The season of goodwill approaches ever closer. Since we've had kids, I enjoy it more, the whole thing wasn't really my bag previously. As a parent, I now have the concerns of the ludicrous commercialisation of the whole event. It's pointless to address that in any more detail other than to say it's crazy, and anyone with half a brain cell should agree. A & I have tried to get C to understand more of the true meaning of Christmas and to make him understand that Santa and the presents are a pleasant side issue to celebrating the birth of Christ. I personally have no faith, but I respect the A does. I have no problem with teaching the kids about the birth of Christ as I look upon it as a historical fact rather than from a religious point of view. Still. I am sure that baby Jesus will soon be forgotton as they turn into whirling dervishes surrounded by mountains of carefully selected and soon redundant wrapping paper.
On one hand I enjoy the best part of two weeks at home, with A & the kids, and visits to and from other family, but from a practical point of view it makes me shudder. Why does the entire country grind to a halt for the best part of two weeks for a period that has three bank holidays ? Crazy. It's not by choice that we are also forced to shutdown. All of our main suppliers are closed, as are the majority of our clients. Two weeks with no deals makes for lean times for a small business.
Ho bloody ho ho.

Don't seem to be writing much except for Friday afternoons as the week begins to wind down. Its 4.30 and to be honest, I would've departed for a swift jar by now if I didn't have to make a call at 4.45. I've been trying to get this guy all day and his secretary tells me that he will be fee to take my call then. Lucky me.
I must make an effort to take C swimming tomorrow. The little swine always says he wants to, and then turns into a big girls blouse when we get to the pool. I know he's only three, but he's got to start to realise how much he's going to get out of it. He loved swimming in the lakes in Italy in the summer, he could control his depth. He panics if he can't touch the bottom of a pool, and try as I do, I can't seem to help him conquer that fear. Back to the drawing board once again. We haven't been for a while so its suck it and see time.
Got D staying for a few nights as he's back from the Canaries for a weeks work in Blighty. The daft twat got a 10 pm flight into Bristol, so muggins will be driving down an unusually clear M5 on Saturday night and doubtless have a hangover on Sunday after we've caned a few bottles of red on getting back. The things I do for my kiddie less chums. Contemplating sticking him in J's room for the night, which will soon wipe the smile off his tan !

So an Al q suspect turns up in Gloucester ! Bloody bizarre where these fruitloops turn up. British born as well. Perhaps it's time to start asking these clowns if they consider them selves to be British first or Muslim and then fire them out of here. The guy was only 24 years old, with a normal state education. If guilt is proven, someone is responsible for some major brainwashing somewhere along the line. All forms of fundamentalism rankles me, but the whole muslim lunacy bit is starting to become tiresome, but where is the solution ? We've now seriously rattled their cage with the whole Afghan/ Iraq situation, and we seem to be fairly inept at countering thr threat they pose. One saving grace is that there probably won't be a great deal of activity on mainland Britain, as we have vast experience of counter terrorism after dealing with the Irish problem for so long, but that means that easier targets elsewhere get hit. It's a hell of a problem for the politicos, but would it have been there if we'd finished the job in the first gulf war ?

had the 'what happens when your mother finds your blog' scenario over the weekend, and apparently I use too much foul language. I was suitably chastised and felt like a five year old on the wrong end of a scolding. I am in fact, thirty five with two children of my own, and whilst I am glad for people to read the gumph in my thoughts, I am not overly concerned if the content or style caused offence. Like the tv has an off button, your browser has a back one.

I now have to put up with my English chums reminding me that they are the world champions for the next four years, can't wait. Nice to see the Aussies get down over in their own back yard though. Now that's all over it's back to Glaws and the premiership, which is fairly painful viewing at the moment. I would imagine that my rugby viewing will be vastly curtailed by the black hole that is our impending nuptials. I would hazard a guess that I could settle Peru's national debt for less, but I wouldn't get a 'gala buffet' thrown in with that. Be afraid, very afraid. I will constantly whine about the 'stress' and the cost for the next six months with montonous regularity, but the reality is that I am very much looking forward to it ( sniff, kleenex please )

Going on from my last posting concerning the weather I now have the cold from hell. As I am an adult male, it is not simply a cold, but probably a near life threatening rare influenza virus. Yes, it's only a cold, and it will be gone in a day or so, but why do I have to feel so crap whilst it's here ? I'm hot, my head feels too big, and I have yellowish - green gunk pouring out of my nose and throat. I blame Bush, I didn't have it before he arrived. As everything else seems to be his fault at the moment, he might as well cop it for my lack of well being. He's off to geordieland today. I wonder if he'll get down to Tone's local working men's club, watch the turn, have a go on the bingo in the interval, and then join in the punch up outside the kebeb house at closing time. Doubt it somehow.

