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This weeked has had a fabulous start. Why? because just feast your eyes on what I stole from an empty meeting room as I was on my way out of the office on friday night. Cakes. Tempting Mr Kipling French Fancies laid on a plate staring at me as I walked past the meeting room. Take me, take me they called after me. How could the occupants of the meeting be so heartless to leave them. All alone in that dark meeting room, waiting for the cleaner to murder them in an industrial bin ? Is there no justice in the world I ask. Its times like this when Stealing is a perfectly natural function (and is allowed). I did it for the good of human kind, believe me. This is stealing with no guilt trips or recriminations. Oh no for let me tell you I feel good about it. They now sit in a sandwich box in the safe confort of top shelf in the kitchen. Im waiting for that wonderful moment when I will devour them one by one with a nice cup of tea. Ahhhh!

Today, I couldnt help but laugh away to myself when I saw what had happened to this poor mouse beside the entrance door to the office. The mouse had be there for two whole days enjoying its freedom until it got caught. Last I heard Health and Saftey were coming in to fumigate the place and close down half the site until the Serial Mouse Trapper was caught.

Time for a prayer.... Dear God, If ever i have the misfortune to fall into the wrong company and stupidly agree to smuggle a large package into the country. Please, please dont let me get caught. Even bigger please, DON'T ever ever ever ever ever let me get thrown into a Venezuelan prison. I promise to be good from now on. Amen This comes after I watched the TV program " Banged up abroad" last nite http://www.thelondonpaper.com/cs/Satellite/london/tv/article/1157149255089?packedargs=suffix%3DArticleController Scary! I woke up last nite in a hot sweat thinking i was in a Venezualen Prison. Nightmare. All I saw were lots and lots of scary people around me with flickknives and guns. I tossed and turned. Count sheep, count sheep. 1, 2, 3, But why do the sheep all have bullet proof vests? Disturbing.

Today I decided to capture some wierd stuff from the office and surrounding area with my camera phone. Business skills Now doesnt this look like an effective meeting ? How to brush up on your strategic business skills. Sit in meeting room and talk to yourself or a telephone. Actually the notice says that this is Ian Fleming. The Ian Fleming?. Strategic Business Skill No1 - "No Mr Bond I expect you to die, if you do not place my order in 5 minutes" Strategic Business Skill No2 - "Make sure there are lots of beautiful dancing girls around you when you place any order" Sticky Numbers Everything must have a number in this office. It wont work unless its got a number, and that includes the loos and the taps. Help! Im stuck on ref 40120. I have no loo paper. I quote ref 40120. Hurray! Pathetic knobs Isnt this pathetic? A piddly little door release button. What happened to the big Man size green door knob? The one you can smack so hard and open sesame!

" Oh yes I'm 89 years old and I still drive" " You're 89!" I said in shock. The 89 year lady nodded back. She was pleased that she had shocked me. Jeepers she was was very spritely for an 89 year old. We had struck up conversation at the bus stop on saturday morning. I had run full pelt to make it to the bus stop. Convinced the bus would be there, waiting to leave as I turned the corner, but it wasnt thankgod. There was just a nice old lady waiting there. "Phew I havent missed it!" i signed. " No dear, i always think ive missed the bus too and have to run for it also" Yes our dear old 89 year old had used the word "run" We boarded the bus and through the entire journey to town I could only think: Would I be able to run when I got to 89? Would i ever make it to 89? Hmmm. This weekend I bought a book on Power Drinks - Natutal Energy in a glass! ( so it says) I think the secret will lie somewhere here. Funnily enough theres a d...

Yes me and my bloody carrots got me into a right spot of bother this weekend. We were up in the Fens this weekend. At Redgrave and Lopham Fen http://www.suffolkwildlife.co.uk/nr/sites/redg.htm A naturally preserved wetland area of outstanding beauty! Mr K had been everso kind to me, birthday just gone, as he had given me one of those "sponsor a wild animal" things. My wild animal was a Konic Pony. The proceeds go to the upkeep of the wild animal and the habitat of the fen area, I guess. Now given that I currently have more fruit and veg in the house due to the "Power Drinks" I never make, I thought why not feed these carrots to the dear wild ponies I'm helping to keep alive on the Fen ? So off we went to the Fen on Sunday. For the first 2 hours of walking the fen we see no sign of any ponies. They are very elusive. But then in the distance we spot a herd of about 15 of them grazing under a tree. Dont scare them, Im told. Lets approach with caution. They are wil...

