OK.
Hi again. Ive been a tad lackadaisical regarding this blog again. I somehow do not have a lot of time where I can just sit down in front of my computer and type away. But tonight, I,ve managed to sit and read a book in the first time in ages as well. Which was lovely to do, and I have also managed to get some time to myself to type here.
Well, since the last time I was on here, I have not really done all that much , despite having no time. Not sure where I am going wrong there. Ah well.
Last Saturday, four of us went out for a meal in Hereford. It was the leaving do for a man who used to work with us until just over a week ago. He will be missed. A lot. But the evening was fun. It started out with decent food at Frankie and Bennies. Then sat in A pub afterwards just as Saturday night got into full swing around us.
Work has been same old same old. Nothing new.
Well. That was really interesting wasn't it? Don't answer, I already know...
Anyway. Till the next time.

Well. Time for another post I guess.
Last Wednesday was my mums day to come down to Hereford. We ended up in the Cotswolds again. Don't know what it is with that place that I find so appealing lately, but there you are.
The plan was to go to a village called Withington by Chedworth roman villa, more specifically the pub, (The Mill Inn) for lunch. Unfortunately best laid plans and all that, meant we ended up carrying on to the services on the motorway for a  refreshment break. So instead of going via Cheltenham, we ended up going via Gloucester Services and Stroud, Bibury and Northleach and many more miles of lanes. Lunch was an impromptu picnic purchased at the services, eaten at leisure at Chedworth Villa. And the only visit Withington and the Mill Inn got was in passing to get back to Cheltenham. Never mind. Mum had fun looking at the mosaics, and I had a lovely long walk up into the hills above Chedworth. Which was fun, except for the National Trusts obsession of putting in steps everywhere. Hills are much easier to negotiate without there being steps. But maybe that's just my opinion on it, other people may prefer them. The weather was glorious for most of the day which was good.

I remember the first time I went to the Mill Inn, was when I was 14. A group of us were doing our Duke of Edinburgh practice expedition there, walking from somewhere the far side of The Duntisbournes, via Chedworth, Withington Andoversford, and up and over Cleeve Hill. We were at Withington and really needed the loo. The Pub had  had a fire, and were renovating the place and they were kind enough to allow us to use the loos. Ever since I have had a bit of a soft spot for the place, and have taken everyone I know back to the place whenever I get the chance.
Chedworth Villa has a similar place in my heart. A year or two later, another friend was doing the Duke of Edinburgh and invited me to go with them on their expedition, this time we walked from Chedworth to Cirencester. We ended up at the roman villa for a few hours and we spent most of it attempting to race the roman snails there. Not very successfully tho.

My working week has been pretty much a case of same old same old. Nothing exciting happening. Except G came back from her temporary exile. Which is fantastic. We are losing A next week though. Which is quite sad, love working with him, he will be enormously missed, he's off to become a chartered accountant, which will be a bit of a change to Locks. O is leaving in  September to become an Air hostess. Which will also be quite different. So lots of changes at work in the near future. Lots of plans for leaving dos tho. Which are always fun. Go Karting looks like it will feature heavily. Awesome. Have warned everyone I'm extremely competitive, I'm likely to run them off the track in an attempt to win.
Anyway, I think Ive run out of things to ramble on about. So will take my leave. TTFN.

Sunday dear Sunday.
Hardly my favourite day of the working week. But, it is all over now. And, as an added bonus, I left a full half an hour early. Joy of joy. So was back home before I would have normally left work. Lovely. To be honest though, it wasn't a crazy full on day at work, just steadily busy all day.
A lovely surprise awaited me this morning when I arrived. Someone who used to work with us, who had left many months previously, has been re enlisted to the Locks cause. Which is super awesome. One of my favourite workmates of all time. So really glad to see her back.

Yesterday in contrast, was I think, the busiest Saturday since I started over two years ago. The queue for ice creams was unrelenting, as was the queue for everything else. I was incredibly glad to finish. A never ending stream of people is incredibly hard work. especially when all I want is to curl up into a little ball somewhere dark and quiet and tell everyone to leave me alone lol. But I wasn't alone in my thoughts yesterday. Pretty much everyone was frazzled by the end of it.

Since I decided to become a vegan again, I seem to be losing my appetite. Not healthy. But somehow when I get home, the idea of food, does not outweigh the thought of having to prepare it. I'm getting seriously lazy in my old age. Any suggestions very welcome. People have joked that it is no wonder I have no appetite, since vegan food is bland and uninspiring. It isn't, it's so full of bright clean flavours, I just don't have any motivation to eat. I'll get over it eventually I guess.

Anyway. Nothing much else to report.

TTFN

Hello again.

