An Update on Life In 2009

Hello all you readers I must apologise for the fact I have put nothing on the Blog for some time, but a series of things have prevented this

Firstly I am still having difficulty with sitting for long periods at the computer due to back pain which I am still waiting to be resolved, also RSI in hand & arm are making tyuping painful, plus I have had problems with my voice recognition software which, I need to sort out soon.

I have been feeling tired out with all the effort getting to & from work as well as the fact that the work load has recently increased, but sadly or not I have made the decision to give up work in April and try to do some of the things I have been putting off which will be much easier when I have more energy

As those of you will know from my previous Blog, thanks to Saga I have been travelling about the country meeting people from their site, making new friends & enjoying a range of places & food

The big thing is that Debbie & I are still happily getting on together & are in regular touch, meeting often, which at times was difficult due to the problems using the train whilst engineering works were in progress, we still have not yet got to the Eiffel Tower but hope to get there soon

I have been involved in the latest fundraising concert for the Bury Shopmobility scheme which was really good with excellant performers but sadly a very small audience

Well will close for now & hope to post more often again in the future

An update on the last 12 Months in My Life

Some thoughts about the last 12 months in my life and about the 12 months

It has been a strange 12 months I achieved some positives but failed some of the other things I hoped to have done

I feel that Sagazone has definitely had an impact on my life in the last year, at this point in 2008, I was feeling lonely and isolated unsure about what lay ahead, also having problems with my health.

There were a number of things I hoped would happen, such as another trip to The Isle of Man, to see the things I had not managed to visit on my last trip, to travel to a number of viaducts and take photos of their stunning beauty, I also wanted to have more social contact with people rather than just stay at home all the time.

What in fact happened was initially I became more involved in the fantasy forums on Sagazone, I doesn't result started to meet new people at the gatherings, gaining friends as I went along, if you follow my blog you will of read mine & Debbie’s story which seems to of progressed very well and has brought me great happiness so far and a whole new range of happy experiences, the best which was the lovely thoughtful Christmas presents I received from her.

I have been to Spain twice this year once with my friend Brian for another of our photo expeditions & one on my own as detailed earlier, this last one reminded me of how lonely I felt on my own & texts were the big thing that kept me going at that time.

I have now also been to a number of meetings involving Saga and enjoyed meeting a whole range of lovely people at various places, who I would never normally of come across, also through Saga I have got chatting to a range of people on one of the forums, reading of their exploits on a daily basis & the ups & downs in their lives, in fact one of my dilemmas is how addictive it has become, even more so as people open up more and others join the group.


One of the things I have missed is being part of the Blogging community on Saga & reading the exploits of Honeycook Funky Farmer & others, as well as on here, also the strange pleasure of telling the tale of incidents in my life to an interested audience, maybe that should be one of my resolutions for next year to start up again.

One of the loveliest things that happened this year apart from meeting Debbie was to actually meet my long distance friend Sofi briefly in Birmingham for a few short hours before she had to return home again

Regarding my health I have now been extensively checked for a number of things no thanks to the NHS but still do not have any firm answers about how to become pain free at present, I started treatment with Gail a physio & have nothing but thanks for how she has helped me with the physical health problems I have, but what a strange set of exercises I have had to do to assist me on the path

I have been unable to do some of the things I hoped for last year, such as trying to do something constructive in relation to the people in the town in Zambia I wanted to visit, or to go on a safari

I did not manage to get to Penang to meet Hamster my friend & his wife, I have to accept it was partly my fault but then he came over here working anyway, so maybe we will finally meet up again.

Nor did I go on my travels round the world as I hoped to do, not sure why really I suppose a combination of health & being to busy enjoying myself doing other things so the time passed for it to happen, plus I struggled in coming to terms with giving up work & managing .

One of the other things that I enjoyed were the meetings with Brian Andy & Stewart on our outings into the local shopping centre, discussing important things such as how scary the new Master was in Dr Who and similar important topics to long & boring for you the reader to have to put up with, but which provided a pleasant interlude in our lives

Well what about the new year, firstly, at present I am trying to organise a once in a lifetime trip to Disney for myself & the family in the summer, I thought it would be so easy, but the hardest is trying to plan for a party of six, and get my head round all that needs doing for it to happen.

