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Showing posts from October, 2007

Growl Time

I was all set to post about everything that's been keeping me off the streets these past few days and then bam, mood swing! It seems that the new Marks and Spencer in Tring is so popular that some people are too impatient to wait their turn to be served. I was happily waiting in line for one of the two express checkout girls to become available, and there was a reasonable queue building up behind me. The guy that was at the furthest till was just being handed his receipt, so I started to make my way forward when some haggard blonde bit pushed past me and dumped her basket at the till, looking back at her friend behind me with a big grin on her face, all proud at her lack of manners. What did I do? Nothing, as usual. I'm still working on my confidence and anger control!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaarrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! *sigh* That's better. Anyway, I am a little calmer now I have found a picture that closely resembled her in a Big Brother forum *: just stick

Project X

Blimey, so much to be getting on with I haven't had a chance to let you know what's going on! That said, there is a perfectly good reason for being quiet at the moment ... I just can't tell you what it is yet :-D

Grumpy Post

All dressed up and nowhere to go :-( I was supposed to be meeting my cuz and his new wife in London tonight, as they are here this weekend for her thirtieth birthday, gallavanting around the capital to do all the interesting things people do there. So why am I sitting here, posting? The trains are buggered. I'd heard this morning that there were problems but figured they would be sorted by tonight. How naive! Checking the Journey Check website for Silverlink , there are no trains to Euston from where I am within the next hour ... and its been saying that for the past hour. Fine. That's that cancelled then. What about going out with mates? Only one person out of about seven bothered to reply and is already busy. So here I sit, all psyched up for going out, with nowhere to go... ... and totally grumpy.

Beastly Attraction

Well, Monday saw my return to the Centralian Players for the first rehearsal of their next play and it felt very much like putting on an old pair of flourescent socks : comfortable, but nervous that everyone will be looking at you and laughing. Of course, I need not have worried as everyone was in the same boat, and I appear to have gotten back into the swing of things pretty quick. There was one line that was easy to learn and, because we ran through that piece a couple of times, down went the book and out came the acting, which resulted in the guy playing Trevor laughing nervously and commenting on how I'd just given him the evils! Oops, getting into it a bit too soon, me thinks!! The producer has put us in some positions that do not feel right, but it was only the first rehearsal for blocking, so this is bound to change the further we go. I guess I'm a little bit purist about such stuff. In my mind, if the playwright puts a specific stage direction in the script, then i

Mixed Moods

Right now, I am not a happy bunny. Last week, I placed an ad in the Freecycle Watford Yahoo! group *, offering 12 cans of decorating paint to anyone who was interested. Surprisingly, I had half-a-dozen people show an interest so, rather than picking someone at random to have the paints, I decided to go on a first-come-first-served basis. The first person was a lady called Linda who arranged to collect last Wednesday. She then couldn't make this and changed it to either saturday or sunday, which I agreed to. Unfortunately, I forgot I was going to the National Self Build and Renovation Centre in Swindon on Saturday, so had to mail her back to ask if she could make it Sunday. She agreed to this, saying that she should be here 'early afternoon'. Well, it is now Sunday, it is well past 6pm and she still hasn't arrived or contacted me to say when she will be here. Once again, I have had my time wasted waiting for someone else. That's two out of three times this has

Wish Me Luck!

Well, tonight is the night I try for my opportunity to tread the boards! Kind of like walking the plank but with fiercer sharks!! Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a single thing about the play we're auditioning for (House of Secrets by Peter McKelvey), so I'm going to be walking into this blind. But then, I guess, so is everyone else. Despite getting nervous just thinking about this, there is a part of me that would really like to have a part again ... but another part of me screaming: "No, don't do it! Stick with the stage management!!" But I don't always listen to that part of me ...

Is it lies or just business?

