Sunny Side of Life

Gone - July 30th 2007

2007-08-06T13:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I am back, and not with anything happy to say. I do not know if in an old post I mentioned Harvey. He was my dog and my best friend.

He died a week ago today. He was very ill and weak, and so he has passed on.

The last week has passed in a haze of misery, boredom and a lack of persona to talk to about it. Hence me returing here. Now, I do not intend to go on about it. As I doubt anybody reads this. Especially since it has been 5 months since i last posted.

Whilst my whole family has been pretty cut up about the whole situation. They have had someone to talk to, to cry with and to hug. I do not feel comfortabe enough with anyone (not even the family) to let it all out and get things off my chest. This has greatly effected me, I have avoided the house as much as possible, as every moment spent here is another moment of misery.

This is more than just losing a pet. This is losing the one person (I use person for want of a better word) I could sit down next to, hug, talk to and always brought a smile to my face. I will miss him like brother. 14 years that will be missed

To Harvey, the best dog and friend I ever had. Though his body may have passed, the spirit and the memories will stay with me forever.

Has it really been a month...

2007-02-05T14:38:00.000-08:00

Since i last wrote here.

So it would seem, crazy stuff. I dont have much to say. Been working like a trooper for 3 weeks, just started my fourth week.

Its quite boring really, computer and phone and photocopying, everyday, ... but im sure it will seem worth it once i get paid. Yep.

I dont have much else to say, im alive and doing well.
Hoorah.

byee

Job

2007-01-05T07:58:00.001-08:00

I got the job! hoorah! i am likely to start next week. superb. whoot whoot

Interview

2007-01-04T12:07:00.000-08:00

I got a job interview today. It is tomorow. I hope all goes well and I get the job.

It is just office assistant. But that is good. any kind of job is good to be honest.

Good luck neil!

Happy New Year!

2007-01-01T05:14:00.000-08:00

Today is the 1st of janurary. How exciting. Went to the monkey last night in the end, which was good, feared that everyone would drop out. But in the end only Katharine did, which is understandable. I was a bit upset at first, as Gray had said, 'if kat isnt going, im not going'. As there would have only been two of us. But i stuck to my guns, and said 'im going to the monkey, you can come if you want to.' Knowing that he would choose to come over going home to sit on his own.

In the end, i had an enjoyable night. Drank and was merry. Didn't talk to as many strangers as I had hoped. Being with only one person is a challenge, as I like a free reign in clubs, so i can wander off and talk to randoms and such. But because there were only two of us, he followed me everywhere. Like a lost dog. But I still had a good time. Saw Amear (might be spelt wrong), from school too. Hadn't seen him in ages.

New Years Resolutions: Get a job, get fit, find a girlfriend.

Happy New Year Everyone! Hope it is productive, profitable and most importantly, Enjoyable!

Recovery

2006-12-29T14:37:00.000-08:00

Today is the fifth day of my recovery process. During those five days i have had 3 meals...i think, and some of them don't constitute meals to me, as they were far too small. However, I have been feeling quite good today, and am tempted to say, I should be fixed for the new year eve party in town. If not, i will be most displeased.

My house has not been a happy house this christmas. Well, it has, but it has been an ill house. First my sister got it (just before christmas), then i got it on christmas, then my brother got it 2 days after christmas, now my mother has it today. Only people left are Father and Victoria (brothers fiancee). This being said, i fear New year will not go to plan for many of us.

On the happier side of things, i finally ate some chocolate today, my first bit all christmas!! But i must make sure i dont lose my head, it would be super if i could actually lose weight over christmas. I must'nt go and try to catch up. I need to be trim and slim. Got a wedding to go to this year (brother and victoria). Also need to find a date, which means i may need to be more trim and slim than i am at current.

The only advantage of being ill this christmas (i say only, there are 2) is that i got to lie about watching christmas films and other such crap. For example, i watched Jurassic Park 1 & 2, Back to teh future 1, never ending story, father ted xmas special, vicar of dibly xmas special, big quiz of 2006, and other such stuff.
Now most of you probably think 'being ill is not a reason to do that..you can do that anyway'. But, being a social little thing, i usually spend my time out with friends drinking and such, therefore msising the classics. This year, with 2 friends ill, one too busy (for good reason) and one with a broken ankle, it has been a perfect time to sit and do bugger all.

