After recent discussions about the pros and cons of blogging, I have had the privelege of setting up someone else’s blog. His name is Richard, and is a fellow prisoner at Employment Palace (no, it’s not THAT Richard, it’s the one that looks like a JT + Chewbacca hybrid), and now also has a blog…
Let me introduce you to… Some of That Brown Sauce
And long may it continue!
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.
This is a first. I’m typing a blog whlst completely in the nude. All I’m wearing is a pair of glasses. You’ll also be glad to know that, for that very reason, the webcam is currently disconnected. Well, actually, it wasn’t for that reason, it was for a totally unconnected issue to do with my hard drive, but that isn’t worth mentioning. I just thought that I’d scare everyone away by either grossing them out, or scaring them away with utter nerd talk.
Um.
For the rest of you who totally ignored that last paragraph, yes, this is another installment of my life, being typed at a time when I really should be sleeping. I am happy to say that I am back in touch with everyone who I want to be. It turned out that Coatesy’s mobile was indeed disconnected… unfortunately, I had forgotten that I’d actually had two numbers for him, and yes, I’d sent it to the wrong one I didn’t even know I had two, until he popped up on messenger the other night (for the first time in months) and informed me about “stuff”. All that concern, and it was of my own doing. Grrr. All this was sorted out on Friday. I went round his house, had a few (um.. .quite a few) beers. I can quite catergorically say that his beer fridge is remarkably cold.
Firstly, he introduced me to his laptop. A perfectly normal looking leptop, except it has a green line going down the screen. This is cured, however, by the use of a bulldog clip on the top of the screen. This made me smile immensely.
The first part of the night was spent wrestling with his wireless internet connection. The reason for this is that there are plans to visit Blackpool some time in August, and trying to find the hotel he wanted to stay in was an even longer job.
He had seen it (or stayed there, can’t remember) some time last year for a stag do, but he couldn’t remember the name. The hought it was “The Royal [Something] Hotel”, and could remember its red front… Well, that Firstly, it was narrowed down to the area of Blackpool. Using Google Earth, he managed to get it down to the street. Great, all we had to do was type the street name into Google, and surely we had the hotel…?
No.
This road isn’t even a particularly long road. A few dozen properties, nothing more, nothing less.
Turns out that this was, strangely, incorrect, and it wasn’t that one that he was thinking of. there was another one, which we had to find by typing the individual numbers of Hull Street into Google, and eventually we found the correct one. I’ll post more on this in the future, as although we have dates, nothing has been booked yet.
After that, we had a go on his xbox, and the game “Buzz” - one of those quiz game things. Normally I’m quite good at these, but this one was about films. Not exactly my top subject. I still enjoyed it despite getting absolutely trounced.
Next, however, was my turn to be the trouncee. The night was completed with a purchase of good old “Track + Field” from Xbox Live. It’s the first time I’d actually seen Xbox Live in action, which is quite surprising, obviously, considering I spend my working life around the bloody things.
Anyway, Track + Field did appear to be the same as the original arcade game, and not some cheap remake. According to some of the high scores, there are also a few bugs (a few people completed the 110m hurdles in 0.2 seconds) and they’re removed the “Chariots Of Fire” music at the end of a round. As I mentoned, I did actually win this one. (EDIT: fixed typo)
Not that I’m gloating, or anything…!
I then came home, and pouched an entire bag of Asda’s sublime Jalapeno Pepper flavour “Party Snax”. They are, quite literally, a complete bag of awesome. Sorry for the bad English, but I can’t think of any way to describe them.
Chris also left a comment on the site too. It doesn’t look good for his job prospects. I’ve yet to speak to him properly due to the shifts I’ve been working. the taxi driver the other night, who happened to be a friend of mine and Chris’s thought he had moved away…
Moving off on a tangent, you may also notice I’ve had a bit of a shuffle around on the site. I’ve moved the categories and the adverts around. Glen also mentioned a few days ago that he was having problems with the site, possibly the adverts causing a crash, unfortunately, he wasn’t forthcoming with any further info, and seeing as nobody else has reported a problem, I don’t know what’s causing it. If it’s widespread, and it turns out to be the adverts, I’ll (reluctantly) take them down. Feel free to contact me through email should you experience any issues.
EDIT: I am 100% unhappy with the positioning of the banner when it comes to sub pages. This will change shortly.
Right, that’s my update on the last few days. And, for those who have been spending the last three minutes thinking about me naked, think yourselves lucky…
Oh my. The crap photo CD makes its first appearance, and it’s a corker.
EDIT THE SECOND: As always, there’s a little bit of an update. Remember I posted the other day about seeing a fox outside of work? Well, there’s now a dead fox outside of work, presumably knocked over, as my place of employment is on quite a busy road. I’ve not seen it yet, so this is how Colin from work described it…
“A few days ago, it looked like a ginger carpet, now it just looks like a muddy ginger carpet”.
