Billy Young's Blog, page 20
July 13, 2012
13th July 2012
I’m glad it’s Friday. Though work wasn’t too bad after a week off I’m still happy that I have next week off as well. Adding to my joy is my new computer which is running like a dream. Find my way around Windows 7 has been easier than I imagined. I’ve played a few games of chess, at the easiest settings of course. Well it has been a good few years since I played. I can’t actually remember how long it has been but it is a few years. I was thirteen or so when I learned to play. I didn’t have a chess set so I made one out of Lego and drew a board out on to two pieces of paper stuck together. That was my first board until Christmas came and I got a little wooden set. I lost that one after leaving home at seventeen. I did get other magnetic sets but I always seem to lose the pieces strangely and after a while stopped playing till the internet. Yes we have all play those online games but they only hold our attention for a bit don’t they?
Magz has been busy this week making jam from the mass of strawberries I have been gathering from the garden. This week though Tammy gave me a hand by collecting the berries while I’ve been at work. I showed how to choose the ones that needed picking, not really that hard just look for the red ones. Though the snails and slugs have been out in force this year meaning a lot of waste. My basil again has suffered as has the lettuce and Brussels sprouts. I just have too put it down to a battle lost I suppose for this year and try again next while the success of this year. The strawberries are certainly one of those and I’m sure there will be more as my apple trees are looking good.
Magz has been busy this week making jam from the mass of strawberries I have been gathering from the garden. This week though Tammy gave me a hand by collecting the berries while I’ve been at work. I showed how to choose the ones that needed picking, not really that hard just look for the red ones. Though the snails and slugs have been out in force this year meaning a lot of waste. My basil again has suffered as has the lettuce and Brussels sprouts. I just have too put it down to a battle lost I suppose for this year and try again next while the success of this year. The strawberries are certainly one of those and I’m sure there will be more as my apple trees are looking good.
July 7, 2012
One Day Late 7th July 2012
Yes I lost track of the week with me being on holiday. Saying that I have also been ill this week with a nasty cold though my daughter got it worse. Add to that that I was building my new computer, which is running like dream now and then setting up my daughters from the parts her brother had. He as you know got my old system, well everything other than the hard drive as I needed that for the storage space for my new system. The sixty gig SSD is great for running windows from but not really practical for keeping everything else on these days. Though getting my system up and running was easy enough it wasn’t so simple for Tammy’s. No for some reason it decided not to power up at first. It took Magz to fix that problem yet it still left us unsure what was wrong. After that it wouldn’t connect to the web. Yes again the wife sorted it out. Over two days of coughing over Tammy’s machine and Magz got it running within a few hours. What can I say?
Over the past two days I have been out picking strawberries. As expected it is a bumper crop this year. Already I must have picked over two pounds in weight from my garden with still more to ripen over the coming weeks. The ladies are baking individual tarts today with those already gathered. I imagine they with eat one or two of the fruits as the cut them into halves as they do love strawberries.
My troubles with the neighbourhood moggies continue. I have taken to sticking canes and bits of wood between the plants to put the cats off. Still they seem to think that my tubs are just some large cat litter trays put out for their convenience. It is driving me to distraction with no remedy as yet in sight.
The council, you will be glad to hear, finally got our central heating working again. It took the engineer three days to get it working again. He thought it was fixed at the end of the second day but no sooner was he away and, you guessed, it stopped functioning. I don’t know why they council just doesn’t replace it after all with all the new part that went into it this week it must have cost them more to fix it. Mind it was good to finally get to soak in a bath so I shouldn’t complain.
Over the past two days I have been out picking strawberries. As expected it is a bumper crop this year. Already I must have picked over two pounds in weight from my garden with still more to ripen over the coming weeks. The ladies are baking individual tarts today with those already gathered. I imagine they with eat one or two of the fruits as the cut them into halves as they do love strawberries.
My troubles with the neighbourhood moggies continue. I have taken to sticking canes and bits of wood between the plants to put the cats off. Still they seem to think that my tubs are just some large cat litter trays put out for their convenience. It is driving me to distraction with no remedy as yet in sight.
The council, you will be glad to hear, finally got our central heating working again. It took the engineer three days to get it working again. He thought it was fixed at the end of the second day but no sooner was he away and, you guessed, it stopped functioning. I don’t know why they council just doesn’t replace it after all with all the new part that went into it this week it must have cost them more to fix it. Mind it was good to finally get to soak in a bath so I shouldn’t complain.
