New Year, New Blog - Day 53

Day 53.

The bump day as someone told me. At least I think thats what it was called. It wouldn't be called the hump day would it? The middle of the week when the next weekend is closer than the last. As Wednesdays go, it was a good one. A might have made a kid cry (it might have been that he got homework), finished some coursework with my year 11s, made rice/pasta salad with year 8s, got told a simple joke in my year 10 class and then was on riot control with year 9s. I won't explain the joke as it was a long one but it did make me laugh. After work was rugby with year 7s. It was cold out there and I decided not to take a jacket. It was a good session and I felt I contributed quite a lot. I was glad it finished though as I was freezing!

For all who didn't know, I recently learnt how solve a rubix cube. I can't do it in under 10 seconds or anywhere near to that sort of time but I can do it pretty quick. Anyway, I wanted more of a challenge so I brought a 4x4x4 rubix cube and a 5x5x5 rubix cube. I just have to learn how to do those ones and then I'll change my name to rainman!

My plan for the night is to watch more of The Sopranos, I have almost finished season 1 in 3 days. Yeah, its that good. 

I will leave you with this picture and caption that I saw on Twitter.

Blimey! Are B&Q trying to take on Anne Summers?...

Until tomorrow.

Jim

New Year, New Blog - Day 42

Day 42. 

The first day of half term, mums gone away for the weekend, Sam didn't have work so there was no excuse or reason for me to wake up early. 7.30am and I'm wide awake. A great start to the day. It did give me chance sort out my external hard drives and enjoy a lovely breakfast made by dad. 

My main 1 TB external hard drive, was acting weird and sluggish early on today and then decided that it wouldn't work altogether. So my afternoon has been dedicated to scrolling through forums, trying all sorts of fixes/paths/command promts and lots of other things to get my external hard drive working again. Everything I have tried so far hasn't worked but I will keep trying. This hard drive had everything on and WAS my backup. Films, music, tv shows, photos, university work, programs and software on it. Over 650GB worth, all unaccessable at the moment. I was getting slightly hacked off with it earlier. So annoyed infact that I put it outside in the cold for an hour! That didn't help matters though. I'll have a crack at it tomorrow.

It did stop obsessing over it for a couple of hours while I watched the 6 nations. England played away at Italy this afternoon. The strangest thing to see was the snow on the pitch. Most of the pitch was white, England were white and so was the ball. England could have used it to their advantage. Italy played incredible. They fought so hard and deserved to win the 1st half. They dominated possession and territory in the 1st half and should really have scored more points. Italy did have some very good passages of play and the forwards put up a good fight until Martin Castrogiovanni went off injured in the 33rd minute. He was overpowering in the scrum and was causing problems for England so it was a huge loss for Italy when he went off injured. The 2 tries in 2 minutes that Italy scored were vital for putting England under a lot of pressure for the 2nd half. England were far more dominant in the 2nd half and looked the much better team in attack. Italy had a great defence and credit where credit is due, it only got broken once by Charlie Hodgson charging down a ball which lead to a try. England were good at retaining the ball and shipping the ball wide. Making use of the whole back line was a huge positive from todays game. The new caps are gaining confidence and looking good with ball in hand. This England team will go far with Stuart Lancaster in charge. I wonder how the RFU will screw things up this time?

Dad, Samantha and I had pizza hut for dinner tonight. I can say that I will never eat pizza again. I am so full up. We had a hot one with jalapeno peppers on, a bbq chicken with cheesy bites crust and Sam had a cheese and pineapple stuffed crust. And now I'm hungry again but we have no pizza left.

I hope to get my hard drive working again tomorrow so I will let you know how it goes. 

Until tomorrow.

Jim

New Year, New Blog - Day 41

Day 41. 

Half term is here! A week, without pesky kids annoying me, winding me up or making me aggy. Perfect!

