Oh joy. It’s been another one of those days. I can’t say it’s been a really bad day, it’s just one of those where everything that happens has got up my nose in some way. My day started, and ended with entirely rude people. And that, I dislike.

Today was work, as per usual, and before work, there is the usual trip to the supermarket. Now, new rules have been brought in at my wonderful employment place, that no food or drinks are to be consumed at our desks. This came into effect on Monday, and yes, I think I did comment on it, but can’t remember. Anyway, this meant that I wasn’t going to go on my usual “snack rampage”, and fill a trolley half full with most of the junk food known to man. Instead, I got a basket, and filled it with just the bare essentials, namely something for my dinner, and snacks that… ahem… “could be eaten in my coffee break”. Therefore, I ended up with a trolley containing no more than 8 things.

So, I head off to the checkout. I spy an empty checkout. For a Saturday, this is gold dust. Normally, the checkouts are stowed out, and you normally have to wait inline. Anyway, I approach the empty conveyor belt, and from out of nowhere this idiot comes in with a trolley, and barges me out of the way. This complete cock-end then proceeds to line his shopping up on the conveyor belt as if nothing had happened. I’m stood there, gobsmacked… luckily, the next till is also empty (or at least very close to it), so I attempt to offload my consumables, and then some stupid bitch with an even bigger trolley gets there before me!

I mean, what the hell happened to common courtesy? If you have a big trolley, and the person behind you has just a few things, it should be LAW that you have to go before them, or they should be nice enough to ask you, not just completely ignore your entire existence, just to save a few measly seconds.

Vouchers should be outlawed too. Similar situation. I’m waiting at the checkout, again, clutching a few measly morsels of food. The person in front of me has almost finished packing, and is about to pay for the goods she’d purchased. Out comes a wad of vouchers that resembled a phone book. Each of these has to be individually scanned, crossed off, pissed about with, given a name, before finally being disposed of inside the till. Of course, those are the valid ones. The invalid ones each get their own minute of my life while the woman, who has now finished the packing, explains exactly in which issue of Bella she got it from. To top it all off after the rainforest-wasting vouchers have been cashed in, the woma and the cashier then have a chinwag about which brand of… oh… I don’t know… let’s say, butter that they both prefer… You know the score… which one’s better value, which one’s actually made of butter, which one provides the best lubrication, etc, etc.

I somehow had to stand there and look like I wasn’t about about to throw my doughnuts at them. After all, it’s a redundant subject, everyone knows Utterly Butterly is the winner.

Oh, and don’t get me started on the sour faced old trout who served me the other day. She looked like her face had been melted and then scraped up the wall. And no, she didn’t ask me if i wanted help with my packing. I have a feeling I won’t be seeing her in there much.

Work came, and again the rudeness and impoliteness happened. Naturally, I’m in a position where I can’t say too much about what happened, but I really, really dislike someone now, and I don’t even know who [he or she] is.

To top it all off, I get in the taxi home tonight, I open the door and greet the taxi driver with a “cheery” hello, as is the norm. His reply? Absolute, stone cold, 100% silence. Not a whimper. We were halfway up the road before he acknowledged we were actually going to Mercuryvapour Towers. My reply?

“Yes”.

No other words were spoken for the whole journey. Now, I know I’ve probably complained about chatty drivers in the past, in fact, I’m pretty sure I have, but manners cost nothing.

Arrrrrrrgh. I want to go out now and punch something, or someone. I shall calm myself down by talking about other stuff.

I think part of this anger has come from the fact I’ve been a bit anxious the last few days. The next section, in italics, may be skipped over, if you don’t like hearing about my guts…

Well, the Indian I had last night, although gorgeous, totally threw my guts, and especially my bowels off track. Whether it was the sudden influx of food, or something else, I don’t know. I awoke on Friday, with one of those “Oooh, I need a crap” feelings, except I didn’t. I wasn’t constipated, there was just nothing there. This went on all day, occasionally, I’d get agonizing pains around my midriff area. After a bit of food later on, I was sat in work, then for about half an hour, I was in absolute agony, occasionally reaching the point where I actually cried out in pain, doubled up. Eventually, I “went”, and let me tell you, it was astronomical. I think I may have bruised my insides, however, as there’s still a bit of pain, but things are back to normal in “that” respect.

Right, sorry about that. That’s a bit graphic, even for my standards, but it’s something that’s concerned me a bit. I’ll give it a couple of days and hope things calm down. I guess it’s a bit too personal for a blog, but meh, it’s not that many people actually read this anyway. I introduced a few people to my site over the past few weeks, then watched, as they skipped all of the text I’d written, and then looked at the pictures.

One of those poeple is Gary, who shall be leaving Employment Place tomorrow…

Note, he sent me this picture, for whatever reason. I don’t quite understand the fluffy ears. Either way, we’re going out for another Indian on Monday at some point, along with a few other poeple who couldn’t make the last Thursday night get-together.

