Getting Fit

Having bought scales to weigh myself, it is now time to start being good and trying to lose some weight. I was down at 14st 6lbs today, and hopefully with continued sensible eating, running in the morning and football this evening, that should hold until Monday. The plan is 2lbs per week which sounds easy, but isn't due to what I get up to at the weekend (drinking and eating mainly).

Time to do some tidying around the house as it is a mess.

Cheerio!

An Amazing Weekend

I have experienced, quite possibly, one of the most entertaining weekends in a long time. I mentioned previously about my inability to last an entire night. Well, fear not: Saturday night was a huge success.

We started at 6pm, had some food at Tequilas (a Mexican place which I have wanted to eat at for ages - unfortunately it was a bit disappointing) and then headed down the hill into town, stopping at the Lion and Snake, discovering that The Straits is no longer there (horror!), and then going into Dogma. From there we headed round to the Falcon for fun on the quiz machine and all the women that are there. After a quick drink in the Attic, we headed to Walkabout to really kick off the night.
After Walkabout it was Lloyds, and then onto Scream at about half midnight to finish the evening. We only just got in! The bouncer is a complete jobsworth and tried to knock us back because we weren't students. Luckily, he had just let our two friends in who aren't either, so I was able to point this out to him. Then he said he had seen us 'larking around' on the Brayford when we hadn't done anything! I was about to lose my temper when something inside me kicked in and said 'calm down, reason with the man'. So I did, and after some fantastic work from myself, we (and everybody else in the queue) were allowed in. The place wasn't full and we weren't being a problem, so I have no idea why he decided that he was going to be a total arse.
Once in Scream, we just danced and danced and danced. I saw Dominique Cortez, an ex-student of mine who looked fantastic, and I must confess to spending far too much time trying to track her down again!

Well we drank and drank and danced and danced and I had such a good time. To make the weekend even better, on Sunday afternoon we all had a kickabout on the common, and Gary bought a massive goal for us to use! Fantastic!

Back to reality today though, with lots of job hunting and a play with a couple of websites that I'm working on.

Oh, and a trip to Sainsburys to buy fish...

Pope Benedict XIV

I felt a few comments about the new pope were in order. I watched the ceremony and was very impressed - it was an amazing spectacle and seeing people who are that devoted to their religion was amazing.

I am concerned by the choice (based upon what little I know). The fact that he is very conservative in this day and age worries me. The church's continued opposition to contraception is something that I feel needs to be addressed if only to save lives in Africa. At the end of the day recreational sex is common practice with the entire world, and people need to protect themselves from the dangers of it.

I guess I also wanted someone younger. The crowd in St Peter's square was full of people in their 20s, 30s, 40s. Can a 78 year old man truly represent the needs of these people?

I hope that he is an amazing leader and that he can find the right line between traditional catholic values and what I believe are more realistic values for the world that we live in today.

The Biggest City In The World!!!

I've just been to the biggest city in the world - Dublin! Why's it the biggest city? Because it's always 'dublin'!!! Many thanks to my friend Dalts for that joke...

I have a couple of days out there and it was very nice. No photos I'm afraid: I was meant to go out and work but that fell through. As a consequence I wasn't quite prepared for the whole tourist thing.

It's a nice city, especially when the sun is out. I'm not a great tourist as what I really enjoy is night life: experiencing bars and restaurants. I went out on both evenings with my father (who is working out there at the moment) and his work colleagues. Last night we ate in the Trocadero. It is amazing but count your money into the hands of the waiter as they proved themselves to be thieving bastards :-)

I'm back at my parents for the night, and then back over to Lincoln tomorrow. It should be a good one as a few friends are up for the weekend. More drinking!

Job Hunting!

Well the start of a new week and more job hunting. I've just done something quite scary and applied for a permanent job. It looks great, and I appear to be perfectly qualified which is a bit scary!

I'm off to Dublin tomorrow to join my dad at work and see what is going on. There could be some good networking to be done. Even if there isn't, I'm looking forward to seeing the city: it will be my first visit.

I've used a colon in my blog today, as I'm reading 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' by Lynne Truss. I'm not sure if the usage is entirely correct: I was very torn between a colon and a semi colon. A dash would have done the same job I feel.

I definately have too much spare time!

Hanging in the Balance

I've bought some scales today to actually see how much I weigh. I think they are faulty - by about 3 stone! So now I'm going to check regularly and get the weight down. I've finally chosen realistic goals too - I reckon about half a stone a month should do. I will report on how it goes...

