So yesterday was our 7th Anniversary, which we celebrated with going to work (boo) and a meal at our local curry house in the evening (yay!).
For more reasons than I could possibly list, I am and always will be eternally grateful I met SWMBO. Quite apart from the obvious (my soulmate, the person I want to grow old with, etc. etc.), I now work in a job I wouldn't have known about had she not brought home a copy of Metro one day; seeing what state my old employers are in, I'm glad I no longer work in banking! Also, there are places I've been to (and yet to go to) and things I've experienced that never would have happened otherwise.
So, here's to many more years of silliness... :-)
In other news, Sunday saw the stone-setting for my late Great Aunt Hettie (or 'Aunty Hettie', as everyone called her). She was 103 when she died last year, just a week or so after we got back from our Inter-Railing holiday - she was feeling fine right up to the last time we visited her before we went away, but while we were gone a short illness took hold that she couldn't shake off.
The remarkable thing about Aunty Hettie, quite apart from reaching 100 (and beyond) with faculties intact and body more or less OK, was her attitude to life. Although the last 25 years or so of her life were spent living in old people's homes, she never complained about her lot and was always a cheery focal point to the lives of those who knew her. Always referring to her fellow residents as "the old dears", and gleefully taking up the title of "Queen Mum" that someone in the home bestowed on her, she showed everyone who knew her that you can just make the best of what you have and enjoy it.
She was also very proud of having been part of a Guinness World Record for the largest number of centenarians gathered in one place, arranged by local Southend West MP David Amess in 2006 (Hettie is furthest on the right of the group photo). Typical of Aunty Hettie, she collared Amess and had a little dance with him! And then for good measure, she was at the next gathering the following year that broke their own record. She was looking forward to the 2008 gathering, but sadly didn't live long enough.
It's a measure of the effect she had on people that David Amess took the time to come out to Rainham for the stone-setting service. It wasn't something he had to do even if Hettie was a consituent - and I'm not sure she was, as we and my Dad fall under the neighbouring Rochford and Southend East - and certainly most of the family don't live in the Southend area. So his presence was both unexpected but unsurprising given Hettie's nature.
Hettie's life was a pretty unusual one, having brought up someone else's sons as her own when she married, and prior to that having done more to bring up my Dad (her nephew) than my Nan. I'm glad I took the opportunity on one of the times I went round to see her to jot down some of her memories; I promised that one day I would write it all out properly and post it here on the internet, and I really must get round to that...
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Waiting for normality
It may even arrive at some point. :-)
So, a sign-in to post a comment elsewhere reminds me that yet another year has passed without me blogging. Plus ça change...
Looking back, the inter-railing holiday was brilliant. Lots of different train travel, most of it first class (when you start nearing 40, you start to appreciate a bit of comfort!), and lots of sights from various countries around Europe. We plan to do it again one day, and try and see some countries we couldn't get to this time (we missed out most of northern Europe for a start). And we got to meet some of the Dutch guildies along the way, which was fab.
The mighty O's faded away to 14th in season 2007/08, and a small coming and going of players ensued. The new League One season started with a scrappy home win against a poor Hereford side (who would eventually be relegated as the bottom club), which turned out to be the foretelling of how the season would progress. Apart from a relatively good November, Orient struggled and looked pretty woeful in most areas (especially "that big green one out there" as Gordon Strachan famously said after a match once), and after a pretty awful festive period the end finally came for manager Martin "Lingy" Ling and his assistant Dean "Deano" Smith, as they left "by mutual consent" (i.e. sacked).
It was a sad day when Lingy and Deano left; as both players and as management they had been wonderful servants to Leyton Orient, and the promotion they secured from League Two on that glorious day in May 2006 will live in Orient history forever. They were Orient through and through, and from having heard from them at various LOFT events it was clear they loved the club. But in the end the players brought in weren't performing, and a drop to League Two looked inevitable unless something changed.
Then suddenly O's chairman Barry Hearn announced that the Leyton Orient Board of Directors (Hearn) was selling the 999-year leasehold on the ground to Matchroom Sport (Hearn) for £6m (less the £3.4m debt owed by the club (Hearn) to Matchroom (Hearn)). The club would only get a 20-year lease, with £180K rent paid from year 5 onwards and reviewed (increased) every 5 years - before the club paid only a peppercorn rent to the council. Yes, it stinks. It might secure the club's future for the next 5 years, but at the expense of ownership of its ground. Separation of club from ownership of its ground has never been a good thing.
