Billy Young's Blog, page 13

15th November 2013

I asked for an hour back of the time I'm owed at work. Sadly it was refused. This left me feeling angry and forced me to go over my supervisors head. I still didn't get the hour but did put my point over to the manager. She was understanding though her hands were tied as she couldn't very well overturn the supervisor's decision. That is understandable yet it left me no further forward other than my expressing my wish to take an hour back every second Friday as I do have a long week to come. Which is made longer as it is my turn next week to work on to cover the retort. As I said she said she understood and advised me to ask a couple of day before I want the time back in future. Good advice though I'll need to wait and see if that works in future. As it was I was finished cleaning my area around the time I wish to leave for home. After that I was as I saw it not really needed so could have been given the time. Not worth worrying about it now though just need to learn from it and wait to see if I do get some time back next time.
I got a game from Steam, State of Decay, a zombie game. After downloading I have spent more time trying to find a solution to it crashing out every five minutes. Even Steam support have been no help. Search forums has lead to fruitless returns. Steam suggested registering with the games official forum and querying there for an answer. I have search that forum several times but haven't registered as yet. It isn't the first game from Steam that has led to problems and each time support has been terrible. Usually though the game do allow me to play for an hour or two before they crash which makes them playable. The only other game that does this is another zombie one, Dead Island. Maybe my computer doesn't like the dead rising, hehehe. Well I have this weekend to try and find a remedy to the problem. After a week though I am think I might not get it working right. Maybe deleting it and re-downloading might work. I haven't tried that one yet. It might be worth a go as I won't lose anything. Five minutes doesn't give you much to save.

8th November 2013

It has been a stressful week at work. I got moved to the weighing station. That as you might guess is where the raw ingredients that go into the product are measure out. It isn't the worst job in the world but there is more pressure. It doesn't help when the head supervisor keeps jumping in to help. I don't mind the extra hand but when he starts filling in the paperwork that goes with the job. That leads to a right mess as I try to keep track of how much has been done. If he'd just leave the marking up to me I would feel a bit better and not get as stressed. Of course he'll not do that though.
Calum had a good night out with his friends in Glasgow for his birthday last week. He certainly made himself some memories to laugh over in years to come. Magz and myself gave him money to spend which he did on a new watch. His sister got her mum to get him a bottle of bourbon from her. I'm not sure if he's opened it yet though I am sure he and his friends will enjoy it.
This weekend I have some gaming issues to try to fix. I got State of Decay from Steam and it only runs for about ten minutes before crashing out. Sometime to a blue screen of death. Not what I paid for. Everything I have tried to do so far has failed with little improvement. After contacting support I now have something else to try. I'm not hopeful of it working though I have to give it an attempt.
Now to allow the past week to slip into a restful weekend, I hope.

1st November 2013

The roof is finally fixed. At least it seems to be as no water has been dripping onto Calum's head at night. I'll go up into the attic to check tomorrow. It seams like last week but this time I am pretty sure that it will be drier up there this week. Last Saturday I found my suspicions were correct and the leak was still present. Luckily the plastic the council put in place was funnelling the water out by way of the eaves. Then on Monday Magz let them in to have a look before they headed onto the roof to fix the problem. They said it was the flashing around the chimney as they thought. I'm just glad that the house is now drying out. That smell of damp has started to fade thankfully.
On a lighter note it is my son's birthday today. He's nineteen now. It makes me old just thinking of it. It only seems like yesterday he was my little babe in arms. Now he has a job and took his first driving lesson yesterday. Where has the years gone, eh? They have just slid by so fast. Nothing like special occasions to make you think of the years passing. Well enough of that I have a weekend ahead of me and I believe there is some birthday cake to be eaten, hehehe.