It has been a few days since I last posted, so felt it was high time I wrote something new. Even if only to get things off my chest so to speak.

So what precisely have I been doing with myself? Well, not a lot as usual, bar working. Most of my life is spent at work, I'm beginning to think it is my main life, and going home is the bits in between. Not so sure that is how it is supposed to work, but never mind eh. Although, to be fair, I do enjoy work. Mostly.
Today, a friend and I became marshalls. Our software system that connects us to shell, and that controls the fuelling at the site was being upgraded so we can now accept payment via mobile phone. The system allows the customer to scan a QR code which is placed outside on the pumps, which will automatically connect them to Shell through the Shell app, it will then automatically authorise the pump to start fuelling. Once done, the customer can fill up, and press the pay button on their phone. This works by linking up to Paypal. No cards, no queueing, no anything much bar filling up and leaving. I want to be the first one to try it out at work, but I haven't seen any of the QR codes up yet, so we have the capability, but no way to do it. Which is annoying.

Anyway. Back to the marshalling. Our system had to be taken offline for about 3/4 hour while it was upgraded. During this time no fuel could be dispensed. So we needed to be out there explaining to people what was what, and to try and get them all lined up nicely.  Everyone did as they were asked, and so everything went swimmingly.

Last Sunday was a bit of a mare. We had the customers from hell. Not one of us escaped the wrath of someone who was less than happy. Each time we were on the receiving end of abuse was because we had asked someone for their proof of age. Straight away they then ask someone with them to buy what they had asked for. We can't serve them either, but they don't want to listen when we try to explain why. They take it very personally indeed. And usually get very abusive and threatening.
Thankfully we were busy, so they left eventually. A friend suggested that a 50,000 volt taser may encourage a far more mannerful behaviour. That made me laugh, and definitely cheered me up.  Not that I would, mind.
Anyway. Got that off my chest. A far lovelier customer felt so sorry for me they bought me some cider and gave me a fantastic hug. Which was really lovely and appreciated. Some of it went down very well that night too.

Wednesday, my day off was such a lazy day for me. I had a very rare lie in. It was fantastic. Nothing happened that day. I read, went online, listened to music. Such a lovely day.

Anyway. That appears to bring me up to date.

So au revoir mes amis.

Till next time.

Well.
It's a few days since the last time I posted. I figured it was time I updated.
So, what have I been up to? Not much really. Sorry.

On Wednesday I met up with my mum as is usual every other Wednesday. We began by deciding to stay in Hereford, and had a good few hours wandering round all the shops there. Several coffees were consumed, lunch was eaten. Salad by the way. I visited an art shop (I've forgotten their name :-( ) along Widemarsh street, and they are running a colouring competition. For adults. Well, I had to didn't I. No cost to enter, but lots of lovely prizes to be won. I'm such a kid. Anyway out I came with two separate entries. Oh, and a new pot of pens to help in my endeavours. It had to be done lol. Anyway. Much wandering later,  Hereford is getting a little repetitive. (sorry Hereford). When a call came from the blue asking we fancied a bit of a drive to Monmouth. Well, I'm not going to refuse an invite like that am I? So we pack in and off to lovely Monmouth. Wander round waitrose and return. Just in time to pack mum off onto the train. A good day was had by all.

Thursday was work, as is normal for me on a Thursday. Friday followed in a similar pattern. Nothing exciting happened. And Saturday (today in fact) also did much the same. So. There you are all up to date.

The past two and a bit weeks, I decided to go strictly vegan again. Id done it for about a year, then somehow got into bad habits again. I lacked the willpower to really go at it again. But, for the last couple of weeks I've been doing well. Starting to feel a lot healthier again, brighter and lighter I suppose is how I'd explain it. Made an awesome vegan paella last night. I have fodder in Hereford to thank for that, as they stock an amazing vegan chorizo that is so tasty its criminal. Anyway I had half yesterday with some avocado stirred in, and had the same again tonight. Being vegan is an awesome way to avoid chocolate. Which is far too delicious. I just can't eat it.  No trying to say to myself that just one piece won't matter. Its totally not allowed. unless it's dark. But that's another matter.

Another thing. Windows 10. My computer has downloaded it a couple of times, but the update has failed to install. Go online, read. Try all fixes. Nothing. Even the Microsoft one adding stuff to the registry didn't solve it. Grrrrrrrr. Rant over. But I want it. Now.......

Anyways. I'm off now. x Byeeee

Hello one and all.

Another day, another post.

Monday is one of my favourite days of the week at work. It is a lovely calm day after the mayhem of a normal summer weekend. All my good friends are present, and the ones I speak with less often aren't. A lovely chilled atmosphere.

