Ahh Memories...

Ahem.

I noticed that despite the year winding on, the weather has been fairly civil, with no real rain to speak of. And so, by virtue of its very normality, the weather, or lack thereof, went completely unheeded by me, and pretty much by everyone that I speak to regularly.

A couple of days ago however, we had one very warm very beautiful day. The sun was out and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The slight breeze was cool but not cold, and even a few birds could be seen wobbling in the branches of the trees, which themselves barely moved (Of course they barely moved. When did you last see trees walking about)?

It seemed to be a perfectly pleasant if somewhat cool summer day.

the day that followed, was nondescript, nothing more than a marker on the path from Summer to Autumn. And today? Overcast, cool, with a little rain cooling everything down.

Yes, it seems that September has been struggling to stamp its mark on the year, and is even now trying to point out that it's not summer anymore. And so, as I heed these signals, my mind turns to the future. And to the past.

Why am I writing like a second year English Student? I don't know :).

No, it's that time of year, where the dreaded C word begins to creep slowly but inexorably into conversation, and even as I start planning how to handle Christmas 2009, searching ebay for presents, decorations and other acoutrements, I'm looking back with tinsel-tinted spectacles to last year's Christmas. An event which went pretty well, by all standards actually.

Why do this so early though? It's only September!
Because, I only earn about £50 a week, which is only very slightly more than you get paid for being unemployed. Therefore I have to look ahead in order to be able to make sure I have the finances that I need. I already have an idea what I want to buy one person (if they don't go and get it themselves in the months ahead) .

So, what about the recent past, the last couple of weeks.
Well, despite what the dentist said, relief was two or three days wait after my visit to the practice, not exactly the instant fix she promised me, but hey, everyone's entitled to make a mistake every now and again. I couldn't diagnose, much less treat jaw problems, so I should shut my mouth. Aha. Ha. Ha. Etc.

Eventually, the pain, if not the swelling died down, so the whole issue is a lot less thorny than it was before. I'm still reluctant to talk about having my tooth out, so for that reason I'm going to move on and talk about something else.

My Ipod, having been rebuilt the day before halloween 2007 is once again looking like an absolute dog's dinner, and having been dropped a few times, has bangs, scratches, dints, dents, dings and things all over it. In order to put this right, I've bought some new bits for it. Not only a new faceplate, in black again, but a new rear case, and a new clickwheel.
Having got bored with the white clickwheel though, I've ordered a lovely red one this time, meaning that my Ipod should look something like this when it's finished.

I haven't bothered buying the "U2 Autographed" rear case, because I stopped liking that arch-idiot Bono (and anything he touched, participated in or talked about) once he became conceited, narcissistic, and arrogant enough (he was always conceited and narcissistic, but he crossed the threshold at some point in the indeterminate past) to stop being a musician and to try his hand at getting us to all give money to Africa instead, like some kind of second rate Bob Geldof, but without the stupidly annoying offspring.

I'm not in favour of poverty, obviously, but while I'm not going to go into my views in detail on here, what I am going to say is that firstly, if he wanted loads of money to go to Africa, he should pay out of his own extremely full pocket instead of moaning about Africa's problems every opportunity he gets, like some kind of unofficial spokesman for the entire continent, to the point where U2 fans everywhere are made to feel crap for not selling their own property to raise money.
Secondly, he's conveniently forgetting the fact that a huge majority of aid that goes to Africa ends up going directly into the equally extremely full pockets of the leaders of these impoverished countries, who then go to spend said money on AK47s, RPGs, BMWs, gold plated bathroom fixings, champagne, works of art, and whore parties, a wide variety of hedonistic and fun things, that conveniently don't include anything to do with providing food, water, or shelter, for the poor of the country.
Still, I've no doubt that he's going to try to buy/adopt a small malawi orphan at some point, since that seems to be the fashionable thing to do these days.

So to ignore that little rant, suffice it to say, I don't want to be associated with that, and for that reason, the U2 signatures stay off the back of my ipod, thankyou very much.
But black and red does look cool :-). I've also bought a plastic shield thing to stick to the front of it to make suire it continues to look cool.
I've been waiting on both for about ten days, not particularly happy about that. Hmm.

So, what else have I been up to.
Well, going one better than pulling my camera off my desk, I managed to drop it 3 foot onto concrete a few days ago. Damaged? YES!
The little battery latch thing came loose and had to be superglued back on. That's it really.
No lasting effects, but it was... interesting... at the time.

Still, there you go.

My little Traser keyring turned up, and has since spent its time being generally sparkly, which is good. A bit expensive at £8.50 but then it's going to stay lit for the next 10 years, so hey :).

And that's it really, nothing else much to report. I spend more and more time looking on ebay for (Hmm, a firetruck has just gone down the road with lights flashing, wonder what's happening) christmassy stuff, and as the time creeps closer towards us, I've no doubt that I'm eventually going to have to start spending money on it.

So hey :).

Little Clarification

One thing that I will say, that I should clarify rather, having been reminded by the fire service zooming down the road, is the meaning of my comments a few weeks back;

"But tonight, seeing the wheels turning smoothly, first the crime/injury, then the ambulance and the police response, I guess it gave me a little more faith in our emergency services.

Nice one, lads"

It occured to me that the other day, that these comments could be seen as expressing - at worst - pleasant surprise in seeing our Emergency Services doing their jobs effectively and efficiently, and therefore give people the impression that I don't have a lot of respect for or trust in those Emergency services.

As you're probably aware, the posts on this blog do not represent the opinions or views of any entity other than myself, which means I can bloody well say what I want and tough luck if people happen not to like it. But I do want to point out that not only do I have absolute trust in and respect for our emergency services, but I also feel proud to have those hardworking guys and girls in my neighbourhood.
We'd all be lost without 'em, so let's all give it up for our firefighters, police officers, EMTs/Paramedics etc, and the new Yorkshire Air Ambulance guys, with their shiny and awesome new #2 helicopter :-).

Cheers people, all the best :-).