" Oh I wish it could be xmas every daaay, bom, bom bom bom booooommmm bom" Heres to all you beautiful brilliant boombastic bloggers, young and old across the world. Go on have a mince pie, take one! I baked them especially for us to enjoy Wishing you all a very merry mince pie xmas! May the second one taste just as good as the first one, and the third and the fourth. See you all in 2008!

And here we are 2008 already. Where oh where are these years going? Wasnt it only like last year we were celebrating the beginning of the new millenium? Well heres a belated Happy New Year :) Last years new years resolution of wanting to be a millionairess didnt quite work out, so this year I think I will go for wanting to be half a millionairess. Not too much to ask. 2008 hasnt started too brilliantly. I caught that flu thing, well some mutated version of it I think. Over the worst of it now. Sadly it wasnt bad enough to get me 3 weeks off work :( But last weekend really brought me round. I went to the Sepentine Gallery in London. Never been before and Man was I astounded by what I saw. I'll try and explain. Imagine a beam off white light in a large darkened room. Imagine the beam of light moving, slowly. Ever so slowly. Imagine yourself drawn towards the light. Drawn so much that you touch and enter into the beam, into the very vortex of beam of the light, so it engulfs you. You...

I think I've reached that point in my life now. I hope I havent. I really hope I havent. I can remember Dad coming home once, well fed up with everything. Work had done it to him. I recall thinking God I hope that never happens to me. I hope I never reach that low a point. Friday felt like I had. Day long audio conference after audio conference. Micro management to the nth degree. Grumpy people after grumpy people. "God I hate everything!" I sighed ( non too quietly) " Here, have this" said Baard (pronounced Bored) our resident Viking Iron Man who sits behind me It was a lovely framed photograph of his two doggies. Happy doggies they were! How free and happy they looked on the photo. Every ounce of happiness was etched onto their faces. For the rest of the day I was happy again. and here are the Happy Doggies, Arent they just so photogenic ?

Today is pancake day. Which means only one thing, lets make pancakes. The last time I made pancakes I was probably @ college. It was the only thing you ever ate when you went round to the infamous "Irish Embassy" house in Sunderland Poly. Eggs, flour, sugar and 12 crates of guinness was all they ever had there. Essentials for making a perfect pancake evening. So roll forward some umteen pancake years later and pancake practice is definately lacking. My pancake was a bit of a disaster as you can see. But it still tossed and fell back into the fying pan no problem. I havent lost the ol toss technique there. Added caster sugar, honey and lemon juice. Verdict - more!

Green socks - Doing my bit for St Patricks Day Yes its March 17th today. St Patricks Day. A day when the Irish away from the Homeland celebrate more than the people stuck on the Homeland. A day when those who are not Irish become Irish and celebrate St Patricks Day in the hope that a few drinks will be bought for them too. Everyones Irish on St Paddys Day - Sláinte!

Some things just cannot be explained. They just happen. When they do, its magical. Pure Magic. I cant explain why. It just is. Every year sure to the day the Lily flower in Moms house always flowers brightest on 22nd April. Not a day before, not a day after. Always brightest on the 22nd April. Dads Birthday. Sadly Dad is no longer with us. Never forgotten of course. But the Lily knows somehow to shine brightest on his birthday. Happy birthday Dad! Today I came across a great blog site http://reasonstobehopeful.blogspot.com/ and it does exactly wot is says on the can. News stories full of hope and inspiration. Hurrah to Hope, Boo to misery. " Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies." Shawshank Redemption

Times are bad. In fact very bad, according to Mervyn King the Governor of the Bank of England. He tells us gloom and more gloom faces the British Economy amid the rising fear of the global credit crunch. Everyday prices have gone up; bread, milk, bananas etc not to mention the petrol. So dear Comrades, the time has come to take action. The time has come oh yes, the time has come to fight back. The time as come for me to do my bit. The time has come for me to grow my own lettuce! I grew them from seeds in April ( after the snow week) and I havent stopped worrying about them since. ( I'm sure thats not right) Are they well watered? Are they getting enough sunlight ? Are they OK? Will they live? .....on and on the questions go. Any odd fool would think lettuce look after themselves. I thought that till I discovered I have to go out on "snail and slug patrol" every evening. I have 10 pots of lettuce and discovered to my horror 7 snails had made their homes in my lettuce pots!...

