Lazy Day

I can't be bothered to do anything today, not in the mood to concentrate on anything. I switched the computer on and just stared at it and thought bugger this.

I'm now laid on the bed listening to Coldplay - X&Y (never got around to listening to it all until now) and writing this on my laptop. There was no milk in the house, so was gonna walk up to the shop but as I was getting ready it started to rain. It's about half a mile to the shop but decided to take the car rather than get soaked but have felt really bad ever since for being so lazy.

How have I got to this point, where I hardly have any motivation to go anywhere. I feel like I'm starting to lose focus on the things I want again. There has been times over the last few years where I have hardly been in the house but recently I've hardly been out of the house!

Need to find another hobby besides from computer that is gonna get my arse out of the house. I like walking, fishing and cycling but just can't be bothered at the moment. Especially this time of year when its too dark in the morning and at night. So the only time you can do any of them is the weekend, even then I don't. I need someone to do them with, none of my mates could be arsed to walk or cycle anywhere.

As I look out of the window it is stopping raining and brightening up (slightly). Decided to take some pictures of what I can see. There are 3 below:

Looking straight ahead, the camera makes things look closer. You can see our greenhouse, shed and garage with the horses in the field behind. Then the woods and Crook away in the distance.

Looking to the right out of the window, this is exactly what I can see as I type this. The bush is in next doors garden. In the distance behind that is the farm where I spent years of my childhood helping out and messing about. Then behind that is the woods.

Looking left out of my window all you can see is the horses again and fields. People wonder why I say I couldn't live in a town or city looking at another house. When you've spent 26 years looking at this you should see why :-)

I decided to take a picture from the other side of the house, besides for mine and the neighbours cars. There is a large playing field, then again fields for about 2 miles before Sunniside on the hill.

Maybe this is what I should do to get me off my arse go for walks and take pictures, especially of the areas I used to knock about in over the years. It's suprising how much places have changed since I was a kid.

While typing this I've decided to go and find the old photos :-)

Mac Mini Arrived

I woke up this morning and straight away tracked where my Mac Mini was on TNTs site, I got a suprise when it said it had been delivered. I went downstairs and there it was.

I spent the rest of the of the day messing about with it. I will bore anyone who is sad enough to read this by posting more tomorrow.

Hot Songs

Once again I created a playlist of songs from a word in the title. I chose "Hot" today:

1. Billy Idol - Hot In The City
2. Coolio - Too Hot
3. Donna Summer - Hot Stuff
4. They Might Be Giants - Hot Cha
5. 50 Cent - Too Hot ft. Nas and Nature
6. Bravery - Hot Pursuit
7. Twisted Sister - Hot Love
8. Donnas - Hot Pants
9. Armand van Helden - Hot City Nites
10. The Power Station - Some Like It Hot
11. Black Eyed Peas - Hot
12. Van Halen - Hot For Teacher
13. Nowadays - Hot Honey Rag
14. Basement Jaxx - Hot 'N Cold
15. 112 Feat. Ludacris - Hot & Wet
16. Girls Aloud - Long Hot Summer (Tony Lamezma Mix)
17. Master P - Hot Boys And Girls
18. Atomic Kitten - So Hot
19. Nelly - Hot In Herre
20. Limp Bizkit - Hot Dog
21. Eric Clapton - They're Red Hot

There were only 2 songs I rated over 3, they are highlighted in Bold.

After The Sunset

After The Sunset: I put this on tonight hoping it was a watchable film but it was much better than that. What with Pierce Brosnan playing his usual cool self and Salma Hayek looking sexy as hell, I guess it would be hard to go wrong. Woody Harrelson provided some laughs too.

Its about Pierce Brosnan a retired jewel thief who has constanty outwitted an FBI agent (Harrelson) but the FBI agent is determined to get his man. Not a masterpiece but a good easily watachable film. 7 out of 10!

Songs in the head

You know when you get songs stuck in your head and it annoys the hell out of you. I take that to a new extreme, through out the day I just seam to have song after song jump into my head. Usually because someone will say a word that is the title of a song or a line in a song.

This week for some reason I have had loads of kids TV themes popping into my head from when I was a kid. Below is a fraction of the songs that popped into my head over 3 days this week (I am going nuts, I'm sure):

Animals - Gotta Get Out Of This Place
Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way
Black Beauty Theme
Littlest Hobo Theme

Bryan Adams - I'm Ready
Blondie - One way or another
Thomas The Tank Engine Theme
Spankox - To The Club
OMC - How Bizarre

Wombles Theme
US National Anthem
Neil Diamond - Soolimon
Beatles - Can't Buy Me Love

Good Week

Its been a fairly good week so far. I have been really happy, people keep asking me what I'm on because I've been in such a strange mood. They must just not be used to seeing me happy!

I'm not entirely sure why I am happy, the work has still been fairly boring but I really haven't cared this week. I know I have hardly shut up talking all week and have probably been driving everyone nuts at work.

The hassle I have had the last few weeks appears to be behind me (I hope). The lesson I learnt from it all is not to pay too much attention to gossip.

I was going to write more but got to go...

Flock

I've just got around to installing Flock, which is a web browser based on FireFox. It has loads of advanced features built in but still seams really fast.

It has a good RSS reader, integrated with del.icio.us, create blog posts, check mail and loads of other stuff. These features are whats being dubbed Web 2.0.

I will keep playing with it for the next few days and see how well it works, at the moment it is just a preview release so lots of bugs supposedly.

Mac Mini

I have just ordered a Mac Mini from Apple. I decided to go for the middle model, the only difference from the top model is it doesn't have a superdrive (DVD Writer). It costs £70 extra, but would only be £30 for the equivelant on the PC.

I've paid £429 or will be when they ship it, the worst part is its gonna take days to get here I think :-(

Not gonna bore you by describing it anymore, will leave that until it arrives.

Tonight

When i got in from work i went straight out to one of the local pubs (the green) for tea with my dad. I got cumberland sausage, which was nice. We didnt stay very long because we wanted to get back to watch the Newcastle match.

The Newcastle match was a bit boring but at least they won.

After the match i started to right down the specs of all my computers and monitored my 2 main computers to see where the weaknesses were. Both of them need more RAM.

I have 9 computers at the moment and may be buying a 10th soon. Some of them are very old and i need to find a new use for them.

I also need to add some more storage to my server there is already over a terrabyte in it!

I guess i should try to go to sleep but dont really feel tired.

Moving

I am thinking of moving this blog to my own servers so I can have tighter control over it. Will have a bit think about how it will work, if at all.

I'm sad as fuck and like to be able to monitor everything, I would then know where people were reading this from ;-)


Be afraid, be very afraid! The Fly (1986)

Quote

I read this on Chie Calliope's LiveJournal (Blog), found her on Last.FM as she liked some similar music to me. Anyway I liked what she had wrote, sounds very familiar so copied it here:

"so much of my life isn't mine; my life is spread out and deposited in people, like an ingredient for a reaction. all that i "have" is just little parts of everyone else. i end up not having anyone.. but where am i? i am had, without the existence of having; i cannot be rejected. but i am neither my own. i want to find myself, whether within me, or in another."

