Solid Gone

Follow The Sun

2008-07-21T08:47:00.001+01:00

An outpouring. I love it when it's easy and for any faults in it's rhyme or metre it just flows from me. It's here.

Craving

2008-07-19T12:22:00.001+01:00

I have this strange, all-consuming desire for pineapple.....

And having titled this post "craving", a song springs to mind. This one.

Windmills going round...

2008-07-18T13:23:00.001+01:00

I'm sure that there was something I was going to say. Whatever is was has gone like a summer love, though. Or like a spring frost in the morning sunshine. Maybe I'm mistaken and I just wish that there was something I felt the urgent need to post here. Either that or my memory is more shot than I thought, which I guess isn't impossible.

So, what shall I talk about? The weather? I think not. The weather is such a subjective thing. People are moaning about the fact that it's not sunny and hot, while I quite like it like this. Give me rain any day over blazing sunshine.

Anything profound I can say about current events? No not really. I don't tend to inflict my views on world events on you here very much anymore. A lot of what goes on around us has me shrugging my shoulders and muttering "Oh well" really. My optimism for the human race is fading fast. Apart, of course, for you, kind reader!

I'm in something of a funny mood, actually. I wouldn't go so far as to say I've "got the blues" but I'm definitely a little subdued. To be honest I feel a bit like this...

I have often told you stories
About the way
I lived the life of a drifter,
Waiting for the day
When I'd take your hand
And sing you songs,
Then maybe you would say
"Come lay with me love me"
And I would surely stay

But I feel I'm growing older
And the songs that I have sung
Echo in the distance,
Like the sound
Of a windmill going round.
I guess I'll always be
A soldier of fortune

Many times I've been a traveller
I've looked for something new.
In days of old
When nights were cold
I wandered without you.
Those days I thought my eyes
Had seen you standing near
Though blindness is confusing
It shows that you're not here.

Now I feel I'm growing older
And the songs that I have sung
Echo in the distance
Like the sound
Of a windmill going round.
I guess I'll always be
A soldier of fortune.
Yes, I can hear the sound
Of a windmill going round.
I guess I'll always be
A soldier of fortune

Soldier of Fortune by Deep Purple

You want irony...?

2008-07-15T12:30:00.001+01:00

Your humble scribe, 6.30 yesterday evening, singing along loudly to "Born To Be Wild"............while ironing.

*cries into beer*

Tree

2008-07-10T13:00:00.001+01:00

tree1, originally uploaded by Stegbeetle.

First attempt at taking, uploading and blogging a picture with our new camera.
This is the Yukka tree in the corner of our garden.

Missed

2008-07-09T12:28:00.001+01:00

Elder Daughter managed to miss her bus this morning. First up was a double lesson of P.E. and I'm sure you all remember what P.E. teachers are like should you have the audacity to roll up late to one of their lessons! I told her should hang on at home and go in for when the next lesson was starting. Consequently, she was sat around at home watching morning television (yawn!) when ordinarily I'd have some music on. Blast!

For today...

2008-07-06T12:18:00.001+01:00

I don't know what the weather is like where you are but in our neck of the woods it's been raining one minute and bright sunshine the next. This is all very well but it means that the lawn grows like buggery without ever being dry enough to mow. I'm sure that there's a case to be made for concreting over it.

So. What else? As previously alluded to, we have a new and rather swish digital camera. If and when I feel inspired pictures will become a more regular part of the blogging thing here, including a tour of the new house and grounds, an idea shamelessly filched from someone rather fab!

Right, before it rains again I go to buy daily essentials from the nearest possible place. I know I won't melt if I get rained on but the hair takes so long to dry, sweetie and goes horribly greasy after being rained on.

Sighs in relief

2008-07-04T11:18:00.001+01:00

I appear to be back online again.

Let's not be too confident about this, given recent history but fingers crossed, eh?

This time I seemed to get a serious "hang" when trying to install software for our new digital camera. Nothing would work so, acting on the advice of the nice people at my ISP's helpline I did a clean re-install of the operating system. Sorted. Apart from the fact that it sounded the death knell for our aging ADSL modem.

