to catch up with everyone's blogs when I've been away. Now that I've done that, I thought I'd get back to writing mine. I had a long weekend. My train to Newcastle on Friday was delayed, eventually Leaving London at 10:15, and after a quick change at York I got to Newcastle at about 2am on Saturday morning and Jenny picked me up from the station. As I'd been bored whilst waiting at Kings Cross I bought 2 books, both by Danny Wallace Join Me & Yes Man (due to a buy one, get one half price WHSmiths offer). I'd considered buying yes man a few times(having read "Are You Dave Gorman" in which Danny is co writer), but decided I couldn't be bothered. I thought Join Me was a brilliant read. I'm not normally given to openly laughing whilst reading, but I'll admit to having a bit of a chuckle on the train. I wonder if we have any joinees on the SMB? Yes Man is a continuation of Danny's life after Join Me, and is shaping up just nicely. There are a few moments where the story gets embarrassing for him, and I don't really like embarrassing bits. No idea why, but I never have done. Must be a mental thing. It's also why I didn't like Meet the Parents.

The train journey itself was a pain in the arse though. I had a right gobshite( and obligatory thick girlfriend) sat behind me on the train, and he talked all the way to York . He was telling his friends about the number of foreigners living 50 to a 3 bedroom house and engaging in the practice of "'hotbedding". Apparently "They come over here, and live in a big house. Some work days, some nights and those that work days (presumably 25 of them) have beds at night and vice versa. They pour all their earnings into a collective pot and when they have enough money buy a business for one person. This person continues to contribute to the pot until everyone has a business." Obviously there's some slight paraphrasing there, but surely this is bollocks? His girlfriend kept chirping in with backup stories that essentially presented this information as FACT. Maybe it wasn't really that bad, but I was tired and trying to read. Perhaps I'm being overly critical, and I haven't done any research into the practise of hotbedding. He could be right, I suppose, however unlikely.

On Saturday I was awake at 11, and finally saw Andrew. I think he was a bit shocked at first and didn't want to say hello. We had a play a bit later on after he'd got used to me being there again. I went to a wedding. It was... just like most weddings, and the speeches were excellent. And short. Which was also excellent. I caught the second half of the England game in the hotel bar, had a couple of expensive pints then rejoined the party. Pretty much a typical wedding day and that's it for this year weddings wise.. phew.

Went to see my Mam on Sunday. She greeting us by telling me "You've put loads of weight on". Canny start there mother. My Dad has gone back to work for the first time in about 15 years (he had some toes amputated after getting a blood clot and wasn't particularly mobile for a long time) and was in bed recovering. My niece was in the park somewhere and didn't come and say hello. The dog is still alive. I keep expecting her to be gone whenever I come home, but she's still going. She really stinks, but apparently they can't get the smell to go away no matter how many baths she has. i don't know why my Mam and Dad haven't moved out of the centre of Sunderland. My Mam works in town, but that shouldn't really make any difference. I'm sure that if they sold up and moved to somewhere cheaper, they'd be able to have a better quality of life. Doesn't look as though it's going to happen, and they'll continue to struggle on. Got back to Jen's Mam and Dad's later, and learned (in a manner of speaking) to play 3 blind mice on Andrew's glockenspiel/xylophone type thing

Monday, and after doing pretty much nothing all day we set off back to Watford at 8pm. Andrew slept all the way (near enough) and we got back around 1am. He did spend quite a lot of time inspecting things when we got back. Bit of a waste of a days holiday.

Tuesday, and we went to B&Q. Bought a shelf and took it home. No fixings. Mint. Went back to B&Q, bought some fixings. Got home, I now need a 14mm drill bit. I think that the phrase I'm looking for is "Fail to prepare, prepare to fail". I asked a mate if he had one available, and he said what kind? What do you mean what kind? The something to put in the end of a drill and put holes in a cheaply made plasterboard or similar wall kind! He said no. I now have to begin the search for said bit. I think I'll hide the shelf in the cupboard and pretend that the problem has gone away.

Yesterday and work was a bit rubbish. Had a look on the board. Some threads on Steve Irwin's death, a man who helped me underachieve in my final year. I mean what would you rather do? Telecommunications 2 lectures or watch someone wrestling a croc and poking a deadly snake. In retrospect, I wish I'd gone to more lectures as I've developed an interest in the stuff I did in my degree which I didn't have at the time. Still, when you've got a hangover the discovery channel topped off with a bit of diagnosis murder generally does the trick. I actually saw a bit of diagnosis murder last week. I'm farly certain it had a vampire in it. Time to go Dick, time to go . Not many footy related threads and to be honest, I'm not really that arsed at the moment.

Had training last night. 8 hardy souls, and I've decided not to sign on this season. £40 joining fee and then £4 a game. Apart from the fact that I can't really afford to sign, the lack of interest and application in training p*sses me off. How do people expect to improve and/or compete if they don't practice? I love training, always have so I can't understand why people don't want to turn up. Some players have Saturday football as well, and also train on a Wednesday night so I can forgive them for not turning up(higher level and all that) it's just that it's generally the poorer players who don't make it(excluding me as I'm there all the time, and still sh!te). In the end we did a bit of crossing (poor), a short run (tiring) and ended with a 4 on 4 using bags as goals. I am a bit of a twat when it comes to moaning. I can't help it if I don't think people are playing fair(they had someone standing in front of the bag at all times), however my moans worked as we won 4-3 after trailing 3-0. I missed the England game as we don't have Sky, but watched the highlights on Match of the Day. The Northern Ireland game looked tremendous

Picking up a new bicycle today, in a few minutes in fact. Better have some dinner!