One day

There is only one day left to go at work before I am off for the week, thank god!

Looking forward to the week off more than any other time I can remember taking.

When I worked at electrolux a couple of years ago for a few weeks on a production line, I hated it. That was because of the monotony of doing the same tasks over and over. I always knew I could never do factory work. The problem is what I am doing now is like that often worse.

on a production line you can sort of shut off and let your mind wander but you cant do that doing what I am now as you need to talk to people and carry various tasks that don't allow you to think of other stuff.

I have found myself talking a lot more recently, just as a distraction from what I am doing. Think it has become noticeable.

3D view of Scafell Pike

I sort of mentioned in a previous post that I had been messing about with maps and making them 3D. The above picture shows part of the a walk I did up Scafell Pike in the Lake District. In the Software (memory-map) it does a fly through of the route I took. The Red lines show where I walked but as you can see I didn't draw them on very accurately as they should be over the paths you can see. Click the pictures for larger versions.

© Crown Copyright
The above is the map of the route I took, it was 9.6 miles. I did this walk last year with my dad. Mapped it as I wanted to see how far it was and test the software.

Albums I've been listening to...

I have listened to a quite a lot of music in the last couple of weeks, below are some of the album I can remember listening to.


Beatles - Rubber Soul: Another excellent Beatles Album. I hadn't really listened to this album much until recently. I only recongnised a couple of songs off the album but once I listened to it more some of the others have really stuck. Especially "In My Life", "If I Needed Someone" & "Drive My Car".


Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Welcome To Pleasuredome: Another good album with 2 or 3 big tracks that are really well known. "Relax", "Power of Love" & "Two Tribes". My sister about played this album to extinction when I was about 9 or 10. There is a remixed album that has some excellent versions of these songs on. The remixes are probably even better.


Royksopp - The Understanding: This album sounds quite a bit different to Royksopps last album but still sounds good. I think I need to listen some more to find see if any of the songs grow on me like the songs from Melody A.M. did. I read a customer comment on Amazon where they said they skipped about 9 of the 11 songs on teh 1st listen but after repeated listening now loves 10 of the tracks.


Van Halen - Van Halen: This is an excellent album if you like guitar rock. It has some of the best guitar playing you're ever likely to here. You will probably be suprised that you know some of these songs. A couple of them have been sampled in recent years like "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" which was used by Apollo 440. Van Halen also cover "The Kinks - You Really Got Me" and do a good job.


Zero 7 - Simple Things: The version of this album I have is a double CD but to be honest I only ever listen to the 1st disc. Zero 7 are similar to Air, they are always compared to them but that is no bad thing. Its a good album to put on in the background and chill out to. The BBC have used "Destiny" on loads of their TV shows so you will probably of heard the song. Put this album on, lay back and enjoy.


Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bad Mood Rising The Best Of: This is one of the biggest suprise albums to me. I knew "Bad Moon Rising" but just had no idea how many of these songs I knew and had been redone by someone else. Such as "I Put a Spell On You" which was covered by Sonique. A very big suprise but definitly worth a listen, it will grow on you if you keep listening.

Maps

I was intending on going to bed early tonight, by 10:30 but i got interested in mapping walks i have done and creating 3d maps of them.

Sounds boring but they look excellent, everyone who has seen them likes them.

just read that back and realised just how sad i have truelly become. Oh well getting too old to be out on the piss every night. I was getting bored of it.

Tomorrow night i will sort my money out and plan what i am doing next week, exactly where i am going!

I have had a fairly good day today probably because i spent most of the afternoon talking on the phone to someone i really like talking to and being around, it was actually work. Hopefully we are friends again. Wont say anything else or will end up messing stuff up again.

Scanners

Scanners: I watched this again tonight. Originally watched it in the 80s when I was about 7 or something. It wasn't bad fairly decent film but with a strange ending.
Worth a watch if you like horror sci-fi.

Busy

The weekend seams to of flown by and not really sure what happened to it.

I was out on Friday night with people from work on the monthly Durham night out. There was less people and it was probably better because of it. It still wasnt brilliant maybe its because i didnt get too drunk.

I slept until about 11 on Saturday then got up and worked on my website most of the day. I cant remember doing much else other than looking at some places to go in Scotland. After Amulree i am thinking of going to the North west of Scotland and to some of the very remote beaches up there but not sure yet.

Then today i went to a christening it was for my cousins daughter. The service was as boring as they always are but wasnt too bad in the pub afterwards. Got to see some of the family i hadnt seen for a while although didnt get much chance to talk to most of them, i was stuck in the corner.

Then came home and watched the Masters football then went to sleep, jesus i must be getting old i keep taking naps.

I dont seam to of done all that much but it has flown by.

Strange

I sent kelly johnson a text the other day or i thought i had. I had sent it to alan her husband.

i was hoping to go over this week and see them. I havent seen them since Kelly went on maternity leave in February or of course the new arrival, William.

Kelly sent a reply today and i am going over tomorrow night (today now).

What was strange was that her best mate rang me about an hour after i spoke to Kelly. I hadnt spoke to her since last year (Tina). Kelly must of said she had spoke to me. Tina asked if i could look at her computer, people only ever ring me when they want something :-(

Boring!!!

I'm bored, I have been working away this morning in a trance and have been like that for the last few weeks at work. The work is just so boring at the moment.
I can't wait to get away to Scotland, hopefully plan what I'm doing when I'm there sometime this week.

Its not been much more exciting at home, I need to get myself outside doing something. I said I was going to go out on my bike but still haven't, so thats the plan for tonight!!

