Monday 30 April 2012

Monday and I have a laptop

I went into town, went to the bank and took out £230 and went and bought an Asus Eee netbook.
I had about 1GB on my 3G broadband dongle, and I looked at how much data I was going to need, so I topped up another 1GB. By mid day, I had used both loads of data up!
But I also downloaded the complete Microsoft Office Professional package, skype, a driver for my printer and mozilla etc etc etc. But I now have a working PC and hence I can continue with the 4th book and I can update this blog.
Brilliant. Happy.

Sunday, not a lot to do

Bit of gym, a bit of radio playing. I wish I had a laptop.

Saturday - buy a new laptop

Rushed into town, did a brief hour in the gym and then round to the bank to get the money out to buy a new laptop. Sadly not enough in the bank, I will have to wait until Monday. Bum.
Played on the radio again, more mapping out of radio coverage, also played with the CB. I really  do enjoy radios!
Baby sitting for the kids again Saturday night, lots of rain, even more rain.

Friday - Poets day.

End of the course, paperwork all up to date and next job confirmed. I mobilise on Wednesday out of Immingham. Trip home via Luton and finally got to bed at 00:53, a bit of synchonisity there me thinks!

(sorry about the spelling)

Thursday in the office

Day three of the course, learning loads, but still got even more I still need to learn.

Wednesday

Second day of the course, new subject, I handed my CV over and returned the PC that I had been loaned. I was hoping to work on the 4th book at this point, which was pretty hard as the only laptop I had was broken.
So I watched Cowboys and Aliens, it was a lot better than I expected it to be.

Tuesday in Aberdeen

Tuesday morning, I had a course to do. I got up and walked to the office. I spoke to my line manager and he said he would get me a laptop to type up my CV.
As I did not have my laptop I had to re create my CV from the records my employer holds on me, so I got my original CV from when I was recruited and then had the office list all the jobs I had been on since joining, and a list of all the courses I have done since joining.
I spent the evening sitting in the crew house and typed up my CV on the new template and included all the jobs I have been on since joining as well as all the courses. All in 11 point text. The course list took two pages! My line manager asked me to not put anymore down.  Maybe I am doing too many courses, what do you think.

Back online

Monday last week my trusty laptop died, hard drive failure. This left me with out a PC to use and so I have been unable to upload my blog, so here is the update.
Monday was a day when I thought I just had a few things to do and life would be all fine and dandy. Instead what happened was I started to load up with Joomla software and suddenly the PC froze. I tried everything I knew (and after 20 seconds of trying) decided I had lost the PC and would need assistance to get it back.
One hour thirty nine minutes later my line manager called and asked for my updated CV, which had been requested a few days before to be sent in by the 30th (so I was still in good time). As my PC had died, I was unable to supply the CV.
I needed a new PC, sadly, as regular readers of this blog will know I am a bit short of cash at the moment, so no PC til I get paid next week.
Monday after noon I headed out to catch a bus to the local town, so I could catch a train to Luton. I arrived in town, and walked the half mile down to the railway. I bought my ticket at the auto ticket machine at the station and went to catch my train from platform 2.
I took the train to Bedford, where I was going to change for Luton Parkway. I did this as the train between Bedford and Luton Parkway meant I would arrive a little earlier than if I took the later direct train.
I arrived at Bedford, jumped off the train and headed for the nearest railway employee. "Where do I go for the luton train?" I asked, the man pointed and said "that one", so I ran up the stairs across the bridge and down the other side and jumped on the train believing it to be for Luton. It went to Kettering, as it was the Corby train. I felt like a right numpty.
I had a brief arguement with a man on the station at Kettering, who was overruled by his boss and I was duely put on a train to Luton as I wanted.
I felt I was still OK, I had lost about 45 minutes, but I was still going to be on time so that was fine.
I arrived at Luton Parkway with 30 minutes still to go before checkin closed.
From past experience I know that it takes on average 18 minutes to get from Luton Parkway to the Airport, so to make sure I took a taxi.
I got in the taxi and said, "take me to the airport", the taxi driver then drove around town for a few minutes and then took me too........ Luton town railway station.
Due to his poor English I could not get him to understand that he had taken me to the wrong place.
In the end I phoned the taxi company and got someone there who spoke the same language to tell the guy to take me to the airport. He also told me to only give him £6 as tht is what the fare should have been.
I arrived at the airport with 4 minutes to the end of check in. I ran to the desk, but by the time I handed over my passport the gate was closing. The girl on the desk phoned through and they had not shut the doors so I quickly stipped out all my shaving kit, shampoo etc and ran to security, cleared it in record time and then headed for the gate.
On the run to the gate we got a radio call, they had let standby passesngers on the plane and my seat was gone.
We walked sedately back to the checkin desk and they booked me on a flight to edinburgh instead.
I got to the crew house in Aberdeen at 00:53.
That as my monday.