Again turning to the nice young man at the helpline, they offered to send us out a free router, at no cost whatsoever. Great! Bless 'em. This meant that I had to shell out for a long ethernet cable but was able to find one at a reasonable price online. Of course I now have to deal with the original seller who didn't send out the cable I ordered from him.

On a lighter note, brother is now out of hospital. On a less light note, though, without going into unnecessarily personal detail, what he's got is going to finish him off one day, possibly not too far in the future. His attitude towards it is so good, so positive however that he's sweeping everyone along with him on a tide of optimism!

So I go now to do his shopping as well as ours and then argue with him about whether he should be doing his own washing or not!

Gone again!

2008-06-21T16:59:00.000+01:00

[sent via phone] Am having all kinds of connection problems. Waiting for ISP to send me a shiny new router. Had enough of this now, thanks!

In which...

2008-06-18T10:21:00.001+01:00

...Steg does his world-famous impression of a pair of curtains and pulls himself together! Ba-doom tish! Thank you, thank you. There will be a silver collection for the performers as you leave.

So the plan for today is to get all the usual "stuff" done in time for me to get the train over to Cambridge to visit my brother in hospital. This means that the usual messing around on teh interweb is going to have to be curtailed this morning. So rather than blather on incessantly, I'm going to strip today's entry down to its bare bones and present you with a set of bullet points.

Deeply saddened to hear of the passing of the magnificent Cyd Charisse.
Have downloaded and am now using Firefox 3 and recommend you all do the same!
I now have a record player, again and much to the dismay of the rest of my family I'm not afraid to use it!
If the weather would behave itself for a while I have a wall-mountable clothes drier to screw onto the wall outside.
There are now fewer boxes in the garage than have been emptied already.
I want a new mobile phone. I don't actually need one, as such, but I want one anyway!
I am a "fiend". Apparently.
For today, that is all. Fare well!

Just a passing phase...

2008-06-17T10:40:00.001+01:00

...one of my bad days.

Feels empty. Missing....something. The worst part is in not quite knowing what's missing. Whether or not there's anything I could do to stop days like this happening, I don't know. Probably not. Everybody gets this at some point, I suppose.

I'll just keep on keeping on. Do what I have to do and try and smile while I'm doing it. Look, I'm going to go and do something else. You don't need me moaning at you. You've got your own troubles, right?

I'm "it", apparently.

2008-06-15T11:27:00.001+01:00

I've been tagged to do a meme! I'm sure that I was tagged for a few of these while I was without a computer so if you tagged me at some point and I appeared to ignore it - my apologies, try again!

This tag is courtesy of the rather wonderful Chicka Nuts.

So here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
6. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.

So without further ado, six random things about moi...

Um...oh I don't know! I'm fairly easy going. In fact, it's been said that I'm so laid back I'm nearly horizontal. If I don't have a strong opinion about something, then I'm happy to go with the "whatever".
I'm a bit of a flirt. But you knew that already, right?
"Music was my first love and it will be my last..."
I can't dance but I've never let that stop me.
I can't sing either but I've never let that stop me. I have two words for you - Bob Dylan!
I'm going slowly grey. My hairline also seems to receding. This must mean that I'm getting old...

So there you are. How much more random do you want?

In my turn I'm going to tag the following people, all of whom may ignore said tag if they wish!

Doris Mash, Lori, Cheryl, who has been far too quiet recently, as has the delightful I, still, love the view, Z and Betsie in the hope of stirring her into life!

Strange days, indeed

2008-06-14T12:23:00.002+01:00

It's been a funny few days. I seem to have been running to and from town, collecting prescriptions all the time! On Thursday this turned out to be a good thing as I noticed something earlier in the day than I otherwise would have. Let me tell you a tale...

Thursday is our "bin day". They collect early around here so I put the bins out Wednesday evening. As you may recall we have two dogs. Now, however often one takes dogs for walks, they are going to empty their bowels in the garden occasionally. I pick it up in a "little baggie", tie it up neatly and put it in the bin. This has never been a problem anywhere else we've lived in town and never struck my as anything that I shouldn't do. This weeks bin was full a few days before collection so there were 3 or 4 of the aforementioned "little baggies" in the top of the bin.