Poor thing. I might sneak out and get a photo or two, unless the council clean it up by then.
Well, today, I’ve been at work. But less about that.
Today started off at 8AM. I awoke, fresh as a daisy, which was a bit disheartening considering I didn’t start work until 2PM. Oh well. This gave me some time to watch the footy highlights, and also watch the pool on Sky Sports. Those six hours positively *flew* by. Ahem. It also gave me chance to dry off my trousers which were still damp after being removed from the washer the previous night. Other highlights included watching Countryfile, listening to Just a Minute, devouring some sossy rolls, and topping it all off by having a nice warm bath. Before I knew it, it was time to gather my things and jump into the taxi which would whisk me off until the fiery bowels of work.
I picked up my coat which had fallen off the table and onto the floor. I never hang my coat up, I usually just leave it lying on the table, though in this this particular instance, it had left the confines of the table and went hurtling to the floor. I put it on, and then instantly wished I hadn’t. It was covered in sick. Dog sick, to be precise.
One of my precious dogs had decided to rewind their breakfast all over it. Before I knew it, my hands were covered in foul-smelling Chappie-Chunder. And so were my freshly washed trousers. Oh, you BASTARD. With the taxi fast approaching, I quickly removed my trousers, and left them in the middle of the floor. The coat went upstairs, and in the bath. I quickly emptied my pockets, but some of it had soaked through, leaving me with a handful of sticky, greasy coins. Joy.
No sooner had I slapped up my reserve trousers on, I headed off out the door, muttering to myself, whilst clutching a carrier bag filled with my bait for the day. A curry and a bottle of coke. I wonder how long it took you to predict that.
Soooooooo. Along came work, and I won’t go into any more detail, as that would be considered bad (chicken) karma……… now THERE’S an in-joke I’ll be scratching my head over in years to come… Oh, but on the way home, I saw a fox, for one the second time in my life (here’s the first)
Right, anyway, that takes care of that. Now, onto the real news. The first is that my next door neighbour for well over 20 years has finally abandoned his abode, and no longer lives next door. They (he and his wife) disappeared without even saying a goodbye, which I’m gutted at. You’d have thought, that after being neighbours for so long, they’d have at least knocked on the window and waved. Or something.
What’s even odder is that he appears to have left his cat beind…
Strangely, there’s somebody else moved in next door already, so hopefully they’re taking care of him. I’d hate to think he’s just been abandoned and left to fend for himself. He’s a great little cat, always comes up to me and miaows his little furry head off, and doesn’t stop until I tickle him under the chin.
I have a distinct feeling I’m going to miss him living next door. We grew up together in every way, shape and form. I have audio tapes going back from when I was nine, and he couldn’t have been more than 4, singing the “Denver, The Last Dinosaur” theme.
It just seems that every one of my friends have disappeared for some unknown reason. Wayne vanished without a trace again, back on 7th Jan 2007, Coatesy has completely vanished. I haven’t heard from him since November, and his last email from that date was slightly worrying. I’ve not spoken to Chris this year either.
Wow, in fact, I’ve just realised. I have had absolutely no contact with ANYONE outside of work this year. That’s alarming. Cue Chad, and his “Get Out More” rant. I’ll look forward to deleting reading it.
OH! On another subject entirely… I’ve finally seen it. It’s taken me ten years, but I’ve finally seen it. Yes, I have seen…… THE VIDEO TO “ANGEL” BY THE QUEST PROJECT! And I also know the real reason it wasn’t released, and it’s heartbreaking. First off, let’s have the video:-
Now, since I first discovered Youtube, I’d been searching for the video, in the vain hope that one day it would appear. I wasn’t even sure if it had a video, though the previous single “Initiate the Creative” had one. These searches, rather like the “One 2 Many” one, would take place every few weeks, and they’d always turn up empty.
That was, until today. Obviously, I’d found it, but it hadn’t been up for more than a few hours, and I was the *27*th viewer. Those who know me always knew I have had a superstition about that number. I’ve mentioned it in a post previously, but I can’t find it.
Secondly, the reasoning behind its non-release…. the takeover of Island records.
Jonyrokstar, the original poster of the video, and member of The Quest Project, states that “Angel was never officially released. Island got took over just before it was due to be released, so everything got pulled. They had actually pressed the whole shipment of cds for the release as well. SO, they’ve either been trashed & scrapped, or sent to the moon by rocket or something.”
Well, you heard it here first, though I’m truly gutted that something like that could have happened, and I have a feeling that it’s going to be one of those things that keeps me lying awake at night.
And, on that note, I’m shattered. I’m off to bed.
EDIT: Jonyrockstar mentioned this post on this facebook too, so er… welcome, if you’ve came from there.