Sunday 22 April 2012

Sunday April 22 2012

Got up this morning, kids were already awake and playing a somewhat violent video game. I made them garlic bread, as I had promised to do so yesterday and waited for my daughter to come home.
When I arrived over at my daughters last night I had to repair a seam in her work trousers and a zip, unfortunately I had only brought enough thread to fix the hole, as I did not know about the zip.
It took me a while to do both, as I was trying to do them using the minimum of thread (as I had not brought enought). She left for work with her modesty intact and and all seams secure. She came home this morning and the seams and zip were working themselves loose again.
Tomorrow I am off to Aberdeen for three courses, when I am back (saturday), I will be baby sitting again, so I will bring some better quality thread and do the job properly.
This afternoon I went to the gym again, I did a couple of hours and I am not stiff at all today. I must admit I mainly worked on the cross trainers with only a few stations on the weights, but I still did a full set, with more than the minimum weight and more than the minimum reps.
I was going to go for a swim as well, but it was kiddie swimmming so I couldn't.
I have got my bag ready for Aberdeen, I just have to take mum shopping tomorrow and then to her retinal eye exam and then it is off to the airport.
Catch you later.

Saturday 21 April 2012

Saturday - well so far anyway

I was baby sitting again last night. I took my laptop with me so I could work on the survey tales book. I got over to my daughters, saw the kids off to bed and saw my daughter off to work.
I sat down, put the computer on the dinning room table and sat to watch a little TV before I started writting. About 2am I woke up, still in the chair. I decided that maybe I was a little tired and went to bed.
I woke up this morning and started writting before the kids got up, I managed to add a few more things to the book, about six pages before the kids got up. It is coming on nicely. I have still got a long way to go, it is about 80 pages (hard back sized) and there are still loads of things I want to put in.
It is made up of all the daft things that have happened while I have been on surveys. I am even going to put my most recent incidence, when I was chased down the street in Aberdeen by a prostitute who was trying to talk me in to taking her services. You will have to read the book for the full details - and I have included every detail. Before you ask, I got away with my modesty intact.
I checked my spare tire this morning before I drove home, I have been meaning to do this for some time. It is badly deflated, so I will have to go into the garage and get it checked. More expense! But it has to be done.

Friday 20 April 2012

Last nights food!

OK, yes. I had a curry pot noodle last night at my daughters. Now I remember!

Food

No idea what I had last night, I did not write it in the food diary. This morning I had cherios for breakfast, a fruit bar made of fruit pulp (I can not recommend it), supposedly it had 135 calories, it tasted vaguely of fruit. A waste of £1.39.
Lunch was a subway turkey, no chese but every single veg on the rack! On honey oat with no sauce.
I have no idea what I am going to have tonight, probably a pot noodle.