I am off on a special holiday in March for a week with Debbie, which I hope will be all that we wish for

Possibly at some time Brian will get another passport & we could be off on our travels again to who knows where, surely not Scarborough & the dragons again

If I can plan it I would still like to visit the Isle of Man & finally get to those viaducts in various parts of Britain, its just setting the dates I feel that prevents it.

Forgot to say I made a resolution to lose weight this year, but people have been tempting & feeding me to much food so far, this year, but I really must make an effort from this week
I saw the consultant this week & he feels giving up work is the right thing to do, also that they will try to give me injections in spine in the hope that this time they will work, but if not maybe at long last the operation will be carried out but not before I have been on my special trips

As a result I have now spoken to my boss & committed myself to finishing work at the end of March or early April, which is a little bit scary but we will see

Finally giving up work at this point in life seems to make sense, because in reality I should of finished back in 2000, but have now done another 8 years which have taken their toll of my physical health & been quite stressful more & more as the type of work I have been doing has become more complex & stressful and possibly it is time for other younger people to take on the battles so that I can have some quality time for myself

Having said that I have a feeling I will continue with some sort of voluntary work in fact the next activity is the annual concert to try to resolve in the next few weeks, which I will give you an update on when hopefully it is a greater success than the approx £5 we made last year

Finally I hope you enjoyed the read & will continue, sorry forgot to say to those of you who have followed my Blogs I really will try to do better in this coming year

Hello Fellow Bloggers

Hello fellow Bloggers & readers, sorry I have not been about for such a long time but its been a very strange year 2008

I had such plans at the start of the year I was going to go up in a hot air balloon, go to the Isle of Man visiting friends, travel to Penang & Australia as well as lots of other things

Well I joined in the various forums on Saga both the serious as well as the fantasy & setting up & running them is quite hard work, I have just checked then found the tearoom has now reached nearly 8000 posts and the village pond is also doing well.

Also through Saga I started meeting a whole range of people in different parts of the country and actually met my friend Sofi the other week in Birmingham who had travelled a long long way to meet people from Saga, all of which has also taken up time,

I will not go into any detail about myself and Debbie other than we are still running the tearoom and are enjoying each others company in the real world

I have just returned from a fortnights holiday in Spain so feel it’s a good start to resume my Blogging & tell you a little of what went on, wait for the next blog to begin

My Trip to Torrablanca

My Latest Trip to Spain



Well I desperately wanted a break it has been one of these years, so I searched all over, including Saga Travel, but found the prices so expensive for a single person wanting two weeks holiday

Finally I went to the expert Zorro, who gave me the name of a couple of hotels in a resort that did not have lots of British people

I then went to see my favourite person Dawn at the travel agents & low and behold she got me the hotel at the right dates, decent flights and even better at a good price

Oh forgot to say that Dawn tried to save me money by not including meals & a different airport transfer by minibus, surely that would be much better with all the hanging about & chatty reps plus all those stops

Everything started well I bought a meal deal at Boots which I felt was better & healthier than the odd one the people had to pay for on the flight, there were no problems on the flight nor at baggage collection, so off to find my minibus

Well I had read the instructions but where was the man with my name on a card, well after a while I re read the instructions & in the end went to the other terminal, but couldent see anyone there, well cut a long story short eventually after 15 minutes we found each other the minibus was full of others, all going to strange places which meant it still seemed to take forever to get to the hotel, what was worse was I could of got the train & been there in 15 minutes with a 3 minute walk from the station

Check in at the hotel was easy & the room was okay, but the view was the roof of green felt & I was next to the domestics room, at least it would be quiet, oh & the air conditioning worked well

Downstairs for a walk round, but hang on a minute it was a Spanish Saga holiday there were hundreds of elderly Spanish people apparently shouting to each other wherever I went in the hotel, but I did not worry & off to the beach in the sun & it was virtually deserted apart from a few joggers

Well mealtime came so down I went the place was full of those same people as in the lounge, with a small sprinkling of British, but none seemed anymore happy either, the food was self service & I quickly found a table & got the hang of the layout, what was interesting was it all tasted the same which continued through the holiday however attractive, sorry being unfair the sweets tasted different but not quite sure what LOL

