That Was The Year That Was

Another year has passed us by in the blink of an eye, for me it's been a year of change with the arrival of Leah, the 2 weeks in Hospital and 7 months (up to now) of physio. Looking back on last years resolutions I acheived 1, a couple of nice tries and a couple of not a chance.

• Save for the future - I stopped using my credit card(s)
  
• Learn something new - Nope
  
• Get fit - I managed to lose 20lbs after my "knee issue"
  
• Give up smoking* - OK this was a cheat
  
• Re-gain contact with family members - Haven't managed to do this due to my ever growing family.
  

New Years Resolutions for 2007

• Get Fitter - not only do I need to work on my previously infected knee to get match fit again, I aim to lose a further 20lbs fat and gain 10lbs muscle
• Sort the house, garage and garden - SWMBO wants the house decorating, the fence fixing, the decking done in the garden and the garage sorting.
• Lose Mr Angry - I admit I get a little angry and agressive some of the time (driving, queueing, walking, talking, watching Derby County lose etc), I call these my "Daphne" moments and plan to "Chill" in 2008. In fact the only time I am competely at ease is at work. Where I should be the most stressed.
• Spend time with my family

Spending 7 months at home did my head in, I think I can also admit it also did SWMBOs head in.
it was great being at home with Leah (for me) but frustrating that I lost my independance (Driving, walking etc).

Anyway, Happy New Year to one and all and here's to a great 2008.

Damo

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Santa Baby on her trustee sleigh

The 2 SWMBOs

It only took 3 hours to open Leahs presents

Where's Leah?

Fuddle
Is this even a word? I hear it every day at Christmas, and today, was our fuddle at work.

Every christmas time, our token IT Bird Laura arranges a "fuddle" and secret santa. Today must have been one of the best feasts of all time, we admit we're goot at I.T., but we're bloody brilliant when it comes to making food, we are bloody great

Food from all over the world (and Burton) were brought in, we started at 12.00 this afternoon and almost all felt like sleeping by 2.00 as at 10.30 tonigh,I stillhaveno desire to eat, we didn't manage to finish all of the food which means we can carry on tomorrow (Damo eating Veggie Samosa at 8.30am for the second day running).

One must do these things and I got a lovely bottle wine of from my secret santa too...... Thanks Steve !!!!.

Present today were;
Damo 'Fajitas' Byrne, Luke 'the Cake' Johnson, Laura 'Cheesecake' Smith, Ash 'Banoffee Sister' Earp, Dave 'Ninja Dip' McD, Ade 'Chilli' Hyomes, 'Fiji' Keith, Kosher'ief 'Ainsley' May, Colin 'Welshy' Ward, George 'The Greek' Makasis, Anthony 'Red Bull' Lort, Rob '' Gamble, Andy 'Ramsay' Rooms and Amerjit 'Desert Storm' Singh.

Im Not Pi$$ed

Cookie recently had his works Christmas Do AND a reunion with the Royal Mail Old school.

Let's just hope he didnt get as pished as the following clip shows, taken back in April when I managed to make a little drinky sesh.

Cookie.... Comments please !!!

Needless to say he was still trying to act sober when Mrs Bigfootcookie called...

My Water Babies

I finally had the chance to see Leah doing her water babies session this week, Waterbabies teach babies to swim in a fun way, and boy Leah had fun, she even swam underwater.

I swear I'm having the maternity leave next time and SWMBO can go back to work after 2 weeks off.

My 2 SWMBOs

Mothers group (+1 father)

Happy swimmer

Leah has learned to close her eyes when mummy says"Ready, 1,2,3, Go"

Sh!t Happens

Wish I had this one !!!

Cookie recently posted about everything going wrong in his house - his boiler, bike and shower. Well Mr Cook, this is nothihg, in the past few weeks I have had the following

Car Aircon has decided it no longer wants to work, I have been driving around looking out of the sode window so I don't crash as I can't see through the ice on the windscreen. luckily the garage said I can use the aircon as long as it doesn't fire up the 2nd fan (how the hell I can tell I don't know)

Fridge Freezer We have a integrated fridge freezer that decided to stop freezing, or fridging for that matter, luckily we have a fridge/freezer (from my old house)...

.. Fridge Freezer from my old house Has now decided it doesn't want to freeze either...

