TV ate my life

Cars

2016-09-19T23:09:22Z

I had to drive my mum's car to work today. It was... nerve-wracking is probably the best description. It's an automatic, and I've never really driven one before. In fact the only times I've driven one are the few times I've driven her car on the motorway on a long trip when she's there too, and that's not the same thing at all!

My car was in for it's MOT. It passed, eventually, so I have it back now, but while it was in I still needed to get to work. I spent the whole trip trying to press the clutch and stomping hard on the bit of floor where it should be. Also, trying to put the lever thing that decides whether it's in drive or park or whatever in the right place, which I couldn't do without looking. In my car I can switch between gears without even thinking about it. This, I had to think about, and that was weird, it was like learning to drive again.

I survived it though, and the car did too. I think mu mum expected me to come home determined to get an automatic. Nope. It honestly doesn't feel like driving to me. it's like dodgems, one pedal for go, one for stop! apparent;y she took to it really quickly though, when she hired one on holiday in Australia, and didn't want to go back to gears. Maybe I needed a longer run to get the hang of it. I'm glad I don't want one though, they are super expensive! Plus my little car still has a lot of life left in it. I hope.

So the MOT is don't, the renewal quote for the insurance was reasonable, and in fact not much more than the next cheapest I can find online and without the faff of switching, so Im going to leave it, and I did the tax as soon at the MOT was done, so I'm good to go for another year. What a relief, I hate this time of year when I end up paying for everything again.

In unrelated news, KCOM, our usually fairly useless broadband provider with whom we are stuck because they have a monopoly in the area, have finally made the ultrafast broadband available in our street. We got it upgraded today, and it works. 260 Mbps! Yesterday we were lucky to get 5. I've been celebrating by downloading a bunch of free movies from Sky and marveling at the time it takes to get them!

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Random

2016-09-15T23:18:22Z

Well, I've gone and acquired another TV obsession. Not that I'm complaining, I love that feeling of discovering something new. I've come to it just at the right time too, the 3rd season starts on the 24th, meaning I've only had to wait about two weeks from the epic season 2 finale and the next part. Still too long though!

I'm considering taking up karate. I used to do it when i was a kid, but I quit when I was about 13, mostly because I didn't want to have to get up early on a Saturday morning! But my former sensei now has his own dojo only a few minutes walk from my house and I've been taking my niece each week. She got her yellow belt on Sunday, and he was really plugging a new adult class he is starting up on a Monday night. I really want to do it, the only trouble is that I'd have to go on my own, nobody else I know is interested. I'm going to have a word with him when I take Poppy on Sunday, let him know I'd be interested.

Work is going pretty well. Things were pretty chaotic when I first took over, but they seem to have calmed down a bit. Or maybe it's me that has calmed down! Because I'm feeling much less stressed and much more like if something goes wrong it doesn't actually matter in the grand scheme of things. I think that's a much better way to be. I am having some problems though suddenly being in charge of people I was the same grade as until recently. It's not a major issue, I just feel like when I ask them to do something or tell them they have done something wrong, some of them (one in particular) don't take me seriously. Hopefully things will improve. The only trouble is that is that happens and they then move me back to the other role, it'll be awkward. Never mind, I'm sure it'll be fine. Or they'll move me back to my old job, in which case it will also be fine.

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prepare4trouble @ 2016-08-21T00:45:00

2016-08-20T23:57:55Z

I feel like I haven't been on here for ages. Probably because I haven't. I haven't had the time. My sister and her two kids were here all last week, dog-sitting while my parents were away and I was at work. When I was home, I was either entertaining the kids, or watching movies with Jennie. We got though four Star Trek movies, the Man From UNCLE (Which is much better on the second viewing, once the shock as worn off!) Deadpan, Death Becomes her, which is an old silly favorite from when we were kids, and Demolition Man, which is as well. We also managed to go pottery painting, have a trip to the Humber Bridge park (Pokemon hunting!) and eat lots of take out. It was a fun week.

Next week, we're all heading to Center Parcs, Mum, Dad, me, Jen, her husband and kids and the dog. I'm looking forward to it, even though sharing a room with Poppy means I will never get enough sleep!

Work is going well, though I;m glad to be getting a week off. It's a bit scary though, like one of the managers told me how impressed her manager had been with me, and then She was telling another manager how well I was doing, and I was a little baffled because I honestly don't feel like I;m going that well. I feel like I'm constantly asking for help, and struggling to put out one fire after another. But I guess nothing has actually burned down yet, so maybe It's going better than I think.