Shame I can't write stuff like that, I just write as I would speak.

Sleep

I couldn't sleep last night, it was about 4am by the time I nodded off and I was up at 7 :-(

Obviously I was tired this morning but for some strange reason I woke up and ended up having a fairly decent day at work. I was in a strange mood and ended up taking the piss and having some strange conversations about kids TV we used to watch (thinking about it, that's a normal day).

I got in tonight and have struggled to keep my eyes open but again I have now woken up and feel fine. Maybe it was after reading an email from Laura who I used to work with, she emailed and said she had just split up with her husband and he moved out last night. Last time I spoke to her just over 2 weeks ago she was going away to America for 2 weeks with him and some friends.

Not sure what has happened, she has only been married about a year I think :-(

Songs From The Heart Part 2

I had so many songs containing "Heart" I decided to listen to some more. They are shown below:

1. Dusty Springfield - Anyone Who Had A Heart
2. Doolally - Straight From The Heart
3. 2 Pac - Heartz of Men
4. Garbage - Metal Heart
5. Moby - Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad
6. Starsailor - Restless Heart
7. Backstreet Boys - Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)
8. Cream - Deserted Cities Of The Heart
9. Led Zeppelin - Heartbreaker
10. Aztec Camera - Somewhere In My Heart
11. Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse Of The Heart
12. Dionne Warwick - Heartbreaker
13. David Bowie - Fill Your Heart
14. 808 State - Spanish Heart
15. Antony And The Johnsons - Hitler In My Heart
16. Sixpence None The Richer - Brighten My Heart
17. M People - Open Up Your Heart
18. Yes - Owner Of A Lonely Heart
19. Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On
20. Al Martino - Here In My Heart
21. Dokken - Heartless Heart

Songs From The Heart

I haven't created a playlist based on a word for a few days. I was looking at a Bonnie Tyler album today and a couple of songs on the album contained "Heart". So thought that was as good as any. I soon realised that I had a hell of a lot songs containing "heart". I tried to create a playlist with just a few songs in but soon realised I had over 70 in the playlist.

I decided to stick iTunes on Random and these are the 1st one that were played:

1. NSync & Gloria Estefan - Music Of My Heart
2. The Blubells - Young At Heart
3. Widowmaker - You're A Heartbreaker
4. Stevie Wonder - From The Bottom Of My Heart
5. Toni Braxton - Un-Break My Heart
6. Jimi Hendrix - Bleeding Heart
7. Manic Street Preachers - You Stole The Sun From My Heart
8. Buddy Holly - Heartbreak
9. Blondie - Heart Of Glass
10. Alaska Highway - Hell Bound Heart
11. Runrig - Hearthammer
12. Anastacia - Heavy On My Heart
13. Elvis Presley - Heartbreak Hotel
14. Human League - Open Your Heart
15. Feargal Sharkey - A Good Heart
16. Bonnie Tyler - It's A Heartache
17. Alice Cooper - Only My Heart Talkin'
18. Oasis - Stop Cryin Your Heart Out
19. Motley Crue - Kickstart My Heart
20. Roxette - Listen To Your Heart

As usual the songs in Bold I rated 4 or 5 stars.

Excellent Sound

I am very happy with my decision to buy the Logitech MM50 speakers, wasn't sure how good they would be for the price. Luckily I have made another sound purchase (no pun intended). The sound is more like what you would expect from some good Hi-Fi speakers, using the 3D feature makes the sound image sound a lot wider as if the speakers are further apart than they are.

The speakers sound stunning in the bathroom which must be something to do with the acoustics of the room. Anyway I'm very happy with them :-)

Newcastle beat Sunderland

I watched Newcastle beat Sunderland today, they were saying it might be a bit of a boring match before it started. It was far from boring, there was 4 goals in an 8 minute spell in the 1st half.

There were planty of chances and a couple of controversial decisions but Newcastle won 3-2 in the end. There were some promising displays from Solano, Emre & even Ameobi.

I think Emre got the man of the match but I think Solano was as impressive if not more so. For once Ameobi looked like he was actually awake.

We might of also found an answer for our left back position, we played Ramage there and he had an excellent game. Much better than Babayaro or Elliot.

Lost day

I lost half of Saturday from being hung-over from Friday night. Didn't really do anything on Saturday until about tea time when I had recovered. Then spent most of the night working on the computer and before I knew it it was 2am.

I managed to get some stuff sorted out on my website and learnt quite a bit. So had a decent night, sad maybe ;-)

Friday Night

I went out with some of my mates on Friday night, I wasn't really bothered about going out but it wasn't too bad in the end.

Me and Jay didn't go out until late at about 8 and met up with Wayne and the others in Crook. It started off a bit crap with them talking about the football matches they had played in. Which is boring as hell when you weren't there and don't know what they are on about.

Later on though we saw Trish & John who me and Jay first met the end of last year when Trish was out with Kelly. Me and Jay ended up talking to them for the rest of the night. One of Trish's mates was over from Ireland (Sheila). She seamed like a canny lass, she ended up dragging me up to dance.

I didn't really want to drink too much but somehow still ended up drinking about 8 pints and 4 shots (that I can rememer). I walked home after midnight, but on my way home I slipped over on my arse. Not from the drink, it had been raining all day and I was walking along a muddy path on a bank. Ended up on my arse, luckily there was no one around to see!!

Thursday

I never got around to writing about Thursday night. Julie and her dad came over, I used to work with Julie at Directions in Bishop Auckland. It was nearly 10 years ago since we first met.

My dad was putting some RAM in Colin's Computer which was why they were coming over. It was good to catch up, have a lot of similar outlooks on things. Both a bit bored with work at the moment and not sure what we want to do anymore. We also got talking about holidays always a favourite subject as we both love America.

Julie mentioned that she had seen a flight to see the Northern Lights, it was advertised in something in the Northern Echo. I fancy doing that, going to have a look to see if I can find it!

Another Personality Test

Here's the results of another personality test:

Global Personality Test Results

Stability (53%) medium which suggests you are moderately relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic. Orderliness (30%) low which suggests you are overly flexible, improvised, and fun seeking at the expense too often of reliability, work ethic, and long term accomplishment. Extraversion (53%) medium which suggests you are moderately talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting.

Take Free Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

trait snapshot:
messy, disorganized, not rule conscious, rebellious, rash, weird, ambivalent about chaos, likes bizarre things, anti-authority, not good at saving money, not a perfectionist, leaves many things unfinished, low self control, strange, desires more attention, romantic daydreamer, abstract, impractical, unproductive, leisurely, likes the unknown

Personality Test

I found a site called Similar Minds which has loads of personality tests. I have only filled out one so far. The results are below:

Global Personality Test Results

Stability (63%) moderately high which suggests you are relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic. Orderliness (33%) moderately low which suggests you are, at times, overly flexible, improvised, and fun seeking at the expense of reliability, work ethic, and long term accomplishment. Extraversion (50%) medium which suggests you average somewhere in between being assertive and social and being withdrawn and solitary.