Well I visited Fuengirola which was much as I remembered it & it was easy to reach by the train, I spent a number of occasions walking along the beach which was so peaceful & quiet apart from the noise of the waves, but sadly on my own

On the holiday I spent most of my time alone, apart from one nice little couple I met and a nice man I chatted to at the station one day, it seems the british now seem to stay within their own little groupings apart from the drinkers

I did some sun bathing again on my own but found due to back pain it was hard to lie on the beds for long, the one thing I did at these times was listen to my MP3 player & read the books I had brought

Well the bad news some days the sun shone but when it rained well the streets were flooded as you can see from the photo, for the last 3 days it never stopped, & the lounges were full of about 400 Spanish people again all chatting quite loud, but the Brits had disappeared yet again, so off to watch Bargain Hunt & other riveting programmes on the TV in the room mixed in with listening to music & reading

Now must say went to Malaga one day but got off at main station by mistake & went the wrong way, luckily eventually found the promenade & beach which was quite pleasant & different to the local ones, after a while I wandered back through the town & saw some of the traditional housing away from the tourist areas

Also went for a trip on the local bus to Ronda which was on a lovely day, I looked at all the touristy bits then found a lovely deserted area just off the beaten track with only the horse to keep me company which showed the valley & the town from a totally different view don’t you think

Whilst there was hungry so went into McDonalds, well it was a local one & I was served quickly, the food actually tasted better than some I had at the hotel I am sorry to say

Whilst on the holiday noticed this hill with a tower so found my way there & the view was fantastic so those of you that know me will understand that I then needed to come back at sunset to see if I could get any good photos there, I will post a few for you to see what you think

Because I was going up there at dusk I think the locals must of thought I was mad, I did worry because it was isolated that I could have been mugged or worse still have a fall then what would I do, but the photos I felt were worth the effort

Oh I forgot to mention, do you remember that I was next to the domestics room well 7.30 every morning on went the taps full for them so I was never going to oversleep was I but the they continued throughout the day until late afternoon & even worse they did my room last, well I suppose it could have been a load of drunks next to me LOL

Staying at the hotel was a young mum with 2 very young children, she looked worn out all the time, it wasent that the children were bad just boisterous, sadly nobody ever offered any help I did think of it but what would people think of some old bloke talking to her so sadly given the time we live in I dident, maybe I should start a forum on the subject on Saga

One day I saw the young mum on the beach playing with the children as I was walking along then she took some photos, when I reached her she was still taking the photos so I stopped & offered to take one of her & the children, she seemed very confused by the offer so I asked again, she was English, eventually she agreed to my doing it so I took the photos sadly that was the end, was it me feeling lonely, I felt she was so isolated but that my entering into conversation on my own would only cause embarrassment it seems such a shame I was not trying to chat her up just felt she could of done with a chat with an adult, but what do I know

On the last day it had been raining but guess what the sun came out as the minibus collected me, it was an uneventful trip back to the airport, the plane was an hour late but they had Mama Mia on for entertainment so that I enjoyed the flight, wanted to sing but thought better of it

In future have decided going on holiday on my own is not my thing, nobody to rub cream on back to chat to or hold hands this year hang on a minute don’t do those things with Brian hope there are no misunderstandings

I left the best to the last because it was Debbie that I realised I would of wanted to walk along the beach with & hold hands, whilst I was away she was in OZ but we used text each day & chatted on occasions I wonder what that says for the relationship

A Little Health Scare

I have been investigated for over 12 months for problems with my back & other skeletal problems, i am finding there are more & more things wrong, but we will see what the outcome is
Anyway back to the plot, the last consultant I saw very unusually sent me a copy of his letter explaining the findings & what happens next, no problem so far

Got to the bottom of the page & something caught my eye, Spinal Carsinosis it said, uumm said I, googled it, now no going off & trying it if you dont know what it is:) well it said it was I thought it meant, so thought this cant be true so googled again, well what to do now, uumm dont panic,

so the next day after not telling anyone, was i brave or stupid dont know, contacted consultants secretary said wanted to speak to him, but dident say why, he rang me later & we discussed the results then I said, now about these 2 little words at the bottom oh said he I was going to contact you about that, I really must apologise its a typing error it should of been an L not an R therefore calcinosis, not nice but infinitely better, we chatted about this & I was suitably relieved,

people say I should of complained screamed shouted & all sorts of other things, why did I not panic, I wish I knew, maybe its because I am a fatalist or maybe i am to daft, or maybe even I was in shock, but I think in reality knowing how the system works I had been seen by 2 consultants & my own GP so if it was so surely someone would of mentioned it before, what to make of it all relief was the best only problem is that others have told me off for not telling them of it, cant win sometimes can we