I'm up late drinking beer tonight because Poppy I don't have to get up to take Poppy to karate tomorrow, she went today instead. This will be my last lie-in for a week, so I'm going to take advantage by staying up late for no reason.

In other news, I finally got my hair cut today. It's been about seven months, and I decided it was time to get the back trimmed so it was more even with the front. It looks and feels so much better. I should have done it months ago. All I have to do now is decide what ind of a style I;m actually going to go for. I'm thinking inverted bob, but I will need more length in the front.

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All alone...

2016-07-23T18:16:06Z

The family have all gone down to visit my nana in Hertfordshire. I didn't go because they're not coming back till Monday and I have to be at work. My mum is returned, my dad is semi retired, but he's a teacher and he doesn't work in the holidays, and my sister is currently on maternity leave. Poppy's off school for the summer, so it's just me going to work. Depressing. I could have gone down and then caught the train home tomorrow, but I'd only have arrived this afternoon and I'd probably have to leave by noon-ish tomorrow, it didn't seem worth it, plus there is no direct train and I hate having to change, I spend the entire trip paranoid that I'll miss the connection, or not be able to find the next rain or something. Also, I always <i>always</i> end up sat near some people on their way to a hen or stag do, getting progressively drunker as the journey progresses! So, it's just me for a few days.

As much as I should be using the time to tidy up and stuff, I have to admit I've gone for a long walk looking for Pokemon instead. I even ventured to one of the gyms and had a battle. I won too, but got booted out immediately. I'm still not sure how the gyms work. Then when I got back, I made myself a baked potato and watched TV for about two hours. I've also been experimenting with overnight oats. I'm trying to lose a few pounds before my holiday next month and I'm trying to find something filling and healthy to have for lunch, because I keep getting those curry rice pots, and they might be yummy, but healthy they are not!

I've also just noticed that the weird Sky Movies channel that changes all the time has switched from being the Tom Cruise channel to the Star Trek channel for the weekend, so I might settle in for the night and watch my three faves. The Wrath of Khan, the Search for Spock and the Voyage Home, obviously.

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Warm!

2016-07-18T23:08:46Z

It's warm. it's the kind of warm you dint really get here. It's too warm to sleep. That's the main problem, because the rest of the time it's fine. It's good even, but at night it kind of sucks. This is one of the maybe three days annually when air conditioning would be useful. But I'd definitely rather this than rain and cold.

We got Sky Q installed the other day. It's so cool! It's like how you'd think Sky would be if it was owned by Apple! We can record something, watch it on the main box, or access it from another box in the other room. You can pause it in one room and pick it up in the same place on another TV somewhere else in the house. Or on a tablet, you can watch things recorded on your box on your iPad, then if you're going out, just download them to the iPad and take them with you. You can stream anything that's available on demand directly to your iPad, then tell your box to download it for later. It's kind of amazing. I don't think this explanation does it justice.

Anyway, here goes sleep attempt no. 2!

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prepare4trouble @ 2016-07-14T16:13:00

2016-07-14T15:34:10Z

Work are moving me back to Hedon branch, but this time they want me to run the place. I'm aware that this is down to an extreme shortage of staff, the person running that branch is being moved in to town to fill the place of a person who has recently gone on maternity leave, whose job was going to go to somebody else until she announced that she is pregnant again too and will be leaving again soon. But still, actually running a whole branch. Me? I mean, I'm fairly sure I can do it, it's not like I haven't done it for odd days before, but they moved me into town to learn more about the back office role and I haven't really learned very much yet because everything is happening way ahead of schedule. On the plus side, this is the job I was planning on applying for when one of my colleagues retires in December, which means I'll have a lot of experience of already doing the role when I apply, which is good. On the negative side, I'm not going to get any more money for taking on a hell of a lot more responsibility.

Well, we'll see how it goes...

It's a shame though, because I've been enjoying cycling to work. So I got it into my head that I might be able to cycle to Hedon. It's only about nine miles away, and there is an off road cycle track about half of the way, so since I had a day off today I decided to try it out. It was pretty good, actually, took just under an hour. When I drive there, I can do it in about 30 minutes most days, but I have to leave earlier than that in case the traffic is bad, so I wouldn't actually have to leave that much earlier. It was pretty tiring though, but I guess maybe I just need to build up a bit of stamina. I probably won't do it every day, but sometimes, definitely.

