28 -
Woken by Sally just before 7am . . .walked. Up the
top of the field was what appeared to be a big heap of rubbish
laying conspicuously on the grass. I made a bee line for it, just
in case it was 'interesting' stolen dumped stuff. It wasn't.
Turned out to be some drink problem/homeless guy sleeping on the
grass!!! Around here! Jeeze. He's taking his life in his hands
sleeping there! Used his presence for practicing my 'upside down
viewfinder/unseen under-arm video' work! . . . PCd messing around
with videos and such. I'm determined to finish off my 'Clips' DVD
number 3 in the very near future. Spent a rediculous amount of
time 'hanging' myself, to get the silly picture for the main
menu!! lolol . . . ate chicken sandwiches with two bags of crisps
and half a tray of jaffa cakes . . . napped until woken by PS
leaving an ansaphone message around 6pm. . .walked . . . LB
popped down with some buffet left overs and then phoned to get
her guy down to have a look at my Airbus A320 video. Ended up
showing them the progress in the attic. They know steeper,
'proper' stairs - which made me feel quite happy. :o) LB remarked
on 'the bags' under my eyes!! Yeah - well - I've been under 'a
bit of stress' of late! :o( . . . BB called . . . PS popped
round. Forced him to sit as I proof watched the DVD I'd test
burned. Just a whisker off an hour running time, so I think that
will just about do for a finished disc . . Much CCTV watching of
police cars driving up and down and around outside. Something
going on somewhere! . . ate LBs buffet . . . TVd/PCd until
birdsong. s27 - Up at 6:45am . . .walked. Stopped off in the local newsagent and invested £20 on some mobile phone credit. Madness! Aside from quite literally one or two other calls, ALL of the last credit I put on it (around the time Dad was dying I think) has been spent on calls to the police!!!!!! Grrrr. . . PCd pretty much all day really, trying to delete/get some files in order (I've filled up my 300GB drive already!). :o( . .did a couple of test burn DVDs to see how things look on the TV. I really can't quite get my head around why all the videos I do, look SO much better on the DVD player/TV than anywhere else. . . walked just a little earlier than of late, and without 'incident'. Phew. . .cooked up a huge plate of two ham rings, mushrooms, three eggs and two fried potatoes and over ate with two pieces of bread and butter . . . TVd . . . BB called . . . TVd until bed around 11pm.
26 - Up at 7am . . . PCd the Sally-sat-in-the-river footage . . . walked in the wind and rain. Laying in the middle of the main road with the cars having to drive around it was an umbrella. Figured I'd retrieve it and put it in a nearby bin. Weird thing was, once I'd got hold of it, there was almost nothing wrong with it that I could see!? Kept it for passing on to a charity shop or some such. A quick slow, aching once round the field and very glad to be back home. . PCd this and uploaded the video. In fact - actually PCd pretty much all day on videos, apart from a brief tidy up in the attic!! . . BB called . . .test burned the videos and 'proof' watched them on the TV . . . walked. More strange goings on in the field. A group of guys hanging around waiting for their dealer again. . stopped for chips takeaway on the way home . . . ate chicken and chips . . . BB called . . .TVd until bed around midnight. s
25 - Up around 7:15am . . .walked . . . PCd . .Mum called briefly about a TV show I wasn't interested in . . . worked on the attic building site and managed to extract bricks and 'relatively' painlessly fit in the two short floor joist sections at the top of the new attic stairs, having made up my mind about how/where the floor should meet the stairs. Screwed/glued/nailed/cemented in place by mid afternoon. . Unexpcted sunny spells tempted me into giving Sally a decent long walk. Cleaned up, polished my boots and set off with Sally around 4pm. Down to Eastville Park (found a copy of todays Evening Post newspaper laying on a park bench - so I had that) for plenty of sitting by the boating lake before eventually up onto Purdown for plenty more sitting. Actually - I sat here and there all over the place along the way, because I was just SO exhausted!! Far too tired to do the walk really, but I figured I owed it to Sally. She's not had much fun of late, what with me doing the attic stairs and all. . sat down by the river along from Snuff Mills for a cigarette, and Sally sat in the river. She sat and sat and sat - IN the river! Ended up actually pulling out the camcorder and filming her, just to see how long she'd sit there like that. It was a long, LONG time! Chillin? Weird dog. lol :o) . .slowly, painfully along the river into Vassals and eventually back home through Fishponds. (Unfamiliar faces in the local field acting 'strange' - suspected druggies looking for their dealer again I think!) . back home by 8pm, utterly, utterly exhausted! . . out into the garden to take my boots off, because I'd somehow left my slippers out on the patio!!? Missed BB calling! :o( Briefly popped up LBs and returned the large bowl she'd given me her roast-dinner left overs in. . . ate half a chicken, half a tub of coleslaw and four pieces of bread and butter and then some chocolate while watching TV . . . VERY stiff and aching (actually difficult standing and walking!!) - gladly to bed just after 11pm. s
