Datchi akounto

To continue with the climate theme...

It was earth hour last saturday night. The idea was for everyone to turn off their lights for one hour between 8 and 9 in the evening.

I have to honestly admit that I forgot and didn't realise until 20 to 9... So when I did realise, I decided to check outside if anyone else had turned their lights off... And what do you think? Nope! Lights on everywhere! That meant I didn't have to feel guilty about forgetting myself, but it also meant it seemed like a failed initiative.

I wonder how much of success it was elsewhere. Hopefully more so than in Portsmouth.

The building where I work wants to become carbon neutral by 2011, so one of the initiatives they've launched to achieve this is a rather elaborate recycling scheme.

When the memo came, I thought it seemed rather straight forward, easy to do and above all, a good idea.

Today, the first phase was launched... loads of different bins around the building. Next week however, they're going to take away our bins by our desks... To force us to use the recycling bins in the common kitchen areas... That will be really annoying! How many trips to a bin would that be each day?

We can have a small desk tray upon request, which we have to empty ourselves or it won't get cleaned... Well, I'd love to work at my desk with some bananapeel and a half-eaten tuna sandwich next to me all day long... Or not!

All the big bins are fairly well marked about what to put in it, but it can still be confusing... The coffee cups in use in the building require dissembling and recycling into three different bins... They've taken away the plastic water cups and replaced them with paper cones... It will be fun trying to balance those on the desk...?!?!?!

Finally, why can't you recycle cooked foods in the food bin?

I think it might take a while to get used to...

It doesn't happen very often, and if it does it's normally voluntarily...
But I have just spent saturday night at home on my own with a bottle of wine...

Most of my girly friends are away, and one is ill and one is probably with her ex and I don't want to know about that...
The boys have recently returned from they're skiing trip, and I suspect they're skint now... They're playing poker somewhere... no girls allowed.
My friends from work are all in Antwerp.

IRP texted me earlier, saying he was still at the rugby club. I suspect he's having a good time so I best leave him to it. To be fair, he hasn't been out with his mates on a non-school night since he met me, so I hope he is having a good time!

So, I'm Billy and I don't like it much... What are the odds of everyone else being away?! Shocking! Oh well, I've had a few small glasses of wine, and I'm happy. Watching films on tv, hopefully I'll still manage to read a bit in bed later, and a good night sleep to come.

My fears of being a bit of a Billy this weekend were justified...
All the girls have gone away, not all together but somehow all on the same weekend... And the boys... well, I'm not sure about yesterday, but tonight they're having a poker night, and there's no girls allowed there!

Still, it's not all bad. Last night was spent with IRP watching Jonathan Ross, which was nice. He was working this morning, and playing rugby now. But he did say he might be up for some drinks tonight, if he didn't get beaten up too much playing rugby. Fingers crossed!

Tomorrow we're supposed to go looking for cars for me... Scary!! So I've been spending this afternoon looking for some cars of interest online. I found a few good ones, but when I phoned up about them, they were sold... Rubbish! Well, I guess I'll have to wait and see...

Argh! Friday afternoon, and it's soooooo quiet at work. The (slightly luxurious) problem is that there are no problems... Everything is going fine, nothing needs to be solved or fixed or planned or organised or anything!
Boring!!!!!

So I've been looking at cars to buy... And I've had a look at the T5 issue, what's actually gone wrong... I work in a related industry, it's of vague interest, especially when there's nothing else going on.

At least there are two days off ahead! Happy days! Except I don't have any plans... That wouldn't normally bother me, but this weekend I happen to know a lot of people are away... So there is a risk I'll be Billy...

Wanted to go ice-skating tomorrow, but the usual crowd for that is either sick, injured or away.
Going to the pub would only involve going out with the boys, as the girls are away.
IRP is working and/or playing rugby (depending how it all goes).
And the weather is going to be a bit rubbish.
And my foot has still(!) not healed so I can't go for a long walk.

If anyone has any clever ideas on how I can entertain myself for the next 59 hours or so, any suggestions are most welcome!! Thanks!

Easter was lovely! Even with the snow storms and the engineering works disrupting the trains, and all the other doom and gloom reported for the weekend!

IRP and me went up to London early on Saturday. We had tickets for 'We will rock you' and a hotel booked in Covent Garden.

We arrived late morning, and wondered around the city for a while doing a little bit of sight seeing. We went to the Dutch pub for a drink which was nice for me! We had some nice food and then we went to see the show.

