live and get cross that this government seems to have well and truly feathered its own nest while an 18 year old soldier has died today in Iraq. I think of my own two sons, 21 and 24. Would Blair have sent his sons to war? During the course of my work I often have to make decisions which I have arrived at by asking myself 'What if it was my family?' And, lo, if you do this, it usually works best for all concerned.
I've got holiday brochures all over the place trying to tie anything in that looks attractive with my holiday entitlement. Never works. Looks good, but then you think that's half term so X will want that.I love walking holidays and so I scour the Manchester departures for the Ramblers.Hated the security measures last September so the Lake District is back in fashion with me.The dog agrees.
hi at 13:30 pm today I set of to go to college to revise for a course I am doing on a Wedensday night called A+ Computers also I went in early to get prepared for my course in Wordprocessing tonight and will be taking my exam next week. Will be doing some more revising for the A+ exam now that I am at home at 23:09pm thanks and have a good night on the 22nd January 2007
I've just realised that I am 10 minutes too late for this historic event but will contribute anyway as I have never done anything like this before.. I have endured five years of depression after having a breakdown - caused by being a divorce and litigation solicitor and being too caring. Today I volunteered to work at the local Citizens Advice Bureau so am feeling very proud of myself AND on the most depressing day of the year. Thank you for letting me share this with you because this may be the beginning of my new life!!
Twenty-five years ago on Jan 22 my partner and I were on our way, in a town (Chelmsford) that we were not familiar with, to get married at the Register Office. Neither of us really knew the way but I pretended I did so that my now wife, Dianne, would not panic. I had come over from Fiji where we had met and where Di was a VSO. I went back two days later to prepare a home where Di joined me four months later.
We celebrated most of this last weekend with our son, Thomas, our very good friends Sue and Phil, our Australian rellies, nephew Ravi and his wife Sarah, who are travelling and working in the UK this year, and our Welsh family.
Today was also remarkable because a nearly overexcited Sarah, who has spent all of her life in Queensland, finally found the snow that she has been hoping, hoping, hoping for, even though they were the most tiny, minuscule flakes in a shower that lasted all of about five minutes. We are looking forward to more.
Late late night after long long day. They say it was the most depressing of the year. Agreed. There seems to be a bug going around, and it's found me. Chesty cough and struggling to keep the temperature down, but had to struggle on regardless. Ordered skip today to clear away the debris from my garden after the storms. One of my trees - 40ft Eucalyptus - was blown down narrowly avoiding serious damage. The tree surgeon who came to cut it up had five crews working flat out - racing all over the area. He said one team were felling a Poplar precariously hanging over a childrens playground, and at another site five fir trees had been seriously weakened and were threatening to fall on to a main road. He looked tired and fed up.But he's certainly better off.It's an ill wind that provides cash in hand.
I only moved into my house before Christmas after a year of renovation misery. Builders these days are spoilt for choice. Hard to find anyone who will do a decent job for fair pay. All the ones I employed were shoddy and greedy. Whole experience has made me think about moving on - but interest rates are going up and it's hard to believe that prices in the housing market can still keep rising. Surely the bubble must burst?
Not a good time to be middle aged and in debt. This should be the best time of my life shouldn't it?
Enjoyed the last 20 minutes of the show, driving home from work where i've been since 10am. I run a pub, and that's been my life for the past 6 years. Today I asked my Landlords to take it back off me because the Revenue are close to making me bankrupt. Yippee! I can get my life back. What is the point in being self-employed when all you do is make just enough money to keep the Revenue, the Council, the Bank, the Vat, the Pubco, the PRS, insurance companies, and all the other Regulatory and Licensing Authorities in business, when none of them PRODUCE ANYTHING other than grief and expense for those trying to make a living! AND they all get a Pension out of us! Let's hear it for the self-employed... the REAL backbone of Britain.
Sitting here at night ready to record Five Live breakfast just before I go to bed. It's a daily ritual for me. In the morning, I dump it on to my ipod and head to work in Brooklyn, NYC. Living in the US is so much more bearable these days with BBC Radio on demand. But it would be so much easier if you PODCAST THE SHOW!!
