For Pete’s Sake

Well, anyone who is actually still reading this or has it bookmarked may be, especially when the last post was back in August. Anyway, I’m still at my current job, despite the odd misgiving here and there. At times it’s not that bad, others.. well let’s just say I have bad thoughts. Either way it’s employment and I should be grateful for that. So that’s work summed up, short and sweet really.

Life in general is going pretty well despite the odd worry but then they’re nothing more that what everyone else probably worries about. It gets me down and recently it’s got me down more than it usually does. The other thing that keeps bugging me lately is I have this feeling that things are just passing me by. I don’t know if they are or why I have this feeling but even as I sit here now I just thinking I could or should be doing something more. Fact is I probably could, I even started writing my part of a story I’m doing with Legionary, hopefully I’ll write more soon. Cat is doing well in her job though right now she’s worrying and stressing about her dancing exam which is approaching far too quickly! Our holiday to Iceland is booked for next year, just a case now of saving the money and damn it’s expensive but there you go, what in this life isn’t?! Still it’ll be worth it and I really can’t wait to go. On another life note, my birthday is approaching again, I tell you it must be improving its ninja skills as it really did sneak up on me this year.

One cool thing though that happened recently was my attendance, along with my good friend Carl, to the NHL ice hockey game in London. The atmosphere and venue (The O2) were superb and the game wasn’t half-bad either. It’s certainly got me buzzing and really excited now about attending the NFL London game for which the tickets turned up the other week. I also managed to get my hands on the Halo 3 Legendary Edition. It’s a seriously cool special edition and, in my opinion, worth it.

Sports wise it’s an up and down start for my teams. The Steelers are doing well in the NFL with their defence really looking the business this season. United have only just started to get in to gear and as far as the Penguins go; such a stark contrast to last season. I won’t mention anything about the Pirates’ baseball season as, apart from the odd surprise win there’s nothing to talk about.

So there you go, 3 months zipped up.

Been a little busy of late for once. Went to Seend on Saturday for lunch with Cat’s mother who was on leave from the convent, her Grandfather, her sister and of course, Cat. Was lovely, we had a roast, which makes a change from what Cat & I usually have at home. On the same day I met up with a friend of mine, Carl, to see his local team Westbury play in a local league cup. They won 3-1 with all three of their goals coming in the second half. The ref on the day was as useful as a turnip but it made from an exciting game.

On to this week then and so far I have been to the Gym and played football today! I’m trying to get my weight and body fat down a little so hopefully the more I do the better, time will tell on that I guess. I’ll be in Uni and at the Gym again tomorrow. I have a Gym buddy in my friend Rich who I’ve known since I started Uni so there’s someone there to push me and keep me going which helps alot.

In other news, United had a great weekend but a horrible evening tonight. On the weekend we won and our rivals lost but tonight we lost to Southend. Credit to them though they were good for their win and in my opinion deserved it far more than United did. Pittsburgh have gone to 2-6 now having lost again on the weekend. Sky is showing another of their games this Sunday in their double header and though I love watching them play I don’t know if I could handle four bad defeats in a row. I probably will watch but I’ll at least panic about it for a little while.

Well, with my birthday gone it was time to do a little (well that’s really an understatement) birthday spending. First off I bought myself a couple DVDs with some Amazon gift vouchers I received so I picked up Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Harry Potter & The GoF and Jarhead. All of which I have seen but those who know me know that I can really get an unlimited replay value from DVDs. I’ve also still to watch the Stargate SG-1 box set I got, can’t wait to dig into that. I’m a sucker for sci-fi. My Amazon wish list is full of SG-1, Enterprise, DS9 & Voyager box sets to buy. Costly, but one day I may own them all.

I also received a large amount of money for my birthday which has allowed me to do two things I’ve contemplated for a long while. Firstly, to replace my ipod as I’ve been dying to get my hands on one of the current gen ipods; and secondly to buy an iMac. I will still be keeping my main PC as it has the most storage (around 500GB) and has a lot of stuff on there that I couldn’t put elsewhere but since I bought my iBook last year I miss a lot of the functions that MacOS offers. Quite often I’ll be hitting F9 or alt+w whilst at a Windows machine and well, I do like Macs. So yeah, I’m really looking forward to that, should arrive by tomorrow if the despatch information is correct. I haven’t used the new ipod as I’m going to connect it solely to the iMac so I’ve had to be a good boy and not connect to my iBook or PC.

