family

I've been sat here thinking about families latley, maybe because its that time of year and most people will be seeing theirs.

Unfortunatley i wont be one of them...most of my family has died and the rest dont get along.
I think that for me family are not just people who are related to you somehow, i think family is/are those people who shape and form our lives by being part of it, many of the people i have met in the last 7 or 8 years since my parents past away have helped guide me and nudge me when ive needed or required it, and it is these people i consider my family.

as i write this its about 11:30 at night and i've been hyome for a couple of hours from work and im deciding what to do with my time and i find that some of the people i want to talk to arent around and yet i find i cant just ring them a) becuase of the latness of the hour & b) i dont know what to say; it never occurs to me that i should be the one to start a conversation or to do something....

Recently ive had some people in my life declare that i `have and attitude` now i understand that many people seem to think that this means im bossy, opionated and rude...yes i suppose i could be all these things but i also like to think that in fact i have as much right to express my feelings and thoughts as much as anyone...i aklois have the right noit to take abuse from people!

I often think that taking crap from people is a form of surrender, i dont always agree that its the best thing to do, ill be damned if im going to keep quiet just so i can be steam-rollered into something, nor am i going to let myself fade away when i have an opinion of something!

before anyone reading this jumps to the conclusion that i am unhappy, let me clear this up...i am happy where i am. i just would enjoy some of my friends spending a little time with me rather than just deciding im out of sight...out of mind!

long time no notice!!

Hi, sorry to anyone wondering what ive been upto, and the fact that i havent posted for ages....

Simple fact was i had totally forgotten to do any and i also lost my blogger password (obviously found it again).

Well looks like summer hasnt exactly been a lovely one this year! well, it hasnt exactly been a good one from my perspective; what with the cases on swine flu now sweeping across the country and even my mate Tony coming down with it

So what have I been up to?

Well ive been visitng the local nature reserve, Whisby is a wildlife park where people go locally; it has hides for birdwatching and loads of walks for people to...well walk!

I've also been working hard at my job, this sadly isnt much of a progression from what i was doing down in Devon but it is a faster career improvement, here i can get training easier without feeling like im not up to the task; (apologies to anyone who reads this and thinks im being mean to my former bosses)

Anyway, ive also been indulging my passion for carboot sales, now when i lived down in Devon it was difficult to attend these because i worked on days when they occurred, it was only by arranging time off that i was able to go and buy stuff.

Here its been easier; for one my shifts are unfixed; this means that i have different days off each week and the rotas are arranged very much ahead of schedule (pardon the pun) therefore some weeks i have Saturdays and some weeks i have Sundays off and sometimes i have other days off.

Now i love going to car boot sales, they tend to be the best place to pick up bargains; best bargain i got was the stereo i picked up at a local auction for the cats protection league here in Lincoln...i got it for £1, yes! £1! and it works wonderfully

Anyway I'm due to Go on holiday soon with my partner and his friend mike, we're trotting off to sleepy old teignmouth for a week to celebrate my birthday...hopefully ill have some pictures for everyone to see!

New Computer Time

Well after much nagging from my one and only fan (they know who they are) I've managed to put my ass back onto the computer chair and found something to chat about.

On Tuesday My partner gary and myself needed to do some shopping...I had just been paid and wanted to look for a new game or something in which to enjoy.
Anyways I found a game for about £20 and was about to go and pay for it when my eye caught something that I thought at first was too good to believe...namely a new pc!

Now recently my poor 6 yr old pc was having a hard time of things...it couldnt keep up with its owner's relentless demands on its poor processor and failing hard drive, therefore I had decided to replace it but had resigned myself to the fact it wouldn't happen for some time yet as desktop pc's were still expensive and therefore I would have to save up.

Anyway I had noticed this PC....a Medion dual core pentium processor (to the non techno out there thats a very whizzy brain) PC with vista home premium and a 250GB hard drive plus a DVD-RW drive capable of burning to nearly every type of disc out there...excepting blu-ray.

Now how much did you think this PC cost? £250? £300? or even £400?

Nope I bought it for.....£194 (originally £199 reduced by the new VAT rate)!!!!!

So after lugging the machine back to my comfy bed-sit/flat I had the interesting task of copying everything of value and interest to DVD+RW and then disconnecting, installing and transferring everything to the new PC....not an easy task and one that certainly caused friction between gary and myself!!!!

So now I'm the proud owner of an updated PC...and the old one? last seen at gary's place about to be erased and reformatted ready for his use. :-)

Hopefully I'm also going to be going out and about in a few weeks time so I will have more Photos to add.

New Home, New Life and New Friends

Ok first post of 2009!
First off I apologise for anyone who has been trying to find out what i have been up to recently; i have only just unpacked the pc from the pile of boxes that used to clutter my boyfriend's hallway

From that i hope you will gather that I now have my own space to call my own: before the questions start to fly i will point out that my poor other half has a very poky flat and there simply wasnt enough room for all of our stuff combined....it does not mean im going to break up with him but i have wanted some room for myself should disagreements become inevitable!

I have moved into a lovely bed-sit near the city centre of lincoln....unlike most bedsits this one consists of two rooms one that has been converted into my living room/study and the other which is my bedroom.

The last three/four weeks have been taken up with decorating and furnishing the living room; when i moved in the walls were a pale green and looked seriously unpleasent (well to me anyway) we repainted it a lovely sky blue and painted the skirting boards chocolate brown

There is a bed setee in the living room...perfect for guests and friends should they decide to pay a call (hint hint).

secondly with christmas out of the way ive managed to break the ice with my work colleagues, they're very nice although i would be lying if i said they are better than my old mates and i have forgotten about my teignmouth pals...far from it!

