Wow" I now have a new look for the blog which I think is a big improvement, courtesy of Google. Still has the same content & layout so you can easily find the old posts. This is unlike many websites who not only change their look (every 2 minutes) but more often than not everything else so you can no longer find anything.

Trials & trids - went abroad part 3

Well It"s been a long time I"m afraid but been very busy since my last post. To cut a long story short, When I met my GF in philipines we got engaged while I was there in October 2010. A hot country alright because on landing at Manila it was raining and the temp was 25C 77F. Not that hot I thought but as soon a I walked into the open to wait for a taxi to the hotel, the heat hit me like a cloak. like a sauna amazingly humid. There was no wind & you could smell the city in the air. Anyway I got a minibus taxi which are the safest from the airport - although a bit dearer. I got to the hotel after a 20-30 min. journey stopping at a bank on the way. The driver would have prefered british pounds but I didn"t have much so paid about 1,500 pesos (about £22) expensive I thought but safer than normal taxis.
The hotel room was huge & if I remember was on the 10-12th floor. It was pretty high because the view was brilliant but the room was hot & dank until the room service man turned the air conditioning. I got there at about 10.30am but seemed like late afternoon with my body clock all wrong due to the time change.
I rang my GF & she said she"s on her way with her brother. She lived on the edge of the city but it took her nearly 2 hours to get to the hotel. - cont later

Trials & tribs.- Went abroad prt.2

I"ve been very busy so haven"t updated the blog lately ( how time flies) After checking in I did catch that early morning flight to Amsterdam (from there changing flights to Manila) It was a beautiful sunny day and after taking our seats. It seemed like an age before the plane finally took off, very quickly climbing to 31000 ft.
Looking out the window there were hardly any clouds to obscure the view of a huge patchwork of English countryside interrupted by small masses of grey (the towns) I actually saw the Wash near the horizon although Boston was hidden by mist & cloud. I never saw the sea because it was hidden by mist & fog yet in what it seemed like no time at all the plane started to descend. As it came through the mist there were rooftops a few hundred feet below. After landing I waited for my luggage on the tarmac (it was only a smaller plane) but I didn"t realise at first that it"s atomatically loaded on to the next flight. The airport was huge but I had over 4 hours to kill to the next flight so tried to get a bit of sleep.
I woke up and after going the wrong way a few times, I eventually found my way to the gate for the Manila flight (the part of the airport where you wait for your flight) I was just in time but I needn"t have worried because it was late taking off anyway they usually are. This plane was huge with seats ten abreast. Naturally I had a window seat but this time there was DVD screens on the back of every seat. This time it wasn"t long until take-off and the plane rose much more steadily. On the screen you pressed a button & it told you the expected flight time, speed & altitude, which country we were flying over even the outside temperature. I was more interested it entertainment and after being given little folding headphones, I was spoilt for choice for films & music with radio stations etc. even games. cont later

Trials & tribs.- Went abroad

I don"t know but I may have mentioned in the past that I chat on Moko (a social network site) but I started speaking to a nice beautiful young lady from the Philippines last July. It was great because my friend who I"d been speaking to for over a year had just left Moko. Anyway, after a month things had developed between us. We even talked on the phone after I managed to set up a special cheap call rate on the net, and she really wanted me to go over to see her in Philippines. Well I haven"t traveled on my own to any other country before but I thought why not so I sent off for a new passport. To my surprise, This only took a few days. I had some money left from redundancy and savings so booked the flights & found a cheap hotel for 14 days. I discovered that even the cheapest hotels & rooms looked pretty good from the pictures (all had air con (which I found out was very desirable if not essential over there). Time then seemed to drag by for the next few weeks and we spoke on moko every day. The day finally came when I set off from my home at just gone 6pm. on the 29th Sept. I arrived at Birmingham airport just over 3hrs later by train,. there was even a short monorail ride to get to the actual airport from the station. Trouble was the flight wasn"t until the morning so I went out the airport and checked out a few hotels but they were too expensive. £66 to £89 per night so I found a comfy chair in the airport. Was very hard to sleep because of all the announcements so got up in the early hours by which time other people were also waiting for early flights so I found some people to talk to (I realised that it could get pretty lonely traveling such a long way). Cont later

Trials & Tribs.

I haven"t posted for a while because not much was happening and I"ve been busy with my little online buisness, mostly selling on Ebay & Amazon both for myself & other people. On ebay, I started off with records & DVD"s & some diecast model cars thatI had from childhood. With the good weather the records & DVD sales slowed to a trickle, only realy rare stuff seems to sell at any time of year. The diecast vehicle sales though have gone very well. I also picked up some (old school) video games at an offline auction & they"ve done very well.
On that same auction I picked up a 20 watt guitar amp for just £4. It just needed a new plug, cleaned it up and is now as good as new. I even plugged my keyboard through it and sounded clear and powerful, ideal for gigs with Creepy Cool (if we ever get any). I went to that same auction this week and met mad Shawn (who is an ex DJ) who seems to appear when you least expect. He was having chickens because he"d just got a box of records for £4 which turned out to be a bargain. After giving away the ones not wanted, (which I didn"t want either) he was left with a load of pretty valuable 12" singles & Lps including "Blue Monday by New order" He now wants me to sell them on Ebay (or Amazon)for him. I actualy checked the value of "Blue Monday" and its sold for about £5 on ebay to a whopping £15 on Amazon. There was also Equinox by J M Jarre which is listed for £25 on Amazon, I couldn"t even find it on Ebay. The rest were mostly DJ & re-mixes which are his speciality.

Lightning strikes

A few weeks ago after a hot period I shot this video on a phone. It looks pretty close. Click Link below to see.
YouTube - P2122964.MOV:

But not as close as this that someone shot in America.

EMBED-Lightning Strikes Twice - Watch more free videos

Trials & tribs.

Hooray! I can now get online without being cut off all the time. amazing. well done Talk Talk for taking over from Tiscali which was my old provider. As this is the first time I!ve posted this year I!ll use this opportunity to wish everyone a happy new year - if its still possible to have one in these economically strait jacketed times. A lot"s happened already this year such as the big freeze which was fun at first but annoying after a while as it was too cold & slippery to go out. Pavements turned in to lumpy sheets of ice so you couldn't walk safely without a stick. The birds (the feathered variety) didn't like it and the river forty foot froze up. There were also ice flows in the river Witham (see pictures) Was also my birthday earlier this month & even though it was snowing quite hard that day (the 8th) I went to the I.Q. and got lathered - during the day as well The landlord even bought me a pint. I went to a women friend"s 21st B/day at the I.Q. a week later and there was a fancy dress. Trouble was, I just went as myself as I only found out about the party the night before and I got chased down the stairs by the "Incredible Hulk" or maybe someone with green slime smeared all over them. Anyway, I didn't know them from Adam but Derek the landlord told them to leave me alone as he thinks people pick on me because of my handicap but I think it was just fun. Since then I haven't been out much because I caught a dreadful cough & cold - just hope its not swine flu.