Thursday and Friday

Baby sat last night, nothing special to report, it was quiet, so maybe that is important. The little one woke up about 5 times in the night, each time his duvet had come off, so I replaced it, gave the regulation cuddle and retired back to my cave. SO I did not get an especially good nights sleep last night.
My eldest daughter has a tear in her trousers, so tonight I am going to practise my seamstress skills and fix it, I can't believe no one has ever showed her how to sew.  Oh well, Pappy to the rescue. My younger daughter was shown all this by my mum, but she is not available to assist at the moment. She is not that well at the moment, I hope it is a passing thing. I think they are all great, and I wish I got to see them all more. Especially Stuart, my son. He is rather independent, so I don't get to see much of him. I am going to try and entice him on a camping holiday in the summer and see if I can not spark off an interest in ham radio in him. That would get us seeing more of each other.
I was supposed to go in on Tuesday for my gastric band, however, I have pile of courses to do. I did not have them last week, but I have them now. It is my own fault, I told my line manager I would do any courses he sent me on, and he is always true to his word!
That is one of the good things about the company I work for, they see training as very important and that is great as although I have been doing the job since the last century, I had no paper work, no certificates to show I could do it. Now, thanks to my employer, I do.
I had my retinal eye screening today, for my diabetes, I have it every year. I go in, they put drops in my eyes, I wait 15 minutes, they take photos of my eyes. Done. Then I walk outside and the world is so bright! The drops dilate the pupils and make you look like you have been doing hard drugs - we will come on to that. My mum brought my dad into the hospital for the same thing, but her car clonked out and we had to call the RAC. It was just a brief cough by the solenoid and it is all OK now.
I went to the gym and did an hour, my shoulders are on fire, but that will get better as time goes by. I was questioned by the fitness instructor and asked if I had taken anything - he had seen my eyes. I explained that I had just been to the hospital for my retinal screening and showed him the letter. We had a little laugh about it, and he told me a couple of stories I can not repeat. Sorry.
Played radios this after noon again, this time I used the CB not the Ham kit. I had a bit of a laugh with it. I can get about 30 miles which I think is quite good. I also mapped out the repeater ranges using the handheld. If I have line of sight I can get a good 10km with the hand held, I am going to see just how far I can go. I did some calculations based on "best guess" conditions (power of repeater, gain of antenna, length of antenna cable, loss in cable and connectors etc etc) and I should be able to access Northampton GB3NH from about 35km away. I am going to see how well the real world matches the results of a spreadsheet.
I have written another book, but I do not think I will upload it. It is about a terrorist attack on the Olympics, it features four specific attacks and details how they were carried out. In the book they are only partially successfully and our hero (an off duty soldier) manages to inspire the public to defeat the forces of evil while an incompetent, PC ridden and Health and Safety obsessed Police Force fluffs the defence of London. I think it could be seen as a "blue print for a terrorist attack". I am considering deleting it as it may be a step too far.

Thursday 19 April 2012

Books

I have come to a halt on the 4th book. No not writers block, time. The PC is proving to be an inconvenience now and I need a small notebook. The laptop is fine as a desktop, but it needs a fan on it all the time now, so I need a small notebook so I can write when the muse takes me (Pretentious, Moi?).
Book sales have never been worse. They have ground to a halt. Strange.

OK, coming up to date

Monday: Breakfast was cherios, lunch was a chop with mash at home and evening meal was a chease salad with pickled onions (home made). Went in to see if I could join a gym. Paid £20 for an induction, I will take it tomorrow morning. I popped into town for a few bits and bobs and played radios.
I belong to a radio club and I recently offered to create and manage the clubs webs site, as I used to design, write, upload and manage my old web site and that included advertising banners and a checkout system with credit card payment. I am used to common old HTML and currently use Front Page from Microsoft to write my sites.
A very kind man offered us free web space on his LInux Server, but we would have to prepare the site using software called Joomla, or something similar. I am not a PC wizzard. I know how to run some software packages and that is it. I used to be a PC wizzard, but then they got rid of Windows 3.11 and I was scuppered.
So, I downloaded thismagic software and started reading through the pages and pages of web sites and PDF's and chat threads and then after I had attempted to download the software for the umpteenth time, I gave up.
I have spoken to a friend and he said, write it as HTML and it should be OK, keep it simple and it should still be able to run on the Linux server, as the HTML actually runs on the clients PC, not the server. So I am going to write a sample page and see if that works, I will put a simple link in and if it uploads and runs on IE and Mozilla that is all I need.