Anyways as soon as im all sorted ill add more posts...until then!!!

almost a year gone!

First i apologise for not blogging for almost a year, but so many things have happened and i havent been able to get myself time to write.

First off this will be a sort of round robin (sic) of the year to date but some things may be out of order so i apologise.

Well at the beginning of the year i attended a civil ceremony reception for two of my friends ho got spliced on valentines day no less :-) i hope they're happy and still going strong, last i heard they had been forced to retire from the jobs they loved and were looking at working as a private courier service, i cannot be sure if this is accurate but if so i wish them many successes.

the next climatic thing was my plans to move (gasp) from teignmouth after living here for over 17 years (8 of which i spent in the local co-op supermarket) i left in july with many tears from my mates and friends but more of that anon

before that i celebrated one of my mates 21st birthday, well i say i celebrated but i had 2 drinks then escorted a young lady back to her bed, (alone, before the suggestions start running)

then in july i bid a tearful farewell to my home, i decided to move upwards to be with my partner, who must for his own wishes remain anonymous, however we are both happy and are enjoying our time together. i miss my mates obviously and i stay in touch whenever possible.

after a hiatus of roughly 8 weeks i got a job working in a shell garage on a major roundabout...40 hours a week! good i suppose except that the hours were long, busy and on occasion solitary!, my partner was worried for my safety and therefore when the lincolnshire co-op offered me a job i cant say i agonised over the decision to leave.

i'm now working as a sales assistant for the co-op and i'm ion training for my keyholder/supervisor stauts which is quite a privilege :-D

well that's about it for now, i might have missed some details but i will add more when my mind is capable.

Christmas Joy!!!

What a week it's been for thos of us who work in the retail industry; My heart goes out to the people in stores like Argos, GAME, Gamestation, Debenhams, Virgin etc. you must be shattered with dealing with the christmas rush like thos of us who work at the local supermarkets!
Yes as you can see here we are working hard as usual (!) NAH! I'm joking as usual with this time of year it's the time for festive cheer and as usual our bosses didn't not disappoint!

As you can see we all had a lovely time!, although some of us had too much of a good time (and they know who they are!)

Electronic Mayhem

Well, in a rare occassion I'm blogging again in the same month!

Now, those of you who know me and read this will know im an avid (some might say obsessed) console gamer, others who dont will no doubt be wondering "what's a console gamer?"

Well to those who have only just arrived into the 21st century, allow me to give you a very brief(ish) history of gaming from a fan's perspective.

I was born in the 1980's during which time the only computers available were from either BBC or a company know as Acorn computers (nothing to do with a certain Ms.Wood and Ms.Walters) the rest were know simply as `mickey` mouse computers that plugged into your tv via the areial box and used either cassettes or big floppy disks that were square and (unlike todays obsolete models) floppy, these used a language called BASIC and a slighlty more advanced language called ASCII.

then a japanese company arrived called nintendo, they originally developed games for another minor games firm called Atari, the most famous model from Atrai was a console called the 2600 and was one of my first console machines, it played pac-man and donkey kong, two characters that now remain in our hearts and (to some) our memories.

Now, A rival company sprang up called Sega; they developed a machine which like nintendo used a cartridge based system, theyre also famous for giving us a rather unsual sight back then....a blue hedgehog that ran on two legs and wore a ridiculous pair of red sneakers (trainers to those unfamiliar to americano) called Sonic, rival to nintendo's main star....A plumber with a penchant for rescuing princesses from monkeys and overgrown dinosaurs going by the name of Mario.

As the years rolled by the two companies battled it out for control of the teenage market by introducing new and more advanced systems, as this progressed other companies rose to try to unseat these two powerhouses from their thrones as the top console producers but only one managed to cause a furore.....Sony

Yes! Sony, the company that first introduced the CD to our world now decided to try and enter into the fray after an unsuccessful attempt with nintendo to develop a CD based console nown then as the PSX.......

They developed a major selling product that caused consternation to Sega and Nintendo, namely the Playstation.

This little machine is still selling despite the fact that its two younger brothers have pretty much taken over the mantle of financing Sony Computer Entertainment, although that being said its selling relativley cheap (£20 will buy you a brand new one).

Sony decided to try and bring more to the forefold by introducing a variety of characters to its world and allowing the market to bring in the adults with a range of more......`grown up` titles to the world and so sega and nintendo retailiated by designing abd releasing their own CD based machines, although nintendo did not release their version till much later.

Sadly Sega was forced to give up its console development after a while as sony and nintendo were out-selling them in temrs of the hardware, and reluctantly they became sofware developers and publishers toi the other concoles, including a new rival to challenge the rest.

while the main war had been between Sony,Sega and Nintendo and fourth rival had been biding its time and now struck into the struggle for dominance......Microsoft released its first games console....namely the Xbox.

The xbox was released roughly about the same time as the successor to the original Playstation...the unoriginally named Playstation 2 and Nintendo's first widely known CD machine....the Gamecube and boasted a unrivalled amount of detail and performance by utilizing actually PC technology as part of its circuitry.

Only one thing hindered the Xbox; its size, for while the xbox was powerful it was also the size of an old VCR and weighed something similar too!

now the battle continues with the Playstation 3, the interestingly named Nintendo wii and the sequel to the xbox....the Xbox 360!

who will win? it's upto the buyers!