Sunday, February 29, 2004

What a weekend, and its only halfway gone. First up are the bold Killie. Finally after so many truly dreadful performances, they come up with a performance that was, well quite good actually. Skora on loan (sadly) from Preston is outstanding, his delivery inch perfect, you actually anticipate goals when he sends a ball anywhere near the goalmouth. Danny Invincibile scores 2 crackers and Boyd after a goal drought lasting an eternity gets back on the scoresheet with a penalty. Yahoo. Of course young Stewart misses this one doesn't he, on account of getting dirty playing football.

Second up is Lamb Curry. I haven't made lamb curry before, spinach and potato curry was my speciality, its now lamb curry, bloody brilliant it was, better than the Gulab's but not quite up there yet with the Village.

Third up is we are no longer the rednecks with the broken up Citroen in the back garden, for a brief moment we had 2 ZXs and a Nissan Micra, both Citroens have now gone to the breakers. thewife says that she thinks the Micra might fit through the space in the wall at the back garden, considering that blokes have just rolled a Citroen through it I suggest she may be right!


posted by timesnewroman at 1:46 PM  

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Thursday, February 26, 2004

The blogging seems to becoming more infrequent. Its not due to disinterest, just by being overworked and underpaid, meaning I don't have the time or the energy to get into it.

We are going, thewife and I for to pick up our new motor tonight. It is indeed a Nissan Micra and jimstewart, god bless his cotton socks, is giving us a lift to get it. That follow by a trip to Tesco's, oh joy. Frugal wee shall have to be though, new motors don't grow on trees. Unless of course they are Morris Minor Travellers, in which case a bit of them, the pretty bit, they do.
posted by timesnewroman at 6:46 AM  

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Sunday, February 22, 2004

Working on the basis that the motor is probably pretty well fucked, thewife and I went to Kilmarnock yesterday to have a look at what we might be able to afford in terms of a motor. It looks very likely that we may soon be the proud possesors of a Nissan Micra. Don't scoff, this decision was arrived at by due process of negotiation and consent. 1. It had to be affordable, and economic to run and insure. 2. I don't like Vauxhalls, so the Corsa was out. 3. I'm not too fond of Rovers either. 4. Despite my pleading, thewife has gone off Citroens. 4. The last two bits of point 1. ruled out the rather attractive looking Mitsubishi with a 1.9 Litre engine. 5. The Volkswagens were too dear. 6. thewife does not like the Ford Ka. The Nissan had 5 doors - why they call the back bit a door I have no idea, it's not like anyone uses it for entry or egress and had everything else we were looking for so watch this spave
posted by timesnewroman at 11:18 AM  

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Thursday, February 19, 2004

Fackety Fackety Fack! With a bit of good news thrown in as well. Left work early to pick up thewife and Mumsy, who was getting out, from hospital. The motor decided that it would rather struggle along the M77 and come to a halt on the hard shoulder, water temperature light, oil light and just for effect some smoke from the front of the engine. I call the RAC who arrive just as I have finished a series of calls fitting together a logistical nightmare. thewife will be at hospital by now, with her mobile switched off, so I phone the dwellers of harbourside, to phone the ward and let thewife know the situation. They also kindly offer to collect thewife and Mumsy, so that's one problem solved. Not having upgraded my RAC membership, I know that they will only tow me 10 miles and that I will need towing. The RAC man is the same guy who a few months ago sorted my lights and told me at the time that I should upgrade my membership. Of course I didn't bother and here we are now. Stranded but yet to decide where. I mention the possibility of Fenwick, a small village that I have driven through once I think. Its probably more than 10 miles, more like 14, the RAC man is waiting for confirmation that this is okay but decides to just do it while he's waiting for the call back. I make a quick call to the radical postman - no way are you being called Sanquaharman in this blog. Who very kindly offers to tow me back from there, only he has no money so thewife has to nip round to give him some petrol vouchers.

We arrive in Fenwick and I have about a 3 minute freezing cold wait until the radical postman arrives, talk about a plan coming together, and his missus, god bless her, had though fit to send him along with a thermos mug of hot black coffee.