Debbie & Jeffs Story

Once upon a time there were two little fledgling owls Jeffrey & Debbie living in a tree, they didn’t really know each other & only chatted occasionally, in polite conversation. As they got to know each other they became friends as they played with all the other Owls late at night, despite the fact it was well past their bedtime Slowly they got closer in this fantasy world and Debbie Owl found out Jeffrey had back problems and gave a gentle back massages to help him feel better, whilst in the real world the two people slowly got to know each other as friends finding they shared a lot of similar dreams about life

This was despite their different situations and family responsibilities in the real world, and as in all the best stories Jeffrey Owl became quite fond of Debbie, but he had promised that they were “just good friends” so because he did not want to lose this special friend he kept to his word continuing to be friends in real life whilst the relationship developed in the fantasy

Whilst with the Owls they had adventures with the rest of the Owls but never together as a couple travelling to fantasy holidays in Dans plane Because of circumstances, the two young Owls moved with their new friends to the fantasy pub called Cuckoos, where the relationship developed both on and off the fantasy, but in the real world it was only as friends so they both said to each other and the world, whereas in the fantasy they became very close and eventually seemed to spend most nights either at Debbie or Jeffreys home, quite happily joining in the fun of the pub and going on more adventures

The most important trip they went on was to France & a special visit to the top of the Eiffel Tower, where they were happy together, but sadly Brenny turned up out of the blue and not by intent spoilt the moment, when maybe they could spoken about how they felt in greater detail

Well in the mean time the two of them together with other friends decided to attend meetings in the real world of Saga friends, the first being in Manchester, well they both looked forward to this, but Debbie Owl suddenly seemed anxious for reasons Jeffrey could not understand about the meeting But on the day they met at the local railway station with their friend Sue, after a quick mobile phone call, because they had never really spoken in the real world, Jeffrey was really pleased at what a lovely voice Debbie had, then when they came face to face they were so content in each others company, but neither mentioned this,

But they spent all the time talking to others but in each others company, sadly they had to part but were due to meet again soon in the real world In the meantime they talked about the fact that they both loved Owls and Cuckoos but wanted to do something more relaxed and gentile instead on the fantasy and out of that came their Tea For Two Tearoom, in which their roles changed within the fantasy to business partners. They chatted about what they would like the fantasy to become finding they had shared dreams about an ideal world, both in fantasy as well as the real world.

They next met in Doncaster and by now people actually thought they were a couple both in fantasy and the real world and being the people they were, they denied all of this explaining the difference plus the fact they had these two separate lives and were just good friends

By now they were chatting to each other both in chats as well as chatting on the phone, but still the relationship did not change, whilst both looked forward to the calls but trying to convince themselves that there was nothing else to the relationship, because neither wanted to be hurt or to hurt the other by moving the relationship on.

The next important meeting was that in Birmingham, when Jeffrey Owl decided he would speak to Debbie because he wanted to explain that he was becoming very fond of Debbie, but was willing to accept her friendship if that was all it was to be, because this was so important to him, but nothing happened, the opportunity just did not seem to occur for them and he did not have the courage to leave the group to talk about how he felt to

her After the meeting there the Cuckoos pub closed down and the Owl and Pussycat singles bar took its place in fantasy so again Jeffrey and Debbie were working at the pub but only as friends this time and Jeffrey had been asked to change the personality of the character that he was on the forum.

So he started to become outrageous showing varied range of avatars to amuse himself and others, then the following night despite the fact that in the real world he does not drink alcohol he did a good imitation of a drunk which both him and others enjoyed.

