The Time Bubble

A two part blog entry today. Firstly, there are many issues that polarise opinion in the world, and factors that make people compatible with one another. Ever since computer dating was invented, people have been trying to matchmake using various criteria. I am sure you have all seen the ads over the years where you get a list of interests you have to tick - reading, holidays, keeping fit, nights out etc. Maybe you have even tried it. But I have come to the conclusion that there is only one test you'll ever need. People talk about people with Type A and Type B personalities, and countless words have been written on the subject. I myself have spent a good 20 years or more now pondering the issue and indeed wrote an extensive 100,000 word thesis on the subject. However I have condensed this down purely for your benefit into two summary bullet points containing 4 and 5 words each. So my two basic personality types are: a) People who like Marmite. b) People who don't like M...

Happy St George's Day!  There are certain debates that come up every year in the calendar, e.g. why do we mess about changing the clocks, but the one that seems to grow stronger every year is - why don't we celebrate St George's Day the way other countries do? - Ireland being the one most commonly referred to, but often you hear the USA and Australia mentioned. I don't think there is any one single reason, but a combination of factors. The first is that St George's Day is not  a bank holiday. Now that is a real big one, probably the biggest of all. In all of those other countries I mentioned their national day is a holiday as in most countries. I could list countless examples. There has been a clamour in this country to make St George's Day a bank holiday for many years but the Government has always been reluctant to add an additional day. Not only that but the timing is far from ideal. You will all be aware of the lopsided nature of our 8 bank holida...

Whilst myself and Mrs Jason were watching JTV tonight (a programme from 1989), a comment was made about measuring a pregnant woman's baby's heartbeat and Mrs J commented, "Oh I didn't know they could do that back then". Now as you know, Mrs Jason is some 15 years younger than myself, a factor that rarely causes any issues, but to put it into context, in 1989 she was 4 years old and had not even started Primary School. I had finished my A Levels and was in my first full time job, as well as enjoying all the pursuits that a 19 year old could at that age - i.e. drinking and all the rest of it (yes, believe it or not I was not one of those saddoes who did not lose their virginity until they were 26). The thing is - 1989 was not really that long ago for me, 23 years in fact. Which is actually the same amount of years for any of us, well it would be wouldn't it. It's only just over half my life ago. For Claire though, it's ancient history. Which is perha...

Come on and play me - I dare ya! Username is BicesterBlogger What the hell is this picture at the top of the blog? All will be revealed further down...but in the meantime, what a busy day that was! I purchased (second hand) an amazing set of bunk beds, and managed to get them home and installed on the very same day, thanks to the help of a couple of very friendly painters and decorators who were able to give me a hand. Sadly - no picture available of the bunk beds at present. I am currently unable to take pictures with either my Samsung camera or my HTC mobile due to technical issues. Now you will recall a couple of blogs back my phone related woes. Well I did eventually get to the bottom of this. It transpired that there was no internal memory left on my phone. So no applications would work, no updates could be installed, text messages couldn't be sent - the list goes on. And why? Well it seems that once a photo is taken on this particular model of phone it is forever e...

The great thing about this blog is that I can say whatever I want on it. It is my blog after all, I'm not libelling anyone, or trying to bullshit anyone (Legoland blog excluded) I just give my opinion. So when I say I think Montgomery House Surgery is an absolute waste of space, and Langford Village Surgery is the best in Bicester - that's my opinion! Agree or disagree - that's up to you, but I say/ do what I think - always have, always will. What's brought all this on, well when I got together with Claire some six years ago nearly, I was based at Langford Village surgery and she was based at Montgomery House. Now whilst it is traditional for all family members to be registered with the same doctor, we continued with this arrangement until Ollie came along, at which point he naturally went to the same surgery as his mother. You see, in the first few months of Ollie's life I was continuing to work full time for the Probation service while Claire was at home, so i...

I am pretty much at the cutting edge generally with technology. I was one of the first people in Bicester to get the internet back circa 1994 when most people thought it was only for sad geeks wanking over porn. I saw the potential back then! I was also the first person in Bicester to get an Andrew James meat slicer for my highly advanced and technological ham production line here at Baconham Villa. However - the one piece of technology that has always frustrated me is the mobile phone! Now I hardly use mine. At one time I used the excuse that as I was at home most of the time looking after the kids I did not need it. My laptop here is on 24/7 and I can do pretty much everything I need to do on it. My phone by comparison is cumbersome, incredibly fiddly to type with, I can hardly read anything I try to look at on the internet as the fonts are either so small as to need a microcope or don't fit on the page so I have to fiddle about trying to find what I want, also attempts to...

So, the fun continued fast and furious last week, with even the steadily worsening weather. Took Ollie into Oxford on the bus for the day on Thursday, which he loves. Jamie was at Julie's so we could sit upstairs on the bus. Had a few things to do which I won't bore you with (technicalities at camera shops etc) then we went to McDonalds for lunch. Here I did my good deed for the day. My friend Claire Atkin was there with her two kiddies, and had a bit of a disaster when her youngest pulled over a whole bottle of Orange Juice flooding the table, food clothes, everything. Fortunately I was able to leap into action, sprinting across the floor, knocking all the fat spotty people out of the way, to return in seconds armed with copious amounts of napkins to minimise the damage. It's very frustrating for a parent when such things occur in public, I remember an occasion some years ago when Ollie pulled over a whole large coke directly into my lap in Burger King so I had to go aro...

I and countless other people have been saying for years that Bicester needs a proper English restaurant serving good English food. Now there is nothing wrong with the proliferation of Indian, Chinese, etc takeaways and restaurants - most people enjoy those things, but variety is good, and basically there has been nowhere in this town where you can go out and enjoy a decent English meal. And don't even get me started on the Hungry Horse, you may as well, as Basil Fawlty once memorably said "Put out a huge tray of baked beans and garnish it with a few dead dogs". So Maba opens - on the corner of my street. What could be better? Impressive looking menu, nice concept. Let's give it a try. So having returned from Legoland on Wednesday, a quick shower and shave later and in we go for our meal - the four of us, that's Duncan, Claire, Lynda and myself. Nice little cocktail menu to peruse and also a wine list as we waited for our table, booked for 8pm. They were extrem...

The action has been continuing thick and fast throughout the Easter holidays. Now yesterday marked a couple of "firsts", beginning with my first ever trip to Legoland. I used to do theme parks a lot up until the children were born, but with them so young had kind of fallen out of it. So when the opportunity came to go to Legoland, geared especially for the the little 'uns I jumped at the chance! So off we went yesterday morning, a convoy of two cars containing 9 people. In the driving seats were myself and DJ wobble, 5 assorted kiddies in the back, and my two favourite girls, wifey Claire and bestie Lynda to keep the boys under control. Now before departure, wifey decided to have serious words with me about my conduct on the day to come, based on past performance. Basically wifey gave me a set of instructions which went kind of along these lines. "Now listen, Jason, I know how you like to be the best at everything, top of the fantasy football league, top of t...