At the end of a day.......

....when a colleague and friend died very unexpectedly, a beautiful sunset. Perhaps to celebrate the life of a guy who was strong, different and special and who lived through some very tough times but always stood tall.



Rest easy 'M'.

An absolute must have!

A real chocolate fountain in your own home, the cure for all ills, the 'must have' gadget of the decade and instant cure of PMS, how did any of us cope with life before this nifty little device was available to grace our lives?!

Get yours HERE.

Music Meme Thingymabob

Oh how I have to beat Idgie over the head thank Idgie for tagging me with this!

I hardly ever listen to music so for me this has to be what just happens to be on the CD in my car right now!

Here's the meme.......

List ten songs that you are currently digging ... it doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they're no good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artists, and the ten songs in your blog. Then tag five other people to see what they're listening to.

And the answers in no particular order.......

Katie Melua ~ Closest thing to crazy.
Lighthouse Family ~ Lifted.
Lighthouse Family ~ Run.
Justin Timberlake ~ Cry me a river.
Bob Marley ~ Jammin'.
DJ Mystic ~ Unchained melody.
Savage Garden ~ I knew I loved you (before I met you), Yeah I know very appropriate and kinda 'bleugh'
Real Crazy Apartment ~ Feeling Close.
Blue ~ Supersexual.
Stereophonics ~ Handbags and gladrags.

Ha! Now that's over it's my turn to 'make someone's day' so here goes, the five unsuspecting souls who are to suffer are:

Lisa,
Justitia.
Karen.
John W.
Dale

Go guys! Heh.

Friday's feast (57)

Appetizer
Name 3 people whom you admire for their intelligence.

PG
My brother in law
Stephen Hawkin

Soup
What's the last food you tried that you really didn't care for.

Ham! and 'didn't really care for' is a massive understatement!

Salad
If you could rename the street that you live on, what would you want it to be called?

Er....I don't live on a street, I live in a field, no street here.

Main Course
When was the last time you were genuinely surprised?

Three years ago when inherited some money......and again when I realised I had spent it all!

Dessert
Share a household tip.

Don't have a black sofa and two cats with lots of white bits!

If only......

....this option could be available sometimes! Heh.

Fake 'tube safety' email

I am sure that most people passing on this current email 'doing the rounds' offering 'advice' in the event that they become stuck, for whatever reason, on a tube train, did so out of genuine care and/or concern, however it is a hoax.

The text of the email follows:

Important Number you should note 25/July/05 09:24.

If you travel to work on the tube please note the following information: If your mobile phone has no signal (so even if you were in a tunnel) if you dial 112 it diverts to a satellite signal and puts you through to the 999 call centre. ALL phone companies have signed up and as it is a satellite service it also gives them a trace to you if you don't know where you are.

This is most definitely not the case, there is no mobile signal in a tube tunnel and neither is there access to a satellite connection, even for the few who own a sat. phone.

Wherever this information and mail originated maybe again it was with good intent but in times of heightened anxiety about personal safety 'duff gen' only adds to the confusion.

For further details go HERE.

Heros

"Most people involved took a big risk and are heros"

The above is a quote from a doctor who found himself treating casualties of the London bombings on the 7th of July.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This evening quite by chance I turned the television on to find a programme just beginning, episodes of which I have seen before. The programme was 'Trauma', a fly on the wall documentary that accompanies HEMS and London paramedics to incidents in and around London as they occur. This evenings episode was however very different and centered on the emergency service personnel involved when the major incident plan that they had trained for so often, became a terrifying reality.

Only once before in my life have I felt as I did watching this programme and that was watching live coverage of the aircraft that hit the Twin Towers on 9/11.

This documentary was not graphic, horrifying, blood thirsty images, it wasn't footage of individuals screaming in fear and pain, though it so easily could have been. Instead it was interviews with those on the front line, those who's bleepers, phones and colleagues had called them to assist in what will likely be the most dangerous and demanding job of their careers.

These people are astounding to me. We assume that paramedics, doctors, nurses, firefighters and the police are used to dealing with the less pleasant aspects of life and certainly to a point they are, but to hear these highly skilled professionals describe not only the carnage but their reactions and thoughts to it, is probably one of the most powerful pieces of television I will ever see. Individuals used to seeing and dealing with the worst an RTA or illness can throw at them, visibly moved and describing with such humility and care the events of that awful day didn't just make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, it sent shivers all over for the duration of the broadcast.

One doctor was quoted as saying that for one serious incident they could reasonably expect to lose 50% of the resources needed. Consider then that this fateful day bought not one but four major incidents and still each and every incident was attended quickly and by all required professionals.

I can't begin to repeat all that was said and even if I could the power in the words would be lost here, but along with great sadness for the victims, as I listened to these professionals thoughts and descriptions of the environments they had to work in and situations they faced, I felt and enormous sense of pride in being British and in these skilled men and women who we so often take for granted.

We have a great debt of gratitude and much to thank them for, and whilst I am sure most of them would refute it, these individuals are for me, and I am sure for most others, some of our true heros.

Hurahhhhh!

Yipee, wooo hoooo,and yayyyyyy!

Finally, amazingly, unbelievably, incredibly it has happened. My life is set to become unrecognizable, things will never be the same again, I will not know what to do with myself, I am dumbfounded, incredulous and gobsmacked.

After almost three years of false starts, broken promises and excuses my little corner of Scotland was yesterday dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century despite all it's previous efforts at avoidance.

Yes, amazingly, yesterday the great God broadband finally arrived here and not wishing to wait a moment longer by midday it was ordered, bought and paid for in gemmak's-ville!!! Can you believe it? At last it has happened....holy hell, you may believe it but I can't quite!

