Blimey, nearly 18 months since I have been here .... maybe it's something to do with the fact that my job is running my employers social media programme in the UK so I don't bother with my pc at home... nope, just lazy i reckon.

So what has happened in 18 months?

As mentioned I am now doing something different at work, and I now enjoy my work for the most part.

I have become addicted to twitter (as a result of my social media role at work).

Jack starts school in September, he has been going to nursery at the same school and is one of a very tight group of 4 boys who I am sure are plotting world domination. Every time they are together you can guarantee they will disappear into a corner somewhere and stand there talking and looking around furtively! Sadly one of the boys will not be going to the same school in September so we will see if they stay in touch.

Nic has become obsessed with making cakes and is constantly being told she should start her own business, and to be fair her cakes are fantastic.

Apart from that everythig is the same, Jack's a typical hyperactive little boy (maybe not so little) and he surprises me all the time with stuff he says and does. It is amazing to see him learn so much and become a very independant boy with a forceful but very loving personality.

Oh yeah, and I went to see Adam Ant in Birmingham in June, he was fantastic! Adam & the Ants were the first band I ever liked when I was about 6 or 7 and I still listen to their music today (and yes I do know how old I am!!), I have never had the chance to see him live before so I was so excited and I guess everyone at home & work got sick of me constantly telling them that I was going to see Adam Ant.

Today is jack's 3rd birthday, we have just got back from the pet shop with Jack's 2 as yet un-named goldfish.

I cannot believe my son is 3 years old, where has the last 3 years gone?

We are hoping to get over to visit his Nanny later this week....but this constant snow/rain/snow cycle we are having may yet cancel any trips. I hope I can make it to see my mum as I will also be able to see my mate his new baby daughter Scarlett.

That's all for now, I'm off to play with Jack and his new drums!!

Its been a while since I graced this site with my presence, wonder if anyone's still here.

There has been lots and lots happen since my last visit, firstly me & Nic are getting on great.

Jack is amazing me every day with his speech, his grasp of the world around him and his ability to grow more than I ever imagined...give him a year and he'll be stealing my clothes.

We weren't going to go away for holiday this year but we got a good deal to Alcudia so off we went, Jack loved the water both sea and pool. He seemed to have no fear of the water, I thought he might be a bit hesitant at first but no troubles there..he just ran straight to the sea on the first day when we went to the beach. We spent more time around the pool than at the beach because it was just so hot, at least the pool was near our room so in the afternoon while Nic fried herself I took Jack in to have a nap. Some days he didn't want to sleep...what a blessing my new mobile was, I had loaded some episodes of Kipper the dog, his favourite at the time...it always helped him to calm down and get to sleep.

When we got home we decided we wanted to move when our tenancy was up at the end of august, the house we were living in had a small garden and it never seemed to get any sunlight so it was always damp and not good for Jack to play in. Our new house has a big garden and lots more room inside as well, Jack loves this house so much better and so do we. It is nearer to Nic's work and as she works early in the bakery she doesn't have to get up so early and its so much better now the bad weather is starting.

In september Jack started at playgroup, he has come on leaps and bounds with his talking...sometimes he has conversations with himself, it can be very funny. It is so nice when we get paintings and stuff he has done at playgroup, he made a poppy last week and has made biscuits for halloween. I have changed my hours at work so get to take Jack to school some weeks and it's great having that time with him so I can at least talk to the staff and get a feel for how he is doing rather than having to hear it second hand from Nic or grandad who takes him most of the time.

Jack was getting excited about halloween so we bought him a spider outfit and let him go trick or treating to nanny & grandads house, then Nic took him to some of her friends as well.

I have added some new photo's, the one with the pig is the most recent...hasn't my boy grown up!

If anybody calls to make a donation during children in need next week you may get to speak to me, I will be taking calls for donations for at least a couple of hours next friday so call and give me some of your cash!!

Today has been a lot better, you see this is the problem...some days are great and others crappy. I do like Mr Brainwhispers coping mechanism... "lots of jaffa cakes, crisps and fizzy drinks". I don't have any jaffa cakes so maybe toffee viennese whirls, pringles and wine (not to mention the fact that I've already had a few pancakes, oh crap I just did mention it...forget i said that).