Tuesday: Breakfast was a BLT (yes I know, but it was before a day of activitty, so I did it anyway, lunch was a sub way, evening meal was a chop, mash, carrots, peas and gravy.
I joined a gym yesterday, it is £32.50 a month for membership of two gyms and a swimmingpool, with classes included. My company will reimburse me £15 a month for doing this. Nice.
I have previously been a member at the first gym twice before. I arrived and other than the rolling roads and the cross trainers, all the kit was the same.  However, I still had to go through all the induction and be shown how all the equipment worked. Plus this means I have to use each piece of equipment for about 10 minutes or 20 repertitions. Then I did a fitness test on 2 of the cross trainers and 2 of the "resistance" systems. By the end of it I thought I was going to die! My arms felt like they were about to drop off. I went straight into town and had a subway 6 inch sandwich and the largest diet pepsi the world has ever seen!.

Wednesday: Breakfast was cherios, lunch was cold meat and various veg, evening meal was a sandwich, pickles and chese on crackers later on. I also had some peanuts.
I went into the other gym and did the induction there. It took nearly two hours but was not anywhere as bad as the first, as I did not have to do any fitness test. I think I prefer the first gym, but the second one has a pool. I can use either, so no problem there.
I took £200 I have been saving and put it in my wallet. Today is Radio Club day and I was to pick up my new HF radio. It is not actually new, it is second hand, but it is new to me. I have wanted a short wave receiver, a proper one, since I was in college. Now I will finally get one, plus it is also a transmitter. It does all the Ham bands in the HF spectrum, plus it does 50MHz, 144-146 & 433-436MHz as well. It is exactly what I need. I will still need to get tuning units and antennas and find somewhere to put the antennas up, but this is now the core of my hobby. I am happy.
My daughter told me how good the film Battleship was, so I went to see it and she is right. It is good.
Just as I was going into the cinema (huge diet coke in hand) my girly phoned, she has some news for me! Oops, I have to put her off, as the film is about to start. After the film I phone her back and it is that her old company wants to make life hard for her and rather than letting her go nicely, and letting her go to Dubai for a visa change. They are sending her to Philippines. Evil people. We have come up with a solution, I won't say what it is until after it has worked, so I don't jinx it.
I went to the radio club, I got the radio and it is wonderful. I got home at about 2230, I went to bed about 0230, yes, I was playing with it.

Thursday: Went into the gym this morning, and it was packed. So I played with VHF/UHF and CB radio for most of today. I am confirmed for my retinipathy scan tomorrow morning, so I will go to the gym after that. I am baby sitting tonight so it will be a mad dash back from the daughters to get to the hospital on time.

More later...

Sunday 15 April 2012

Lack of book sales

It has been a weird month. The book sales have been the lowest they have ever been. Odd.
Good news, my super hot girlfriend has pulled off a business deal that is quite impressive. If she keeps this up I will end up looking after the house while she goes to work. Well done Babe.

Saturday 14 April 2012

Creditor - no more....

Today I paid off one of my creditors. It may not have been a very big one, but that is one more off the list. It has made me rather happy.
Yesterday I had a problem with the car. My mum (who has the ginger cat - see "My Mum's Ginger Cat" on Amazon) sent me out to buy some stuff for lunch and the car would not start. We took her car instead and when we got back I tried to get the breakdown for the car. There were a whole load of problems and I was about to cancel my car insurance and use someone else, when the car insurer did something impressive. Instead of hiding behind small print or blaming someone else, they arranged for a local garage to come out and fix the car. Needless to say, I will now be staying with this insurer. I am impressed with their customer service. The company is Ecar. I had heard a few poor reports about them before I bought a policy from them, but still used them as my daughter uses them, she has used them for a few years and had no problems even when she has claimed. As I said, I am impressed, there was no attempt to brush me off (unlike a certain airline I could name), there was a problem, and then there was a solution. Customer Service at its best. I will be writing to them to say well done. It is nice not to moan for a change! I must do this more often.
I was baby sitting for my daughter last night, so after the garage started my car (and told me to buy a new battery after using a frankenstien battery tester on my battery), I drove over to my daughter and watched the babies over night. My other daughter wanted to know why jump starting my car using my mum's car did not work. The verdict of the mechanic? "Your leads are sh*t", at least he was honest!
So, this morning when I got in the car it did not start again and my eldest daughter had to jump start the car from her battery. Her leads are really solid and it started first time.
I took the car to my favorite garage (Yardley) and they put a new battery on and fitted a battery retention clip all for a little over £56. Again, no moan, good service. I always recommend good companies! I like companies that I don't moan about!
I went over to the archeological dig, made plans for the summer and came home.
On my way home I drew out £200 and visited one of creditors and made his final payment. It felt good.
Tomorrow I am off to a radio rally at Foxton in Cambridgeshire, I am not really looking to buy anything, maybe an HF antenna if I can get one for less than £20 - £30, but I just want to see what is on offer really. Plus it is a day out and I have not been to a radio rally since I worked at the BBC!

