It’s a Blog ! Not a Log !

Was in my opinion the shittest Giant Bradley Day I’ve been to . . .

This year they decided to hold it on the football field and charge everyone £1 to get in, so why was it shit ?, well apart from the 4 food stands, 1 beer tent (not even being run by a Market Weighton Pub), 6-7 tombola stands, a small funfair, the live music and Punch & Judy there was fcuk all else to keep you interested for the 5 – 10 minutes it took you to walk round the field, though we did hear that the birds of prey would be on again this year, but as I say after 5-10 minutes you’d seen everything, so you could either go away and come back later on just sit around twiddling your thumbs until the time came for them to come on.

There was’nt even a Fun Day Dog Show this year, which was a big disappointment for us and a few other dog owners . . .

I think we stayed for about 20 minutes which was more than enough time to see the “Sights” and then we drove back to Manchester, what a wasted journey that was, just thankful my mum still lives in Market Weighton, so at least the 160 mile round trip was’nt a total waste of petrol.

Why they ever decided to take the celebrations off the High St I’ll never know, but if they want it to be a success they really need to be doing a bit more to make the new site of the event a little bit more than a Tombola meet or bring it back to the High St

We won’t be going next year

Today i got the most hits on my blog its ever had in one day let alone 6 months, all thanks to Phil Jupitus re-tweeting a picture I sent him of my Cane Corso Blue wearing a pair of glasses, I’d tweeted the nice man Mr Jupitus mentioning how in the photo Blue reminded me of him in his glasses and the next thing I know he’s re-tweeted it to his followers.

I actually only realised this when I went on my blog this evening to make a post and while there checked my stats out for the day and wondered why there was were no stats showing for the previous day, investigated a bit more and realised that there were stats there but they were so low compared to to-days that they were hardly showing in the stats graph, it was just a long line with one hell of a spike for today, checked out a bit more to see what everyone had been looking at and realised it was the picture of Blue.

Its amazing what a tweet on twitter can lead to . . .  So Phil were ever you are right now cheers matey

Oh and here’s the picture which started it

Phil Jupitus's Doggy Lookalike

Decided to take Blue round the Millennium Nature Reserve by the Manchester Ship Canal today and it seems like everyone else and their dog did to, the place was overflowing with every sort of dog breed you could think of (cue people commenting on breed of dog that weren’t there).

After spending about an hour there we headed to PetAtHome to do Blue’s weekly food shop, 12 Cans of dog food and 1 big bag of dry mix, oh and a bag of gravy bones (her favourite snack), also tried on a few of the dog coats to see if they’ve finally got some in that will fit her, but alas again the only one that does is the Del Boy sheep skin coat, which to be honest doesn’t do her justice, so again we left disappointed.

Now just sat at home wondering how to spend the rest of Sunday, thinking maybe catchup on a few episodes of Supernatural or White Collar then listen to a few tunes with a beer . . . , would’nt have minded going out for the day somewhere in the car instead, but money’s a bit tight at the moment so can’t really be wasting money, maybe next weekend, just have to wait and see.

Oh nearly forgot it’s Valentines Day today so suppose I’d best show you the home made card I made for Mel

Its amazing what you can do with post it notes a biro and a mirror

Thats what we were after visiting the Valentines Market in Piccadilly Gardens today, it was really just the Farmers Market with a few extra stall’s, nothing you’d want to write home about, though the Farmers Market in itself is fine, why try and dress it up as something else.

Anyway after spending about 1/2 looking at stalls we’ve previously seen we went for a bit of a wander round Manchester doing window shopping, no spending money this month, to skint for any of that malarky, we headed to Chorlton and Electriks for a Latte and a beer, as usual Blue got lots of compliments from the clientele old and new, it’s nice how Blue gets people talking to each other and it’s pretty cool have everyone say shes such a beautiful dog (I sound like a proud father, maybe I am in a dogchild sort of way).

Spent about 2hrs there surfing the net and just generally people watching, Mel saw a friend from work so had a bit of a natter with her then headed home so I could catch up on last nights LOST, which by the way gets more and more confusing every Season and with this being the penultimate season its getting even weirder . .  whats with the crossed reality’s bit . . just gonna have to wait and see how it pans out I suppose.

So not to much of an exciting day today I’m afriad, but at least we got out of the house thats the main thing, can’t be staying in on one of your days not at work can you . .