On other, rather sad news, a family friend of ours who Catrin knows more than I do is very, very ill and, according to all news, may not last much longer. It’s been a big drain on Cat and with her visiting her mother tonight no doubt it’ll be the topic of the conversation on the trip from the Convent to Seend. It’s been a big test for the both of us as something this big so early in our marriage has been a bit testing. The problem being is I’m sort of detached in a way from the situation. Although I know the person and have met them a few times I don’t have the connection that Catrin, Mair and her mother have. It has caused a couple mini-disagreements between us and while it’s nothing major I’m just slightly annoyed with myself. It’s always major to lose someone you know even more so when you’re heavily involved in the situation as Cat is. I know that she knows I’m here for her and everything it’s just every now and then I wish I know what I should be saying.

Switching topic as that is way too sombre a way to finish a blog post I’ve been most chuffed with United’s last two performances. We beat Liverpool and then, yesterday, we demolished Bolton in a very clinical way. Shame the Steelers can’t match them as last week we lost again. The match was a gripping one and I really thought we’d done enough to win. However it went into overtime and we lost as they scored on the first drive with a field goal. Oh well, I guess that’s sport for you I just hope we can turn it around soon ya know?! Long ways to go in the season in both respects but I feel United could be a real challenge for Chelsea this season. Finally though on a side note, Morton (where a lot of my relatives live), lost they’re unbeaten record this week losing 3-2 yesterday. Shame really but we’re still top and that’s key and with any luck we could be going up to the Scottish First Division, time will tell no doubt.

So yesterday I turned 23, an event I share with a friend of mine, Habz. It was a rather understated affair for me, no party, just a trip to London with Cat to see the Shaolin Monks live and let me tell you it’s not a show for the faint of heart. From being lifted up by a bowl attached to your stomach to carrying two buckets of water at arms length over stairs made of blades. It was thrilling and I loved it! (Thanks Glyn!)

Today is just going to spent relaxing and chilling out, lots of sport to watch. Right now I’m watching United Vs Liverpool and currently we’re 1-0 which is good! Later I’ll be watching the Steelers play Atlanta and hopefully we can win again this week as convincingly as we did last week. Then I’ll probably watch the episode of Robin Hood I missed yesterday and then Match of the Day. Finally there is also the possibility of watching the Grand Prix either live (whilst watching the Steelers) or the highlights after MoTD. Either way it’s going to be a day mostly filled with sport.

In closing I just want to thank those who sent cards/presents for my birthday yesterday, I don’t want to embarrass but you know you are and thank you muchly!

Well that’s what people keep saying to me when they ask what my Uni timetable is like. One hour week on Tuesday’s until Christmas, not bad really is it?! To be honest tho I’ll be using that free time to give all I can to my project once I’ve got it up and running. Those that know me know that I need all the time and help I can get when it comes to projects as usually I never have enough time if you know what I mean ;)

Aside from that the eagle eyed among you may have noticed that I’ve finally upgraded Wordpress to version 2.0.4 and my theme to Beta 2. I did actually try Beta 2 of Squible a while back but I had too many issues with it so decided to keep with the old version. However, a recent spate of annoying bot comments, pushed me into upgrading to see whether they were exploiting a bug (they were able to post comments on a topic where you couldn’t). So I decided to start fresh and give Beta to a whirl again. This time there hasn’t been any issue expect one with Flickr which I hope to resolve soon (i.e. it doesn’t seem to retrieve my pics instead it pulls random ones). Either way I’m up-to-date now and that’s a bonus I suppose.

In other news I signed up at 360voice.com to give my XBox 360 a “blog” of sorts and it’s an amusing read, anyone who really wants to see what my 360 says about me should visit this page. My NFL team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, have gotten off to an indifferent start to the NFL season. They’ve currently won one and lost two and just don’t look as good a unit as they did last season. Granted we no longer have Jerome “The Bus” Bettis, Randle El or Kimi VO but you’d have thought we’d be a lot better. In contrast United has gotten off to one of the best starts I’ve seen in a while though at the moment we’re stuttering. I think that’s mainly due to Giggs being out but then we should still perform better than we have been doing.

Oh well, anyway, I’ll be down in Bournemouth again this weekend for Ruth’s birthday. Should be a laugh as it has a bouncy castle and everything, should definitely be a good weekend!