Indulge Me

First post of the new decade. First post of the fourth year I’ve been writing this blog. Will I ever shut up? Not likely.

It’s the 1st of January TwentyTen, 2009 is over and I have plenty to be happy about. Not that the past year was bad by any stretch, it’s been the most productive year I’ve had for a good long while. I managed to get a new job, finally freeing myself of Royal Mail and the dead-end nowhere ‘career’ that I was facing. I finally have a decent job with equally good prospects. Plus I earn a few bob more too. I also managed to lose all the weight that I had gained. I’ve done this time and again over the past decade, so while it is great that I’m now thinner, I’ve been through this all before to refuse to believe that the weight I am now is the weight I will remain. Don’t get me wrong, putting on seven stone again is not on the agenda, but it never was before. That, sadly, is life! Christmas has also come into it to, i’ve indulged myself an awful lot this festive period, no doubt a few pounds heavier than I was this time a few weeks ago.

So, I look toward 2010 feeling good about my future, rather than being fat and a failure. Not sure what to expect this coming year, apart from a new phone, and being 27. The iPhone contract is nearing its end and I’m ready to dump the 18 month year old technical marvel for the equally brilliant Samsung Pixon 12. A 12MP camera phone. Was it a good camera or a decent MP3 player i desired in my next phone? Turns out it’s a good camera. Will be certain to blog about this phone when I get it shortly.

Other than the overindulgence, this christmas has been great. I spent a few days down in London with Iain, who is without Aleks as she’s back in Bulgaria. So it was a few days of Xbox gaming, drinking and trawling a wet miserable Oxford Street, but a change of scenery was needed. I’m a little sad that the christmas break has come to an end, but also looking forward to getting back to work. I don’t think I had that with Royal Mail, even when I started there.

Prediction for 2010? Nottingham Forest promoted to the Premier League – you heard it here first!

Everybody’s havin’ fun…

I love how busy everything gets during Christmas! It all builds to a crescendo, then everything slows to a halt after the day itself.

It’s been a good past few weeks. I’ve been to a work christmas lunch, have a work christmas party tomorrow, and will be spending the last few days of 2009 in London at my brothers. The christmas lunch yesterday was excellent, more of an all out meal rather than a lunch, it nevertheless was a great time out with my workmates. We dined at a place called Fashion in Nottingham, they are owned by the same people behind another well-known Nottingham restaurant, Sinatra’s. I had a burger with Applewood smoked cheese and chunky chips, but done dead posh. The chips were so chunky you only needed four, and the burger presented in such a way that I felt the need to use a knife and fork and to eat it rather than pick it up with my hands.

Tomorrow is what I’m looking forward to the most, it’s the work christmas party. There aren’t a great deal of people coming (56 people out of about 200), but no matter – I managed to bag a complimentary free room at the hotel where the party is taking place! Jury’s Inn give a limited number of free rooms to people who book their christmas parties there. They drew the names out of the hat and I won! It’s a free room and free buffet breakfast, so I’ll be sure to make the most of it by booking in at the first opportunity and sticking around until I absolutely have to leave. The party includes a dinner, but no free drinks sadly – I’ll have to use my plentiful wages for that…

Talking of money, I was literally quids in earlier. On the floor in Doncaster’s meat market was what looked to be a tenner. Quickly pouncing on this unclaimed banknote, it was indeed £10. An early christmas present? I think so!

Finally, after the festivities of christmas have ended, I’ll be ending the year in London. Iain’s missus is back in Bulgaria for the christmas break, so I’m down in Wood Green keeping him company for a few days. Can’t wait! I doubt I’ll be having a break anytime soon, so it’s great that I’ve managed to fit one in.

Christmas in one week – it’s getting exciting!

Thoroughly Festive

We are hurtling towards 2010 and things just get more hectic…

It’s been three months at my job now and I’m enjoying it so much, it’s hard to believe there is just four months of the contract left, but generally people at work believe I’ll be kept on. Hope so!

Also work related, i’ve managed to get a 10 day break at Christmas. It falls in such a great way this year, I get a week and a half off – magic. The past few days has also seen me get invited down to stay at Iain’s place in London for four days. Aleks and her sister are back in Bulgaria for Christmas, so there’s a spare room going. Didn’t need to ask me twice, though there was some frustration getting the travel down there sorted. I managed to settle on the coach down there and a first class train ride back home. Nice!

There’s plenty of birthday celebrations, Christmas parties and Christmas dinners going on these next few weeks – it’s hard to keep a tab on everything. It’s also more added expenses, so the advance of wages that work are offering me does seem attractive.

Forest are showing their promotion credentials. As of today, Sunday the 29th of November 2009, we are 4th in the Championship, tucked in behind Leicester. I make a note of this now because, with Cardiff and Blackpool still to play, we could end up down in 6th come Tuesday. Despite all that, we’re still doing amazingly well – come next season we could be serious challengers for promotion. Can’t believe it’s been 10 years since we last graced the Premier League! It seems as close as it’s ever been.

Finally, I re-jailbroke my phone. Apparently Blackra1n makes jailbreaking ridiculously simple. It does. My phone was jailbroken in about 30 seconds. Such a simple process, and no farting about with re-syncing apps and all the music. Plus I get the camcorder back, which is what I really missed.

Looking Back

Not been a great few days. One of our pet cats, Oscar, had to be put down last Friday. He’d had a lump develop on his neck, and after a deterioration, and news that the cancerous lump was spreading, we had to have him put down.