Take Free Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

It also gave a trait snapshot which is also shown below, this is fairly accurate not sure about all of them though. I've made some of the closet ones bold.

trait snapshot:
messy, tough, disorganized, fearless, not rule conscious, likes the unknown, rarely worries, rash, attracted to the counter culture, rarely irritated, positive, resilient, abstract, not a perfectionist, risk taker, strange, weird, self reliant, leisurely, dangerous, anti-authority, trusting, optimistic, positive, thrill seeker, likes bizarre things, sarcastic

Meebo

I was doing some research into AJAX srcipting to write webpages and I found a list of sites that were known to use AJAX.

One of them was Meebo, which is very simple but excellent. It lets you use all your IM clients from the webpage (Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Jabber, GTalk & MSN).

I was a bit unsure about typing my password in but gave it a shot and was very impressed.

5 minutes

Now listening to Mariah Carey - dream lover (hell!)
i did say i would shut up for 5 minutes ;-)

If the last post doesnt make complete sense or stuff is spelt wrong its the predictive text on my phone when i write quick and dont always realise it has chose the wrong word.

Im laid in bed listening to T-rex and relaxing or trying to but i seam to be back to normal and my mind is working over time thinking up ideas and stuff i should be doing. I have always been like that but the few weeks before i was off work i was so drained that all i wanted to do was sleep but couldnt.

During this time i found myself just staring into space and thinking about nothing really, i was just totally fed up. There wasnt any one thing that caused it just lots of things both personal and work related. Havent really sorted any of them but realised that there are a lot more fun and challenging things i could be doing at least in my spare time. The parachute jump was part of that.

I guess i hoped jumping out of the plane would let me put some things behind me not really sure i did that but did make me remember just how fun life can be. havent had much fun recently until now.

what has been a bit worrying is that a few people have mentioned when ive been on the phone at work that i sound really miserable yet i didnt think i was. Hoping im not slipping into being a miserable bastard again after less than a week back at work.

Get it on has just started playing on the ipod. Now im smiling :-)

Today was a fairly good day at work this morning i was busy merging files and importing them into mysql which is a database used by thousands of websites to store their data. I also wrote some simple php code which is used to create more complex webpages.

This afternoon i went to our darlington office and fixed some problems. I was hoping to get away early because i hadnt had a lunch break but i ended up getting stuck longer than i had hoped.

thinking about it i must of been a bit pissed off this afternoon as i seamed to have a very heavy right foot when driving home. usually this happens when im a bit angry or frustrated. This was probably to do with a mirror i was trying to give to Kelly (dont ask) this was why i was late leaving. In the end i got sick and just dumped it in reception and went.

I wonder what i would be like on a track, probably not very good but think i would drive with no fear but probably not very neat.

Talking about driving around a track that reminds me that Julie and her dad are coming over tomorrow night. I used to work with Julie years ago and her parents once bought her a track day at Croft circuit for her birthday.

Will be good to catch up havent seen her for about a year. My dad is installing some RAM in her dads computer i think.

Well i think i have rambled on about nothing for long enough and some of T-rexs songs are now boring me. So i will shut up, for 5 minutes anyway :-)

Tired Songs

The last playlist was very short so decided to so another. This one is song titles containing "Tired". See list below:

1. Al Green - Tired Of Being Alone
2. Anastacia - Sick And Tired
3. The Beatles - I'm So Tired
4. The Cardigans - Sick & Tired
5. Eric Clapton - So Tired
6. Foo Fighters - Tired Of You
7. Graham Coxon - Tired
8. The Kinks - Tired Of Waiting For You*
9. Green Day - Tired Of Waiting For You*
10. Manic Street Preachers - You're Tender and You're Tired
11. Ms Dynamite - Sick 'n' Tired
12. Ozzy Osbourne - So Tired
13. Pixies - I've Been Tired
14. Fats Waller - Then I'll be Tired of You

Again songs in Bold are rated 4 or 5.

Runaway Songs

Continuing with creating playlists of song titles containing a word I choose. I picked "Runaway" after listening to Bon Jovi. Here's the list:

1. Bon Jovi - Runaway
2. The Corrs - Runaway
3. Del Shannon - Runaway
4. DJ Infiniti - Runaway
5. The Donnas - Teenage Runaway
6. E'Voke - Runaway
7. Groove Coverage - Runaway
8. Iio - Runaway
9. Janet Jackson - Runaway
10. Linkin Park - Runaway
11. John Barry - Runaway
12. Madonna - Runaway Lover
13. Nuyorican Soul Feat. India - Runaway (Mongoloids in Space)
14. Slade - Run Runaway
15. Soul Asylum - Runaway Train
16. Wyclef Jean - Runaway

As usual the songs in Bold I rated 4 or 5 stars, not many this time!

First Day Back

It was my first day back at work after 2 weeks off. It was just the same as when I went off (very boring). I was hoping to be able to do a plan of what I had to do the next few days this morning but I ended up answering the phone all day and never really got motivated to do anything. Everytime I started I would have to answer another call.

We were supposed to be getting a couple of upgrades soon, one was to upgrade to Lotus Notes 6.5 which has been postponed until at least January :-(

I have an idea for something that could be interesting for me and would certainly enable me to learn new things and improve upon a database I created a year ago. I need to think on it first but it looks like if it works it would be a lot easier to use and solve some of the problem we've had with the original database over the last year.

My plan is to try to have stuff to really look forward to on a weekend hopefully then work might not be so bad. Not that it's really bad just boring. Being bored is a nightmare for me, was reading something about Geminis needing to be constantly learning and figuring stuff out. With tons of things on the go at once otherwise easily bored. It does sound like me!

Logitech MM50 Speakers

I have just ordered some Logitech MM50 portable speaker for iPod. I have been thinking about buying them for 2 weeks since 1st hearing about them on the Daily Source Code when Adam Curry mentioned them.

I decided to check them out else where 1st just make sure they were as good as I hoped. After reading Cnets review they made my mind up and have ordered them from Dabs for £71.67. They are £99 everywhere else, unfortuntely Dabs don't have any in stock but do say 442 are available on request so hopefully I should receive it in a few days.

They enable you to dock your iPod and control it with the remote which comes with the speakers. You can use the speakers either plugged into the mains or using the lithium battery inside the speakers. The sound is supposed to be excellent but guess I wont know until it arrives.

UK Speed Cameras

I was messing about with Memory Map which I use when I go walking to plan routes and to see where I have been. I got wondering if I could find the GPS co-ordinates for all the UK Speed Cameras.