Needless to say, LOFT swung into action, and a frantic few weeks ensured while we publicly called for the sale to be stopped and for Hearn to discuss this with the fans and not just announce it to sharehodlers. For a while in January/Febrary I was the public voice of LOFT, speaking to various journalists and the like. This was the sort of outcome. LOFT decided we had to seriously look into taking over the club as Barry Hearn wanted out (and still does), and the next few years will see us working out if we can manage that.
Amidst all this, a new manager was appointed - Geraint Williams, known as George (no, I'm not joking!) - in late January, and with the judicious signing of a few loan players managed a sufficient upturn in fortunes to see us finish the season in 14th, exactly where we'd finished the season before! At least next season we'll be playing the likes of Norwich, Southampton and Charlton (not to mention Leeds again, ha ha ha ha ha) instead of Burton Albion, Aldershot and Accrington Stanley ("Accrington Stanley, who are they? Exactly!").
Meanwhile, 2009 has been a very odd year for me and SWMBO. Just after New Year we took in a friend who needed our help at a bad time, and over four months later he's still there. It's had a major effect on our lives, and while we've been hoping the situation would be resolved for a while it remains stubbornly still there. The end is in sight, it might not be until July, but for now our lives have been thrown up in the air and scattered about a bit.
And just the other weekend came the news that SWMBO's grandpa had died. We'd been hoping to see him for the first time in a couple of years during our planned September holiday down in Couze, especially as we'd heard his health was failing (which it had been gradually in the seven years I'd known him), but alas not. Still, he'd had a good innings, and I'm glad I got the chance to hear some of his stories (often-repeated, such is the curse of old age) over a bottle of wine or two during our several previous holidays down there. An unusual statistic is that this is the second time in recent years that someone in SWMBO's family has had their death reported on the BBC and their obituary in The Times - the first being her Dad.
As for WoW, the home situation has forced a change in priorities. Particularly in the first couple of months of the year, when sometimes we had to just drop everything and deal with our guest's family problems (which have been many and varied). So WoW has had to take a back seat, and I haven't really got back in the groove yet. I'm liking the new Argent Tournament content when I get the chance to play it, but raiding has had to be put to one side for the most part. It doesn't help that SWMBO's back and neck troubles are preventing her playing much at the moment, so for the moment WoW has for the most part ceased to be something we do together, which is a shame.
Anyway, yet again I end a post in the hope of posting more regularly.... :-)
So, a sign-in to post a comment elsewhere reminds me that yet another year has passed without me blogging. Plus ça change...
Looking back, the inter-railing holiday was brilliant. Lots of different train travel, most of it first class (when you start nearing 40, you start to appreciate a bit of comfort!), and lots of sights from various countries around Europe. We plan to do it again one day, and try and see some countries we couldn't get to this time (we missed out most of northern Europe for a start). And we got to meet some of the Dutch guildies along the way, which was fab.
The mighty O's faded away to 14th in season 2007/08, and a small coming and going of players ensued. The new League One season started with a scrappy home win against a poor Hereford side (who would eventually be relegated as the bottom club), which turned out to be the foretelling of how the season would progress. Apart from a relatively good November, Orient struggled and looked pretty woeful in most areas (especially "that big green one out there" as Gordon Strachan famously said after a match once), and after a pretty awful festive period the end finally came for manager Martin "Lingy" Ling and his assistant Dean "Deano" Smith, as they left "by mutual consent" (i.e. sacked).
It was a sad day when Lingy and Deano left; as both players and as management they had been wonderful servants to Leyton Orient, and the promotion they secured from League Two on that glorious day in May 2006 will live in Orient history forever. They were Orient through and through, and from having heard from them at various LOFT events it was clear they loved the club. But in the end the players brought in weren't performing, and a drop to League Two looked inevitable unless something changed.
Then suddenly O's chairman Barry Hearn announced that the Leyton Orient Board of Directors (Hearn) was selling the 999-year leasehold on the ground to Matchroom Sport (Hearn) for £6m (less the £3.4m debt owed by the club (Hearn) to Matchroom (Hearn)). The club would only get a 20-year lease, with £180K rent paid from year 5 onwards and reviewed (increased) every 5 years - before the club paid only a peppercorn rent to the council. Yes, it stinks. It might secure the club's future for the next 5 years, but at the expense of ownership of its ground. Separation of club from ownership of its ground has never been a good thing.
