May
1 - Shopped for food . . . PCd .
. . slept . . . TVd watching the news and lunatics rioting all
over the place to celebrate May Day!! What on earth is the point?
. . . PCd till early. (4/10)p
2 - Woken early by the sound of
the deisel engine of a lorry parked opposite, engine running! . .
. popped a moving home card in the post to SA . . . PCd and
chatted with SA and found out the move has all gone bad!! Ooops!
. . . Sis1 popped in briefly with her Grandchild . . . TVd.
Headache and felt exhausted all day. (4/10)p
3 - Woken early again by the
sound of a deisel engined mail van parked opposite with the
engine running!!!? . . . messed around in the garden and chopped
down the overgrown holly tree . . . with M/D coming up I imagined
we wouldn't be eating till later so quickly stuffed myself with
corned beef sandwhiches to keep me going . . .M/D arrived bearing
a couple of potted SLOW GROWING trees for the garden, a surplus
to requirements black and white portable TV, and 'bought for a
song' charity shop trophies. A rechargeable beard trimmer and a
tidy leather coat. Sis1 arrived after getting her car back from
having an overdue service. M/D presented Sis1 with a new hedge
trimmer they had bought her - and me some money to, as always,
make it equal and fair!! Unusually decided to go for our meal
early! Typical! . . . went to the Golden Lion at Frampton
Cotterel. Excellent LARGE meals - better value than the
Harvester! Very full!!!!! Even came away with a 'doggy bag' of
left overs for tomorrow . . . back to my place to pick things up
and load up Sis1 car with all the logs from my trees. Decided
since we were all here to help to have a go at trimming Sis1
trees!!!!!! . . . spent the next several hours with Dad up a step
ladder and trimming the monsterously overgrown trees in her
garden!! Exhausting. . . Sis1 and Mum went out to the shops to
buy cakes and broke down!!!! Luckily sorted out by the garage
real quick - something to do with the car service? . . . Sis1 man
PH joined us. Finished chopping trees and clearing up and sat
around with wine/cheese/tea/cakes and chatting till late. Dropped
back home by M/D with an old pine bedside type cupboard Sis1
donated for putting the portable TV on in my bedroom. No longer
have to try and peer past my feet as I watch TV in bed!! . . .
absolutely exhausted!! Struggled to stay awake to receive the
usual "home safely" phone call from M/D. . . .TVd and
PCd breifly before bed. M/D really are good people - but I find
it impossible to simply say 'I love you' to them!!? They are
starting to really show signs of their age, Mum especially, and -
well - I guess I'd better learn to say it pretty soon if I'm ever
going to!!! (4/10)p
4 - Woken too early AGAIN by the
dustbin men!!! . . . put the rest of the garden rubbish in the
bin and tidied up hot and dirty in the sun . . . PCd . . . my
website had disappeared-all my pages replaced with the ISP page!!
Phoned the ISP and assured it was a temporary fault . . . nice
lunch of microwaved yesterdays doggy bag left overs . . . got an
e-mail from TS about her in a car-accident!!!!! Phoned her up.
Usual whiplash but sounded ok . . . .ML and PS popped in for
chats. Noticed flashing lights through the curtains. All went
outside to watch a fire engine pulling up just down the road to
put out a car that was on fire!!! Dunno who's. Looked like it
'could' have been a genuine electrical fault - seat of the fire
beneath the bonnet? Probably kids or an insurance fraud! Life in
the ghetto!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ML left pretty soon after in his Land
Rover. Didn't blame him!! . . . PCd till early. Website had
happily reappearred. (4/10)ps
5 - Up late with a headache! . .
. PCd . . .went shopping but saw SH on his way down so got a lift
back and had chats and coffee before getting dropped off at the
shops . . . slept . . . TVd . . . PCd. Lots of late night rowdy
drunks in the street! (4/10)ps
6 - Only managed to stay awake
for an hour or two before feeling SO tired and falling asleep
again! . . PCd . . . ate and fell asleep again!!!!!! . . .
TVd/PCd till early . . . phoned Sis2 to touch base.Seemed
ok.(4/10)ps
7 - Up around 9:30. A very sunny
bank holiday Monday . . . picked up around 1pm and went for a
drive with S&DH, AC and his lady. Went to Lyme Regis and
returned the surviving fish to the rock pools. Had fish and
chips, walked about a bit in the sun and cold breeze, had an ice
cream. Drove round the coast and ended up in Exemouth for a few
hours watching the sun go down. Stopped and had a look at a fair
but what a sorry example! We were almost the only people there
and almost no rides there at all! Seemed remarkably quiet for a
Bank Holiday. Kentcuky fried chicken and eventually the long
drive home by midnight . . . Interesting to see how peoples
relationships work. Don't think I understand at all!! . . .