24 - Woken by Sally before 7:30am after just a couple of hours sleep! . . .walked . . .PCd. Oh NO!! I don't believe it!! That spycam has broken already!!! The camera still works but all the leads that come out of it appear to be falling apart. Well that didn't stand up to frequent use very well did it! Grrrr. :o( Funny how not having it, makes me feel so very vulnerable, even after such a short amount of time with it. . . dismantled the old heavy back bedroom cupboard door I've had laying around the place for ages, saved the two large pieces of hardboard in case they may be useful, cut it up out on the patio with the circular saw, and put it in the wheelie bin . . .PCd for hours (right through until the afternoon!) messing around with this mornings early hours recording of the dawn chorus, before uploading the poor result. . . ate a chicken sandwich and then napped for a few hours until around 7:30pm . . . walked in the rain around 8pm. Sally spotted a rabbit in the field (rare sight) and chased it all the way up, until it dodged under the fence of the new flats/old builders yard! . . .BB called . . . TVd . . .ate half a chicken with four pieces of bread and butter and then a couple of bananas . . . TVd sucking chocolate until bed at 1am. s
23 - Woke at 6:45am again. Wonder why THAT time? Badly aching lower back. :o( . . . walked . . . balanced my accounts while sucking an Annadin tablet. Called the cable company and had their free ansaphone thingy turned off (again! They didn't actually do it the last time I asked.) I've never got into the irritating habit of having to check the line after every time I've used the phone or been on line, and often don't realise I've had a message left until the next time I pick the phone up - which can easily be a day or two later!! I'd rather people simply get engaged and know they haven't reached me . . .PCd a bit of this. Nice to be having 'a day off' from the building site, although I seem to find myself itching to get on with more!?. . .ate the remaining stew with four crusts of bread and butter. With hindsight - I think maybe that was actually enough for three meals! <burp> . . . pottered around/TVd/PCd/listened to a little music - and ended up getting tearful over a Barbara Dickson number - 'The Right Moment'! . .BB called . . . napped for a couple of hours . . . walked . . . TVd but ended up actually not being able to face watching Crimewatch UK!!! :o( Too many people ending up getting killed for no reason . . . BB called . . .PCd until daylight, finally getting round to facing up to compiling that abuse stuff from the 19th (3,491KB). Painful - much. :o( A few things about that incident/footage - which is actually really all about the audio capture. Yes - I DID lose my temper - BIG time - complete with foul mouth - but, well, after this last year I've been through, can you really blame me? The dark skinned girl (one of the main players) is the same one who once threw her litter AT me as I walked past, after having complained about her just throwing it to the ground. The 'house on the corner' of the street in which they ended up, is well known in the area as the source of much of the area's anti social behaviour - and is allegedly where the person lives, whos name was 'associated with' the stolen crashed car incident on the 6th. If you can make it out at this quality - listen to the very last words you can hear on the video - "I just broke my bail conditions", from a very little boy!! And one other thing. Don't try and tell me to 'just ignore it' like everyone seems to want to tell me is the way to deal with it. Listen to it again! How can anyone just ignore that? Could you? Really? If you lived on your own like I do? Could you handle the fear of what those chants could bring you in the dark one night? Oh, and by the way - when you DO attempt to ignore it, it actually gets worse don't you know! . . it really is increasingly difficult. Difficult justifying continuing to live in a world inhabited by such people. I'm not really sure I can any more - but then again - I don't suppose I've ever been able to! . . . lay down to sleep somewhere after 4am, but there was SO much noise from outside I couldn't sleep, and soon got back up and ended up in the attic with the camcorder trying to record the birdsong! . . . to bed again after 5am. ass
22 - Up around 6:45am again. . .walked and found 7p. . . there's been torrential rain the last few days, and more forecast for the rest of the week. Plenty of evidence of penetration around the front chimney stack where the roofers didn't do a decent job on their rendering! I'm gonna HAVE to attempt to do something about that (I'm gonna try a desperate 'coat-of-masonary-paint-botch' on the stack and buttress walls above the roof!), as soon as the weather/my energy level permits. :o( . .Right! Now - about these damned stairs into the attic!! I'm determined to reach a point today whereby I have a 'mostly' finished staircase that I can use - so I can relax and have a few days off from the exhausting pace I've been keeping!!! . seemed pretty obvious I was going to be short of a few lengths of timber and would need to go and buy more, but I decided to push on and complete as much as I could before heading for the store, so I'd know what lengths I'd be needing and be able to decide where to have the timber cut to be able to get it in the car. .