Once again, I entirely failed to post on the anniversary of this blog, which of couse, is November 4th. I’d like to say I’ve been busy, but that’s a bit of an overstatement, I’ve just had writers block. Something, which prevents me writing utter bollocks, and for whatever reason always occurs around this same time of year. It’s taken a few days for me to even attempt starting this post.
Saying that, I did write part of a post leading up to the anniversary, which I shall post here. Well, part of it, as the rest was crap.
It’s hard to think that 2,555 days ago, I’d have been sat at my desk, looking through an issue of PC Format, and discovering Blogger, a site once run by Pyra Labs, but now owned entirely by Google. Its sole purpose was to allow desperately bored webmasters such as myself create a web log, sort of like an online diary.
I had attempted this in the past, on older websites I used to own, rarely getting more than a week out of it before getting entirely bored with the idea. Of course, this was back in the “old” days, when I had to edit the pages manually. Blogger did this for me, and it did it well. It would also FTP the files for me, which means this was something else I didn’t have to do.
Unfortunately, Blogger, at the time, was not prepared for the influx of users such as myself who thought it would also be a good idea to do something like this. The servers would often completely fall over, sometimes entries couldn’t be saved and published, because the server hard drives would be full.
Blogger Pro was introduced, which gave extra features, such as a spell checker. Despite the fact I upgraded to Pro, I clearly never used that feature.
Obviously, this all changed, when Google took over. Blogger Pro was scrapped, and all of the users who upgraded either had the choice of receiving a refund, or a Blogger Hoodie. I opted for the latter choice. It arrived six weeks later, and after wearing it a couple of times, it disappeared and unfortunately, I have no idea where it is now. Awww.
God, that was dull. I won’t bother posting the rest, as it gets even more boring.
I think this goes to prove that there’s not been a lot happening in Mercuryvapour Towers. In fact, as I sit here, listening to the washer gurgling away, working its way through its pre-determined gurgle-cycle, I’m wondering if there’s anything actually worth writing about. Of course, the answer is no, but that’s never stopped me before.
Tuesday saw the return of “The Staff Day Night Out”, bringing this up to the third time I have ended up leaving work at 8AM, and been in the pub by 9AM. This edition consisted of John T, Gary S, Michael S, Angela, and of course, me. It ended with me falling out of Changes (York Road), after ringing Daddykins, my own personal Chauffer, to whisk me home.
Well, this was easier said than done. I’d had a few pints by this time, and was feeling the effect of the air. Unfortunately, due to the noisiness of said establishment, even during the day, I’d got mixed up at where I was getting picked up at. So, while I was waiting outside Wilkinsons for 20 minutes, Daddykins was waiting outside Wilsons, which is apparently the chemist on the corner of York Road. To top it all off, he didn’t even have his sodding mobile with him, so I ended up having to wait for him to get all of the way home, phone me up, ask me where I was, then get him to come all of the way back, this time with DEFINTE instructions on where we were going to meet. This did, however, put strain on my bladder, though it did mean that I had time to go back to Changes for a slash and get another pint in. Waheeeyooooh, my head’s hurning just thinking about it.
On the way home, we stopped off at a well-known DIY chain store, for Daddykins to pick up… stuff. I have explained in the past, that Daddykins is a Radio Ham, which means he talks in monosyllabic tones to other loners radio hams out there, often about nothing. Unfortunately, this means that the side of Mercuryvapour Towers actually resembes Telecom Tower. Nice.
His latest addition is something he built himself, made from string, wire and wooden poles, in a square formation, so it resembles one of those rotary outdoor clothes dryers. I’ve just been out to take a look at it for the first time, and I laughed so hard, my cock almost fell off. Thankfully, Stanley, the Mercuryvapour chicken, did not succomb to the effects of gravity and…… oh, I can’t be bothered finishing that bit off.
In other exciting news, Hartlepool, for the first time in well over a decade, has a direct rail link with London. Woooo! Now, I don’t know exactly why that excites me so much, but it does mean that I might take a trip down there one day and get some photos. It’ll be a bit of a hike, and naturally epensive (I think it mentioned something like £65 return standard), but naturally, it could make an interesting day out. One thing about the trains though, is that the tables have game boards painted on them, namely a 8×8 chequer board (for chess and draughts) and an Monopoly board. I’m sorry, but… a monopoly board? Who the hell thought that one through? In order to play Monopoly using said board, it means you have to carry a complete set of pieces around with you, including all of the hotels and houses, all of the cards, all of the money, the little metal pieces, the dice… and what happens when you “tilt” on a bend, meaning that your carefully placed pieces go hurtling across the table, and onto the floor? See, chess/draughts wouldn’t be too bad, but a game as complex as monopoly being played in a train carriage? You’re ‘avin a laaaarf!
See, this is the type of bullshit that keeps me awake at night.
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