Yesterday I told you that I had been at the Simpson Autocare in the evening and I left you all in limbo as to whether Penny the Peugeot started. She did not start. So a hammer was used and after some gentle pursuasion, she spluttered into life and roared! It was an amazing and satisfying feeling that Chris and I had done that. Penny sounded magnificant. She then decided to make a terrible knocking sound just like before with the old engine. My heart sank a bit but then she stopped making the knocking sound and then it started again. I'm hoping that it will be something simple but like everything else with my stupid car, it will be complicated and very expensive. There are some photos of the rebuilt engine and Penny in all her shining glory.

The rebuilt engine.

And again.

From another angle.

From the back.

Penny looking and feeling cold and miserable.

Everything in place and connected.

Just needs to be fired up....

 It just means I'll have to wait a little longer to be able to drive her. 

Todays discussion will take place tomorrow. I am not pressured by time tomorrow so I can get a lengthy discussion going. 

I hope everyone has had a good day.

Until tomorrow.

Jim

New Year, New Blog - Day 39

Day 39.

So I forgot to set my alarm last night and therefore didn't wake up when I should. I was woken up by mum banging on the wall. Oops. Todays walk to work was a little slipperier than yesterday but also more fun. I almost fell over a few times, thankfully I didn't.

With regards to the Spinal Tap issue of me not knowing if they were real or just for the movie, Jen helped me out. She informed me that they were made just for a TV show and then the film 'This Is Spinal Tap' but got quite popular and released albums and did some live shows. I might have to invest in some of their music as it was pretty good.

Work was easy today. With year 10 and 11 its just getting coursework finished and year 7, 8 and 9 were the normal lessons with lots of noise and an average amount of work being done. Nothing interesting happened except being called a legend by my year 9 class and reciting Anchor Man and Step Brothers quotes at lunch time. If Jen was there for that then it would have been pure awesome.
There was no rugby for year 7 after school today. I think the ground is still a little frozen as it still has snow on it. I'm quite happy about that as it was bloody freezing again!

Mark from work gave me a couple of hundred songs from Bacobens Rock Top 500. They are my type of songs and I'll name some of the artists from it. Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Derek and the Dominos, The Beatles, The Who, The Doors, Pink Floyd, The Eagles, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Yes, Jefferson Airplane, Jethro Tull, Lynard Synard and so many other classic artists. The music from artists like them is timeless, from the golden age of rock and without doubt, my favourite type of music. I have been listening to it since about 4pm and I'm not even halfway through the tracks. It could last a lifetime and I would still want to keep listening to it. Its that good.

Thats all for today. Nothing interesting has happened but I have enjoyed myself with the music.

Until tomorrow.

Jim.

New Year, New Blog - Day 38

Day 38.

A normal, quiet day for me. It was an easy day at work with very little to do, so tonights blog will very short. I think the only interesting thing that happened was walking Annabelle across the icey school car park. The car park was like an ice rink and I can't believe that it hasn't been cleared. With 100+ cars being driven in to park, one would think that there would be a safe place to park. Obviously its not that important.

When I got home, I watched This Is Spinal Tap. Its a mockumentary and I'm not sure if Spinal tap is a real band or just made up for the film. Can anyone help me? I think they are a fictional band but are a real band. I don't know. I really liked the film considering it was released in 1984 and it was quite funny. The story is they are promoting there new album in the U.S and its called 'Smell The Glove' but most of the gigs, concerts and venues they want to play at keep cancelling. I'd recommend it and would rate it quite highly at about 8/10.

I have found a new band I like listening to called Seether. What I have heard of their music so far I like. I can't say much more on that because I don't know anything else.

As I said, a normal day.

Until tomorrow.

Jim

New Year, New Blog - Day 37

Day 37.