It was brilliant! I'd been wanting to see this show since it first came out. So when IRP said he wanted to see a show, and this was the one he most liked to see, I was very chuffed! We both really enjoyed the show!

Afterwards we had a few more drinks before heading back to the hotel. I was so tired! It'd been a long day! On Sunday, we went to Camden Market. I'd only been to Camden at night, when at the time I thought it looked dark and scary.
The market was brilliant though! So big! We had a really nice time wandering around!

All over, a very nice weekend! Can't wait for the next one!

I love bank holidays! 4 days off work! Heaven!

This weekend, I've got 5(!) birthday party and one none birthday related social... Ouch! Good fun I'm sure, but not so sure if I'm up for it...

I'm definitely going to the one tonight, a friend's 30th. We should all still be fairly with it tonight as it's only the start of the weekend.

Tomorrow I'm looking around for a car... Scary stuff! Probably not buying one yet tho...

The rest of the weekend is looking really good! I'll be spending a lot of time with IRP. It's his birthday on sunday, so I got him a book and a cd, and I got tickets to the REM gig, one of which will be for him if we make it that far.

Happy Easter everybody!! Hope you have a lovely time! Don't eat too many easter eggs now!

It took a while but I'm free tonight to finally catch up on some blogging!

The first gig I went to was just over a week ago, Kate Nash. It was a really good night out! I went with my friend, and we had a bit of wine and a catch-up in a bar first before going to the gig. The gig was really good! Kate Nash had lots of energy and we had fun! She did spend a lot of time sitting at a piano which always deducts a bit I think, but it was still really good!

Then I went to see the Hoosiers in the Pyramids. I guess I was a bit tired and I didn't feel great all night which was a shame. The pyramids isn't the best venue either, too hot with nowhere near enough ventilation. And the stage isn't great either. It always seems to take quite a bit for a band to do well there, in my opinion. The Hoosiers were very good! Their music was good, and they had plenty of energy to entertain the crowd.

Finally, last monday, I went to see the Feeling in Southampton. They've got their second album out now. I had been listening to it beforehand, and didn't think it was as good as the first one, but definitely has potential to grow on me. The gig was absolutely brilliant!! Very entertaining! Really pleased I went.

No more gigs for a little while now, until late May when I go to see the Pigeon Detectives!

Yep, I have been neglecting my blog... I don't mean to, but life is rather busy at the moment. I will catch up though!

I've been to three gigs now, which I still have to tell you about.

And I'm going to see 'We will rock you' soon, very excited about that!

And finally, things with IRP are going well. We're spending quite a bit of time together, and I'm really enjoying it! But I'm sure no-one is interested in the soppy details there...

Oh, also, I'm having battles with British Gas at the moment, which might just lead to rants of 'royal mail' proportions!

Anyway, better get back to work! I'm hoping to have some time tonight to catch up properly.

Another gig tonight! The Hoosiers! Looking forward to it! It should be a laugh! I haven't even had time to tell you about the Kate Nash gig I went to on sunday yet...

I will though! Promise!

It's just that I've been busy having fun with IRP, not really doing very much at all but just spending time. It's nice.

After reading your comments, I feel I have to update you on the weather situation...
It was sunny and lovely for a little while yesterday morning, but after an hour or so the rains came and this time they came to stay...
Hope you all survived the awful weather without too much hassle/damage etc!

Strangely enough, where I am, the sun is coming out and there's plenty of clear blue sky! And hardly any wind...

I think the house came away without damage. I slept through most of the storm after a few glasses of wine at the Kate Nash gig, which was very good by the way, but more on that later.

I think it's now time for spring and warm sunny weather!

Weekends are just the best! Today I've been pottering about the little home, doing chores, making it look nice and clean.
Might go out a bit later on for a glass of wine as well...

Dinner with IRP was really good last wednesday. And we met up last night as well, stayed in with a pizza and a nice bottle of wine. Oh and Jonathan Ross of course, who had us both in stitches with the celebrity chef!

No walking this weekend, to give my foot a rest. Quiet day tomorrow, and I finish the weekend with the Kate Nash gig tomorrow night!
Should be good! I'm going with my friend Vicky and I think it will be a really nice evening!

Yep, another date tonight, with IRP... exciting!

We're going for some dinner in a pub in Old Portsmouth. Should be good! I look forward to seeing him again, and just talking about all sorts.

I don't think I'll see much of him for a while after tonight, as he's away saturday, and I'm at a gig on sunday. And I was half planning on meeting my friends on friday, although I can do that on saturday and sunday too... Then I'm quite busy next week as well...