About about 10 seconds searching in Google I found exactly what I was looking for from PocketGPS. They have a monthly updated database with all the UK speed camera locations available for free.

They have a zip file that contains the locations in various file formats, you can then use this with most GPS software or even Autoroute!

Earphones that blow you away

I mentioned about 3 weeks ago that I was going to order some more earphones once payday arrived. I have now had the earphones for over a week.

I bought some Etymotic ER-6i Isolator In-Earphones wasn't sure whether to buy them or not because they seam quite expensive for earphones but I like my music, so thought what the hell. I was also looking at some Sure e3c earphones but were a little to expensive!!

Anyway I bought them off Ebay for about £60 I think they were including shipping from America. On Amazon.co.uk they are £79.99 reduced from £99.95. Wasn't gonna pay this much so Ebay to the rescue ;-)

The Sony MDR-EX71SLB's I have been using for months were excellent I always thought, at least compared to the standard earphones. There is a knack to inserting the ER-6i's into your ears, which the instructions describe. I didn't have a problem putting them in and they instantly cut out all surrounding noise. I had 3 computers running and I couldn't hear them at all, this was without any music playing through them.

I love them, letting you drift away with your music and not being interupted by stuff around you. I guess this could be a very bad idea if running near roads!

I wasn't sure how much better they actually sounded than my old MDR-EX71SLB's, but I wore old earphones in the bath today and thought this doesn't sound as clear. So before writing this I did a little test. I tried the old Sony MDR-EX71SLB while listening to Coldplay - Speed of Sound then switched to the Etymotic ER-6i's. The difference was unbelievable everything was crystal clear and you could hear so much more.

While typing this I'm listening to Dire Straits - Down To The Waterline and I've heard things in the song I have never heard before. Anyway who uses earphones should listen to the same music using some of these, they will be amazed :-)

The only problem I had was after the 1st time I put them in I had problems getting them back out of my ears. There is a knack to this as well as insertion, you have to twist as you pull. I will have to tell the people at work not to yank on the wire to get my attention as they have done before or they might pop my eardrum. May sound a bit dramatic but the earphones create a seal and its like popping a cork when removing them!!

I do have another problem which is that my large philips headphones I use on my computer when its late at night now sound rubbish compared to these. So I might have to buy some more expensive large headphones. Possibly some Ultrasone HFI-650's, now they are some serious M.F.

Last Night

I had a good night at Lumley Castle and ended up a bit drunk. Certainly judging by the post I had made on my blog which I just removed because it didn't really make any sense. Although I know what I was trying to say. I also ended up sending a few texts to someone, oops, sorry!

I spent the first hour or so talking to Alan, he wants to do the parachute jump like I did. I've told him just to go and do it, don't think Kelly will be too happy about him doing it.

Once we moved upstairs I ended up talking to Rosie and the Hayleys for the rest of the night. Rosie is a really good laugh, we ended up eating this cheese thing and neither of us like cheese.

It was probably a good idea that I was getting picked up at 11:30, I was getting drunk by then. Not really sure why as I hadn't gone mental on the drink maybe had about 6 pints at most I would of thought. Felt a bit rough this morning, I am definitly getting old.

Wedding Reception

I'm off to a wedding reception at Lumley Castle for Dawn & George who I work with. They are both really good laughs and are well suited.

It should be a good night I know quite a few people from work who are going (I think & hope). Kelly and Alan Johnson are going so can have a laugh with them, although Kelly is the brides maid so she might be busy. If I end up on my own I can always prop the bar up, although I am trying to drink as little alcohol as possible. Gonna be in training from next week (so that'll last until Monday afternoon).

I got ready this morning to go to Durham to buy a new shirt for tonight, but as I was about to walk out the door my mother told me the Newcastle match was on in 45 minutes. So that scuppered my shopping trip (shame, lol).

Looked through my wardrobe and there is nothing there, well there is about a dozen shirts or so after throwing all the others out but they all seam very old now (Jesus, I sound like a woman). I have one hanging up which I might have to wear but luckily my mother and sister have gone shopping, I asked them to get me a shirt if they saw anything I might like :-)

Thinking about it, Nikki A, Gary, Anna Z, Vicky and a few others are going I think tonight so should be OK. If I end up drunk I'm sure I will keep everyone amused if sober I will probably be very quiet and boring though.

Updated List

I just posted that I am intending to do a Hot Air Balloon ride soon and mentioned it was another thing on my list. Here's the list again with a few extra things on it:

To Do
Parachute Jump
Static Line Jump
Pass motorbike test
Drive a Ferrari
Hot Air Balloon (Pending)
White Water Rafting
Horse Riding
Drive Lands End to John O'Groats

Things to see
North West Scotland
Pyramids (Egypt)
New York
Grand Canyon
Canada
Australia (Ayrs Rock)
Ruins in South America
Iceland

To Buy
Mac Mini
Bike
Punch Bag
House
Quality Headphones
Laptop
Pay off Loan
Ipod

I added the Mac Mini and driving from Lands End to John O'Groats. I could do the drive next year and take in the North West of Scotland at the same time then doing 2 things from the list. This will be very expensive though just on petrol alone never mind accomodation. I could probably go to one of the other places cheaper. I could really fancy going to New York for a weekend but would rather go with someone.

I have put the house on hold until December unless something I really want becomes available, I think it is best to do some of the things I want to do above before being stuck paying for house for the next 25 years.

Another thing on my list

I was laid in bed at about 2am this morning unable to sleep again, thinking what I should do next. I mean from my list of things to see, do and buy. I think the next will be a Hot Air Balloon ride.

I pulled out the laptop and did a search, I thought there was a place in Consett that does them. I turned out to be correct. The company is called Could Nine Balloons, it will cost me £155 to do it, the actual balloon ride lasts about an hour depending on the wind. You end up doing the balloon ride, having some champagne and getting a certificate which sounds good to me.

I have seen the balloons come over my house before but it all depends on the wind directions and you don't know where you are going to end up.

I think I will ring them next week rather than just booking online, would like to know how soon I can do it 1st :-)

None event Shopping

As I mentioned in my previous post I went to PC World at Team Valley in Gateshead with the intention of looking at a Mac Mini. I was also gonna buy a USB mouse for my laptop and a cover for my iPod (it's already getting scratched).

I ended up leaving empty handeed, the only mouse I thought was OK was a Microsoft Optical Mouse for £20 which seamed expensive. The iPod cover didn't say which models it fitted. So ended up leaving without buying anything. I checked on Dabs when I got back and get the same mouse for less than £12. Haven't looked at the iPod skin yet.

The only positive thing I came away with was that I liked OS X on the Mac, even that took some getting to because some bloke was stocking the shelves under the Macs and I couldn't get near them until he buggered off.

