It’s “snow joke”

Finally, after many months of stalling, winter has finally fallen on the great citizens of Hartlepool, England. A quick glance from the towering ramparts of Mercuryvapour Towers, shows a rather deep dusting of snow, which has now been falling for a good couple of hours now. As usual, I shall enjoy this rather wintry and chilly scene before it inevitably turns to sheet ice, and my daily trip to the offy becomes more trecherous than a well-buttered ice rink….

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Well, I promised to keep this up to date during my period of unemployment. There’s been some good news. I’m not dying. Yeah, you know all this shit that’s been happening with the doctors over the past year or so? The 24-hour blood pressure report showed that my blood pressure is actually within the acceptable range, and that it was likely caused by “idiomatic hypertension”, which literally means, and I shit you not, your blood pressure goes up when you’re in the presence of a doctor.

LOL.

Won’t go into specifics, but that part amused me somewhat. What also amused me is the fact that they also picked up on that bladder infection I had. Of course, putting that in the letter is academic, as it’s since flared up, and as far as I’m concerned, gone. I’ve got to pick up the official results from the doctors, but it’s a bit more rosy than it was 6 months ago.

A more “fuller” update some time in the near future…

The 1989 version of blogging.

It’s always been a passion of mine to write stuff. after a chance discovery, I am happy to show the first ever piece of writing I ever had published…. it was in the local paper, and formed part of the Chipper Club.

The Chipper Club was a “local” page in the Hartlepool Mail( the same format was copied across many locations), which allowed kids (aged 7-14 I think) to compose their own letters and get them published. Chipper, for the record is/was a cartoon dog, and you could be part of the Chipper club, with your own secret code, badge, and ID number. Basically, it allowed the local children to have their name in print, and get a reward for having their letter and name published. If you get three letters published, “Uncle George” would send you a gift token of one whole English pound. For Woolworths. Every Saturday, if you were a “Lucky Chipster”, you won a free session at the local swimming baths. I can’t recall if I ever won.

The Chipper Club ceased in the early 1990s. Chipper, at the last time I checked, is still being published in the Hartlepool Mail, but only as a small comic strip, probably in many other locations too.

You’ve got to be wondering why I’m rambling on like this. Well, I’ve been at a bit of a loose end for the past few days. In a fit of boredom, I pulled out a load of old photographs and newspaper cuttings. This was amongst it…

Well, I did do a clicky-bigger thing for that, but in hindsight, it’s perfectly readable, so that’s redundant. Words can’t express how much I thank my late mother for keeping this, along with everything else.

The gallery has returned…

Some of you will be thinking “Oooooh”, and some of you will be thinking “Oh”. But yes, I’ve managed to get the gallery up and running. For once, this will consist of a collection of photos I’ve taken myself, in the shitty-balls year that was 2012. Despite my ranting and raving in an earlier post, there were a couple of chances to take photos in the year, despite the fact I broke the lens on my big Canon camera.

this time, I’ve also made use of one of the many subdomains I have, meaning it’s a lot easier to access than the other one. Therefore, without further adieu, I bring you…. [drum roll]

gallery.mercuryvapour.co.uk

… well, what did you expect? Fireworks?

Despite it being simply a later version of the software I used to use in the previous incarnation, it seems to be a lot smoother, however, don’t worry if it’s a little bit slow the first time you visit a picture – it now generates thumbnails only when they’re needed. A vast improvement on me having to upload a gallery, then sit there clicking the “Generate Thumbnail” button for every 20 photos I uploaded. The server move also appears to have cured a few of the other kinks I was having.

Comments will once again be open, until the spambots get hold of it.

This is entirely a “work in progress” as you can imagine, so expect to see quite a few more photos popping up during the coming days.