June 29, 2012
29th June 2012
The leak under the sink in the kitchen has been but we still don’t have hot water or heating. Yes we had a leak in the new kitchen which we discovered on Sunday. Luckily it had been caught by a plastic box we use for keeping cleaning stuff in such as brillo pads, new dish clothes, etc, etc. It did mean much of that had to be replaced but we weren’t faced with water everywhere. The leak was from the pipes going to our washing machine. The washers were faulty that had been fitted or were wrongly installed. Either way it meant calling the council out to fix the problem which was sorted by Monday evening. My hat is off to the councils swift response to the problem.
Well I am now waiting the delivery of my parts to build my new computer. I have gone for the I7 3770 processor from Intel. I could have went for the K series for overclocking but thought that I wasn’t likely to do that so the extra money would be a waste. That will fit in nicely in the Asus P8ZZ77 V LX. With the SSD (solid state drive), 8GB memory, HD7850 graphics card all going into a Zalman Z11 mid case running Windows 7. It should be a great system with loads of power to drive any games I want to run.
Yeah that could distract me from writing as has been the case over the past couple of weeks. I won’t make excuses as I would only be lying to myself if I did. Oblivion is proving to be a rather addictive gaming experience. Even wile at work I have found that I have been thinking about what I have to do in the game. Saying that may sound weird but I find the same when reading a good book. Rather with a book I find myself thinking over what the main character might do next. I suppose we all do that though, right.
Before I go though a word on a book sale over at Smashwords.com for the month of July. From the 1st – 31st if you use the code SSW50 you can gat any of my four horror tales at half price of $1. There will be loads of other books on sale as well so why not check it out. Remember though these are ebooks we are talking about not hard copies.
Well I am now waiting the delivery of my parts to build my new computer. I have gone for the I7 3770 processor from Intel. I could have went for the K series for overclocking but thought that I wasn’t likely to do that so the extra money would be a waste. That will fit in nicely in the Asus P8ZZ77 V LX. With the SSD (solid state drive), 8GB memory, HD7850 graphics card all going into a Zalman Z11 mid case running Windows 7. It should be a great system with loads of power to drive any games I want to run.
Yeah that could distract me from writing as has been the case over the past couple of weeks. I won’t make excuses as I would only be lying to myself if I did. Oblivion is proving to be a rather addictive gaming experience. Even wile at work I have found that I have been thinking about what I have to do in the game. Saying that may sound weird but I find the same when reading a good book. Rather with a book I find myself thinking over what the main character might do next. I suppose we all do that though, right.
Before I go though a word on a book sale over at Smashwords.com for the month of July. From the 1st – 31st if you use the code SSW50 you can gat any of my four horror tales at half price of $1. There will be loads of other books on sale as well so why not check it out. Remember though these are ebooks we are talking about not hard copies.
June 22, 2012
22nd June 2012
Well the workmen came and now we have no heating or hot water. We have no idea when we might get things fixed as the problem is with our boiler which needs a special part ordered. This all leaves us in limbo as they council have no clue how long this part might take to arrive. Yes we got nice new units but our kitchen has also be none existent plus we still have to wait till Monday before we can start getting things to normal. Why? I hear you ask. Well the plasterer and tiler are still to do their thing to finish everything off.
As you can imagine this has been a pretty stressful week. Coming home to workmen stomping through your house after a long day at work, well I don’t have to tell you. Next week doesn’t look any better even though it is the week before the holidays from work. I’m only glad all this work is being done in the summer as if it had been the winter it would be a mighty cold time we would be having.
All the stress of the last week has meant that I have been losing myself in gaming. I’ve been playing Oblivion part the The Elder Scrolls series rather than coming home to write a poem. That has been my usual routine over the past few months. Not that many of them have been that good but it does keep me writing. I have liked some of them though they need editing. Finding the extra time to do that seems beyond my reach as work takes up so much of the day. Of course without work there isn’t the money to survive is there or to get the luxuries that we save for. Like the new computer that I have been saving for which I have finally reach my target. That will mean that I can have some retail therapy tonight. Calum is looking forward to getting my old one.
As you can imagine this has been a pretty stressful week. Coming home to workmen stomping through your house after a long day at work, well I don’t have to tell you. Next week doesn’t look any better even though it is the week before the holidays from work. I’m only glad all this work is being done in the summer as if it had been the winter it would be a mighty cold time we would be having.
