Xmas Myth

I’m always reminded of the Sermon during Advent that our Church of Scotland Minister gave when I was in my early teens which he called “Taking the Christ out of Christmas?”.
The Press had been banging on about using the abbreviation Xmas was replacing Christ with an X and attempting to secularise the feast.
He went on to explain that the abbreviation of Christmas to Xmas originated many centuries ago when it was common place to refer to Christ with the Greek letter Chi which looks like an X.
So, in fact, people when abbreviating Christmas to Xmas are still keeping irt Christian!

Run-up to Christmas

How ready are you for Christmas?

I finished buying all my presents last weekend and wrapped them too.

Wrote all the cards that have to be posted and posted them on Saturday this weekend past. All I need to do now is write cards for workmates but, having changed jobs in July, who do I send to? Do I send to my immediate colleagues and all the cute younger men in the office? (Even those who are married?)

The office Christmas meal is on Wednesday 10/12/2008... The team I used to be in there was a lot of drinking the past few years and last year I was too drunk to have gone home on the bus and got mugged for my mobile phone which made it an expensive night out. And a very traumatic experience and a lot of worries for my loved ones as they made abusive phone calls to my family before I got the SIM card blocked and saying that I was in hospital and they'd beaten me up etc.

I don't intend to get that bad this year and have been made to promise my partner that I will get a taxi home if I do. He lives 170miles away and was very worried about me last year.

Success in merging gmail account with blogger...

Just had to post this as it was so useful:

how-to-change-blog-owner

Was on the google groups help for blogger and found a guy called panther's reply to a thread asking how to move a blogger blog to a different gmail account.

link to thread

His answer was great and now both mes are one me according to Google and blogger :-)

Looking forward to camping...

Going camping in the New Forest this coming weekend with R and a friend of his.

Main thing for me is will be going to the Mini Cooper event at Beaulieu so I can get some trim parts for my classic mini :-)

Hope the weather will be good as there have been some rather wet days recently. We had it a bit wet when we were camping with OUT near Uffington.

Macified update...

Unfortunately, the loads of memory was DDR memory not PC100 or PC133 that would have been compatible with the iMac :-)

Just won an ebay auction for some 256MB PC100 DIMMs so can make the iMac Snow have double the memory. Currently bidding on an iMac which has a DVD drive in it as an external DVD drive on the Snow isn't fast enough for playing DVD movies. should get it on Saturday if I win the auction...

I'm all macified :-)

Received my MS Office:mac 2008 DVD today and was worried how the upgrade would happen had heard it would be easier than a similar upgrade on Windose.

Backed up my Entourage identity just in case then installed -- it was easier (and strangely VERY much FASTER) than a similar upgrade in Windose...

It even asked me if I wanted the old office 2004 removed and offered to transfer my identity to the new version for me.

Must start Entourage 2008 to see if it cocked it up or not...

Now have my (newly bought on ebay) iMac snow cabled to the bedroom and my (also newly bought on ebay) iMac tangerine cabled to the kitchen (for browsing during breakfast (better than spilling milky cereal on the mac Mini).

Had decided that it would be cheaper to buy a couple of iMacs off ebay rather than buy a new laptop for internet in other rooms -- R has had my laptop since his went belly up about 6 months ago. Got an iMac Tangerine last week which I picked up near R's home for £40 which was a bargain considering the installed software and the upgrades it had done to it. Got an iMac Snow SE Summer 2001 spec for £45 pn Tuesday it will need more memory as only has 256MB but I know a man who has loads :-)

I hate Skype

I have just managed to get my mac working again after what Skype did to it.

Here's the message I sent them:

"Skype trashed my mac OS X installation

I downloaded Skype for my mac mini which uses mac OS X 10.4.11...

I installed Skype and tried a test call to test my headset.

I got no sound on my headset and clicked the red phone icon in Skype to hang-up and Skype crashed itself and crashed mac OS X and trashed the installation.

I had to wipe my mac's hard drive and re-install mac OS X.

I will not be attempting to use your program again as it is obviously flawed in a major way."

I can't understand how anyone would use such a program when it's so flaky as to cause irrepairable damage to a computer installation.

Scottish Banknotes -- Queen Mother

And a £20 note commemorating the Queen Mother's 100th Birthday.

Scottish Banknotes -- Golden Jubilee

And a £5 note commemorating the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

Scottish Banknotes -- RLS

And one for the Centenary of the death of Robert Louis Stevenson.

