Social Geeks

Following the ‘relative’ success of the last meet (I say relative because a couple of people fell out afterwards but that’s another story…), I drove up to Darlington the other weekend to meet up with some fellow World of Warcraft players. Ok, so to use our WoW character names, I met up with Lapi,(Cheryl) Uri (Bri) and Undead the guild leader (Adam)  whom I’d met previously and Antek (Ant), Gotwood (Curtis), Angrysheep (Paul) and Jonnydepths (Jordan) who I was meeting for the first time. We did look a motley crew hanging outside the B&B as I checked in – yes, I was last to arrive, despite being the closest; Gotwood and Angry drove up from Dorset the previous night, Undead from Leicester.


As always with meeting people for the first time and chatting face to face rather than online, it was a little bit awkward at first but things relaxed really quickly. We chatted about all things WoW, guild progression, basically ideas to get people motivated again about the game since many are just waiting for the next expansion set to come out. I still love playing but it’s a shame Boom has gone over to the ‘dark side’, ie playing the Star Wars game now when he has time. It was a lovely sunny day – seemed strange that I was sat outside in my vest top sipping beer as if I wasn’t in a northeast town in March!

I was the oldest of the group this time, the youngest only 19 but I didn’t feel out of sorts. I was careful not to drink too much though (didn’t want to be old and disgraceful) plus didn’t relish a bad hangover the next day. Lapi and Uri invited us to their home and introduced us to their dog Lister.

All in all, an enjoyable day and night out – after a nice meal in a local restaurant (my steak was a bit overdone but it was ok), we went to find somewhere for a drink and a chat – unfortunately, it was Darlington on a Saturday night so the only place we could find reminded me strongly of Peter Kay’s ‘Phoenix Nights’ - a little working man’s club, complete with glitter ball, 3 people inside, woman singing karaoke and playing tracks from the 70s! We only stayed for one drink as the 19 year old was ready for home after trying to keep up with the men all evening.

Nice B&B, with a mini military museum-cum-bar downstairs and my hangover wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t enjoy the full cooked English breakfast the next day!

The next meet will probably be sometime after Lapi has given birth (in real life, not in game!)

Good-ish Tidings We Bring...

A recap of sorts before I do my year end posts.

Much of this month has been made up of:

•  not-so-nice days at work, I'm pretty much drowning in paperwork :-(
 
• a well-earned 4 day break to take advantage of the release of the World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm 

• our departmental Christmas lunch (since we couldn't get a night out sorted, the guys are just rubbish!) which was a good laugh, great Thai food too

• the Courteeners gig (- pictured - good music, drunken idiots throwing beer though)

• getting my tattoo touched up - apparently this is quite common on black tattoos once the skin has settled but I wasn't expecting another half hour of pain! Yowch! 

• my bad cold resulting in my taking a day off work and cancelling the girlie Christmas outing!  :-(

• cold weather and snow, though not enough to stop me from going into work (unfortunately) but cold enough to freeze my pipes so that on two occasions, I had no water, having to go to the gym to shower in the morning. After that first time, I stocked up on water just in case (need for kettle and loo!) but have recently been putting the central heating on full blast - not looking forward to the bill. 

• a lovely Christmas dinner with the glamorous C and her kids - very relaxing, good food, great company. Christmas morning, I Skyped the family - was fab to see them all, bar Sis #3 who was in Singapore with her family.

Caught up with Boom a couple of times - was supposed to meet him on Boxing Day but he couldn't get nurse cover for his mum and when I did see him the other day, he'd come straight from the hospital so hadn't brought my present with him.... Have to say that as he'd given me a pc monitor last month, I wasn't expecting anything from him.

Other presents-wise, I got a mixture of daft gifts including a WoW calendar, photo frames, CD, gig ticket, lots of alcohol, a 'Hit Girl' t-shirt but my main present is my Amazon Kindle - it's well cool, very easy on the eye, is kinda like a book when it's in its leather cover but to tie in with my usual new year resolution, I need to make sure I don't go mad with buying and downloading books for it (unless they're free books).

BTW, blog likely to change - at some point, need to sort out template, hate the standard widgets I have at the moment.

Hacked Off!

I had malicious malware, spyware, call it what you want-ware on my laptop.