Reason 2 for being ill = a good thing. Is that i got to spend time (be it ill time) with my family, which i rarely see, due to brother living in london, and sister living in exeter. That made me happy, as i didnt really reaslise how much i miss them when they are away. It is just a shame. we all got ill.

just realised. this is a long one. I wonder if you read this far. shall i put a picture in too? maybe...no, it was taking too long to load.

Night night and a merry christmas to you all
xx

Christmas Day

2006-12-26T14:39:00.000-08:00

Well, what can be said about christmas this year, it was enjoyable. However, it wasn't helped that i caught my sisters bug. Which started on christmas day, so i felt very ill, then threw up, and couldnt eat anything all day (No, i didnt have a single bite of christmas dinner!!!:() I wasn't too impressed, but i kept warm all day and coped.

I did get a big comfy leather executive chair for my bedroom. Which i am sitting on right now, i am still getting used to the sitting back and not being uncomfortable. Its lovely.

Harvey and Holly both enjoyed christmas too, although harvey spent most of the day lying down away from the action. good move by the old man. Here they are by the tree.

Come sail away!

2006-12-24T10:05:00.000-08:00

I went to the monkey last night for dubclub. was an enjoyable evening. I drank lots (most of it was free, as people kept buying me drinkings, I'm awesome). And made friends with many new people. A Spaniard, a Liverpudlian, and some rappers. that was cool.

I danced, and saw a couple of people from olchfa. and Kat was out and about and happy, which was good to see :) shes had a hard time of it as of late, so nice to see her enjoying herself properly.

Anyway, I have been hungover today, and played pro evo with my brother (who got home this morning) and Steve.

All in all, a good couple of days. out for a Chinese tonight too. woohoo

Christmas! Whoot.

2006-12-22T11:51:00.000-08:00

Hello! I am awfully tired today, i had only 5 hours sleep last night. I drove my friends band to oxford and back for a gig they were playing. That was tiring, the fog was unbelievably thick, I had to drive slow a lot. Which made us get home late, and arrive at the gig 10minutes before they were due on stage (Plenty of time really!).

So yeah, that was fun, if not tiring.

This evening, i am going to see my friend katharine and her 2 uni mates. However, i fear i will last a very short amount of time. But still, it is only round the corner so its an easy walk home.

I started my christmas shopping today! (i hear some of you saying 'gosh thats late'), however, i also finished it today (now you are probably saying 'it's not possible'). However, i spent aboput 2hours in town, and i got all the gifts, as did my friend, and we went for coffee and sat around waiting for kat. Not a bad days work for someone who only had 5 hours sleep.

That's all i have to say really. I still intend to put pictures up at some point. not yet.....not yet.

Brief.

2006-12-18T05:19:00.000-08:00

Went to the monkey cafe last night, saw some good bands playing. was good fun.

people are home from uni today, so swansea will be full of friendly faces again.

Holly is hiding under the desk in the study. silly pup.

Nellylicious

2006-12-16T04:21:00.000-08:00

It's Sunny! Woohoo. It has been raining all week, and Derek said that the weekend would improve, and it has. Superb news. Maybe golf? Or football? Although it is still very cold outside. So maybe neither. I'm not sure. We are getting our christmas tree today. 'About time!' i hear you all saying. We have never gone for the early decorations. I still don't feel very christmassy, maybe because i am dreading it. still have no money, although my sister offered to lend me the money to buy pressies, so i may have to take her up on that offer, even though i feel bad doing it.

Todays song - Fergalicious by, Fergie

The Sweet Escape

2006-12-13T04:15:00.000-08:00

I am quite inconsistent with this blogger, sometimes i write lots in a few days, then sometimes i go for a week without writing anything. Odd that. I still don't have much to say now. But i felt like blogging.