So, all that remains now is for Parcelforce to get the hardware here and for it to be installed. BT still have to do a little work on the line to our specific property to enable it to carry 2 meg and then it's all systems go.

Ok, so there was a worrying phrase in there, 'BT', they have promised that within 10 days we will be 'live' but I have experience of their promises and I won't be placing any large bets! It is though beginning to look very, very likely that at last, and not withstanding 'technical hitches', my 44kbps connection will be replaced with 2 meg. Hells bells and little fishes, did I say '2 meg'? 2 meg, I can't believe it.....2 whole meg !!

Bring it on!

Sometimes......

.....just sometimes this 'post every day for a year' malarky gets hard. I was up today at the crack of dawn having slept very little. Thoughts of my friend who has cancer and is having surgery today filling my mind and mulled around and around, you know that feeling, the one where your head just won't stop working despite all attempts. Lord knows why it chooses to become active in the middle of the night when I want to sleep, it struggles to be active in the day when I need it to be! Sod's law :o)

It was a 'day job' day today, I could happily have not been there but 'needs must' and all of that, so I duly complied with the terms of my contract and showed up. Nothing of interest to report from that eight hours and here I am again, parked infront of my pc thinking 'oh hell, I haven't posted today and my mind is blank! See, I told you it only works when I have no need of it to in the wee small hours!

So, there you go, a post about nothing but a post none the less!

Oh.... I just remembered, I do have a little piece of news. My friend 'D' who I have blogged about before, mother of Jaydon, has started her own blog so please, if you have am moment pop over HERE and welcome her to the blogosphere :o)

March of the penguins

March of the penguins, the recent film collaboration between National Geographic and Warner Brothers will be the first film in many years to prize me from my chair and force me the 100 or so mile round trip to see it as soon as it is released here in the UK. Though quite when that will be seems to be anyone's guess, having been released in the US last month and having outstripped all projected financial and attendance expectations, it's release date here is still 'to be notified'.


Everything about this film is good in my opinion, it has no gratuitous violence, no overpaid megastars, no stunts, no special effects and is the furthest thing from 'Terminator 1000' I could possibly imagine.

The cinematography is stunning, it is educational, it is endearing, heartrending and fascinating, even the website is something else.

So what is it about? Simply the annual migration of thousands and thousands of penguins across the Antarctic in preparation for mating, the text from the website explains it so much better than I ever could, the following is an excerpt:

Each winter, alone in the pitiless ice deserts of Antarctica, deep in the most inhospitable terrain on Earth, a truly remarkable journey takes place as it has done for millennia. Emperor penguins in their thousands abandon the deep blue security of their ocean home and clamber onto the frozen ice to begin their long journey into a region so bleak, so extreme, it supports no other wildlife at this time of year. In single file, the penguins march blinded by blizzards, buffeted by gale force winds. Resolute, indomitable, driven by the overpowering urge to reproduce, to assure the survival of the species.



Guided by instinct, by the otherworldly radiance of the Southern Cross, they head unerringly for their traditional breeding ground where - after a ritual courtship of intricate dances and delicate maneuvering, accompanied by a cacophony of ecstatic song - they will pair off into monogamous couples and mate.

Text © Warner Brothers

Even if the film doesn't tempt you the website is worth a look.......and if anyone actually knows the UK release date, please let me know!


Images are clickable
All images © Bonne Pioche/APC Photo by Alex Berliner

Yeuch.....

.....can you smell something nasty?

(Clickable)

Ditto.

'ICE' scam?

I received and email this morning with the following content:

"If you have entered 'ICE' details into your mobile Please DELETE entry ASAP. This so called noble cause actually turned out to be a SCAM for downloading ringtones which are then charged off to mobile accounts".

It came originally from a reliable source....anyone have any idea if it is legit or how the scam works? I have thus far had no problem and not heard of anyone else who has but that is no indication!

All you 'cat people'.....

...out there have to read THIS!

Thanks Magz for bringing a smile to my face on what was an otherwise crap Sunday.

Confuzzled and other crap

It has not been the best of weekends in many ways, in fact I would really like to rewind to Friday night and begin again. It has been such an un-nice weekend that I am doing something I rarely do...just sitting down and typing with absolutely no idea of my post already formulated. Ok, so I don't generally have it meticulously planned but I do usually have some rough idea of what I am going to type and from what angle I will approach the subject....but not this time.

As ever my Saturday and Sunday have been spent working at the day job, something that whilst I don't adore it normally distracts me from any difficulties and problems I have.....but not this time.

I am dog tired, I'm worn out with thinking and I'm fed up, nay worse than that, I have the hump, good and proper but I feel guilty for it, for reasons that will become apparent.

Last week a friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer, she doesn't deserve it (does anyone). She is being immensely brave, she has been inspirational, a trooper and her attitude has amazed me but the fact that she has to fight this fight at all saddens and angers me, as it does her. I'm a big girl, I know that life is crap sometimes, I know that there is not reason in all things but still I find myself wanting to shout 'WHY HER' and still I find myself running out of supportive and positive things to say to her sometimes.

So that's why I feel guilty, this isn't happening to me, it's happening to her, she is being marvelous and I'm being confused, it should be her being confused and me being marvelous!

And another thing......'Mr Exhibitionist' treated me to another 'show' this morning, so again I am mulling over and over my next course of action, still indecisive, still unsure of my best route......bloody hell fire, I thought I had that one sorted.

More guilt, my friend is fighting cancer and I'm worrying over what to do about a weirdo..............crap perspective there I think.

I'm feeling pathetic, selfish, confuzzled and pissed off right now........ with me, with the world at large and with unfairness!

Normal service will be resumed in the morning.