25th October 2013

My son Calum found that his bed was soaked last Saturday when he came home from work. Our roof has developed a leak and the water had found its way in over Calum's bed. He wasn't best pleased as you can guess. It only got worse as the landlord, the local council, took most of this week to getting around to fixing it. When I say fixing it though that has yet to be seen as they have said they will need to come back and check it on Monday. They think it was the flashing around the chimney. It is to be wet tomorrow so I'll go up into the loft to have a look myself. Magz said she though she heard water dripping into the bucket that the second council worker put up there to catch the water. When we first discovered the leak I tried to place a container under it up there but it wouldn't sit up or even catch it all. In the end we had to catch the water by leaving a bucket on Calum's bed. That left the sofa for my son to sleep on for a couple of nights to his added annoyance. With the leak has come a nasty smell of damp. It hangs in the air plus I'm sure I came still smell on my clothes at work. It makes you feel a bit like your unwashed. Not a nice feeling. Hopefully I find that it has been fixed tomorrow. If it isn't I think it will be me that gets upset about it this time. Not to say I wasn't unhappy with the council when it took them so long to do something in the first place. Mind it is always the same when it comes to landlords isn't it.

18th October 2013

It has been a very lazy holiday for me over the past week. Now it is coming to an end I look back over the week and see how little I have done. Yes the gardening season is over other than the picking of the remainder of the blueberries. There are still more to be gathered so Magz will have enough to bake another pie with.
Every night has seen me playing Skyrim. I am at the end of the main quest of dealing with the dragon threat to the land of Skyrim which I had put of till I felt I was strong enough to deal with the final big boss. Sadly I don't feel ready yet to go for the final battle. To build character up more I have taken to minor quest and just generally exploring more of the countryside that the game is set. Yeah that is usual for RPG's which is mainly the sort of thing I have already been doing but with so much in this game it has been a struggle to become powerful enough to feel secure in how far I have come to take on that last dragon.
Gaming has meant a lot of late nights which isn't good. Next week I will certainly feel when I have to get up early again for work. Maybe I should have an early night or two before Monday morning. Of course That is unlikely to happen as the game has that grip on me that makes it hard not to play. Though next week will mean that it will be back to Saturday gaming only. Well I might as well enjoy the time I have left of my break from work, hehehe.

11th October 2013

I'm on holiday from today with all next week to laze around. The weather has turned colder not even reaching double figure. That means the gardening season is truly over. I'll need to pick the sweet corn and hope that it is ready or lose it to possible frost. Luckily so far there hasn't been any but it isn't far away. There are still some blueberries on the bush but I think they should ripen quicker now that the season has truly shifted. I did find some lavender growing in with my parsley which I transferred to a pot of its own then moved indoors over winter. I hope it grows though the past few times I have tried have been failures. How it got into the parsley I don't know as the parsley has been growing outside in the same pot for the past few years. Maybe it is a sign that this time I might be more successful. Let's hope.
So there isn't a lot for me to do in the garden as you can tell so I have nothing planned. Well other than some gaming. Skyrim and my new game Dead Island which I purchased on Saturday. I went downtown with my daughter Tammy. Yeah she got more out of it than me. I had to go in to town though to get Magz's Christmas present in. Tammy knew what ring Magz wanted so I took her along. She came back with three new games and a book. As all fathers know we are easily parted from our funds by our daughters. Would we have it any other way though?
No, hehehe.

4th October 2013

I was off of work on Monday. I woke up in the night feeling like I'd been run over by a bus or two. I had a chill in my back that felt as if some one had replaced my left kidney with a block of ice. Adding to this was an excruciating cramping pain running down my leg. I sat a hot water bottle against my back to chase the chill off after sleeping most of the day away. Though I was still rough on Tuesday though I went into work but as the week has went on the pain in my leg seems to have gotten worse. At the moment I have resorted to Mondays remedy to chase the chill which seems to have returned though I'm glad to say without the tiring effect of earlier in the week. I'll continue with the water bottle over the weekend with the hope of finally ridding myself of symptoms. If not then it may mean a trip to the docs which as you can guess is something I'd rather avoid. As you can tell I don't like the doctors, hehehe. Maybe some light stretching exercise may help. Anything is worth a try after all.
Not all the coriander seeds have gone so with some luck. My tatties were looking a little scragglier than I expected last weekend so I'll see how they look tomorrow. The sweet corn was under attack from the snails so I put down some more pellets. And the Brussels got thinned out as well as any caterpillars I could find removed. Yes last weekend was a busy time in the garden. I even cut the front grass though I don't think it is for the last time this year. No it hasn't been cold enough to stunt the grass growing sadly. Still it is best to enjoy the chance to get out into the garden while we can. After all we'll all be moaning come the winter and looking forward to next years gardening. So the circle goes, hehehe.