All the stress of the last week has meant that I have been losing myself in gaming. I’ve been playing Oblivion part the The Elder Scrolls series rather than coming home to write a poem. That has been my usual routine over the past few months. Not that many of them have been that good but it does keep me writing. I have liked some of them though they need editing. Finding the extra time to do that seems beyond my reach as work takes up so much of the day. Of course without work there isn’t the money to survive is there or to get the luxuries that we save for. Like the new computer that I have been saving for which I have finally reach my target. That will mean that I can have some retail therapy tonight. Calum is looking forward to getting my old one.
June 15, 2012
15th June 2012
The council are doing work on my house in the coming week. We’re to get a new kitchen and bathroom. What that means is four days of hassle for us but at the end of it we have nice new units in the kitchen as well as a new bathroom suite. Mind you it is over due. We’ve stayed in this house for seven years now. At the time we moved in the units needed replaced. The council of course didn’t see it as we did. So we were forced into fitting some we got second hand to boost storage space. Magz saw the plans to what we will be getting and she was happy. As she is the main user of the kitchen that is all that matters. I’m not looking forward to the disturbance. After a long day working then coming home to a building site will be a real headache. In the end though it should be worth it.
Next doors cat has been back doing mischief in my garden again. This time it’s the sweetcorn that has been under attack. Magz chased it off the other day but no soon was it scooted away and it came back. The worst for Magz is that she was the one that wanted me to plant the corn so she feels connected to them. It’s like they’re her babies so she must protect them. I’m not complaining though as it means she’s also scaring it away from all the other plants. What is worse is that the spray we got to deter cats doesn’t seem to work. I think I may have to do some research on the web to how to solve the problem. If you have any tips I would welcome them. Thanks.
Next doors cat has been back doing mischief in my garden again. This time it’s the sweetcorn that has been under attack. Magz chased it off the other day but no soon was it scooted away and it came back. The worst for Magz is that she was the one that wanted me to plant the corn so she feels connected to them. It’s like they’re her babies so she must protect them. I’m not complaining though as it means she’s also scaring it away from all the other plants. What is worse is that the spray we got to deter cats doesn’t seem to work. I think I may have to do some research on the web to how to solve the problem. If you have any tips I would welcome them. Thanks.
June 8, 2012
8th June 2012
It has been slow at work this week. Mind I have only been working a three day week given that I had a long weekend last week. Still the three days I have been have been long ones. I suppose it is to be expected after five days relaxing.
There was a meeting at work this week with some unhappy news at least for some. Our holidays have been changed to accommodate changes to the business. It’s a way of saying that due to expected increases to orders later in the year they want us to take three weeks holiday in the summer and give up our holiday in October. I’m alright with it because if it secures that I keep working then all is good. Some of my work-mates don’t like the idea and voiced their dissatisfaction at the changes. I understand why they feel like that as it means that after the September weekend we wouldn’t have another day off until Christmas. That combined with the dark mornings will make it a very wearying few months. Still as I said if it’s good for the company then it can only be good for me in the scheme of things.
My strawberries will need weeding again tomorrow. It will give me a chance to check to see how the fruits are developing. None are ready yet that mush I know but I have seen some growing out of the flowers already, casting their petals as they do. I’ll also see how my apple and gooseberries are doing. The gooseberries were looking good the other day when I was having a look. It will be a few weeks though till their ready for picking but they are starting to fatten up nicely. Though this year isn’t as good as last year’s crop in the amount on the bush, sadly. I think that is due to the colder spring that we had though it doesn’t seem to have affected the apples as much. I’m looking forward to a good crop come autumn.
There was a meeting at work this week with some unhappy news at least for some. Our holidays have been changed to accommodate changes to the business. It’s a way of saying that due to expected increases to orders later in the year they want us to take three weeks holiday in the summer and give up our holiday in October. I’m alright with it because if it secures that I keep working then all is good. Some of my work-mates don’t like the idea and voiced their dissatisfaction at the changes. I understand why they feel like that as it means that after the September weekend we wouldn’t have another day off until Christmas. That combined with the dark mornings will make it a very wearying few months. Still as I said if it’s good for the company then it can only be good for me in the scheme of things.
My strawberries will need weeding again tomorrow. It will give me a chance to check to see how the fruits are developing. None are ready yet that mush I know but I have seen some growing out of the flowers already, casting their petals as they do. I’ll also see how my apple and gooseberries are doing. The gooseberries were looking good the other day when I was having a look. It will be a few weeks though till their ready for picking but they are starting to fatten up nicely. Though this year isn’t as good as last year’s crop in the amount on the bush, sadly. I think that is due to the colder spring that we had though it doesn’t seem to have affected the apples as much. I’m looking forward to a good crop come autumn.