So much has happened today and the biggest thing has been in the cycling world. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)has found Alberto Contador guilty of doping during the 2010 Tour de France. He was tested positive for clenbuterol, a drug that helps you lose weight and and gain muscle, on the second rest day of the 2010 TdF. The ban means Contador will lose race results dating back to and including the 2010 Tour de France. Andy Schleck will become the 2010 Tour de France champion while Michele Scarponi is crowned winner of the 2011 Giro d'Italia. 
Contador’s positive test dates from July 21, 2010, although the case was not made public until September 30 of that year. In February 2011, the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) officially cleared Contador, accepting his explanation that the traces of clenbuterol in his sample had been caused by consuming contaminated meat.
In March, both the International Cycling Union (UCI) and the World Anit-Doping Agency (WADA) formally announced their decision to appeal the matter to CAS, who in turn announced that a ruling would be made ahead of the Tour de France. That turned out to be a false dawn, however, and after a number of delays, the hearings were finally held in November 2011. In the intervening period, Contador had added to the Giro d’Italia to his palmares and finished fifth at the 2012 Tour de France.
Contador's ban ends on August 5th, meaning he can ride this year's Vuelta a España.

I don't think he did it intentionally. There was a case for him not knowingly eating the contaminated meat which wouldn't have resulted in a ban but I guess that didn't happen. The UCI are looking for a scapegoat, someone to blame and make an example of and they have picked a genuine champion, a winner of all the Grand Tours, and made him 'one of the bad guys'.
I read somewhere that the amount was 400 times less than what is needed to be detected to result in a ban, so why ban him?  There are lots of other factors and a 4000 page document that CAS had to review before making their poor decision.

I will have more to say on this as it keeps coming out in the news and if there will be an appeal, so keep reading future blogs.

The Superbowl was on last night and no I didn't stay up all night and watch it. I started watching it when I got home at 3.45ish and I'm still watching it. I have no idea of the downs and yards etc but some of the hits are awesome. It seems quite a tough game but not as tough as rugby. I would tell you who wins but I still don't know.

The snow was interesting at work today. What do ALL kids want to do in the snow? Thats right, throw snowballs. I think the senior management were a little bit surprised by this and expected ALL the kids to not want to be out in the snow and throwing it at each other. Puzzling isn't it?

Time to finish the Superbowl and play a little Call of Duty.

Until tomorrow.

Jim

New Year, New Blog - Day 34

Day 34.

An interesting day at work. It was one of the few days when I couldn't be bothered to get into arguements or keep telling the students to put their phones away or to stop eating. So as long as the teacher didn't see then I couldn't be bothered to stop them. I did get a piece of chocolate orange out of it for not grassing on them. I didn't have a lunch today either as I chose to go to a lesson that I wasn't meant to be in. So I ended up having 6 lessons instead of 5. After work I did a mega workout with Woody and Jules. My back hurts a little bit now but I thought it was quite easy. Friday nights are when I help at the youth club. We were quite short on helpers tonight but it was still lots of fun, until an immature little teenager decided to draw on my arm. I'm only joking about the immature part.

The discssion topic tonight is:


How can England win the Six Nations with three new caps blooded against the Jocks?

First of all, England have minimal chance of winning the 6 nations. They are coming off the poorest world cup performance ever and have less experience than any other team in the 6 nations. The world cup was an embarassment. Although they made it out of the group stages with a stumble, they tripped and fell flat on their faces in the quarter finals against France, a team low on morale and respect for their coaches.


Out with the old.

The old faces have either retired, been axed from the elite squad or just slipped away from spotlight with their dignity intact. The most high profile retirement in recent years was Jonny Wilkinson. He was one player that gave his all every time and will sadly be missed. He wasn't expected to play in the 2007 rugby world cup let alone 2011 RWC. He has held the record for highest international points scorer, record for highest 6 nations points scorer and various other achievement that won't be broken for a long time. 
Lewis Moody the captian for the past 18 months, retired from international duty in October 2011. He led by example from the moment he won his 1st cap to the last second of his last game in an England shirt. At times he was the best in the world and at times he oversteped the line but never gave up leading by example. 
Others name missing from the team sheet include Mike Tindal, Shontayne Hape, Mark Cueto, Andrew Sheridan, Simon Shaw and Nick Easter. Most had a glittering career at the top of their game, some seemed like they could offer more but didn't.


In with the new.


There are several uncapped players in the squad and names that should have been in a long time ago. Chris Robshaw has been deserving of a chance to play for England for so long and he has finally be given a chance. Not only that, he has been made captain as well. Several Northampton Saints players have made it into the sqaud and they too have been deserving of a chance. Lee Dickson, Tom Wood and Phil Dowsen have all played exceptional for the past few seasons.