I have always said I hate shopping and thought it was because I usually couldn't afford to buy the stuff I was looking at but that's 2 shopping trips now where I have had the money to buy stuff and I've come away with just about nothing. If I could figure out why maybe I could make a fortune helping to improve shops ;-)

Mac Mini

I am trying to decide if I should buy a Mac Mini or not?

Maybe Steve Jobs' plan of getting people to buy an iPod and then making the jump to a Mac is working. I just fancy trying one out and the Mac Mini is the cheapest way to get one. The fact that is also tiny is a bonus.

Another reason for thinking about a Mac is possibly because Adam Curry is constantly talking about them on The Daily Source Code Podcast.

I went to PC World at Team Valley in Gateshead hoping to try a one out but they didn't have any Mac Minis. They had some old iMacs which I spent a couple of minutes playing with and did really like, very simple to use and easy to find things. Although the version I was using was running Panther not Tiger.

Anyway I am trying to hold off buying one for now but not sure how long I can resist, I'm shocking when I have money in the bank!!

Fishing Update

I forgot to write an entry when I got back from fishing. I ended up catching about 10 (I think). 7 Roach, 1 Carp and 2 Crayfish. I got what I think where another 2 carp, one of which was a big. But unfortuntely it snapped my line when I was messing about with the tension on the reel. The other the hook must of come out of its mouth after I was playing it for a couple of minutes.

I never got chance to take any pictures, as my hands were covered with fish slime (nice, lol).

Fishing

I am on my way to Bedale fishing again. Well not exactly on my way, im sat in the car in Darlington while my dad and uncle are in the tackle shop getting my permit and the maggots.

Got here and the shop wasnt open but luckily they have just opened up.

Hopefully i will catch some good fish again this week and try to remember to take a picture with my phone.

One Door Away From Heaven

One Door Away From Heaven
Author: Dean Koontz
Pages: 760
Rating: 4 out of 5

Overview:
Micky Bellsong is a young woman at a crisis point in her life, unsure of where she should be heading and using a stay at her Aunt Geneva's to sort out her life. Then the precocious and deformed Leilani Kronk walks into her life telling stories of her stepfather Preston Maddoc and her drugged-up mother who both believe aliens will beam the girl into their mothership and heal her deformities before her 10th birthday. But tales of Preston's vicious past, including his hand in several murders, leave Micky believing that a far more terrible fate awaits her friend so when the Maddocs head off taking Leilani with them, Micky pursues.

My comments:
This is the 1st book I have read in months, I used to read a lot and have spent a fortune on books over the years but recently have listened to audio books or been glued to a computer but while on holiday decided to sit down and read.

I was given the book by my mother she had picked it up for 20p at some charity sale.

You very quicky get drawn into the book which is what I've always liked about Dean Koontz. I wont tell any of the story as the description above does that. It's a really good book, I gave it 4 stars rather than 5, because there were some parts that it seamed to skip over and left some unanswered questions but then again should a book not leave you wondering? It wouldn't suprise me if a follow-up to this came out.

Pennine Way

On Sunday and Monday I walked 2 sections of the Pennine way. On Sunday I walked from Garrigill to Dufton. Then on Monday from Dufton to Langdon Beck.
Click picures to enlarge.

Sunday: Garrigill to Dufton

Distance: 15.8 miles
Time: 5 hours

The 1st day was the furthest of the 2 days and over the harder terrain. We set off (me & my dad) at about 7:15am as the sun was coming up. I wasn't feeling exactly awake as I'd only had 2 1/2 hours sleep the night before. About half a mile in I started seeing flashing lights and suddenly went dizzy for a few seonds. After that I was fine, wasn't a good start though.

After about 4 miles we fancied a cup of tea but decided to wait until Greg's hut, my dad said it was fairly close, well it turned out to be another 2 miles. The hut ended up being a proper stone building almost a house (a bovee). We sat in there and had a cup of tea. Just before we got there a Transit van had pulled up just behind us, we couldn't believe it had managed to drive up the track. It wouldn't of been easy in a 4x4. Anyway while we were drinking our tea (very English) 4 men arrived and they had been in the Transit. They were all Fell Rescue and were taking part in some exercise. They mentioned how it was a good advert for a transit van (you're telling me). They told us a couple of stories and we left one of them telling us to turn left at some stones on the hill.

We left Gregs hut and within about 2oo yards or so found ourselves surrounded by fog. We decided to carry on and we continually looked at our GPS to make sure we were on the right track. If we hadn't had them there is no way in hell we would of carried on, we would of turned around and gone back. We could only see about 10 feet in front of us, but the GPS guided us perfectly along the path we had plotted. The fog was like this for 3 miles, we passed 2 groups of people, the 1st I think were part of the fell rescue. The second was near the end of the fog (or their start) they were American. Hope they didn't carry on as they had no GPS!!

The end of the fog was just after Great Dunn Fell where the RAF have one of those golf ball things, see pictures to the left. You can see the fog behind!

There were a few Fell Rescue jeeps around here as well as about a dozen people on quad bikes. we continued on to Knock Old Man which was hard going over lots of little rocks. We stopped at a large cairn before descending the last few miles to Dufton. On the descent we stopped while I cut my toe nails. My toe nails weren't long but they kept catching the front of my boot when coming down hill and were being pulled up (hurt, to be polite). The last mile I ended up pulling a muscle on the inside of my thigh as well. Guess that's what I get for being unfit and having not walked over about 8 mile for a long time!!

We eventually made it to Dufton and headed straight for the pub. I about collapsed on the bench outside (while trying to look fine of course). All the people we had seen on the quads earlier were now at the pub.

That was it for the 1st day, we stayed at a friends caravan and went back to the pub on the night for a meal, steak and onion pie which was gorgous.

I didn't take may picture because a lot of it was just too foggy, wish I had taken some of the fog but was too bust watching the GPS.

2 miles from Garragill

View from Knock old man (sitting down)

Monday: Dufton to Langdon Beck

Distance: 14.1 miles
Time: 6:50

I was worried after Sunday I might not be able to move but I got up and appeared to be not too bad. We decided to set off later as it was an easier walk and we weren't being picked up until about 6pm. We set off at 11:20am and we were tired but weren't making bad progress. We got to High Cup Gill after about 1 hour 50. We sat and had the 1st cup of tea, I took a few pictures in this area, see one to the right.

I will add a few more pictures from the top of the Gill they are more impressive they might not relate to what I am writing about, but look impressive.

We passed a few people going the opposite direction to us around High Cup Gill and High Cup Nick.

From this point on it was just walking over moorland (grass initally) but there are now stones put down over any points that would of been really boggy, which is most of it.

At this point the original Pennine way goes left but you are directed to the right (the new route) this is much easier and is sign posted and with stones and isn't as boggy.

Both routes join back up at Maize Beck and we followed this for 2.5 miles crossing over it at the bridge, we passed a bloke going the opposite direction on his mountain bike on the bridge.

