Jake and Sarah

look at this! WOW

The view from our front window

and the carnival is coming in 10 mins

well not really BUT it is sunny so I have ben for a stroll to Sainsbury's and rang my dad and sister- my sis mught be coming down in a few weeks so that's all good.

today I have nothing to do again apart from cooking chilli about 18:00

so, no doubt, I'll be on WoW trying to get 100 Dalaran Cooking Awards for the Chef's Hat. I've got 94 at the mo.

People might wonder why I would do something relentlessly every day (it's called a daily quest) but at the end of it I get some in game gold and after 100 awards (you get one per day sometimes a bonus 1) I can buy the hat purely so I can wear it whilst fishing and gain instant kudos for spending soooooo long getting it (about 150-days)

so there you go - virtual procrastination.... off to a fine start

It's gorgeously sunny here so I might go get my book and sit and the beach though I do have a tendency to fall asleep if I do that- then wake up bright red... I will be careful if I do go out....

so there you go- busy day and all I hope it's not raining where you are...

bye

Today I got up late and have done nothing up until now

Well I have played WoW for a few hours, perfecting my healer's gear (dual specced)

I've washed up

I went to Sainsbury's to get some mushrooms/ chillies

spoke to Lofty on the phone

and now I'm slow cooking some lamb to add Reggae Reggae Jamaican curry to it in a while

just realised I haven't eaten anything all day too so I'm STARVING!

so i suppose I have done some things today....

Sarah should be home soon so all is well - I hope everyone else has had a more productive day

Another day off tomorrow

After threatening to rain every day for the past couple of weeks, today it finally did. And you know, it's rather refreshing.

Many apologies to some people as I edited comments or the original blog but we felt that some things could be picked upon by certain individuals who may have reasons to try and find fault.

we don't know this but we are covering all bases (and arses) just in case.

If this cannot get anymore cryptic then that's good

As we are easily searchable on the net (even my great barber found us) we thought we'd sanitize the last blog post.

This does not mean we're soft- just careful

as I said last time

Have a nice day

he he

This week isn't going too well- I've been run off my feet at work and Sarah too so we've been knackered when we get home.

Yesterday I had defrosting raw chicken explode in my face and Sarah had words with no-one. *EDIT for obvious reasons relating to prying eyes*

For example.

I'm the Head Technician at work and my job is to make sure all the lighting and sound and staging and video work for performances, furthering this aim here's what I actually did yesterday.

Cleaned the large plastic discs on the cafe bar lights.
Put 15 pictures onto the gallery wall.
Painted a section of ceiling.
Moved some tables and chairs, several times.
Removed masking tape from the wall.
Liaised with the flooring contractors to rectify a problem.
Pointed out where the painters had work to do.
Provided paint.
Labelled paint tins.
Moved some acoustic roofing tiles, several times.
Liaised with the electricians about the corridor lights.
Provided storage for the electricians.
Put paint away.
Changed a fuse.

8:30 until 19:00 and it was 18:59 when I changed the fuse, which is, theoretically, my job.

I'll be glad when this building work finishes tomorrow!

On top of all this I found out the University wants to reduce my wage by 10% in 4 years and my technical team did not get the Team Reward financial incentive.

HOW MUCH FUCKING HARDER DO I HAVE TO WORK?

Still on the positive side:

Sarah and I are still sleeping downstairs (we had to when her mum stayed) as it's such a good night's sleep
We go on holiday in a month
We have lots of beer
We have each other
We are moving into our own flat in November
And we haven't died of Swine Flu yet.

All in all I think the positive outways the gypsies, exploding poultry and excessive workloads.

Have a nice day

it gets better in the dark

Forgot I took this when we went for a coffee at the end of Deal Pier yesterday with Sarah's mum and brother.

loving the clouds...

Twice this weekend off I've got up at 7:50.

First time goes something like this:

7:50 - BUZZ
7:51 - I get up and go to intercom where EDF man says he wants to read the meters. I let him in as I don't know what time it is.
7:52 - EDF man knocks on door, I open it and say the immortal words: "You're taking the piss aren't you?"
To which he replied: " I've been at work for ages today" or something like that, I can't remember as I closed the door and got up...

Yesterday I got up early as the BT man was due to come and check our net connection (which is fucked, incidentally). Did he arrive at 8:00 (allotted time was 8:00 until 13:00)?

No.

He arrived at 12:00 and promptly told us our Homehub is fucked and we need a new one.
Like we didn't already know that.

Anyway fair on BT they are sending me one for Tuesday/ Wednesday as I'm at work so will have to pick it up from the sorting office.

