The joys of winter...

I hate winter for obvious reasons. Namely:

1. the cold..
2. the fact that most are susceptible to catching a cold in the winter.
3. you have to buy more clothes to keep warm.
4. the gas bill sky rockets.
6. the cold...brrrrr

I much prefer spring/summer (apart from the bugs). I feel like I am coming down with a cold. It put it all down to the cold and a bad choice in footwear. I wear converses. They let the cold in real bad and I felt yesterday like my feet were in fact in blocks of ice. I’ve made a mental note now to wear my other trainers when going out. They are made out of the white leather stuff normal trainers are made out of and not material.

My weekend wasn’t bad in all honesty. It all kicked off on Thursday night. I went to a local bands gig and got wasted with friends and had a great time. Friday night came and it was a works night out. It was to be held at Formby Hall, an exclusive spa and golf resort. I enjoyed the night, which mainly consisted of a five course meal, followed by free champagne and a comedy act, which had me in stitches.

Before attending at the works Christmas gathering, I felt my confidence had come on leaps and bounds, but the first sight of mingling with other work colleagues, I went back to shy ole Mal, and just sat off on my own for some of the night. A few drinks later though, I was having good conversations with others. Overall it was a good night. I got back at 2am in the morning, and went straight to bed not before taking a pic of myself in my smart attire.

Later that day I awoke and went to collect my son, but as it was cold out, we stayed in. I had them overnight, as his mum, my ex was going out. She seems to be going out a lot lately and I’ll need to make a mental note to not agree to have them overnight as often. On the plus side though, she is paying me back some of the money she owes me bit by bit every weekend.

Sunday came and I had a great time with the kids through the day waiting for the ex to return to the house. As usual she took her time and I left hers at 3pm. I waited around for a bus for a long time being a Sunday and the cold got to me badly and later on I gradually felt worse for wear and sick. I couldn’t get the sleep properly as I was having violent shivering bouts and because of this my sore back really hurt. It has been hurting for a couple of days now. I’ve never felt anything like that. I was retching in pain and shivering really bad. I managed to get to sleep eventually after breathing deeply and the shivering subsided. This morning though, I have no energy at all and still feel bad, but I’ve made an effort to go into work. If it gets worse, I’ll ask for sick leave. Fingers crossed that I get over this quickly and it doesn’t worsen.

Apart from the doom and gloom I feel lately, the Christmas spirit has eventually caught up with me and I’ve been humming and singing Christmas songs around the house and in work. It’s contagious. I was tormenting my son and step son with repetitive OH OH OH!s and they did likewise. It was fun. I’ve made two Christmassy designs recently and I thought I’d share them with you good people.

Will update you all as to how I feel and what I get up to soon.

Smells Like Xmas Spirit

Me (aged 5?) with my best friend at the time, Old St Nick

The time is almost upon us when we swap presents, reunite with family and friends and everyone seems to be happy. Yet still, I find it increasingly hard to get into the spirit of things.... maybe its because I am single again with no family of my own any more to come home to after work, or put decorations up, to see excitement in their faces every day.. it puts a dampener on things and is like a dark cloud hanging over my heart. As does thinking about those not so fortunate, those who are homeless, have no families, those who suffer from day to day with no jobs or homes. My thoughts go out to them.

I want my son Kallam to get everything I did as a child, plenty of toys and all the sweets he can eat. In many ways I was spoilt and got nearly everything I wanted as a child. I now appreciate the effort my parents put into giving me the latest toy I was into just to make me happy. Now I want to do the same for my son, especially with me not being around as much since me and my ex split up back in March. I've bought him something already, but will buy more just before Christmas when I get paid. On an afterthought though, I definately do not want him to be as spoilt as I was, not taking getting toys for granted and knowing he'll get anything he wishes. It will be something I will work out as time passes, i'm sure.

As for recent events, Its been same old i'm afraid. Not much to report on. This weekend however I was asked to go out on the town by a friend and he said he would give me £10. How could I refuse?! I went out into the misty cold night with my friends going from club to club and had a good night. Can't ask for more then that. The next day I had my son, Kallam and Rhys for the day and minded them over night to give my ex a break, as she has been having a bad time with her relationship and her dad, who is terminally ill. Its the least i could do. It was good to have them, but equally stressfull. We had a great time though and it was good to spend the next morning with them watching childrens cartoons and chilling feeling that I am the luckiest guy around for having just a brilliant son. He means the world to me.