by late morning I had reached a point where at least
all of the treads were pretty much in place, and I just couldn't
resist any longer. I had to know if what I'd acheived was gonna
work - I just HAD to see if Sally could get up and down them! A
quick shake of the biscuit barrel and the slightest bit of
encouragement, and up she went without a problem. More cruicaly,
could she get down?! Popped down and said the magic word -
'CATssssssss', and down she flew. EXCELLENT! Sat in the attic
with a coffee, biscuits and Sally. Funny dog - she had a bit of a
sniff around the place here and there, but pretty much took it
all in her stride and ended up laying down covered in sawdust for
a bit of a snooze. lolol . . managed to somehow 'botch' a couple
of the offcuts of wood and eventually succeeded in acheiving an
acceptable interim result, WITHOUT having to drive to the store
for more timber! Yayyyyyyy. Cool. THAT will do for a while - I SO
need a rest! . . filled the bin up, cleared up, vacuumed and
tidied up all around the house . . did half of the mountain of
dishwashing chores until around 7pm. A large part of the reason
I've not been eating much of late is the fact that I'd used up
ALL the dishes/cutlery/plates (everything!) - and just couldn't
face the chore of having to wash them all, after having done a
long day of running up and down building stairs! NOW I can eat! .
. . walked . . . the last time I was in ASDA shopping, I was
absolutely amazed at the incredibly low prices of some of their
'Smartprice/Value' tins of food, so I bought a handful to
experiment. Cooked up a large saucepan of what I would describe
as a stew. A tin of new potatoes (17p), one of peas (14p), one of
mushrooms(34p), one of stewed steak (74p) - all just thrown in a
saucepan, heated on the hob and ready to eat within five minutes!
It wasn't brilliant, but it sure wasn't bad - eaten with a 44p
ovenheated garlic-butter baguette. Probably would have benefited
from draining off some of the liquid - or maybe thickening it up
with a spoonful of instant gravy - but - quick/easy/amazing for
THAT money, and even more amazing is, I only ate half and have
more than enough in the saucepan for ANOTHER big meal!!! :o) . .
.'popped' up in the attic with a coffee (because now I can. lol )
and 'sat with my acheivement' for a while, and visualising what
to do next. Funny how I have to do that, whenever I do DIY stuff.
'Sit with it' for a bit - often. lol . HUGE amounts more to do
all over the place, but having those stairs in, actually makes it
almost like just another half finished room at long last. Happy.
