I've just started reading a biography of Stalin. It was something I decided to do because I recently finnished reading a biography of Moa Tse Tung and amidst all the references to Stalin realised that I know very little about the man other than 'gulags' and 'many dead'.
There is absolutely no way that I would have considered reding these things a few years ago, being a firm believer that life's just too short to bother.
Starting to get a little worried about myself, the age is really starting
The weekend did not improve after friday.... found out on saturday that my aunt is in the process of being diagnosed with bowl cancer.... my Dad's in a state over it.... CT scan results to today so fingers crossed its a primary and there are no mets sometimes it is shit knowing too much about the prognosis for diseases...
Yes went to see them - had lots of beer - must remember those seats for future ref as we had our very own bar (twas above the stairs) Good night - fell asleep on the train luckily only by 2 stops - so taxi home and not too expensive a mistake! just like the old days - had the house to ourselves - Daughter stayed over with Grandparents ... thought all was well
Called in the morning with our hangovers and my baby(6) was sick all night/ high temp no medicine - I wish they had phoned me and bro
For the last three minutes, I have been working away behind the scenes () to add details about this year's festivals onto the forum calendar and the main forum page.
This is just one of many new developments coming that's the culmination of 3 weeks work - it would have been sooner but we do have to stop to eat a curry now and then, and to whip the hamsters to paint your computer screens that bit faster. Although a project of (not) enormous complexity and scale, we're going to waffle in a pato
the problem with the birthdays off friends is that you are expected to turn up for hte night out and not go home after half an hour and you don't get to pick the venue
last night started off with drinks which was fine.... Tiger Tiger on the other hand is a shit hole... in the end i stopped drinking as it was not making things any better.... i think i have had enough off crap birthday drinking/dancing venues and will from now on refuse to go to shit places... as if the blag club was not bad e
Another upgrade was made to the eFestivals servers last night, after a week of false starts, technical failures and cock-ups in trying to put things in place.
Anyway, the new set-up really is the dogs (as is being proved right now with the traffic for V tickets), and come Glasto ticket day I expect things to cope extremely well - the capability of the new servers is massively greater than what was in place two years ago for the last Glastonbury (and even back then eFestivals was the only maj
the problem with working nights is not only the way it messes with your body clock but also after 10 hours you get a bit bored of your own company when it is deathly quiet
back to work tonight..... ackity.... not looking forward to the mountain of e-mails and other shit that will be waiting for me... not to mention the fact i will be working a 12 hour night... boo
the pook has just fallen asleep on the floor whilst listening to the jungle book... don't think he has adjusted to being back at school yet....
might do some shopping online tonight to pass the time.... remember if you hurt yourself tonight do not in an circumstances come to uch A&E!!
.... h
I am back from Egypt... it was wonderful. the weather was great. nice and warm at around 30 all week... sadly i do not have tan but i do have more freckles... prehaps i will just wait until they all join up
managed to cram a stupid ammount of stuff into one week....
Day one - went to luxoe temple which was breath taking - really liked the avenue of sphnixes(sp?).... the whole scale of the ancient egyptian temples is unbelivable.... can't get my head around how they made them all.... after
Ah forgot all about this for a while, you know, this blogging malarky, but then i got a letter yesterday saying - we've been told by your doc you need 2 MRI's one for head and pine and one for cervix and spine - and that was it - no dates or nothing. Terrific!
Well ticket stress has kicked in with Shambala, Beautiful Days, IOW and on Wednesday WOMAD tickets all being bought. Arrrrggghhhh just typing in details into those ticket buying sites is stressful these days - as my mind goes into panic
AND WHAT A BRILLIANT NIGHT IT WAS!
I spent the whole of my teen years following Pulp up and down the country, getting to see them live 10 times and meeting the band lots of times (meeting Jarvis 3 times) While at these gigs jarvis on stage has grabbed my hand, gave me a cigerate, a beer, ive poured water over his head etc - very up close personal stuff over the years. I last saw Pulp live in 2002 when i was 18. They split up shortly after and i thought that'd be it now. My years of waiting 7
in only a few hours i will be setting of to egypt where it is not cold wet and miserable... can't wait.... this has lead to a degree of glasto photo rejection paranoia.... so fingers crossed when i return it will all have gone through ok... i am packed and ready to go... only taking with me three pairs of shoes
So i'd got this letter from the GP saying that there was something on my x-rays that I should come in to discuss.
I had presumed that this was because of some vertibrae fusing together, which was why they were taken in the first place (I have been told i've got ankylosing spondylitis which apparently leads to spinal fusion).
So I went to the quack expecting that changes were already visible and after scanning through his computer he said "Oh, OK, it's nothing to worry about, it's just that you
ah the wonderfullness of annual leave... not back in work until the 28th... sadly as usual the minute i go on annual leave i get a cold... so i am currently battling the invasion of the snot bubbles...
sadly on the 4th of feb my PC died in a puff of smoke... bloody stupid technology... luckily yesterday (only a week late bloody city link delivery!!) i got a shiney new lap top... the bloody thing is confusing the hell out of me but makes up for that by being very pretty
off to egypt on mon
I keep getting press releases for Global Cool - an organisation set up to help fight global warming thru reducing your emissions and offsetting. At the bottom it always says that they're "one of only four current organisations who reach the Government’s proposed standards for carbon offset schemes".
I was aware that only four organisations have been approved (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6276305.stm), and I was aware that The Carbon Neutral Company - who eFestivals use for offsetti
well my 6 y/o morgan has glasto fever.
last night she told me that she had been dreaming about glastonbury (she comes every year and is a major part of her year, just like most of us) and it went a bit this.
All three of us got tickets and we drove in our campervan. when we got there i got tents out and we went to the entrance gates where if you had a ticket you got 2 wrist bands each ( reckon she has pass outs in mind) when we got into the festival main we found it to be all in rooms (she
Went to see Guillemots t'other day, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that they were even better than last time they played. Unfortuately the promised vomiting did not occur (they all had food poisoning apparently). A lot of new stuff was playd, and on first listen it sounds really good. Hopefully the next album won't be so over-produced because their live aound far surpasses the watered down version that gets released.
On a slightly different note, I had to go for hydrotherapy this week
Curse the world.... work a 12 hour night shift and then find out two of the people who are meant to relieve you are running very late... i want my bed!
I'm pleased to say that eFestivals is now a carbon neutral website.
We're working with The CarbonNeutral Company to offset the emissions created by our business, as well as doing all we can to reduce our energy usage and emissions creation.
Climate change is happening - just look around you. We can wait for governments and businesses to stop pointing the finger at anyone but themselves, or we can take responsibility for our own actions and the consequences of those actions.
The amount o
Got phoned up Tuesday out of the blue and told that today i was to go to hospital for a Neural Response Test in the neurphysiology department - so off i go - getting 'white coat syndrome' and have myself electrocuted - ahh happy days - like holding onto electric fences it were - great fun and no hint despite asking as to how the test went - though he did ask if i had problems with my little fingers - can't say as I've noticed and also the last test on my feet i couldn't feel when he put the elec