Today we have been mostly spending Jack's birthday money on cool thomas the tank engine top and 2 scooby doo tops, they are all soooo cool. We also bought some playdough accessories cos the little fella got some playdough yesterday, so this afternoon I have been playing with playdough and it was such good fun.

Tomorrow I think we are going to see my mum, so a chance for me to put my feet up a little and say here you go nanny, he's all yours! Thursday depending on the weather we are maybe going to twycross zoo and then friday perhaps swimming.

Fingers crossed the rest of the week is like today.

So my son Jack is 2 years old today, we decided not to have a party this year, was just to be us and the grandparents popping in for cake and to sing happy birthday. That was the plan... it then became having cake at grandparents as Nic's friend is a photographer and was coming to take some pics...the grandparents hous eis bigger than ours so more room to have decent pics taken.
Now what should be a very happy day for me became a day to seriously think about having to go back on anti-depressants. We went to Jam Jam;s this morning which was great but then when we got to nic's parents house several of nic's friends had been invited, the photo's were of Jack & everyone...but me! Nic made me feel about as welcome as a dose of the clap at my own son's birthday.
I am trying really hard to keep my family together but right now I am seriously thinking it might be worth all the hassle of being a single parent because I am in need of something to prove to me my life is really worth it right now. I spent a long time on anti-depressants years ago and i seem to be heading down the same path again.

Let me introduce Russell....

For the last 4 and a bit years I have been working for a company that has a tendency to suck the very life out of anyone who works there, the upside is that occasionally I have got to meet some great people. One such person is Russell.

Russell is a sometimes sane person who sends me random thoughts and links on instant messenger which alleviates the mind - numbing tedium that is my day to day existence (at work anyway). Many have commented on the possibility that Russell and I could be long lost twin brothers, however it is not clear to us why...after all, he is short, fat, bald & wears glasses whereas I am short ,fat & have very little hair...oh yeah, and I wear glasses.

I have told Russell his random acts of messenging madness deserve a wider audience so I will be including some of this madness in my future posts, starting with the message that greeted me at work this morning:


Russell said at 8:14AM:
Statistically speaking, 6 out of 7 dwarves aren't happy.

See, the guy is not playing with a full deck.... need more proof:


Russell said at 12:08PM:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/yahoolatestnews/stories/011609dnmetdenton.5c376ef.html?npc - A green delivery by the boys in brown.

And in case you are still not convinced:


Russell said at 2:08PM:
BACON HITLER - http://img.ffffound.com/static-data/assets/6/c97c5e25fa0469b4b6814f11dd60b282956e69f7_m.jpg


Now for those of you that like this guy's style maybe you should check out www.halloweenman.com as he is the editor of this little slice of comic heaven/hell (delete as appropriate). Not one to be shy he asked me to plug this site, I think it is something to do with glorifying his existence somewhat.

Anyway we never did get much snow so I never got my snow day and despite more of the white chilly stuff falling on this fair isle today I doubt it will happen anytime soon. Take care peoples if you have to venture out into the cold, icy wilderness that is your home town and come back soon.

Well the weekend is nearly over and once again I didn't notice it happen as I have been so busy. We are supposed to get more snow over the next few days and guess what...snow showers earlier have already turned my dreary home city into a blanket of white so right now is about the best time to view coventry when its white instead of the usual grey.

I'm hoping the snow will last and possibly get worse so I can go and take some nice pictures. I have a cousin in Australia that I recently got in contact with after years of not seeing each other and he says its nice seeing the photo's of the snow that everyone is sending him but he wouldn't swap it for his life in australia...lucky bugger!

Snow, snow, snow, snow...I love snow.

Nic woke nice and early today (well she would as she has to be at work by 7am...crazy woman), she peeked out into the street and let out an excited whisper...well Jack was asleep in our room. She reckoned I wouldn't be going to work today but if only, no work = no pay so off i went.

It was mental trying to drive through the deep snow as even the main roads were deep in snow n' slush. I told my boss we should have a work snowball fight to encourage inter-team relations but oh no, that was just not allowed.