From this point it becomes bleak and there's not much too look at for a few miles. About 8.3 miles in my feet were killing from blisters, I stopped to have a look and ended up taking a knife to my feet (sure you're not supposed to do this but since when do I listen?). I stopped short of sawing them off ;-)

I was pleased when we made it to Cauldron Snout where Cow Green Reservoir is as it meant we were nearing civilisation, although Cow Green is probably the most remote reservoir in England. Can remember fishing their ears ago and the waves were bigger than being at the sea side!

Anyway we stopped for some more tea, I was damn pleased to stop as I was struggling with my feet killing me.

The picture to the right is the damn at Cow Green with my dads bag in the way (was too tired to get up for a better shot).

We were sat there for about 25 minutes and didn't want to move as people were wandering about up Cauldron Snout.

While I was sat there a caterpiller ended up walking over my leg, so I decided to take a picture, it didn't come out all that brilliant but better than I expected.

After it had kept me amused for a minute I'd had enough and flicked it off my leg but I must of had plenty of energy left in my finger as it went about 6 foot in the air and blew past my dads leg. Don't worry creature lovers I'm sure it was fine it landed in long grass (I think).

Eventually we had to set off again and we had a nasty climb down Cauldron Snout over very large steep boulders down to Falcon Clints. We could of taken the road but thought it would be shorter the way we went (how wrong we were).

The picture to the right is of the water coming down the River Tees at Cauldron Snout while we were clambering down.

Just after this I pulled the muscle in my right leg again (damn being unfit) and it got worse and worse. We still had over 3.5 miles to go, I pushed on and tried to forget about it for a mile and half. We then had to go up a very small bank and from there on it felt like I had leg brace on and was struggling to walk probably looked like it as well. Checking though I still managed to walk at about 3 miles an hour some how. The last 3 miles were very long miles!!

My mother rang me when we were a mile from the end to ask where we were as she was picking us up. She had already rang the pub to see if we were there because it was hard to get a signal up there.

The last half a mile joined onto the road from Cow Green and a car went past, I was very tempted to flag the bloke down and pay him to take me the last few hundred yards.

Eventually we got there (which was the pub) and the bloke knew who we were from my mother having already rang him. I decided to have a pint of lemonade rather than lager as I wanted something to refresh me!!

It took us nearly 2 hours more to walk a shorter easier walk than the day before, we thought the second day was gonna be easier and quicker. Probably would of been if it weren't for my feet and legs, a quad would of been nice :-)

About 20 minutes after we got there my mother arrived. My mam and dad then laughed at me hobbling to the car and struggling to get in (pleased someone was amused)

So the outcome of all this is I am unfit and walking 2 fairly long walks 2 days in a row was hard, I guess I need to get fitter or give up ;-)

iPod

I have now had my iPod for 2 weeks, I wanted to leave it this long so I could get a real feel for what it's like. In this time there has been ups and downs, mostly ups luckily.

One of the 1st things you realise after turning on your iPod is just how simple it is to find your way around. My Zen Micro isn't complicated but this is simplicity itself. The 1st gripe I have is with iTunes, it is very cluncky, especially if you have a large library of songs. I added my songs to iTunes before my Ipod arrived and it took a very, very long time. Windows Media player took less than half the time. Once my songs were imported into iTunes it is again very simple to use, but I do then have another major gripe, this was one of the reasons I resisted buying an iPod for so long.

iTunes can't automatically scan folders for new songs, to most people this isn't a problem but the way my music is organised it becomes a big hassle. I have to manually import folders and tracks, this can take a long time. The strange thing is when you 1st start iTunes and import a folder it can take several minutes to import the dozen or so tracks of that album but if you then import another folder that will be slighty quicker until after importing several albums it will only take a few seconds. But as generally, I would only get one album at a time (not made of money) it would take me several minutes to import it into iTunes!

I have one final gripe after 5 days of using my iPod, I left it synchronising while I watched some TV. When I came back to it, I found it had switched itself off and I couldn't turn it back on. It was already plugged into my USB port so it had power. I tried plugging it into the main and pressing every button, but to no avail. After lots of swearing I went to Apples site and looked at the troubleshooting it mentioned this exact problem and there were several combinations of button presses that could un-freeze it. The 3rd one I tried did the trick (Menu & Select).

Since the freezing, I have had absolutely no problems. After getting my gripes out of the way it may sound like I think its crap. Far from it, it is probably one of the best purchases I have made for some time (along with Camera, TV, Laptop). I like how it integrates Podcasts into iTunes and the iPod, if you have listened to 9 minutes in iTunes then sync the iPod, you can continue listening exactly where you left off. You can do this with audiobooks as well.

It also appears to sound slightly better than my Zen Micro which was supposedly a good sounding player, saying that my ears are crap.

The end result is I'm listening to even more music than before (if thats possible). Listened to about 500 songs last week. Nearly all of which are being recorded on Last.fm.

My advice to anyone would be go and buy one, even if you're are someone who is useless with Technology and gadgets you will be able to operate an iPod and transfer music to it.

Pros: Simple interface, integration, good design, podcasts.
Cons: no scan for new music, no Napter equivelant on iTunes yet.

Cant sleep

I have to get up at 5 tomorrow morning but i cant sleep. I am walking part of the pennine way ending up in Dufton tomorrow night. Then walking to langdon beck on monday.

Should be good not that i have done any exercise recently. So will be shattered tomorrow night.

Still undecided what to do the rest of next week. I should go to scotland but not sure where to stay. I want to go to the north west but not many places to stay and dont want to stay in a b&b that is like someones house. I could sleep in the car, guess i could try that for one night if it was really bad then find somewhere to stay!

Will have a think the next 2 days.

Quotes

Here a some quote I've just read, they all have a common theme!

"We're all lonely for something we don't know we're lonely for"

"Somewhere there is someone that dreams of your smile, and finds in your presence that life is worthwhile, so when you are lonely remember it’s true, someone somewhere is thinking of you."

"Friends will keep you sane, Love could fill your heart, A lover can warm your bed, But lonely is the soul without a mate."

"Lonely men seek companionship. Lonely women sit at home and wait. They never meet."

"People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges."

"You cannot be lonely if you like the person you're alone with."

"I have so many different personalities in me and I still feel lonely."

"All the lonely people, where do they all come from? / All the lonely people, where do they all belong?"

"What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?"

"Dreams have but one owner at a time. That is why dreamers are lonely."

Night Out/In

I went out/in tonight by that I mean I went to Nikki Appleby house along with a few others from work. It was some of the regulars from the Durham Nights out.

If I'm honest I was dreading it at 1st because wasn't sure what it would be like and I also ended up having to drive so couldn't drink. I thought Craig was driving as well so didn't think it would be so bad 2 of us not drinking but got there and Craig had got a taxi.

Anyway in the end it turned out to be a good night, didn't matter that I was drinking Pepsi all night. This is the second time I've been out in the last few weeks where I haven't drank and still had a good night. I think it maybe depends on who you are out with.