Coming back from the chemists, I approached the house from the opposite direction I usually would. I found that someone, I assume it was then bin men, had taken these little bags in dog poo out and dropped them by the side of the bin, almost behind a fence, where I may well not have noticed them had I come to the bin from the door.

I can't imagine who else would have taken them out apart from the bin men and can't imagine why they would have done so unless it was not permissible to dispose of pet waste in the bins. Which seems a little odd but....

And on the subject of odd, one of the dogs woke me at 3 in the morning, clearly a little perturbed at something at the front of the house. Peering through the glass in the front door I saw a police car accompanying a low-loader lorry with a crane on the back which was hoisting a car on-board. At 3 o'clock in the morning! Not ours, I hasten to add!

Cable ties

2008-06-10T12:24:00.001+01:00

I've deliberately not whinged at you all about the move. It's the same for everyone, I know. For a while after you move in you can't find anything!

Most things are turning up, in boxes, in the garage. One thing that hasn't yet put in an appearance is the cable to connect my phone to my PC. This makes posting pictures rather awkward, if not actually impossible. Especially as I seem unable to send photos to online storage sites with my phone at the moment as well! And I've been sent a picture that my phone can't view the format of and I need to transfer it to my PC to view. Gotta find that cable! See what I did with the post title?

The look the Wife is going for in the new lounge is "contemporary". Apparently. It all looks good but we weren't able to find CD storage that fitted. I mean physically fitted as well as aesthetically. I have a lot of CDs and need large storage solutions for them. yesterday a large oak-effect thing arrived that I'd found at Argos. No, it's not the most attractive piece of furniture in the world but it's big enough. I go to get my CDs out of the garage and unpack them!

2008-06-07T12:12:00.001+01:00

My brother is in hospital! Like I need someone else to worry about.

What next?

2008-06-06T11:41:00.001+01:00

Okay, what you really don't need after after moving into a new house is a series of mishaps. Well, perhaps "series" is too strong but it feels like it's heading that way!

Less than three weeks after moving into the new house, the washing machine breaks down. A local engineer tried for 2 hours to fix it (for only £25) but was eventually defeated by the electronics of it. Call out by the manufacturer starts at £90! A new "board", whatever that is, is about £150. Time to buy a new machine!

So the new machine arrived yesterday and I'm very happy with it. Or as happy as I ever get with domestic appliances. They're not the most exciting things in the world.

This morning, while washing my hands at the sink in our downstairs shower room I got wet feet. Water was cascading out of the bottom of the sink, around the joint for the drain. Damn and blast! I can't tighten anything enough by hand to stop it and don't have the tools for the job so it's time to find a plumber!

Someone, somewhere is taking the piss!

Ch...ch...changes

2008-06-01T18:46:00.001+01:00

I'm getting bored with the way this blog looks. I could always start another I suppose but I'm more inclined to play with the template I've got here rather than have to redirect my huge and valued readership.

Also things didn't look quite so "pink" around here on my old monitor. I've no problem with "pink" but was aiming for rather more of a "purple" look when I set it up. My apologies to anyone who's had their eyes burned out by coming here.

So, if things start to look a little different Solid Gone-wise don't be surprised. Equally don't be too surprised if I don't get around to it. You know how it is.

Steps blinking into the light

2008-05-31T10:52:00.003+01:00

Um...hello again!

You know what? I never want to move house again. What a pain in the arse! Anyway, we're in and the number of boxes in the garage is gradually going down. I might even post the odd picture of the new house in a bit!

We're about 5 minutes walk from a local wood so there'll definitely be woodland pictures, possibly including dogs bounding through undergrowth.

I am getting to grips with Windows Vista on our new PC and after a mini-drama concerning non-functioning extension lines and a new, functioning extension being chewed up by a certain dog who will remain nameless we are back online.

According to Bloglines I have over 1000 things to read. Clearly this ain't going to happen so if anybody has anything that they'd really like me to read then please let me know.

