Yes…6 whole months since I last blogged… Laziness and issues with wordpress…
So now I’m back! Engineering chef will now be incorporated on this page as basically I can’t be bothered doing more than 1 blog!
Summarising the last 6 months… Claire coming back was the highlight 
lost 2 1/2 stone in weight that I promptly put back on, not driven my car in 3 months, still in the same job(!), a new life in this world and 1 tragically cut short 
, weddings, new pets, and…more cacti!
A full blog soon
Here you are wife-san
6.51am Alarm goes off… press snooze and go back to sleep.
7.00am Alarm goes off again. Monday already? Where did the weekend go?!
7.05am Make breakfast and realise I didn’t make a box of salad for lunch this week, oh well left over veg from last night for lunch today.
7.07am Realise Rachel’s favourite food isn’t on, so watch Crystal Maze instead.
7.35am Leave for work realising that this could be the last day I take my car to work as hopefully I should be getting a works van.
7.48am Realise the road into work is closed and have to do a detour halfway round Renfrew to get there.
7.53am Meet my colleague Marcus in the car park. Ask him how he got on with his second job interview. He’s quietly confident and says if I see him dancing he’s been offered the job!
8.00am Filling out weekly time sheets for work. I have to justify every working hour, but surely I’m not working doing this so how can I justify it?
8.45am Wondering around twiddling my thumbs not sure where I will be going today
9.07am Marcus dances by the office window… guess what he’s just found out!
9.20am told to go to a customer in Thornliebank called Turner Aviation to see if there is any more electrical work I can do on the machine guards
9.40am Arrive at Turner’s and go round all the machines we are fitting guards to and assess the state of play.
10.15am Phone boss, Jim to tell him there is some things I can do but still waiting for parts to be ordered in. He tells me to do what I can. Turner’s were supposed to have got an electrician in to put emergency stops and isolators on some machines, then we were supposed to go in after him and fit and wire up guarding. Turner’s haven’t held up their end of the bargain so we will have to do it now.
10.30am Start wiring up guard on pedestal drill
12.00pm finish wiring guard on pedestal drill
12.00pm-1.00pm Faff about pretending to look busy before lunch
13.15pm tidy up some cables on a machine done previously
13.20pm Have to go back to the factory to get 4 screws to carry on with the machine I’m about to start
13.30pm Sit in car and have lunch, play Zuma which I have just downloaded onto my phone. Forgot how good a game that was but very difficult with my stubby fingers on the phone!
14.05pm Realise my lunch break should have finished 5 minutes ago! Curse you Zuma for being too addictive!
14.06pm head off on a 16mile round trip to pick up 4 screws…
15.00pm arrive back at Turner’s and carry on with my wiring.
16.15pm I find I can sneak away early when I’m at a customer’s so leave 15minutes early so I can get back home in time to talk to Claire before she goes to bed, and also too cook my tea early before I go for a cycle.
16.35pm Arrive home and switch on laptop, while it is powering up stick oven on and stick fish in.
17.10pm Finish talking to Claire in time for my fish to come out of the oven. Turn TV over to BBC1 to watch Weakest Link.
17.55pm Message from Dave asking me to call him. What’s up I wonder?
17.56pm Phone Dave. He just wonders what I’m up to and asks if I fancy going to James’. Tell him I’ll do the dishes and head along about half 6.
18.00pm Simpsons comes on so start watching it.
18.45pm Realise I have fallen asleep…
18.46pm Quickly into the kitchen to do the dishes.
18.50pm Dive into the shower.
19.00pm Out into my car and head along to James’.
19.15pm Have the first of a few herbal cigarettes
19.30pm Turn into old men a reminisce on old times, people and the things we used to do
20.00pm James picks up his guitar and proceeds to show us how good he is… Bastard!
20.05pm Dave comes out with the funniest comment of the night and compares James on his guitar to Richard Digence! Whatever happened to Richard Digence, and Phil Cool and Jasper Carrot. Which then brings up a debate about Goldenballs the quiz show hosted by Jasper Carrot.
22.00pm After several a few more herbal cigarettes it’s time to head home. Not like the old days where we still would be going after midnight on a Monday
22.15pm Arrive home and make my week’s worth of salad which I should have made 24 hours earlier and get my lunch ready for tomorrow,
22.30pm Watch the tale end of QI on Dave then the first half of Nevermind The Buzzcocks.
23.00pm Decide to head to bed and finish off the crossword from Saturday’s Daily Record. Mum has already told me she has 4 left, I have 7. D’oh!
23.09 Last time I look at the clock, fall asllleeeeeeeeeeeeeppppppppppp………………….
You seem to be the only person that reads this, wife san, so there is no point in continuing with it as we have the pictures page.
Well Claire has gone to Bangkok now, and I’m all on my lonesome The first day or two was strange but I’m slowly getting used to it. I even found myself way over on Claire’s side of the bed the last couple of nights and last night I even woke up with 3 pillows!