In other news, the Labour party have decided that Jeremy Corbyn doesn't need any nominations to get onto the ballot in the leadership election, which makes perfect sense, as he is already the leader and someone had just come along and challenged him. Angela Eagle's supporters aren't happy about it though, because he's way too popular for her to win, who they have had a rule passed than anyone who has joined the party since 12 January this year won't get to vote. This is because most of those who have signed up recently support Corbyn and signed up in order to vote for him, knowing that someone would try to get rid of him. This all seems a but underhanded and undemocratic to me. But there are ways around it, which leaves me wondering whether I should secure my right to vote for him by paying a one off fee of £25 in the two day window they are allowing to join up as a registered supporter (I bet they will 'accidentally' have the site crash to stop people), or by joining an affiliated trade union.

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I'm baaaack

2016-07-05T20:30:44Z

Not that I've actually been anywhere, I've just kind of dropped out in internet land again. The referendum and the resulting chaos had me more internees in real life for a while there. We've had a result that nobody, even most of the people campaigning for leave, seemed to actually want, the Prime Minister has resigned, the guy everyone assumed was the favorite to take over ruled himself out, after campaiging for leave. Nigel Farage, leader of UKIP and fellow brexiteer stepped down yesterday, as did another high up member of their party. Meanwhile in the Labour Party, MPs have stages an attempted coup based on the fact that leader of the left wing party is actually left wing and therefore (they say) unelectable. The fact that he was elected by a landslide to lead the party is apparently irrelevant. This had prompted hundreds of thousands of people to join the Labour party this week in anticipation of another leadership contest, which Corbyn has said he will enter, in order to keep him in charge. I've joined too, I like Corbyn, it's good to have someone who genuinely seems to care in charge instead of Tory light.

This is a hilarious but frighteningly accurate explanation of the last week in politics.

In other, less political news, I have my helmet camera up and running, and started collecting the idiots of Hull in a new Youtube channel. Heres a guy who nearly hit me on the way to work yesterday.

And here's a car nearly hitting another cyclist the same day on the way home There are some idiots out there..!

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prepare4trouble @ 2016-06-16T19:35:00

2016-06-16T19:06:58Z

An MP was murdered today on the streets of her constituency while doing her job. The murdered allegedly shouted Britain First as he fled the scene. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/16/labour-mp-jo-cox-shot-in-west-yorkshire

There is little doubt in my mind that this is related to the EU referendum next week. Jo Cox was apparently a prominent campaigner for Remain, as well as being outspoken on the issue of helping Syrian refugees, and the man who murdered her appears to have been a racist BFfer. The Leave campaign has built a lot of their advertising on fear and intimidation, and this is what happens as a result.

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Bye bye Hedon, until they send me back there.

2016-06-08T23:38:13Z

It was my last day at Hedon branch today. I'm off tomorrow, then in town from Friday. My helmet camera arrived the other day, I need to investigate how it works tomorrow, make sure i have in in the best position, and with it being round a bullet shaped, I need to work out which way to put it so the image it records isn't upside down or at a weird tilted angle! I also ordered myself an Airzound. I probably don't need these things, but they will make me feel safer, not to mention being a lot of fun!

It was just the two of us in work today, and when he arrived, my colleague told me radio 1 were having a rock day, that he was a bit gutted he couldn't listen to now he was out of the car. Radio 1 normally play crappy pop and dance music. So since it was just us, I put the radio on and we listened to decent music all day. They also had Blink 182 in the studio, they are over for Download, and they did a couple of songs, including the new single. It was good. I'm still not sure about Matt Skiba being in the band though. It's not that I don't want him there, it just makes me worry he's going to neglect Alkaline Trio. Especially with both him and Dan doing their solo stuff, I'm worried Trio is going to end up a bit like a side project. The song was really good though, I'll probably have to get the album when it's out next month.

And now, quite randomly, I have one of Matt Skiba's solo songs in my head. I think it's time for bed.

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Being back at work is getting in the way of lounging around

2016-06-05T19:31:38Z

Last week was busy. It always is they few days after a bank holiday, but this seems to have gone on all week. That coupled with the fact that we were running the branch on two for two days, once with me in charge, made for stress. On the plus side, I had my half yearly appraisal and I appear to be doing better than I thought. On the negative side, I'm running the branch for three days next week, and one of those days I;ll only have one other member of staff again. But then I have a day off, before being moved to the far quieter branch of Whitefriargate from Friday. That is a bit of a mixed blessing really. On the one hand, there will be far less stress, but on the other it is incredibly quiet there, quiet enough that I could probably sit and read a book and nobody would notice. It's also in town, which is good for travel when the weather is okay, but if it is raining parking is super expensive and the bus station is miles away. Never mind though, I'm sure I'll work something out.