I haven't really done much over the last week. I met Derek Brockway, and now have a signed picture of him. That was cool. (For those of you who don't know who Derek is, he is the BBC Weatherman for welsh lunchtime news). He has a book out, Scott told me it was an autobiography, but it was awfully small. I think it was just a book about weather. Which might be quite interesting, but then again, probably isn't. (I will post the picture once i scan it in).

Less than two weeks till Christmas! i still have done no shopping, and have no money. I have a plan though, so fingers crossed all follows it. We haven't got our Christmas decorations up yet, we put them up about a week (usually less than) before Christmas. Not sure why we do this, maybe it is because we use a real Christmas tree.

I found out from reading my mothers blog that the vet wasn't expecting Harvey to be alive by now. This was a bit of a shock to me, and not a nice one. Harvey is part of the family, he cant go anywhere. He may be old, but he struck me as invincible. I have never had a pet for this long, (14yrs or so), so I fear i will be quite the emotional mess when Harvey moves on. Humph.

My computer is breaking, the blogger can't keep up with my typing. This is why i have been using mothers PC most of the week (that and I have Xbox Live downstairs).

....for those that are wondering why the title of this post is 'the sweet escape', it was the song i was listening to when i first started writing it. It is from Gwen Stefani's new album, and is very good.

Healed!

2006-12-06T16:38:00.000-08:00

Well, i think it has been about 3 days or so since i last wrote. Maybe even more. Crazy eh. Not a lot has happened over the last few days. My friend came home from uni for a couple of days, because her mother is sick and depressed. It was quite surreal to hear some of the things that has been said by doctors/psychiatrists. It is all very bad and i am not very good at comforting or saying the right thing. But i tried my best, shoulder to cry on and what not.

Good news today though, i went to the doctors for my dressing change. And was told I am healed! finally the abscess hole has healed. Only took 3 and a half months. Grrr stupid long time to heal. Wasn't impressed.

I borrowed 'The Princess Bride' off my friend last night. It is a great film, absolutely amazing. And yes, i realise it sounds like a girly film, and it is about 'true love'. But There are giants, pirates and Spanish people too. It is amazing, i advise all to watch it.

Car.....Broke.

2006-11-30T10:05:00.000-08:00

Today has been a slow one. Started off alright, with the doctor appointment and such. But then, things started to go wrong.

My mother gave me a lift to the doctors, as the beetle is nnot working properly (clutch cable or something is broke). So we went in alfie, the porsche. He is also very old. And i was kind of expecting things to go wrong...I was right, when i returned to the car after the appointment, he wouldn't start.

This was annoying, although more annoying for mother, as she needed to tidy the house, since we have guests this weekend. But, we phone the breakdown people, and began the wait for them to arrive. We did many things to make time pass quicker, we discussed harry potter. played I spy, and generally complained a lot.

After about an hour and a half. the breakdown people still hadn't shown up, So mother tried them again. The person said they had come, tried two car parks, couldn't find us, and left. Now, i struggle to see how they could check a car park of maximum capacity of about 8 cars...and not find a white old porsche. But these people, not very bright.

Anyway, they sent another man along (30 - 45 minutes later), and so my 10minute appointment turned into about 3hours. Which was annoying. Got home in time for neighbours though. which was nice.

The rest of the day has been spent reading harry potter and the half blood prince. I got quite emotional at the end. And now i dont feel like doing anything else today.

Failure

2006-11-29T14:52:00.000-08:00

Go to google, and type 'failure' into the search thingy, then click on... 'im feeling lucky'

I have made a new friend who loves harry potter as much as I. It is superb, someone to talk to about it :D

that is all.

Old cars

2006-11-29T06:47:00.000-08:00

The car is breaking again. This is the trouble with old cars, they break a lot. I went to the doctor today after being told by mother that the gears dont work properly. Which they didn't. So i struggled to the doctors and back (actually made it back thankfully) without calling breakdown service, however, now i refuse to drive until she:
a) breaks
b) gets fixed
As i don't want to be in her when she stops working.