Needless to say, LOFT swung into action, and a frantic few weeks ensured while we publicly called for the sale to be stopped and for Hearn to discuss this with the fans and not just announce it to sharehodlers. For a while in January/Febrary I was the public voice of LOFT, speaking to various journalists and the like. This was the sort of outcome. LOFT decided we had to seriously look into taking over the club as Barry Hearn wanted out (and still does), and the next few years will see us working out if we can manage that.
Amidst all this, a new manager was appointed - Geraint Williams, known as George (no, I'm not joking!) - in late January, and with the judicious signing of a few loan players managed a sufficient upturn in fortunes to see us finish the season in 14th, exactly where we'd finished the season before! At least next season we'll be playing the likes of Norwich, Southampton and Charlton (not to mention Leeds again, ha ha ha ha ha) instead of Burton Albion, Aldershot and Accrington Stanley ("Accrington Stanley, who are they? Exactly!").
Meanwhile, 2009 has been a very odd year for me and SWMBO. Just after New Year we took in a friend who needed our help at a bad time, and over four months later he's still there. It's had a major effect on our lives, and while we've been hoping the situation would be resolved for a while it remains stubbornly still there. The end is in sight, it might not be until July, but for now our lives have been thrown up in the air and scattered about a bit.
And just the other weekend came the news that SWMBO's grandpa had died. We'd been hoping to see him for the first time in a couple of years during our planned September holiday down in Couze, especially as we'd heard his health was failing (which it had been gradually in the seven years I'd known him), but alas not. Still, he'd had a good innings, and I'm glad I got the chance to hear some of his stories (often-repeated, such is the curse of old age) over a bottle of wine or two during our several previous holidays down there. An unusual statistic is that this is the second time in recent years that someone in SWMBO's family has had their death reported on the BBC and their obituary in The Times - the first being her Dad.
As for WoW, the home situation has forced a change in priorities. Particularly in the first couple of months of the year, when sometimes we had to just drop everything and deal with our guest's family problems (which have been many and varied). So WoW has had to take a back seat, and I haven't really got back in the groove yet. I'm liking the new Argent Tournament content when I get the chance to play it, but raiding has had to be put to one side for the most part. It doesn't help that SWMBO's back and neck troubles are preventing her playing much at the moment, so for the moment WoW has for the most part ceased to be something we do together, which is a shame.
Anyway, yet again I end a post in the hope of posting more regularly.... :-)
Friday, April 11, 2008
Busy busy busy
Well, the building work on the top floor went right up until Christmas, but we were in and back in our own bed (and with a shower again, hurrah!) just in time for the holidays. Still some snagging to sort - like getting the proper door fitted to the bedroom rather than the temporary one we had to make do with! - and we need to sort out some furniture, but it's fab otherwise.
Orient are heading for a mid-table finish, which is a slight disappointment given their early season form, but it has to be seen as improvement ater last year.
Work is keeping me ever busier, and WoW continues to eat up spare time (in an enjoyable way, thankfully!). Meanwhile, looking forward to an Inter-Railing holiday around Europe next month...
Back soon... :-)
Orient are heading for a mid-table finish, which is a slight disappointment given their early season form, but it has to be seen as improvement ater last year.
Work is keeping me ever busier, and WoW continues to eat up spare time (in an enjoyable way, thankfully!). Meanwhile, looking forward to an Inter-Railing holiday around Europe next month...
Back soon... :-)
Monday, October 15, 2007
Nearly a year. Is that a record?
No, it's 365 days! Boom boom!
Sorry, couldn't resist. Yet again, an inordinate amount of time passes between blogs. In that time, the shower died, the boiler did the same, Orient stayed up (hurrah!), Doctor Who got even better (hurrah again!), and we planned how to re-do the top floor.
So, I sit here today, waiting for the builders to arrive to start tearing out the old loft conversion and put in a much better one. The end result, fingers crossed, should be a bigger bedroom, a better ensuite shower, and a seperate ensuite toilet.
So, after my birthday on Thursday, the following day was spent clearing out the entire top floor. Knackering, to say the least. For the next month or so, me and SWMBO are resident in the spare room, and several other rooms are full of stuff.
Meanwhile, Orient had a fantastic start to the season, tailed off a bit in the past few weeks, but remain 3rd in League One. The Saturday just gone saw them travel to face the once-mighty Leeds United in a league game, where we took the lead, had a man sent off, conceded an equaliser, conceded a soft-looking penalty that was (thankfully) blasted over, then scored a perfectly legitimate goal that went a foot or two over the line but was somehow missed, and finally came away with a 1-1 draw. I almost wish I went instead of choosing out tiles!