It is 07:20 and I am sat in my very cold office near Gibraltar listening to Five Live on the internet, anyone who thinks that it is always nice and warm here on the Costa del Sol needs to re-think. I am here due to work transferred from West Africa and this is my second winter here and hopefully my last as I have never been so cold, give me the sweaty heat of West Central Africa anytime. I am not African I am British and my blood is now thin. So if you have a dream of coming over to live your dream come over here in the winter and let the cold eat you for a few months before you make up your mind. If you think I am mad well think about this the houses here are built to keep heat out and are cold inside homes in the UK are built to keep heat in and the cold out, in the UK you go from a warm house into the cold here you go from a cold house into the heat. When winter arrives the houses here become colder inside than it is outside as they have cold stone/tiled floors walk around the house bare foot this time of year is painful and houses like mine on the beach become damp as well as cold. Open fires that stink the house out and oil heaters and electric blankets are a must. Other than that when the sun does come out you will not get a lovelier day, it is warm between eleven and four o-clock before the temperature quickly drops and it’s time to wrap up and try and keep warm. I see in the UK that the artic weather is about to hit so good luck and keep warm and when you are inside your centrally heated house all cosy and warm think of me freezing here in my house on the beach looking out over the Mediterranean watching the surf break through double glazed windows keeping the damp and cold out, brings a tear to your eye doesn’t it.
Well, it's minus one degree outside and it looks like my neighbour has left her young cats outside all night - again. All I can do is give them some nourishing cat food as they look so hungry.
Why are people checked out if they want to adopt children - yet can get cute little kittens that soon get older & then just leave them out all night. I'd better get on with feeding Tia & Tigger - the ASBO Kittens!
Monday Jan 22nd
I've met the first man in ages who makes me spark. After countless chemistry-free dates Ive finally hit the jackpot but.. and there always is a but he is currently seeing someone else. He knows how I feel and now I've got to wait for him to decide who he wants more. Not contacting him is killing me so its distraction therapy all the way. Why can't I meet someone where everything is straight forward? Why does it have to be so hard...?
Its 8.05, and I've been sitting in my site office since 6:15 preparing for a meeting with clients at 9:30. We are 10 weeks behind on this contract, and not looking forward to the argy bargy of claim and counter claim with client on who is pays for what delay.
Wasn't blue on Blue Monday, but feeling a bit down on Tuesday, as my first ever blog wasn't put up on the site.
Must have been too rubbish, I suppose.
Ah, well...
Good morning January 23rd. You have finally arrived. Every year I wait for this day because it is either Neil Diamond or Janet Gold's birthday. Evrybody knows Neil Diamond but not many know that Janet Gold was my first love. I could just 'Google' Neil's birthday but that would spoil it because every year I can think of both people for 2 days and not one.
Happy Birthday Neil and Janet.
Roll on 2008.
Just been reading yesterdays blogs and I have never done one before, so here goes! I dread Monday mornings because it heralds the beginning of another week when I see my husband off to work knowing that he is having a 'relationship' with a woman at the University where he works which he refuses to admit to, refuses to speak truthfully about and I cannot prove! All arranged by text!!
However this week is different because I have decided to take the bull by the horns (pun) and do something about it!
Watch this space and wish me luck.
Same old boring Monday morning, made Liz and Charlie their packed lunches and packed them off. Will fussed about getting dressed but eventually I got him off to nursery. Went to Somerfield to pick up a few bits, what a crap hole it is like the village of the damned. Droopped the shopping home,typed out the consent forms for the Cubs trip away, must find the invoice thouigh, I have to send off 700 quid but can't remember the exact amount. If it is not paid ontime I will have 25 disappointed cubs and a bundle of furious parents who were all planning a child free weekend.
Picked Will up he was all smiles when I arrived but as he tried to get to me another kid pushed him and I ended up carrying him home sobbing.
Made him some lunch, put cars on and he soon perked up.