I've been thinking about my hair recently. A few months ago, I stopped having it cut. I were it really short normally, a little longer at the front with bangs that sweep in from one side, but really short at the back, and shaved at the neckline. But I had an appointment for a cut back in January, and I had to cancel it because I had been asked to work. Then I just never bothered making it again. Four months later, I just have this mess, still way too short to tie back, but too long to look neat. It doesn't help that it's curly, which you don;t even notice when it's short but now it has a bit of length, I pump of mouse and drying it with a diffuser result in something that looks like a 1980s perm. I know this because I tried it for a laugh yesterday. So my dilemma is this: do I make an appointment and have it cut again, or do I continue to grow it and see what happens? I would like to try something new, but I'm getting a little sick of looking like a mess all this time. I've been thinking for a month or so that any day now it'll reach a length that is more manageable, but it keeps not doing. What normally happens is you make an appointment to get it cut then the next day you realize it looks not too bad now. Maybe I should book in so that that happens!

I got my Esther the Wonder Pig book on Friday (along with my helmet cam, but I don't have a memory card for that yet) so I've been reading that over the weekend. I love Esther. She's a pig that was adopted by a couple in Canada a few years ago, they thought she was a mini pig, but she turned out to be a full sized commercial pig, who just kept growing to around 650lbs. She is enormous, but she lives in the house with them and plays with the dogs and is just one of the family. It's amazing. They changed their whole lives because of there, moved out of the city to the countryside, went vegan, opened an animal sanctuary, all because they had this pig and the couldn't bear to give her up. The book is about their whole journey, and although I know it because I've followed Esther on Facebook for a year or so, I'm really enjoying it.

I've also started rewatching Lillyhammer on Netflix, it's been a while since I've seen it, it;s just as good as I remember,

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Day Out

2016-05-29T23:23:01Z

Pleasure Island was surprisingly good. Trip adviser reviews had me believing it had become kind of run down and rubbish in the 20 or so years since I last went, but it still looks good. They still have a lot of the same rides, and some new ones too. My sister convinced me to go one the Boomerang, which is this ridiculous roller coaster that drags you up really high then fires you around a series of twists and turns, then does the whole thing in reverse I didn't really like it as a teenager, to be honest. You just have to do stuff like that so people don't think you're a wimp. Same as an adult, unfortunately, but it was okay! I'd do it again if pushed!

We went to watch the parrot show, and my baby niece Hazel found it hilarious. Every time one of the birds squares, this four month old baby was just giggling hysterically!

When we were kids, long before Pleasure Island was build, we used to go to Cleethorpes to visit my Nana Jenny, my mum's mum, who lived in a caravan there for half the year. Near to the site where the theme park is now there used to be a little park with rides you had to pay for individually. Little things like trampolines and swing boats, but my favorite was this massive bumpy slide. You sat in sacks to go down it, and it was probably as tall as two houses. It disappeared, with the rest of the park around the time the theme park opened. Well, now it's inside the park! Or if it's not that one, it;s exactly the same. So exciting. And exactly how I remember it. Poppy loved it, and she dragged me (ha! there was no dragging involved!) on if four times to race down it. A bit of a blast from the past. Basically, I spent most of the day being a kid!

I'm really glad I went. I wrote a 5* Trip Adviser review to try to counteract some of the negativity on there.

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Bank holiday..

2016-05-28T23:26:08Z

My Nana was supposed to be visiting over the weekend and the start of next week, but she's been taken ill with some kind of infection and a flare up of her arthritis, so unfortunately she's not okay to travel. She lives down in Hertfordshire, about four hours drive away. My auntie was going to come up too, so now we have a sudden change of plans. It's a shame, especially for my niece, Poppy, because she was excited to see her. She'll make it up another time though, or we'll get down there. My mum mentioned her, dad, my sister and the kids heading down at the end of the week since it's half term, if she's feeling better. I wouldn't be able to go though, because I'll be back at work.

But as we had a sudden change of plans, and to distract Poppy, we've come up with an alternative. So we're heading to Pleasure Island tomorrow. It's a low budget theme park about an hour's drive away. I've not been there since I was a kid, and I'm kind of meh about it, but Poppy's probably going to love it. We'll probably go to the Deep tomorrow too, which is awesome. It's the aquarium in town, and they have penguins, tow of whom currently have eggs! So exciting! The babies are due early next month, and I can't wait!