That night they had been talking to each other about places that they would like to visit in the world and Debbie mentioned that although she had never been able to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower in reality only the fantasy she would love to do the trip and she asked had he really been drinking, but he reassured her that it was all fantasy

Well that night Jeffrey could not sleep but couldent work out why so got up in the early hours and thought about what was bothering him, he realised that it was to do with the fact he was getting more and more fond of Debbie, but how to tell her, “well I know he said I will go and suggest that we go to Paris and up the Eiffel Tower” to see what she said

He put the computer on logged in and started writing to her, the easy bit was suggesting the trip, but then shyness and lack of confidence stepped in whilst he tried to find the right words to say how he felt but also frightened that he had spoilt their friendship, so trying to find a way to maintain that at the same time.

Now he knew Debbie would be fast asleep so he would have to wait until she read it for his reply, so got up early later that morning expecting no answer or a total rejection, switched on the computer and logged in, now as some of you will know Jeffrey writes great long pieces whereas Debbie can say the same thing in a few words.

He saw he had a message from Debbie so clicked on it and there it was, an answer very brief and the last thing that he expected although what he wanted to hear YES, that was all it said, well butterflies and all sorts of emotions went through his head, he looked and looked at it and it did not change, did it mean Yes she wanted to go or what, so he quickly sent another message to clarify and was so pleased at the response, yes she wanted to go with him and yes she was very fond of him.

Well since then they have talked and sent messages as you would imagine, but apart from a very few friends so far have not told to many people although both feel they want to tell the world, in fact it reminded Jeffrey of the song “Secret Love” when people finally are able to say how much they care for each other to everybody.

Now Jeffrey has never been good with text messages but the happy couple send each other texts, messages and have long phone calls on a regular basis, talking about how foolish they have both been in not wanting to speak to the other about their feelings before now and how special they both feel the other is.

About Paris, unfortunately it may have to wait a little because of all the other things in life, but hopefully they will finally achieve that in the not to distant future, but they are meeting very soon and finally may be able to express face to face how happy they are to of found each other

Our Trip to Blackpool

Well I'm very sorry, it has been some time since I last posted a blog, but all sorts of things seem to of been happening in my life, which I will tell you more about, in the future, but now as I promised this is a story of our trip to Blackpool last week.

Originally we were planning to go to Wales, but due to problems with the trains decided we would use Blackpool as a base, and therefore we would travel by car instead.

The hotel was a little basic but the rooms were okay, and the food was excellent, although the waitress appeared to have the same problem as I, short-term memory loss, because she was constantly coming back to check what our order was.

We did little on the first day, apart from in the evening when we went along the promenade taking a series of photographs of the sunset and the illuminated attractions, which seem to have come out quite successfully.

The next day we had a trip to the famous Bispham Chippy, we had a meal of fish and chips followed by carrot cake to fill us up, then encouraged we went to Stanley Park for opportunities to take photos of the scenery & any other things of interest

Well the park was a really good place to go because there were a range of swans, geese & ducks all with their little ones, looking really cute, plus herons & other birds, as can be seen by these photos.

We then went to the café for a drink & could not believe the notice on the wall, which amongst other things banned CARS, how did they think they were going to get through the doors, also as you can see from the photos they also banned scooters, which at the time we thought funny, imagining dirty smelly Vespas trying to come in, no they meant electric mobility scooters, which was going to cause problems for a range of customers, although they allowed dogs, maybe they behave better & make less noise :o)

That evening yet again we took some more photos along the promenade, but it was very windy so trying to balance the camera became a problem at times.

The following day we went for a look at the ship that had sunk near Cleveleys & went on the beach to get some better photos of it, whilst there 2 young ladies from the council appeared & erected banners as you can see from the photo informing us all that there was an exclusion zone & we were not to approach the ship, what is interesting is that we & others all obeyed although there was actually no barrier to stop people getting closer to it.

We went to Fleetwood for a look round & managed to get lost both going there as well as on the way back, to show how competent we were we managed to get lost on our way back to Stanley Park, which had been selected because of the fact it was such a nice quiet place where we could eat whilst listening to the bird song.

When we got there all the seats outside were full so we went inside, sadly it was full up, with a very limited supply of sandwiches & cakes for us to eat, we finally found a table just near the jazz quartet who I think would of sounded quite good if only they had sorted out their sound system, after that we managed to get lost yet again on the way back to the hotel, at least we are consistent.