How did I know? My WoW account was 'compromised, ie it got hacked and the only way it could have been done was via a keylogger - nooooo! Bummer! How did it sneak past my Norton firewall?

Anyway, after running two full system scans and downloading three different spyware programs (and pay for one of them) the offending 'infection' was identified, quarantined and removed but in the meantime, I had to keep wrestling for control over my WoW account, whilst the hacker happily sold all my character's gear and items. Yes, there are some really sad little sh*ts out there.

Ok, we're not talking about 'real' gear and items, but I have spent a lot of 'real' time (a year as posted recently) playing the game to get said gear and items. Probably hard for non-gamers to understand but let's just say I am really really pissed off and unhappy.

Spent a couple of hours on the phone to Blizzard, the company who run the game and they assure me that they will attempt to restore my account (with said stolen items) but it will take time, maybe up to 5 days.

I feel like a junkie - can I go cold turkey for 5 days? It's different when I go away, I don't think about the game but sitting at home, especially with the possibility of being snowed in again, that's a lot of gaming time I could have.

Boom doesn't have much sympathy, said not to sweat it as my account will be restored eventually. Yeah but...I feel like my laptop has been violated and the serious thing is not just my WoW account being hacked but I do all my banking and internet shopping too on this laptop - how to hide credit card numbers??

I'm going to pay for some extra security for my WoW account but is anything safe any more?

And no, I try not to go on unknown websites but I reckon I was careless and clicked on some advert or dodgy banner by mistake/in impatience whilst waiting for a page to load up or something.

*Sigh* - must learn from this.

Wow WoW!

Still not blogging properly yet, work is distracting me and I'm really disorganised. So much to do...will start at the weekend. Have some holidays left so perhaps I'll use them to get myself organised at home.

Anyway, today marks one year since I was sucked into playing World of Warcraft.

For good or bad, I'll be playing for a while - will be a long time before I get bored of it as there's always stuff to do, if not on my main character, then on other alternative characters. Plus, there's a nice little gaming community too. Stats here if anyone is remotely interested, lol!

Anyway, tonight, I saw Boom for the first time since before Christmas. More on that later, I guess.

First Body Attack aerobics class of the year tomorrow - not looking forward to it!

Spot The Ball...

On Saturday, 5 mins into the match, the white ball hit the red one and went into the back of the net.

No, this wasn't playground football, it was Premier League and resulted in Liverpool losing 1-0 to Sunderland.

Ok, you can argue that they should have scored and beaten a side such as Sunderland but the sad fact is, the current team is extremely poor when Stevie G and Nando Torres aren't playing.

The goal shouldn't have been allowed but apparently neither the ref nor the linesmen knew the rules and thought that a beachball thrown onto the pitch by a silly little 16 year old Liverpool fan was not a 'foreign object' but part of the playing field…

Seems like it's all over already and I feel so bad that I can't bring myself to watch tonight's Champion's League game, will only depress me as no Torres! :-(

Saturday was a really bad day for football - I had also travelled up to Barrow in Furness to watch Ebbsfleet United get beaten 2-0, so still in relegation, only one win so far this season, with no training ground and rapidly dwindling funds.

Anyway, on Thursday, finally spent some time with the glamorous C and gave her a belated birthday present. She's spent the last couple of months around Europe completing the project she's on and we've barely been in touch. It was really good to catch up, we went to the gym, had a good natter in the sauna.

I think she's finally got that sugar daddy out of her system as she is now seeing the Parrot as I predicted back in May.

They'd been on a few dates, I think she was wanting more but now it looks like they've reached a satisfactory medium of sorts. I hope she's happy, she's playing it cool and this isn't like her but she was smiling anyway!

Anyway, I'll miss her not being around on email and sametime at work but hopefully, will see more of her at the gym etc now that she is a lady of leisure again!

Still spending far too much time on WoW but sometimes, it's what keeps me going at work, that it'll be hometime soon and I can log in! And this won't mean anything to most but yay me!

Wrong Side Of Bed

Had a late night reading so this morning, was really tired when I got up for work - nothing new.

What was new was that I completely missed my junction off the motorway (the same motorway I've been driving down for over 10 years!) and was 5 miles past it before I realised....scary!

