Just got home from a rather lovely evening down in Pompey at Casa Gyratory.Rather than our typical mad weekends it turned out to be a nice quiet night in front of the telly with Gaz, Jima, Jed and Biscuits and as that heppened it was just what this particular doctor needed. Lovely. Korruptor managed to completely wimp out on a lovely evening, but at least we got to abuse him via speaker phone from what turned out to be possibly the 2nd most crap pub in Portsmouth..Biscuits as ever was the hostess with the mostest and managed to pamper us boys far more than we ever deserve with treats and midnight feastings… Gaz doens’t know how lucky he is there.. (bit like me with Kel really 
).As for Gary and my unexpected new toy, what can I say… Is excellent - thank you *so* much. Your totally unexpected bit of random generosity was simply awesome and very much appreciated. I owe you one, big time…Ahh, roll on next weekend at casa Yak… this month is turning into a bloody good ‘un already!
Retrokade is off, which wouldn’t be so bad if we hadn’t spent the last two months planning a whole weekend around it. Bollocks.
Still, we can still party hard (if not harder), and at least we don’t have to worry about getting up early on Saturday… (glad we got our room booked early 
)
I think it’s a bit of a pisser that Rav left it this late to let everyone know, aspecially given that we started planning this in January, but there ’tis, is out of out hands now and I’m damned sure we’ll have a fucking good weekend all the same.
Right, I’m off to hit the codeface, turn the frustration into something positive..
What a top weekend, nice to catch up with everyone. It always seems too long doesnt it.
Some top comedy gaming on the biggest TV I have ever seen, 4 player Mario Kart and I swear each individual player had more screen estate than my own telly. Top. MK is one of those games that definitely works infinitely better with a bunch of mates, you dont mind getting rammed off the track by a *real* person (grr… fucking Donkey Kong!) and blowing up yer mates at just the right moment to steal first place is so much more satisfying when you can point and laugh at them…
Oh, and we were all humbled by the Jims (yes I mean Jim, plural) MK madskillz… like finishing half a fucking lap in fron of the rest of us… insane!
home
Finally got home from Wales at about 8:30 this evening, only been away a week but it seemed strangely longer.
Is nice to be home at my own PC again, but I’m missing my mates already, a lot. Still, can’t complain was a bloody top new years.. Jeff got home from Baa-bados yesterday afternoon and after an emergency curry down the Taj we spent a nice chilled evening just sat around with some tunes/games etc. Nice.
One thing I will miss is proper grub…! Between the girls most excellent cooking and Giles rather wonderful creations I have probably eaten better this past week than I usually do in a month! I was bloody amazed by Giles ability to poke his head in the fridge (filled for the first time in years thanks to Gaz & Jo taking charge of the shopping) and 20 minutes later to come up with something rather lovely. Watching a proper chef (Giles was a chef for 9 years) in action is amazing. They make it look so easy…
I know one thing, when we go out to visit Giles in Italy I’m going to make sure all my trousers have elastic waistbands….
Last night in Wales tonight… 
Still it’s been bloody nice to get away for a few days. I’m heading home at some point tomorrow, start teaching again on Monday. It’s weird actually, seems like ages since our xmas party, be nice to get back to it
As I want to start the new year on the right track I’m going to have a blast for a couple of weeks and try to ‘clear the decks’ a bit. I need a major sort out in my office for one thing, and I seem to have collected loads of little bitty things that need doing so I really want to nail them as soon as possible. It’s more a case of clearing some mental space than anything.
I need to work out a few more ’systems’ for the school, the idea being to lay down some set procedures for all the key admin jobs that I *love* so much so that (a) anyone could do them, or (b) I can do them as efficiently as possible without having to get bogged down in it. That’s the problem with being a professional Martial Arts instructor.. to be a professional means (obviously) that you have to run the school as a business, which means advertising, recruiting, enroling and retaining students. All of which is a pain the the arse when all you want to do is train and teach the Martial Arts…
Still, beats a 9-5 any day…
Sums it up really.
What a thoroughly pleasant way to spend a new year.
Had a fucking blinding new year with some great mates @ casa Yak, was really sad to see them leave this afternoon but I was left with a real glow thinking about the quality of the friendships that have developed over the past year. These are some *special* people. Sure there have been some ups and downs along the way, but when you sit back and take stock, some very good things have some to pass..
Yak is back from baa-bados sometime tomorrow which will be nice, was weird having our new years party in his place, but the fact that we were able to do so sums up the whole spirit of the relationship we all have.
Jeff, you are a fucking star mate… this is all down to you, and I know I speak for all of us when I say that you have been the catalyst for something truly, truly wonderful.
Thank you *so* much.
Peace, Love, Unity.