Went into Sainsburys this afternoon to change the stuff Liz's Mum bought for Will that was too small. Of course Sainsburys had sold out so I got a refund and Will insisted on having some Dr Who socks.
Charlie arrived home from school dragging a black bin bag behind him and wearing a black bomber jacket that his teacher loaned him, some kind soul put Charlies coat down the toilet.
Stripped our bed, put the washing on, then realised I should have washed Charlies coat first.
Fed the kids, cooked some chicken for Liz and made her some couscous. Got changed for cubs.
Liz got in said she didn't want couscous.
The kids at cubs all buggered about for an hour and a half, one of them turned up in his school uniform wearing a house captain badge, I think he must of stolen it, either that or his teacher is really stupid, I wouldn't leave him in charge of handing out biscuits.
Got home from cubs, made a brew, did a bit of ironing. I wanted to watch Fat men cant hunt, but as soon as I pured a glass of Rum and sat down Liz started calling. Will had thrown up and his bed needed changing. She changed him, I changed the bed. Came downstairs to find Will watching Winnie the Pooh, so much for my chance to unwind. Liz went to get a towel incase Will was sick againn but was too slow. By the time she got back he had thrown up all over me and the sofa, DEEP JOY.
It is 11:30 Liz and Will have gone back to bed, I can have a drink at last, sat in the garden for a smoke, oh boy it was freezing, I must be mad. Watered the plants with the rainwater that I had collected from the garden and poured another drink. Put the midnight news on the tele, nothing but crap everywher, Iraq, Afghanistan and channel 4 Some stupid tart has said we should bring back slavery, bloody hell there is someone even stupider than Jade Goody, you couldn't make this up. Some rubbish about MP's being arrested for rewarding their mates, yeah it stinks but be honest, who wouldn't ?
Another day of unemployment on the council estate. Hope fades away day by day and you begin to understand why they call these places sink estates. This place has invisible walls. YOU CAN CHECK OUT ANY TIME YOU LIKE BUT YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE.
Realising ,after having read many of the blogs how brilliantly lucky I am to have the life I have. Found love the second time around at 55 and now live in Cumbria and am extremely happy.
It's a brilliant winters day here, cold, sharp, with blue sky and sun. The fells are dusted with snow and we'll be out there tomorrow getting our weekly fix of this delightful area.
Lif is great.
After fighting my way through the traffic for another day at work, I then found out that I HATE COMPUTERS! Why do they just break?!
Woke this week with the same feeling of dread I get every week. Everyone tells me how lucky I am to have a job that fits so well around the children (school hours 4 days a week only in term time). But I'm only lucky if I actually like the job I'm doing!!!
Love most other aspects of my life but this area of it sucks. I want something with a sense of job satisfaction even with a dodgy salary. I need a careers officer for the late 30ths!
I've just spent last hour reading what everyone has written. What a fnatastic idea this was! Today I am putting off housework I am the world's greatest procrastinator. very disappointed that Andy Murray couldn't progress in Austrralian Open the final outcome did not reflect his effort and achievement. Incredible. I do not have an interesting life but grateful for my health although my husband and I both registered blind there are plenty worse off than we are. Happy day to all reading this.
I listened with great interest to the blogs read out on five live yesterday, so i thought i would write my first blog retrospectively.
Woke at 6, tea and cereal, drssed and out of the door by 6.30.
I had to walk half a mile in to the village to retrive my car which had been left in the snow from the night before.
Having driven 15 or so miles, my day started at South Manchester University hospital, where i am a student Operating Department Practitoner in theatres.
I am currently on an obstetric anaesthesia placement, so my monday the 22nd saw the cesarean birth of a little girl to very proud parents.
My day concluded with a work out on my bike's indoor trainer, whilst playing very loud music. Then a bath, some dinner, a little reading and lights out ready to start all over again tommorow
I heard that Monday the 22nd January would be the most depressing day of the year. Well as I set out to work yesterday morning, I looked at the sky it was dull and raining, traffic jams everywhere, people in a hurry, and I thought OK its dull etc... but I am alive to see this, I am alive to hear the rain on the windscreen, and I felt really happy. Suddenly I turned the corner, the car cut out, and there I was stranded. I waited for the breakdown people. I was towed to a garage and I was given the bad news it was the cam-belt had snapped and the valves were ruined.