Englands don't stand much of a chance against a very physical, determined Scotish side tomorrow. They have had a major retirement in Chris Paterson last year who wanted to retire at the top of his game, and he was one of the most consistant kickers in the world. Scotland also have quite a dynamic backs division with Joe Ainsbro breaking the line regularly and one of the Lamont and Evans brothers using their speed and agility to finish. England should be able to match in the forwards but I think Scotland will turnover more ball and have more possession.


Whatever the outcome, it will be a good game. It always has been a hard fought contest for the Calcutta Cup.


I hope you have enjoyed the read. Its getting late now so I best be off to sleep.


Until tomorrow.

Jim

New Year, New Blog - Day 30

Day 30.

I didn't think I'd get to 30 posts. I thought I would get bored and give up or forget a few days and not carry on. But we are almost at February and I'm going strong. So once again, a huge thank you to all who read, have read and are going to read my blog posts. It makes me feel good about writing it. 

Today was different at work. Well everyday is different but this was not a normal day. It was pastoral day which means each tutor group stays together and does various activites throughout the day. I was given the honour of working with one of the craziest young boy I have ever met. The subject of this pastoral day for year 8 was sex and relationships. They were learning about different situations they might find themselves in and how they would handle it. It wasn't the most exciting thing to part of but we had some giggles along the way. They also learnt about different forms of contraception which freaked them out a bit, but I guess they have to know that stuff. All in all it was a good day at work but I am also very glad pastoral day is once every half term.

After work I went to the cinema with my sister Sam, to go and see Haywire. I lost a bet sometime last year and agreed to go and see the next 5 films with Channing Tatum in. He is Sams favourite actor and she is crazy in love with him. We were the only 2 in the cinema which felt very odd and I just kept talking out loud because I could. I can't really tell you what the film was about because it wasn't clear at all. It was meant to be a thriller but it lacked any go and substance. I think the story was about a CIA agent getting set up on a mission to be the fall girl and targeted by her employer. The only good thing about the movie was some of the fight scenes and when the film ended. It was a real let down. 

When we got back from the cinema, I headed to the gym. I'm fed up of being fat and lazy so I just packed a gym bag and went. I did 40 minutes on the cross trainer which felt amazing and then 2500 metres on the rowing machine. Every 250 metres on the rower I would stop and then do Russian twists or press ups. I felt a bit wobbly on the way home and felt sick that I had worked so hard. 

That was my day. It was a busy one for me but I feel good! Tomorrow I will mention some motivation videos that I have been watching that have made me want to get back in real good shape.

Until tomorrow.

Jim

New Year, New Blog - Day 26

Day 26.

Payday! Wahoo! It feels good knowing I have money in the bank. I just need to save it for various things next year.
My day was pretty cool, a relaxing atmosphere at work was what I needed, but by lesson 5 I was ready for a nap.  Lessons 1 and 2 I was with the same class, year 7s. They make me laugh so much. In maths, the subject was angles and triangles. One of the boys couldn't pronounce isosceles and called it islosausages and just kept laughing everytime he said it. To end the day was textiles then science. In textiles they were carrying on with their cushion covers which meant I was being used to cut out fabric and pinning. Real macho work. In science I nearly fell asleep. Not because it was boring, it wasn't. But because I was so tired. The class made their own universal indicator from red cabbage and tested different different acids and alkalis. They loved the practical element of the lesson.

After work, I went straight to the workshop at Simpson Autocare. Chris had is brother working with him today to fit a timing belt for Penny the peugeot and another car. The speed at which they both worked was incredible. I was lost as to where all the nuts and bolts went. Chris and myself made a real mess of the workshop. Had a major oil spill and it required sand to soak up/stop the oil flow spreading.

Just some fun Sam and Chris had.

The sand is covering up the oil spill. That shiny part is the bottom of the engine.

The old engine on its side with more oil spilling out.

A close up of the oil spill.

