A big special thanks to ........

REBECCA

Thankyou so much for managing to sort out my flights home from New York, without having to make me pay 100pounds (yes my pound sign is still on holiday)

I now don't have to dash from Heathrow to Gatwick in the 3 hours between landing and departure. Although really it would only be 2 hours since I have to check in 1hour before departure.

Luckily for me (and Catherine) Rebecca (and whoever Catherine spoke to at the STA call centre) phoned American Airlines and got us onto the BA flight from Heathrow because the flight we were actually booked on didn't seem to exist.

Thanks Rebecca!!!!!!

Fish

we got goldfish!

they are called sherbet and barley

sherbet is a lemon goldfish

and barley is an orange goldfish

A moment of clarity

I like it when things suddenly become clear and begin to make sense.

I had a moment like that last night when watching a tv program.

At the start of the program a song was playing about little boxes made of ticky-tacky. And suddenly everything became clear.

Years earlier the youth pastor of my church, Jonie, would talk about little boxes made of ticky-tacky and all look the same. I always thought it was just an obscure youth pastor reference. I never realised it actually came from a song.

Here's the song

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky,
Little boxes, little boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

And the people in the houses
All go to the university,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
And there's doctors and there's lawyers
And business executives,
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

And they all play on the golf-course,
And drink their Martini dry,
And they all have pretty children,
And the children go to school.
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
And they all get put in boxes
And they all come out the same.

And the boys go into business,
And marry, and raise a family,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

And its only now that the point Jonie was making (or at least the point I think he was making) becomes clear.

You have to laugh

Running

As some of you know I started running a few weeks ago, well actually eight weeks ago, it started off with running 2mins and then walking 4mins, which to be honest I struggled with but kept going.

I'm now up to running 10mins and walking 2mins! I'm quite impressed by this, but last night Andrew decided to come with me and he managed it!

Its not fair, it has taken me 8 weeks to get up to running for 10mins without collapsing and Andrew can do it the first time he goes running

hmph

Silly computer

My work computer has decided to be very silly, it has lost its pound sign!!! How does a computer manage to loose a pound sign. Instead of a pound I have a #

It has also decided to swap @ and " which has caused a number of problems in sending emails

A few other symbols have swapped too

But the pound sign has vanished

Thursday Morning Fun

After only four hours sleep we had fun negotiating Newcastle Airport on Thursday morning, although it reaqlly wasn't the chaos that the Newcastle Chronicle was reporting.

While standing in the check-in queue we were told by an announcement that with immediate effect no passengers were allowed to carry hand luggage. Ok for the 40minutes from Newcastle to Belfast thats not a huge problem and we quickly stuffed our things into the suitcase.

Then we went to Starbucks and got a mocha and a bottle of water and proceeded to the huge queue to get airside.

I managed to drink my entire drink in the queue it was so long!!!

While standing in the long queue people from further back started walking forwards saying loudly "did they just call the stansted flight?" so everyone for the stansted flight started following them with us standing thinking "we're at the front of the queue and we didn't hear them calling the stansted flight so how on earth did you hear them call the stansted flight" but I'll know or future use that thats a good way of queue jumping!

Got to security and was told that I had to leave behind my SEALED bottle of water that I had bought in the airport I even had a receipt!!! and the reason I wasn't allowed it - well the security man wasn't allowed to tell me!!!! Now remember it was about 6am and no-one had any clue about what was going on because we hadn't seen the news! I personally didn't think it was an acceptable answer but didn't think I'd win the arguement.

Then at the scanning machine thing the women wanted to send us out of security because of Andrew's car key, but after negotiation she let us take the battery out and it was no longer electrical.

However, I do think the airport security made a big oversight in forgetting that watches are electrical!!!! I didn't see them taking anyones watches. And I'm sure watches have been used in the past to detonate bombs, but they allowed the watches on board but not newspapers. I haven't figured out what threat newspapers pose.

But after my previous post about looking forward to New York I'm still looking forward to New York just not the journey because 5 or 6 hours with out a Ipod or a book will be awful.

93!

Its 93 sleeps till I fly to New York, its ages away but I can't stop thinking about it, I've started writing a list of the shops I definately want to visit, and trying to think what Christmas presents I can buy everyone.

It feels like I'm wishing my life away but thinking about New York is one of the few things keeping me going at work each day as the boredom of the office and the temptation to write my resignation letter grows.

Superman Returns

I went to see superman returns and really the only good things about the film were Lois Lane's nice shoes, dress and coat!!!

Sorry Catherine but I really didn't like the film