Scottish Banknotes...

Regarding Scottish Banknotes...

Mentioned that I have some interesting commemorative ones.

Thought I'd post them here for people to see...

Here's the first one that Commemorated the first meeting of the Scottish Parliament. Note that the building shown was the temporary home until the current building was built.

Stench from below GRRRR!!!

The old bat down stairs has burned her dinner again :-(

My flat, as usual, stinks of her burnt meal.

I really wish her family would hurry up and put her in a home. When I lived in Scotland, the old boy downstairs from me burned his dinner twice in a couple of months and ended up in a home. So, twice or more a week every week should have got her downstairs in a home by now...

It really is unpleasant having to suffer the stench from below several times a week.

Car Problems Continued... :-(

Car wouldn't start when I wanted to leave work so had to e the RAC out...

It's now at the garage to get a new alternator -- more expense :-(

RAC man confirmed that the alternator wasn't charging and strted me with a battery pack and disconnected that and followed me to the garage. Just as well he did follow me as I stalled on the way and he then left the battery pack connected to my battery and had me finish the journey with the battery pack to power the car. It was a bit scary when I stalled as I was in the fast lane on a busy dual carriageway.

"Being Human" on BBC3...

Was watching TV and channel surfing last night on cable and stumbled on a programme called "Being Human" on BBC3. As Virgin seem to have lost all of Saturday on Catch-up, I couldn't watch Casualty tonight so, looked for this programme (I had planned to wait and watch it with R as he likes one of the actors he played the junior officer on the Titanic spaceship on the Dr Who Christmas special and was in "The History Boys" as well).

It was really good :-) pity it's not a series and just a one off...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0090xff

Oh, and it seemed to be set in Bristol :-)

Valentines...

I was just getting to the stage that I may tidy away my Valentines card that R gave me.

It's so sweet that I decided to take a digital photo of it to share it with the world :-)

Not sure if I should photograph the one I gave him (it got left here on display for another week as it was forgotten in the getting to the bus station drama) as it's more laddish than romantic...

Car Problems :-( continued

Car started with the battery having been charged butr did judder a bit on the way to work and on the way back a few times each way.

Checked with a colleague the voltages I need to check to make sure the alternator is working. Haven't checked as some cunt has parked taking up the only 2 off street parking spaces left (only 3 spaces and they hog 2! Grrrrrr!).

I'm not bending down at the back of the car with a meter when I'm parked on the street -- I'll have to wait until the cunt shifts -- no idea who they are as I've never seen the car before.

Maybe the cunt reads this blog? The car got moved so, I've parked off street and done the checks with a meter -- looks like the Alternator is the problem :-( I'll have to take the car to the garage :-(

Car Problems :-( and bus-catching drama...

The problems with the car weren't dirty fuel :-(

Went out to the car to drive R to the bus station and it had a flat battery (like on Monday morning). I reckon there's a problem with the alternator as that would explain the battery going flat twice in 7 days.

This caused a bit of a drama with R as it was just over an hour before his bus was due to leave for London (at 11:15hrs)...

We walked as fast as we could to the nearest bus stop and it said 9 minutes until the next bus which would be 10:30hrs and 25mins to get into the city centre and he had to check-in by 11:05hrs. He does panic a lot as he's always worried he'll be late for work an being on time is so important to him. He really gets in a total panic -- I know from when the traffic has been heavy when I've driven him there in the past.

10 minutes of panic and worrying at the bus stop then 24 on the bus -- every time it stopped and people didn't have their money ready thus holding us up he got more and more worried and panicky. I was secretly worried as, although I know it takes only 25mins to get into the city, the bus stop route poster said 37mins!

We got off the bus and walked to the bus station and his bus was there but not yet announced. Relief all around:-)

Had a quick look in the shops before getting a bus home.

Battery out of the car and charging now so, it'll be OK for going to work tomorrow :-)

I'll take my multi-meter with me and quiz a colleague who knows about auto electrics on what tests I do to check if it is the alternator and do them at lunchtime then, if necessary, book car into the garage to get it fixed -- more money but I do find a car useful and can't afford a newer one.

Saturday Night & crooked Taxi Driver :-(

Ben was his usual quiet self last night...

We had been told by someone at Swindon that he had copped off the other weekend. As this was contrary to what he'd told us on Friday night (he'd said he'd not been getting any for ages), I asked him about it... he said he had been escorted to his bus stop by a guy who had then left him there and gone on to a club :-( Poor Ben! He needs a good man to look after him and give him some TLC but he's too shy to find a nice man on his own...