The spill wasn't anyones fault, we did drain the engines before but this was just what was left in the sump (that big rectangle looking thing).We did manages to get most of the parts on the new engine so all we have to do on Saturday is put it back in the car.

When I got back from Simpson Autocare, I had a lovely Chinese and started writing my blog. I did put on Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

Anyway, time for bed now. Thanks for reading. I will have a topic tomorrow night and might have a question as well.

Until tomorrow.

Jim

New Year, New Blog - Day 24

Day 24.

It appears I made a mistake in yesterdays blog. I called the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film The Fountain of Youth. Its actually called On Stranger Tides. I appologise about that. 

Today was a boring day by all accounts. Only 2 of my lessons were good ones, btec sport and science. The other lessons were dull and uninspiring. I won't go into details as there aren't any, but I didn't do a lot. 

After work I went straight to Chris' workshop at Simpson Autocare to continue to work on Penny the peugeot. I won't write too much but I have lots of pictures to show all of you.

Chris removing the last few bolts

The old engine coming loose

Yes, that is an old seatbelt taking the weight of the engine.

Penny, without her engine.

The complete front end taken off.

Her old engine with all the parts on that need to be transfered to the new engine.

Another viewof the front.

Another view of the old engine.

The new engine all cleaned up.

Same as before.

Other side of the new engine, looking a bit grubby.

The new engine but really dirty.

A before shot of the engine I cleaned it.

The new engine from side view.

What Chris and I did tonight was to take out the drive shafts so we could remove the old engine from a bracket holding it in and then finally removed it from the car. It was my job to clean the new engine while Chris removed parts from the old engine. 

Tomorrow after work, I plan on going to the workshop again and doing as much work on it as I can.

That is all for tonight, I'm tired and need my beauty sleep. 

Until tomorrow.

Jim 

New Year, New Blog - Day 23

Day 23.

After 10 hours sleep, I still didn't want to get up this morning. Its not the getting up that bothers me, its the waking up part. I know a lot of people are not 'morning people' but I am not one of those people, well maybe at the weekend.

So the past week, we have had our bathroom redecorated and had a new bath fitted. This has been an annoyance in the morning as I have not been able to shower properly. The new bath looks really good and is massive. Mum has been working really hard on the tiling and that has turned out really well.

Work was fun today and I didn't want my science lesson to end. Jen was teaching the class about alkali metals and how reactive they were. She did an experiment where she put a piece of Lithium, Sodium and Potassium in a bowl of water and the class watched what happened. Potassium was the best one to watch and soon some of the class asked what would happen if she put in the alkali metals which were more reactive. The class were a little disappointed when they were told it wasn't going to happen but the video she showed was good enough. Brainiac Alkali Metals is a link to the the first video and Alkali Metals: Explosive Reactions is a link to the second video. I recommend you watch them, there awesome. 
That was the highlight of work but I did have a Chinese for lunch and the prawn crackers were lovely.


When I got home, I watched Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mans Chest. I started watching the films over the weekend and they are quality films. I think it makes pirates sound cool and hard working. Of the four Pirates of the Caribbean films, I dont have a favourite one but the Fountain of Youth is not the best one. Which Pirates of the Caribbean film is your favourite?


I watched 2 episodes of 24 season 6 with dad after dinner. We always watch it together and both love watching it. They are so detailed and just my kind of programme. 


Thats all for tonight.


Until tomorrow.


Jim

New Year, New Blog - Day 20

Day 20.

Ok, so I have been made aware and I have noticed myself how this has quickly turned from a blog to a diary. Some kind old lady at work has suggested a few things I could do to 'jazz things up'. She says it would be a great idea to not just talk about what has happened during the day or a topic, but offer my views on the subject, like the news. It would also be a good idea if I asked a question or took a poll on a subject. When I ask a question, I'll also ask the same one on Facebook so people can still answer it.