:o) . . BB called . . . TVd . . . ate biscuits and chocolate and
TVd until bed at 11pm. s21 - Up at 6:45am. Coffee, cigarettes and Annadin tablet for breakfast . . . walked and found a rucksack. . . worked on the stairs through until around 5pm. Six steps forward, three steps back! :o( Disappointing - I was hoping to have cracked it today, but I think I'm gonna need to buy yet another length of timber, before I'm through! . . Got all of the possible top steps done and ended up with 'just' the lower awkward corner steps to do. Called it quits and left a couple of the wide corner treads, screwed and glued to dry. . With enough of the stairs done to visualise the finished article, I was able to actually have a bit of a re-think about the final 'square' top step area I was planning. It suddenly leapt out at me (given the way the steps run in relation to the roofslope) that it was pointless!! (and pretty obviously so!! Dunno why I didn't see it earlier?) I think there is 'just' enough headroom for the flight to simply go straight up to the attic floor, rather than force that final 'right turn' into the room. So - a bunch of yesterdays work was probably a wasted effort. I should have been putting in a couple of short lengths of floor joist instead! Oh well. . . cleaned up a little. My weight seems to have gone right back down to around 10 stone (140lbs) when I get in the shower! . . walked. . . vacuumed . . . loaded up as tall as I could, a meat pizza with extra onion, mushroom and cheese - and feasted once it was cooked, with half a tub of coleslaw . . . BB called . .TVd . . ate bowls of cornflakes . . . to bed around 11pm. s
20 - Woken by Sally around 7:45am . . . walked . . . worked on the attic stairs all day, straight through until around 6:30pm before calling a halt. Glued the remaining little noggins in place. Spent most of the time working on putting in supports for the first step down from the top, which is going to be pretty much a square platform I think. Lots of screwing gluing, cementing, supporting because I'm gonna have to reduce the depth of the front bedroom ceiling rafters in that area by around half an inch or more. . . ate a couple of bananas just to stop the shakes. . .walked - 'fully loaded' (spycam, phone, MP3 recorder etc.). Typical - a quiet night without incident! . . BB called . . . ate a liver pate sandwich with two bags of crisps. THAT isn't enough food for a day!!! . . TVd but felt utterly exhausted. . . early to bed before 11pm. s
19 - Woken by Sally long before 6am but managed to snooze on until up around 7:45am . . .PCd a bit of this. . .walked. It would appear it was the last day at school for a bunch of the kids. Large groups of them, both male and female, were all dressed up in 'schoolgirl' outfits - dark tights, mini skirts, white shirts, etc. Something somewhere got out of hand, and as I made my way back home from the field, the police were in attendance! One policeman ran down the road after a couple of boys dressed in their schoolgirl outfits, complete with wigs - and when he caught up with them, searched through a 'handbag' they were carrying. His partner was surrounded by another large group and as I passed was saying something about there being bigger trouble if they carried on climbing over the fence to get into the school. It appeared, the teachers had locked all the gates and were refusing any further entry!!? Mayhem! . . . tranferred some savings money over and then left Sally at home and drove to Longwell Green to pick up some more nails and wood glue from Wickes (£12.37), a 17KG sack of PAL complete (£17.95) from the pet food store and then a major groceries (£55.61)and tinned dog food (48 tins of Winalot @ £19.92) shop in ASDA. .on the way out of ASDA one of their DVD recorders caught my eye. It was only around £70!! How cheap is THAT! One of the boxes was open so I cheekily parked up my overloaded trolley and had the unusual luxury of being able to extract the instruction manual from the box, and leaning on my trolley, read it all - cover to cover. Not bad at all! Very VERY tempting! If only it was possible to put it on an automatic 'loop' record (for my CCTV camera), I would have bought one and replaced both my VCR and DVD player with one cheap, small, slimline unit. Managed to resist. Guess I'll have to wait until the hard disk recorders come down in price. . . back home to unload the mountains of shopping and then put in a couple more hours of work on the attic stairs . . . ate most of half a garlic and herb flavoured chicken with four pieces of bread and butter and half a small tub of coleslaw around 4pm . . . napped until around 7:30pm . . .
