I'm a man, I'm sick, therefore I'm dying ..

The health kick took a bit of a knock this week .. I was doing well upto Wednesday, even going as far as kick caffeine for two days, then I woke up on Thursday with a splitting headache. I got up at 05:30 as normal, went downstairs and let the dogs out, made a cup of RedBush tea, logged onto the PC to check my trains, and hoped the pain would go away. Needless to say it didn't, so I logged into work, sent mails to those who needed to know, and went back to bed ...

The rest of Thursday was a blur.

Friday morning, I get up at 05:30 once more and felt worse than I did on Thursday - this time however I dragged myself to work (Even resisting the urge when I got off at Liverpool St to cross the platform and get on the train that was going home again) .. I lasted until lunchtime, and went home. So for the rest of the weekend I've not been 100% on the diet .. Still no fizzy drinks or coffee, but a few chocolate biscuits here and there.

What else? We have 2 dogs, George, a golden retriever who is MY dog, and Jackson the Lhasa Apso, who is the girls dog .. Mia gave Jackson a bath this week and cut his hair, and then purely to annoy me I assume, put on him the crown studded collar and T-shirt saying "Beware of Owner" that the girls had got him. She thought he looked cute, she's not the one who has to walk him ..

Caught up with a few films on my PSP on the train .. Watched "Shoot 'em up" which quite frankly was terrible, "No Country For Old Men" which I enjoyed to begin with but soon got bored, and the ending was awful, "Death to Smoochy" with my favourite actor, Ed Norton, which was ok, "Across the Universe" which made me wish I lived in the 60's and has a great soundtrack ... This week I have "Capote" with my 2nd favourite actor, Phillip Seymour Hoff (He's come a long way since playing the gay bloke in "Boogie Nights"), "Sweeny Todd", and a documentry on people who dress up as superheroes for tourists .. I'm hoping it's better than it sounds.

Did noodle about with my guitar this week, though it mainly consisted of the guitar solo from "Let It Be", but the movement is starting to come back. Did note down a couple of ideas for my childrens story, but that's as far as it got.

Charlotte had a surprise for me. Off her own back she's mailed Ipswich Town Football Club and arranged for a birthday greeting to be up on the scoreboard at the Blackpool match! She was going to keep it a secret but couldn't keep it ...! I entered her in a competition at the beginning of the season to do with the club, which she won! So in front of 20,000 people and a couple of million Sky viewers she was mascot at the Ipswich v Coventry match - she's since entered me in the same competition, and if I win we get 2 season tickets for 20 years! That's my girl ..!

Though if I'm honest, I'd love to run out at Portman Road.

Big decision this week is whether I scrap our 2nd car ... We have 2 cars, a grown-up VW Touran (Diesel, I’m turning into my Dad), and the car we had before that, a Peugeot 406 estate. I’m torn between keeping the Peugeot or scrapping it. I was all set to scrap it last year as it hadn't moved in 2 months, and the tax and MOT had expired - but I started it, and after 2 months of non-movement it started first time. So my scrapping idea was starting to look shaky. Luckily for us we have friends in the motor trade, so Charlotte and I went off to see Roy and Shirley .. It was decided that we’d put the car through it’s MOT and take it from there. If it failed, then I’ll scrap it, if it passed then I’d look into keeping it. Needless to say it passed 1st time! Charlotte and I use the car for going to the football, but is it worth keeping the car for a 20 min trip every other Saturday? I think my heart is over-ruling my head, as I’m loathe to scrap the car as it’s done so well and has plenty of life left in it. The front is bashed in mind, though no fault of mine or the car! I was 50 miles away at the time .. It needs a service .. Insurance isn’t cheap ... Chances are I'll tax it for another 6 months, then go through all this again in July! Mia and girls are away for a week in Feb, so I'd need a car then, and it is useful whenever I have to goto Dublin as I can drive to the airport ... I don't like being old.

Right, another RedBush, then bed ...

New Year, New me ... Or something ..

We go on on holiday to Tenerife in approx 68 days (Or so my sister-in-law to be tells me), and I'm a tad afraid that small children will cry and grown men will attemp to push me back into the sea when I first remove my shirt ... So I've started on a health kick. No more coffee after 9am (And that's a killer), no more fizzy soft drinks (Which is really difficult), no more chocolate or sweets (Geez, I might as well be a Monk), and loads of fruit (Which as my body isn't used to the idea, my guts rebel against the following day). And then there's the exercise ... I bought a magazine when we were shopping in Tesco last Sunday as it promised to lose my gut in 28 days, all I know is my thighs hurt and my arms feel like they belong to someone else. The exercise routine should take 7 mins a day, a few exercises broken down into 45 second bursts with 15 second rest - I'm yet to get past the 3rd exercise, and don't even get me started on the press-ups which involve raising one arm in the air, I'm yet to get past the raising myself back of the ground part.

So that's the health kick .. On items of news for this week? I got a new mobile after haggling myself a new deal with O2 (Telling you're going to leave always works), so I'm now the proud owner of a LG Viewty. It looks cool on the adverts, and I'm sure once I've had time to figure it out properly it will be, in the meantime texting takes me triple the time it used to.

What does this week entail? Not a lot thanks to the inept referee Mark Halsey (No Ipswich in the FA Cup!) .. May meet my mate Justin one night, and I have loads of films to watch on my PSP whilst commuting. (Last week's viewing included "Charlie Wilson's War", "American Gangster", "Control", "24 Hour Party People", and "The Family Guy does Star Wars"). Watching "Control" (A bio-pic on Ian Curtis, the lead singer of Joy Division) has got me exploring the back catalogues of both Joy Division and New Order - always open to listening to bands I may have missed the first time round.

Food is ready apparently, and then after bathing the girls, I may sit down and plot out the story I've been promising to write them. (More likely to piss about on the internet though).

Have a wonderful week one and all ...

How to be "interesting" ...

Where do you start these things? Being the first post it should be something of interest, yet I'm drawing a blank .. So, I'm going to make a list of the things I plan to do this year and see how many I achieve ..:

1. Start to live a bit more of an healthy life
2. Pick up my guitar again and write something
3. Write that childrens book I promised my 9 year old I would write, and have now promised my 4 year old

Well, that was interesting ... But as no-one yet other than me will read this (As no-one else knows I'm on here) who cares.

Tomorrow, I'll write something of interest ...