This year, however, I don’t have anything to whinge or moan about. That is all.

Well, it’s under three months until the fateful day, and with the previous few months being totally shocking, I thought I’d give you an update on how I’m doing with them. OK, that’s a bit of a lie, Chad posted a comment on the previous posting, and although I normally take post post suggestions with a touch of “What do you think I am? A performing seal?”, I realise I’ve not actually updated that part of the site since January. So, in order to kill some time before this morning’s flea market festivities, I thought I’d give both of my readers a quick update on what is happening with it.

So far, being 29 has been positively shit, with major things happening such as my dad’s heart attack (which I shall refer to as “the incident” from now on). Anyway, enough of that, on with the update and you’ll see what I mean. Maybe.

Sooo, in the order they’re posted on the above page…

1. Pass my driving test

I have had this on the back burner for some time now, as there is absolutely no way I could afford to run a car. the price of fuel, tax and insurance keeps going up and up. Not to mention the cost of the lessons. I found out last night just how expensive they’ve become.

However, following the incident, this is something that I am having to seriously consider.

2. Get a new job.

In this economic climate, I’m actually happy I’ve got a job.

3. Cut down on drink

Epic fail.

4. Save money

Thanks to the abandonment of the 2009 holiday, I’ve managed to actually save some money. So, go me.

5. Finish projects I’ve started, but never finished.

As I mentioned on the “Before I’m 30″ page itself, I’m not too sure what I meant by that. I believe I may have been referring to things such as cataloguing records, CDs, and their ultimate conversion to MP3. This is still ongoing. The Paris video is still incomplete, however, thanks to the problems I’ve been having with Beastbits.

6. Throw some shit out.

As of yet, I’ve not been in the situation where I’ve felt like I need a proper clear-out. It’s hard to say what triggers my occasional bouts of life laundry, where a load of personal belongings end up in the wheelie bin, but it just hasn’t happened recently.

Instead of throwing shit out, I’ve actually started to become organised. This can be seen in my record/CD catalogue thing. A few years ago, I would have never dreamt of doing such a thing.

Oh, and I was planning to use the ultimate excuse… “Which recycling box DO you put broken records into?”, as I have a subconscious feeling that the recent (well, several years ago now) switchover to a recycling scheme means that I’m less likely to throw stuff away as I don’t know which bin to put it in without risking a fine.

7. Lose weight / exercise more.

It’s hard to say if I’ve actually lost or gained weight as the batteries in the scales didn’t get put in until August. I’m under 14 stone, however, but I’d like that to go down further. I still walk pretty much everywhere I can.

8. Try new foods.

Thanks to the incident, this is something that does appear to be going quite well, in fact I’d say it’s going the best out of everything so far. Not so much trying new foods, but watching what I consume.

Post-incident worries now see me in Asda, studying the nutrition labels, meaning that my diet contains less shit than it did previously. That can only be good.

9. Find true love

Added as a bit of a joke, obviously. Love life and relationships is something I never post about on here. I made the mistake several years ago, and those who know me in real life know I don’t like to talk about it. Thefore blogging and “other stuff” is completely separate. If it makes me look like a loner, so be it.

10. Bake a loaf of bread

I think this was one of the half-baked (geddit?) ideas I came up with while bored out of my tiny mind at Employment Palace. Trust me, I did consider it shortly after placing the update. Honestly. I even went down the bakery aisle in Asda, a place which was foreign to me and downright scary. I added the price of the flour, yeast, water, baking tin, then thought “Fuck it, I’m off to get a Kingsmill”. Bread is in wide supply, so I have no reason to bake my own. Nine months after adding this to the list, I’ve decided I no longer have the inclination or interest to do this.

So, that’s your update. I’m off to bed.

It’s that time of year again, where I watch the front door expectantly, awaiting the arrival of the postman, and then shedding a small tear as he walks past the front gates of Mercuryvapour Towers, and I once again, notch up another mark on the “Years without a Valentines Card” scoreboard.

But that’s irrelevant. It means that I don’t have to spend any money either, so that’s a plus point I suppose.