World cup final tomorrow. Although I'm Welsh, I hope England win. Yes, Australia probably are the greatest sporting nation on earth ( sorry if you're American, but no one else plays glorified rounders or dresses up like a swat team to play a crap version of rugby, you just don't cut it in the major sports ) but aren't we just sick of hearing about it. And, they will hate it, totally hate it, if the Poms do them in their own backyard. Although it sticks in my throat and struggles to get out, come on you Pommies ! There is my proviso that this is the only time this will happen, come the six nations I pray that we will give them a good pasting, and show them ( not that we haven't already ) how the beautiful game is played.

It's a funny old time of year. Not particularly cold, but bleak and grey. I think that saying that I have sad is a bit extreme, but I do find that I am different at this time of year. Motivation comes a lot harder, and I am very lethargic. My time spent exercising declines, and I tend to drink more alcohol. I like to spend time outside, and that becomes harder when daylight is so much shorter. D has come back from the Canaries for a week, a trip that went tits up from the start, but he can't wait to get back. He's only been there four months and already detests a November in the uk. By tomorrow evening he'll be back in his shorts taking a swim. Spawny git. J is one tomorrow. ONE. It hardly seems a few months since the little vandal was born, and now he can walk, and the whole interaction thing has started, which I adore. In that sense, I hope he's like C, who has a marvellous sponge like quality. Only five more months of bleak and grey. Whoopee

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Must be more tolerant - repeat 100 times............. Nah fuck that

Nicky Cambell very good on 5 live this morning. He had Margaret Beckett ( the one who looks like Frankie Dettori shoud be whipping her saying giddyup - sinfully ugly) on for her opinions of Michael Howard. She said that he would be remembered for his past, poll tax etc. Cambell reminded her that she was once a socialist and a member of CND - we all have a past. Nice touch. Wonder how Jack off Straw would have liked to pay for his education when he was president of the NUS. Must try to get off this subject, but they are such a bunch of jizz monkeys it's hard not to .

Oh, I'm by no means anti American, I just think that your unelected leader is a total knob jockey

So the texas retard is coming to visit our shores and his only chum in the playground Brown nose Tone wants us to leave his mate alone, and not shout at him. Not shout what ? Liar ? Cheat ? Backward in bred fuck ? Pray do tell

People who work in an accounts department have no concept at all of how the real world functions. A bunch a jumped up nobodies with no social skills but vastly adept in the art of onan. They should all be forced to work in thier company's sales team for a month and then see if they develop more of an art for normal human interaction. Wankers.

George Bush in the white house and now Arnie as governor of Califonia. our friends across the water do have a sense of humour after all

Had dinner with friends on Saturday night and drank organic red wine, lots of it. Now I normally drink lots of normal full chemical red wine and have decided to stick to it, as the organic variety made me hurl, violently. The following day I had the hangover from hell but made out I was ill so A wouldn't give me grief along the 'it's your own fault 'variety. Finally surfaced properly at around 3 ( told you it was bad) and took the kids out for a walk whilst A slept off her own hangover. 'I'm not hungover I'm tired' - yeah, and I'm ill. Autumn has definitely hit, it was bloody cold and J slept in his buggy most of the way. C & I played a finding game and came home with a good haul, leaves for him to stick, conkers, acorns, all the things that make being a kid of 3 1/2 great in the autumn. It is cold though, and it's happened in the space of a few days. To doubly piss me off G, my business partner has taken his mob on a late summer hol to the Algarve - where it's still hot - yippee, thanks for ringing me to let me know. He'll cool off when he sees the cashflow forecast. Biz is not good. We've a big promotion running this month and it's GOT to generate, because its costing to do it. Speaking to other dealers I trust ( not the' yeah mate we shifting them out by the fifty' mob) others are in the same boat and have been since roughly the start of the war. Hmmm.