June 1, 2012
1st June 2012
I’m on holiday until Wednesday because of the Queen’s jubilee. Sixty years on the throne is quite an achievement. Though I’m not a royalist I wouldn’t say I was against them either. At times I would even say I was for them especially Princess Anne as she supports the Scottish rugby side. As you can tell from that statement I do love watching my national side and it is great for us to have a royal sponsor. Regardless of how I feel toward the royals it does mean I have five days off, which is great.
Mind my daughter Tammy has already decided that we need a family day out, though I’m not sure if Calum wants to go. Where are we going for the day out depends on the weather of course. It looks like it is to be good so that will mean the beach but if it isn’t then it will be off to Glasgow. As you can guess I’m routing for the beach, after all it is less expensive as Glasgow will be shopping. With the holiday weekend the city will also be crowded which isn’t a pleasant thought fighting through the crowds while trying to hold onto those precious pennies. Of course it will still cost me at the beach as the slot machines will be calling after spending time on the sand, hehehe.
On Sunday I’ll need to get the grass cut as well as the hedges seen to. With the rain this week after all the great week or two has caused it to shoot up. At the same time it has also aided my plants. My strawberries are now in full bloom with some fruit beginning to form. Unfortunately my coriander has suffered from a bird attack. I’ve put more seed into the tub but it will be a couple of weeks I suspect before I see if they will come to anything as they were gathered from last years plants.
Thanks to the Queen I will still have a couple of days left for some gaming and to spend a little time working on some of my poems. Over the past two weeks I have worked on one which I’m still just not happy with but do think I might have the answer for it now. I also have been haunted by one rather disturbing on which I finally put to paper so to speak yesterday. It will also need editing to get it out of my head and allow me some peace of mind. Strange how some poems or stories do that to you. You can’t ignore them as they have a tendency to force themselves into the front of your mind strangling all other thoughts. In the end it is better to get them exorcised so you are free of them.
Mind my daughter Tammy has already decided that we need a family day out, though I’m not sure if Calum wants to go. Where are we going for the day out depends on the weather of course. It looks like it is to be good so that will mean the beach but if it isn’t then it will be off to Glasgow. As you can guess I’m routing for the beach, after all it is less expensive as Glasgow will be shopping. With the holiday weekend the city will also be crowded which isn’t a pleasant thought fighting through the crowds while trying to hold onto those precious pennies. Of course it will still cost me at the beach as the slot machines will be calling after spending time on the sand, hehehe.
On Sunday I’ll need to get the grass cut as well as the hedges seen to. With the rain this week after all the great week or two has caused it to shoot up. At the same time it has also aided my plants. My strawberries are now in full bloom with some fruit beginning to form. Unfortunately my coriander has suffered from a bird attack. I’ve put more seed into the tub but it will be a couple of weeks I suspect before I see if they will come to anything as they were gathered from last years plants.
Thanks to the Queen I will still have a couple of days left for some gaming and to spend a little time working on some of my poems. Over the past two weeks I have worked on one which I’m still just not happy with but do think I might have the answer for it now. I also have been haunted by one rather disturbing on which I finally put to paper so to speak yesterday. It will also need editing to get it out of my head and allow me some peace of mind. Strange how some poems or stories do that to you. You can’t ignore them as they have a tendency to force themselves into the front of your mind strangling all other thoughts. In the end it is better to get them exorcised so you are free of them.
May 25, 2012
25th May 2012
Finally the weather has brightened and my plants are beginning to throw up new growth. Today it hit twenty seven Celsius. Even though I was at work I’m enjoying it. Winter seemed to drag on for so long this year that to finally have the heat is freeing in a sense. With the good spell set to last this weekend I’m hoping to fix the post that snapped during the gales earlier this year. Though the metal braces that I put have held it up till now it is still weak. I have a replacement that a neighbour gave me which will do the job but first I have to remove the concrete holding the old one in. Out with the bolster I suppose as well as some digging. I t will be worth it though to have the garden fence standing strong. While I’m at it I can give it a lick of paint to freshen the whole thing up.
The netting Magz put over the plants seems to have kept the cats at bay. That is a relief as the last thing you need is to keep having your plants dug up. That and the cold has been trying this year. Of course no of that has stopped the weeds. I did more hoeing last week around the strawberries. It as well as the sun has brought them into bloom. Magz is now looking forward to a bumper crop to make a tart with. She has already been scouring our recipe books and the web for one. I’m not sure why though as she already knows how. Mind she is always looking to improve on the things she bakes till she is totally happy. Still it does mean I get some to take to work in my lunch box, hehehe.