Friday 13 April 2012

Car not working

The car died this morning. Now, I have RAC cover on my car insurance, so no worries! However when I call the RAC they have no record of the cover. The RAC is now trying to call the insurance company to confirm.
I am supposed to be baby sitting tonight!

Lunch with the kids

Yesterday I went to Zen Garden with the kids (or two out of three) and it was really nice. I have got to start doing this more often!
I tried to limit my intake, but I did pile on the noodles a bit, slapped hand for that.
I spent most of the remained of the day "playing radios", or indulging in my amateur radio hobby as I call it.
This morning had me rolling out of bed with an awful case of hay fever, tablets are in the car, so I will take them later.
My dad is having to go to the doctor today, he has found a lump on his chest and it not feeling well. He is 83, has leukemia, diabetes, 3 by-passes, a replacement heart valve, he is deaf, has angina, has a pace maker, bionic hip joints and the list goes on. We hope this is nothing new.

Thursday 12 April 2012

Wednesday

Still a bit stunned by the returned book, if it was either of the others I would not be surprised. Never mind, I knew it would happen sooner or later, but the cat book?
Anyway, yesterday I went over to the dig and I took my total station and other gear, I managed to shoot about 30 points and I will process them up tonight. Why tonight? Why not today?
I am finally seeing my kids today. We have found a time when we can all be together (well, I still won't have one daughter there, but I will see her tomorrow anyway) and we are going to have lunch at the Zen Garden.
So I will be busy into the afternoon. This morning I am off over to have a look at a wall my artist brother michael is building, at Doddington. He is having to put lime mortar in the courses because a builder told the farmer that is it needed. He actually told him he must have concrete in the wall! My god, where do these people get their ideas from? A dry stone wall should have nothing but stone in it! Maybe some clay, if that is how it was originally built. What makes a dry stone wall strong is its ability to settle, as it settles it gets stronger. Put concrete in it and it can not move, so stresses build up and it will collapse. Ask any stone mason (No. Not stone expert. Stone Mason, someone who has studied it for years, has gained proper qualifications and can actually work with stone. Not a builder who "does a bit of stone". A stone mason, they are very different. I have never seen a builder lay stone like a stone mason can. When you ask them to match something, they can't "it's been lost in time" is all you hear! A stone mason will repair a wall and six months later no one will know the wall has been repaired. A builder will leave a patch that matches nothing else) Rant Over.
Anyway, he is doing a wall and I want to see how it is turning out. He has had to put lime grout in the wall because someone who knows nothing about it has told the farmer he needs it. All it has done is made teh wall £200 more expensive. It will have no other effect.
I am off now to see my brothers wall, have lunch with my babies (17 and 20) and then I will process the points.
Catch you later!

Wednesday 11 April 2012

digging in the dirt

OK, I am off to the dig now, my total station has been on charge all night and I have 12 record sheets. I will be sleeping in the car, sorry, correction. I will be trying to sleep in the car!
I am taking the total station three tripods, two prisms, a prism pole and anything else I think of while I am packing my bag.

I can remember, and I a bit pushed for time so I won't check, but did I mention that as well as my PC now having a case of hot flushed (and randomly shutting down), my trusty old HP3420 has finally died. I bought it in 2003 and it has just up and died with no real warning. Nothing lasts these days does it?

So I now have a nice shiny Cannon PIXMA MP250 printer, scanner, copier. It cost £12, from an Argos Outlet store online, I bought some low cost printer cartridges for it, and they are refilled ones. First time out, they leaked and and are now showing as "empty/in need of cleaning". I have bought some new ones from Cannon and I was quite surprised, including postage, they are £8 cheaper than the ones I used to buy for my old HP.