Fortunately, other people were late in for work as part of another motorway had been closed off - they all assumed I was caught up in that!

I mentioned here that JT from work was being made redundant after many years at the company. The day she left was a very emotional and sad affair - practically the whole business turned up to see her leaving presentation and over £350 had been collected - a record amount for our company. I have never cried when someone has left before but I did then, as did many of our female colleagues. I was crying for her, because she didn't want to leave and I was crying for the end of the business as we know it. This departure is as sure as a stake driven into the company's heart.

Quick update is that my jaw is feeling better and gum is healing nicely.

Not seen much of Boom as his mum is still not well and his dad has man flu.

Been spending too much of my spare time on WoW - need to sort out my paperwork at home it's a mess.

Bit of This, Bit of That

Well here's a desperate update, need to get back into the routine of logging in and posting but it's been so mad at work that I don't get time and when I'm at home, I'm doing other stuff.

Anyway, yeah, I had a fab holiday in Skiathos in July - I shall post about that at some point but it's really more as a momento for me, rather than anything of any interest.

So some brief bits of what's been going on with me...

Work - last month or so has seen the company's latest cull on employees. We're now sub skeleton staff, if you can have that! After the two culls last year, this latest one has meant really the best and most experienced people up against each other. The result has left the entire business shellshocked…I know no one person can be too valuable to a business and that everyone is dispensible, but really, I feel stressed just thinking about when JT, a competent lady who's been at the heart of the business for over 20 years leaves at the end of the month. She even had people in the same consultation pool vouching for her, but no, the irresponsible and the ignorant who make the decisions and who don't understand our business effectively said she didn't conform to their vision of our future managers and had to go. In two months time, it will have all gone spectacularly pearshaped and they'll be wanting her to come back but likely, she'll be away on a cruise. It's been a distressing few weeks though. Me, well sure, I'm safe for now as are my immediate colleagues but we're among the few left behind to clean up the mess…

Movies - quite a few visits to the cinema these past couple of months, including Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (Travolta was manically brilliant!) and Inglourious Basterds (Pitt was funny but the guy who played the SS officer really stole the show).

Football - well not the greatest of starts for Liverpool, I do think they peaked last year, had the title in their grasp but blew it. This year will probably be Chelski's season.

And Michael Owen in a Man U shirt…just so wrong! :-(

Non league-wise, I attended my first Ebbsfleet United match of the season, against Altrincham, which ended in a draw. The Fleet are not doing well, having only had one win so far and are languishing in relegation zone.

Have been pretty active doing MyFootballClub stuff, which could soon (if it wanted to!) change its logo to 'Own The Club, Own The Ground' - yeah, the current owners of Stonebridge Road are putting it up for sale and people are being invited to buy shares in an attempt to bid £500k for the ground. I've put in money to buy a few and it would be nice for a club like Ebbsfleet not to have to worry about extortionate rent or possibly being without a ground to play on in the future.

Gigs - Boom's mum was very poorly and had to go into hospital, so we ended up not going to the V Festival and I had to sell our tickets at short notice on ebay… :-( We were gutted about not going to see such a great line up but such is life, least his mum is recovering. We did enjoy the U2 gig and I have some others in the pipeline.

Teeth - Been suffering from toothache, so bad that I had to go to the dentist who recommended me to see a consultant. Bad news - I need a wisdom tooth out, after all these years, it's growing again!!? Good news - it's covered by my company medical insurance! Not looking forward to it but this tooth has been giving me gyp on and off for the last 20 years so it'll be good to throw it at the tooth fairy!

WoW - still playing most nights, still spend too much time on it but hey, it's a hobby and I enjoy it although sometimes, my laptop is on the verge of being launched out of the window!

Exercise - still been going to the gym but not been doing both aerobics class in a week (the routine is really hard on the calves!), so I think I seem to have acquired some excess flab - gym workout is good for tone but not for fat burn it seems. The weather's getting even colder, encouraging me to eat…must stop!

Reading - the only other thing I've been able to do aside from WoW is read, it does mean late nights but I'm on book 23/24 this year so not doing too badly, especially as there are Robert Jordan tomes in there.