The bill for the job is £725.00, am I still happy... NOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I broke my leg and ankle last september following an accident at work. I had three months of plastercasts, hopping around on crutchs, hospital appointments and x rays and an enforced stay at my dads house.
I am now back home and finally got the OK to drive my car. Indeed the physiotherapist says that this will count as exercise to strengthen my leg and ankle. On Monday I got back behind the wheel. I was apprehensive and wondered if I would forget but thankfully do not appear to have lost the ability and was able to drive around. It is wonderful after the months of being totally dependent on other people to be independent again and life can get back to something like normal.
Thanks Dad by the way for everything
today was a perticularly nice day. after hearing anita arnim talking about the most depressing day, i woke up tuesday to a lovely winters day, sun shining and the nice crisp air that only a winters day in england can give.
an omlette cob and a shwower later i headed into town to have strole round to look at the world go by.
then met my mum as i was having a tea at hers, if your interested then we ate poached cod in milk and mushy peas and potatoe wedges. mmmmmmmm.
A Very Modern Obsessive
(My Monday)
7:16 - My radio alarm turns on. It says 7:20 because I set it 4 minutes fast. I try to force myself out of bed because I want to get in the bathroom before another guy or I maybe late for work, but the room is very cold because I leave the window open at night in case my room smells and to stop it from getting musty.
7:30 - I go downstairs and have a large glass of lemon with warm water with a bit of honey in it. I am grateful that no one else is downstairs to see me do this. I have to drink lemon every morning and night to detox my liver and cleanse my body so I don't smell or get spots.
7:40 - Someone got to the bathroom before me. Since waking I have been anxious that I do not need to move my bowels like I do when I wake most mornings. If I don't maintain regularity then my body will become more toxic and I risk getting, or worsening, body odor, bad breath and acne. Eventually, I do manage to go to the toilet, without straining, and while I do not feel as empty as I usually do, my stomach does not feel uncomfortable, which is good. I hope that I go again later in the day.
8:10 - I shower, finishing with a freezing cold blast to my face and head to increase the blood flow to help battle acne and hair loss, and apply a natural, salt based deodorant to my armpits.
8:30 - I go downstairs to make breakfast which will be porridge with rice milk and water, with a bit of honey. I feel uncomfortable and embarressed that there are other people around to see me making this. I take the porridge upstairs when it is ready to add cinnamon and relax while I eat it with nobody else around. I take cod liver oil and calcium supplements. I would prefer to take actual cod liver oil because the supplements may be rancid and there would be no way of telling, but this is infeasible in my current situation as I do not want anyone to see. I apply Lynx deodorant and dress for work, resisting the temptation to redo my tie.
9:10 - I arrive at work late but it is ok because the first lecture has not started yet. Someone says I look ill, but whilst I feel tierd, I do not feel ill. The tiredness increases throughout the morning and I am struggling by lunch time. I manage to find time to eat a satsuma sometime around 11:30, but I am getting very hungry even though I still feel bloated from breakfast.
12:30 - Lunch. I go home to eat. My mum brought me normal bread over the weekend instead of gluten free bread so I have three slices of that alone in my room. One slice with honey and the other two with cashew nut butter. The nut butter tastes amazing, presumeably because I crave fat. I am still hungry. I go to the health food shop and buy an apple flapjack and some rye bread for later on in the week. The rye bread is still gluten based but I don't just want to eat the gluten free bread because it contains soya and is expensive. I think the bacne and chest acne I have been getting recently is because of my increased gluten intake, but it is so difficult to stick to a gluten free diet without compromising your life or looking weird. It would be ok if I was celiac because then I would have a valid excuse, I have thought about lying about this, but that would involve avoiding people seeing when I DO eat wheat/gluten.