Weekend

2006-11-26T09:59:00.000-08:00

This weekend has been quite the ... (can't think of the word, my mind is slow this evening) ... Eventful one. Yesterday i was in a good mood, excited and such. Wales were playing the might of the all blacks. Long story short, we lost. by quite a lot (45 - 10 maybe?). So the day started going downhill, then the pub i was in turned over and put arsenal vs bolton on. Arsenal were 2 - 1 down. Then bolton scored. Upsetting day of sport.

Then i got dragged out to the potters wheel by katharine (she was home for the weekend from uni). Which led to a little bit more drinking and sorrow drowning. Then we went to the monkey where it cost me £5 (that is far too much if you ask me) to get in. Once there, i felt ill and didnt move much, sat there drinking water all night until i was allowed to leave (stupid woman making guilt!).

Then i got home and slept, it was lovely. Apparantly i was noisy when i got home. not a surprise i was drunk.

Today i p layed football for a couple of hours (3or4) and that was fun, tiring though. Tonight the "oceans" episode of planet earth is on, so i look forward to that.

signing out.

ta ta

The day of boredom

2006-11-23T14:07:00.000-08:00

Today has been a boring day, I have felt ever so bored, even though i have dont more than i usually do in the day (unless i go play golf). It started off badly. I got rudely awoken by mother.

"I can't get the car started, can you come and move it for me?"

"What?! OK,"

*gets in car, fiddles ever so slightly, Brumbrum*

So then i went back to bed, but i couldnt get to sleep, so i read for a little while. then got up when harvey started barking.

The rest of the day passed in a similar fashion of me not wanting to do anything, yet being bored. I went to the doctor (again), then i came home and had reheated sausage curry (probably the highlight of my day). Then i fixed the beetles immobiliser. Which was harder than I first suspected. Then i walked harvey (losing two golf balls on the field..stupid long grass). The rest of my day consisted of me sitting down. doing nothing (blogging once or twice) and generally being bored and grumpy.

However, every second that passes, is a second closer to bed time, which is the best time of the day. Because i love to sleep. Whoot!

Wind

2006-11-23T05:17:00.001-08:00

It is oh so very windy here in swansea today, from my window i can see the lone windmill across the bay. it is spinning at quite a high speed today.

I dont like wind, it is cold.

Big Van

2006-11-23T04:53:00.000-08:00

I just looked out of the window to try and remember what i was going to type about. But i saw a big van pulling into our fairly small lane. Now the man is on our drive looking around for an easy way into our house. He does not appear to be very smart. They are delivering the new washing machine. That is good news, it means we will have clean clothes again, whoop.

I still haven't remembered what i was going to talk about. Rugby on Saturday, Wales vs New Zealand. It will be a hard day, i fear the worst for wales. We haven't beaten the all blacks since 1958 or something like that. Long before i was born anyway. Hopefully this weekend is the big one.

I just remembered what i was going to type, all day today i have thought it was Friday, I'm not sure why. But even when i stop and think "it's Thursday" a few moments later i forget, maybe it has been a hard week for me. I don't know why it has been a hard week, or if it actually has. Maybe i have just gone crazy, like my mother.

Turns out the men who had parked the van outside the house and appeared to be looking for an easy way in to our house, just couldn't find us (odd, considering they were parked right outside the house). Like i mentioned earlier, they don't appear to be very smart. Although they are big and strong, which is useful, since washing machines weigh a fair amount.

ta ta

PS. Maybe they aren't that strong either, they have dropped it a couple of times.

Golf

2006-11-21T12:16:00.000-08:00

I played golf this afternoon with matt and scott. Since the pitch and putt down the road closes at 2, we thought that to save money, we would go down after it closed, since there would still be a couple of hours of daylight left.

Playing golf when the golf course is closed is technically more of a challenge, since the flags are removed, so we cannot actually see where the hole (or in scotts case green) is. So it was just a case of hit it straight, hope for the best. However, i seem to perform a lot better when there are no flags, maybe it is due to the lack of pressure, if there is a flag i have something to aim at. Whereas, when there is a large patch of grass (the green) I can be less accurate and just aim for straight line.

