...scares

Im a believer in doing things that scare the hell out of you.
These short moments make you feel a little more alive.
Tonights experience was driving a 60 mile round route in a blizzard.
Visability down to seven or eight meters at times.
At the moments I lost sight of the road as it became one with the white of the storm.
At these moments I stupidly found myself grinning and thinking what a fun game this was.
When cold reality returns Im sure I'm more sensible than this, but those little moments when Im not fully in control have an odd appealing attraction.

...tripping

Im having an odd week.
Having spent last week off work with a man cold & I am now sorting out the devistation of leaving people in charge of my work projects. I now have to put all my work affairs in place so that I can go on holiday & leave things to smolder without any external interference complicating matters.
The usual end of February rush , getting my car M.O.T.ed, taxed and insured has been thrown into disarray.
I get a pleasent buzz when procrastinating about things I have to do, seeing how long I dare leave them before I panic & rush round like an idiot organizing.
Well this year Ive avoided this little panic by deciding to give my lovely pink 4x4 to my niece & buying a new car.
The new one has no character & gives me no pleasure, but is a vital evil.
So to get my procrastination buzz Ive resorted to leaving all the details for my next trip to the last moment.

Trip starts this time next week.
Things organized.
Cash : No
Suitible clothing : No
Specialist equipment : No
Time spent getting to know my new camera : No
Medical cover : No
New passport : Yes.
Travel arrangements to get to the airport on time : No
Done any thing at all : No

Work organised so no-one need touch it : No

I spend an inordinate amount of time doing stuff while avoiding doing stuff I know I should be doing. In the mean time while not doing the stuff I should be doing I fret about not doing it & to take my mind off of it do somthing else instead.

...playground boasting

And this is here because today was all about who could come up with the most outragous boast.

This sketch was drawn with my Martian graphite pencils, the diamond & ruby studded ones. Not my best of course, I've left those on one of the other yachts guarded by leopards..
....and so on.

...windsurfing

You can tell from the colour of the paper that this is an old sketch. I reckon about 10 years old.
That would be about the time when I was windsurfing with my freinds, before they got all selfish & went & got married , had kids , carreers, stuff in thier fridges that wasn't beer, etc..
Anyway , this brings back memories for me, because this is pretty much how I spent my time on a board, upside down, cold, wet & inspecting the fishes.
It also reminds I had my second go at hypothermia while windsurfing (Not saying what the first was ,but the chaps from my rugby club don't let me forget)

What's lead me to post an old sketch ? Somthing my Mother did last week. Not quiet sure whether she did it to frighten the crap out of her self or to stop & make me think a little.
Probably niether, but both these ends were achieved. This is it.
I don't have a TV. So she videoed a programme she genuinely thought I would be interested in seeing. Good old Ma.
The programme was to do with the 1979 Fastnet offshore race held between Southhampton & Fastnet rock off of Ireland.
Let me correct that, the fatal 1979 fastnet race in which out of 300 boats only 80 odd finished, the Fastnet 'round the rock race' that was hit by the storm of the century as it moved across the Atlantic from North America to Ireland.
The Fastnet race that claimed 15 lives over one night.
Ok all very good, Good documentory. All very interesting, makes me sit and think about the stupid stuff Ive done & how I try to avoid doing such things now in my (Cough) maturity.
But it begs the question why would she show me this a week and a half before I set off into the Atlantic ! In cold & windy March.
Was this a subtle way of telling me to be cautious. I think I taught myself that lesson at hypothermia No 2. She needn't worry.

...kindergarden Kong

Some years later Kong would be over come with a feeling of Deja vu.

...duel

Title suggestions please.

I was going to run with:

"after 10 paces Borris knew what it was like to be rogered with the rough end of an unpeeled pineapple",
or
"Borris whished he hadn't chosen Bonzo the clown to make the arrangements"
or
"It dawned on Borris that he had left his best dueling pistol in the fruit bowl"

any beter suggestions & i'll add it & publish.

...poodles

Suddenly Jasper felt the lead go tight.

...Arctic exclusion zone

You may find that people who draw sheep and penguins as a rule usually use this as some sort of underlying metaphor or social message referencing to societies conformist, herding nature.
I just like to draw sheep & penguins.
They make I right happy, so they do.

...ants

...McBear

Back to my happy self again.
Today was one of the times I was grinning as I drew.
The chaps & chapettes in the office see me scribble out my doodles at lunch times.
Somtimes I get comments, today I got boo-ed. Result !.
The way I do these is generally just to draw at randomly & the add a caption afterward.
Today I knew the caption.
I don't do McDonnalds as a rule, but have always wondered, in my tangental way, what exactly is so Happy about the kiddies Happy Meal menu.
The happy doesn't totally apply to the kids. Yes they get some food & a little toy.
I realise it's a parental way of giving them selves a rest, a moments happiness.
Now I know.
This is not how a bear see Happy Meal time though.