Sure enough - somewhere around midday, I heard
someone down the road calling out to his neighbour and pointing
into the distance - and just disappearing below the rooftops in
the far distance was the tailplane. Uh oh - was that it? Did I
miss getting a picture? Thankfully as I scanned the horizon, the
plane re-emerged from its low level fly past of Filton airfield
and climbed back up, to fly over the city and do another circuit
- or three I think it was in the end, accompanied by a 'chase'
plane. :o) Nice one. Raced from skylight to skylight, back and
front, trying to grab a little footage with the camcorder. Nasty
blowy cloudy weather didn't afford particularly good footage, but
I managed enough (all shaky - high zoom - brick dust all over the
camera!) to enable a couple of decent stills. BIG plane - slow
flypast - high angle of attack. Impressive. . .carried on working
on the stairs and eventually pretty much succeeded in acheiving
the target I'd set myself for the day. LOTS more to do, but I've
actually succeeded in reaching the point where I had to withdraw
the ladder I've been using all these months to get up there. Once
the glue drys, it 'should' be possible to actually walk up the
framework now. Milestone. :o) A few more lenghs of timber and
some little noggins and I can slow down, and take it a bit easier
again. . . tidied myself up and collapsed around 6pm. . PCd
briefly and transferred the camcorder footage of the flypast onto
the PC, while watching the local news showing much similar
amateur footage. lol . . . . walked between rain showers. Stopped
for sausage and chips takeaway on the way home. S in the chip
shop suddenly threw a piece of cod into my lott as he was making
it up!? Huh? Appparantly he thought that piece of cod was
starting to look a bit 'crunchy' and when that happens (so he
said) he either eats the fish himself or throws it away. So - he
let me have the cod for nothing!! Cool. :o). . ate - lots. It
DOES appear that I've lost a bit of weight recently. I'm
definately expending more calories doing this building work than
I'm taking in. . BB called . . . vacuumed a little of the layers
of dust from around the house . .ate biscuits . . TVd exhausted,
until early to bed before 11pm. a
worked on the stairs
project again, straight through until around 4pm. Progress is oh
SO slow - but I AM making progress. Now I have a good two thirds
of the over-engineered framework 'roughed-in', up which I can
comfortably climb, it does at least prove that it IS gonna be
'reasonably' ok for walking up, despite the steepness and
'unsafe' corner. I even suspect that Sally 'may' be able to
negotiate it (certainly up) which has always been in my mind as
the REAL test of it's useability/success. :o) . . cleaned up and
finally got round to having a quick look at the little hard disk
that was in one of those PCs dumped in the hedge the other day.
It turned out to be a 4GB hard disk with Windows (98?) on it -
and absolutely nothing else. Not a single 'user' file to have a
'snoop' through. Awwww. :o/ Oh well - think that'll find its way
into the bin. Actually - I rather suspect the whole lot will
eventually find its way into my bin! Should have left it in the
hedge!!! Oh well - just put it down to more 'litter duty'!! . . .
next door called in and picked up the parcel her son had ordered,
which the delivery guy had left with me - because I was home -
again. . .felt very 'iffy' and headachey and just HAD to lay down
for a bit. . back up around 6pm, still not feeling so good and
aching all over. :o( . . . PCd a bit of this, putting off
venturing out in the rain. . . walked and stopped for cod and
chips on the way home. Ate with four pieces of bread and butter .
. . BB called . . . TVd . . . ate a tray of jaffa cakes . . . cut
my overgrowing hair and beard . . .PCd and ended up getting all
caught up looking at cheap property in France until around
2:30am! aas
Woken by Sally at 6:30am. . .walked. Laying in the
hedge on the edge of the field were two computer carcasses! I
presumed they'd been stolen. Had a good look at them and could
immediately see that the memory and one or two other useful parts
had already been removed, but one of the machines did still have
a hard drive in place! Oooh. Just then, cycling up the street no
more than six feet away went a policeman on a bicycle (probably
the school officer, but I wasn't sure). As he cycled by I called
out to attract his attention to the computers. He looked round
without stopping, said something I didn't quite hear but which I
think included 'I'll be back to look at that later', and then he
just continued on his way! In short, I felt as though I'd been
brushed off - as though I was just being a nuisance!! :o( . Ok -
I just left the computers laying there. . .worked on the next bit
of the attic stairs project, stripping off layers of the old dust
render in preparation for cementing, gluing and bolting a couple
of lengths of timber on the wall at each side. Not much to show
for all that work, but had the timbers fixed by late afternoon.
SO tired, I couldn't even muster the energy to fix some food, and
ended up having to just go and lay down to recover. Slept for
less than an hour before finding myself wide awake again - but
very achey! Actually, I think it was the thought of those
computers just laying in that hedge that was preying on my mind -
as it had been all day! . . decided to walk with Sally and if the
computers were still there, I'd have a go at salvaging them, and
if they weren't, I'd give Sally a long walk. Unluckily for Sally,
and I found it particularly suprising after a day of all the
school kids passing by, the computers were STILL laying there!