Friday is such a good day for me. I get to see my wonderful year 10s in Btec business studies, my awesome year 8s in english and my adorable year 7s in science. During business studies, a young lady refused to work and I had a little chat to her about an example of when I was at school in the same situation and how I had to deal with it. She did laugh at me as I was a lot worse off than she was is and she did eventually do some work. I felt good for using an example from my own life and helping someone else with it. My year 8s are a lovely bunch. There is such a range of characters in the class I dont know how I handle them. That one lesson I see them in is my favourite lesson of the week. Nothing exciting happened in the lesson today, but the boys all think I'm an assassin who went to assassin school and this job is only a cover for my assassin lifestyle. I play along of course and make them laugh so much. I can't tell them about any of my assassinations or missions as they offically didn't happen. The day ended with year 7 science and I had the honour of taking about 7 kids and doing an experiment with them on my own. I wont go into the sciencey part of the experiment but we heated up an empty coke can with about a CM of water in the bottom on a bunsen burner. Once we saw steam coming out of the can, I picked up the can (I was wearing heat gloves) and plunged it straight into cold water. What we saw was the can implode instantly. It was pretty cool to see.

Once I got home, I watched the newest episode of The Big Bang Theory. It was hilarious! I cant remember any funny parts but I laughed a lot! The character of Sheldon is a genius!

Friday nights I help out at a Christian run youth club called FAST (Friday At Seven Thirty). Tonight was rather special, James Bell got a trend going Twitter about #fast. It was awesome to see so many of the youth tweet and get their views out into the digital and real world. The tweets just kept going and I know that 1000's of people around the world were reading.


The topic that I want to talk about tonight is the bill going through the U.S Congress about SOPA (stop online piracy act) and PIPA (protect IP act). From what I can understand, these old men of America want to pass a law that makes it illegal for any website to promote/show/link to any copyrighted content. I think thats about right, well, in a nutshell. Personally, I think were at a place where the internet is the most important communication tool on this planet. Trying to regulate what is on the WWW is like trying to censor what people talk about on the phone or text. It can't be done. It seems like America is once again bullying her way around the world because something has happened they don't like. So if websites hosting copyrighted material or links were closed, then YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and all the other social networks would close. But why wouldn't iTunes close? Or Spotify? What does everyone else think? Should SOPA and PIPA be passed?

I have plenty more to talk about and I'll post a question on Facebook (if the U.S Congress allows it) about SOPA and PIPA.

Thank you all for reading.

Until tomorrow.

Jim

New Year, New Blog - Day 12

Day 12 was quite painful. My arms do not fully extend and they have been so difficult and sore to work with. I woke up to my alarm this morning for once, rather than sleep late. Work went really quick and I always enjoy Thursdays. Nothing exciting happened although one little year 7 forgot which hand he wrote with.

When I got back from work I watched the second part of Treasure Island with dad. It was an awesome 2 part series and will be watching it again. We also watched University Challenge to see how clever I am.

Thursday night is Xbox night with Tim and 3 of his friends, but we could only get 3 of us playing at a time. I even bought UNO on Xbox arcade for £5 and it still wouldnt let us play together. Any suggestions as to why this is happening would be greatly appreciated.

It Friday tomorrow and it will hopefully be an interesting day. I need to think about more to blog about. I did have a suggestion of putting some pornographic material on here to make it more interesting, but I don't thing that would go down well.

Anyway, more to blog about later.

Until tomorrow.

Jim

New Year, New Blog - Day 11

Day 11 continued with yesterdays comedy of errors by my iPhone dying overnight and my alarm not going off. Thankfully I only over slept by 10 minutes this time. 

I kept waking up through the night and I could not straighten my arms whatsoever. It was much the same throughout the day, not being able to straighten my arms. I feel tonight might be much the same. 

Work was fun today, I made scones in food tech. It was the messiest lesson I have ever been to and one of the most enjoyable. That was the highlight of the day with the other lessons quite fun as well. After work, I helped with the year 7 rugby training. They played one big game for about 40 minutes but they enjoyed it. They have a game on Saturday away at St. Martins. 

I got some bad news about my car. She needs a new engine. The new glow plugs didnt solve the probelm, although they needed replacing anyway and now I get to help Chris change engines. It will be fun to do and afterwards I'll have a spare engine that I can take apart and learn from. I might be able to repair that one and sell it. So that bad news got me down a little bit so I decided not to go spinning and watch Transformers in bluray on my new TV. It is awesome!!