A disaster averted (hopefully)

Life in our house has not been very good of late, in fact it had got to the point of agreeing we would be splitting up when our tenancy ends at the end of february. It has really seemed like the end of the world, for reasons of privacy I will not go into the full details here but needless to say I saw visions of me only seeing Jack occasionally ( the UK courts seem to think only mothers are fit to be parents whereas the fathers must be bottomless pockets for the mothers...and before i get loads of nasty comments about this remark just remember its my blog and my views ). I was absolutely heartbroken as Jack is my world, nothing else has any meaning without him.

After a rather frosty time we talked & have decided to try one more time to make things work, we are both at fault it is definitely not one person more than the other. We are not trying for the sake of Jack although but of us decided we wanted Jack to have a happy family upbringing rather than what has become the norm these days of shuffling him from one parent to the other. Neither of us ever saw ourselves as single parents and if possible we want to avoid this happening so fingers crossed.

I have enjoyed being at home with Jack this week, as Nic & I have trouble getting the same holidays work I have ended up taking this week off, except friday when I have to go in. Monday I had to go to the dentist, initally I was going to take Jack but recently he has been a little clingy so thought better of it and grandad had him for a couple of hours. We have been playing cars, watching kids tv (good but not as great as kids tv when I was growing up), we went to Jam Jam Boomerang yesterday which is a kids soft play centre near Coventry airport, it was heaving with mainly mums and grandparents but a couple of dads were there. Usually we go there as a family or with friends so it was nice to spend some quality time, just me and my son. When Nic got home from work yesterday she did some painting with Jack, his first painting so we are going to frame that later. Today I took Jack to get his hair cut, the lady who cut his hair sprayed some water on his hair after cutting it, Jack reached for the bottle and she handed it over......very silly thing to do, he turned the bottle on her immediately and sprayed her! That'll teach her a lesson.

Tomorrow I don't know what we will do, I might take him to the transport museum in the city centre as I have never been in there, if it's nice I might take him to the park. I would have preferred the chance to take him to the park more but the weather has just not been good enough.

One of the best books I have read in a while has to be Val McDermid's The Grave Tattoo. I have discovered a new website recently as well, readitswapit. Over the last few years I have been selling all my books on ebay after reading them, this was always a hit & miss affair as I rarely got much for my books (ebay is so pants now, greedy ebay decided to let businesses trade on their & lots of crap japanese/hong kong sellers list as UK sellers..typical greed once agains destroys what was once a great site). With readitswapit you list your books and you get an email if someone wants to swap with you, you can then view there books and either agree on a swap or decline the swap...you can also ask other people to swap one of their books for one of yours, its great. I have got a few more books to read now and all for the cost of a book i have read and postage. Unlike some other swapping sites you can swap straight away without having to send your books off to other people to gain points before you can request a book. I am getting rid of more books this way & always get another book in return that I want...why don't you take a look.

Take care all and I hope your New Year started better than mine, hopefully things can only get better...VampJack x

Merry Christmas

I am a very poorly person right now but wanted to drop by to wish everyone a very merry christmas.

I never seem to have the time to update my journal as often as I would like but I have to make an extra special effort at special times of the year. I can't belive 2008 is nearly over already, my god...Jack is nearly 2 years old. We have borrowed his grandparents camcorder ready for tomorrow morning, I can't wait to see his face when he gets all his presents, he is going to be so excited.

As I am quite poorly at the moment (not sure if its the start of flu, just a virus or something more sinister that Jack Bauer should be investigating ) I am going to go and have a nice hot bath and hopefully Jack will be a good boy and sleep well tonight. I will be reading him the night before christmas when he's in bed shortly and then hopefully I can relax for the rest of the night....after last minute pressie wrapping of course.

Take care all and have a great christmas.

VampJack x

5 minute escape

I don't know about you but i never seem to get 5 minutes to myself any more. Jack is a big attention seeker, then there's the housework, my job, birthday parties, insurance shopping...it goes on...and on...and on.