Guess how we spent the evening, well you guessed it at the promenade again, but wait for it we also took a series of photos of the Big One ride to show the height & speed, not sure how well they worked out, will have to put some up for peoples comments, but we spent nearly 2 hours watching the sun go down which was so beautiful a sunset, but sadly most of the rest of the holidaymakers seemed more interested in the pubs & amusements, so never saw this sight.

The next day was the last so sadly we packed & set off home, finally one of our group had sorted out the sat nav on his mobile phone, which seemed to agree most of the way home, but then when I took a short cut it kept trying to get us to go back on route, despite it we finally got back home, hope you have enjoyed the story

What on Earth Is The Cuckoos Arms Pub on SagaZone

Some time ago I wrote a blog about Owls the forum I had joined on SagaZone, since then a small group of us created a new daytime and evening forum, Cuckoos Arms, which basically is a fantasy pub, run by ICE the manager, with a mixture of the strangest staff & customers you could ever meet in life.

Well for example I am the waiter, not very good & keep disappearing but, totally in love with Debbie who also works at the pub.

Well what can I say about “My Debbie” she is the lovely person who calls in each morning to make sure the heat is on, do the cleaning, serving as well as help to test the quality of the gin by drinking pints of it, at a time.

There do seem to be one or two strange things about this sweet innocent person, like why did she not mention these 3 sisters, who by mistake she said were her daughters, on more than one occasion and why does she have the need to tell everyone when she has been drinking that she does not wear underclothes & why does she keep telling people about some of the things I would prefer to remain quiet about the two of us.

But after all she is such a lovely person to me & all the others in the pub & is very tolerant to that Sue.

Yes now what about Sue, a flirtatious person, who is constantly looking for the next man, I feel really she is just looking for that special person, but the constantly going fishing for the person, I feel must be a little off putting to the men, whop come to the pub.

I also think her constant change of allegiance to various men is also confusing for everyone, including the days target, but I also feel sadly there is a degree of jealousy in relation to me & my Debbie which brings out all sorts of negative statements to us both

Now what does Sue do in the pub, well she goes “fishing” but what about serving cooking or cleaning in the pub I am still waiting to see her pour a pint other than maybe one for herself or the man of the day.

What to say about ICE our manager, well first I have to remember she is the boss & I need the job, so that will affect the things I say ever so slightly (well actually a lot but don’t tell her), she doesn’t seem to spend very much time at the pub, but often I do wonder why not given the quality of the staff & the behaviour of the customers, she seems to be particularly drawn to the male customers for some reason & frequently wants quiet chats with them in her office whilst they drink large quantities of alcohol.

She also keeps recruiting new members of staff, again a lot of men but they only seem to last a day or two after she has had them in her office to help her with her spreadsheet, which seems strange because she never asks me to help out with it & she doesn’t seem to look to deeply into their backgrounds before employing them.

If ever there was someone who flirts well ICE deserves medals for it, as she wanders round the men in the pub, but there again in the nicest possible way she also seems to do the same with the lady customers also, which I suppose helps the staff customer relations, I am very happy that she does not flirt with me because what would my Debbie think.

What I cannot understand is that we appear to be constantly running out of staff, food & at times alcohol, plus many of the people do not seem to pay for their drink, in particular if they are invited into ICE’s office, I do worry if she does not spend more time sorting out the pub we will be closed down.

Now how many of the other staff should I mention, in the short time we have been open I have been so confused at the number that have come & gone so I must apologise at not mentioning you all.

I do remember EMLM who actually seemed to be very conscientious, but one day just disappeared, there is Violet who I think is some sort of bar person, or customer, I do worry about the lack of clothes & her suggestive remarks to the male customers, but she seems a nice person, now I think Chukkie was employed as entertainments manager, but where has she got to & what about organising some entertainment other than the fact that the male customers seemed to like her pole dancing.

Now is my friend phizz a customer or a member of staff, we do know she will do anything apparently for a pork pie whether it is cooking serving or spending time entertaining the male customers, but she is a lovely friend to everybody if only she could find someone of her own to share a pork pie with.

What about John at 105, I am still unsure if its his age address or some other link he has not told us, what the relevance is of the 105, again not sure which category he fits in with, seems very nice until he has had, well a “few” drinks then stand back if there are any women about in the pub, I don’t know where he gets the energy from.