I don't know how many of you will recall, but roughly one year ago, my previous employer became a customer of my current employer*, transferring their IT department to us under the TUPE regulations. At the time, my boss informed me that, as per regulations, the transferred staff could not have their terms and conditions changed (understandably) and that my terms and conditions could not be improved in order to match theirs, as much as he would like to do so. This has been bugging me for a while especially since the transferred staff have; minimum 22 days holiday, increasing upto a maximum of 27 days; 3 privilege days between Christmas and New Year; and are contracted for less hours of work. All far more than the government minimum that I get. It always seemed odd to me that there would be stipulations in a regulation that would prevent an improvement in terms and conditions of employees, since its creation was to protect transferred employees from being disadvantaged. So this we

Video Fun

In view of the fact that I have just posted another epic entry to my blog, here's something a bit shorter and more entertaining!!! This one is good... but this one is sooooooooooooooo much funnier!!! Cheers, cuz, for pointing me to these :-D

Bugged

I know I've said this before, but there is something to be said about not having a television to distract*. I think I have got more stuff done in this past week than I have in the preceding months! It also means you have to get your entertainment elsewhere. Usually, this would be computer games, such as the excellent BioShock, but I've just not been in the mood for it lately. However, my little visit to the old drama group last week seems to have planted a little seed in my head and, on my way past the Palace Theatre , I decided to take a look to see what was on ... which led to me booking a seat as soon as I got home! At first I thought The Hired Man by Melvyn Bragg was showing as I had my dates mixed up, but then I discovered that A Small Family Business by Alan Ayckbourn was on its last night, so I thought: "Why not?!" It would appear that there are two extremes when comparing am-dram with professional theatre, namely, quality of the acting and quality of the a

Drive-by Projecting

Its Friday, its hometime, its funtime!!

Thespian Thinking

Several years ago, I was a member of a local amateur dramatics group, The Centralian Players . From the stories I had heard about other drama groups, I think I struck gold with this group as they were very friendly and inviting, and they weren't afraid to put a total newcomer on stage: not me, I hasten to add, but my mate Tim who did a great Councillor Mason in Curtain Call by Bettine Manktelow. Instead, I blew them away with my stage management :-) After stage managing one play, and appearing in two others (Gym & Tonic by John Godber and Deadly Nightcap by Francis Durbridge), I decided to leave the group as I was getting a job in High Wycombe and, with having to work late, it would be very difficult to make rehearsals. Apparently, I was the first person in the history of the group to hand in his notice! In the past, people just vanished and were never seen again... Anyway, the group's October production, Murder in Rehearsal by Angela Lanyon, opened last night at Henders

On Another Note...

This morning I started a new blog, Bonce Babble . I don't expect it to get anywhere, but its a place where I will post the really odd day-dreamy crap that goes on in my head from time-to-time. Don't read it if you don't have an imagination!

Party Time!

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I am definitely slacking with this blogging malarkey: perhaps I should rename this the Weekly Dump Blog as, once again, a week has passed since I last tapped an entry. In all fairness though, I have actually been wondering what on earth I could write as I didn't want it to be too dull. Why change now? Well, dear reader, this is something of a special celebratory post that calls for a little effort and a bottle of bubbly to be cracked open*. Yes, this is ... (anti-climax drum-roll) ... my 100th post in this blog! Woohoo! I actually lasted long enough!! My first post was way back on 29 March 2006 when I started blogging as a means of keeping people up-to-date on my training for the Great North Run . As usual, things kind of slipped off track and you're now reading about the more interesting aspects of my life ... and I use the term 'interesting' in its loosest possible sense. However, there is another reason to break out the bubbly** ... last night I completed my ve

Trusted Computing

Like it or not ... mostly not ... we are living in a world where we are dictated to about what we can and cannot do. People either do not realise, or seem to want to ignore, the fact that this spreads through every aspect of today's society and is getting deeper. I could easily go into a rant about how the government is treating us all but it would just fall on deaf ears anyway, so I shall get to the main point of this post. Having a quick scan of my regular blogs before work started this morning, I came across this blog entry about Trusted Computing , by Daffy . Watch the video for an interesting insight.

I'm Back!!

Well, I'm finally back from the hols to the Lake District and, as is normal, wishing I was still out there. That said, it was nice to get back to my own place and fall asleep without being suffocated by feather duvets!* From a photographic perspective, I really needed to stay there longer in order to increase my chances of decent weather: unfortunately, not really an option. All-in-all, a nice trip, but not very productive, so it looks like I will be returning to the area in the new year ... I'm thinking February when there is hopefully some snow on the ground :-) At some point, I will be placing the pics onto Flickr , and perhaps a few of the more casual photos here, after all, I have a week's worth of blogging to catch up on and it would be nice to show some of it too! Though with it all written down in a notepad, I suspect you will be getting a précise rather than a step-by-step re-telling of the break ... keep your fingers crossed! Probably the most interesting part