New kindle.

Today, being my day off I did absolutely nothing. I did however aim to get up out of bed for 8am as I was expecting a delivery and I did not want to miss it.

Last night I'd gotten an email which set my excitement building. Later in the evening I got a text message to let me know what time (roughly) it would be arriving. I did not need to get up so early after all.

So, by midday, my new kindle paper-white and a lovely new deep purple case to go with it, arrived. A new era in reading has begun.

I hope to be able to get some money selling on my kindle keyboard, and that is how I'm justifying it to myself.

Filming tomorrow. Another night getting some pages done on Prime Directive. A trip to Locks Heath it is for me then. I'm considering going straight there from work, as otherwise I only get home and have to leave again to go get the train.

Tomorrow, all being well, will be the first time Sarah has been able to attend filming. Sadly due to her hurting her foot, and to the silly hours she's having to work at the moment she hasn't been to the other filming nights.

Anyway. Sorry, I'm not sitting here making more blog entry, I have a book to read on my kindle. (Which in case you wondered is Dominion, by C J Sansom)

Democracy in action ?

Last Monday, I went with my dad to a meeting of the residents of the development that we live on.

I find it interesting that there's something of a similarity of the meetings we have at work in that, you have lots of differing people going there hoping of pursue their own agenda or viewpoint, and that everyone else will agree with them too. Sadly the reality is that people spend much more time disagreeing on the differences than they do making any real progress on the things they do agree on.

There was, as expected a lot of emotion attached to the problems with parking on site. People very upset that there is not enough room for them to park their second car. This I guess is a problem for lots of people, being that all the properties have at least two bedrooms, some of them three or four bedroom houses. As their children get older, they will want cars, and somewhere to park them. That's without even considering that most households would have two working adults, and therefore need at least two spaces anyway.

Some of the people seemed to be surprised about the amount of parking there was for their properties. Can't understand this myself. Did they not look at the plans when they brought their home ? They quite clearly showed that there wasn't going to be any street parking, and that all but a few properties have only one parking space.

Also. What would they be doing were they to live elsewhere in the city ? Unless they had a double fronted house, or one with a long driveway they would only have room for one car on their own property, and for any others be struggling to find a space in the crowded streets.

Not being attached to, or dependant on a car does give you a different view on things, it also has the effect, maybe of making you a lot less selfish. MY car. MY parking space. MY right. No ?

The other thing that got the masses into a lather was the revelation that the childrens' play area that is soon to be built as part of the last phase of construction, and that it is for the use of local children, not just the ones that live on the development.

This really seemed to put the cat amongst the pigeons, with people getting indignant that the local children get to use the facilities, such as they will be, without having to contribute anything toward the cost. Scare stories of how the play park would be wrecked within a week and that parents driving to it, would block up the roads trying to desperately get to it.

All of these rather dismal assumptions based on the ignorance of the fact that there is a perfectly good play park just 100 yards away, behind the infant school, that rarely gets used as it is.

It's amazing how worked up people get over pretty simple, insignificant things. How they will devote their time and energy to pretty pointless exploits, drowning in the illusion of control, when the real things, the big issues go on without comment action or emotion.

Well that's a short one...

Share your germs with me will you ?

I'm all for this caring and sharing lark, but not so enamoured with the sharing of germs and not caring who you infect. Being not completely well is not a state I take to lightly. I don't enjoy finding it hard to breathe, or having to blow my nose repeatedly, or feel groggy, lethargic and weighed down by my own body's efforts to win a bacterial war with whatever dastardly virus has deigned to infect me. My very bones aching, giving me unwanted appreciation of my deteriorating years.

No. Don't like it one bit.

I suppose however, that all the things I have mentioned above are the result of my body fighting the infection. The symptoms present, as it were, from my immune system waging war. The alternative, when you put it like that is pretty clear.

Let your body, your immune system do its thing. Help it if you can. But don't bitch when it's literally trying to save your life that you feel a tad uncomfortable.

I've felt progressively shit since about Sunday. Today I rounded the corner. Having woken up in a similar state of dread and lethargy as the previous day, I am actually surprised to find that I am as well as I am this evening. This simple, and silly things that our mothers tell us, we ignore at our peril. Get some rest. Drink lots of fluids. Eat fruit. Have soup.

I have done all of these, though not probably in that order (eating soup whilst asleep is not to be recommended, and most Doctors, in fact would strongly advise against it). Monday night I went to bed at 8:30pm. I haven't been to bed that early since I was nine years old. Okay, I haven't been to bed that early, alone, since I was nine years old.

Hot blackcurrant drink, cold / flu paracetamol, hot chicken soup, marmite toast... and fruit. Yes fruit. Ah the daily banana. All these things, and despite that part of me each of the last two mornings saying 'go back to bed, ring in sick... nice warm bed...' I haven't done so. I have to be honest the thought of getting into trouble at work was not the motivation for deciding not to wimp out.

I just hate, hate, hate, hate, daytime television. I can be miserable and ill at work, I don't need to limit that state to the flat. It's hardly fair on the cats now is it.

My daughter asked yesterday if her friend could stay over at the weekend. I am glad that I am recovered(ing). I never had sleepovers when I was a kid. No one other than someone I was related to stayed over at my house. My childhood was much the poorer for it, I think.

The recovery also means that I was probably right to cancel the JFDI filming slot I had planned for tonight, but that I am healthy enough to go to Beacon for start of filming of 'Prime Directive'. Not that I have learned any of my lines.

I have however taken great pains to highlight some of them on the kindle app on my ipad. Surprisingly useful for line learning.

I've found the week a mix bag of elation, excitement, tedium and excrement so far. Monday being the high point, where I purposely did not turn on my computer until the afternoon, asking one of the other managers to get all the morning stats n shit off for me. I find it all too easy to get caught up with the minutia of endless shite that is my email inbox at work. There really never is an end to it, and it gets me frustrated. Frustrated because what I really, really, love doing is spending time out with my team. Quality time helping and praising my team. They really are a lovely bunch, and I absolutely love them for what they do, and who they are. I just hate all the bullshit stuff that stops me spending more time with them.

Strangely all the stuff that comes with being a manager, stops you being a manager.

Rock n fucking roll babe.

Okay, so perhaps the 'create one thing ever day' stuff hasn't worked as well as I had hoped. In my defence, I have been on call the last week, and done 24 hours of overtime in the last week. I am knackered.

I had wanted to go to a gig with Becky Saturday night, but had come home after work, had something to eat and promptly fallen asleep on the sofa. I woke at half past seven. Having said that I would be round hers for 7.

Having said all that, I have had a rather productive Sunday. I got up a little too late to pick Chloe up at the train station for the regular time, so we agreed to meet up later. Cleaned out the cat litter tray, finally fit the letterbox that Mum and Dad had brought for me, vacuumed the flat, wrote the review for The adventures of Stephen brown, did two lots of washing.... Oh, and I did my accounts.

Yeah. Good weekend. Starting to feel a little ill though, a bit of a chesty cough plenty of fruit and sleep for me.

God I'm so fucking rock'n'roll.