1:00 - I go back to work to relax and eat the flapjack whilst browsing the internet. Two guys are having a conversation about girls behind me. I wish I had the confidence to talk about girls like this with other guys, but I am a 23-year-old who has never had a proper girlfriend. I am still hungry after the flapjack so I go and buy a packet of crisps. I deliberately do not look at the ingredients on the crisps or flapjack so I don't know all of the ingredients (hydrgenated oils, sugar etc).
4:00 - I leave work a bit early because I have done everything for today. Today is a write off in terms of eating well, so during the afternoon I have hatched a plan to eat cashews tonight. I go to the co-op to buy 200g of roasted (bad, but they taste amazing) and salted (!) cashews. I consider not putting them in my bag after purchasing, but I do and I am glad because one of the guys I live with passes me as I am leaving. It is strange that despite my lunch I haven't had much wind this afternoon.
4:10 - When I get home there is no one in the kitchen so I seize my opportunity to have a large glass of lemon and warm water. I try to phone the doctor to get an appointment about my tiredness, cold hands and feet, urinary frequency and hair loss, but they say I need proof of address because I am not registered with them. I will have to get proof of address tomorrrow. I hold off eating for a good while and play Phoenix Wright and do some work.
6:30 - I go downstairs to get the leftover Quinoa pilaf I made two days ago, there is not much but the cashews on their own won't be enough. I take the Quinoa up to my room and eat it cold. It tastes ok. I then tuck into the 200g of cashews. They taste amazing. I am getting full about 2/3 of the way down and make a small effort to stop but I can't so I finish the whole bag. Despite overeating, I do not feel that bad for the rest of the night, quite a bit bloated, but no pain.
8:00 - I put Manuka Honey on my face to help with keep my skin relatively clear and leave it there for about half an hour. I try to do this 4/5 times a week at least. I phone my mum but the conversation is quite awkward, mainly because I don't say much and my mum says stupid things to make the conversation more awkward. After the fourth or fifth time my mum has said "I can't think of anything else" we end the conversation.
8:30 - I pee three times in about 1 1/2 hours and this makes me worry about my kidneys. I have been to the doctor about this before, but he didn't seem that interested and my urine sample came back from the hospital with the all clear. I guess they don't suspect prostate problems with guys my age.
9:00 - I want to go downstairs to make lemon and warm water but there are people downstairs and I have spent so long in my room now that I do not feel like going downstairs. I play guitar for a bit, mumbling an Owen song. I try to write a song in the style of Owen about people saying I look ill, but it goes nowhere. Eventually, the cost is clear to head to the kitchen.
9:45 - I lie in bed, listen to the radio and play Fire Emblem. I am getting a headache, possibley to do with the starving myself - minor binging antics.
11:00 - I cannot sleep. I am usually very tired by this point, but the food I have eaten today has given me more energy than usual.
11:30 - I think up the idea for this blog and this makes me a little excited and anxious, which keeps me awake. Will I still think it's a good idea tomorrow? I think I often have ideas which inititally I am enthusiastic about, but I quickly lose the motivation and don't follow them through.
00:05 - I find my torch and some paper and write the first part of this blog. I use a torch in moments like this to avoid turning the light on and waking myself up even more. I briefly jot down the rest of the ideas. I worry about being tried tomorrow.
Meant to write a comment yesterday but was a bit disheartened when I got home. I'm trying to find a publisher for a book I've written (the first in what I hope will be a long line). When I got in last night I found a rejection slip (not the first) and I start to wonder if it's worth it. Today I'm more philosophical and I'll get it ready to send out again later in the week. An author of 20 odd books (it wouldn't be right to name them here) who has been very supportive to me tells me it's horses for courses and has given me the name of another agent that I should try.
After reading the other entries I felt ashamed to have had such a strop on last night. There are people out there with real problems.
Started the week not knowing if I still had a job or not. Work has been in administration since last November but agreed a CVA with creditors on Friday. We were told that the firm would come out of administration on Friday, then it was Monday, then Monday evening. Now Tuesday evening and still in administration ! Oh, and payday has been 'delayed' a week ! FD advised everyone to make "alternative financial arrangements" - the arrogance. Payday is my (and everyones) financial arrangement !