Time for bed now so sweet dreams and all that other bollox people say before going to bed and farting the night away . .

kennys party 071, originally uploaded by BagRat.

Kenny reached the grand old age of 50 last week along with Andy reaching the 40 mark, so they had a joint party to celebrate and used the oppurtunity to get everyone back togeather again.

It was good to see all the faces from the partys togeather again having a laugh and just generally getting on, party kicked off at of all places Stretford Cricket Club, then moved onto Lisa’s flat, where drinks flowed and people talked bollox (mainly due to what they’d had).

We left fairly early on in the morning 5:00am so maybe not so early, but the party carried on after we left, ending only when John, Ben and a few others decided to place most of Lisa food stuffs in the freezer . . . oh and after Ben had emptied a full bag of flour over the sleeping Lisa’s head (not nice Ben).

Gotta say Kenny was looking good for an old man and no doubt has many years left in him, all the best Kenny and Andy

As regular readers of this blog will know I am proudly owned by a Cane Corso called Blue and as part of this ownership deal, Blue insists that I take her out with me where ever I go and film her exploits and introduce her to anyone and everyone, when Blue first decided she wanted to be owned by me I spent alot of time on the internet discovering more about her family(breed) and during these forays on google I discovered a place where other people owned by Cane Corso’s met . .  a place called The Friends of the Cane Corso or FOCC for short.

Well Blue being Blue she just had to share her videos and escapades with all those other Cane Corso friends and over the past 2 years shes regualrly posted her videos and met other Cane Corso’s and the people they own and those nice people this year decided to honour her work as Ambassador for the breed and this is what they had to say :

It’s my extrememly happy duty to inform you all that the FOCC and BCCS have created an annual award for ‘services to the Cane Corso and being a positive ambassador for the breed’.

This award is given to an FOCC Corso, who the BCCS committee feels has consitently through the year worked hard to show the breed in a positive light. In this instance it is awarded to someone who not only keeps her own blog, but meets as many other owners as she can, comes to Corso events, keeps the community updated with pictures and videos that lift the spirits, and never stops learning. Her owners are a joy to talk to, and make sure she’s always spreading the Corso love! So without further ado, on behalf of the British Cane Corso Society and Friends of Cane Corso: Cane Corso of the year 2009 goes to….. BLUE! Owned by Sunscream. Congratulations and keep up the good work in 2009!

For those who’ve not met Blue before allow me to introduce her by way of one of her first video’s

If you enjoyed this video of Blue and want to see more of her you can find a link to my YouTube and flickr accounts listed on the right of this page.

To all those who know Blue can expect her to carry on promoting the Cane Corso breed in a positive loving way . . .

today and what a ball ache this is, we’ve had 4 new PC’s for about 6months waiting to be swapped out with older ones in the main office area and so far I’ve started and stopped this job about 3-4 times, due to Management changing there minds about how important a job it is, anyway they finally decide that I can start the job for real on Monday and tell me they want it finishing for Friday. . . .  , now that might seem possible, however by having the job finished by Firday what they mean is they want me to install the OS & all the associated software relevant to that PC position and then set up all the use/network settings and once done securly wipe the old PC, reinstall the OS, then relocate the old PC’s into new Positions in the Distribution/Shop areas and again install all the relevant software needed in the those areas to operate the PC’s correctly, not forgettingthat as we don’t use exchange here I’ll first need to copy all the PST files off the 4 old PC’s onto a Network share, then copy them back onto the new PC’s and import into Outlook (on average the size of PST files so far has been anything between 2-3 gig, so long time exporting and importing of.

This job would be a lot easier if we actually had some cloning software available as then I ccould just set up one PC with the main settings that all users have and than just import the PST nad the odd personnel stuff and software they might use, but alas they have’nt, so somehow I don’t think I’ll be completed for Friday.

As of this evening I’d managed to install 3 New PC’s, wipe 1 and reinstall that in its new location, so just 1 new one and 3 old ones to do, reckon Tuesday/wednesday will be finished.

Oh the joy of working in IT, everyone expects you to work miracles and when you don’t wonder why . . . well maybe its because you give stupid deadlines and don’t think about discussing with the IT Dept beforehand.

this time they’ve been helping the members of a local Age Concern keep fit and healthy, heres a few pictures and the press release :

FIT WITH THE OLD FOLKS!