Being towed by the RAC is a piece of piss, you just have to point the thing, however being towed by a transit on a short rope in the dark through country roads, without servo assisted brakes is another matter entirely. The rope broke once, conveniently in a village. Scary stuff, particularly at the last part of the journey, where the radical postman decides to hit the roundabout fast and I'm sure that car is coming my way. We make it. Drop the motor off at my friendly neighbourhood repair man, who will look at it tonight and pronounce it saveable or not as the case may be.

thewife has been looking through the car ads in the local papers and I'm late for a train!
posted by timesnewroman at 7:12 AM  

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Sunday, February 15, 2004

I have the mother of all hangovers. No it wasn't a celebration of Killie's amazing victory over the crappest team in the SPL, although the goals were pretty stunning. Nope it was a birthday party for Kayley and Natalie who are now 3! thewife bless her, got ne home. Apparently I wasn't out of order, just very pished.
posted by timesnewroman at 12:54 PM  

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Saturday, February 14, 2004

Partick Thistle, surely we can't lose? I am very much looking forward to this game. I can finally have one of the Famous Killie Pies, award winning British football pie of the year a number of years ago.
posted by timesnewroman at 2:14 PM  

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Thursday, February 12, 2004

thewife was worried because hospital staff had wanted her to go out and speak to them about Mumsy this afternoon. Naturally she was anxious, particularly as Mumsy had not been that great when they phoned, they also asked if she was next of kin, which didn't ease her worries any, so I got the day off to go with her. As it turns out Mumsy was in good fettle, in a bit less pain, but attached to a heart monitor. Doctor cam along and explained things, which was extremely reassuring. All the new complications that were going through the wife's head didn't surface. It turns out that they were looking to do a procedure that was supposed to be needed and urgent, and thewife was constantly asking staff why it hadn't happened and anyway it turns out that the x-rays they have are unsuitable for comparison purposes and that they are going for a more detailed, precise and expensive test instead. So we breathe a sigh of relief. Nevertheless Mumsy is going to be in for a couple of weeks anyway, so an endless supply of batteries and some more tapes will be a good thing.

ANCHO Part 2. Boy is this the most incompetent organisation in the history of organisations? They hold a public meeting to "consult" homeowners in their estate areas about the bills they sent out, see post of 30th January. Anyway they sent letters out arrived last Saturday asking us to confirm that we wanted to attend a meeting, no date no venue, that would be confirmed later. Seriously, how do you avoid meeting a horde of people who want you dead? Easy don't tell them its happening.

They found out anyway, turned up on masse and listened to the fools as they attempted to lie and deceive their way out of things further, 400 people turned up to the meeting, some of whom were not going to be allowed in. When we did get in and started, the idiots had not hired a P.A which is necessary if you want ty speak above a lot of hecklers. Anyways the start of the meeting was postponed but the major hotel i n town couldn't find a PA that worked. Lots of people, myself included, gave them a hard time then Brian Donohoe M.P. Man of the people rubbed it in further to huge cheers populist or what, watched by the SSP and the liberals and by local Labour Party people. Oh what political fun.

Frankly, bored shitless by the whole brassneckfest, Sack them, get on with the show.

posted by timesnewroman at 8:00 PM  

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Monday, February 09, 2004

Championies, Championies...etc. This is a reference to the performance of thewife, reidski and I in the Kings Arms Quiz last night, not to Killie's earlier premature cup exit at the feet of those weegies of the Calvinist persuasion. May I say Penalty my Arse! Killie did well for most of the game and were perhaps a tad unlucky to lose it in a five minute spell, where the ref clearly made his outrageous decision to award a penalty because Shota Arveladze can't stand up. It was nice to see the 1 minutes silence for Scottish legend Ally McLeod ho died earlier in the week. Despite his lengthy association with the scum, Ally must be remembered as the Grandaddy of Spin - the man who convinced the entirety of Scotland, in the heady summer of 1978, hat we were going to win the World Cup. 40,000 poor deluded souls turned out to see his team depart for the shores of Argentina on a wave of something. Reality returned following hilarious results against Peru and Iran, but we left with a tinge of dignity and what might have been, when we defeated the mighty total football of the Dutch, with perhaps one of the most memorable goals in the history of World Cup football, the wonderful, the balletic Archie Gemmil solo. Had Ally McLeod used his powers in politics we surely would have seen those WMDs by now!
posted by timesnewroman at 6:52 AM  