I took Poppy to karate today instead of tomorrow, because of the planned trip tomorrow, and got her her karate suit finally. She was so excited about it she was literally jumping up and down! She's been wanting one since she started, but the teacher said to wait a bit till we know she wants to carry on. She looks so cute in it.

In other news, I bought myself a helmet camera for use on my bike today. Ive been thinking about it for a while and I found one for a decent price. If I'm going to be cycling t-o work in the city center, it;s not a bad thing to have with all the idiot drivers out there. I;m thinking of getting myself an AirZound too, to beep at said idiots.

Well done to Hull City for winning the match to get back into the premiership too. I don;t follow Football at all, and I feel a bit of loyalty to Sheffield Wednesday since my mum's from Sheffield and half my family support them, but Hull won, so yay. At least the many football fans at work will be happy. Half of them went down to watch it.

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X-Men

2016-05-27T14:35:56Z

finally went to see the new X-Men film last night. It's been out for over a week now, so I'm really late seeing it! We were supposed to go on Tuesday, with that being cheap day, but someone couldn't go so we waited. Anyway, it's so awesome! ( Spoilercut )
Right, I'm off to hunt for fic..!

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Springsteen

2016-05-27T13:31:29Z

I had a really good time at Bruce Springsteen on Wednesday. We arrived just in time to get decent seats, we would have been in time to get a not too bad standing position too, I suppose, but it wasn't really an option with my mum there. We probably got a better view from the seats though, but the standing people always look like they're having more fun! It was raining all night though, and they got thoroughly drenched, which we didn't, so thats a bonus!

My cousin (kind of my cousin, but not actually) and his dad were going too, from Sheffield. My mum was texting them to see where they were standing, but it turned out that his dad's brother had forgotten the tickets and they had to go home to get them, so they missed the start, which is a shame. I think they only missed the first three or so songs though.

The most random moment of the whole show was when Bruce Springsteen noticed a guy dressed as Santa in the audience, holding up a sign saying "Santa Claus is coming to Manchester". He was baffled and asked him if it was some words way of doing a song request, then he got him up on stage and they did Santa Claus is Coming to Town while the guy danced around holding his sign. I got a video of some of it.

Santa

santa2

I don't really like to be one of those people filming the whole show on their phone instead of watching but I did take a few videos of some of my favorite songs. He was on for about three hours in total, so there would have been too much show to record the whole thing anyway.

We stayed at the Travelodge in the city centre. I felt a bit sorry for the two guys working there, when about fifty concert-goers arrived within the space of a half hour, checking in, using the bar, ordering food. Apparently there were two staff members down, and the hotel was fully booked. They coped well with the influx though.

We would have spent some time in Manchester the next day, but it was still raining, so we just went home, stopped at a pub in Rochester on the way for breakfast, and got back for early afternoon, at which point I went to sleep, because my mum snoring had kept me awake half the night!

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Time off...

2016-05-25T15:09:42Z

I've had a pretty good week off so far. I got my bedroom not only tidies, but also cleaned too (because it was probably becoming a bit of health hazard!) and spent quite a bit of time sitting in the sun in the garden. Today though, it has decided to rain, which is just typical because I'm heading to Manchester to see Bruce Springsteen tonight.

Weirdly, we got an e-mail from Ticketmaster telling us that he has no support act, and that he will be on stage at 18.30. This seems stupid early to me, apparently the show will end at 22.00, which also seems early, and I know he has a bit of a reputation for doing really long shows, but 3 1/2 hours? Plus, the sun doesn't even go down til after 9 now, so it's going to be light for hours when he comes on.

Well, we'll see. One thing's for certain though, we're gonna get drenched.

We're also late, because the doors opened at 16.00 and we're not there yet. Which means out chances of getting a good spot are pretty slim.

Never mind, it'll be awesome anyway. :-)

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prepare4trouble @ 2016-05-23T17:08:00

2016-05-23T16:09:00Z

Just looking through some of the photos on my phone and I came across the few I'd taken at Bryan Adams last week. You know, I remember when people used to wave their cigarette lighters during the slow songs at concerts. How times have changed...

Not that it was good that so many people smoked and carried lighters around with them. Plus they used to burn your fingers. But I still think they looked prettier...