Sigh.

So, what’s been happening since the last proper update? Well, you may remember that I mentioned doing overtime. This went surprisingly well. It was the first time in a good while where I’ve actually sat at my desk and NOT thought “Well, this sucks”.

There seemed to be a good atmosphere, brightened by the inclusion of a little fairy cake delivery by the makers of our database software. I even offered to do some overtime the following day, by working from home. This was something I thought I’d never do. It was incredible. I really enjoyed it. Now that’s probably because it’s the novelty factor, and the fact I can listen to what I wanted and know I wouldn’t be disturbed by someone asking me an inane question every time I begin to look at the monitor, and I know that the computer is going to work. Oh, and the fact that I did the first hour whist completely bollock naked.

Therefore, my “high score” is 158 in 3 hours.

Just as I was “finishing off”, for want of a better phrase, I looked out of the window, and noticed it had began snowing. And snow it did.

Within a few hours, it had accumulated to a few inches, as proven by my primitive, yet accurate masuring device…

Andy The Iridium Fan also went out and took some photos, which are now in their own gallery. It still amazes me how clean Hartlepool looks when it gets sprinkled with a little snow.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the aftermath, when all of that snow melts in such a small period of time. The streets become horrible, slushy rivers. and with the drop in temperature, this slush freezes over, leaving the paths about as slippery as a well-buttered ice rink. Nice.

I almost broke my neck going down to the shops and back.

Oh, joy. Today didn’t get much better than yesterday. Work again, so it’s been a case of getting up, going to work, coming home, blogging, then bed. Er, at least the taxi ride home had good music. The driver had Century on. I entered the taxi, just as “London Nights” by the London Boys was finishing, next up was Depeche Mode’s “Just Can’t Get Enough”. another quality song, but the rest of the journey had one of the greatest songs ever… “Though the Barricades” by Spandau Ballet. I love that track.

On the subject of music, I actually bought a copy of an obscure record I’ve been looking for since I was about 13. It’s the Loading Bay Records version of Ankie Bagger’s “Where Were You Last Night”, a song I know nobody on this entire planet will know. (but I’m sure it’ll start picking up search results in the near future).

I first heard this song some time in about 1993. Daddykins was in the washhouse experimenting with packet radio. I was in the front room listening to a temporary radio station somewhere in Middlesbrough, when they began to play “Rofo’s Theme”, a song I will always remember from childhood holidays at the world famous Sandy Bay. I slapped in a cheap cassette tape in order to record this excellent tune. At the end, they mixed it with this song, which was unknown to me at the time. Luckily, the DJ did indeed announce both tracks’ names and artists.

Packet radio is a method of transmitting computer data via radio, and was (occasionally still is) used by ham radio enthusiasts to transmit text through the airwaves at a moderately acceptable baud rate. Unfortunately, Daddykins transmitting these data packets affected my recording, and every 30 seconds or so, there is a loud squeal, totally wiping out both songs for a second or so.

Sadly, the tape has long gone. At some point in the last few years, I recalled this song, and after weeks of searching, tracked down an awful copy of it. Unfortunately, this copy was taken from the 7″ version of the song, and was scratched up in places. Oh well.

Every so often, I went onto ebay, looking for it, and I kept getting sick of seeing “0 items found for
ankie bagger”. There were CD versions appearing occasionally, going for extortionate amounts, and none of those were the Loading Bay version. I was on ebay the other day, and just did a search for a bit of fun… the result?

“Ankie Bagger Where Were You Last Night Loading Bay Rec”… oh my.

Again, it was a few quid more than I’d normally pay for vinyl, but I couldn’t really give up this opportunity. As shown in the picture, I bid for, and bought this vinyl delight… yay, go me. So, I’ve been belting that down my ears ever since. Wahey!

On the subject of music, the Middlesbrough “Music Live” thing is on again, which I attended back in 2004. If it was anything like last time, it’s definitely worth going. I know a load of people from work are going, so I think it’s going to be a good day, as long as the weather holds up. If the weather the last few days is anything to go by, that’ll be a no. We’ll see.