Anyway, thats all I have for today.


Until tomorrow


Jim

New Year, New Blog - Day 10

Day 10 started with me waking up 20 minutes late as I forgot to set my alarm last night. The day that followed was just a comedy of errors. Work started with a year 11 English lesson but most of them were in a GCSE exam so that lesson was spend going over coursework that should have been finished by now. Next was maths but that was boring. At lunch I did something that I've never done before. I took a phonecall in the staff room. It did result in me going for a walk to pass a message on. 

After work I did a kettlebell workout with some colleagues. It involved 10 chin ups, 21 swings with the kettlebell and 15 push up. I just had to keep repeating this for 10 minutes. It was very very tough. After this I did some ski sits and a few other leg workouts. I'm going to be aching tomorrow.

When I got home I finished the end of Reservoir Dogs. I have to say I'm a little bit disappointed by the ending. It wasn't how I expected and I now I finished the film, I don't think I like it. 

I bought a new TV stand today from Sainsburys well Dad did but I paid for it, and he discovered one of the glass bases was shattered so we took it back and exchanged it for another one. I started to put that one together and found that some parts were missing. So dad drove all the was across Chelmsford to Sainsburys to ask someone on customer services for some replacement parts. Now its all set up and looks amazing.

While writing this I have been watching a program called Rogue Baboon: An Inside Nature's Giants Special. Its about a huge male baboon in South Africa. Its really interesting. 

Thats pretty much all for today.

Until tomorrow

Jim

New Year, New Blog - Day 9

Day 9 was fairly quiet and went really quick. Nothing interesting happened today, it was a normal day. I enjoyed all my lessons which is unusual for a Monday. My 1st lesson of the day was a btec sport lesson and it took me a while to wake up and focus on the what the teacher was talking about. Once that was finished I went to a science lesson and learnt some science stuff. Then onto maths then business studies before geography ended the school day. 

When I got home I started to watch Reservoir Dogs for the 1st time. I havn't finished it yet and what I saw of it I really enjoyed. But after an hour of it, I fell asleep and had a little 30 minute power nap and felt great afterwards. Lets hope I can sleep tonight!

I have a something to ask of my readers. I'm petrified of flying, and my family are going to America to visit family for a holiday in the summer. They went 2 years ago and went to New York and I didn't go because I am afraid of flying. They had such a wonderful time and I was left at home. I hate flying and even get scared just thinking about it and sometimes can't be in the same room as people who are talking about flying.

Could I be pursuaded to go even though I am so scared of flying? What would you do? I probably won't go as the fear is too much for me, but is there anyone who could help?

I think I'll finish on that note tonight. If you can offer advice then please do. 

Until tomorrow

Jim

New Year, New Blog - Day 5

Day 5 was quite a bit better than yesterday. I had a quiter day at work, which is always a bonus, I saw my favourite class, heard a funny story and saw a hilarious situation! Unfortunatly I won't mention whose in the class (child protection etc), the story isn't suitable to repeat and the hilarious situation, well, you'll need to ask me about it.

The weather was so bad today. Wind, rain and cold is a bad combination unless your are weatherologist. The wind messed up my hair as well. Only one more day until the weekend, wahoo!

 I've been really lazy today since I got back from work. I got in and went straight on the xbox for a whole 5 hours. It was an awesome session as I was gaming with an old friend called Tim, who make the experience that much more enjoyable. 

 Tomorrow is a very special persons birthday and she might get a surprise at work, but I wont let her know about it.

Mum showed me how to get a visitor counter on the blog and will be doing that in the next few days. Hopefully I'll be able to get the numbers ticking over. I'll also have to turn on email subscriptions so all you wonderful people dont miss a thing, and if you want to leave comments then that is also cool.

I was going to write something else but I seem to have forgotten it now.... I remember, I find that everyday, there are more and more people reading these blogs and I am always humbled and appreciate the time you all take to read my blogs. So thank you very much everyone :) 

Blog again tomorrow.

Jim