Other news? Well Sarah's mum and bro have been down this weekend and they've already been to see the new Harry Potter film (I declined, as did her bro) and already Sarah has sent off a complaint to the Vue Cinema in Thanet due to the film being disrupted by noisy kids and smelly feet!

Glad I wasn't there!

As for Guild developments, one of the guild leaders read my post about leaving and being mature he kicked me. So I didn't get to write a nice message or say goodbye, I got kicked. Anyway everyone else in the guild has been in touch and all is well regardless of someone's selfish actions. The better GM even left a message on the blog. One plus point is that I have had some time to pursue more diverse WoW adventures and have got myself the title Explorer this weekend. Happy days. I'm not really looking for a guild yet, it's nice to be lonesome for a while.

Anyway everyone seems to be getting up now (I've been up a while) so I'm off before we go out to peruse the Italian Market that's in town. Sarah's taking her mum to play bingo later and Sarah's mums generously buying us all Sunday dinner.

Weekends off are the best...

Hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend as us.

Our net is down whilst BT investigate why we keep losing connection.

Hence a small blog from this phone to keep you informed.

Unlike what BT did to us. They said the line was being "observed" NOT cutting us off for 2 days!

Ho hum

my exam went OK. Once again will not know until about 6 weeks!

See you all on the other side

Later today I'm having my final Level 2 BSL exam - I have to talk to the camera 4 minutes about a topic chosen when I get there.... slightly nervous but I'm meeting up with my tutor beforehand for some practice so should be OK as long as I don't panic!

I've been cleaning the house today too- more than usual as Sarah's mum and brother are coming down tomorrow night so it needs to be a tad tidier than it was- not that is was a mess but I have a habit of reading at the dinner table and there were magazines everywhere!

Sarah's finishing early today too so she should be home soon which is a bonus...

tomorrow I have to go to a huge barn and pick up some set that hasn't been disturbed for 2 years! It will be spider city in there.... not looking forward to that! Last time I went there I was surprised to find a stuffed tiger in there too - and yes it was a real one!

So my day off has been compiling some stories in readiness and then having a fight with the printer trying to get the BT Home hub to become a network print server- not working but I'll just dig out my Apple Airport Express later and do it the easy (Apple) way

I have got us some lovely fresh meat kebabs for tea, local lamb, local chicken and local chill & lime pork ones with some pitta bread and Peri Peri sauce to go with it.... hmmmmmmmmmmm and luckily they made an addition mistake in the butchers so I got 4 of the kebabs at half price! he he - of course I only noticed once I had left the shop etc etc....

*coughs*

I got up early this morning to leave my guild on World of Warcraft (whilst no ones on and I can just send them a mail) but it's having maintenance so I cannot log on yet.... Why am I leaving my guild again? Well several reasons

first is the fact that I love doing big raids and my new guild is small and sporadic so we aren't doing the riads I want really, to get better kit.

Secondly, everyone in there is lovely but i just cannot seem to get on with one bloke in particular, he's very generous and helpful but the most partronising get ever in a raid. And you know me- I'm not the most forgiving- I have managed to keep my mouth shut but it came to a head last night so I quit the instance and left before I got my hammer out

The plan was to log on this morning and leave the guild with some nice emails to the leaders but not possible now- have to wait until Friday then....

then it's that awful time of trying to find a good, mature and useful guild, gaining their trust etc etc...

ho hum - maybe tomorrow may bring me my new PS3 game Far Cry 2 - it looks amazing! Knowing my luck though it'll get lost in the postal strike

anyway back to my revising... wish me luck!

bye

At last someone is seeing sense about Israel

common sense prevails

SInce we last spoke we've done loads- well we went to Calais for the beer run - 240 Stella and a Radley Unbrella for Sarah....

Coming home Saturday night after work about 23:30 this car behind me overtook me on a road where the limit was 50mph so I was doing about 53 ish, he must have been doing 70mph, but then he went round a huge roundabout (on a deserted country lane) the wrong way round!

I was gobsmacked- weird thing was he had been behind me driving normally for about 10 minutes- perhaps he woke up or something?

I have a picture from holiday for everyone too
It involved too many beers, a "slippy floor" traffic cone and Sarah daring me to jump into the kids swimming pool

there is a video too

here's another of Sarah in a Ferarri bumper car in Malta We had been drinking

tonight I nearly stacked the green car as I avoided a HUGE biggish bee/ wasp that flew in when leaving work's car park... lucky no one was around PHEW It's bloody lucky as i certainly wasn't watching the road!