The camp fair haired barman at the OCG is gone now -- he had been drunk last weekend and giving out free shots to people. His boyfriend is the bar manager and we felt he was pushing his relationship a bit too far. The bar man that got called in to take over from him last weekend said he had gone back to Newcastle -- pity... he was pretty to look at but not as "doable" as his boyfriend the bar manager :-P

There was as "DJ" (well a person that was fiddling with the sound system and decks) that we weren't sure what gender they were -- wearing a silvery-grey nylon dress with large black dots on it, tights and black leg-warmers -- a bit of a mess lol... I nudged the guy sitting close to me and asked him what gender he thought the DJ was and he couldn't tell either. We ended up getting into conversation with him and his mates. He had on a light grey hoodie and R and I had been thinking he was quite good-looking for a bit. Can't remember his name but do remember the name of one of his two mates. Remember Sean's name as he works in the big office building next to the big office building I work in. I'd noticed him at work before bounding up the shared stairs -- he's got a lovely arse and dreadlocks. He said to say hi to me at work and I will as he's the sort of guy that would make an interesting friend :-) They left to go to some gig at the Trinity Centre that does Indie and Alternative gigs.

We were going to get the 1am night bus but R decided he was feeling a bit drunk (we were only on our 4th pint) he persuaded me that we would get a taxi home. I went into the taxi office and asked for one to where I live (we use that taxi office as they have fixed prices for taxi rides to each area of Bristol where I live is £13). The controller said it was outside... We got into the taxi and the driver said it would be £16 I said "your price list in the taxi office says it's a fixed price of £13" he got angry and said £15 I said "we're getting out and will wait for the next taxi then" I went back into the taxi office and told the controller what had happened. The driver was standing in the doorway behind me and got a bollocking from the controller in Bengali I assume. The controller told us it would be £13 I went out (passing the driver) and we walked towards the taxi and waited. The driver eventually stormed out of the taxi office and marched into the (I assume) driver's waiting room next door. I wasn't prepared to go in again and ask for another so they lost our custom.

R got angry with me for having stood up for my rights and I had him grumbling all the walk to the bus stop for the nightbus and while waiting the 15 minutes it took for the bus to arrive. He says he'll be too embarrassed to use that taxi office again.

I feel that I was in the right as that greedy driver is spoiling the reputation of the company he works for and deserves everything that's coming to him. I'm not prepared to pay extra to someone who is effectively a thief.

Swindon Posse 2

Got to the Outlet Village about midday and looked in all the shops we wanted to see. Had a sandwich lunch at Brannigans -- tasty but expensive I had Brie with sun-dried tomatoes and black olives on granary bread which was nice and a big cup of hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows -- yummy :-P

Didn't get to look at the bathmats as Dave arrived to show me where to park at 2pm... then we spent about 20 minutes driving around Swindon trying to find one of the places that Dave thought was free parking (with Dave riding shotgun). Ended up using a multi-storey near the pub. Philip paid the parking to thank us for giving him a ride to the Posse.

Met several friends I haven't seen for a while which was good :-)

Felt like leaving earlier than 5pm which had been the plan -- had been hanging around until then and Philip changed his mind that he wasn't coming back with us and was going on to a meal planned after the Posse.

With 2 and a half pints of lemonade swishing about in me I ended up desperate for the loo on the way back and came off the motorway and had to have a pee behind a hedge.

Needed more petrol on the way back too.

Car was running very badly -- probably dirt from the bottom of the petrol tank disturbed when I topped up the petrol getting into the carburettor?

R was really worried about the way the car was running badly on the motorway and kept asking me to pull over and call the RAC. I felt that it was safer to continue the problem seems to have cleared now before we got home.

Going out shortly and meeting Ben for a drink in the OCG.

Running a little late...

Had to phone Philip to let him know we were running late and made it 11:00hrs that we would pick him up.

I made the running late happen by creating this blog :-)

About to leave now -- update later.

Swindon Posse

We're going to the Swindon Posse -- a gay get-together organised by Dave who is a friend.

Not seen him since Boxing Day when we had him and his Brazilian husband round for a meal.

Philip is coming with us -- picking him up about 10am.

Going to the Great Western Outlet village first as I need new bathmats -- the white ones are getting tired -- I have had them for more than 10 years!