Ha ha, so true.
(courtesy of Jim McCauley)
Ha ha, so true.
(courtesy of Jim McCauley)
So, last week I received a pretty odd anonymous bitchy email about Kel. It was odd in that it was basically addressed to Kel, but sent to me at my personal email address. I’ll paraphrase as the original was pretty shockingly bad spelling and grammar. It went something like “Do you think you should be boasting about how much vodka you can drink when you’re a police officer and you teach people’s children?”
Seriously, what the f**k is that all about?
I had a look at all the old Facebook messages and it’s not like Kel’s said anything that 99% of FB users don’t say all the time. Clearly the sender of the mail was referring to a couple of jokey messages between Kel and a friend of hers from work about them getting together at the weekend but seriously, what the f**k? What’s it got to do with anyone else?
I’m struggling hard to figure out the motivation for sending it. Was it someone who has some kind of problem with alcohol themselves? Someone who has a problem with Kel? Was it actually someone to do with the school (we don’t believe that as we get on well with all the parents) or someone using that to cover their tracks? is it someone trying to have a pop at Kel for something to do with work, or to try & hurt me for some reason? None of it makes sense.
Whatever the reason it’s obviously caused all manner of upset now. To have seen those messages the person who sent it had to be on Kel’s friends list on Facebook and so then that now means she’s worried about what she says and who it might be. It’s got her so upset she’s now not even wanting to be at the school and so obviously that makes my previous worries on that front a million times worse.
One of Kel’s friends even suggested that it was someone’s misguided attempt to to get at Kel out of some kind of loyalty to me. Well if you’re reading this, I can tell you quite categorically that its’s not helping one bit. Yes we may have split up and Kel’s not interested in me any more but I still love her and Callum as much as I ever did and so anything or anyone that hurts her is also hurting me.
So, here’s the thing. If you’re reading this and you sent it, for fuck’s sake man up and own up so we can all move forward as at the moment you’re just hurting everyone.
So, a lovely bank holiday weekend to look forward to. Four days of chilling out and not doing much. Hooray!
Err, well more boo! My weekend consisted mainly of a detailed step-by-step analysis of what I can only assume was a proper good dose of the norovirus.
I felt fine on Friday morning but by mid-afternoon I felt proper grotty, horrible fluey symptoms – thick head, hot & cold and achey all over. I ended up going to bed at 6pm and apart from a quick drink about 10pm I slept right through until 10am the following morning! Even after 16 hours sleep I was totally wiped out all day saturday, not especially ill but absolutely hanging.
After another 12 hours sleep on Saturday night I figured I’d be fine. On reflection it was probably a bit optimistic of me to assume that ‘not actually feeling too crap’ on sunday morning equated to being over it. Trouble was I was feeling pretty stir-crazy but this point and not a little frustrated at the wasted weekend so I figured I’d venture out for a couple of hours walk/location scouting down at the Deer Park in Berkeley
(More snaps on Flickr).
It seemed like a good idea at the time and it was quite nice to get out in the fresh air for a bit, the only minor problem was when after a couple of hours I realised that: a) I was absolutely knackered, b) I really didn’t feel at all well and c) I was about a mile from my car, cross-country. Oops.
Probably not such a good idea in hindsight as I really didn’t enjoy the walk back to the car at all and by the time I got home I was kicking myself for being such a dunce, especially as double knackering myself like that didn’t make the evening any easier.. Not wishing to put too fine a point on it by tea time the lurgi had well and truly taken up residence in my guts and was hell bent on escaping by any means necessary
In other news, this single malarky isn’t suiting me one bit.
Problem is I still feel exactly the same way about Kel that I always did and I don’t see that changing any time soon. Obviously she doesn’t feel the same way and seems to be happily getting on with things as if the last 8 years never happened. I find that pretty hard to handle when I’m missing her & Callum like hell.
I’ve been trying to keep a brave face on it, just getting on with stuff, spending some time with mates, taking some photos etc. but fundamentally there’s just this massive void there smack bang in the middle of things and at the moment I’m struggling to see a way past it.
The biggest thing is that over the past eight years I’ve made some pretty massive decisions based on the fact I had Kel’s support and that we’d be working towards things together, but now of course that’s all gone out the window and some of those things which I did thinking we’d be together forever are now hanging around my neck like a yolk. Whatever I do there’s no simple way to either move forward or to be able to draw a line under things and walk away.
Given that I’m normally pretty positive it’s really not a very nice feeling to feel that someone else has such a hold over my life and there’s sod all I can do about it..
Ah well.
Listening to: Letting the Cables Sleep from “The Science of Things” by Bush
Genius

So, anyone that’s known me for a while will probably understand the significance of the pic on the right. Scanned from a statement this morning..
Suffice to say, that’s not my bank balance, it’s how much I owe.
Nil, Nada, Big Fat ZERO!
Quite pleased about that really
.. it’s no good putting off the inevitable any longer, I’ve got to crack on with this fitness malarky..
Went down and renewed my gym membership today. I figured that sticking actual cash money on the line should be a good reason not to waste it! I’m out and about a lot this week so whether I actually get to train before the weekend is unlikely but it’s a start. next step is to make a shopping list and clear the decks for a detox.
Suffice to say, Valentines day isn’t exactly my favourite day of the year, and not for anything to do with recent events. There’s just some pretty nasty baggage from many years ago that unfortunately coincided with exactly the wrong day on the calendar, thus ensuring it jumps up to bite me on the arse every year. Ho hum.