Question too - is anyone slightly worried about getting Swine Flu? It's sort of disconcerting but what do you lot think?

Had a really busy week with me having to go in on my day off as I had forgotten some meeting and then I showed a film which had sound problems so that kept me on my toes and today I've been run off my feet having meetings, fit ups and more film discussions!

busy indeed

on a lighter note the film I showed was The Damned United about Brian Clough but ignore what sounds uninteresting because it's a brilliant British film the I recommend completely. Even if you're not a footie fan it's still a brilliantly told film

and for anyone who's got a PS3 I heartily recommend you download Wipeout HD which is an immaculate game for only £13 online at the Playstation Store

anyway enough about my choices in things that software crack World of Warcraft calls

Considering we had a very late lie in we've actually done loads today... we washed the Lotus so she's now all shiny and more yellow, we then went for a walk into town and managed to find somewhere selling cider lollies!

Brought back many memories did cider lollies!

Then Sarah decided she needed Sims 3 for her iMac so we ragged the Lotus up to the nearest Game (14 miles away) and it's installing as we speak...

so much for relaxing

Now I've cracked open my first Stella and I'm deciding whether to play online or offline might as well finish the game offline first methinks

Hope everyone is having a great day off too?

yesterday was a nice easy day for us....

Sarah worked in the morning so I didn't get up til 9:00 and because I was sunburnt from the other day I couldn't go on the beach so I had to play my PS3 until she got back.....

Went food shopping and then had to play more on the PS3 whilst Sarah got ready to go out...

then picked her mate up and we all went to a rather nice wedding reception in the middle of Gillingham

the beer was rank though so I magnanimously decided to stay off the beer and let Sarah drink

at £3.10 a bottle of Reef it was pretty extortionate though! Still I cradled my diet Pepsi amidst the hordes of screaming children and enjoyed a well needed scoff at the buffet

came home and I decided (for a change) to play my PS3- this time online with Killzone 2 (you can guess the main aim of the game with a name like that) with a beer or two

a great day off indeed- today means no travel anywhere so I might just have a beer

enough said!

only one more exam in two weeks and I have got BSL Level 2 under my belt....

....then time for Level 3

Now you all know Sarah and I decided we were a little pie so we joined a gym and after running mile after mile and pumping weight after weight we still hadn't really lost much weight in two months...

Then we had a revolutionary idea... if we cut down on how much we eat we will lose weight...

It worked, in a month we'd both lost a stone just by cutting the portions we ate and avoiding fatty foods altogether.

No fad.
No pills.
No special ingredient.

Just less food.

Magic do you think?

I'll never bloody learn will I? Soon as it's sunny I rush down to the beach, book in hand and rip off my t shirt and start reading, taking no notice of the sun.... cue 2 hours later and I'm like the proverbial lobster!

When on holiday I wouldn't move from the apartment without my P20 suncream smothered everywhere but at home you don't think you'll get burnt....

please remind me next time someone.....

now at least at work we have 3 high powered fans in the LX box so I should stay cool enough

Now I've got to email the apartment in Malta to see if they will do us a deal for going back in August/ September... you never know...

So I'm off to sit on the beach and read my book, maybe fall asleep and maybe listen to a new version of the Maccast....

work at 17:00 so I've got the time

*runs to the beach*

why is it every time I go to play a PS3 game there's another fucking download available!

Cue 5 minutes of waiting for the download

I WANT TO PLAY IT NOW!!!

Another day with a late start (at work) so I was looking forward to a bit of sun on the beach like yesterday morning.

Alas it's not to be. It's warm but a white cloud cover is blocking the sun. Ah well.

Last night's tech rehearsal went well, only a few lighting notes which I had myself so only a little work to do later. I tried to stay up late last night but managed 12:25 and nearly fell asleep so to bed I went. I think it's the early nights in Malta that did it as we were up by 7:00 most days.

been trying to find another week at the end of August when we can go but the budget's tight if we want to have as much fun as last time so i'll keep on hunting as we're both determined to go back and have another great week there

we managed to do some geocaching in Malta- even finding one and leaving our card there, the other two we couldn't find but we did get to drink in the last pub Oliver Reed drank in so all was not lost.

finally got online with World of Warcraft last night and achieved a goal I had been trying to achieve for ages- if you want to know it's to become Exalted with the Sons of Hodir but I think most of you don't really want to know....

anyway here's some more holiday pics- Sarah has the best one on her camera- a video of me running upstairs with a cone (Slippery when wet sort) on my head and pants wet from jumping in the swimming pool..... maybe that one can wait