He was genuinely one of the nicest cats there was. Our other cat, Bruce, is affectionate only when it seems he wants something (food, to go out). Oscar was affectionate for no reason, he loved us and we all loved him. I know it’s affected everyone in the family because my Dad cried after they’d been to the vets, and he never cries. I’m happy that he’s not suffering anymore, but that’s about all i’m happy about.

Life really does suck sometimes, a cat with such a nice nature is forced to die in such an awful way. We’d saved him from the RSPCA, where it had been obvious he’d been mistreated by previous owners, and he always seemed eternally grateful. I’d decided last Wednesday to get a new camcorder to video him before he passed on, but events transpired against me. It’s made me more determined to video/photograph Bruce more than ever before. I think the worst thing about deaths, human or pet, is when you start to forget. I’m determined not to let that happen.

I’m only ever seen in the right place

I hit the 2 month mark at my new job and I’m really getting into it now. I’m now at the stage where I know exactly what I have to do, no longer relying on the notes I was furiously taking down in the first few weeks of my job. I’m quite heartened to hear my workmates say how well i’ve been doing, how fast I work and how easy it is to get on with me. Everybody likes compliments (or an oppurtunity to enlarge my ego…), i’m no different!!

I’ve steadily got to know most people at work too. The ground floor staff, i all know. If not to talk to, i at least know their names. Upstairs, however, is like a whole other world! It’s larger and there is no great urgency to go upstairs throughout the day, so I tend not to mix with the people up there so much. Well, that was until last week when I tagged along on a work night out to celebrate my sister (and others) end of training for their new positions. The majority of people on this night out were from upstairs, but thanks to my old friend alcohol, a few drinks down the line and I’m anybody’s. Drink has always been a fabulous way to unwind and get to know people, even people who you’ve previously only nodded a hello to them in the corridor. Now i’m laughing and joking with them while drinking down double jack daniels!

An actual proper work night out is scheduled for next friday night, or at least I hope it is, i had such fun that I’m itching to go out with them again. I even went out and brought some new clothes – partly because of my diet, my clothes are all too baggy, and partly because of my criminal lack of smart ‘going out’ clothes. Whenever I go out normally now, it always seems to be a pub, so I have no ‘town’ clothes. Clothing that means I wont get turned away at Lloyds…

Sticking with the ILF, we had an annual conference a few weeks back. It was actually the first annual conference they had, but it is good for what it was. Basically an event to get everyone involved with the ILF together in one building. I stuck around only for the first part of the day, not sticking around for the dinner or drinks, but i could see the merits of meeting these people. We even got a show from Natasha Wood (she is one of the ILF users), who has a one woman show visiting various towns, cities and countries, all about her life and how her disability (she has Spinal Muscular Atrophy) has both helped and hindered her throughout her life. It’s well worth seeing, both funny and touching, and worth the day off work to see!

Work is great, my weight loss (6 stone and counting) is great and even Nottingham Forest are playing great. Finally we’re seeing the real deal from Forest. While we’re still a way from being champions, we seem to be finally competing at this level, this is what all of us fans have craved since we got relegated from the Premier League 10 years ago. Okay, one season in 2003 might have been brilliant, but aside from that we’ve never really convinced as challengers at this level. After a run of matches this year where we’ve played so well but come away with nothing, it’s good that we are now reaping the rewards of our efforts. On an unbeaten streak, we’ve been camping out in 7th and 8th these last few weeks, keeping within touching distance of the top due to the fickle nature of this league. One week Newcastle are top, then it’s Cardiff, then Middlesborough. We’re three points behind current leaders Newcastle, but equal or better than them in terms of quality. We could beat any team in this league on our day, but despite all this we do still have our inconsistencies, not least our ‘one half good, one half bad’ syndrome which we can’t shake! (take the Newcastle game as a prime example)

I’m just chuffed that it’s nearly November and we’re 8th. We’re competing in this stupendously competitive league. While a promotion this year is beyond us, a playoff place chase certainly isn’t, and it’ll put us in good stead for the next few years where hopefully we can step up and be genuine promotion contenders. It’s been 10 years since we were at the top, finally we seem to be headed back towards there.

I’ve been enjoying my Xbox 360, it’s good to have this console again. I bought Saints Row 2 and Fifa 10 recently. Saints Row 2 is a great game, this is how I’d have preferred GTA 4 to be like, a bit more tongue-in-cheek and silly. That’s not to say that I didn’t like GTA, but having played San Andreas, playing Saints Row 2 seemed like a ’sequel’. And Fifa 10, it’s a great game. Really good. I’m happy that Fifa have finally stepped up, after years of shit football games. The football is natural, controls are easy and the graphics are excellent. I wholeheartedly recommend this game!

And before I go, I got an invite to Google Wave the other day. I was intrigued as anyone to see what the fuss was all about. Google Wave is like a glorified Google Mail with a tacked on ability of real-time instant messaging. This means you actually see the words appear on the screen as the other person is writing them, there is also the chance to upload a ton of media as well as the ability to group edit anything that has been added/uploaded. It’s much easier to explain when you’ve used it, but something to remember before using it, is that it needs a fast (FAST) machine to run smoothly. My Mac seems to run it okay, but my work PC struggles big time. It’s worth a look, but I can’t say it’s changed my life. Google have plenty of work to do on this, so until then it’s little more than an interesting oddity.