PCd/chatted to BB by phone before setting my alarms and
bed.(4/10)p
8 - Up early with the
alarm.Another sunny day - Sis2 is right - it does make a
difference and make the world seem 'brighter'! . . . went to the
doctors (drugs dealer?!). Gave me a perscription for two months
supply of Prozac and instructions to get a repeat perscription
after that. So I see him again in about four months! Nice one. .
. sat in the garden in the sun . . . PCd . . . ate and fell
asleep. Woke up five hours later!!! . . . PCd and read before yet
more sleep!! (4/10)p
9 - Woken by the postman
delivering next door's mail through my letter box. Breakfast in
the sun on the patio . . .PCd/TVd/Read until early.(4/10)ps
10 - Woken late by the stupid
woman who visits opposite and ALWAYS blows her car horn twice as
she leaves! Grrr! . . . PCd/slept/TVd. Felt a bit down for no
apparant reason . . . PS popped in till early. A very warm night
- warmer outside than in! (3/10)ps
11 - Opened the curtains and saw
a pile of plastic garden chairs had been put out by their rubbish
bin by a neighbour down the street. Tempted. Showered and then
noticed the neighbour trying to put them in his car boot
presumeably to dump them? Couldn't resist and went and knocked on
their door and asked if they were throwing them away. They were -
with a table so I had them!! Terrible condition probably only fit
for throwing away but maybe with some scrubbing? I guess rubbish
is better than nothing! Phone went so I jokingly picked up and
answered "Not now! I'm being Steptoe and Son!" Women
from the library was a little taken aback but announced that
Kantor's 'Distancing' had arrived. Yaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rushed
straight out and walked to the library and picked it up after
paying the 70p fee. Marvellous. On INTERloan from the British
Library BUT - MUST be returned by 21st May!!! Bloody hell! Not
much time! . . . shopped.Very hot and sweaty! . . . PCd . . .
started reading. Slept for an hour but woken by M/D telling of
the 'Human Zoo' program on ITV later. TVd - excellent psychology
type program.Fascinating! . . read . . . PCd a little till early.
(4/10)p
12 - Up late. Another hot sunny
day! Sat in the garden in the sun and tried to read but so much
easier to just snooze! . . .TVd/Read/PCd till early. Sat out in
the cool of the dawn before bed listening to the birdsong. (4/10)ps
13 - Up too early with a headache
after not enough sleep. PCd . . . SH popped in for a couple of
hours . . . tried to sleep off the headache . . . read a little
more of the book. Not impressed - disappointed with it so far. .
. PS called with PC/modem problems and came and picked me up to
have a look at it! What the hell do I know?!!!! Reinstalled the
drivers and got it connecting but not working properly - or was
the phone line faulty? Gave up!! If it was me I'd wipe the
machine and go for a clean instal. . . walked back home with PS
for coffee and chats. The excercise seemed to clear my head and
wake me up. LB phoned and popped down to join in the chats! . . .
PCd till early. Not enough hours in the day?!!!! (4/10)ps
14 - Up late. Read . . . phoned
CW to touch base . . . PCd . . . read, read, read, slept, read,
read, FINISHED! Not too impressed! . . . dropped my unwanted herb
plant from the garden into LBs . . . Started trying to capture
some of the book with the scanner so I can re-read it at my
leisure . . . sat on the patio in the still of the night feeling
pretty ok. Not sure why! . . . PCd (4/10)p
15 - Spent all morning scanning
in the book! . . . PCd . . . finished the scanning nightmare . .
. filled the wheely bin up with other peoples rubbish from the
lane! Relocated three small toads to my garden. Scrubbed the
garden table down some more before some torrential rain - seems
to have come up quite ok . . . slept for an hour . . . TVd
feeling a bit down and schizoid?! STILL haven't replied to
several outstanding e-mails. Feel guilty but it feels like a
chore!? Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow! . . . sat in the
conservatory in the still of the damp night watching herds of
huge snails rampaging around the garden! . . . PCd before bed
(3/10)p
16 - Up late. PCd and caught up
on a couple of mails . . . shopped and ended up buying yet more
cheap books from the charity shops . . .dropped £50 into LB for
her to try and get me some cheap tobacco when she goes to France
next week . . . A 'happy' evening. Guitared/TVd/PCd/watched
snails/read till early (5/10)ps
17 - Woken real early by the
awful weather torrential rain and blowing a gale through the open
window! Got back to sleep and slept until very late . . . PCd . .