My health kick started yesterday. I’m not going to go straight into it feet first then grow tired of it, just gradually ease myself into eating healthily again. Yesterday I even went out on my bike! I went from Brown Mansions, along the new cycle path beside the expressway, then followed the Kelvin through Kelvingrove Park past the old ‘hood and up to near Claire’s old work. Then I came back the same way. I was out for about an hour and a half and probably did about 8 miles if not more. That was enough for me! I know for a fact I only used the bike once last year, so I will be using it more this year. Luckily after the issues getting Claire’s bike ready when it was sold, all I needed to do to get my bike road worthy was pump up the front tyre
Last night I went to ASDA to get some shopping in as Claire and I had been rather lax recently and the cupboards were bare! I went at 9 o’clock last night to the 24 hour branch in Govan thinking it would be quiet but it was surprisingly busy! My intention was just to buy a couple things the go fruit and veg shopping today at the local fruit and veg shop. ASDA had some very good offers on vegetables so I ended up buying everything I needed! I know some people would think that a single man would just buy rubbish, but I think I did pretty well. I was able to buy fish as Claire wasn’t here! Smoked mackerel and rainbow trout were the order of the day. I did trout a few years ago but wasn’t impressed but I have plans this time…
Claire has been paranoid that I’m going to turn the flat into a jungle while she’s away, so not to disappoint her, it is turning into a jungle! Claire is partially to blame tho! She bought we a sunflower garden with mini greenhouse to grow while she was away. It contained seeds for 3 different types of sunflower and 6 plant pots, so I put 3 seeds in each pot. I sowed them last Saturday and within the day they started growing, but looking at them today they are at least 2 inches tall already! Last week I also sowed some Tarragon seeds. These were to go with the herbs I’m growing already: Coriander, Parsley, Basil, Rosemary, Thyme and Mint. I used the trick my dad used with seeds for the Tarragon by placing a sheet of glass over the plant pot, and literally within a couple of days they started to grow. If I decide to grow some sage I can then go to Scarborough Fair! I also sowed some cactus seeds last week, but these are notoriously difficult to grow so I will keep you updated with how these go. I would put pictures up on flickr, but my pro account has now lapsed so I’m limited as to what I can put up
That’s all for now!
I, I’m so in love with you,
whatever you want to do,
is alright with me,
’cause you make me feel
so brand-new,
I want to spend my life with you,
they say it seems, baby,
since we’ve been together,
loving you forever,
is what I need.
Let me be the one you come runnin’ to,
I’ll never be, ah, untrue,
Ooo baby,
Let’s… Let’s stay together,
loving you whether, whether,
times are good or bad,
happy or sad,
whether time are good or bad,
happy or sad.
Why, somebody?,
Why do people break up,
and turn around and make up?
I just can’t see.
You’d never do that to me
(would you baby)?
Being around you,
is all I see.
Here’s what I want to do:
Let’s… Let’s stay together,
loving you whether, whether,
times are good or bad,
happy or sad.
(come on)
Let’s… Let’s stay together,
loving you whether, whether,
times are good or bad,
happy or sad…
Love from Lee xxx
As the Stevie Wonder song goes, the song which was the first dance at Claire and mines wedding.
It is now only 3 days until she goes off to Bangkok for 6 months, time seems to have flown by since she booked her flights and now we only have a few precious days left together. It is only 6 months and not forever, so what sort of person would I be to stand in her way of this opportunity? And although it is only 6 months I still going to miss her so much. It’s not as if I can’t look after myself or cook or clean, but she is the rock in my life the one person who is always there for me. Of course I will miss her kisses and cuddles as well when we snuggle up together watching TV
Anyway I can console myself in the fact my job is going fine. That’s 3 weeks I’ve been in the job now and they seem like a good crowd to work for and some of the guys are really friendly. But at the end of the day it is only a temporary 3 month contract I’m on so I will still look for a new job, I can’t rest on my laurels and assume that they are going to keep me on at the end of the 3 months. Also from what I’ve herd they seem to have a high turnover of electricians so we will wait and see.
I’m also going to throw myself more into eating healthily and getting more exercise whilst Claire is away too. I know I said at the start of the year I was going on a diet, but what with losing my job and Claire going to Bangkok it has all been put on the back-burner. Now I’ll have no Claire to cuddle up to in the evenings I’m going to start going out on my mountain bike again and get some miles in so hopefully it will mean I won’t be sat in snacking! Also I have shirts which I bought last year in America, and although they are in my size, they are a bit tight around the man breast area! So these shirts are an incentive for me to slim into.
Going back to my last blog about music, I’ve been in both HMV and Xavvi music stores and of the bands that I have downloaded music of recently neither store has any Cd’s of any of them! Is it any wonder music stores are going through a crisis. Itunes is the way to go!
… Equals downloading ridiculous amounts of music!
I have a wide variety of music on my laptop, but as you all know Metal is my true love. I get times where I think about downloading music but then think “what can I download?” and don’t bother. But as the above title says some days are different 
I have recently been listening to a band called Send More Paramedicsas I think I mentioned before. While on iTunes, I typed in their name and looked at what listeners had also bought. This is a feature which I haven’t used before and what a useful feature it is!