Family - Good news - little sis has announced a date for her wedding next year, so deffo another trip out to the Far East! Bad news - how on earth am I going to afford it…? Had a Skype call with my little niece the other day - she's so comical!

Phew - that's all off my chest now, hopefully I'll get round to catching up on some blog reading!

Bits and Bobs

Yes, I've been rubbish at blogging, both updating and reading.

For starters, aside from spending far too much time on WoW these days (and nights), I've been involved in the forum shenanigans of MyFootballClub - we vote today on whether we give the manager of our club Ebbsfleet United another contract - I shall vote 'Yes'. Recently, we voted to ratify the prudent budget (playing budget now lowest in the Conference) and I've been involved in an ideas committee for fundraising for the club and MyFC.

Also, the weekend of glorious sunshine meant that I swapped laptop for bikini and I spent a fair few hours in the garden soaking up rays.

Anyway, in the weeks I haven't been posting, I watched Star Trek (I got gold class seats for Boom) - I enjoyed the film more than I thought I would, the casting was perfect as the old characters previously made iconic by Shatner and Nimoy were brought to life with new, younger actors in a cracking movie with great effects, action and storyline - Kirk, I thought was excellent, loved his arrogance and swagger!

So the football season is finally over with Man U crowned champions again - I'm gutted as Liverpool had the title within their grasp but blew it. It was our best season in a long time but still not good enough so I can only say "Maybe next year!"

Also caught Angels & Demons - a good film (aside from Ewan McGregor's dodgy Ulster accent but somehow, I did wish that I hadn't read Dan Brown's book as I knew how it was going to end! , the wonderful setting in Rome just made me want to visit the place (properly this time!).

Work's been really busy, so not really had a lot of time to do my blogging. Time seems to be whizzing by so quickly, a blur of work, gym, WoW and Boom.

It's my birthday soon and I'm not really looking forward to it for various reasons...

Need a holiday and hopefully Boom will get the time off so I can book something to get away.

Leeeeeroy Jenkins

Well somehow, we knew the good weather we've been experiencing here wouldn't last and at the weekend, the heavens opened as usual. Temperature dropped so low that I even had to put the central heating on for a bit - given the stupidly high bill I've just had from British Gas, I tried to resist but Boom was shivering when he came round so I had to relent!

Still, it was a nice long weekend, which seemed to fly by at breakneck speed.

Long walks, trips out, cosy time watching DVDs...

We did none of those.

Instead, bar an interval to watch football (me watching Liverpool beat Newcastle on TV at the gym and him going to Middlesbrough to watch Man U maintain their lead at the top) we spent nearly 24 hours gaming on World of Warcraft.

Ok, so it wasn't 24 hours non-stop, not like this gamer, but more like 24 hours spread over the bank holiday weekend, in between numerous cups of tea and coffee, me cooking on a couple of occasions and a quick trip to Tesco to buy stuff for lunch.

Yes, we sound like a couple of sad nerds but hey, it's a hobby like any other hobby or interest - fun and enjoyable!

This hobby does take up a lot of time, I still manage to squeeze in time to read and listen to music but I think what's been sacrificed is time spent flicking the numerous tv channels for something to watch. Most evenings, the tv doesn't get switched on at all, which I'm sure is unheard of in some households.

At some point over the weekend though, we did have The Jeremy Kyle Show on in the background - it seems the programme just consists of DNA tests to prove whether some guy was the father of some poor child. There was one case where the guy was devastated to find that the child that he cared for and paid some maintenance towards (actually, us tax payers pay maintenance for….but I digress) was not his. The expression on the mother's face was that of 'deep thought' - she was trying to work out who else she had been shagging at the time and who could be the child's father - apparently, it could be one of three other men. I wonder if any of these three watched the programme and regretted meeting this trollop…? All of the men must have seriously been wearing beer goggles at the time or registered blind.

Must not go into rant mode…happy thoughts, happy thoughts!

Crafty Break

The Easter weekend went like a blur. A good blur.

Apparently, there was a bit of sunshine but I didn't really benefit from it - Boom was round for most of the weekend, so we were indoors WoWing on our laptops like a couple of sad (but happy) geeks!

On Saturday, we were so engrossed that we forgot to eat and ended up getting kebabs delivered at midnight....