So yeah, moving on. Obviously there was the danger of today spiralling into some kind of headfuck given recent events but I did my best to distract myself from all that by embarking on a fairly major rearranging of my office. Soon got bored of that though and headed up to Gloucester for a mooch, a coffee and some social interaction with actual real-life people. Bumped into a couple I often see in Waterstones, Les and Sian, with their rather lovely Doberman Herla. The poor old girl’s got a degenerative nervous system disorder rather like MS and she’s slowly losing motor function in her legs which is terribly sad to see in such a lovely animal but thankfully she doesn’t seem to be in any major pain and she does end up getting spoiled rotten by all the regulars in costa (not to mention the staff)
I’ve got to admit that seeing all the fluffy stuff online today did spin me out a bit as it was naturally difficult not to think about relationships given how the subject was rammed down our throats from all directions today.
I am still finding it surreal the way Kel seems to be able to just carry on as if nothing’s happened. It’s like she’s managed to to just wipe away all that time from her head or something and is just treating me like I’m just any random bloke she knows and not in fact the guy she was planning to spend the rest of her life with. She seems to have miraculously gained the ability to show absolutely no sign of emotion about ‘us’ whatsoever, it’s just like none of it ever happened and that’s weirding me out big time because now I’m starting to question everything and wondering if she ever did actually mean anything she said to me. it certainly doesn’t feel like it and that’s a very odd feeling.
Still, sitting around moping isn’t going to help anything is it and so I’m just doing the only thing I can, just getting on with it. I’m not quite sure what ‘it’ is yet, but whatever it is I’m getting on with that.
I did very nearly made a prick of myself by buying Kel a big soppy valentines card & ordering flowers etc. but I thought better of it and cancelled them. As far as I can tell the only possible outcome of that course of action would have been more pain for me and I figured what’s the point in belittling myself even further after being made a fool of for the last 12 months? I’ve got a long way to go to get the old me back but I’m at least sentient enough to know I’m worth more than that.
I am lucky to have an excellent group of friends who’ve been keeping me (nearly) sane and putting up with me over the past few weeks. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve had a few trips down to Bristol to hook up with some friends who are also into photography & creative stuff. hopefully we’ll be sorting out some photographic opportunities with them very soon which is cool. It’s also been good for my sanity to talk to some friends who’ve at least managed to (almost!) convince me that I’m not in fact insane and that Kel does in fact ‘want her head read’. That bit did at least make me feel a wee bit better about myself!
Anyway, onwards and upwards as they say..
I think this weeks primary goal needs to be to get my arse down the gym, renew my membership and see if I can’t sort out some kind of sensible training plan to shift some blubber without totally destroying my old knackered knees. I’m setting myself a goal to lose about 1½ stone by June. I’m currently about 16st and want to get back down to under 14½ again. That’s totally do-able as I did more than that a couple of years ago, at one point I was over 17st and got down to under 14½ then, it’s just crept back up again over the last 18 moths or so. No excuses, sure it was a combination of dealing with mum being Ill, shit with Kel and a couple of injuries that took months to get over but those aren’t real justifications. The truth is I just took my eye off the ball.
I’m going to ressurect an old pic from a couple of years ago as motivation for myself. This was the progress I made when i set my mind to it, did a detox and just got on with it.
The pic on the left is pretty much spot on for how much I weigh and how I look now. The scary bit is that when that was taken I’d already lost about a stone so I’m bloody glad I didn’t have any pics from when I was at my heaviest.

If I did that before then I know I can do it again. It’s not going to be easy and I know that realistically i’m going to have to dramatically improve my nutrition and get my lazy arse into gear big time to do so but I’m bloody fed up with feeling like a fat old knacker and so there’s only one thing to do really isn’t there.
Just get the fuck on with it.
So, the postie comes this morning with two boxes for me. They’re both pretty heavy and I was a bit puzzled as though I order stuff all the time I didn’t remember ordering anything this week.
On opening them I find they’re both full of photography books, all up to date stuff and all in absolutely mint condition. Wow! – still puzzled though until I read the note which said something like:
“Saw you’d been having a bit of a shit time of it recently … You’ve been a great mate to me over the years so please accept this little gift from me in the hope that it might cheer you up a bit.”
Bloody hell man, I was gobsmacked.
So anyway, I know I said it via PM already but Paul (Zoot) – what a completely mad bar steward you are! Such a kind thought and incredibly generous of you. Thank you! Suffice to say, you properly made my day.
There’s nothing like random acts of kindness to restore a bit of faith in people eh?
Hmm yeah, I could post a cheesy fanboy review of the Rammstein gigs but that would never convey just how good they were, again (sorry Snake!).
Suffice to say I’m really glad we went two nights running as it meant the first night was full of OMFG!!! moments and then the second we could take in the music more and generally enjoy the most excellent party atmosphere up the front (yes, right at the front, only place to be
)
Enjoy it? Oh no, not at all
Setlists for the nerds (I hope I’ve got them right, took me a good hour and much referring back to photos to piece them together!)
The numbers following the songs are links to pics taken during those songs. All up on Flickr in these sets: Combichrist, Rammstein.
Combichrist
All Pain Is Gone
Scarred
Get Your Body Beat
Fuck That Shit
Blut Royale
What The Fuck Is Wrong With You?
Got a feeling they might have played one other track but I’d never heard them before so I can’t be 100% sure!
Rammstein
Rammlied
(1 2 )
B********
Waidmanns Heil
(1 2 )
Keine Lust
Weißes Fleisch
Feuer frei!
(1 2)
Wiener Blut
(1 2 Babies – with frickin’ laser beams!)
Frühling in Paris
(1 2)
Ich tu dir weh (1 2 3)
Liebe ist für alle da
Benzin
Links 2-3-4
Du hast
Pussy
Encores
Sonne (1 2)
Haifisch (1)
Ich Will