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10 whole days off

2016-05-20T23:46:05Z

I have a random week off next week, because of my work's strange way of making everyone book all their holidays a year in advance before they have any idea when the might actually need off. As it happens, next week is going to be an absolute nightmare at work because six people are away on a training course, so I'm pretty glad not to be there either! But I don't have much planned. Well, Wednesday I'm off to Manchester to see Bruce Springsteen at the Ethiad Stadium, but apart from that I'm going to have to think of something to do, or else I;ll just end up watching Netflix for a week. It has actually worked out as 10 days off, because I'm not working the weekend, so I have one weekend, a week off, another weekend and then Monday is a bank holiday. I couldn't have planned it better if I'd actually planned it.

I found out yesterday that work are moving me to another branch again. I'm going to be in the small branch in the city centre from the middle of next month. I got the feeling that my manager expected me to be unhappy about this, but I'm pretty pleased. I mean, they do finish an hour later, but you get a lunch hour, which I don't get in Hedon, and because it's closer to home I'll be able to cycle to work again, which is awesome. I really feel like I've gotten out of shape since I've been having to drive to work. Maybe I'll be able to lose a couple of pounds in time for the summer.

Talking of summer, I'm not sure if it's just appeared of if iI've sudden;y gotten my sense of smell back after my stupid cold, but there is suddenly lilac everywhere, and it smells gorgeous. Just walking down there road there are about five trees, and they are all just slightly different and I absolutely love it. Summer is wonderful.

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Weekend fun

2016-05-15T18:52:16Z

My mum and I went to see Bryan Adams at Sheffield Arena last night.

Really good show. I've seen him twice before, years and years ago when the KC Stadium in Hull was new and people actually came here, and then a few years later in York. The York show was amazing, it was just him, without his band in a tiny little venue. He took requests from the audience. He took a few requests last night too, actually, when he came on for the encore; he stayed on for over half an hour, just him and his guitar.

I can't even remember all the songs he did, because he was on for about two and a half hours. All the well known ones though, and quite a few off the new album.

Hilarious moment of the gig - he got some girl from the audience to dance all the way through one song and had her on the screen behind him, partway through, the... rather large... guy behind her started doing a striptease! Which of course Bryan Adams thought was hilarious, he stopped singing and said "Welcome to Sheffield everyone!"

We met up with my mum's cousin and her husband before the show. They weren't going, but we met up for some food at Chiquito. I've not seen them in quite some time. I don't know them especially well, but we used to go on holidays together when I was a kid, my mum and dad and us kids, them two and theirs.

After the show we went back to the hotel for a few drinks, then this morning we went to Meadowhall on the way home, not for any particular reason, just because we were nearby. But you can't go to Meadowhall without going to the Disney Store. Going to the Disney Store is never a good idea for me though, so I came out with a couple of t-shirts and this fairly awesome BB-8 suitcase, which was on offer, (I did need a little suitcase, though this wasn't exactly as practical as I might have gotten at Domo!) while my mum was unable to give into the temptation to spoil her grandkids, with a Rapunzel press up dress for Poppy and a really cute Finding Nemo swimsuit for Hazel.

All in all, a weekend well spent!

We have a dress down day at work tomorrow to raise money for Alzheimers research. I might wear one of my new t-shirts. Maybe the Captain America one.

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I'm starting to think I'm going to have this cold forever

2016-05-12T22:50:17Z

I think I've perforated my eardrum.

Actually, I'm pretty damn sure that's what I've done, because when I blow my nose, I can hear air coming out of my ear, which is incredibly weird.

Oddly, it's actually improved my hearing, I think because the pressure inside has been released and it can't build up again. But it's not the ideal way to solve that problem. The other ear's still bunged up, but I think I've broken the left one.

I rang 111 to see what to do about it. They suggest leaving it a few days to see if it improves, and then going to the doctor on Monday. Though I didn't actually tell them I've perforated it, as I wasn't sure at the time, so I just described the symptoms; pressure gone, awful sound as it happened, earache (which has thankfully gone now) and the buzzing, which is still there. My mum reckons I should go tomorrow. I haven't told her what's happened either, because she'll only yell at me about it.

The trouble with going to the doctor though, is that it would involve calling in sick. I can't get a normal appointment at short notice, they're booked up for about three weeks, so it has to be an emergency appointment, which means ringing at 8am and going whenever they tell you. It's that, or go to the walk in place after work and potentially end up waiting for five hours.

The medical adviser at 111 basically told me I should have gone to the doctor ages ago though, rather than putting up with a cold and probably a chest infection and all the sinus stuff for two months, because everything's connected up, and it;s obviously that that has messed my ears up. She's right, of course. It's just damn difficult to get an appointment when you work full time.