Tomorrow is the last day of my working week. Wednesday is my day off, and I plan to do as little as is humanly possible. Well, I would, but it's my day to meet up with mum. So a day chilling round town or somewhere local. I fancy a visit to Cardiff. I love it there and have not been for absolutely ages. But I'll see.

Ah well. Whatever I do. I'll probably write about it after the event.

So. Till then. Adios Amigos.

Ah well.
Here I am again. Today was a bit of a hard day at work. Still not feeling well. (Violins would be quite nice actually). It was a long and hard day. Very wet cold and rainy. Never particularly busy. But I just felt so useless, lethargic, and with a bad stomach pain to boot. Thought I was feeling a bit of an improvement as the evening went on, but the closer I got to my finishing time, the more I realised, I was beginning to feel pretty bad again.
Once home, I tried to eat, no joy.

OK. That was an almighty whinge fest and I apologise. All done with now. :)

Good things? Hmm.

I've been loving a music service called Tidal this last month. They give a one month free trial of the service. I was more than happy to take advantage of their generosity. The awesome thing that sets Tidal apart from the others, is that they stream music at lossless CD quality, way higher than the normal mp3 quality of at best 320kb/s. At a rate of 1411 Kb/s, I have been blown away by the quality and although the cost of the HiFi streaming is £20 per month, I am seriously considering continuing. The sound is amazing. I was lucky enough to get a free pair of top of the range Sony MDR 1R earphones a couple of years back. This music is what they were made for, they literally sing now. Lower quality music doesn't do the earphones justice. To say I'm loving music would be an understatement. Everything is so clear, every single instrument stands out instead of being lost in a sea of sound.

Anything else good? Erm not right now. I'll report back again at some point.

Ta ta for now.

Hello again.

Time for another post methinks. Not sure what I'm  going to talk about, but I'm sure that something will come to mind as I go along.
Well, today I have a very rare thing indeed. A day off. Not by choice as such, I'm just feeling a little bit poorly today. (cue the violins). So, I had a lie in, not that I really wanted to get up to be honest. But I cannot sleep all day. So I'm up, and making the most of the time that I have at home.
I wasn't too popular when I rang up this morning to say I couldn't come in, but hey, never mind. I never take time off, so I,ll not let it get to me.

Tuesday night was girlie night with my two best friends. Plenty of drink, pizza, and laughs by the gallon. Just what was needed. Life can be too serious sometimes. As was usual we came up with madcap ideas, from inflatable tables with built in indentations for food and glasses. Inflatable butlers, (not sure what use they'd be) and anything else that wasn't inflatable, but could be made inflatable.  Not sure what our preoccupation with all things inflatable was, but it was fun at the time. The night went on well into the next day. I remember seeing the clock at 5am. So a very good night was had by all.

I decided to rearrange my bedroom a touch yesterday; but,  as is usual with me I'll start off doing one thing, then find myself sidetracked by something I find and end up doing something completely different. This time it was the hundreds of books I had amassed when I was studying at Worcester . I did consider whether I wanted to get rid of them. They would certainly clear up a massive space on my bookshelves, But, I found myself reluctant to do so. They represented a huge investment, not only monetary but also time wise. Plus, I'd have to find something else to put on my shelves in their place. Empty bookshelves just look odd!

I think I'll have a bowl of vegetable soup. see how that goes down. Then I may or may not have bit of a play on Guild Wars 2. Either that or photoshop messing.

I have also just rediscovered the joys of colouring in. There are hundreds of books aimed at adults, so I thought it would be a fun and relaxing timewaster. It is.
Anyway. May post later on today.
But for now. Byee...

Well....

Hi there. After reading someone's blog, I realised I quite missed my blog and writing. And so... here I am. Back. Took me three ruddy years to decide to come back, and who knows, this may be as short lived as my previous return efforts. But who knows.

Life has changed. Not for the worst, a bit for the better and quite different.

I still work in a garage tho, just in a different part of Herefordshire.  Locks garage.  If you've heard of it, then it's probably for our famous ice creams.
I love working there. I have made some of the best friends I have ever had, am rarely bored, well paid and a day doesn't go by without copious amounts of laughing.

I've lost lots of weight too; which is all good.

I've ended a relationship that had lasted years. Due to realising that I no longer loved the person in question. I hadn't for years. Thankfully we are still friends. Good ones. Even if they can't quite allow themselves to let go of me like I have them.

I also lost God somewhere. Can't remember where I left Him. Not sure if I'll find Him again. Right now I'm not looking either.  Maybe the time will come when I do. But right now, I don't know.

Anyway. It's way past my bedtime. I need sleep. Hopefully I'll want to post again in the next day or so. Till then...
X