Sorry, couldn't resist. Yet again, an inordinate amount of time passes between blogs. In that time, the shower died, the boiler did the same, Orient stayed up (hurrah!), Doctor Who got even better (hurrah again!), and we planned how to re-do the top floor.
So, I sit here today, waiting for the builders to arrive to start tearing out the old loft conversion and put in a much better one. The end result, fingers crossed, should be a bigger bedroom, a better ensuite shower, and a seperate ensuite toilet.
So, after my birthday on Thursday, the following day was spent clearing out the entire top floor. Knackering, to say the least. For the next month or so, me and SWMBO are resident in the spare room, and several other rooms are full of stuff.
Meanwhile, Orient had a fantastic start to the season, tailed off a bit in the past few weeks, but remain 3rd in League One. The Saturday just gone saw them travel to face the once-mighty Leeds United in a league game, where we took the lead, had a man sent off, conceded an equaliser, conceded a soft-looking penalty that was (thankfully) blasted over, then scored a perfectly legitimate goal that went a foot or two over the line but was somehow missed, and finally came away with a 1-1 draw. I almost wish I went instead of choosing out tiles!
Monday, October 23, 2006
Back to normal-ish
The O's finally won their first game in 12 attempts on Saturday, with a 2-0 win over Cheltenham Town. The Gillingham game of a few weeks ago ended in a bizarre 3-3 draw, where we were 0-3 down with about 15 minutes to go (and playing utter rubbish), but a Matt Lockwood hat-trick gave us a fightback we couldn't have anticipated. The game was best summed up by what we were chanting to the Gillingham fans, to the tune of 'Go West': "Three-nil, and you f*cked it up..."! We're bottom of the league, but there's a long way to go...
The PC problem turned out to be the power supply (which was bizarre, because some power was getting through), some bastard nicked the aerial from our car the other day, and we're waiting for a quote on doing up the top floor (it'll be pricey!).
Oh, and I finally reached the highest (at the moment) level a World of Warcraft character can reach yesterday, when Torchwood "dinged" level 60. Quite apt since the programme he's named after debuted yesterday!
And, of course, I had my 36th birthday on the 11th. SWMBO bought me one of the best birthday presents ever: a 12" radio-controlled Dalek! It's brilliant! :-)
The PC problem turned out to be the power supply (which was bizarre, because some power was getting through), some bastard nicked the aerial from our car the other day, and we're waiting for a quote on doing up the top floor (it'll be pricey!).
Oh, and I finally reached the highest (at the moment) level a World of Warcraft character can reach yesterday, when Torchwood "dinged" level 60. Quite apt since the programme he's named after debuted yesterday!
And, of course, I had my 36th birthday on the 11th. SWMBO bought me one of the best birthday presents ever: a 12" radio-controlled Dalek! It's brilliant! :-)
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
PC woes
When SWMBO's dad died earlier this year, we inherited his laptop which we've put to use as a second WoW machine (so that both of us could have a separate account and play online at the same time).
Since then, we've been struck by PC woes! First the laptop screen died a while back (a common problem apparently, caused by the backlight inverter), which I got repaired. Now, all of a sudden, the main PC died last week (it doesn't even get as far as the BIOS startup screen!). Bloody annoying, as I had to set up access to our e-mail accounts again on an old Windows 98 PC.
In other news, Orient have had a shocking start to life in League One. Just two wins in our first ten games have left us third from bottom, and facing a long hard season. Home to Gillingham this evening, so hopefully we can start turning it around...
Since then, we've been struck by PC woes! First the laptop screen died a while back (a common problem apparently, caused by the backlight inverter), which I got repaired. Now, all of a sudden, the main PC died last week (it doesn't even get as far as the BIOS startup screen!). Bloody annoying, as I had to set up access to our e-mail accounts again on an old Windows 98 PC.
In other news, Orient have had a shocking start to life in League One. Just two wins in our first ten games have left us third from bottom, and facing a long hard season. Home to Gillingham this evening, so hopefully we can start turning it around...
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Back from hols
We went away for the week to a lovely little cottage in Lavenham, Suffolk. Caught up on sleep, went to various National Trust places, and generally chilled out away from work and WoW.
Been back at work for a day now, and it hardly seems like I was away! Soon it'll be my birthday, and I'll be officially nearer 40 than 30. I feel old...
Been back at work for a day now, and it hardly seems like I was away! Soon it'll be my birthday, and I'll be officially nearer 40 than 30. I feel old...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)