Road Trip

The Wheels of Steel getting loaded

No more postings for a while... I'm off for a bit, to a place of no computers, no London, and somewhat suspect mobile reception.

Whilst it would be tempting to say this would be Essex, I actually mean Wales (Snowdonia) where I'm off to at ludicrous o'clock on friday am.

Last time I went to this cottage in Wales I came back engaged. Can't quite top that this time, but should be a couple of photos to stick on here upon return. Hopefully not as bedraggled as what I came back with last time!

Stay safe in the meantime y'all

Time is flying....

and it feels like I can barely keep up.

I don't know what happened to last week, before I knew it was Friday and back to work.

I did manage to hop along to some friends (The Baileys) on thursday though. They have bought themselves (well, okay, their children) some pets, which came out for some general fussing and admiration:

Hairy Beastie Number One :














Hairy Beastie Number One (again)














There is a Hairy Beastie Number Two but other people were fussing that one!

I'd also like to apologise in advance now for lack of anything next week: but when I finish nights I'll be straight off to Bec's in Colchester: final weddingy bits and pieces to sort out- speaking to the caterers and priest again. Then on Friday we're going off to Wales for a short break.

This short break should've been undertaken by my parents- it was in fact my christmas present to them. There's a fantastic little B&B cottage on a mountainside with comfortable beds and fantastic nosh that we discovered last year. My mum was constantly hinting at my dad that they needed a weekend away so I took the liberty of booking a weekend for them.

Unfortunately, for various reasons, they can't make it. By highly fortunate coincidence (really- this wasn't the original date I had booked, my parents changed it) both myself and Bec are free that weekend and my Mum & Dad asked if we could go instead. I was like errr yes please and Bec didn't need asking twice either!

Thats the problem with us non-Alaskan dwelling people. We live 25 miles from London. Mountains, sea and scenery exist in memories, not outside the window! So the chances to go and play in them are sought after!

It does mean I won't be updating this for a little while, as I'm straight back to work on the Monday, and 12 hr shifts still = little blogability.

I'm writing this in a slightly red-eyed hazy state. I've just done the weekend day shifts- fri sat & sun 12 hr day shifts. It is simply wrong to get up at 5am on saturday and sunday! I'm onto night shift tomorrow, 7pm monday to 7am tuesday. In order so that I'm not a complete zombie by 3am tuesday morning I'll be staying up late tonight- hence writing this- and sooooooooooooo sleeping in as long as possible tomorrow afternoon. I dunno, maybe set my alarm for 2pm or so.....

Goodnight y'all people who work normal hours!

12hr shifts = no blogging

I'm being moaned at to put stuff on here. Rudeness! Unfortunately, when I'm at work on 12hr shifts the only thing I tend to do when I get home is go to bed. So there Jon "Frontal Lobotomy" Lawn....

Weekend at work was typically manic. Flying round all over the place on friday night. Saturday was a day for accidents. Just before we came in to work there was a fatal accident down the bottom end of the ground. Some poor woman coming back from the shops got completely taken out by a double-decker, while she was standing on a traffic island. Thankfully I didn't have to deal with anything at the scene, but I did help out by taking the woman's fiancee and his family down to the morgue to identify her. Not particularly pleasant. The girl was only 27.

Later on the shift, the Met's new radio system, which only got introduced 2 weeks ago, and is (if you believe the senior management) the latest news in digital radio technology, completely failed. There was probably a big red handle in the control room with big letters "DON'T TURN THIS OFF" which somebody mistook for a vending machine or something. It took the best part of two hours to get a backup system functioning. Useless bunch

The Saturday finished with another "accident". A drunk twerp driving along completely failed to see a parked car, and the person standing behind said parked car getting something out of the boot, and drove into them both, thus sandwiching man between his car and the other. The guy is still alive but it'll take years, not months until he can walk again, if it at all. The driver was arrested. She was 2 1/2 times over the limit. Hopefully if the magistrates have any sense she will be banned like *forever*.

Sunday was mercifully quiet!

The good news is that I got to drive the area car, and managed 37 hours worth of shift without crashing it, which is good!

Rightyo I'll try to put something a little more light hearted on before the next set of shifts. Will have a dig around the computer to see what other embarrassing photos I have.... ;-)

Oops

Well, I was going to stick some more stuff on here tonight but I got soooooooooooo distracted by the Champions League final and a fridge that so happened to contain several nicely chilled bottles of Stella. Arsenal lost which is a bit tedious but at least I can live with it.

Jon Lawn by comparison has probably torn all his clothes to rags and will probably be spending the next month or so sitting in ashes.....

Its like a disease

Tamsin has something to answer for. She's started a domino effect of people all over the place starting up these bloggo-wotsits to either inform, amuse, insult or rant. With particular emphasis on the latter two, the worlds first and so far only member of the Neanderthal-Conservative party Haden the bearded beast of StAlbans-cum-Poxville:

...has started his own blog. Click if you dare at http://hjr2000.blogspot.com or use the link to the right hand side. The link on the right gives you a kind of idea of what to expect.

In order to restore a more harmonious balance to all things Bloggical, and to soothe frayed minds after viewing above blog, or well even the thought of viewing it, here's a lovely photo of my local dog-walking patch what is in full on spring mode and carpeted with bluebells.

More good news

Not from me! Bec has a job!