Anyhow jumped on the push bike this morning as usual in -2C temp. Waved to 3 loppipop ladies, cycled past lots of stationary traffic and smiled at the christina aguilera lookalike at the busstop (I'm old enough to be her dad)! Felt fine and in good spirits by the time I started work.
22nd was a great day. My Birthday. After 62 years on this planet life just keeps getting better.
Ok, yesterday I sent my first text, today I'm blogging. I have to tell you about EPPCIC because I listen to so many stories and think they need to do a self-management course. EPP is Expert Patients Programme. Available throughout the country, it runs various kinds of SM courses, lasting usually 6 weeks and led by trained volunteers who are supported by EPP staff, like myself. CIC stands for Community Interest Company (ask Andy or Mickey). EPP has just moved out of NHS (October '06) to become a self-sustaining organisation hopefully- it is part of NHS privatisation, and in this case good!
Courses are for people who live with Long-term conditions, it started off as generic, for any LTC. From that basic course others are being developed based on the same principles. Some pilot courses have been run with a group of substance mis-users. It works if the people really want to change.
By the way I live with MS and self-management keeps me healthy, or at least as healthy enough for me to be happy!
I have Asperger Syndrome. Today is really exciting because I have a visit from the National Autistic Society who are coming to assess me for their befriending scheme. As someone with AS I'm almost totally socially isolated, I don't mix very easily with people and always seem to misinterpret the communication of others and so I've been waiting to be placed on the befriender's scheme for over a year now. The scheme is staffed by volunteers but most of them prefer to work with children with Autistic Spectrum disorders and not with adults (I'm an adult!), however, they've finally found someone who might suit me and so I am going to meet them today.
AS is a strange syndrome, I was refused a Social Worker because the Learning Disabilities Team (who deal with ASD's) won't take on people with Asperger's as they don't consider it a proper learning disability, and the mental health team won't take me on because AS is a neuro-biological condition! So, I've really had no support whatsoever.
I get really nervous about meeting people and so I've been up since 5.30 am getting ready for their visit! I'm really tired now!!
They're not due to come until 10am and so I'm hoping that I don't fall asleep before they arrive!
It would be so good to have some company and so I'm really hopeful that this will work out.
One Drummer, One Leg, No Problem!
Ian has been playing the drums for three years. He started off like most people with a cheap but cheerful kit, which we up-graded with better hard ware as time went on. When Ian turned sixteen we got a new kit and invested in lessons. Ian has always been keen and the lessons seemed to be paying off with offers of auditions for local bands.
Just after Ian’s 17th birthday Ian started to complain about a painful left lower leg. We had this checked out and where told it was just the last of his growing. But in July 2003 things became so bad we went to A&E and where told that Ian had a “sinister lump” attached to his fibular. Further investigations at the Royal Birmingham Orthopaedic Hospital, confirmed our worst fears, Ian had oasteo sarcoma which is a type of hard bone tumour. As you can imagine this was devastating news.
Ian started chemotherapy in September 2003. This quickly took its toll, with Ian becoming very tired and extremely ill. But, with all this happening, he never stopped playing. Granted the all day sessions where out of the question but 20 to 30 minutes was better than nothing.
Then in November 2003 things took a turn for the worse. Although the tumour had been killed by the chemo it had not shrunk enough. The Doctors said they could not save Ian’s leg and an above the knee amputation was the only option left. On the 19th December 2003 Ian under went surgery at the hospital in Birmingham. The Doctors said Ian would be in Hospital for between 7 to 10 days, which meant him staying in over Christmas! Ian was adamant he would not be away from his family over Christmas and through his own determination was released from hospital on the 23rd December!
The New Year brought new challenges. Ian’s balance had been seriously affected. The hi-hat was unusable and the double pedals where out! So off we went to Andy’s drum clinic. And sure enough Andy got hold of a Dullist pedal, so normal Metal service was resumed, and a new stool like an old fashioned bike seat, so no more over balancing.