Very embarassing and it was a hell of a struggle, but somehow I
managed to walk back home carrying them both (I didn't bother
picking up the battered cases or broken fronts). . . had a quick
look at them out in the conservatory. Turns out they were
probably just dumped (as in fly-tipped!) rather than stolen,
based on the specs. .one had a sticker on the inside of the case
which listed what it was! Mesh ATX Midi, AMD Athlon 650MHZ CPU,
32MB SDR Gforce NVIDIA, etc etc. It DID have a soundblaster sound
card, and a modem which may be useful if they work. The other
machine had a badly damaged case, and on closer examination also
bore evidence of something having burned out in the power supply,
so I quickly dismantled all of that, kept the Intel motherboard,
CD/DVD drives and all the other components and screws, and
crammed the remainder straight into my wheely bin
somewhere in the middle of all the work, I received
a phone call from a policeman wanting a statement about the
neighbour's car break in last year - as she'd warned me they may.
Arranged an 'appointment' for 10am tomorrow. . . worked through
on the stairs building site until gone 6pm. The trouble with the
part constructed stage I'm at now - it's made it REALLY difficult
to get up over it, onto the ladder to get up in the attic!! :o( .
. . Shortly before setting off to walk Sally, a tremendous
thunder storm and some heavy rain rolled in, which saw me delay
the walk and race to the attic to try and catch a bit of it with
the camcorder. Poor Sally had to cross her legs for half an hour
or so. . . walked late and found a penny. The view of the
lightning from the field, in all different directions at the same
time, was even more spectacular than at home in the attic.
Stopped for sausage and chips takeaway on the way home. . . BB
called . . . TVd in a bit of a state of collapsed exhaustion . .
.coffee and a bunch of biscuits before to bed at exactly
midnight. I was SO tired, I could easily have gone to bed hours
earlier - if I hadn't been just too tired to move out of my
chair!! s
Woken by Sally before
6:30am!? . . .walked . . .PCd this - which took a while!!! - and
even then, I just couldn't be bothered to type 'everything'!! . .
.couldn't mustyer the energy to do anything on the stairs
project, and eventually ended up leaving an ansaphone message for
'the bobby on a bike' , asking him if he'd like to come and have
a coffee - and watch some DVD!! . . . vacuumed a bit . . . ate
chopped salad and bread and butter while TVing . . . napped until
woken by Sally around 5pm . . . walked - wired! Oh myyyyyy
goddddddd - a motorbike on the cycle path again!
lololololololololololololol 
Half
way round the field there was a loud CRASH sound from over by the
new flats building site. Either a car crash on the other side of
the flats or some of the scaffolding had collapsed!! Couldn't see
what had made the noise but it was LOUD! Carried on round the
field like normal and then when nearing the exit to the field,
had a look down the road where the noise must have come from.
Sure enough, the police were in attendance dealing with another
stolen, crashed, abandoned car and all the devastation it had
caused!!! The car driver had somehow lost control on the bend,
crashed into all the temporary barriers in front of the new
flats, punctured both nearside tyres, and then ended up sliding
across the road before coming to rest on the opposite pavement,
'just' missing a nearby garage!! Wandered down with Sally to
rubberneck and take a couple of photos. Bit of a wake up call for
the owners of those new flats. Welcome to the neighbourhood guys!
Repent at your leisure! :o( . I bet that group of kids that was
sat on the boulders at the edge of the field when it happened,
saw exactly who it was that ran off. They would have seen the car
drive right past them and would have had a clear view down the
street once alerted by the loud crash! The police should have
rounded THEM up to start with! . . . stopped for a bag of chips
on the way home, and on entering the chip shop, flippantly asked
if anyone had recently been in, out of breath (because for some
reason it seemed pretty likely to me, whoever had run off from
that car, could well have ended up in there). Incredibly, the
answer from S behind the counter, was YES!!! An individul known
to S by name (KS), had recently been in, all red faced and out of
breath. When asked what he'd been up to, he allegedly replied,
nothing. A young assistant in the shop was also involved in our
conversation, because his Mum had just texted him, asking about
KS driving some car around (and that assistant and his Mum live
in a street 'just' a short distance from where that car was
crashed!). I was all for letting the police know, but S didn't
want to get involved!! Grrrrr. I despair! . . . Ate a couple of
chicken legs with the chips while watching my spycam experiment
footage - all the while agonising over whether or not I should
have gone back and let the police know about the 'rumors on the
street' of who 'may' have been involved. I didn't. . The spycam
works ok, but definitely needs to be mounted higher up on my
coat, so it'll be less prone to bouncing around as I walk. . BB
called . . . PS popped round to be subjected to my awful
despairing frustration, and compulsive CCTV watching. . had a
conversation with PS about properties on the Isle Of Skye, and I
ended up showing him some of them on the PC in the back bedroom -
with the CCTV on the portable TV next to it, as we surfed. Would
you believe it! As we were sat there, a group of girls walked
past the house, and as we watched and listened to the CCTV, they
threw a stone at what turned out to be next door's window!! Hard
to explain, but somehow I always figured girls 'are better', when
it comes to mindless yobbish behaviour. Well - not these days
they aren't. Just listen to them! 