A few of them were very drunk by the end of the night, Mel & Nikki especially. I dropped Katy off home and she was pissed to. I can tell when she gets to a certain point and she starts talking about her degree I now know that its the point for us to leave, lol. It is quite funny I seam to end up being her minder, before she opens her mouth and says something I say its time to leave!!

Dream Songs

I said yesterday that I was gonna create playlists of songs that contained a chosen word in their title. Today I chose DREAM. Below are the songs I listened to:

1. 1 Giant Leap - The Way You Dream
2. 2 Brothers On The 4th Floor - Dreams
3. ABBA - I Have A Dream
4. Accept - Winterdreams
5. Aerosmith - Dream On
6. Andre Visior - Islands of Dreams
7. Aretha Franklin - Don't Let Me Lose This Dream
8. Arollo - Dreaming (Percussion Mix)
9. Art Garfunkel - Dreamland
10. The Beatles - Like Dreamers Do
11. Beth Orton - Live As You Dream
12. Billy Joel - The River Of Dreams
13. Billy Ocean - Get Outta My Dreams
14. Black Sabbath - Tomorrow's Dream
15. Cheap Trick - Dream Police
16. BT - Dreaming (Lybra Mix)
17. Crowded House - Don't Dream It's Over
18. David Bowie - Moonage Daydream
19. Depeche Mode - Dream On
20. Dio - Dream Evil
21. Dokken - Dream Warriors
22. Dune - In My Dreams
23. Elvis Presley - If I Can Dream
24. Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams
25. Fleetwood Mac - Dreams
26. Foggy - Come [Into My Dream]
27. Frank Sinatra - Put Your Dreams Away
28. Gabrielle - Dreams
29. Green Day - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
30. Human League - Together In Electric Dreams
31. I Monster - Daydream In Blue
32. Iron Maiden - Wildest Dreams
33. Iron Maiden - Infinite Dreams
34. Jakatta - American Dream
35. Jaydee - Plastic Dreams
36. Judas Priest - Living Bad Dreams
37. La Bouche - Sweet Dreams
38. Livin' Joy - Dreamer
39. Mamas And The Papas - California Dreamin'
40. Mama Cass - Dream A Little Dream
41. Mariah Carey - Dreamlover
42. Marilyn Manson - Sweet Dreams
43. The Monkees - Daydream Believer
44. Ozzy Osbourne - Dreamer
45. The Pointer Sisters - Could I Be Dreamin'
46. Pro-Pain - American Dreams
47. QFX - Ocean Of Dreams
48. Queen - Dreamer's Ball
49. Rachel Stevens - Sweet Dreams My LA Ex
50. Robson Green - What a day for a daydream
51. Roy Orbison - In Dreams
52. S Club 7 - Never Had A Dream Come True
53. Sixpence None The Richer - Don't Dream It's Over
54. Van Halen - Dreams
55. Westlife - I Have a Dream

As you can see I got a bit carried away and ended up with 55 songs. Once again the songs in Bold I gave 4 or 5 star ratings.

Crazy Songs

Anyone who knows me well, knows how much I collect music. I've decided on a new way to listen to it. I will think of a word and search for all my songs containing that word.

Tonight I searched for Crazy and these are songs I listened to:

1. Beyonce - Crazy In Love
2. Britney Spears - Crazy
3. Brooklyn Bouce - Crazy
4. Charlotte Church - Crazy Chick
5. Eminem - My Dad's Gone Crazy
6. Fine Young Cannibals - She Drives Me Crazy
7. Katie Melua - The Closest Thing To Crazy
8. Kiss - Crazy Crazy Nights
9. LeAnn Rimes - Crazy*
10. Let Loose - Crazy For You
11. Loretta Lynn - Crazy*
12. Madonna - Crazy For You
13. Lucid - Crazy
14. Metallica - Stone Cold Crazy
15. Micheal Buble - Crazy Little Thing Called Love*
16. Ocean Colour Scene - Crazy Lowdown Ways
17. The Osmonds - Crazy Horses
18. Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train
19. Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Babies
20. Phil Collins - Driving Me Crazy
21. Prince - Let's Go Crazy
22. The Prodigy - Crazy Man
23. Queen - Crazy Little Thing Called Love*
24. Seal - Crazy
25. Simple Plan - Crazy
26. Guns N' Roses - You're Crazy
27. 3 Inches Of Blood - Crazy Nights
28. Aerosmith - Crazy
29. Angel City - Do You Know (I Go Crazy)
30. Ike & Tina Turner - Crazy About You Baby

The songs in Bold I gave 4 or 5 stars, which is suprisingly a lot. Although this is maybe because I was selective in which songs I played, I had more songs containing crazy than these but chose not play some coz I knew I didn't like them that and by the time I got to Tina Turner it was 1:15 am!!

Living Life to the MAX

I was chatting tonight on Messenger and part of the conversation was about enjoying yourself because life is too short. If I had a £1 for every time I have said that to people I would be rich, so I think its about time I took some of my own advice!!

I have started by doing the parachute jump, now I have to keep doing stuff that I want to. I started writing a list of things to do, see & buy. Wasn't gonna post it on here but here it is:

To Do
Parachute Jump
Static Line Jump
Pass motorbike test
Drive a Ferrari
Hot Air Balloon
White Water Rafting
Horse Riding

Things to see
North West Scotland
Pyramids (Egypt)
New York
Grand Canyon
Canada
Australia (Ayrs Rock)
Ruins in South America
Iceland

To Buy
Pay off Loan
Ipod
Bike
Quality Headphones
Laptop
Punch Bag
House

As you can see I'm fairly good at the buying part of the list, although guess paying off the loan wasn't buying. I've put house in bold because this this is the biggest single purchase I will ever do. Its not gonna happen anytime soon either. The absolute most I can get is about £79,000 but wouldn't want to be paying that back. Couldn't afford to live. So I have decided tonight that it is on hold unless something I really like comes up. I am completely sick of bloody Bairstowe Eves (estate agents) ringing me every day as well.

I might buy the punch bag tomorrow, not sure if I will keep using it though.

I've done the 1st on my things to do, I added a few more tonight like, Static line jump, Hot Air Balloon and white water rafting.

Haven't been to any of the places to see yet. I was going to go to North West Scotland next week but not gonna have chance I don't think. Walking Monday, Fishing Tuesday, Wedding Reception Saturday. I guess there is Wednesday to Friday but sure I'm supposed to be doing something then. Will have a look tomorrow, need to do something else on my list next week!!

If anyone who knows we reads this and you fancy doing any of these let me know ;-)

Next major thing is my job would love to leave that but can't do that, YET!

Strange but true

A 13 foot Burmese Python tried to swallow and 6 foot Alligator in the Everglades in Florida, the Python ended up bursting and both are dead. This is the sort of stuff you think is made up until you see the picture. I read this in the local paper and this BBC article.

