The Time Bubble

As the title suggests it has been half term hence no blog post for a week or so. This offering has no particular theme, more of a catch up really to summarise where we are. Working backwards from this morning, well Ollie went back to school so I have been playing catch up - in the main this has involved doing various bits of paperwork on the computer, e.g. last month's accounts, putting to bed last year's tax issues (long call to tax credits people), loading up the latest Pro Disc from Mastermix, putting up some photos and facebooking. I've just put some photos on a memory stick, as I am going into town later to try and print them off using that machine in Boots. Now I did have my own little photo printer which worked very well for a long time until I got this new laptop a few months back. Since then, I have been unable to use it, as it appears no drivers exist for this printer to work with 64 bit versions of windows. I tried various other methods to get them off but wi...

I thought tonight I would give you the run down on how my night's DJ'ing went. What was so special about tonight? Well some might say nothing - it's just another gig. However - as I am sure Duncan and Mike will agree there is no such thing as "just another gig" if there was, anyone could do it. And to the person who's party it is, or now was, it's a very special night! Now tonight's gig (or booking if Russ is reading - he says only real musicians have "gigs") was one of those "surprise ones". You all know the routine, everyone has to keep it a secret until they arrive then it's "surprise" the lights go up and we kick into one of the accepted tunes for whatever the event is - e.g. Stevie Wonder "Happy Birthday". Not that one tonight, as it was a silver wedding anniversary so we went with "Congratulations" by Cliff Richard followed by "Celebration" by Kool and The Kang. Apologies for put...

I've been quiet for a few days. I've been ill. Picked up the virus the kids had, laid me low. Worst thing about it, not the feeling ill, but as someone who has a sleep disorder, this completely wrecked my chance to sleep for two nights. I have a condition called "sleep aponea", I won't bore you with the details, you can look it up, but for anyone who thought I was just fat and lazy, well I can blame my condition for at least 10% of my sloth! Anyway, having run a temperature, just like the kids did, and becoming ravenously thirsty seemed to aggravate the aponea to the extent that for the last 2 nights, I estimate that I fell asleep and woke up approximately 240 times each night. This left me in a delirious and other worldy state, with recurrent hellish dreams, to the extent that by morning I was not only utterly exhausted but also not even sure quite who or where I was. I am just about feeling human again now, and having a couple of glasses of wine as I rea...

My enjoyment of my occasional trips to Nash's has been seriously compromised of late. Every time I have been in over the past two or three weeks, I have encountered these two horrendous gossipy middle aged women. I say middle aged but in fact they are probably the same age as me, they have children at the same school as Ollie. They just look older. Anyway these two women sit in Nash's and at the top of their voices (so everyone in the cafe can hear) systematically slag off and bitch about everyone they know. It usually is along the lines of "You know so and so in the school playground - well I heard this and I heard that, bitch bitch bitch". The older of these two women is the worst. Not a single pleasant word comes out of her mouth. Nasty, spiteful venom. And she is revelling in the sound of her voice, deliberately speaking loudly in that way people do when they want to be heard in the mistaken belief that they are impressing people with their opinions. Whe...

Well, today's been a little challenging to say the least. Ollie got sent home from school yesterday - not well. He had a temperature and was clearly not himself. I had a night out planned last night, but had to take it fairly easy - just had the three pints in the end. With Claire working from 7:30am and Ollie potentially unwell, I could not justify getting hammered. I enjoyed my couple of hours in the Star anyway, a chance to catch up with a few friends without the pressure of running a disco/ karaoke, so a chance to relax. Just as I was about to leave Daryl turned up, on his way back from a poker tournament at the Highfield. He wanted to have a drink with me - either there, or walking back into town and going to the White Hart, but I declined. I declined, for the reason that I decline the vast majority of social invitations in that either work or childcare invariably comes first. Not I don't feel guilty about this in the slightest. I had 20 good years of pissing up wi...

Well here we are on Wednesday, and I have not been on facebook since Sunday. And I am not missing it at all. In fact I am positively enjoying it. At last I realise what a slave I had become to that site. I doubt whether my absence has even been noticed, but there you go. I don't know as I have turned notifications off, so I won't get any emails to tell me if anyone posts on my wall. Which they rarely do anyway. Despite not visiting the site, I am still maintaining a presence through these blogs, which should send a link to my facebook page. Hopefully, anyway, the posting is a little sporadic, so if you are seeing this, hello! Now as for facebook, I think I am going to use it as a networking site, as originally intended. I have had a fair amount of business come my way in the past through people either sending me private messages or posting on my wall e.g. "Hi Jason, so and so here, it's my 30th birthday next year and wondered if you could do my disco". I p...

I mentioned all the things I didn't like about facebook in a recent post. Nothing's changed so I am going to try and stay off it for 7 days. I won't deactivate it though. As last time I did that someone got all huffy and upset because they thought I had deleted them! I sometimes think that some people just don't "get me" and whilst that's not something to bother me in itself, I kind of think why should I set myself up for a fall in a public place. I have had more than my fair share of misunderstandings and spats. Now this is a public place too - I know. However I also know that the only people who read my blogs are people who do get me. If they don't - they don't read it. And if I did not promote it on facebook I doubt they would read it at all. The only two people who I can guarantee would read it would be Claire and Lynda. For all I know there may be a few "sleepers" too - people who read but never comment. As you can see I have the...

So, here we are in 2008, and now we have a baby - but that's not a big deal - we just carry on with our holidays like before, right? Well - as a couple, using just two seats on a plane, and with no children to worry about, a package holiday outside the school holidays, a room and self-catering really is the best option. What I did not realise was that everything was going to change. First time out - May 2008 with 8 month Ollie, everything was pretty much to form. We went to Minorca (our honeymoon), he sat on Claire's lap on the plane, we hired a car, ate out most nights in restaurants, he had jars of baby food, no problem. By our next holiday, February 2009 in Fuerteventura, things were getting a little more difficult. He still had to sit on our laps on the plane and it was a nightmare. We also had major problems in restaurants - he was too little for child portions and too big for baby food. By the time the following year came round, February 2010 this had become a major...

It seems that many people are dissatisfied with their holidays judging by some of the disgruntled reviews on Trip Advisor. But who knows - perhaps these are the sort of people who moan about everything anyway. Or perhaps they didn't do their homework. Who knows - all I know, is it's getting harder and harder to find the right holiday for "me". The weather's gone off and it's gone a bit rainy which always makes me think of holidays. i.e. wanting to go on one! We may all have our own ideas as to what constitutes the perfect holiday. However, as our life moves through it's different stages our holiday needs change, just as our life needs change. Never underestimate the importance of holidays. They are something that define us, make for long lasting memories, snapshots of our life at key times. Think back to your past, any particular year and I am willing to bet you have just as many memories of your two week holiday that year as the rest of the 50 weeks...