On the subject of streetlighting. Again, if you don’t like this, you… can keep on reading. It’s now a week off being a year since the new posts on the Coast Road were erected. In that time, they have removed two posts, and installed lights on 4 of the posts. This week also saw the appearance of a NEW lantern type being installed on Hartlepool’s streets. I couldn’t quite believe it, but the countil have decided to refrain from using either the plain and boring Urbis ZX3, or the Streetfighter for general replacement… instead, let me introduce you to…

… The Urbis Opalo 3! There are two of these which I know of, both on brand new posts on Powlett Road. their predecessors were cut down and removed late last year. I must admit, I’d like to see this lantern installed more often, it’s quite a sleek design.

That’s it for now. I have recorded TV to watch. Before I go, I must pass on my congratulations to Noscere, who seems to be going for a football team. Start collecting those vouchers for cheap nappies, but please don’t cash them in if I’m in the queue behind you, for you may end up splattered in Utterly Butterly.

Oh, and thanks to monkeybizz.net, the Hartlepool United fanzine who have linked to my site. I’m a bit flattered, if I’m honest.

Technorati Tags: angry jamie, annoyed, bowels, hartlepool united, monkeybizz, noscere, opalo, pregant, rude, shopping, Streetlighting, supermarket, toilet, trolley, urbis, work

Well, it’s almost 11AM when I started typing this. I really should be sat at work, obeying the new rules of not allowing drinks of water at our desk, but thanks to a hasty shift swap, I don’t have to visit that place for another number of hours. And, that number is 3.

Soooo. By the title, you can guess I’ve spent the last few days taking photos. You’d be right.

On Wednesday, I went to the flea market. IT was a lovely day, yet desperately cold. I wrapped up warm, and headed into the land where CDs are cheap, and second hand underwear are aplenty. I didn’t bother getting any photos, as I already have one. Still I came back with a pile of CDs. One particualr stall were selling albums for 50p each. I had some of that, and I walked away with a handful. Total cost: £4.50. Beauty.

I bought another couple of CDs from another stall, for £2, meaning that I had £6.50 worth of music. Wooo.

It was then, and only then, that I realised, I didn’t actually have my bank card with me, therefore I’d spent what I really couldn’t afford. This cut the day short, naturally, and I headed home, clutching my Netto bag full of music.

Later on in the afternoon, Chris turned up. The day was still bright, if just a little bit chilly. I looked at my camera, looked at the sky outside, and thought “Bugger it, I’m off to take some photos” I donned my coat, and off we went, without any idea of where we were going to go.

Before long, we were heading towards Steetley.

We didn’t go there, however, and instead walked along Old Cemetary Road, and then the beach

Somthing which I wasn’t aware of, is that last year, in July, there was a new gun put in place on the seafront. Now, by “gun” I mean an ornamental gun, not a real one Amazingly, it’s been up for 6 months, and there’s not one sign on vandalism or damage.

Despite the biting wind and freezing cold temperature, I thought it would be a good idea to walk along the Heugh. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the layout and landmarks of this wonderful town, the Heugh is a breakwater, built over 200 years ago to stop the tidal surges from flooding the bay. Without it, the town would be a very different place.

IT was at this point, however, that the sun was beginning to go down, and the temperature to dip even lower, and the wind, coming directly off the sea didn’t help much. It did, however, make for a very nice photo opportunity.

Hartlepool’s very own working class hero “Andy Capp” also had a statue dedicated to him last year. I took photos back in June showing exactly where the statue was going to be, but he wasn’t there. Instead, there was simply just the paving around it, and some orange netting. Thankfully, this time he was there.

Apparently, you have to rub his head for good luck. I didn’t bother. So, we were at the furthest point away from Mercuryvapour Towers. The photo opportunities kept coming, and I kept taking them. After taking some photos of the fish sands, we were both starving. This meant two words. Verrill’s Chippy. I scraped together £2, and bought myself and Chris a bag of chips each, and we sat, in sub-zero temperatures, watching the sun go down. I was OK, but Chris was freezing. Therefore, we headed back to his house. Of course,a photo trip done by me cannot be complete without…

… a photo of a streetlight, or two.

Chris picked up his big jacket, and off we headed, back to Mercuryvapour Towers. in order to sort through and upload the photos. During that process Andrew D appeared, with another disk full of 400 photos, which have now been added to the gallery This takes the total to over 1,900…!

While he was here, I’d learned that Jeremy Beadle had died. I must have been one of the first sites to report this, seconds after posting, I had an influx of visitors, all searching for “Jeremy Beadle dead”…

Anyway, I added the pics, Andrew left, and me and Chris sat there for the rest of the night, deciding that many songs sound a lot better when you play them on a turntable at the wrong speed. If you want to view all of the photos, you can do so here

Chris left, and I fell asleep on the couch in front of what was on TV at the time.

Thursday was a staff night out. After the company “made a slight miscalculation” on the day we were meant to be getting paid, we thought that when we eventually did get paid, that it would be a good idea to go for a few drinks and an indian. Wild horses couldn’t keep me away.

8 of us turned up, which is a pretty good turnout. Of course, I had my camera with me, though there’s no point posting the pics from that, as flickr’s been blocked from work. Oops!

EIther way, that brings me up to date. It’s now just after 12PM, the snow is falling outside, though it doesn’t appear to be laying. Just in case it does, I have my camera recharged, and ready for some “soft white stuff action”. Ahem.

Technorati Tags: cds, flea market, flickr, gun, hartlepool, headland, indian, jeremy beadle, Music, photo, steetley, web stats