Metro Centre

I went to the Metro Centre today, mainly coz I decided I would have a look to the pictures to watch Land of the Dead. I got there a couple of hours before the film was gonna start and decided I would just have a wander around the shops and buy anything that took my fancy (money permitting). Yet I was wandering around looking at clothes and never saw anything that I fancied, all the shops have just got in there winter collection and it doesn't seam right to be wearing them yet. Still a little too warm, maybe in 2 weeks I will change my mind when its chucking it down with rain.

After about 30 minutes I was bored and was looking at my watch, I have always been someone who knows exactly what I want when I go shopping and head straight for it and get the hell out of there as quickly as possible.

I bought a Newcastle shirt which I've been meaning to get for weeks, then decided to get something to eat. I ended up in KFC!

After having something to eat I ended up going to Waterstones and browsing through the books, haven't done this in ages. I left with Stephen Laws - Darkfall which I will read when I have finished Dean Koontz - One Door Away From Heaven which I started reading the other day.
I read a Stephen Laws book a few years ago, Chasm, which was excellent.

I stopped buying books in book shops because they were cheaper online, today was a case in point. I picked up 2 other books but after seeing that they were £6.99, I knew they would be cheaper online so put them back. The book I did buy was £5.99 but just looked on Amazon and it is only £3.50. I would have to pay postage but if you buy a few books its still cheaper.

Anyway after buying a the book I went to watch the film, the info on that is below.

Koyaanisqatsi

Koyaanisqatsi: After watching Baraka I wanted to see more films like it and found this one. It is very similar but in my opinion Baraka was much better. I found myself a bit bored with this at times. There are another 2 movies in thi series. I will watch them and see if they are any better. I still gave this 7 out of 10 on IMDB.

Land of the Dead

Land of the Dead: I went to pictures this afternoon and watched Land of the Dead. I've been a massive fan of the original Dawn of the Dead by George A. Romero ever since I 1st saw it in the 80s. Although this isn't as good as Dawn it is still very good and better than the recent remake of Dawn.

Its about a group of people who live in a city which is surrounded by water and fences which has kept the Zombies out but they are becoming smarter. Wont say anymore but worth watching. Might watch Day of the Dead tomorrow haven't watched it for sometime. Oh I gave Land of the Dead 8 out of 10 on IMDB but would of given it 7.5 if I could!

Fishing

I went fishing today with my dad & uncle in North Yorkshire, can't remember the name of the place.

I ended up catching 7 roach, 2 carp and 3 crayfish. The roach were only little nothing impressive, the 2 carp were better although I guess little for carp about 4Ib and 5.5Ib. The crayfish I would rather not catch as they are a pain in arse to get off. They are like crabs with pinchers, managed to get them off though without getting nipped!

It was a good days fishing, the last few times I've been fishing I've either caight nothing or tiny fish.

On Monday I was going to go to Newcastle but I had a really bad headache from the Parachuting, still have a bit but not so bad now. Haven't decided what to do tomorrow yet. Not sitting around the house though!!

Dog used as shark bait

There are some sick bastards in the world, the picture above is a dog which has a hook through its nose where it has been pulled behind a boat as shark bait. This is happening in French controlled Reunion island in the Indian Ocean. Pulling a dog behind a boat it a hell of a lot different from live fish. A dog has more feeling and emotions like fear.

Bloody French!!

Parachute Jump

I finally managed to do my parachute jump today!!

Above is a picture of me and the instructor Mark doing the jump, we are freefalling at about 120 mph at this point towards Shotton & Peterlee. It is the best experience you could ever have (well almost!!). I was suprising calm when we jumped out of the plane and wasn't in the least bit nervous.

It's very hard to try to describe the sensation to anyone who has bever experienced it themselves, it didn't feel anywhere near as bad as I was expecting when we left the plane. Maybe it was easier because it was cloudy when we jumped from the plane at 11,500 feet so couldn't see how far down it was. Although when jumping through the clouds it hurt, the rain in clouds was belting off my face and it hurt. Try riding on a motorbike without a visor (just goggles) at 120 mph in a hail storm and you might have an idea!!

Mark (the instructor) kept putting his hand in front of my mouth and face to shield it but I didn't realise he was trying to tell me to do it. My ended up with a headache from the rain pelting me (small price to pay).

Once we broke through the cloud cover it was much better and I could finally see the land below and the sea to the east. The freefall was over fairly quick (14 seconds something like that) and the parachute was pulled, it very quickly slowed us down and it then felt like we were floating and I could admire the view. Mark gave me the controls and he told me how to steer and what direction we needed to be facing, while pointing out Seaham, Peterlee & Sunderland. We did a few spirals although to be honest I wasn't that keen on them it was making me a bit dizzy probably made worse by the headache.

I had about 4 minutes (I think) of parachuting before we touched down, we made a perfect landing on our feet.

If I have one piece of advice to anyone doing a jump, make sure you go for a wee before you jump. Once I had the harness on I couldn't got to the toilet and by the time we did the jump I was busting (lol). Maybe this was why I wasn't nervous was thinking too much about needing the toilet. If the parachute jump had taken another 10 minutes I might not of been able to wait.

I now really want to do another jump, but might do it for charity next time it will be cheaper and hopefully raise some money!!

Everyone should try it :-)

One last point the photo at the top makes my nose look massive I'm sure its not quite that big?

Change and misery

Change isnt easy. Changing the way you live means changing how you think. Changing how you think means changing what you believe about life.

When we make our own misery, we sometimes cling to it even when we want so bad to change, because the misery is something we know. The misery is comfortable.

No Jump :-(

I'm back home, it was too windy to jump. I spoke to Ian, the guy who runs the place and he said it was unlikely to drop to an acceptable level today. I have to ring him at 8:30 tomorrow morning to see if the wind speed is low enough to go.

I'm gutted I never got chance to jump today, had built myself up to jump and now end up disappointed. The worst part was waiting around, just about everyone there knew each other so I couldn't really join in their conversation. The other lad doing the tandem course was untalkative, I can be quiet when I don't know people but whenever I said something I got a nod or a one word answer, so gave up and sat in silence.

Hopefully I will have better look tomorrow, I have decided to pay for a DVD of my jump (£65). So may post some images or part of the video tomorrow if the jump goes ahead!

Too windy :-(

I am still sat in the canteen waiting. a message has just come up saying it is too windy 34 knots, it has to be less than 20 i think to jump.
The weather is supposed to be better tomorrow.

Im still waiting around in case it drops but not sure where the other lad who is doing a tandem jump has gone.

there are 7 others on a course but they are doing a static line one.

A load of students have just turned up. I think they are from Newcastle university, they have some sort of club at the uni for parachuting.

think i will go and find out if its worth hanging around!

Waiting to jump

I have done my training for my parachute jump. Sat waiting for the wind to die down so i can jump.

Wish i could just get up there and jump.