1605.07 THE STAG

Today it was planned that Morticia and I would be enjoying a meal for 2 in a nice restaurant somewhere. Then I found out this was the date set for my friend's stag do.

I've not been on many stag nights in the past, that's what comes of having a small circle of friends. I organised my best mate's years ago when I served as his best man. It was a difficult one as he kept cancelling so it ended up just being some drinks in town followed by a curry. My stag do was better (at least it had a stripper!). All this was many years ago, now the last of my group of friends is getting married and it's time to give him a 'send off'.

As a night out it was a good night. But was it a good stag? I suppose that's not for me to say, maybe that is the option of the stag? However this is my blog not his so my opinion is that it was too be considered a poor stag, at least until the point where I left it. Maybe after that they got to a strip club, maybe the stag is still taped naked to a lamppost somewhere just off Division Street? Somehow I do doubt it (I've asked for an update).

An impression of how the night
should have progressed

The problem in the first part was the numbers. There were a total of 3 participants (a 4th arrived late on just as I left). Having said that it was a good night.

I left to catch the last bus (23:50) which was the usual zoo of great unwashed. I was been stared at creepily by an Asian guy (who was either high on some substance or maybe suffering from a mental illness) and listening to the xenophobic views of a couple of drunk guys loudly discussing the Europe exit and immigration policy.

For the record it was a good night with good friends. 

1605.06 PANTS, MALTEASERS AND SEAMONKEYS

So my birthday is over for another year. I worked a day shift which was horrendous. Seriously it should be compulsory to get the day off - really it should be law!

I had no plans for the evening, except Morticia baked me a minced beef pasty (a favourite). I don't drink much but I do enjoy the odd ale, I have a small stash which I dipped into and enjoyed a Brains SA (to remind me of my favourite place in the world).

My gifts included pants, socks, a Kelo Ren glass, assorted chocolate and Sea Monkeys (I'm sure I'll be talking about them in the future).

Morticia's birthday is the day after mine, she is so much more popular than me, her cards outnumber mine threefold. We went to a local carvery as a family for a combined birthday treat.

1605.05 BIRTHDAYS, ELECTIONS AND BUNS

Most people see today as the day they cast their vote in the local elections. I see it as my birthday.

I voted earlier in the week via postal vote as I didn't wanted to be bothered by it on my birthday. I've said many times that voting is important and I always make the effort.

My ballot papers

I'm working today so yesterday I had to go out and buy buns and biscuits for the team. It was challenging getting them to work on my bag. I'm glad I fitted panniers.

I'll say more about my day tomorrow when I can evaluate the occasion.

1605.04 STAR WARS ANALOGY

I make no apology for the Star Wars analogy and I'm certainly not making light of my situation.

Star Wars (force awakens) became poignant for me whilst thinking about current aspects of my life. Part of the story deals with a child who rebels against their parents and crosses over to the dark side. I feel this as my eldest daughter went over to the "dark side" 4 years ago. I also feel like Han Solo, as if I've taken a lightsabre to the heart. The hurt is always there and never goes away.

It's always hardest around birthdays and Christmas, she is missed by us all.

1605.01 SHEFFIELD STARFLYER

It's been the Tour de Yorkshire this weekend and once again I haven't been out to see it. I'm still carrying something on my chest which combined with recent events at work and my upcoming birthday have made me feel pretty low lately. It was decided that today we would do something special. Morticia's friend has her birthday today so combined with mine and Morticia's (next week) we thought it might be a good idea. Morticia is no good on fairground rides so I'm usually alone when it comes to that sort of thing. So is Morticia's friend. As a birthday treat we thought we'd take in Sheffield's newest attraction: The Sheffield Starflyer.

We went with Rags and our friends, Det and Moby. First thing I noticed when we arrived in the town centre was how busy it was. We only just managed to get a parking space (in the second car park we visited). I guess it was busy because it's the bank holiday combined with the World Snooker Finals. With that in mind I thought that there would be a queue and I was regretting not booking in advance. As it was there was no queue. 