Sunday was better - in between our gaming, I cooked twice in one day, which is almost unheard of for me!

Ate a lot of sugary stuff this weekend - need to make sure I work off the calories in my classes.

Caught up on my sleep, got stuck into some reading, feel more relaxed but still need a proper holiday - need to kick Boom up the arse to get organised!

Board not Bored

So I had a snowboarding taster session at the Chill Factore the other night.

Have to say that I really enjoyed it - I'm pretty fit but at the end of the hour session, which passed really quickly, I was really tired - my feet and legs were aching! And as expected, my boarding trousers (and board) were kids' size but at least my jacket was from the adults' section!

Would I do it again? Yes, I'd go for lessons but they're not cheap so I'd have to save up for them if I'm to do them this year.

Anyway, this week, I booked flights to Hong Kong using up airmiles that I've been saving up these past few years - £160 return from Manchester in the end, plus 4200 airmiles, which is a brilliant! Not going until later in the year, so hoping to squeeze another holiday over the summer.

After the lesson, went for a kebab (yes, really!) and had a 'social' session on WoW. A late but fun night.

Kinda here, kinda there

I am around but as I predicted, I am now a WoW addict.

I've always prided myself on strong willpower. Food? Alcohol? Sleep? I can deprive myself if necessary.

But the urge to spend every waking hour on a game - I cannot resist... The fantasy worlds of swords and sorcery, might and magic, dungeons and dragons etc has always appealed to me and in this immense game, my character lives in this world and I live in it through my character. Good grief...I've come over all funny!

The novelty may wear off at some point and I should be able to control the addiction, catch up on my blogging/reading blogs etc, but right now, the game is imprinted on the insides of my eyelids when I'm not playing and I'm thinking about rushing home from work and playing straight away.

Don't worry, I haven't fallen so badly yet - I'm still going to my aerobics during the week, went to the gym over the weekend, a good session on the punchbag, still doing a bit of reading.

Have even got a few minutes each day to do a bit of Brain Training on my Nintendo DS (late Xmas present from my sisters).

But to fit all this in, I'm surviving on less than 5 hours sleep a night so I admit I am officially a World of Warcrack addict.

Am keeping it secret from my colleagues so it must be bad. I shall fess up at some point...

WoW...oh no....

Four years.

I've resisted the temptation for four years to get sucked into the game but recent snappy adverts starring legends such as Mr T and William Shatner dented my crumbling resistance and then I was persuaded by a Level 80 Blood Elf Paladin to download a 10 day trial of World Of Warcraft.

See you in 10 days.

Maybe.

Smoothie Grooves

As predicted, the lovely weather we had all week didn't materialise over the weekend - bloody typical.

Anyway, to take my mind off my dear old Gran jetting off for pastures new, the glamorous C invited me round to hers for some general mayhem with her kids. She did have ulterior motives though - she wanted to make some vodka smoothies with her new smoothie-maker, hence I turned up with a pineapple, a couple of limes and some mangoes!

Woah - great refreshingly tasty smoothies that went straight to my head - ace!

Spent some time playing Yu-Gi-Oh! with the kids (despite the alcohol, I surprisingly won quite a few games) and then the glamorous C dug out her old CD collection to see what 'holiday music' she could stick on her ipod - WOW! Loads of compilation albums and CDs from the 80s and 90s, bringing about much reminiscing and nostalgia.

She let me take the CDs home and many hours later, I now have an extra 300 songs on my ipod!

I do have a diverse taste in music - here are a few of the ones I've just uploaded:

All That She Wants - Ace of Base
Keep On Movin' - Soul II Soul
Papa Was A Rollin Stone - The Temptations
Groove Is In The Heart - Deee-Lite
Apologize - Luther Vandross
In Your Eyes - George Benson
Jerk It Out - The Caesars

They seem to sit quite nicely in between the rock and dance tunes I have!

Butt Ache

It's been over a year now since my Wii-induced tennis elbow and tendonitis stopped me from playing badminton regularly. My elbow still isn't 100% but it's probably as good as it's ever going to get now.

And so it was that I faced the glamorous C across a badminton court again. We were going to take it easy, some gentle knocking about, since she's been suffering from tennis elbow too (think hers is gardening induced though).