Clear Out

I decided to throw out all my old clothes. I keep holding onto them thinking I will use them about the house. The picture above shows some of them. Doesn't look very many but there are tons of T-Shirts and jeans in the darkness behind. I realised after I pulled them out the cupboard that I needed to buy loads of new clothes as I have none now.

Plans

I need to start planning what and where i want to go when i am on holiday. I am booked into a hotel for 2 nights, so need to plan what to do when i am there.

That takes up 3 days including travelling but i want to make sure i am doing stuff the whole week. Would like to go further north in Scotland but would rather not stay in some little b & b. Would consider camping or even sleeping in the car, probably better than a tent anyway.

Otherwise i guess i could go to the lakes walking. I would rather go on my own but i know if i say i am going to the lakes my dad will want to come but want some time to myself.

Will have a look this week and plan what i am going to do each day i am off. If i dont plan it i will do nothing knowing me!

"Pay As You Go" Road Plan

I've just been reading the governents new Pay As You Go Road Plan. Another stupid idea the government has come up with. They would charge you up to £1.34 a mile to drive on the motorway. The cheapest would be 2p a mile in rural areas outside of rush hour. Everyone will take alternative routes and make it chaos on minor roads. This would also mean those in 4 litre Jeeps would pay the same as someone in a 1 litre city car.

It annoys me as I live in the countryside and it just isn't practical to use public transport. It would take up to 90 minutes to get to work on the bus and its only 11 miles and 20-30 minutes in the car. I also have to take my car to work as it is part of the contract for my job as I often have to use it for work. I guess my work would have to cover the price for work journeys.

The best thing the government could do in my area to cut the traffic is to stop the school run, when its school holidays there is no traffic. The traffic has increased massively over the last 8 years I have been driving into Durham. I think a lot of this is due to kids being driven to school probably because parents no longer have to send their children to the local school but can take them to any school they like often miles away.

The other reason the traffic has gone up is the nearby town has almost doubled in size recently due to the number of new houses being built with more to come. So more people are commuting into Durham & Newcastle and the roads cant cope!

Certainly seams like the government wants to know our every move with ID cards and now satellite tracking of our cars. What next chip implants, so they can charge me for using the footpaths. I thought I lived in a free country?

Wonder how much those black boxes are gonna cost every car owner, I thought the £90 for ID Cards was expensive!!

Home

Here's a picture of the village where I live. The Red bricked houses are the Council estate but I live in the street to the right of them that is surrounded by fields. I couldn't live in a busy town too used to the countryside and looking out my window at fields and woods.

The picture is a bit dull because it was overcast and starting to rain. Click the pic for a slightly bigger version!

Dull

I didn't get up and go the pictures. My alarm went off at 8 but I was shattered so turned over and went back to sleep for another 3 hours!

So far today I haven't really done anything. I decided to go for a drive up the dale and take a few pictures while I was out but it started to rain and I got sick of all the Sunday drivers on the road and came back home. I did take a couple of pictures of where I live but not very good because of the weather.

The highlight of the day was cutting my hair, so you can tell how boring today has been :-(

Quiet

I have had a fairly quiet day today and have never left the house.

I ended up looking at ebay again, gonna blame my sister for that. she was having a look with me. This week i have spent nearly £70 on ebay. Most of it today, just hope the prada top im paying £25 for is ok, its cheap if it looks ok.

My sister gave me some vouchers for free popcorn and a drink at the pictures. I want to watch Revenge of the Sith but got no one to go with. If i can get up early tomorrow i am gonna go and watch the early morning showing but not sure i will get up in time. Guess i better go to sleep then.

Batman

Batman: I decided to watch the original movie after seeing Batman & Robin the other day. I hadn't seen this for nearly 15 years and forgot just how dark the film is. It is obvioudly a Tim Burton movie. Michael Keaton is by far the best Batman/Bruce Wayne. I'd recommend this to anyone who has seen any of the other Batman movies. Its far from perfect but worth watching.

Dead Birds

Dead Birds: The film was a bit of a let down, a couple of bits where you could jump (my mother did) but nothing very scary and not much really happened. Could of been so much better. It was watchable but nothing more :-(

De ja vu

I ve been talking on the internet tonight and was listening to some things that totally sounded like me and some of the situations i have been in emotionally over the last 2 years.

Talking about it made me realise how far i had come from 2 years ago not telling a soul about what was eating me up at the time. Still wouldnt write a lot of it on here but before would never mention anything to anyone.

Think i may be a little too honest now...

Dreaming

My digital camera arrived today and I'm fairly impressed especially at the price. I haven't taken many shots, I was hoping to go for a walk and take some pictures tonight but it was raining fairly heavy.

Having just watched Spiderman 2 which was about dreams and sometimes having to give up on them (he didn't have to in the end). It has got me thinking about my own and what I want, suppose I am a dreamer at the best of times. Always day dreaming and wishing for things. Not sure I every do anything to make them come true though.

My life is drifting away before me and going nowhere fast!

Spiderman 2

Spiderman 2: I have finally just watched this. It is the best film I have seen in some time. One of those films that afterwards you have a warm glow and makes you think about your own dreams. Wouldn't of thought I'd say that about a Comic book based movie. I would recommend this to anyone :-)

Resident Evil: Apocolypse

Resident Evil - Apocolypse: I watched this last night. It was OK but nothing special. It somehow seamed a bit disjointed maybe lots of cuts where made to the film to keep it to 90 minutes or something. Thats how it felt.