Two In The Bush

January 11th 23:15 Saturday.

Today I went out for a meal with my family, to celebrate my Dad's birthday which is tomorrow. Earlier in the day I had gone out with him to take his computer to Novatech to upgrade the memory.

His computer was beginning to struggle a bit, Windows being the memory hog that it is, as well as all the other crap that your PC loads up these days. To be fair, he has had it years, and he is still running Windows Vista, and until today only had 1 gig of RAM. I've gotten this upgraded to 4 gig for him, I did offer to get the hard drive done at the same time, but he said there was plenty of space left on it.

He did say that he was getting annoyed with the wireless keyboard that he has as it keeps running out of battery power just at the wrong moments and he has to change the batteries. With this in mind we also picked up a new keyboard and mouse.

Felt quite the role reversal, me taking his computer to be worked on, and getting his (combined Christmas and birthday) present. Although he was good, I didn't suggest that because of this he can have an ice cream.

With the arrangements for the meal out today being made the day before, I had asked my daughter if she would want to come up early so that she could come, and she had agreed to do so. This was a pleasant surprise. After all, hanging round with friends is the thing that most fourteen year olds want to do the most, for her to change her plans to come out with us is just really nice. We had a good time.

We went to the 'Bird In The Hand' in Lovedean. The food was bloody amazing. Lots of it (although to be fair was not cheap) - it was worth the money though.  You really did feel that you got what you paid for.

Everyone enjoyed their meal too. Even Chloe, who at times can be a fussy eater, although she has gotten better in the last couple of years. I think going round her friends, or going out with them has given her a chance to explore different foods that she may not otherwise have tried.

I know it sounds mushy, but I am really proud of my daughter. She's going through that horrible teenage stuff, all the pain and stress of school as well as growing up, and she's still a reasonably well rounded and sensible person. Sure she has her moments, but I know I can count on her to do the right things when it really counts.

I have some overtime tomorrow, to bolster the post Christmas paypacket. I also need to get my arse in gear learning lines of Prime Directive, the second act of which we start filming next week. Eeek.

Learnt my lines ? Don't be ridiculous.

Celebration

My daughter's birthday. I'd offered to take the day off work, but she'd wanted to spend the day with her friends, and with her Mum.

Her Mum sent me a text message, pretty much echoing my thoughts about how I can't believe that our daughter is 14, of all the things that we've all been through in those 14 years, and how she's turned out. We're both really proud of her, and just can't quite find the words to express how surreal it is that she's that old. That she's growing up so fast. I know that she's doing very well at the whole 'teenager' thing.

She shares her birthday, with of all people. Wil Wheaton.

Happy Birthday to you both.

How did I get to be the parent of a 14 year old ? (I know the answer to that question. I'm not that stupid).

The summer wave has ended, or at the least been interrupted.

Still warm though. After booking the holiday yesterday, I really wish I could have been on holiday today. I wanted to be in that mode, of not getting up unless you wanted to. Not going somewhere unless you wanted to.

Looking forward to those sun-kissed walks, the open space. The Countryside. It may piss with rain all week for all I care. I would probably still go out and enjoy the outdoors.

The only thing I will miss, is the cats. I've asked my Mum to look after them, because I don't want my sister to end up having to do it when my Nephew can't be bothered to. She's got a pile on her plate at the moment, and well, really that's no different to normal. For her.

Cat down

As I write this, I am beside myself. Not in the existential sense. I mean that I am worried about Twilight. My cat.

I am one cat down. Yes people. We are a cat down.

Twilight the little terror has gone off somewhere, and not come back at the end of the evening. I've left the front door open a long as I dare, but there's no sign of her. Which can only lead me to two possibilities. She is unable to return. She is unwilling to return.

Not sensing any dissatisfaction with the domestic arrangements before, I can only conclude that she is either shut in somewhere, or ... has come to some serious harm.

I hope it's the former rather than the latter.

Midnight does not seem to care in the slightest. As long as I put some more dry cat biscuits into his bowl he's perfectly happy.

I am very, very, very glad that it's the end of the week. I am not sad to see the back of it, that's for sure. I just don't feel like I'm getting any sense of achievement and joy out of it, and I should. Still feeling trapped behind that bloody computer at work.

I want to be freed. I want to escape. I want to run through open, sunny meadows. Well, okay, maybe not the second bit.

Not that much of a fan of nature.

Still haven't booked anything going away for Chloe and I. But the offers are coming in thick and fast on the emails. I just need to get the right one and I ponce, credit card in hand.

Up early tomorrow, shopping to do, to complete things for Chloe's birthday, and to celebrate my Mum's.

I could not get much sleep last night. I went to bed okay, after having a lovely evening at Colin and Derrek's. I'd gone round there for dinner. Very nice pasta and some wine. I woke up around half past midnight, and couldn't get back to sleep until about four am. This did, however mean that I made amazing progress reading the current book on my kindle. Extinction Point - by Paul Anthony Jones.

Just another manic Monday

Hang on, haven't I used that title before ? Maybe. Maybe not. Don't care. It was Monday, and it was manic.

The weekend was very, very nice, despite being rather tired, I got to spend extra time with my daughter. Always a good thing.

Trying to sort out the bike that she wants for her birthday. She's found one that she really likes at shop near her. It's not a chain shop, but rather an independent that refurbishes and brings to life old bikes. Chloe's friend has one already and really loves it.

I still can't process the concept that my daughter will be 14. In a couple of years she'll be leaving school.

Finally finished the playing around with the Doorstops script that Steve needed. I wrote the thing about a year ago now, and he'd needed me to rework it a little. Wasn't happy with the terribly trifling little detail that it didn't contain a few things that were in the synopsis he'd written for the episode. Ooops. Still, it's a much better script now than it was.