Both of us have a competitive streak as after testing a few tentative shots, we decided to play a couple of proper games, both of which I eventually won. Had forgotten how much I enjoyed playing and no, it's not just the winning, it's a great workout, well the way we play anyway! Although I exercise regularly, lots of different muscles aching today, in particular the muscles in my bum - ok, I must be playing it wrong! ;-)

All in all, a nice relaxing bank holiday weekend - caught up on my sleep, on my reading, spent some time with my gran, squeezed in a bit of housework and picked up my PSP again for the first time in ages (addicted to Final Fantasy Tactics again...). Even sat in the garden for a while until the heavens opened up!

Think my batteries have been nicely recharged.

Weekend Visits

I was hardly at home over the weekend.

On Friday, went straight from work to JH's. Funny, her house is just over the road from where I picked up that guy after asking him for directions to her wedding venue (I gave him a lift...)!

Nice house with a lovely view of Cheshire/Derbyshire countryside. Think I ended up polishing a bottle of wine whilst we played a music quiz (which I won - get me!) and the next day, did have a bit of a wine hangover when I eventually woke up at 10.45am, but then I didn't go to bed until 3am, staying up chatting to JH's hubbie!

From there, drove to the glamorous C's - went to the cinema to watch I Am Legend (which was good) and then had a relaxing sauna session at the David Lloyd, followed by some healthy soup.

Back to hers, we had a coupla gins and played a few games of Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG - oh yeah, some serious duelling but it was a great laugh, I won 3-1, it was mostly down to luck rather than to my game tactics though.

We then watched Kill Bill (one of my fave films) and also The Tuxedo - serious square eye syndrome as I really don't watch so much TV these days!

The next day, the glamorous C picked up her kids from her ex so I spent a little time challenging them to Wii Play (I was ace at the shooting game!) and Yu-Gi-Oh! before I then drove back to Manchester to meet up with CK from work to go to see the Man City v Liverpool match.

I may as well not have bothered, it was so frustrating as City were very much playing a defensive game and the Scousers, well the Scousers didn't take any advantage to keep up with the leaders in this bore draw. Rafa made no subs!!! What was all that about!?

Boss says we can leave early - yay!

And if I don't get round to posting later, happy 2008 all!

Puzzle

At work but can't concentrate, not even long enough to post about my Christmas (which was good).

Anyway, check out this little puzzle from the Grow series.

Drag panels in a selected order.

Items you drag will grow and grow with each turn.

You complete the game when all panels' levels are Max.

Items effect each other as they grow, so you have to think about the dragging order.

Drag the items in the correct order and you complete the puzzle and watch the little story at the end!

Is it home time yet?

Bears In Woods

Spent a nice relaxing weekend at the glamorous C's.

The Nintendo Wii, or ratherThe Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess featured heavily again and at risk of aggravating my tennis elbow, I chalked up several hours of interactive gaming and with the help of the glamorous C's kids, got through a few (at times scary) levels. Brilliant!

The weekend however wasn't just spent eating pizza and supping beer and wine in front of the TV, watching bits of football (yes, England beat Estonia 3-0), rugby and playing the Wii - we also went for a little walk in Eastham Country Park/Woods.

Nice, relatively unspoilt woods - we fed dozens of fearless grey squirrels, engaged in a bit of jogging/sprinting, had a close look at a very muddy Mersey river and from outside the park, we could just about see the city outline of Liverpool in the distance. There's also a bear pit, from the old days of when the English were a little more bloodthirsty with their 'sports'.

Some roleplaying games with the glamorous C's son (whatever happened to cops & robbers?), a quick game of Yu-Gi-Oh (need to learn the rules) and lounging in my pj's on Sunday afternoon rounded off a lazy but enjoyable little weekend.

Relating with Teenagers

I don't think I've ever really posted about my godson, EB. Maybe it's cos I've never really had a chance to spend much time with him and to get to know him, since his mum MR always hogs all of my attention when I go to visit them in Wales! Still, I've never forgotten his birthdays and have always seen him at Christmas - can't really say the same for his other godparents.

I'd suggested a while ago that if he wanted, he could spend some time with me for his next birthday. To be honest, I didn't think he'd want to, that a 14 year old would rather spend time with his friends but surprisingly, he agreed.

