Deflated. Mk II

After fixing my bike on Wednesday, and consequently cycling to work each day, (well, ok, most days) I managed to pick up another flat. More precisely it could be described as the son of the previous flat tyre - The one that was caused the day I stopped off to put out a small fire on my way home from work.

This week's puncture was in fact caused by the piece of metal that I was left in my tyre from that incident. Despite checking the tyre over before fitting the replacement inner tube (I keep a spare to make it a bit easier to fix them) I now have had two inner tubes with punctures in exactly the same places. I will probably have to replace the tyre soon as well. Was a sizeable bit of shrapnel in there. Nowhere near as disastrous as the effect of a piece of metal piercing a tyre did on the Concord taking off in France in 2000 (the plane crashed, 113 people lost their lives), so perhaps I shouldn't complain so much.

I've had a mixture of laziness, followed by drunkenness interspersed with some creative activity and more than a little cleaning over the bank holiday weekend. Completed a review for Venturer Magazine again, this time reviewing the second story that I wrote for them. I have very painful memories of it because when it was shown to the rest of the company it was nowhere near finished. It was in such a state that it made it impossible for anyone to follow the storyline, and it was meant to be really important as it marked the departure from the show of one of its main characters.

It's hard to be objective about your own work, I know there were failings in the script, but a bucket load of whole fresh ones were created by the presentation of the story, with the usual challenges around direction and acting. I know it's amateur, but I still would want the story to be just that, something that tells the story. All the technology and the pretence and performance, if done right, should be invisible. The suspension of disbelief.

I was invited to meet up with some of my colleagues from work at a pub last night. I sidestepped my initial negative response and made the effort to go. I did indeed drink away quite merrily and got a little bit drunk, which was a nice change. Good to let my hair down, what there is left of it.

Despite not seeing my daughter, she has sent me regular email updates and text messages. I really do appreciate it, as otherwise I would really feel the emptiness of not being able to see her until next weekend. I'm glad that she gets to go away on holiday, but it doesn't mean I don't miss her when she's gone.

deflated / re-inflated

Another attempt to get an early foothold on the work of the day. Another failure to quite manage that. Having spent the day working away solidly spending some quality time with the team the afternoon made the morning look positively organised.

Ever get the feeling that if you were trying to tread water the sharks would be circling and licking their lips ? (do sharks even have tongues ?)

Anyway. Stayed late from work, missing completely the chance to get to drama (it was just as well that Helen and I had planned for the eventuality that I may be at best very late tonight). When I had eventually managed to leave, the cycle home wasn't exactly without incident either. As I passed through the railway triangle (place at the top of Portsmouth where the east and west train lines join to head south into the city), I noticed some smoke, and realised that some little darlings had set light to some rubbish left on an embankment. Borrowing a bucket and some water from a nearby house I easily managed to dowse the flames of the small fire that had been started. Would have felt rather stupid calling out the fire brigade, but equally I couldn't have left it.

To prove that no good deed goes unpunished, I got back onto my bike to find that I now had a flat front tyre. At least I wasn't that far from home by that point, so it wasn't too much trouble to wheel my bike the rest of the way, where I promptly fed the cats and then replaced the inner tube so that I could be sure to be able to cycle in to work again tomorrow.

It's near the end of the week. This weekend being a longer affair owing to the bank holiday monday at the other end of it. I don't want to sound like I am kicking a gift horse in the mouth, but I had just got used to the normal run of things !

I'm really only bitching because we'll have this lovely long weekend and I won't get to see my daughter because she's going away on holiday for the week.

Taking the cats to the vets for their followup jabs on Friday. They do seem to be growing so fast. After that's done they would be allowed outside, if I decide to do that. I think they have already made their feelings plane on that front having made a break for it the other week.