Jack has been a good boy tonight and used his potty, his reward?...stealing my bath! I can't wait until he's potty trained properly..less nappies so more money for something else he'll need. He is learning lots of new words, this week i have taught him one, two, three & a, b & c. After christmas when we know what is happening with nic's job we are going to find a child minder so he can have more interaction with other kids to help him develop more, he amazes me how much he can do already. If you had told me that before he was 2 he would be using so many words & be so independant I would have laughted at you and called those nice young men in their white coats, I really had no idea how quickly kids develop. He has also started using a cup this week without a lid on, he spills a little down hiself but not much as he is quite careful, he just seems eager to drink it in case we take it away from him which i guess is because he is used to having the odd drink from our cups then having it quickly whisked away again.

Work is quite pants, I am so bored and feel that i need something to challenge me but then I think about all the people that are losing their jobs and I realise how lucky i am. I got dressed up again last week for halloween but I only have pics from work with the rest of my team so cannot post any here as they may not wish to have their pictures displayed for all to see.

Those of you who know me will maybe have been wondering about my state of mind following the final F1 race of the season, well I can tell you I was absolutely devastated, it took about 2 hours for me to come to terms with what happened. Lewis Hamilton is a fantastic driver and thoroughly deserves to be the champion but I still wish it had gone to Felipe Massa in the Ferrari. On the last laps I was screaming at the tv hoping & praying that lewis would cross the line in 6th place so Massa could win then when Glock slowed because of the rain fallling heavier I was crushed, we had the championship for 38 seconds........oh well, only another 134 days until the new season starts.

from where i left off....

Hello people of blogger world...I have been very bad and not added any entries to my old aol journal for what can only be described as a very considerable length of time...those of you that have used aol will be very familiar with the standard practice of starting an entry, restarting the entry after aol crashed...restarting again and then eventually saying bugger it and go and do something else.

So what have we been up to since i last decided to impart news of my dreary life... well Jack has got bigger & louder & bigger & noisier & bigger & more boisterous. Just yesterday he put a wodden box thingie on his head, it is a little persons toy box type thing with moving parts to amuse them...poor grandad who was doing his usual babyminding routine tried to remove the box but it was jammed on hard. After trying for a few minutes to remove the item he decided the only way to do so was to get a screwdriver and take the bloody thing apart....just as Jack pulled free! The things kids do amaze me, don't know why really cos by all accounts i was always doing things i shouldn't.

We got money out of the airline for our damaged cases in case anyone is wondering, with very little fuss actually which was quite surprising.

My mum won a photo-shoot with olan mills (i think it was them anyway) so back in august we went to nottingham to have family photo's done...there was me, nic & jack...my sister, bro-in-law & 2 kids and my mum. The photo's weren't too bad considering i hate having my pic taken. Its nice for my mum to have photo's of all of us together as we don't get together too often.

Back in July we had a nice week at my sisters, she has a huge back garden and it was great seeing Jack running around playing, we only have a poxy postage stamp sized garden and we really would love a bigger garden so he can play out more. Our garden doesn't get much sun on it so when it gets wet it doesn't dry out for weeks. Jack got more toys from my sister as she was having a clear out of her garage...my nephew got a new bike for his birthday so my sister has said hen Jack is bigger he can have his cousin's old bike.

My work is still a pain, i am so bored and desperately want a new job that will challenge me but in the current economic climate i am probably better off staying put for a while. I honestly believe that if i didn't have Jack to support i would have walked out months ago. I have to consider myself lucky, at least i have a job and one that pays reasonably well for this area. I have recently had an old friend contact me after finding me on friends reunited, he was living in gibraltar but is just moving across the border to spain so has offered to help me out looking for work & somewhere to live in Spain. It has given me a bit of a boost but again i'm not just going to jump at the first chance as Jack is my biggest priority so i have to make sure that i will be earning enough to support my family whilst still having time to spend at home with them.

Jack's vocabulary is building day by day, he mimicks us all the time in mannerisms & trying to copy words. It is such a joy every time he says a new word, mind you his favourite word is no which does get annoying. he is so strong willed as well, it is virtually impossible to get him to do something if he doesn't want to, he has become very fussy with food but hopefully that will be a passing phase. A few eeeks ago he bit my finger and cut the skin at ths side of my nail, i left it thinking it would heal on its own but it got infected and i had to have antibiotics to clear up the infection, as a result of my son's vampire tendencies (bless, he's more like me every day..ha ha) i now have only half a finger nail as the rest has dropped off.