More Beer Drinking and an Early Night

There's something odd going on. Very odd. I go out in the evening to drink, have a great time, get a bit merry, and then something in me just says Stop! Go home! And I do. I tell people I'm off and leave about an hour early. I did it last night. I was having a great time and then just suddenly decided that it was time to go. I just don't get it.

A Few Days With The Parents

I'm back over in Formby, where I was bought up, for a couple of days. I'm trying to put together a website for my brother-in-law, which isn't proving to be too difficult.

Formby is a strange place. It's a dormitory town - everyone sleeps here but works elsewhere, and as a consequence there isn't much to do. The headlines in the Formby Times, the local rag, are about plans to build a skateboard park with a graffiti wall. The skateboard park idea was fine, it would appear, but the graffiti wall is one step too far. The problem with places like Formby is that the younger residents are totally misunderstood. The older residents have lived here 'all their lives' and as a consequence believe that they know what is best for Formby. That's not true. They know what they want but won't listen to what everyone else wants.

This becomes the problem with elections. The General Election is upon us, and we all have to make a decision about who we are going to vote for. Nobody is going to fullfil what I want 100%, so what do I do? Where do I make my compromise? I don't want to vote for someone who spends his time slagging off the opposition, but they all do it. I don't want someone who will promise everything and then give nothing, but they all do that too. So I have to go for the big picture. Who is going to make me more wealthy?

This election is bigger than that though. I'm a bit worried about the world as a whole, and top of the list for me would be any political party that throws themselves 100% behind improving our environment. Forcing people to recycle everything that can be recycled. Stopping people from using cars unecessarily, encouraging the use of public transport by making it very affordable and reliable.
I think I'll continue the rant tomorrow. I'm off for tea with the grandparents which is always a pleasure.

The Golf Season Begins

I'm not much of a golf player, but I played my first 9 holes of the year yesterday. There's a small course in the middle of Market Rasen racecourse which is good to go around. It's a par 34 (I think) and I did it in 59. I've a little more practice to do yet, but near the end I was getting much better. I just slowed things down and didn't go for the distance shot. I even parred the 8th which was a great feeling.

My lack of religion was the spark that started this blog, and I haven't really talked about it at all. Now that I've started the blog, I'm not sure that I'm going to write about it that much. It's an odd sensation - I have moments when I am overwhelmed by life and what it means. I have become very conscious recently about the world that we live in and how it is falling apart rapidly. I want to make a difference but I'm not sure how. I believe that going to church on a Sunday morning is not the answer, and I'm concerned that too many people have faith in God and don't realise that it isn't God that can save us, but ourselves. I have my feelings about religion, but I'll talk about them some other time.

Ah

I've just discovered that the first one did publish. So the lesson is to check that it's published before doing another post.

That's a lot of lessons to learn before 10am!

Tuesday Morning Job Hunting

Hmm... This is my second attempt this morning. I've learnt an important lesson though - copy your text before you click on the publish button!
So what did I say the first time? Something about my lack of work and the fact that I'm looking for jobs every morning, and that I should have 'faith' in my search for work, but the only one who can influence it is me, so I need to have faith in me. I also said that I need to look up the definition of 'faith'.
I'm off for a run around the common in my continuing fight to lose a bit of weight.

Tuesday Morning Job Hunting

I'm currently 'in between jobs' which makes me sound some what like an actor, but I'm not. I do freelance IT work, and whilst it pays well when you do it, it doesn't when you're out of work. Every morning I have the same routine -check out the job sites to see if there is anything worth going for. If I went for London it wouldn't be a problem, but I quite like it up here in the north so I'll just keep looking.
I don't know how much my lack of region is going to feature in these blogs. I am regularly told that I need to have 'faith' in finding a job, but what sort of faith that is I don't know. Faith in what? In who? The only person that can get me a job is me, so I guess I need to have faith in me. I probably need to check out a definition of the word 'faith', and then go from there.
I think a quick run around the common should get me a little more enthused for today, so I'll pop off and do that.

Tentative First Steps

I've wanted to blog for a while now, but I didn't really know what to say. I don't want to talk about people I know, as I would probably offend them, and life is a little boring at the moment, so that wouldn't make for good reading either.
There is one thing that I want to talk about though, and that is my lack of religion. I do not believe in God, and whilst I was Christened when I was a baby, I do not call myself a Christian.
Recently I've been thinking a lot about this, and the implications that it has on my life. It does have an effect, and I guess the only way to work it out is to write it down and see what happens.