Bad day for my book

I suppose it had to happen, but I never expected it to happen with the cat book, but I have had a return!
Someone has returned a book for a refund. I have been waiting for this to happen since I first uploaded the first book, and if it was going to happen I expected it to happen with the first book, frankly because it was my first and my least well written. But it has happened with the cat book, my mum's ginger cat, and that is a surprise. There are a few spelling mistakes, in the early part of the book I used "which" where I should have used "were" and a few others (thanks for pointing them out, I will fix them).
I am a bit stunned it was on the cat book. Oh well, such is life!

Tuesday 10 April 2012

Oh dear god no.

I bought some cheese and onion peanuts today. I should not have done so. I have eaten a few and now all I can taste is bloody cheese! Yuerk.

Web site for radio club

At the last radio club meeting, I offered to write the club web site. I am now putting ideas together and will take them to the next club meeting on the 18th. I am looking forward to doing this as I got quite competant at doing web sites when I was doing mine for the company. Once it is done, I will put a link on it from here.

Food! Food! Food!

OK, sorry. Yes. I have been having cheerios for breakfast (except for this morning), lunch has been a variety of stews, casseroles, and a couple of roasts. Evening meals have been mainly sandwiches (I know, boring). This morning I had a slice of bacon and a lightly fried tomato.
I did miss behave on Easter Sunday, I had 5 Romany Chocolate half coated biscuits and six roses chocolates. I did not have an easter egg, but I did want one.

Busy doing not a lot

Easter Monday I visited the dig at P*d*ng*on and agreed to bring my total station along and take some measurements, I will be loaning it to the guys on the dig via Marc as well. I also offered to lend Marc the old Pathfinder ProXr, I will have to find it first, but it will allow them to map the site in real time, even if to only 25 to 75cm accuracy. If we can find an L1 logging station, or can get our hands on one we can improve that to about 3 to 5cm with post processing. I will see what I can do.
I am planning to spend Wednesday there, so will be taking sleeping bags etc and kipping in the car. I suspect it will not be the best nights sleep, but what the hell? You only live once.
I have saved up £200 for the HF radio, I should really have paid Ken off with this, and I feeling very guilty about that. I have another £100 for Ken, and I will be able to pay him off totally next month. I would have done it this month, but I only got slightly over basic pay this month as I was off the other month when the client did not want a surveyor and then I got the winter vomiting bug! Not a good three weeks!
Anyway, I am paying everyone off now, so I am going to treat myself to a proper HF radio, even if it is a bit cut price. Keith, who is selling it is being a real gent letting me have it for such a low price, and allowing me to pay it off over a period of time. Not many people would do that. Ken is always a gent and that is why I am going to try and pay him off totally next month. He has been really, really good about the debt the company left me with. Some people are just nice people.
I have got a sexy little power supply for £8, it is a bit ugly, it is old, but it has a near perfect spec for the HF radio, it is almost free of noise on the output! A lovely smooth, spike free, noise free power supply, that stays clean even when I load it up with 7amps. I am pleased. I did not think I would get something this nice for such a low amount of money.
Yesterday I was "playing radios", I have been mapping the access to local repeaters from local hill tops. I still have quite a lot of experiments to do, but I am starting to get a decent indication of where I can get into and from where. I hope to be able to produce a map of radio shadow so that I can plot where I should get good radio signals. This is all in preparation to getting the new (second hand) HF radio, as it also has 50Mhz on it, so I can start playing with that, something I have wanted to do since BBC days.
OK. Book.
The 4th book is proving to be a bit long. I have written it a new way. I normaly lay out the book on a single piece of paper, putting the chapters on one side and then bulding the characters and the events on the other side, matching each to a chapter.
I started to do this, but then I got into bullet pointing and this is how the book as grown. This book is a fictionalised record of all the studpid, funny, odd, silly things that have happened to me or people I know on surveys around the world. For it I have invented a job, a company and a whole host of people to populate the book with. I have not used any single person as a direct character, although the temptation was huge! All the people are ficticious. However, all the stories are real. I have changed the location, and some of the ancillary details to protect the inocent. I am still planning to upload it next week, but as I add more and more this may slip back, sorry about that.
My wonderful girlfriend asked me to write her a letter of invitation last week, and the following day the PC decided to crap out on me. I have managed to rebuild it, but it it still not 100%, I now have to have a fan on it just to keep it running! I need a new PC! I have nearly finished the letter and hope to send it to her probably later today. I really do not like being short of money, it is just such a pain!
I am still hoping to be able to fly out and see her,I just don't know when. I need to have at least £1000 available, and I do not have anywhere near that at the moment. Hopefully when (ha ha) I get the council house I will be able to sort out all the little cables of rubbish I have laying around and I can sell this to clear some more debt. I will not get as much as I paid for the lemo connectors, but I have about 20 to 30 of them that are brand new, I should get £5 to £10 each for them, that will be usefull, and I have 20 to 30 cables that I can offload for about £30 to £40 each. Those alone would pay for me to be able to see her, but until I have somewhere I can unpack them and sort them out, I am a bit stuffed.
I am very lucky, I have a good job that does pay a decent wage, it is about half what I used to take home, but it is good enough. But first I have to shift the debt. Once that is done, I will be laughing. On current repayment, I should be debt free in just over a year and a half. But this means living on what is left over until I am debt free. Not nice. But, I see it as a sacrifice worth making. Once I have offloaded the debt the company left me with, I will be free. And I do earn enough to have a decent house, marry Abel and start over again. For that I thank the company that took me on!
OK, got to go, I have to take my mum shopping now!
Catch you later