I am approaching the end of a great book series called The Dark Tower by Stephen King. Its been my reader's digest for over a year now and i've been hooked. Its all building to a climax. To explain the story would take forever. Click the link above for a wiki on it though. What is good about it is that its basically a fantasy/western epic story, which is set in the future. It follows the main character's journey to save the universe from evil by reaching The Dark Tower. He is aided along the way by three people, who are from a parallel universe, who he trains up to be gunslingers like himself. I'm totally emmersed in it and I am enjoying it so much. It will be sad to put it down after reading it all. I hope there is not an anti climax at the end... I will write a review on the whole series soon.

That is it for now. I will write another blog in the not so distant future.

Another much anticipated blog entry from me. (>>i created the pic to the leftt. Great innit :¬D)

Recently been feeling the need to move on with my life, get some motion going instead of being stationary at a pit stop with no engineers. The pit stop being my dad’s house. I started my adult life there moving out with my now ex, had a family and it all fell through and then with an emotional car crash of a heart I went back to my dad’s for a pit stop.

It never meant to be a permanent stay and after more than half a year, I think it’s time to move on. To where though? With property prices rising and rising, even property to let prices are sky high, checked one a couple of weeks back and the rent was unaffordable for me. I guess I should keep looking. Then there’s the cold empty loneliness that will be there whenever I go to this new accommodation. That in itself does not seem inviting. With living with my dad and his girlfriend, I at least have the company if needed. I seem to be wanting to move on but with nowhere to move on to. I will have to keep searching. Maybe it isn’t the right time yet. Maybe it will all happen in the new year. This year has not been kind to me at all and I want to leave it behind and start with 09 already. Sheesh lol

On a lighter note, Halloween came and went as fast as a speeding train and with it went memories of a good night with friends. I was invited to a good friend’s house for Halloween and they emphasised that it was fancy dress. So, I got to work on figuring out what to go as. I dismissed going as anything too predictable, e.g. a ghost, a vampire, the devil, Dale Winton and opted to go as something cool but still scary. I decided after a few days of intense pondering, to go as The Punisher. The Marvel character seemed ideal, with a big scary skull on his front, guns, a leather knee length coat and overall just seemed bad ass. I already had the leather coat, thanks to my dad buying one way back when and all I needed was the skull t-shirt.

Being the kind of laid back guy I am I left it to last minute and ordered one through play.com, but with two days to go to Halloween I was panicking. The costume all depended on this t-shirt. I decided to make my own just to be safe. I printed off the skull picture and enlarged it to A3 (twice the size of normal paper, not sure on US size of paper). Then I went and bought some thick white fabric. I cut out the skull logo and pinned it onto the fabric and cut out the skull. It turned out to be quite enjoyable and not as hard as I first thought. I then got my dad’s girlfriend to stitch it onto an old t shirt and the deed was done. The end product looked amazing. I felt accomplished and decided to wear the t-shirt no matter what, even if the t-shirt I ordered came in the post. (which it did yesterday – it looked below average compared to my home made one)

Halloween eventually turned up and I went straight after work to my friends house and chilled there for a bit and got dressed into my Halloween gear. They all commented on how bad ass it looked and I was well proud. The guests turned up one by one, their costumes ranging from The Hulk (painted green and ripped clothes lol I just had to laugh), a guy dressed in girls lingerie, and witches and devils. Unfortunately, my ex and her friend was there, but after a few drinks and staying in a different room I was the life of the party and had a laugh with those around me. I enjoyed it mucho.

The day after I was a bit worse for wear, but I pulled myself together after a few cups of coffee and a few bananas. I went to pick my son up and had a great day at my sisters. Hes getting to be a little cheeky now, grrring and smiling his face off. Gotta love him; he means the world to me and I can’t imagine life now without him. I could write a whole blog about how he makes my life worthwhile, or perhaps how his smile brightens my day, how proud of him I am, or maybe all these things. I however will not write these things, but will let them out occasionally in blog posts, as too much adoration can spoil things.