Oh well, we'll see... I think I've double booked around his birthday as well... oops! It's my friend's 30th the day before IRP's birthday. I'm sure it will all work out... Did IRP's birthday really have to be so soon?!?!? that just creates a whole other set of dilemmas...

Another Relay meeting tonight! The first captain's meeting of the year! That means another long day in the office, after which I go straight to the relay meeting. I wish we didn't plan these things on a tuesday as I'm always tired on tuesday...

Last year there were some issues between the Relay organising committee (all volunteers) and CRUK over the levels of support CRUK was providing (almost none at all...). Some of the committee members didn't take this very well, and spoke freely to the teams about the problems...

As a result, several of our usual teams that have been coming along to the event for many years, are now declining this year's invitation... Not good! These are the larger well-established teams that raise a lot of money...

So far this year, support from CRUK is lacking a bit again. We haven't received registration papers to give to the teams, along with the information packs for the event. Also, we've still not got a link on their website to our Relay...

All of us work as volunteers because we care about the charity, generally because our lives have been affected by the disease in one way or another. That close personal link makes it easy for people to get annoyed/upset quickly when things go wrong. It's important to try and keep some distance between what happened on a personal level and the volunteering work we all do for Relay.

Some of the volunteers find this very difficult, and I'm not going to say anything in case I get an ear-bashing... But it looks like another challenging year.

Perhaps some of the people involved have been involved for too long, are used to a certain way of doing things and don't like change. Change is often tricky in any organisation, but when you take into account the personal issues surrounding volunteering for CRUK, it gets even more difficult...

I can see this might be my last year on this committee. Might go to find another charity event, perhaps for MacMillan or something... I do it for a good cause because I care, but it should also be fun...

The weekend was really good! I met up with some friends for lunch, or drinks etc. And I spent quite a bit of time with IRP, which was really nice! He cooked us a lovely sunday lunch yesterday, and took me to a little nature reserve type place for a walk.
All this resulted in only a minor sunday session, which meant I didn't feel really rough today! It was a novel experience...
I'm seeing him again on wednesday, when we're going out for some food. Looking forward to it!

In other news, I'm seriously considering getting a car, finally! I've had my licence for ages but never bothered with a car. I feel like I'm running out of excuses not to own one though, and I can also finally see some realy benefits in having one. Scary stuff!

To finish today's update; the gigs are here again!!!!!!! Kate Nash this Sunday, The Hoosiers the Tuesday after and the Feeling the Monday after that! Should be good!
Also, this weekend I bought some tickets to the REM concert in Southampton! Very exciting!!
They were supposed to be my first ever gig years ago for their Monster tour. Unfortunately, the drummer fell seriously ill. Initially the gig was postponed but in the end it got cancelled alltogether! So here's a chance to make up for it!
Of course I'll tell you all about the gigs as and when!

Woohoo!!!! I lost a stone! I'm quite pleased! Also dropped a dress-size along with it! One more stone/size to go I think
Unfortunately, I won't be able to walk for a while because of my broken toe... I thought it was getting better, just a bit sore, so I went for a little walk yesterday (not the planned 10 miler). It was a really nice walk but my foot was really quite painful and swollen afterwards... not clever...
So I'll just cycle lots in the gym for now, and continue to watch what I eat.
By summer I should've lost another stone, in a way that it stays off as well, and I'll be ready for some sunbathing in a bikini!

There's a nice ten-miler on tomorrow. I was planning to go on it... But my foot has been really painful this week... So I don't think 10 miles is a clever way to go...
Instead I'm going to do 2 or 3 miles followed by a publunch... Must remember to have the healthy option!

The good news is that the new walking trousers I got earlier, I managed to get a size smaller than before when I tried them on! Didn't buy them then because I refuse to be that size.

What a gorgeous day it is today!!!
I was awake super early! Half 6! Stayed in bed for a while longer though, read my book and relaxed.
I can't remember what time I did get up but it was still early. The sun was shining outside and I just wanted to get out there!
I had to do some chores first so I cleaned the bathroom and the kitchen, and hoovered the lounge and hallway.
Then I went out shopping, Millets has a sale on! I got new walking trousers and a fleece.
After that I met up with a friend for some nice lunch! Just got back home, and somehow the little home's looking like a bomb's hit it already... but at least it is clean.
IRB has got a match this afternoon but he's coming around later and we're going for a drink. Looking forward to it!