Morticia wasn't going on (not in a million years), neither was Rags nor Moby. It was just Det and me. I seem to surround myself with wusses when it comes to fairground rides. We paid our money and chose a pair of seats. We were the first on and we're made to wait whilst the rest of the seats filled up. This took about half a bloody hour, the attendants didn't mention the wait when we arrived. Anyway, we were in good spirits and the moment arrived where we were airborne. 

Today's ride was up in the sky on #sheffieldstarflyer. #sheffield #fargate #views #aerial #birthdaytreat #ride #fun #mytown

A photo posted by CaptainKirt™ (@captainkirt) on May 1, 2016 at 12:07pm PDT

Ride afforded great views but was over very quickly so not much time to take in the urban vistas (you can see other pictures on my Instagram). 

Afterwards we had a walk to the Crucible Theatre and then through the Winter Gardens (which doubles for the TV studio for the snooker in the early rounds) and the Peace Gardens. 

We went for a meal at Yates on Division Street, it was busy and a little rowdy, a little like a Saturday night, but we got seated. The food was ok but nothing really to write home about, and the portion was a little small. Not a patch on Wetherspoons'.

1604.30 EARLY STAR WARS DAY

Morticia is of out with friends so I will be home with Rags. We've decided to have the household premiere of STAR WARS - THE FORCE AWAKENS. We haven't seen it since the cinema back in December.

We've also been to Iceland for a microwave curry. We're all set for an afternoon in front of the TV. I'm looking forward to seeing it again and re-appreciating the whole phenomenon. After this showing I'll be watching and analyzing ready for the next movie.

I know it's not Star Wars Day until Wednesday but it's the perfect opportunity to enjoy in peace (Morticia hates Star Wars). The curtains will be drawn and the phone on silent.

1604.30 LET'S DISQUS

I'm constantly trying to improve my blogging experience and management. To this end I've been experimenting with Disqus, a 3rd party commenting system, to manage my comments (or rather your comments). Since I do most of this on my smartphone it would help that I can keep the comments together and respond / manage with ease.

It was a bit fiddly to set up but it seemed to work ok on both mobile and desktop formats. At the moment I have it disabled although I may activate it later today, I'm still not sure.

My worry is that the change would be detrimental for my current readers, you guys. You can still use your Google account as well as other authentication methods (like Facebook) but it does ask you to set up a password for a basic Disqus account.

I do love receiving comments, makes me feel like I'm not shouting into the void.

Supplemental 14:57; Disqus is now live as the comments engine. I'll be evaluating it fully over the next week. 

1604. 28 THE GRIZZLY

Since the back end of last year I've been growing my beard. It has until last week become very thick and bushy. It's been great fun caring and grooming it over the winter.

The beard at its bushiest

It's getting to that time of year where it starts to get warmer (although you wouldn't think that with the cold snap we're currently experiencing) so I thought it'd be best to trim it down a little. As it goes I've left the length but it's not got the bushiness. I may keep thinning it down as the seasons continue but I'm really thinking of making it a seasonal thing,  so from the end of the year it grows until the summer? 

1604.25 INIE OR OUTIE?

I'm a big advocate of using your democratic right to vote. People throughout history have fought and died for this right. Besides it's your licence to moan. You have no place moaning about current events if you did nothing to help control them (however insignificantly).

My dilemma is to to with Europe. This in or out referendum has me confused. Don't get me wrong, I'm not asking for advice on which way to cast my vote, if I wanted that I'd ask Barrack Obama(!) The problem is there are no hard facts, just opinions. These opinions are often offered as personal attacks on the 'other side'.

I have some homework to do on this since I know it's my duty to vote and the last thing I want to do is waste it listening to the views of megalomaniacs and xenophobes.

1604.23 CHINESE PHONE

I've been looking through my blog posts for when I last renewed my mobile phone contract. It looks like I didn't share that event which is a shame since I would have liked to look at how I felt about the device back then.