Finally
We have a lovely en-suite (shower, toilet and sink).. well we did have, today after a stressed call from SWMBO while I was at work. I can't write how she described the problem, but on googling, I found Saniflow systems are a bitch when they go wrong,
As most people (don't) know, saniflo systems take the "waste" through a "macerator" which grinds it down, that was until today where it decided to "give me a refund", it came up the toilet, in the shower tray and up through the sink.

I spent 3 hours cleaning the "stuff", removing tiles and fumigating the ensuite/bedroom we now have to wait till Tuesday where a nice man will come round charging £62 PER HALF HOUR to do whatever he needs to do. All I'm saying is he better get it done in half an hour, no cupp'o'tea, no chit-chat and no time wasting rubbing his chin.

Stttttt-rrrrrikeThe Writers Guild of America strike in the US is about to head over to the UK

I am about to watch episode 11 of Heroes season 2 thanks to newsgroups and my movie streaming Xbox. It eppears however that this may just be the last episode for a while as the strike has affected future episodes, not only a delay, but a possible end to season 2 with a re-write of the final epiode. This also affects the spin-off show Heroes: Origins which is now likely to be canned.

Let's just hope they can reach an agreement soon (pay the writers what they're asking for) so I can get back to watching a fantastic show.

Also affected are;

• Bionic Woman - up to episode 7,
  
• 24 Season 7 - Postponed indefinately in the US and UK as there are only 9 episodes ready
• Prison Break - 12 episodes completed
• Nip/Tuck - 14 (of 22) ready

iOrange

After my falling out with Thomo over his recent purchase, I have decided to allow him to buy me lots of beers in return for forgiveness.

What I am not happy about though is the fact that I don't want the iPod Touch, I don't want an iPhone,

I Need one

The HTC Touch Dual is a fantastic phone with most of the functions I want in in a phone, but its missing... that something,When Orange bring out the iPhone v2 (which they will) put me down for one, with a decent data plan . (v2 will have 3G)

I love the iTouch (Now), combining this with a phone I use and carry around every day will be perfect.

Santa Baby, Slip an iPhone under the tree, for me.

Office Party - Follow Up

The Office Party went very well, no fights, no falling out, no drunken behavoiur, Not that I saw anyway, Even managed to get a Most of I.T. Group shot. (which I'll update when I find it).

The Office Christmas Party

Do you know how much radiation a photocopier gives off ?

Tomorrow is our Office Christmas party and I most certainly am going, although only the "first drink is free" I am sure we of the I.T. department can manage a couple of drinks (Read Rounds) out of the Directors and Senior Managers.

I have read up the "Office Party Do's and Dont's" which are listed below

1. Don't Drink Too Much
2. Don't Treat the Office Party Like a Singles Bar
3. Don't Flirt or Act in a Sexually Provactive Manner
4. Don't Wear Suggestive Clothing
5. Don't Let Your Guard Down
6. Don't Tell Dirty or Off-Color Jokes
7. Don't Use Foul Language
8. Don't Talk About People Behind Their Backs
9. Don't Bring Uninvited Guests
10. Don't Underestimate the Importance of Your Guest's Behavior

Looks like I'm not going after all, Rules (1) and (5) rule me out.

EDIT :- Recently added by the Cookster, of which I can only account for... erm, all of them

1. Don't add extra peppers to a colleagues Subway*
   
2. Don't fall down the stairs going to the bathroom.
3. Don't poor Jack Daniels down a colleagues face when he refuses to drink it.
4. Don't suggest that five pint pitchers of Stella are a good idea.
5. Don't drink your colleague under the table so that they get off their train to Coventry too soon, end up trying to walk home and fall into a ditch in a park. Then have to call their Father-in-Law to try and find them and get their sorry ass home.

Although Cookster, you forgot.

Don't buy the Director a Cement Mixer and take photos while he drinks it.

Cement Mixer - He no like it

And I forgot...

1. Don't challenge the Vodka drinking head of the I.T. Department to a Vodka drinking competition, YOU WILL LOSE (If you're lucky, if you're not, see below).

Altogether now.

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Hate !!!!

I have known my (ex) good friend Thomo for 10 years, 8 months and 23 days in which time we have worked together at 3 places, employed each other, loaned each other tonnes of money, been through births, deaths, marriages, new girlfriends and splits from girlfriends, you could say he was "A MATE"2 days ago however this all came to an end.

3 cases of Stella was purchased, we arranged for a "serious" session with Stella, Dominos Pizza, Xbox and TV round at my house.

when Thomo turned up however, he instantly did something to make me hate him...

He pulled out his BRAND NEW 16Gb IPOD TOUCH...

I WANT ONE !!!