27th September 2013

Magz's blueberry muffins were as good as they smelt when she was baking them. You know that smell of home baking that has your mouth watering. That was what welcomed me last Friday when I got home. It is a real pick up after a long weeks work. It was a great start to a good weekend with little more than some gaming and a bit of pottering about the garden. I picked some more berries as well as pulled up my carrots which were lovely as Sunday dinner. Well some of them were as there are still a few left for this weekend. The sweet corn looks good but have a bit of time to go before they are ready for picking. And the potatoes are looking really good as I noticed some tatties pushing up out of the soil in the bags. It could be a sign of a bumper crop this year. The shaws are still very green so they still need leaving for another couple of weeks I think.
The birds I think beat me to the coriander seeds. I couldn't see any when I was looking last Saturday but that might have been just the size of the plants. They certainly grew larger than normal this year though they are too heavy to support themselves. They lean out over the lawn from the tub I have them in.
Yes even though it was a very late start to the growing season this year I have managed to get a lot out of my tubs and bags. It hasn't been all good news though. The pak choi was eaten up by the cabbage butterfly or rather their young. I sprayed but the caterpillars seemed untroubled by it, at least on the pak choi. The brussels are still growing though they have little chance I feel of giving us anything this year. The cauliflower and broccoli grew well but maybe in the heat of summer just a little too well. For what ever reason though they failed to form florets which is a shame. That is the way it goes sometimes.

20th September 2013

Magz made crumble from the apples I pick last week and is planning on making more as well as some apple tarts. We had the one she made on Sunday with loads of custard. As you can tell it was great. I think I ate a little too much as I got severe dyspepsia latter that night. It last right into Monday night. Nothing seemed to work to rid me of it. In the end I used one of Magz's tablets that she has on prescription for her tummy troubles. That finally gave me relief from the burning pain.
The storms that we were expecting last week were far tamer than the weathermen told us. In fact other than a lot of rain I didn't even notice the wind. Maybe that was due to me not going out Sunday or Monday. Yes not even to check on the garden. I saw the sky emptying and that was enough for me to think I just stay where its dry. Looking out though I could see that my plants that are still out there were fine.
So what have I got planned for this weekend. Yeah that's right the same as usual. Check my garden. See if my potatoes are ready for pulling up. If they have started yellowing then it will be time but I think it might be another week or two before that. After all we are supposedly going to get some warmer, clearer weather over the next few days which will mean a chance for bigger tatties, hehehe. I still have carrots, a couple of parsnips, sweet corn, onions and tomatoes growing, as well as my herbs. I'm hoping to get seeds from the coriander as I have in previous years. I can use some next year to grow more and the rest go into the spice jar.
Well I'm off for a blueberry muffin. Something else Magz baked up, yum.

13th September 2013

I got my day off on Tuesday and this weekend is a long one. Yes Today as well as Monday off so it has been a very short week for me at work. Unfortunately My daughter Tammy has share her cold with me. To be truthful though there have been one or two people at work with the sniffles so I may have caught from them. Of course though I'll still windup my daughter. Well you have to don't you? It is one of those things that comes with family life. Tammy for her part joked back that she was only doing what comes naturally to her, sharing. I had to laugh.
I didn't pull the potatoes last week but decided to leave them for a few more weeks as they still looked like they had a bit more time in them yet. I did pick my apples to day as well as more blueberries and tomatoes. I still have a lot more blueberries to pick. The tomatoes though are beginning to die off as autumn has brought cooler weather over the past week or two. Add to that the lengthening nights, you get the picture.
Still it doesn't stop the grass growing does it. Yes I did get the front clipped on Tuesday but Magz had a washing out the back. Tomorrow is to be a good day so it will give me the chance to get the rear grass tidied up before the expected stormy weather arrives Sunday.
I know it makes little sense to get the garden in order just for it to be wrecked by storms we know are coming. Still there is little we can do about the gales that are on there way. I can at least shave the grass so it is easier to re-order once the bad weather has run its course.