From behind me, a young police officer in a white
short sleeved shirt had started to walk across the field along
the cycle track! Blimey! A police officer - around here - at this
time of evening?? Is he lost??!!! In response to the abuse that
was being called out, he detoured and went to have a word with
the few kids who DIDN'T make off. A rare sight indeed! Couldn't
resist a quick picture or two (on the camcorder - high zoom)
because, if it wasn't for the rather different reality of what it
is actually like around here,
the image would have been worthy of some 'we are tackling youth
misbehaviour by working with the community' type police
propaganda leaflet! . . it WAS a beautiful warm evening. Only
maybe a year ago, I would have enjoyed sitting around like that.
I don't any more. I HATE having to walk Sally every day now.
Every time I put my coat on and get ready to take her out, I
tremble with nerves, and uncontrollably sweat profusely from my
arm pits. How has it come to this? :o( . . . needed food -bad!
Walked with Sally up in the direction of the kebab shop. As I
walked up the street, coming towards me on the opposite side of
the road were a couple of youths/kids. They pulled their hoods up
to cover their faces and then crossed the road directly towards
me. As they came closer, they ran 'at' me, veering off at the
last minute, swearing, jeering and calling out abuse!! Not good
for my jangley nerves. I turned away from them and carried on
walking, as one of them stood in the middle of the road and
appeared to be attempting to drop his trousers to bare his ass at
me!!!! :o( . . . bought a kebab and chips and returned home to
eat - albeit, now with no appetite. . . BB called. . . cctvd
until bed at midnight. as
Scanning around watching for
wildlife and such, I suddenly spotted through the trees in the
small patch of woodland behind the monument, a strong hint of
blue. Oooh, ooh - bluebells? Had a wander around in the woods -
fragrant even to MY smokers nose. Beautiful place. 
Sat here and there and
messed around with the camcorder lots. That has to be one of the
best little patches of woodland for bluebells for miles, despite
its proximity to the new houses that have sprung up in recent
years all around the area. Weird - that rank of expensive new
houses that backs onto the woodland - they had a huge high wooden
fence between them and the woods! If I lived there, that fence
would have to be replaced with, at the least, a chainlink one
that you could see through - and definitely a gate straight out
into the woods - and probably some access points to encourage
wildlife to come into the garden to feed (on camera of course
lol). .eventually back down to the river at Snuff Mills and
treated myself to a 60p can of fridge cold coke from the little
snack bar, and then sat (at length) on a bench by the river to
drink it and have a cigarette. I could have happily stayed down
there for a VERY long time. So warm and pleasant - like a full-on
summers day. . eventually along the river and then back up
through Fishponds. . . stopped in Morrisons in
Fishponds on the way back through, and bought two ready cooked
chickens for £4. Found 10p. Back home just before 5pm. . drank a pint of water and pretty soon had to go and
lay down for a short while. Woke around 6:30pm . . ooh, ooh, ooh
- received an e-mail saying my new buttonhole camera has been
posted. . . walked. A group of half a dozen rowdy 'youths' were
walking up the road past the chip shop, throwing and kicking a
rugby ball about, without any concern for what it hit
(shop-fronts/cars/etc.) as they did so. Pretty common (obnoxious)
behaviour around here, so I paid no attention and carried on
walking - carried on that was, until I heard one or more of the
group saying "Come on Luke" and similar things,
referring to their passing/kicking the ball around. Oh yes - THAT
is a name I recognise!!!! In fact - that entire trio of words and
even the way in which they were grunted, was EXACTLY the same as
on that CCTV footage from the other night!!!!! Argue innocent
coincedence all you like - but 'I' don't think so. My tiny little
world really IS very, very tiny (from my living room to the edge
of the dogwalk field takes me a total of only seven
minutes!! All THIS crime and anti-social behaviour in the
footprint of a postage stamp! Incredible! :o( ) - what are the
chances of two yobs called Luke in the same little patch? Had to
be. HAD to be. .As the group carried on up the road, I
desperately searched for what I'm supposed to do with what was
happening now! I ended up swiftly walking back home and jumping
in the car to cruise round the block with the camcorder on the
dash-mount. WHAT am I supposed to do? Ignore the fact that the
likely perpetrator of the car-damaging incident is walking right
past me, and just be quiet about it and do nothing like a good
little victim of crime? Or maybe I should call the police? Ha ha
- yeah right. :o( At the least - at the VERY least, I wanted to
know what those guys looked like - on my TV! Funning thing with
me and taking this video footage, as I've had to. Once I've
watched a piece with 'people' in it, a couple of times -
remarkably for me - I am liable to be able to recognise them
again, if I pass them in the street. Sadly, seeing someone just
once, doesn't do it - a couple of times and I'm good. . . the
group, interestingly including two girls (listen carefully to
that CCTV footage from the other night and you can clearly hear
heels) , walked up the streets and then disappeared into a small
field to play their ball game. 