.slept even more . . . TVd . . . PCd. IHB called in for a beer.
PCd chatting woth BB till real early. Discovered my Yaseu scanner
wa sat in a pool of water!!!!!!!!!????? Rain? How?!!!!!!!!!!! . .
. finally exhausted to bed, only to find as soon as my head
touched the pillow I couldn't sleep! (4/10)p
18 - Woken after only three hours
sleep by the dustbin men! . . . PCd capturing Kantor's book . .
.tried to snooze but failed! Then LB phoned up asking me to go up
and take some mincemeat out of her freezer that she had
forgotten! Obliged . . . went to give blood. Loads of people
there - took over an hour and a half!!!!! . . . shopped . . .
PCd/TVd . . . kinda finished capturing Kantor's book.LB
popped in wanting a knife sharpened!!!?Obliged. Posted on the
Yahoo groups to share the book while it is there, before the
'copyright police' arrest me! . . . assumed by strategic placing
of paper towels that the water was getting into the radio via the
aerial lead acting like a hosepipe in the rain!!!!!! Letting the
radio dry out for a few days before seeing if it still works!!
That aerial is gonna have to go!!! . . . PCd with BB till early
but SO exhausted soon went to bed earlier than of late. (4/10)p
19 - Up late after lots of sleep.
Weather looks ok so decided to have a go at painting the garden
walls white! Mediteranean style? Finished two of the three. The other difficult one can wait.
Decided to get serious with the lane out the back. Asked a
neighbours permission and buried the big stone outside their gate
that made getting the wheely bin through difficult. Went ok so
decided to go the whole hog and move the big pile of rubble and
spread it around so the lane was flat - but slightly higher!!
Filled my bin with other peoples dumped rubbish! Decided that the
single length of aluminum ladder that has been out there for more
than a year really is 'dumped' and decided to try and
'appropriate' it! A bit nervous of being accused of theft and
imagining that the whole neighbourhood was watching, I moved it
up the lane to outside MY garden! I'll leave it there for a while
to see if anyone moves it back. If not, it's mine! Replanted some
"Mind Your Own Business" in the bare new earth to
encourage it to cover it in green ground cover. . . finished
clearing up and sitting about admiring it by about 8pm.
Celebrated with a kebab. . . TVd . . . PCd . . . sat in the
garden in the cool of the night by candle light! Real peacefull
apart from the drunken singing from a party across the way. SH
rang to see if I wanted to go with him and DH tomorrow to a
'dolls house fair'!!!!!!!? I think not!!(5/10)ps
20 - Up at a reasonable time.
Very warm and sunny. Sat on the patio. Now the neighbours tree is
gone I get the early morning sun again. Blimey, reflects off all
the white walls - BRIGHT!! Poor old snails are gonna need sun
glasses!! . . PCd . . . sat around and then decided to catch up
on an outstanding e-mail reply. Sat in the graden with the
laptop. . . PCd and chatted with SA although the chat seemed to
end rather abruptly . . . TVd . . . ended the day feeling real
down and avoidant!!! Can't figure out quite why? . . . Neighbour
burning stuff filled the house with nasty acrid smelling smoke
before I could close all the windows!! YUK!! . . . PCd and
relatively early to bed (3/10)ps
21 - Warm sunny morning. PS rang
to ask if I'd pop over and help him look at a fault on his
motorbike . . . got my motorbike out and took the book back to
the library. Briefly stopped to draw some money out in Kingswood.
Walking down the high street all dressed in leather jacket and
dark glasses I spotted a huge cucumber in the middle of the busy
road?!! Couldn't resist. Ran straight out into the road stopping
traffic and rescued the cucumber!! Huge great thing all perfectly
wrapped in cling film with not a scratch on it. Asked a woman at
the bus stop if she had seen who had dropped it, but I guess the
sight of me 'the bad ass biker' approaching her waving such a
large cucumber was reason enough for her to be stunned into
silence?! Stuffed it down my jacket and rode home!! . . .
cucumber causes me indigestion so I rode to PS and gave it to him
for his rabbit and guinea pigs. Played with the dogs -
investigated his bike problem and eventually came to the
conclusion it was likely the starter solenoid switch cause it
worked with a thump. Expensive!! Recommended he keep thumping for
a while just to be certain that IS the problem . . . back home
and fell asleep for a couple of hours . . . PCd . . . Neighbour
burning stuff again filled the house with nasty acrid smelling
smoke AGAIN!!! YUK!! . . . PS phoned and popped over for chats
and TV till early . . . PCd till threeish! (4/10)ps
22 - Warm sunny morning again!