Still no progress with rewriting / editing the NaNoWriMo novel, but I guess that's because I've been working so much last week that I've barely been home. Talking of which. Idiot ! I'd forgotten to submit my overtime form.

Off to visit the acclaimed bike shop tomorrow after work, and then off out with the guys from work to the pictures on Wednesday. Round Col(v)in and Derrek's Thursday... Friday ? Well, on Friday Steve's coming round with his hard drive so I can copy the files that I need in order to be able to edit the Stephen Brown story that I've volunteered to edit. Eeek. Why did I do that ?

Sunny Sunday - with a difference.

This weekend is not the weekend in which I would normally have my daughter to stay overnight. Normally at this time of the morning, I would probably just be waking up enough to get ready to go and meet her at the train station.

Normally.

This weekend has turned out a little differently.

It's my daughter's birthday soon, and she has had her eye on a bike made (or put together) at a small independent bike shop round the corner from where she lives. She refers to the design as 'the google bike'. Shouldn't really give them ideas, should we ? They'll come up with a bike made entirely of recycled plastic or something that has an inbuilt camera, GPS locator and bluetooth sync capability with your smartphone. The Google Re-Cycle ? Actually, dammit, I think I'm on to something there.

You heard it here first folks.

Anyways. Back to the point. She's been yearning for this bike for weeks, and is actually amazed that no one has bought it, considering she hasn't been able to reserve it. (Shop keeper has the sense to insist that kids must have an adult with them in order to reserve a bike).  From what I can gather, it's not a standard construction, but more an amalgam of parts for other bike types. I'm not entirely sure what image that conjures in my head. Really I'm not. I think of the bicycling equivalent of something from the Wacky Races.     

Her mum has had a look at it, and we decided that it was a good idea that I too go and have a look. In a moment of uncharacteristic endeavour, I opted to hop on a train and go down there yesterday afternoon / evening. 

Chloe's mum had joked (maybe not so joked) earlier in the conversation that maybe I should have Chloe today (IE Saturday). When I was enroute, by bus, I offered that if she wanted, and of course Chloe agreed, I could take Chloe back with me. I have to admit to being amazed when she said yes. Had I not been sitting on a really hot bus with a load of disgruntled looking chavs I may have whooped, or even hollared. I restrained myself. 

Anyway, after all that, the shop was shut. Bless teenagers for their myriad of communicative means, but lack of the ability to use one to call the guy in the shop and ask 'hey, dude, what time you shut today'. Hashtag - Just saying. 

Anyways. Looks like I'm going to have to try and find a way to go down there during the week, after work, before the shop shuts. Racing around is exactly what I want in these sweltering temperatures. 

Don't be an idiot

On the way to work Thursday morning, I hurt myself coming down the stairs on the 700 bus. In my eagerness to get off the bus, I'd decided to try and come down the stairs at precisely the moment that the bus pulled away from a set of traffic lights.

Thankfully I was holding on, otherwise I would have fallen down the stairs. As it was at one point I was suspended in mid air, with my feet hanging free, with my hands supporting my weight. Good job I wasn't holding onto my kindle or phone at that point, as not only would they have gone flying, but I would have too, into the not very friendly looking metal bar at the bottom of the stairwell. Idiot.

It being the cat's birthdays I celebrated it with them by buying some treat sticks for them, which they did seem to enjoy, and getting some slightly different food, which they seemed to appreciate. Anyway, I made a short video to explain all that, but having just read this, you may think that watching it will be a waste of your time. You may be right. But anyway, here's the video.....

I also took some footage whilst I was cleaning the cat litter tray, which I was going to edit into something like the talking animals type video of The Dumb, The Unwilling, and the Washing Machine... That I will leave to another day to edit. Laters.

T minus 1

Being the last day of my 38th year, I decided to record a little video. Not really a lot to it, but anyhow... the video goes like this :-

I've been for a nice dinner at my Mum & Dad's tonight. It's not even actually my birthday yet, and I already have two great gifts. (The office tidy set from my daughter, and the money from my parents). I sense some clothes shopping is in order.

Helen cometh

A somewhat mixed bag of a day off. Certainly not a nothing day. I always feel disappointed towards the end of my days off, but at the same time, I'm not actually quite sure what it would take to feel the opposite.

I had arranged with the site manager from Taylor Wimpey that he have some workmen come round this morning, to carry on some remedial work to the flat. I'd agreed that they arrive at 9, so I got up at about 8, which is quite early for me on a day off. They didn't come round.

When it got to midday, I gave up waiting for them, and went off into Cosham to get some things, most important on my list was a birthday card for my Dad, who was 61 today. It's always next to impossible to figure out what to get him as a present, without lots of help from either my mother or my sister, I am naturally drawn toward a bottle of port. Thankfully, my sister avoided the maintenance of a port mountain by asking if I wanted to go halves on some vouchers for a garden centre with her.

My sister came round later in the afternoon, when she had picked up my nephews from school. They came back here for a bit, and by the time they made a move to go home, my Dad had gotten home himself.

Helen came round, as planned, and actually not as late as she normally would be. We agreed on some things that we needed to in regard to the new show. We are going to have to confirm a later date than originally planned. We need to give ourselves enough time to get the reunion, and read-through sorted, but at the same time, have a timescale tight enough to drive us forward. We've proven time and again that very distant deadlines actually turn out to be counterproductive.

It's been so long since we actually looked at the script, we read through everything we have done to date. We made some minor alterations on the way, mostly removing lines. This can't be a bad thing. To know that some three months after starting on the play, we still find it funny, still like the idea, still have the motivation and inclination to complete it and bring it to stage.

Now we just need to get enough other people to feel the same about it, and it will be the success that we want it to be.