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Sunday, February 08, 2004

The elderly! Mumsy is in hospital. She seems to be okay, but chose to suffer a back and chest pain for most of Saturday because she didn't want to be a nuisance. So at 7.00pm, just before we were about to serve the langoustine and chicken paella, we got the call. thewife headed straight round, leaving me to blow out the candles, switch the oven off etc, and she phoned when she got there - its only a couple of streets away. She had phoned the doctor who decided to dispatch an ambulance and get her into hospital. Mumsy is looking a bit pale and obviously in pain when I arrive, I have to give her the necessary bollocking of course on account of her delay, thewife too, had done so before I arrived, so she was suitably chastised as the ambulance arrived with the same para-medics that had took auntie N to her unscheduled bypass, 2 years previously, whilst on a visit to Mumsy.

Paramedics are cool, they suggest that its probably not a cardiac thing - she has a history - but that they will treat it as such. thewife accompanies Mumsy in the ambulance and I head off to Crosshouse Hospital, where they have a bright new Accident and Emergency Unit. I arrive at 7.30, just before they did. We sit and wait, its not busy but there are about 15 people sitting around, some in wheeled chairs, who have been through the Triage and are awaiting being admitted into the E.R. and others accompanying them. There is quite a strange collection of people around, you can see how easy it must be to concoct episodes of Casualty or E.R. Only its not Holby or Chicago and the waiting room is calm and well modern with laminate floor and nice yellow and green walls that match staff uniforms. The reception staff are in cubicles, separated from the plebs, and there are swipe card entrys, cctv and automatic double entry doors, which some arseholes seem to think is the smoking area, but that is actually outside in the rain. There's an extended family, from hell, mobile phones and Linkin Park hoodies and quite noisy who appear to be accompanying a mouthy young woman who has what looks to my non-medically qualified eye to be a sprained wrist; a young man looks as if he has a severely bloodshot eye; a bloke in one of the wheeled chairs who looks and smells like a rough sleeper under the influence of something - his shoe is off and his foot looks like its been marinating in an inky brie solution and his face shows very clear signs of pain and discomfort; a young woman who looks as though something may be wrong with arm as she has difficulty removing her jacket; a woman who has done some damage to her foot; everyone else seems to be waiting for people already being treated.

When you are sort of forced to sit around in a place for some time you begin to notice things like despite the newness and modern-ness of the building, it doesn't actually work. The automatic external double door doesn't open and close properly. During the course of our visit someone armed with a set of allan keys comes to repair it. He waits at reception, speaks to someone and then "tailgates" it through the back. Meanwhile receptionist comes out with one of those "elephant's foot" step things, looking for repairman. She goes back into her cubicle, taking the step with her and repairman emerges from behind the scenes with a chair. He uses this to stand on to fix the door and I just burst out laughing, thinking of Health and Safety and just how hilarious it would be if he fell off the bloody thing in A and E. Anyway I also notice that the internal pair of doors are sensor operated. The amazing fuckwit of an overpaid architect designed the place so that every time someone goes for a piss or a drink of water, the doors open. This wouldn't be so bad if the external door worked, but there's a man on a chair fixing that and finally the porter goes out and tells all the smokers to fuck off outside.

The swipe entry cards carried by the staff are really cool, I notice that the NHS are a tad more advanced than my employers, the swipe cards double as I.D. Badges. Only the swipe cards don't seem to work for most of the time and staff end up having to knock on doors to get through them.

thewife tells me that on the way here in the ambulance she was chatting to the para-medics about the place and seems they were consulted on the layout of the building and all of them had made the suggestion that the Coronary Care Unit should be attached to the place, rather than up a floor as people could be taken right there from the ambulance, but somehow this couldn't be done. Perhaps because some prat of a hospital administrator had decided that a stunning frontage that didn't work would make more sense.