For now it's just nice to back and I'm sorry to have kept you all waiting!

"Don't you forget about me...."

2008-05-12T13:11:00.003+01:00

This may well be the last post for a couple of weeks. We move this Friday and the pressure of packing is getting greater and I can have less excuse to be sat in the library.

Once the phone line is active at the new house my ISP say it could take up to 5 working days for our broadband to become active again. Once we're in a set-up and sorted I will be back like the proverbial bad penny but there won't be anything new here until at least the 20-somethingth of this month unless I just have to blog about something specific!

Catch you on the other side, you wonderful people, you!

You can't have your cake and eat it!

2008-05-06T14:26:00.002+01:00

So. We have a new PC, contentedly sitting in its box.

There the contentment ends, I fear. The temptation to unpack it and set it up is almost overwhelming but I can (unfortunately) see the wisdom in not doing so until after we've moved. Roll on the 16th.....

Just perfect...

2008-05-02T12:07:00.002+01:00

So the computer has died. Just what I need with less than two weeks to go until we move!

We'd been talking about buying a new one after we're settled in at the new place but it looks now like we might be hitting the electrical superstores on Bank Holiday Monday looking for good deal. It'd be silly to buy one and unpack it for a week before having to pack it again so until the 16th, at least, I'll be confined to using the PCs in the local library. Apologies to anyone who mails and doesn't get get a reply or who comments and doesn't get any kind of acknowledgement.

Have started packing in earnest this morning, not having the distraction of a functioning PC!

Umm, think that's about it really. I don't have the time to sit in here contemplating the inscrutable riddle of the Universe and you really don't need to hear about my Interwebnet withdrawal symptoms.

Missing you all, though!

All Systems Go!

2008-04-29T11:46:00.002+01:00

So it's definitely on. We have a completion date for the new house, have handed in a "termination of tenancy" notice and booked a removals company. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the gentleman who turned up from the removals company is an old school friend of mine!

So now we do the packing thing. Despite the fact that we've got lots of "stuff" I'm not too panicked about it (yet) and am confident that it won't entail too much grief. The biggest hurdle, I think, is going to be getting rid of the stuff that we don't want to take with us. The hiring of a skip may be required.

It's going to be strange. We've been here for about 8 years and got used to it. Being somewhere else in town is just going to be a little...weird.

Addiction and Affliction

2008-04-25T12:19:00.001+01:00

I seem to have a new addiction. Old Jamaica Ginger Beer. I know it's got loads of sugar in it but it's just so Goddamned tasty! I blame Enid Blyton, myself. All those years of reading about the Famous Five having "lashings of Ginger beer" with everything obviously affected me.

I loved those stories. A simpler time and possibly all the better for it. Life today is too complicated for me sometimes. Or maybe I'm just getting old! I discovered yesterday that I just can't get excited about light fittings or kitchen bins that co-ordinate with the rest of the kitchen. A Dalek-shaped bin would float my boat a little more than one that blends in, I think. I always thought I was quite "in touch with my feminine side" but clearly that doesn't extend to home furnishings.

Horrifically, I appear to have picked up a bad case of "bloke" from somewhere!

New Toy!

2008-04-23T12:29:00.002+01:00

It's pathetic really. The little things that bring excitement into our lives.

As I may have mentioned before I have a Facebook presence. On logging into it today I was greeted with a new feature. They have installed a "chat" feature as standard, rather as one of the many and varied applications one can voluntarily add.

Consequently, I've been whiling the morning away by playing with it and chatting with friends who I wouldn't normally chat to, we not being on one another's MSN or Yahoo messengers.

It's new, obviously (duh!) and a few improvements spring to mind but it works and is fairly reliable, it seems.

I'd like to formally apologise here to anyone who I may have startled by "popping up" in a chat window when they weren't even aware that such a thing was possible! Of course, that's not to say that I won't do exactly the same thing again later. Or tomorrow. Or whenever.

As a very erudite person once said - "little things please little minds"!

Just testing...

2008-04-22T12:17:00.001+01:00

...the latest release of the Scribefire extension for Firefox.

Don't mind me. Kindly go about your business!