Back in late 2014 I upgraded my LG Nexus 4 (which I'd been having issues with poor battery life) to the new LG G3 complete with 'circle case'. It's been a great phone although it became laggy at the back end of last year which I fixed with a factory reset and restore. A couple of months ago the SD card slot stopped working then this week, without notice, it began random rebooting, the WiFi and Bluetooth packed up. I tried everything to save the device from a premature demise. Sadly I failed and with the battery only lasting a couple of hours (it wasn't a battery fault, that was one of the many things I checked) it was time to source a replacement.

I was limited in my selection but I am now the owner of a OnePlus 2, a Chinese branded phone that's still fairly new to the market. I wasn't prepared for the quality of this device, the build is exceptional as are the features. There have only been a few devices (that I've owned) which have had that 'premium' feel, this is defiantly up there with them. For the record those devices were the Nokia E71, iPhone 4 and the Nexus 4. It's pretty much a stock Android experience with a couple of tweeks, which I prefer.

It's early days but so far I'm impressed.

Pictures from GSMarena.com

1604.21 HAPPY BIRTHDAY MA'AM

I'm not a massive royal fan, not as much as Morticia, but I'd be pretty heartless if I didn't wish the old dear a happy 90th birthday.

1604.20 REST IN PEACE SIR

As I get older I'm aware that people in my past are dying, it's sadly a fact of life. I assume that some in my past are gone, others (that I'm not in contact with) maybe still with us. It always comes as a shock when you read that someone from your past has sadly died. This happened to me this week when I came across this article. It was about my old biology teacher who passed away earlier this month. I remember Mr Houghton as being a strict but fair teacher. I remember we called him 'Mini Hitler' and noticed his jacket pockets were always stuffed with chocolate (he obviously had a sweet tooth). The other quirk was the fact that that he had his signature on a rubber stamp that he used for school reports and when marking work.

Picture: tabletennisengland.co.uk/

I didn't know about his table tennis coaching, but it's not my thing.

Rest in peace Sir.

1604.18 LITTLE PAINTED BIKE

Cycling infrastructure is generally (in my opinion of course) just a tick box for my local councils. I cycle all over South Yorkshire and whilst sometimes there is a well planned cycle lane most of the time the council get around the provision by painting a bike symbol onto the path to create a 'shared use' path. On the whole I don't think that bikes belong on footpaths (although I'm not going to get into the issue on cyclists using footpaths). When councils put these in and a cyclist continues to use the road, which they are perfectly entitled to, they are open to abuse from motorists who then mistakenly believe that the bike must use the path provided. I'm not a fan of mingling bikes with pedestrians, it's dangerous for both parties. I'd much rather have a solution that mixes with traffic.

Shared use path, City Rd
photo: Google Streetview

Then there are badly thought out cycle lanes, the internet is full of them. Some are comedy gold but that's not a good thing. After all people's lives are at risk and I really think that town planners are not aware of this. Cycle lanes should be used to protect vulnerable cyclists from dangerous conditions (such as the infamous pinch points I've mentioned before). 

So my message to the planners is...  Stop with the tick box infrastructure. If you can't put in a bit of decent cycle lane then don't bother, just don't.

1404.17 ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE?

I wasn't sure about writing this but it needs to be said, or I need to say it. When a work colleague is hurt whilst doing their job it affects us all. It's a sad time for us all. The government cuts have hit our organisation hard and some are saying that this may be a factor in this incident. All I'm going to say at this time is that I wish my colleague a speedy recovery and that they are in my thoughts.

I keep what I do close to my chest and intend to keep it that way. What I do is irrelevant. Anyone that knows me in the real world will know and may understand what I'm saying and why.

1604.14 MY POOR GIRL

As I've previously mentioned, last week I was ill. At the same time so was Morticia, she suffers from a chronic condition which means that any bug that the rest of us may contact effects her probably tenfold. So, although she does try to look after me when I'm struck down, this ends up making her worse.

Maybe that's the cause of her relapse this week, I don't know. All I know it's that I've watched her suffer and I've been helpless except for just trying to make her comfortable. Doctors so far have been pointless, they fob her off every time.

She's on the mend slowly, not that when she's better things will be great, she still has her condition to live with.