...Hear no evil ,see no evil, speak no evil.

I am aware that I am a cynic, not proud of it, but I have a lot of fuel to feed my cynicism.
Working alongside people that preach honesty & co-operation does not help this condition as you pull the daggers from your back.
Hold on, am I confusing this with bitterness.
Which ever, bitterness feeds the cynicism & makes you increasingly bitter.
Can you tell I've had a rotten day ? Mood = black & brooding.
It involved an architect going back on his already questionable word & a building contractor being to week willed to counter act..
My only compensation is that I relished in the writing of a highly contractural letter, backed up with their own correspondence & fact stating the obvious.

...Toga party

Toga party. If you missed it.
Dyslexia. I should not make light of this.
People I know well suffer from the condition, not badly , but enough to be annoying to them.
I am begining to believe that , due to the number of times when typing or hand writing I miss the first two letters out of words that somthing is wrong here also. Always two. This happens an awful lot, but it could be me just trying to get too far ahaead of myself al the time. My paranoia possibly. I don't know.

...memos

Total tangental thread.

One thing that tickled me today.
A memo arrived from our group environmental manager suggesting that there is an "internal examination" to be carried out this week.
Yikes !. Better put on a clean pair of underpants then.

...Albion vs Cwymr

It's the time of year when I can justifiably become nationalistic & bigoted toward he Galic, Latino & Celtic nations.
This is mostly hot air, bluff & bravado & lasts exactly six weeks. This is then proceeded by a) three further weeks of gloating & strutting, or b) Sulking.
I shall then return to my entirely liberal laid back self.

A little history. Anglo/Welsh relationships.
I suppose King Edward the was the first major Englishman to play havoc in a big way with the Welsh nation.
Ravaging the land & building a large dominating chain of castles along the Welsh boarders and coast line in the late 13th & early 14 th century with which to keep the people in check under the rule of England.
(That's Edward the 1st, not the variety of potatoe. I believe that was a latter King.).
And that's how the state of affairs have effectively stood ever since.
Ok the English pretty much enslaved the smaller Welsh nation forcing them to dig out their coal to fashion our industrial revolution & in turn the Welsh burned a few English houses down during the late 70's. Other than this we've been on reasonable civil terms since.

125 years ago a competition was held between the two rival nations.
A gentle competition in the nobel sport of Rugby Football.
As the trend goes the English once again gave the Welsh a sound and, in my bias opinion, a well deserved thrashing.
This was overdue mainly because the English invented the graceful game and secondly for the Welsh being such impertinent little upstarts. Tut tut.
125 years later, today in fact, & the English continued the tradition allowing the Welsh to go home with faces as crimson as colour of their blouses (sorry, I meant shirts). Left to contemplate another defeat.
To give the Welsh their dues, to date they have done very well , winning 50 of the 102 encounters with the English since the first. We even let them go home with a little tin pot last year, just to keep them happy
But let it be known that the proper statistic to be counted is Invations England : several Wales: Nil

That said , I enjoyed watching the first two games of the Six Nations Rugby today. Poor, unlucky Italians, Very luck Irish 26 to 16 & the Bully boy English thrashing the lovely Boy Welsh 47 to 13.
Roll on Tomorrow, this will be the only time in the year I will cheer for the Scots as they take on the rotten French. (Boo)

...horte' Agriculture.

If there is a thing of the moment I will miss it. This comes through living under a rock, not owning a TV or a telephone.

...computer dude

Its rare that I see somthing so simple that conveys so much frustration, this made me grin

...Worker bees.

So we get the news that my firm are possibly moving premesis.
This is annoying because I live 5 minuites from work, and do enjoy the extra curling up warm in bed time in the mornings. It will also mean I have to spend time in traffic if we move. Not a pleasent thought.
Iv'e always told my self I would give it all up one day and become a postman, looks like that time may be approaching.

10 things I like about my job.

1) It's social
2) I get to survey places most of the public never see.
3) The work changes every day.
4) I take some pride in being self taught.
5) I dont really answer to anyone.
6) I have a huge space to spead out in. Nice, big ,clean workspace.
7) I enjoy having apprentices to teach.
8) The boss is pretty cool & easy going.
9) There is free tea on tap.
10) I just enjoy what I do.

10 things I don't like about my job.

1) Its social
2) I have to survey some places the public would not touch with a shitty stick.
3) I havent a clue what I'm doing one day to the next.
4) Im dangerously under qualified.
5) I have no peer guidence. So I meander at random.
6) I tend to loose stuff in the vastness of my workspace adding to the confusion.
7) The apprentices are little bastards & can be taught nothing without a stiff beating.
8) When the boss hasn't snuck off fishing , he wanders around in a semi-conscious daze.
9) I drink so much free tea in a day, when I go on holiday I require caffine replacement therapy.
10 I delude myself that I enjoy what I do.