So Ian kept playing and the Doctors kept poisoning him with chemo. Ian spent his 18th birthday in hospital, no pub, no cake and no drums, but there was always tomorrow. In March 2004 we where told that Ian had been accepted on the Make-a-wish foundation’s books. The foundation tries to grant wishes, to children and young people who are facing a life threatening disease or illness.
Ian thought long and hard on what he would ask for but we thought this chance had come to late as we twice faced the prospect of losing Ian. Only Ian’s determination and the skill and dedication of all the staff on the Teenage Cancer Trust ward at Alder Hey kept Ian on this side of life.
Ian made his wish and waited for the day to arrive, but he was to be disappointed on three occasions due to being to ill to travel. We made the decision to postpone the wish until he had finished chemo. This he did in June 2004, and the wish was scheduled for October. Four months of not being poisoned, eating everything in sight and playing for up to an hour a day had put Ian in a great frame of mind and body.
So the day finally arrived. We set off for Washington DC! We arrived on the 15th with the actual wish to take place on the Sunday 17th.
The wish day arrived and so did the limo to take us to the MCI centre to meet Ian’s hero Lars Ulrich and the other members of Metallica. The evening was fantastic with the highlight being Ian playing the kit Lars used on the loaded tour and jamming with Robert Trujillo!
Nothing will take that image from my memory. Ian has not looked so happy in a very long time. The band were great! They freely gave their time and encouragement to Ian. This has given Ian so much confidence.
So we are now going forward with renewed determination to get Ian as independent as possible. His new leg has enabled him to get some use of the hi-hat again and once more the possibility of further lessons is being discussed. Ian hopes to return to college in the New Year to study music and is looking forward to playing with new people. Lets face it if he can play with Robert Trujillo he should have no problem with his classmates.
I wrote this some time ago and lukly Ian has remained fit and well and did return to college. He had a review appointment today and was given the all clear for another 12 months. Life goes on, the drumming goes on and we wouldn't have it any other way.
Ian Hannah snr.
Today I went with my mother-in-law to court to support my sister-in-law. (I'm not naming anything that may connect this post with the defendant for legal reasons). The case was the trial of a man who was charged with causing the death of my sister-in-law's fiance as a result of Dangerous Driving. Today we were to learn the verdict. Driving in I was disturbed to hear on 5 Live that this wonderful government, so hot on punishing criminals, was sending a communique out to all Magistrates and Judges to not send people found guilty to jail. You can imagine how we all felt? The good news for us, he was found guilty. The even better news, he is to get a term in prison. The defendant's family were most upset at loosing him. In a few years they will get him back. My sister-in-law will never see her fiance again.
Well, yesterday I blogged that I was waiting for a visit from the National Autistic Society befriending scheme.
They arrived exactly on time at 10am which was great as I hate people turning up early or late! The lady is who going to befriend me is great, about my age and with similar interests. She also has a car which we could go out in and this is a big excitement for me! She decided that she definitely would like to become my befriender and she will start visiting me tomorrow, Friday. She had a lot of suggestions as to things we could do and places we could go to. She also had a great sense of humour and so I think we're going to get along very well.
The car thing is funny in a way. I love going out in cars but I am totally incapable of learning to drive! It brings back memories of a driving test I took when I was 17. The examiner asked me to take the next left and so I turned into someone's driveway (which, as it turned out, wasn't exactly what he'd meant!) It's indicative of Asperger Syndrome though, personally I find multi-tasking almost impossible, I like to do one thing at a time and find myself getting very confused indeed if I try to do several things at once. So, in all, it's far safer for me to be a passenger than to inflict myself upon an unsuspecting driving public as a driver!