I decided to download the new 3D Google Earth application and give it a try out. This comes after I spotted this odd shaped camera on a tripod strapped to the roof of a small car in Birmingham last week. Mr K reckoned it was the new 3D Google Camera on the clickerty click circuit de monde. Invasion of Privacy I thought! So I did the usual, put in my postcode ( annoyed to know we have the smallest garden in the street) put in my sisters postcode, put in my moms postcode..... And wots this I see my Mom on the drive! Oh my God my Mom can be seen from space. Now wot were the chances of my mom being on the drive the moment the Google satellite went click? "Mom, you wont belive it, but you can be seen from space! You're on Google Earth" "the what?" After a half hour conversation explaining wot it is, Mom finally says " well I'm glad you cant see my face then, I might not have been looking my best " Invasion of privacy ;)

"It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America". Barack Obama What an historical week its been. Barak Obama's Democratic party win the US 2008 elections and he becomes the first African American US President elect. I, like a few for some years now I guess felt the nagging feelings of anti war, anti capitalist and anti america since the start of the Iraq war. So how do you change a countries image? How do you reinvent the feel good factor again? How do you reunite the country and give the people Hope once more? Tough questions, but the answer most definately would lie with the election of Obama this week. In an election campaign Hope and Change were instrumental powerful words. His victory speech was nothing short of perfection. Where once Martin Luther King had 40 years prior told the people "We shall overcome" and "I've been to the promis...

I attended the funeral of a great neighbour of mine, 91 year old George Barnsby yesterday. George was our resident Communist. El Comandate. It was a humanist funeral and a wonderful celebration of George's life and rightly so. For George was lifetime anti-racist, anti-fascist activist and dedicated his whole life to the rights of man. Many a person paid a moving tribute to the life and dedication of Comrade George to the cause, but I shall remember George best as a neighbour who I would run out to see as he passed my moms house on his way to deliver the Daily Blog to those without a computer. "Hello George" I would call to him, "Hello my dear" he would reply. We would chat about the state of the Labour party, the wonderful regime change in America and the how the world could be a better place. I'll miss Comrade George, but he leaves a great legacy and inspires generations and generations to never give up on hope and freedom. "without struggle, there is ...

" All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages" - William Shakespeare Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Linkedin have now become our new, modern international stages. The mega arenas where we unashamedly, without faulter, launch ourselves upon a suspecting world wide audience. Every day of the week, 24 x 7, you can find us. Would Shakespeare be agassed? I have friends on Facebook that I never speak to now. But their lives are played out for us all to see.... news on their new girlfriends, the new wives, the new children, the broken boiler, the car they desire, the TV ad they watched yesterday..... and on and on and on it goes. All that chatter, all that NOISE!! How very apt that I should go and see The King's Speech last week. A great film. A time when as my mom tells me "life was slow" and everyone had a very private life. A life w...

Today is the day when all us people out there, say enough is enough, and have a have a National Day dedicated to our selves. Yes lets celebrate National Me Day. We deserve it. Lets get to know ourselves again today. Lets do it for us. Forget the 100 and 10 things that have been piling up, burn the To Do list, say "whatever" to the system. Today of all days, just listen to the Me voice that says " You deserve a Me day" Well, I thought about this, I thought about that; deep into contemplation considering the relative merits of life, the universe and my top priority of whether to go for another cup of tea with a custard cream, when a package noisly landed on the mat. It was a package containing a book. Some kind soul had passed a book to us as part of National Book Night. " All quiet on the Western Front" I have never read this book, but I shall read it. I hear its quite a famous book and quite a deep book too. Needs a long train journey to do it proper just...

".... Shiny happy people having fun...." REM Oh thank the Lord for happy people! Where would we be without these unbelievably cheery people to help us on our way? They have unlocked the secret code to lifelong inner smiliness, contentness and happiness. I decided to join the merry crusade earlier this year. Yes me, the non conformist! After a year of being surrounded by problem seeking, issue stating, concerned about bloody everything in the world manic tribes, enough was enough! I now see a world full of hope, full of wonder, full of mountains ready to be climbed again :) Yay! to the happy people!!