I'm going to Sheffield to see Bryan Adams on Saturday (if I can still hear!) so I'm not sure if it's best to go before or after that. My work know I'm going, so if I call in sick tomorrow, they might think it's to make it a long weekend, which it isn't. If I leave it till Monday, maybe I could give them some warning so that they can make provisions for the fact that I might not be in, or that I might have to arrive late or leave early or whatever.

I'll see how it is tomorrow.

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Apple...

2016-05-10T18:59:18Z

I've been pratting about for about an hour now with my Apple ID. I think I have it sorted, but I came so close to throwing my laptop out the window! Well, not really. These things are expensive!

Yesterday, Facebook sent me a notification that someone had tried to log into my account from Ukraine. Now, as I've never been there, I was pretty sure it wasn't me. As a precaution, they had me change my password. All was good. Then, a friend mentioned that they may have gotten the Facebook password via my email (don't know how) and that I should change that password too. Trouble is, I'm one of those idiots that uses the same password for everything, or at least some variation of it - you just can't keep track of which one is which if they are all different. So I though I'd better change everything, starting with Paypal and Apple.

Paypal was no problem. Apple, however, I made the mistake of setting it up so that is someone logs in from a new device, I get a notification to my phone with a verification code, and I have to type the verification code to the new device before it lets me in. Sounds good, right? In theory.

What actually happened was that the instant I turned on my mac, I got notifications from FaceTime, iMessage, iTunes, app store, and probably a bunch of other things. I put in the password, nothing happened on my phone. The next thing popped up and I put the password in that. Then three notifications came through on my phone, all with different codes and I didn't know which one was for which app.

The result was a pretty predictable mess in which the account got locked out. I had to go to a website, which opened a notification on my phone to update the password for the second time, then go back on the mac and do each one slowly, wait for the notification, and then set it up. It seems to have worked now, but my email isn't working on the mac now. So I've been messing about with that, putting the password in again, and stuff. Finally, I deleted the account and set it up again, and it's been sitting there for 10 minutes loading.

So that's been my evening.

Seriously, the sooner we start to use biometrics for everything the better!

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Blah

2016-05-07T23:27:51Z

Today was one of those stupid days where nothing goes right.

You know the movie Clerks? "I'm not even supposed to be here today." Someone convinced me to swap shifts with him. I'm sure he was lying about why, he claimed the road had been messed up and they had given him an extra day, but I know he's a Hull City fan, and it turns out they were playing at home today. I bet he spent an nice sunny afternoon at KC Stadium. Never mind, I suppose on the upside I wasn't stuck watching football all afternoon! :)

I only get one day off this weekend now, and my mum and sister (and nieces) are heading to Cleethorpes for a day on the beach, so that's not something I can ever turn down. It may be a stereotypical English seaside town, but I spent most of my childhood summers there, so I will always love it Plus, penny falls that still take 2p coins...

Monday I have to go to Sheffield for the course that I missed out on in March when I was with the stupid bronchitis/laryngitis combo. I'm convinced I still have the same bug now, but it's mostly on the way out, despite the ears thing that's till happening.

It's annoying really. I've driven to Sheffield once or twice before, it's not that far away, and it's where my mum is from, but I'm not confident at all driving in the city, and I have to get to Sheffield United grounds by 9am. Any other day, my mum would be able to take me and then spend the day with her cousin, but because it's that particular day, her cousin is out of town and I have to be a grown-up and drive myself.

The football grounds is about a five minute drive from where my nana and granddad used to live though, so I was thinking that before I head home, I might go there and have a look around, see if it still looks the same. I've not been there in about 25 years, but on Google maps it still looks the same. I'd be interested to see it in person.

On Saturday next week, I'm back in Sheffield again to see Bryan Adams. Funny how things happen all at once.

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Damn you Sky!

2016-05-04T22:45:04Z

I had just started to successfully get my mum not Agents of SHIELD by watching it with her on Sky boxsets, when they randomly made it unavailable. This is just months after Amazon Prime did the same thing to someone I work with with the same show. So annoying. This is why you still need to have DVDs of everything, because on demand is great, when the thing you're demanding is available.

I wonder if Daredevil will ever be released on DVD. Probably not, being a Netflix thing they'll probably leave it just on there forever. Which is fine, if it stays on there. Sort of. I'd still rather own a copy.