Now I have to say I feel very let down by David From Scotland, when we first met he seemed such a nice sort of person & I am sure he will not mind me saying a fellow TOGG, but what has happened now, between the drinking, womanising & abusive remarks to me well I don’t know at all what to say without being sued for libel.

GUC or My Pauly, well the handyman I believe, well he does live round the corner & he is good with provision of our music but most the time he is off flirting with any women or is doing the same at the pub with any of our female customers, though they do seem to like it, when it spends time chatting them up

Now the mysterious Dan, yesterday there was a hint of who he really is, I have always wondered how he could find a plane for a trip at short notice for us to go on holiday & so smooth & debonair, but so nice & kind to us all, but he seems to just drift in & out, with a fairly low profile, maybe the only normal person that comes to the pub, but I have noticed a slight flirtation with the beautiful ICE on occasions & wonder is there something there or is it all part of the illusion, they seem to speak when most of us are gone, maybe I should stay late one night & check it out

There are the customers as well, who seem to spend, so much time chasing each other or drinking huge quantities of alcohol & often not paying for it, I wouldn’t mind if Ididn’t have to clean up after them every day

There are some interesting people who have recently joined like Shoney who is lovely & seems to have something like Debbie’s magic bag (I wonder what it is) must ask some time, then there is JR, Blondie or whatever her real name is, now again, she has like Dan inferred that she is linked to the secret service, how exciting, but what an actress, she seemed a really nice person when she first appeared, but quickly seemed to spend all her time getting drunk apparently & chasing any man who dared to appear in the pub, as I have said to her what an actress she must be, but how does she cope with all the alcohol, when hiding her personality & is something going on in the pub that we don’t know about.

Well folks where do we go from here, we must be doing something right it has already had over 9000 hits from people in the short time it has been running, it seems to have a following of people who watch our antics I am told & a mixture of strange & wonderful people popping in on an occasional basis, Hi Clabby & FF, & all the others I have missed, in the blog

Trip To Spain

Well I have now been back from holiday for a few days, so thought I would just let you know a little back bit about the trip, we went back to the same hotel in the same resort as last March, so it was much easier to settle in and sort ourselves out.

One of the dilemmas was because we've taken so many photos last year of all the local sites, apart from some beautiful sunsets and some of Malaga and Nerja there was going to be nothing out of the normal I felt for me to take, I will mention at this point that Brian spent much more time out taking lots of photos, but sadly when he came to download the photos his memory card was corrupted he will have are my boring ones to show to other people.

When I went on holiday when the main things I wanted to do was to chill out and take stock of my life and to try to plan some things for the future, which I suppose I have done although I accept things don't necessarily work out in the way that we choose and fate goes along its own path, so who knows.

Because of our past experience we had the shopping off to a fine art, I knew this time the supermarket was less than five minutes walk away and we had no problems in relation to food in the apartment, Brian had been kind enough to bring me a packet of porridge which was very kind, also we knew of restaurants that we could eat out at with no problem.

For most of the holiday the weather was really good bright and sunny and I spent some time just lazing in the Sun whilst Brian went on his walking trips, I took a good supply of reading material and music which lasted me for the duration of the holiday.

I think it's worthwhile mentioning, bearing in mind the object of the holiday was to chill out, that Brian and I managed to lose each other at the airport when we started out, and also managed to lose Brian's passport on way home which are still not turned up, which was sort of stressful, but also interesting to find how easy or difficult it is to leave one country and return to another one.

We had a day in Malaga which was pleasant but seemed to be a lot of walking, but also went to Nerja which took nearly 6 hours travelling there and back, but in reality without transport there was little that we could see in our short stay there, but I had to admit that the meal there was one of the best, especially the gateau which was a strawberry one with cream that I had whilst I was on holiday.

On our last morning we had an early start, and it was quite ironic that the temperature dropped and it was warmer in England than it was there and the rain they had was much worse than that we normally have, so for a change coming home was quite positive, we realised because of the timing that we could have stayed for another week there because the Easter holidays, but at least it has given a time to rest and recuperate before going back to work.

How Not To Organise A Concert Part 2

Well good evening readers, as promised this is the outcome of the concert that I was involved in organising earlier today, was it a total disaster, I leave it to you to decide, on the other hand I suppose there were some very good positives, so here we go, I may want off a little, but I had been on the go since early this morning.