Right, let’s move onto the normal comments on here…

Chad: Good move on not buying the “rubbers,” I doubt you’d have ever used them, ever[1].

Have a nice weekend[5].

1. Regarding the rubbers, you know, you’re actually right. I’m strange in the fact that I insist in writing with a pen as opposed to a pencil. I could have a drawer full of pencils, but I would still dig through it all the way to the bottom to see if there’s a pen in there. I think it went back to my old school days, and the fact we were forced to used pencils, yet the bigger kids were allowed to use biros, etc. That was when the decision was made that the 4th year and the 3rd year were merged into two clas… waaait! Rubbers! I get it now! You meant condoms! Hahaha! That’s so funny! No, truly, my sides are creasing here… bwahaha. God, it’ll take me years to recover from that hilarious use of Americo-English.

5. Thanks. I’ll try my best. The Saturday is a write-off, though.

Wow, I didn’t plan to go off on that rant when I started on the comments section, and I don’t think I’ve ever gave any background information into who “Chad” is. He grew up on the last house in our street, and he is wholly responsible for some of the best, and the worst, moments in my childhood. I am genuinely delighted, despite his comments and my ramblings that he still remembers, and even dreams about the past years. About 9 or 10 (correction: 7) years ago, he moved to Japan to become an English Teacher, and we lost touch. During the early years of my blog, when I had an external forum, he posted some stuff on there which I seem to remember taking offense to, at the time.

Since then, he has never gone away.

I just hope and pray that one day we will meet up again, face-to-face, to discuss everything that has happened in our lives.

Right, after that marathon, onto the Outtake vlog… this one’s a bit of a mess… this one’s supposed to be the one everyone hated. It sort of backfired on me.

Noscere: What? your supposed to keep the out takes?… Bugger

Well, I did, and this was the result! when I record a vlog, I do it in one go. It saves fucking about each time I get something wrong, I don’t stop the recording in between, as that just complicates things. Instead, I just edit the crap bits out with Movie Maker, which doesn’t actually affect the original file. This means I end up with the final version, but still have the original source video. Sometimes I do delete them after I upload them… the “washhouse” master is long gone – there were plenty of outtakes in that, it was about 15 minutes overall.

Unfortunately, this was the most popular one I’ve ever done…

Daniel H: Fucking love this.
Aidey: That was fab! More please
c64glen: This is my favorite one so far!
Owen: (3 comments)
I think you should do a Numa Numa video.
These should also never have been cut !!! they are great!!!
Hahaha SHUT UP SQUEEKY CHAIR !! That’s so my new message tone…

The whole reason I posted this blog in the first place was to get negative comments from it, to see whether it was worth filming any more. Not one negative comment. Everyone loved to see me making a prick of myself… how does that work?? Either way: Owen, I’m not making a Numa Numa video. ever. Thanks for emailing those modules, these will be featured in some way in the next vlog, though I’m not sure if they’re suitable as a permanent new theme tune… of course, the question is, has the recent feedback made me rethink the whole vlog business? the answer: of course it fucking hasn’t…

Oh, nad just an explanation on one of the outtakes…

big bad mick: im curious to see what outtakes didnt make the outtake real…

This is where the confusion lies… YOU (the comment poster) aren’t “big bad mick”. Which is why that was an outtake, I got you mixed up with “bigbadmick”, who was the webmaster of Curried Books – a now defunct (as far as I know) blog. It was just the ultimate in brainfarts where I got you two mixed up. I laughed at the time, and my “fuck” reaction. Uh, I hope I’ve explained that well enough. I probably haven’t.

As for your question, there’s lots of material that didn’t make it, mainly due to the fact I didn’t sift through it. I’ve recorded quite a few vlogs which I wasn’t happy with, or had technical issues such as bad sound. I did one on the light of Liverpool’s defeat in the Uefa cup final. I really wasn’t happy with it. Despite the outtakes, I do have some quality control.

Roght, that’s it for now. Consider me wound down. I shall attempt to post at some point tomorrow.