Woken before 8am by some lazy idiot blowing his car horn outside
someone's house. Made sure my recycle bin was out for clearing,
full of the hundreds of other peoples beer bottles I had cleared
from the lane! Neighbours must think I'm an alcoholic!! . . .
Very sunny. Shall I, shan't I, shall I, shan't I?????? SHALL!!!.
. .packed a bag, made sure I didn't forget my Prozac, and headed
off in the sun down the motorway to M/D for a couple of days on
the bike. Haven't ridden any such distance for years. With the
beautiful warm sunny weather, gradually got back into the swing
of it although trouble with airflow over my new helmet and the
strain of my neck keeping my head on in the 80mph wind!!? Seemed
to force a jet of wind into my right eye all the time! Very
watery and blurry . . . pulled up and parked just up the road out
of sight and called Mum on the mobile and pretended I was at home
as I sneaked up and rang the doorbell. 'Surprise!!!!!!' It
worked. lol Dad was out but soon came back to the shock of me
undoing the bag from my bike in the drive. Introduced to all
their new furniture and equipment and suitably impressed with the
big new leather settee and the smaller fold down bed settee which
I would be sleeping on. All went out for a fish and chips meal at
M/Ds 'usual' place. Sat in the garden before bed with a cigarette
watching a hedgehog rampaging around. Hilarious/wonderful. Slept
really quite well on the new bed settee. Great improvement on
what they had before. (4/10)p
23 - Up with a VERY itchy
horribly bloodshot eye!!! Went for a long walk with M/D in the
sun down through the ancient woods that lead to the beach like
I'd walked the last time I was there. Beautiful woods all
bluebells, rich green and birdsong. Walked and sat, walked and
sat. Saw what I convinced myself was a buoy in the sea but
eventually realised too late it had been a seal sat in the water
looking around before disappearing beneath the waves. A large
group of dolphins was swimming around the bay just outside the
harbour. Brilliant to watch. Everyone on the cliffs was stopped
and watching. A guy on a jet ski drove out to get a closer look
and sat there only yards from them all, as he bobbed up and down
chatting to someone on his mobile phone!!!! All went into another
M/D favourite restaurant for a HUGE all day breakfast. Ate
LOADS!! Sat in the garden in the warm evening air watching the
birds and mice feeding and frogs and newts swimming in the pond.
Not a bad place to live. Tempting in fact!! (4/10)p
24 - My eye seems to be calming
down somewhat. Wrote a couple of postcards and dropped them in
the post box, although the news is full of reports of postal
strikes! Auntie and uncle popped in briefly to say hi. Both
looked very well even if they may not be!! . . .M/D neighbour
moved out to their new place. Some concern over who may have
bought the house . . . Toured a few local garden centres looking
at the types of trees and stuff I should get for my garden.
Coffee cake and coffee at one in a lovely small wooded area more
like a holiday camp than a shop!! Eventually ended up on the sea
front at Paignton in a pub/restaurant for another nice meal. Sat
on the front watching the sea for a while and tried calling BB on
M/D mobile but got the ansaphone. Just as well - couldn't hear
anything but the waves, and almost got wet!! Back to sit in the
garden - M/D met their new neighbour. Seemed a very pleasant
woman with a couple of lovely dogs, one with only three and a
half legs from birth! M/D seemed quite relieved at how pleasant
she was, which was VERY understandable. (4/10)p
25 - All packed up and ready to
head home, decided to check my mobile phone was all charged up
and working. Text message from Sis1 sent yesterday saying she
will be popping down to join us for the day!! M/D phoned her and
confirmed she was on her way. So much for me leaving early.
Snoozed for a bit till she arrived. Shame about the weather -
much cooler and all overcast. All called Sis2 to say hi. All went
out for a meal. Some slight argument between M/D which made me
feel like I was nine again!! Excrutiating!!! Sat on 'Sis2's seat'
overlooking the bay for a time chatting and called Sis2 on the
mobile to tell her where we were. Eventually back to M/D for a
drink and then I set off about a quarter past five. Think I may
have managed to splutter 'I love you' but not sure it was noticed
thank goodness!! lol Briefly stopped for petrol at the nearest
station and then hit the road. Possibly the longest distance I
have been at such SUSTAINED high speeds. Hardly dropped below
85mph all the way back and mostly up around 95mph swooping in and
out playing with the traffic. Amazing little machine although
something wrong with the forks now I think and maybe a blown
exhaust - backfires on the overrun!? Stopped to buy milk and back
home before 7pm without TOO much damage to my eye again. The
neighbour I had begged the old garden table from stopped me in
the street and asked if I was interested in a three piece sweet
they had thrown out 'cause I was hard up'. Very thankfully
explained I'd only just been given one and declined their kind
offer . . . phoned M/D to confirm safe arrival . . . living room
net curtain pole had fallen down in my abscence!? . . . TVd. Sat
in the watered garden and opened nice long awaited letter from
BB. Guitared (poor neighbours!!) . . .PCd and got annoyed by
'AvPD misunderstanding' inspired off line messages from BB but
all thankfully sorted out later PCing till early. (4/10)ps
26 - PCd all morning as the
washing machine did it's overdue best with my bed sheets . . .