Should I mention the good bits first or last, will start with the bad debts and build up, the first was as I was getting ready to go to the concert and set things up this morning, my phone went and it was a friend of mine I was going to see later, who decided to come and visit, well time passed and eventually I had to remind him that I had things to do, at that point he put it on mini disc decided to buy a ticket which was very kind, but he never turned up at the show, plus I was now starting to run late.

The other thing that will matter as I tell the story was that I had problems transferring the music for the dances, of which there were from cassette to disc, so had put it on mini disc and took along all sorts of connections to fit the sound system.

But when I got there nobody else had arrived, but I met Brian, the manager a kindly set everything up for us just where we asked for it, just then the dancers arrived they were all female young & not called Sever but Fever, I had a feeling it was the first of a long set of problems today, well next the pianist arrived, she wanted the piano moving in front of the curtain, well that was okay but what about the 2 young people who were playing, set pieces, well we reached a compromise.

Now what else could go wrong well our intrepid sound person had got stuck in road works, so I could not try out the music, nor could the dancers, so with heavy heart I went to se how many people were outside queuing up for tickets, you have guessed it none, there were now about 20 performers & no audience, uumm.

Well eventually we set up the sound system & everything worked as it should , but then the 2 principal singers from the operatic society explained they both needed microphones, well you would be impressed with me I managed to sort that one out without to much of a problem.

Well now to the running order I wrote down the various things as instructed by Jackie & we seemed to be on our way, I was on a run I met our two talented young people Matthew & Johanna, & their mum & they seemed very organised. So over to Jackie & let the show begin, Alison & John had very good voices, next was Matthew & Johanna, playing the piano violin then Johanna, dancing, I just wish I was so talented or my children were, we finished the first half with Affetside choir doing their usual beautiful singing.

I forgot to say through all of this Fever dancers were watching & dancing along to the music, in the wings which for me was just as well because I was unable to see the show, due to being curtain person & assistant sound person.

Well in the interval I went to have a look at how things had gone on with ticket sales, well I think the volunteers & entertainers outnumbered the customers 2 to 1, but they all seemed to enjoy themselves & talking to people the various acts had enjoyed the others,

Well all seemed to of settled down we were on a roll, “oh no we were not” we should of started with Johanna doing a dance, well guess who messed up the music & the curtain not once not twice but three times, but I do have to say Johanna was a total professional putting up with me & my deliberate(if only) mistakes, her performance once she started was well worth the wait though.

Now just looking at the timetable I have spotted my next deliberate mistake, now how could anyone forget a choir of 30 people, well I did, then they started & sang & sang, I went out front & really enjoyed the whole set, but I had decided that Jackie was doing her piece & had set the stage for this, but the cue never came, why not, because I had made another minor mistake.

Finally they finished & now back to Johanna & her last set of dancing, well how could I possibly get it wrong after the last time, well opening the curtain may of helped, playing the right piece of music also, who could I blame, well me, but again what a pleasure she was again.

Now you & I would think Jeff you have had a bad run of luck but we are alright now, wrong again, it was finally Jackie’s piece, which she needed a music stand & a microphone on a stand, as well as the radio mike she already had, well what could go wrong well the mike would not work the stand would not take the wider mike so guess who was summoned to stand looking stupid holding the microphone for Jackie for the duration of her song.

Well at long last the lovely young female dancers time came, they were dancing initially to very upbeat music, then a whole range of music in different styles, but the most worrying for me & maybe our sound person was when they wore very! Short skirts for one of the numbers, I have to say at this time my back was aching with all the standing & I thought how wonderful to be so fit & capable as they & Johanna were, in fact I shut my eyes when she & one of the dancers at separate times did the splits.

Finally that was the end, I missed asking people in the audience how it had gone on but felt the applause was a true indication that people had enjoyed themselves.

When I checked we had about broken even with ticket sales against expenses, therefore was it all worthwhile yes of course it was we all enjoyed ourselves

Now for the future, never ever ever have an event on mothers or any other day like that, because this was I feel why we struggled for the acts & audience.

Make sure who is going to perform & get the publicity sorted out very early on.

Make sure that any music or other items are sorted out well before the day

Remember to check the running order & get someone else to assist where their brain works better than mine

Get people to buy tickets well in advance, so that we make a profit at least.