Turns out i am good when there is no pressure, i hit the ball straight and cleanly most times. Go me, at this rate I will be the next Tiger Woods.

Planet Earth

2006-11-20T03:31:00.000-08:00

Last night, i watched the next installment of planet earth. This weeks episode was about Jungles. And it showed how everything worked together, and was generally self sufficient (50% of rainfall in a rainforest, comes from the release of water from trees and plants). And it made me think, are we (humans) really the most advanced species on the planet, In terms of brain power, maybe. But in general living, i think not. The monkeys and apes that lived in the jungle worked with the planet, not against it. We destroy pretty much everything we can (over fishing + dredging in the oceans, cutting down rainforests causing global warming etc...) Maybe it would have been better had we not evolved into the parasites we are today, and had stayed as the simple hunter/gatherer. Like the monkeys.

That is all.

Car troubles

2006-11-18T10:49:00.000-08:00

I drive an old school beetle, called betty (pictures to follow). She was a christmas present from my father to my mother. But since i don't have a car, and need to get around, mother takes the other car during the week (I am only insured on the beetle). And in recent weeks betty has started to fail. I think she is depressed winter is coming, so is doing as much wrong as she can. Firstly, when my sister was visiting a few weeks back, betty broke down on her, then when we finally got her fixed (starting motor was broke), she was running ok, not as smooth but running. Now in th e last week she broke down once....but then, as the breakdown service was on their way, she started. Then, today, her immobiliser decided to break slightly, meaning father needed to do some magic with a bit of silver paper to get her going.

I am starting to think she doesn't like me, she works fine for mother.

So, if you are out and about in swansea, and happen to see a broken down white beetle, it is likely to be me.

Disapointment

2006-11-18T02:50:00.000-08:00

Well, i got forced out of bed this morning by the district nurse arriving to change my dressing (I had an absess removed about 12 weeks ago, still getting it changed). After having my dressing changed, i saw that a letter had arrived for me. This was good news as i have been waiting all week for a response from the interview i had a week ago yesterday. However, the good news soon became bad news when it told me i didnt get the job. Thus disapointing me. I was pretty confident after the interview, but i guess there was someone better/worse than me that they thought would be suited for the job.

Now I am in a bit of a pickle. I have no other prospects, as there are few jobs around. I will have to look at really crap jobs. I don' t overly want to work in a kitchen, it's too hot and generally sucky work. But it may be the best choice. We will see.

During the dressing change this morning there was a lot of hailstones pouring out of the sky, which was blue. Quite confusing, how can a sky free of clouds pour hailstones down? i dont know. silly thing.

Anyway, im sure i will write more later (i had forgotten completely that i created a blog this morning. It wasn't until mother used hers that i remembered. Then i decided to whinge about not getting the job).

I deserved the job, i was/am ultimately better than most people.

Oooo, I'm a noob

2006-11-17T14:12:00.000-08:00

Well, here i am, starting a blog. Not really sure why, as i have very little to say about anything. Should i say something about me first? I don't know.

I'm Neil. I live in Swansea, in Wales (UK). I am 21 and jobless.

Thats all you really need to know for now.

Right well, i don't know what these "blogs" are used for, my mother uses hers for well, very pointless things most of the time. Maybe i should to. First of all, Wales played in rugby again today, up against the almighty canada. was a good game, wales looked a bit shakey at times. but overall, managed to do what everyone (including the canadians) were expecting, and win by quite a margin (61 - 26), with fantastic performances from Shane Williams and Dwayne Peel.

Last night was a friends birthday, so went to monkey bar (night club in town) for a "stoner rock" gig. The first band (suns of thunder) were very good, but the second band were a bit too ... well crap. I didn't enjoy them much. After the nightclub we went to Steak by Night. so two friends could get 180z steaks. I settled for half a chicken (BBQ-ed, of course). Then back to friends house for few more beers and general drunkeness. I upset my mother throughout because i failed to tell her i wasnt going home. so she was worried. Oops. im sure she will forgive me soon.

Well, thats about all i have to say for now. I hope you enjoyed the first of many.