I did my
best with the cam-corder, but it wasn't really worth the bother.
Couldn't get TOO close in the car without being painfully
obvious, so I just got blurrs in the distance pretty much. . I
had to. I just couldn't not, with those guys right there in front
of me. I ended up calling the police, just to explain what was
going on, and see if there was anything they could do. At length
- there wasn't. The guy I eventually ended up with on
communications, was very understanding, and refreshingly honest -
and did actually 'fess up' that these days, unless you are
actually able to stand up in court and say ' yes. I saw so and so
do such and such right in front of me.', you haven't a hope of
getting anywhere with it. He said there were something like 1,500
outstanding enquiries (whatever that meant. Not phone calls
tonight, surely?!!!) and really, there was nothing they'd be able
to do - although he'd log my request for action if I wanted. He
was so honest, after a brief bizzarre chat about what to look for
to avoid in an area when buying a property, I ended up saying,
ok, never mind then. Don't bother following up my call!! :o( . .
. drove straight home in disgust. . LB and another neighbour
joined me for a brief word. The neighbour said I'd be maybe
receiving a call from the police some time! Huh? Turns out, it
was me one morning who knocked on her door to tell her, her car
had been broken into. Apparantly, in some bizarre circumstances,
the police think they have found the offender and may need a
statement. I somehow doubt me saying I saw a broken window one
morning is gonna be a clincher for a prosecution case, but at
least it was good to hear they'd bumped into the theif! . . .
walked and found 6p. . Another bizarre (unrecorded) conversation
with loud mouthed abusive kids at the edge of the field. One of
them (oh so VERY young) said he wanted to be a gangster and go
round shooting people. That was how he saw his future. . there IS
absolutely NO reaching these kids in such circumstances. In the
light of recent conversations - you can attempt to construct the
most simple, or elaborate premis, in an attempt to make them
understand the pointless futility of such behaviour - but you
won't get through - not even close. I dunno what it takes, but
its nothing I've got. . carried on walking and knocked on the
door of the house who'd had the window broken, and with minimal
explanation of why I was there, I handed over a copy of my latest
'evidence' style DVD. Not sure why. I think something along the
lines of - seeing that DVD and my accompanying abbreviated
written account, any 'personal insecurity' (fear, actually) that
'could' have been caused to the householder by having had such a
thing inexplicably happen to him, should be alleviated by knowing
it was random yobbishness - and simply turned into understandable
increased anger. IF they are the type of person to be affected in
such a way - that would be easier for them to deal with. I KNOW
about such things!!!!! :o( . . . touched base with BB . . .
sorted through a couple of cupboards before eventuallly finding
my old buck knife in the conservatory, amongst my 'cutty things'
tools. Strapped it on for the first time in years (just to see if
it could fit on my wide 'webbing' belt. It does.) :o( Undecided.
. .TVd and ate half a chicken with four pieces of bread and
butter . . . PCd a bit of this . . .sat in the quiet of the
garden with a coffee around 2am until a rain shower usherred me
to bed. s