Friday 6 April 2012

Back online sorry for the delay

OK, I got back the other day, but I have been a little busy with one or two things and so have neglected the blog. Sorry for that.
OK. TO keep you up to date, first things first. While on the ship my diet consisted of mainly soup, which I had twice a day, other than that I ate one meal a day from a small plate. I switched aprox 50% of my hot drinks over to tea, and increased my water intake a lot.
I flew down from Aberdeen a couple of days ago, it was a flight from hell, I was on a certain budget airline (as with my first book, no names) and instead of arriving in Luton, I ended up in Gatwick, we were left in arrivals with no information for over half an hour and when I went in search of someone from the airline I ended up being threatened with removal from the airport (because I raised my voice), cancellation of my onward transportation (a bus) because I raised my voice, and at one point even arrest! All because the airline in question could not organise someone to come and tell its fare paying passengers that there was a bus waiting for it! Wonderful customer service.
Anyway, not to worry. I don't pay them (and be certain I never will), and I make every attempt not to use them in future. Hopefully they will go out of business once everyone has tried them once. Fingers crossed.
I am home, I have a lovely 2kw test load with power meter from a certain auction site, purchased while on the boat. I drove to King's Lynn to pick it up and visited an Aladins cave of radio kit that left me wanting to buy it all! There is a lovely lady who has lots of wonderful kit and wants very reasonable prices for it. I wish I had the money!!!!
Anyway the load is great and the meter works so I am happy.
I have phoned y girlfriend, I am still waiting for 1 million people to buy "my mum's ginger cat" so I can marry her. Serious! With 7 billion people on the planet is it so hard for 1 million to buy the book I ask you?
I went over and baby sat for my daughter last night, I will be doing the same tonight. Then I will be getting ready to go over and do a few days at the archeological dig at P***ing**N where there is some great remains being looked at.
4th book is in progress, I am on page 76 now, only 392 to go. It is fiction, but all based on real events.
I am hoping to see my other two kids tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Sunday 1 April 2012

Coming ashore

OK, sorry for the break in communications, but I have been out at sea for the last 27 days. I am now heading back into Aberdeen and hope to be on dry land by tomorrow evening.
I don't have a great deal to tell anyone today as not a lot has happened that is not work related and as you know, I never discuss my employer.
I am hoping to be able to pick up my new HF radio when I get home, plus I have bought a high power test load from a bloke in Bury St Edmunds which I will have to drive over to pick up.
I will no doubt have a ton of mail to sort out, but that is normal.
Catch you on dry land...