The other good news is that I might be going to get a Tenancy Support Worker. Once again, this has NOT come from any statutory service, it comes from a charity called The Innovate Trust. They help people with various disabilities (including Autistic Spectrum Disorders) with a variety of things including assisting with finding employment. I have previously been unable to register with Innovate because, as I said in my first post, I don't have a Social Worker and Innovate require a Social Work referral in the first instance. However, luckily for me, one of their workers has been very helpful to me and suddenly came up with the idea that maybe I could have a tenancy support worker. I now have to wait until Tuesday when someone from the local council is coming to assess me to see whether or not they are happy for Innovate to offer me tenancy support (a bit of a weird way of doing it but they, apparently, have to assess you first in order to agree that Innovate are allowed to help me). I'm very hopeful about this too. My rent was recently increased and the local Housing Benefit are refusing to pay the increase (which I'm entitled to) because they 'only assess rents once a year and my rent increase was notified AFTER they had done their yearly review' (although I did notify them immediately I became aware that it was to be increased), however I believe that I might be entitled to some help via a Discretionary Payment from the council but I would obviously need some help in sorting that out and, without anyone to advise me, it's rather difficult to know how to sort it all out.
The DSS are now reassessing my sickness benefit (something they do every now and then) and that will be my next battle. I've pointed out to them that they need to send a doctor to my house for the assessment (something which they have always done before) but they claim that they no longer do that. I then pointed out that part of the reason I was off sick was because I found it so difficult to go out. They were not impressed. Anyway, I dutifully filled in all of their forms (heaven knows what I would have done if I wasn't able to fill in the forms myself) and await anxiously the next move from them.
The next big hurdle will be the re-assessment of my Disability Living Allowance. I have to admit that I've never really had any problems with the DLA people, but it still worries me.
Most of this comes down to the fact that I have no statutory support. If I had a Social Worker then I would have someone to represent me and to assist me in dealing with these things but, as it is, I don't. I even had to pay to see a Consultant privately as my GP did not think that someone with AS really needed medical input. In fact, in a way, my GP was right, I'm not ill in a conventional way, but without input from the statutory services then I'm really left alone with no possibility of help. My ex-GP is another story (the 'ex' will give you a clue, she threw me off her list as she 'found my attitude unacceptable' but she didn't follow the rules, GP's are meant to give you 14 days notice of this (I discovered later) in order that you are able to get repeat prescriptions etc. before you are removed. This did not happen in my case. I wrote in for my repeat prescription and received a letter back informing me that my 'attitude' (I'd only ever seen her once) was unacceptable and so I'd been chucked off the list. Interestingly enough, she did that directly after receiving from me a card especially designed for GP's explaining about AS, I had asked for the very first appointment as I find it very, very difficult to sit in a waiting room full of people, I was refused this request). I could, of course, have made an official complaint, but how would that look? To be chucked off a list and also to have made a formal complaint... not good. So, I still have no GP.
Trouble is, people like me are easy to push aside, I hate the telephone and I'm not good at talking to people I don't know and so, each time something happens, such as my housing benefit issue, I just have to sit here and take it. There really isn't anything else I can do about it.
What makes me annoyed is that I've never lied about my condition, I've never made it sound worse than it is, I've never tried to fool anybody about anything and yet it's me who sits here, every day, terrified to see what the post will bring and worried about whether or not I'll be able to continue living in the same place if I lose my benefits.
Oh well, at least I've now got a befriender and so I'll have someone to talk it all over with.
No chance of 22nd January being the most depressing day of the year. At 12:08pm, our second child, a beautiful baby girl, arrived. Sophie Charlotte weighed 7lbs 14oz, and has loads of black hair. She was delivered at St Mary's Hospital, Portsmouth, right next to Fratton Park (is there a football ground in the UK closer to a hospital than 400m?). The midwife, from Co. Tyrone, was brilliant, and the maternity care was professional and appropriate - good for them. Our son Ben, aged 3 1/2, is smitten with Sophie, especially as she 'gave' him a new Bob the Builder toy!
With his patience, love and understanding my long suffering partner has succeeded today in bringing me down from my mania which this time lasted for around 36 hours. I love him so and wish that I could control this for both our sakes. I am physically ill now as a result of years of suffering what would termed by the profession as a 'mild' mental disorder. I long to be more useful. Nuture your children for they are so fragile.
Great. Thanks! scazado