shopped. Overcast but SO hot and humid . . .screwed up the net
curtain pole that had fallen down . . . brought the ladder in
from the lane and made it mine after overhearing the neighbour
walking up the lane commenting on the missing bin and rubbish.
Introduced myself and explained all the rubbish out there was
from their house's previous occupier and I had taken it upon
myself to try and clear some of it! . . . sat around in the
garden/guitarred. At least two of the frogs are still resident.
Yay . . .TVd . . . BB phoned for a chat till early £££!!!!!!!!
(4/10)ps
27 - Up quite late after lots of
sleep but as soon as I ate I fell asleep again!! . . .
PCd/TVd/sat in the garden. Tired all day. (4/10)p
28 - Up quite late after lots of
sleep but as soon as I ate I fell asleep again, AGAIN!!!!! . . .
PCd/ate/fell asleep again!!! . . . shaved my face for the first
time in years just for the hell of it. What a chinless
geek!!! Wonder how fast it
will grow back!!!! Returned LBs tupperware and was told how
horrible I looked! Went out for milk only to find the shop was
shut and felt as though EVERYONE in the neighbourhood was staring
at me . . . TVd/PCd/sat in the garden watching frogs and snails.
(4/10)ps
29 - Spent some time in the lane
clearing more rubbish, filling my bin up and putting half a dozen
buckets of decent earth into my garden together with another
small frog. Very hot! . . . PCd a little . . . sat around in the
sun in the garden doing nothing!! Eventually couldn't resist
having a look at the old rotary clothes line that had been dumped
along with all the other rubbish in the lane. Surprisingly ok
apart from a little rust near the base and no line. Sat around
thinking. Returned to the lane later and took possesion of a
rusty old scaffold pole and sawed a piece off the end and cleaned
it up with the wire brush on the drill. Just the right diameter
for slotting the clothes line into - but how to cement it into
the garden without major works? . . . sat around. Phoned JB to
touch base and offered to help with building her a cheap and
cheerfull website for her business if she was interested. Proved
the point by throwing a quick page together in five minutes and uploading to my cable
webspace just to show her how quick and easy it can be . . . sat
in the garden after dark . . . PCd a bit before bed very
exhausted (4/10)p
30 - Another hot sunny morning
sat in the garden. Couldn't resist it - OPERATION LINE POST!! Dug
a hole for the post. Very hot work in the sun! Drilled some holes
in the metal and put in a couple of cross pieces for support and
eventually cemented it in using sand and cement I had lying
around and a pile of chippings from the lane! Much easier than
trying to bring back bags of post cement on the bike!!!!! Painted
it with black hammerite to stop the rust. The lid off an old
aerosol can fits it perfectly for when it's not in use and to
stop creepy crawlies from falling down the tube. Went shopping
and bought a cheap length of line rope for £1.49 and a basket of
pegs!!!! . . . sat around feeling as though I had 'done
something'. A sparrow continually returning to next doors plant,
eating either bugs or flowers convinced me there are birds around
here despite all the neighbours cats. My new line post socket
would be ideal for a bird table when the line isn't required.
Phoned M/D and asked them to keep the wood from their old fence
panels when they have them replaced with a view to maybe making a
bird table out of it! . . . ML called to invite me out tomorrow
on a 'picnic'?! Declined . . . PS popped round till early. PCd
briefly before bed. (4/10)ps
31 - Found another old metal pole
in the lane that may do as a bird table post, but wouldn't you
know it - someone has dumped more rubbish out there!!!!!!!!!!! I
give up!!! PEOPLE!!!!!!!! . . . spent most of the morning laceing
up the line with the new rope. . . PCd briefly and then fell
asleep until 5pm!!!!! . . . washed lots of clothes just to be
able to use the line although it looks like rain! Sat around watching
clothes dry! Strangely pleasureable?!!!!. . . went for a kebab .
. . PCd and forced myself to do a couple of outstanding e-mails
but really not in the mood!! Seem to be feeling more and more
content to be schizoid!! God bless the Prozac!! (4/10)p
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