Has all been a bit hectic really. About two weeks ago Bec had no interviews despite sending off several letters of application across Herts County. However, round about 5th May one school, in Hitchin, asked her to come for an interview next Friday (12th). Which was good!
This posed a bit of a dilemna. Whilst the Hitchin school was a very good school, it is about half an hour's drive away, which while not the end of the world is a bit tedious. However, Bec had visited two others schools a lot nearer (one in Kimpton, one in Harpenden) and really liked them, and had got hinted at that she would be asked for interviews.
However, the Hitchin one was first, and so if they offered her the job, what to do? Accept because hey its a job or gamble that the Kimpton or Harpenden school would do likewise...
This state of flux existed until pretty much the day before the Hitchin interview. A few prayer requests went off. Then a few things happened.
The Kimpton school indeed offered an interview, but to a Key Stage 2 position, and Bec really wanted KS1 (younger). Which made choosing Hitchin over Kimpton easier. Then, on thursday evening (the day before the Hitchin interview), out of the blue the Head of the Harpenden school rang Bec's mobile. She told her that a) there was a letter in the post offering an interview next Wednesday, and b) enquired if she had any interviews before then. When informed well yes tomorrow, the Harpenden head said something along the lines of that while she couldn't offer the job over the phone they were very very keen to interview her and how would she like to come to them tomorrow morning instead!
I might add that the Harpenden Head said that she had never quite done anything quite like this before and felt quite guilty for 'gazumping' Hitchin! Also, when Bec visited the school, the Head showed her round and in the process effectively interviewed her for an hour.

So Friday morning Bec goes to St Dominics, is interviewed by the Head and a Governing body representative, and is offered the job!

So there we have it. Quite a week. I pass my driving course, and Bec goes from no job, to worrying about which to accept, to having one.

Which of course is a great weight off her shoulders (and to a lesser extent mine!) knowing that bit of the future is sorted, and so she can concentrate on the last bit of the course, and some small event happening at the end of July....

:-)

Speedy Gonzales

I passed my driving course..... :-)

Well ok the plan to update this a bit more often with what happened on the driving course didn't really materialise.... but then it would've been a tad tedious anyway, what with roughly 20 entries saying got in the car and drove around the home counties.

However, the highlights were being pulled over by a Herts traffic sergeant on the A41. We were doing 135mph at the time (the A41 is dual carriageway- at that point it crested over the chilterns and so we could clearly see the road ahead for miles, so it was safe to give it some). Anyway, when the Herts car finally caught up (it was unmarked, I might add: it'd be a bit rude to rocket past a marked car from another force) a disco of flashing lights and sirens popped up so we pulled over.

When he got out of the car he did not look happy! As you'd expect. But then he looked up, saw me and another student in uniform looking at him with expectant grins from the back seat. Our instructor got out with his documents which state we are on a bona fide training exercise and not just out for a jolly. He looked at him, said "Bollocks. Fair enough" and got back into his car!

Another day we had a fairly graphic lesson on why you don't overtake on the approach to a right hand junction. (read left hand junction if of American extraction!) I was driving, and was looking up into the distance, and saw a big yellow JCB tractor type thing sat a funny angle across the road. Don't like this, I said to this and so we slowed down. Got a bit closer and saw the remains of a Ford Focus fairly well embedded in the rear wheel of the tractor.

So we all got out. However, the wonders of modern car design meant that despite hitting several ton of tractor at (we reckoned) 50mph the woman had got out and had next to no injury- a small cut to her right wrist, and she looked like she had seen a parade of ghosts, but otherwise fine. So we looked after her and the uninjured but mightily cheesed off tractor driver until the Essex emergency services turned up.

There are other anecdotes to add but I'm straight back to work tomorrow on shifts, which means getting up at 5am so I'm off to bed. I'll try to nab a photo of the new car I'm now allowed to drive- a BMW 530! heh is cool. Don't nick a car in Camden else you might have me chasing you!

Punishment

Heh this character is Matt. He was rude about me blog at the weekend ("its all about you walking the dog!!!!!!!!!!!!") so I'm posting a totally unflattering photo. Heheheheheheheh. Actually, for Matt, it's quite flattering. The stomach is somewhat more rounded now ;-)

Ginger hair??

Aha! Its decided to work today and let me post photo. Jolly Good. Super cheesy grins all round

A dogs life

Went for a walk on Saturday- no rugby for the first time since last September meant could actually do something together on a Saturday afternoon, as opposed to the usual story of abandoning Bec for five hours and coming back complaining of some new injury.

So we nicked the parent's dog, Tig, and had a wander off to the Chiltern Hills. My car being the small little thing it is without a boot to speak of meant Tig had to put up with sitting in the front footwell, with Bec's feetHowever despite appearances this is quite comfy, as evidenced below:

So off we wandered for a while. Had lovely weather despite the fairly cold wind.... summer is finally approaching! Walk was only interrupted by two things- an elderly couple who made a huge fuss of Tig and we (well, mostly I) nattered about how great dogs were for five minutes. All credit to Bec for not mentioning we were getting a cat first! The old boy of the couple was impressive- he was somewhat tottery, walking with a stick and when he wasn't moving had to also grab onto the nearest tree to steady himself but still happily clambered all the way up the hills and back again.

The only other reason we stopped was me taking photos with the phone to stick on here!

And the result of the above is below. Poor old Tig isn't as young as he once was and quite happily lay down while I faffed about....

Like I say, it really was a nice day. We started from Pitstone Hill, and followed the path west for a while until it was time to turn round. Had extended views of the Vale of Aylesbury

Oh yes we were there too! Photo count of Dogs vs Humans: 5-1. Heh and it appears for some reason the computer won't let me upload the cheesy photo of us two so its 5-0! Never mind. Tig's more photogenic than me anyway