After last night’s browsing I have now downloaded some stuff by bands who I haven’t really heard before and are heavy, just like I like it! I downloaded songs by Annotations Of An Autopsy, Suicide Silence, Arsonists Get All The Girls, See You Next Tuesday and Psyopus.
I used to buy Kerrang!magazine for many years and its doubtful I would have heard of any of these bands in the magazine although it did provide me with a lot of information, and got me into a lot of good bands. The trouble with it is that it only covers bands that are popular at the time, so you don’t really get to hear about more “underground” bands. I suppose this is where the internet has become a useful tool.
I love buying Cd’s but between myself and Claire we have over 1000 in our collection, which is why I now download music onto my laptop. If I was to have bought albums by some of the bands I have downloaded, to be honest I don’t know where I would put them all!
Anyway, I’m off to ROCK OUT!!!
I am working again! Thankfully. I has been almost 2 months since I last used a screwdriver in anger! The new guys seem alright so far and as per usual in this kind of work, I’ve met people who worked in the place I served my apprenticeship in.
Looking back at one of my previous posts about not liking this time of year, this year I have been partially proved wrong. Maybe I have Seasonal Affective Disorder. We’ve gone almost 2 weeks without rain and I have been really happy, despite it being only February which I normally hate. Maybe its the rain, although I don’t mind October and November when its cold dark and rainy. I’ve come to the conclusion now that I must suffer from Post-Christmas blues!
As I said, the last 2 weeks have been pretty good weather wise and knowing that I was about to start work again,it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders and I was happy again. I had been taking a nice leisurely stroll up to the Botanic Gardens in the last week before work, sitting there in the nice sunshine with my newspaper. Oh the joys! No money though
My unexpected free time gave me a chance to catch up on my neglected houseplants. No I’m not one of those people who talk to their plants! For those who don’t know I like my cacti. I used to grow them many years ago when I was about 11 years old in Llandogo. Here is my second prize for displaying them at Newport Show:
Now when I lived in Llandogo I was able to keep them in my Dad’s greenhouse which meant during the summer months they had sunshine all day long. When we moved to Glasgow, there was no greenhouse to keep them in and I only had a small bedroom window. With my Mum’s houseplants as well there wasn’t enough room for them all so they didn’t get the exposure to sunlight they needed so they never grew that well. All that coupled with the fact I was now a teenager and started to lose interest none of these specimens now exist.
Back to the whole point of this! When I moved in with Claire, before we got married, I started to start getting some cacti again. Then when we bought our own house I started building up the collection even more and had displays of a maybe 3 in a nice pot. That was back in about October 2005, and they have since been left in their nice pots. So with my extra spare time I thought I’d better sort them out. They had been growing and I could see that but they were still in the same pots from 2 1/2 years ago, so when I came to re-pot them they were in desperate need of it, so now they should flourish
You can see more of my plants here.
I’m off to enjoy being employed again!
Haven’t done this for a while, I forgot to post this last week.
I’d just filled my car up with petrol at the petrol station in Jordanhill. I noticed there was a Porsche Cayenne parked at the pumps too with foreign plates. When I went inside to pay I spotted Nacho Novo, football “star” with Glasgow Rangers in front of me just paying. When I went back out I realised it was Spanish plates on the “car” which explained everything.
Well finally it looks like I’m employed again. I should be starting my new job on the 18th and it has been such a huge relief all round. This has been the first time I have been unemployed since I left school, I have been lucky so far work wise but when you get to my age you really need to be working. So everything is starting to look up now after a sticky and somewhat indifferent start to the new year.
You would think that having 2 months off work is great, but believe me the novelty soon wears off! Maybe if it was at a different time of year maybe, but January and half of February is not the best time. There is nothing to do, the weather is horrible, no money, you just go stir crazy sat indoors and you have to really try to relieve the boredom. I’m not one of these people who can sit behind a computer screen and surf the internet all day, I need to be doing things as well. I’ve been out for walks locally, sometimes walking up to six miles a day. It’s even got to the point where I will walk for 30 minutes just to go and get a newspaper. It has though given me the chance to catch up with house work and keep on top of it, and also I’ve had time to do some home cooking again which means engineering chef is back
The first couple of months of the year I’ve never really liked, its always been this way, maybe due to the post Christmas blues. The last few days though I’ve felt really good, the weather has been good, me and Claire have had fun (not that we don’t normally!) and things have in general been good to us. I think the fact we both have things to look forward to and we now have focus in our lives things can only get better.
Claire as you know from her blog is going to Thailand for 6 months, but that is not going to hold us back on our plans to move to Cincinnati. Claire’s cousin Anne has asked a friend of hers to help us with our CV’s so that they are more appealing to the American market and these are pretty much done, so we can now start looking for jobs in America again.
I’ll go now and enjoy the fact that it has not rained for 3 days!
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