Back onto my greatest love in life - New Labour. No weapons found, surprise, apology from Tone for lying, not likely. What these fuckers have got to get to grips with is putting your hands up and saying 'we got it wrong', not just on Iraq,but on a wide variety of issues. But they won't. The arrogance is unbelievable, they must think the electorate are a bunch of retards. Its hardly suprising that voting numbers are rapidly declining, people are starting to think that there is no point, that they're all the same, and that they will do what they want regardless. This is your legacy Tone, and its a shite state of affairs. People fought and died to preserve our democracy, and you are turning our country into a one man state where people think that their vote won't matter, and that is a fucking scandal. When were were an empire we had an emporer, when we were a kingdom we had a king, now we're a country we've got Tony Blair. Still at least we're not American, you lot put the village idiot into the White House, now that is scary.

So the labour confrenece finishes with a defeat on foundation hospitals. Bet they try and push it through anyway. They are the most arrogant soul selling power crazy madmen that have ever held power in modern British politics, and the prince of Twats, Blair is the cuntiest of the lot. Everything costs more now in this country than it ever has, and they tell us that it doesn't, well thats that then.

Obtained a crime reference number last night for insurance purposes. Spoke to a very friendly copper who agreed that it was a shame that said juveniles couldn't be dealt with by a good clip around the ear anymore. Jeez I'm thirty six and middle aged, harking back to Dixon of Dock Green, 'now run along laddie', yeah right that would now get you a torrent of vitriol in return. A has poisoned me. Mum came around at lunch time to see the kids on her way to take grandma oop north to see her rellies. My dinner was lunch heated up. I've been on the pan all morning and my guts have gone into spasm. I was planning on the gym at lunch time, but keffing on the rowing machine probably wouldn't go down too well.

Much delay between postings, can't seem to automate blog mode. Some little twat keeps keying one of my cars and I'm starting to get mighty pissed off as this is the third time. Bizarre, you pay a fucking packet to move to a tranquil little village for peace and quiet and some prick gets his jollies scratching your car. A friend around the corner had his brand spanker mini done on the same night. The phantom keyer will regret R catching up with him ( if he does ) he's a mighty big feller and a bit of a petrolhead, the mini being his p & j. What is the mentality ? It's a fucking astra for christs sake ( A's not mine, if he'd touched mine the posse would have been out a while ago ) it's a means of carrying two kids and related paraphenalia, even she can't stand the damn thing. It's so bland it should be called a vauxhall beige so why the fucking hell does someone wan't to key the bastard? Arseholes
Not been summonsed for speeding yet, fingers crossed, but I was a good polite boy to the nice lady plod.
Just collected first tickets of the season to see the mighty Glaws, good game to against wiggy and the rest of his tigger mates. Can't wait, good company, rugby, the mighty black stuff, gods own apples etc etc.
C exposed to power rangers for the first time at friends. Suppose it had to happen, but I can't stand that type of shite, his imagination is wild enough not to need that crap. He doesn't really get it tho, on holiday in August he was playing with some older kids of some friends, carging around proclaiming 'I'm a ginger turtle !' Long may it stay that way.

J still has the squits, so another shit ridden night ( for his mum this time , I slept like a log ). Had to produce documents at the nick today. I got stopped doing 75.1 in a 50. First offence in 1- years. I think I'm in the doo doo, going to court. Plead guilty and take the grief. I won't lose my licence, but I think it will be a few points and a hefty fine. Don't know why I was going so fast, wasn't in a hurry, just on my way home. The copper was very pleasant, I was polite, a thoroughly amicable nicking.

10 to six and still in the office. Saddo. Knackered after a shite nights sleep. C coughed til he hurled at 2 am, and J has the squits and was up all night. Ah the joys of being the father of two small boys. Being tired did not help an entire afternoon meeting with three pleasant, but very earnest japanese chaps wanting to discuss strategy for colour printing products for the next financial year. Just about to bugger off home. A & I are treating ourselves to a takeaway from a new Thai restaurant in Pershore. Jeez a thai restaurant in Pershore, we'll have to take the straw out of our teeth and answer accusations of being cosmopolitan.

Blimey, my own little bit of the internet. Be prepared for mindless wittering and rambling. Just going to get this up to pop my blogging cherry so to speak