Members from a Manchester based Age Concern group turn to the Wii Fit to help keep active

Members from Out in the City, a local Age Concern group have struck upon a novel way of keeping fit.  Leisurely walks, bowls and swimming have been usurped in favour of a new hi-tech training tool – the Wii Fit.

Four members, aged in their late 50s, 60s and 70s, visited the new wireless lite Carphone Warehouse store at the Trafford Centre this week and were given a demonstration in the popular game.

After the demonstration, the store donated the Wii Fit console and game to Age Concern so that members will regularly be able to use the different Wii fitness games, helping to keep themselves active and agile.

Thanks to the games console, they will now be able to regularly participate in Tai Chi, fitness programmes and can even monitor their posture and BMI.  For those wanting something a little more strenuous, snowboarding, skiing and dance classes are the order of the day!

Jane Barcoe of Age Concern said, “The members love keeping active and doing something different!  This is a great gift from The Carphone Warehouse and I’m sure we’ll have no shortage of people who want to use the Wii Fit.  This is a really innovative way to help our members interact and keep fit!”

Neil Sears, Store Manger of  The Carphone Warehouse at the Trafford Centre, said, “Technology can be a great way to connect with other people and in this instance a perfect way to keep fit too.  The range of technology on the market is expanding, and age shouldn’t be a barrier so our aim is to breakdown the walls and make gadgets simple for everyone.”

The ‘wireless lite’ Carphone Warehouse at the Trafford Centre offers a wider range of mobile communications such as laptops and gaming products too.  The store is one of four to be trialled across England and offering a new format, with expert advice and counsel given on all manner of high-tech issues and gadgets.

Well I’ve been back from my holidays for less than a week and already I’m hating being back at work.
First day back was Monday and within an hour of being at work I was called into the MD’s office and informed that my desk drawers were untidy and that as they were company drawers the MD expected them to be tidy, so Monday morning was spent tidying my drawers and ensuring that there was nothing in them that might make them untidy.
I was also informed that I could’nt have the framed picture of my dog on my desk because the 6 x 4 frame was to big, as apprently while I was away the MD brought in a clear desk policy, we are not allowed calendars on our desk’s(well we are but they have to be cleared away into our drawers at 5:00pm).

God its so great to be working where I am, such a clean friendly workplace, everyone getting along and all suffering under this one person. At least we have something in common to talk about at lunch now, you’d think we could’nt be surprised by the guy anymore, but you just never know what he’s going to do or say next.

In other news I was also informed in this meeting that as my Line Manager was soon to be leaving the company and that she was going on a 3 day week, the MD would now become my MD of sorts, so any issues I have I’m to bring up with him, how I cried with joy afterwards, I was also informed that there would be no need for me to speak to her or the other member of systems as we would now have nothing to discuss as the other person would be concetrating on one system in particular that I have no experience of and I would be dealing with all the other systems and that my Line Manager would now be concetrating on training up her replacment in one of the other depts, ” A sort of Berlin Wall would be erected between me and them and no one would be getting over or under it so to speak” not my words my MD’s, “You’ll be in your own little bubble your own zone, a little dept of its own” his words again as best I can remember.

Alone at last, all by myself, just me, no one else . . . . maybe this is what being sent to Coventry is like . . .

To anyone and everyone who reads my blog I’d like to ask a favour of you, its not a big favour, but its a favour that could help prevent a dog being needlesly put down.

While surfing the net I came across this story Family Pet Tasered by Police

Otis the Boxer

Please read the story that the link leads to, its about a family pet called Otis, that had got out of its yard and was tasered by the Police Dept of Lakewood in Ohio USA, because they believed it to be a pitbull and they believed it was going to attack them, fair enough I suppose, but if you know your dog breed and you watch the video you can clearly see it resembles more of a boxer than a pitbull, plus they did’nt just taser this dog one, they tasered it twice, this was all occuring while a Animal Warden was there to assist in its capture, so if a Animal Wardens there who has experience in catching loose dogs, why the need for the tasering.

Otis being Tasered

Theres also an online petition to sign and thats the favour I’m asking of you, please sign the petition and make your voice heard for this dog.

Sign the petition to help Otis

Please tell your friends about the plight of this poor dog and ask them to sign it please !