So, I drove down to Wales and we had a big Harvester meal with his family. I was hoping to shoot back up to Manchester with EB, maybe catch a movie or take him to the arcades but by the time we set off back to Manchester, it was nearly 9pm - not a lot of time left to do anything! :-(

Anyway, I let EB be in charge of my ipod during the journey back and he was impressed that we both liked the same music (apart from my dance/chart stuff!). I found him to be very polite, intelligent, though a bit of a smart Alec, but that's not necessarily a bad thing!

He's also a very good kid, MR is pretty hard on him and has some tough house rules but they obviously work. When we got back, I just let him loose on my laptop to play Runescape, an online game which I haven't played for nearly 3 years (screenshot above). Hmm...might be something to distract me when my social life isn't so active!

EB's not allowed on the internet at home - in fact, not even MR's husband is, only MR herself (which I find strange but I'm not likely to ask why...) so he only gets to go on it at his friend's house or at his grandparents.

I let him play the game for a few hours, allowing him to stay up until 12.30am - hey, it was his birthday AND it's school holidays! I hope he didn't tell his mum...

Next day, drove into Manchester city centre and we wandered around Forbidden Planet and some game shops in the Arndale and had a spot of lunch in Starbucks. Then, it was time to take him home.

It hadn't even occurred to me that I'd parked down Sackville Street, which is where I usually park on Sundays. As we walked back to the car, his eyes widened as he noticed the rainbow flags on the pubs. It's funny that for the first time that weekend, he started to act his age!

Anyway, during our brief time together, I found out that he's a super fast reader (reads two or three books a week, many are the fantasy books that I read), that he enjoys learning German at school, that he admires Thierry Henry, goes to watch Wrexham FC with his granddad, enjoys painting Warhammer 40k models and that he hopes to become a marine biologist. Sounds quite promising, considering all the bad press about the 'youth of today'.

So the question is - did he enjoy himself? I'm not sure, as he doesn't really show a lot of emotion right now, happy or unhappy. I guess I'll find out from his mum.

After I'd dropped him off, went to the David Lloyd club in Cheshire Oaks and met up with the glamorous C. We had a workout in the gym, a good chinwag in the sauna and then we had a little celebratory meal as it was her birthday too. We will celebrate properly in around two weeks time - can't wait!

Right, next post will probably be of JH's wedding....woohoo!

Gals and Pals

It was our annual girlie uni reunion this weekend, as usual at JC's in Warrington cos she's got the biggest house!

Many people think it's strange (yet great) that we all still keep in touch with other, making an effort to meet up at least once a year after all this time (well over ten years since we graduated), maintaining email contact (albeit sporadic) in between and exchanging the odd birthday and Christmas cards.

What's even stranger though is that the guys we went to uni with almost always arrange their own little 'boys only' reunion at the same time - they all went off camping in the Lake District this weekend - in this wet weather, rather them, than us! Next year, I think a big proper reunion is being arranged, so boys will get to meet the girls for once!

It's always easy for me to book a weekend off to meet up, but many of the others have to arrange baby sitters, etc and we also found out that JS is expecting her first in December! Well, that must have shelved her wedding plans...!

As you can imagine, some of the conversation during the evening was centred around the joys/bloody horrors of childbirth but mostly, it was reminiscing our times together as students. All were supportive of my predicament - see, there's a reason why I keep in touch with friends!

Much wine and champagne was quaffed (gone are the days of cider and beer, though I still drink the latter), we went to a posh bistro for dinner and had a great laugh. We were so busy chatting that we didn't get a chance to get the Wii out!

Sunday, all felt a bit tender (and a bit achy from sleeping in one of the boys' bunkbeds!) but we still managed to tuck into a big fried breakfast!

Felt knackered but had agreed to meet the glamorous C for a coffee so I drove to Cheshire Oaks.
Had a good chinwag and then her kids persuaded me to go back to theirs for a bit, tempting me with their Wii....how could I resist? I had to get my fix! :-)

Dragged myself away around 6.30pm (they'd wanted me to stay - aww!) and got home nearly two hours later after some horrendous traffic on the M56.

Checking my diary, I don't have any free weekends until September - great for the social life, dire on the bank balance!