Sunday was spent going to see my nephew play rugby. (Thats him in black to the right fighting a losing battle of getting the ball past the opposition. I took many photos that day, most of which are in my facebook, so i cannot link to them unfortunately.) He has major potential, with enough encouragement to be a big league rugby star. He carries his team, tackling and scoring more than the others and he is often in the paper. Having effectively brought him up with my sister when she was a single mum, I feel in a way as if he was my own and I am proud of him. He is a bit misguided when out with friends as we all are at that age (13), however I try to give advice where and when I can. Not to mention my niece Jade (16) who I am also proud of. She is doing well at school and is about to go on to college. She’s got a well developed personality and is very mature. I told her the other day how the whole family are proud of her in a heartfelt internet convo and I meant every word. (she probably thought I was drunk or something or off my rocker lol)

That’s about it for an update. Will update when I have some news.

as the world goes round.

A little ditty to start this blog off:

As the world goes round
The worlds in depression
I get the impression
its time to leave this town

As the world goes round
crisis of the financial
the worlds gone mad
its time to keep feet on the ground

As the world goes round
people are thankful
for what they have
frantically cherishing every pound

Hi there, hope you enjoyed my little ode to current events. Felt creative there for some reason.

I've had bloggers block....... yes it sounds painfull, but no its just lack of things to put in this here blog. Somethings better then nothing i've realised. So thoughts and ramblings I am going to share with you from now on as well as what goes on in my life

.
Lately, has been uneventful.... a good start i know, but bare with me. My weeks are routine consisting of going to work and going home and spending the nights watching TV or going online. Its a good life and boredom doesn't bother me. I have a high tollerance for it. Its only when i come to write about my goings on that i get frustrated of being able to share nothing.

Recnently however, things are starting to happen. My dad and his girlfriend are currently en route to Scotland for a trip leaving me by myself for the entire weekend. Good or bad news....hmm, well now i get to not breathe in their smog as they puff ciggarettes every waking second or hear their bickering as they sip their whiskey of a night. So yeah, its excellent news.

I had plans this month. To get my boy's Christmas presents in, to get myself a PS3 or at least put some money away for one and to get some forms sent off for a new Provisional Driving licence. None of these have come to pass due to money restrictions i'm afraid to say. So yet again, they are put on the back burner until next month. Fingers crossed. Instead this month, i've been purchasing the odd piece of clothing that i think would suit me, but at the same time being reasonably priced. I seemed to have done a great job so far. No one will notice that the clothing i wear only cost me about £5 per item. I ain't big on spending loads on brand names. As long as i look good and feel comfy then whats the problem.

I had a deviant spell today. I needed to return some jeans to ASDA (our version of Walmart), but the cashier wouldn't take them back without a receipt. What was i supposed to do, just wear them and suck it in. They wouldn't even zip up when i tried them on at home (serves me right for not trying them on in the store when i bought them). I thus continued to gather the correct jeans from the rack that i wanted, took them into the changing rooms and swapped them there and then with the smaller jeans swapping tags and so on. ( i know, i know, its illegal, but i was fuming). I casually then walked out of the changing rooms, put the used jeans up on the hanger and walked out of the store whilst looking all paranoid, as us non-shoplifters do. I felt real guilty about it, but accomplished. I had visions of laughing in that cashier's face. HA!

anyways. Will leave it at that. Best wishes to my friend Emma who has been feeling under the weather lately. Hope you feel yourself soon.

Update ya later.

Listen up ok? its Blog Action Day!

Its an important present crisis in the world that needs to be recognised and a solution needs to be found for it.

That is the plan for the folks over at http://blogactionday.org/. Today more then 10.000 sites will participate in posting articles about a big global issue , about poverty. Their goal is to assign a DAY in a year when everybody should talk, write, read about a big global issue, about poverty. With even blogs like this we can make a bigger impact in transiting the message: we should act NOW in helping people and countries that are in poverty.

If you own a blog of your own, do your bit and mention poverty and your views. Thank you.