Luckily, there's this Marvel 2 DVDs for £12.99 thing going on at the moment, so I've ordered SHIELD from Amazon. I need it anyway. Unluckily, season 2 isn't included in the offer, and literally the only other thing included that I don't have is Iron Man 2. I didn't get that because I didn't really like it that much. Well, I'm getting it now. Also unluckily, and probably because of the offer, the Agents of SHIELD DVD will not ship for 10-12 days. Sigh. Never mind, at least I'll get it eventually. I would say maybe they'll put the same offer on next year and I can get season 2 and Civil War, but let's be honest; there's no way I'm not going to be buying Civil War the day it's released.

In other unrelated news, I still can't hear properly. Still bunged up and everything's muffled. I think the buzzing in my ear - which isn't so much buzzing as a loud, continuous, electric-y tone like the old TV in the kitchen makes then the volume is switched down - is getting louder. Not sure how long I should let this continue before I go to the doctor.

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Sleepwalking?

2016-05-03T23:05:37Z

I think I sleepwalked last night.

I'm not 100% sure, it's never happened before, as far as I know, but it's the only explanation I can think of.

So at some point in the middle of the night, there is a loud crashing sound. It's me, I've knocked a bunch of stuff off my desk. So I kneel down and start groping around on the floor in the pitch dark thing to pick it up. Eventually, I realize that I can't see anything and I don't even know what I'm looking for, so turning on the light might be a good idea.

So I feel my way over to where the lightswitch should be, skillfully avoiding the box of work uniform I've had on the floor for the past three weeks. To my consternation, the wall with the switch isn't where I thought it would be. So I move closer, singing my arms around. I find the shelves to my right, no lightswitch. Instead, I climb over the end of my bed and crawl over to the pillow end and switch on the bedside lamp.

It is at this point that I realize I am in my bedroom and not the spare room. Why I thought I was in the spare room, I have no idea. I never sleep in there. Having figured all this out, I switch the light back off and go back to sleep, leaving all the stuff all over the floor, for me to find the next day.

That is how I know the whole thing happened at all. Well, that and my sleep cycle app recorded activity at about 3am. The only thing I can think of is that I was sleepwalking, and the crash of the stuff falling on the floor woke me up.

Hopefully it won't happen again, even though everyone did think it was hilarious when I told them the next day.

In other, non sleepwalking related news, Civil War is awesome. I would ramble on about it, but I'm going to try to get an earlyish (the right side of midnight) night, because I still have the cold of doom, and still can't hear out of my left ear, and my right is wonky too. Which made work interesting today. Hopefully sleep will sort it, as long as I don't spend the night stumbling around the house knocking things over.

I'll ramble about the movie tomorrow though, no doubt!

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Cold of doom...

2016-05-01T23:31:12Z

My evil cold has taken a new and interesting turn. On Friday afternoon, I noticed I couldn't hear properly out of my left ear. Since then, it's gotten gradually worse, with a buzzing in the ear gradually growing louder and more distracting, and not the other ear joining in. It's kind of like someone's turned down the volume button on the world. So right now I'm typing, and I can barely hear the sound of the keyboard. Luckily, it's a bank holiday, so no work tomorrow and it has another day to clear up. If it's not better on Tuesday, I'm going to have to go into work and just keep asking people to repeat themselves, because I already have tickets to see Civil War Tuesday night, and I can't go after taking a day off sick, in case someone sees me. I'm fairly confident that if it doesn't get worse I'll still be able to hear the movie, because TV hasn't been a major issue. The fact that I still feel like crap is incidental. I need to see the movie!

I should probably go to the doctors though. I'm a bit concerned about this. I don't normally get ear infections.

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Show us your hardest face

2016-04-28T22:46:57Z

Three days ago, I was randomly added to a Facebook group called "Show us your hardest face". I was baffled. But it turned out to be something a couple of friends of my brother had made because they'd been talking about how he liked pulling stupid faces. So they created a group and posted pics of themselves pulling faces like they were about to beat someone up. It was pretty funny, so I stayed in it, and even posted one myself (it's not very good though). But since then it's kind of taken off. People added their friends, who added their friends, you know how it works. And today someone from the local paper contacted them to ask if they could write an article about it.

It went up this evening, and prompted a whole load more people to join. Now, I'm really not a fan of the Hull Daily Mail. It's generally badly written, badly researched and they put all their articles on Facebook, prompting uneducated morons to say awful things that they don't seem to bother to moderate. When Matthew died, they wrote an article about him, which was okay, actually, but the comments on it were horrible. But this is actually pretty funny.

My picture didn't make it into the article, luckily. But then, I doubt they'd use such a rubbish one anyway. The ones they did use are good :-)

http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/hardest-face-Hull-s-latest-Facebook-craze/story-29194086-detail/story.html

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