The netting Magz put over the plants seems to have kept the cats at bay. That is a relief as the last thing you need is to keep having your plants dug up. That and the cold has been trying this year. Of course no of that has stopped the weeds. I did more hoeing last week around the strawberries. It as well as the sun has brought them into bloom. Magz is now looking forward to a bumper crop to make a tart with. She has already been scouring our recipe books and the web for one. I’m not sure why though as she already knows how. Mind she is always looking to improve on the things she bakes till she is totally happy. Still it does mean I get some to take to work in my lunch box, hehehe.
May 18, 2012
18th May 2012
Alan, my boss told me yesterday that in a few weeks I will be get my shift times changed to office hours (nine till five). The work is trying to do away with overtime in a cost cutting exercise. This is the reason why I have been receiving training in the retort as it is mainly the retort that creates overtime as someone is needed to stay behind till they finish cooking the product in the cans. Of course everything is still to be finalized so I’ll still have a few more weeks of training when it can be squeezed in with my duties in other areas of the factory which usually is dicing steak in the butchery. No I don’t use a knife as that would be too slow. No I just throw large chunks of meat into a slot in the dicer and it takes care of the rest. I also have to strip the machine at the end of the day to clean it before putting it all back together for the next day. Not exciting work but it just about pays the bills.
More cats have been digging around my tubs. Magz resorted to netting to keep them out so the plants have a better chance to establish themselves. I got some spray that was supposed to repel cats and dogs but it doesn’t seem to work. Maybe that is being harsh as it has been raining a lot so maybe it would do the job better in drier weather. Anyway the netting should do the job and when the vegs have grown a bit I can remove the nets. Unfortunately with the wet it has also been cold which has meant that the plants that are out in the tubs now haven’t been doing as well as I would like. Saying that the Oregano that I planted a couple of years ago is now flourishing as are the fruit bushes, trees and strawberries. My apple trees are both covered in bloom. I’m looking forward to a bumper crop if all goes well.
More cats have been digging around my tubs. Magz resorted to netting to keep them out so the plants have a better chance to establish themselves. I got some spray that was supposed to repel cats and dogs but it doesn’t seem to work. Maybe that is being harsh as it has been raining a lot so maybe it would do the job better in drier weather. Anyway the netting should do the job and when the vegs have grown a bit I can remove the nets. Unfortunately with the wet it has also been cold which has meant that the plants that are out in the tubs now haven’t been doing as well as I would like. Saying that the Oregano that I planted a couple of years ago is now flourishing as are the fruit bushes, trees and strawberries. My apple trees are both covered in bloom. I’m looking forward to a bumper crop if all goes well.
May 11, 2012
11th May 2012
I had a bit of a panic this week with my computer. It was overheating so I decided to give the insides a good clean with the air hose. When I went to turn it back on my hard drive was missing from the bios. At first I thought it was a cable issue, well you would. Unfortunately after making sure all the cables were in place it still wasn’t recognized by my system. I really was starting to think I had lost a lot of my more recent poetry as I haven’t backed up in a few weeks. I know you should do it once a week but how many of us do? Not me for sure though I do every month or so as I have come close to losing everything before. Luckily I reseated the Sata cable into another plug and that seemed to restore my system back to full functioning order. I sigh in relief then copied all my latest work over to my memory stick.
I’m just hoping that this isn’t the first sign of trouble ahead. I am planning on upgrading my system or should I say doing a new build this year at some point. That is when I have saved enough for the parts. That won’t be for a few months yet and my son is already eyeing my system for himself when I do. Of course that means his sister get his. Remember when it was clothes that got handed down, hehehe. Calum though wasn’t too happy at the though of giving Tammy his computer though. That was until I threatened him with her getting mine. That worked.
To tell the truth though Tammy uses her mother laptop more than the old rusty thing she has at the moment. She is always complaining that it’s too slow for her. I wonder if she’ll use the same excuse when she gets Calum’s? Probably.
I’m just hoping that this isn’t the first sign of trouble ahead. I am planning on upgrading my system or should I say doing a new build this year at some point. That is when I have saved enough for the parts. That won’t be for a few months yet and my son is already eyeing my system for himself when I do. Of course that means his sister get his. Remember when it was clothes that got handed down, hehehe. Calum though wasn’t too happy at the though of giving Tammy his computer though. That was until I threatened him with her getting mine. That worked.
To tell the truth though Tammy uses her mother laptop more than the old rusty thing she has at the moment. She is always complaining that it’s too slow for her. I wonder if she’ll use the same excuse when she gets Calum’s? Probably.