We had been sitting around for an hour and a half, the only sign that something was happening behind the scenes was the emergence of a mud-covered man in shorts and socks, whom it transpires had been part of a collapsed scrum, there were others, however thewife appeared strangely uninterested, serves them right for playing a pish game I tell her. She tells me that she is not feeling to grand - she's diabetic, had just taken her medication before this erupted and hadn't eaten anything. I headed off to the the main hospital block, where I knew there was a canteen and vending machines, of course its getting on 9.30 and it's closed, so I head back and the wife speaks to reception and gets some tea and biscuits later. At about this point a frightened young lad rushes in and tells the receptionist that his friend is having a seizure, staff go out and admit him via the ambulance entry. A few minutes later a nurse advises they gathered throng that the waiting time will be increased by an hour and a half from now. This proves too much for the family from hell who depart on mass, probably in search of a conforming bandage. Young man with eye decides that he too can wait. What part of emergency don't these people get???

Its getting on and I too am feeling bloody hungry its after eleven and I haven't had anything to eat for about 9 hours, and I remember the look of the paella and I shelled those bloody langoustines myself.

At 11.30 they take us through to where mumsy is, they are going to admit her, which we knew anyway, but were awaiting a bed which was going to take about ten minutes or so. Mumsy was looking brighter, not so pale, and she was joking and in good form. After about 20 minutes she told us to go as thewife would be soon collapsing of a hypo if she didn't have food. So we did, got home just after midnight and had micro-waved paella, which was still bloody good. Washed down with some South African fizzy on special at Tesco.

posted by timesnewroman at 1:37 PM  

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Saturday, February 07, 2004

Last night was our work's farewell night out for JEM who has left us after almost 10 years, big stepping it into the sunset. We made it an extra special send off, having knowledge of a certain interest in the Fire Brigade, we managed to get hold of this Fire Engine Limo thing, which picks you up, takes a party of 8 a trip round the city and drops you off at your destination. Her face was a picture when it arrived and an even bigger picture when the leading firefighter did his lift and popped her into the back of the engine. Hats and bells for everyone and an abundant supply of the fizzy stuff. We met them at the restaurant later, JEM on the verge of extremely tipsy and clearly having enjoyed the experience immensely. Sadly, jimty was still malingering which meant he missed the thing. Following the restaurant we lost the younger folks as we went off in search of a pub with seats, which we found. An enjoyable night, with the team, or most of it. We did have fun mass txting jimty and time seemed to just fly past. In past events of this nature, most people have been pretty oiled by train home time and yet I still felt perfectly okay. I remained awake the entire journey home and thewife kindly picked me up at the station and got me chips and curry sauce from the Chinese on the way home.

ANCHO (see earlier post) have responded, sort of, it goes like this:

"thany you for your e mail. I can advise that the fee is an annual charge. A meeting has been arrrange for the 12th February, you should recive a letter within the next 2/3 days inviting you to attend
yours sincerely
Rita Irwin
Owner Services Officer "

That was in response to a number of points, one of which was their competency to manage anything, let alone an estate. This is from the person with that responsibility. This is the person who's wages I am supposed to pay. For fuck's sake, how difficult is it to spell-check a bloody email.

Really fun part of this whole affair is that the chairperson of this mob is The Councillor (see post 3rd January 2004). I think this might get interesting.

posted by timesnewroman at 2:25 PM  

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Thursday, February 05, 2004

Tuesday, influx in the Woodie group numbers, so there are 20 kids there. Wev'e done our homework though and are prepared , programme-wise, we don't quite have enough card to go round for making valentine day cards, but we make do.

Wednesday, and some of the kids at the drop in are bloody annoying, intent on disrupting other groups and won't leave when its time to go home. Frankly getting to the point where I can't be arsed, certainly not going to debate the point or shout at a group of teenagers. Barred next week. Of course by then they will have forgotten so we'll be a shower of bastards. Short term memory loss- side effect of cannabis use kids!

Jimty, get back to work, stop mallingering!
posted by timesnewroman at 7:37 AM  

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Sunday, February 01, 2004

Hutton was supposed to be the end of the matter, but given the time for a spot of sober reflection, you just have to wonder why the BBC capitulated so early, did they themselves realy believe that this law lord was going to be entirely ojective in his pursuit of the facts? Frankly I don't think anybody with a bit of nous would want to buy this whitewash. Tony Bliar, trustworthy and inspiring leader of the country or lying smarmy git? You choose.

Discoveries in post vegetarianism #9 and 10: Pheasant, bit like chicken really; Pork Jambalaya, possibly one of the best things I've had yet.
posted by timesnewroman at 7:13 PM  

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