Valentines day, life and beyond...

As I sat in my office today, trying to get my head round the huge "To do" list that sat on my desk, I started to ponder.

So here I am, another Valentines day, another year, still a single guy. Does it bother me? Maybe a little, but I'm not going to start ripping myself apart over it. Its one of the things most friends who I haven't seen for a while ask me, am I seeing anyone, is there anyone on the horizon. I'll be honest and say yeah, I really wanna find that special girl to be with but at the same time I'm in no rush. The most important thing for me is finding the right person, I don't want to just run into the first relationship that comes my way.

One of my ambitions in life is to get married and have kids, I don't know why but for a while now I've wanted to be a dad. I know its not easy being a parent but its just something I really want to do. But as I start thinking about my future more and more, I seem to face a dilemma. I'm 21 now, gonna be 22 this year and to me that feels like I'm gonna be really old, but I know I'm not. Those of you who know me know 2 of my passions in life are being a muso/techy and my ideal job would be somewhere in these fields. The thing is within these spheres most jobs are not very family friendly, often working long unsociable hours, being away from home for long periods and having to put a lot of work and effort in to get anywhere. They're mostly not 9-5 jobs and most of you probably know I couldn't really cope with a 9-5 job anyway. So here is my dilemma. Can I do what I really want to do and have a family? Or somewhere down the line am I going to have to choose one way or the other.

I don't wanna be the kind of dad/husband who is never there for his wife and kids or who is always away working, but at the same time I dont wanna being doing something I'm not passionate about. I guess the key is finding the right lady as well. I recently read Lance Armstrong's biography and he had an amazing wife who supported him through and stood right by his side through his Cancer recovery, and onwards as he started to re-build his career in cycling and went onto to win the Tour de France. She stood by him and supported him all the way, and had their baby during this time as well. But really its a 2 way thing because he had to be there for her and support her when it really mattered as well.

I guess thats the thing about marriage, you're not 2 separate people anymore, you become one. Well atleast thats what I've heard people say. Thats why I think its so important to find the right person, someone who understands me. But will I ever find that person?

Any thoughts please post.

Pet Sitting... Part deux!

The saga continues...

I walked into the Wade family kitchin on Monday night to find as usual the dog going completely mad, and jumping up and down on her hind legs, and the cat sitting on the worktop staring at me like she's planning some kind of attack.

But alas, there was no sign at all of the cats bowl, where had it gone!!!! After a few minutes of Inspector Clueso style detective work, I sussed it. The dog had obviously gone a bit too mad at some point in the day and managed to get the cats bowl off the work top and take it and hide it in the garden. After much asking and pleading she refused to tell me where she had put it, and as it was very dark outside I admitted defeat and sought another temporary bowl for the cat to use.

This morning I managed to do a full scout of the garden and found the bowl hidden in the garage, and I also found a nice, smelly package that the cat had left behind the kettle. Oh the joys!

Pet sitting!

I am currently "pet sitting" for my good friends the Wade family. This involves going to their house twice a day to feed the cat and dog, and make sure that they and the house is all alright. They did say I could stay over and house sit if I liked, but work is so busy at the moment, its just working out easier to pop over twice a day, plus they only live 10 minutes away.

Having never had a cat or dog myself I am not overly experienced with them, and some of their behaviours seem strange to me. Firstly the dog is absolutely mad and goes looney whenever I come in the room. Today I had left the kitchin door open while I was watering some plants, and the dog came out into the hall way and proceeded to lay on her back obviously wanting a belly rub. So I obliged but that obviously wasn't enough as she continued to do this for the next 20 minutes! After telling her several times and pointing dramatically at her bed in the kitchin she still wouldn't budge. Eventually I managed to trick her by opening the back door and pretending to go outside, which got her back on her feet and back in the kitchin in a flash!

The cat scares me cos she bit me once when I was there before, but she seems ok, doesn't really do a lot tho. But I came into feed them yesterday and the cat had done a wee on the work top. Tom, if you're reading this is this spose to happen? Anybody, is this normal behaviour for a cat? I mean, there's a cat flap so surely if the cat needs to do her business she can go in the garden and do it? Maybe she didn't make it in time? Anyway I cleaned it all up and disinfected it, but its still a mystery to me.

If anyone can shed any light on these matters then please do.

Airports and showing films...

So.... a few months ago (November to be precise) the airport card on my laptop decided it didn't want to recognise wireless networks anymore. It wasn't really a huge inconvenience, as I could still access the internet by plugging it straight in. But, as a good friend pointed out to me, I did spend a lot of money on my laptop and as it is still well within its warranty I should get it sent back and sorted out.

After numerous calls to Apple, and finally managing to get the message through to them that it wasn't a problem with my ISP, they said they would take it in to look at. Monday lunchtime they came to pick up the laptop and by Wednesday it was back with me with a new airport card fitted and me wireless and mobile once again. This has one great advantage which means I can surf the net from my garden, which is a bit chilly this time of year but is groovy in the summer. So hats off to the people at Apple.

On a more frustrated note I showed another film tonight. For those of you who don't know I've recently been trained up to do film projection at The Hat Factory. It started as being quite a fun thing to do, and obviously you get to see films for free! But more recently the novelty has worn off and things have started going wrong. It started at the beginning of January when I was testing a film, The Constant Gardener, and it jammed and snapped the film. It makes a horrible noise when this happens and it takes a while to sort out before you can start it again.

This was only a film test, so there was no audience in, and its happened several times since either when I've been testing, or lining up the film before the audience comes in, so it hasn't really mattered and I've had time to sort it out. But now I'm really worried its gonna happen while the audience is in and its made me really unconfident about showing films. The fustrating thing is I don't really have much control over it. When it happens, it doesn't seem to be a result of anything I do wrong or do differently, my boss says its just an old projector that really needs replacing or atleast servicing.

Anyway, this evening it did it again while I was setting the film up and I was so paranoid about it happening again that I spent the whole of the film showing praying and watching the platter and projector to see if it showed any signs of jamming again, I couldn't tell you what happened in the film. I found it really stressful, and those of you who know me well, know I dont get stressed easily. I'm not sure what to do, cos there's not much other tech work going at the moment so its a good way to get some extra money, but at the same time I don't really enjoy it anymore.

Your prayers and any words of wisdom would be much appreciated