I have just noticed whilst typing this that blogger autosaves a draft while you type...this service would have been a godsend for aol journallers.

Anyway thats all i have time for now.... Vampire Jack x

goodbye & good riddance aohell

I have not updated my aol journal for a while now, mainly because i don't use aol any more and just can't be bothered with keep trying to update a journal when aol has a nasty habit of crashing before I save the entry. Now aol is shutting down its journal service i have no reason to use aol any longer.....hooray!

I will be checking to see if my j'land buddies are moving to another service as I still wish to keep reading all their journals.

I may even start posting regular entries again!!

Vampire Jack x

Jack's first holiday

Hello again, nice picture isn't it...just one of a number of pics of my damaged suitcase following my recent trip to Majorca. We flew with bmibaby who by now will have a nice letter telling them to cough up.

Another pic of my lovely knackered case

 

And another...bored yet?

 

 

This was near the end of the holiday, look at Jack's eye, he tried turning over halfway down the slide & cut his eye...needless to say he is fine & 5 minutes later was running around again as if nothing had happened.

 

Amazing what amuses kids..a big straw & you get big smiles

 

Give them a big straw AND a beer mat & they're in heaven! 

 

Jack obviously started early..wondering what the hell these little drink umbrella's are for

 

1 bucket & some seawater = very wet Jack

 

Quiet after a day in the sun ( with plenty of sun cream of course )

 

This holiday lark is soo tiring

 

Chilling out at Sam's bar after a hot day

 

This sand sculpture was amazing, a 3 headed dragon with fire in its nostrils...

 

and a very eery looking castle in the forest

 

Back to the sunshine again, Jack loved the pool better than the beach which suited us just fine, bloody sand just gets everywhere.

 

Jack having fun on another slide (not the eye splitting slide), I think this was our first evening.

 

The hotel was average but you get what you pay for, Nic didn't really like the food but I thought it was okay. The housekeepers were crap though. We had rain for about half the time we were there but I'd rather be in Majorca with the rain than Coventry anyday, it was still boiling hot when it rained. One night we had an amazing lightning storm, it was better than any light show i've ever seen, forked lightning lighting up the place like we were in a war zone...cool!

The holiday was a nice break from the norm, Jack kept us on our feet for the first few days until Nic's parents got there then they allowed us to have a bit of rest and the chance to eat our dinners.

Busy busy busy so will catch up again soon...hope you are all well, unlike me, I have a killer sore throat, might even have to go to doctors soon feels like laringytis i had last year..take care x

 

Some new photo's

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just got a few minutes so thought I'd add some new photo's of Jack, i will add more when we get back from holiday...less than 10 hours to go before the flight

Still here...

Hello peoples, well i am now a Sky broadband customer & the service is much better than aol.

 

So far my little journal is still running but i just haven't had chance to update it recently. The last few weeks have been so busy with birthdays, weddings & other various get togethers. This weekend i have no plans except to go shopping for a birthday present for my friends little girl, its her first birthday next week so i will have another party to go to, the following week will be finishing shopping for my holiday then i'm off to Spain on 19th May and i can't wait.

 

I have some new pics of my little tornado but as i'm at work right now i will have to upload them when i get chance. I will try to do this before I go away as no doubt when i get back i will have loads more new pics from Jack's first foreign holiday.

 

Taker care for now...VampJack x 

Go To Hell AOL 2 (sorry for stealing your title Mr Brainwhispers)

I have had enough, so aol is going.

I am so sick of aol's crappy service that I have made the call. On wednesday after yet another day without internet (aol advised this was a general broadband outage not just aol but tough) I called aol. The woman I spoke to was in an indian call centre (no surprises there) & once she realised that she had absolutely no chance of changing my mind she told me that as I was still under contract she would not cancel my service. I asked to speak to her manager (which I am legally entitled to do) she refused point blank & when I demanded she put me on to someone more senior she accused me of not understanding english....thats right, she said I did not understand english, this coming from some clueless halfwit in india!!

She then dumped my call through to customer services, a  manager tried to go through to cancellations but the call queue was closed. I called again yesterday & got to speak to someone in Ireland (a big shock I can assure you), the guy passed me through to his manager after explaining the situation so I did not have to repeat myself. The manager asked if I would give him the opportunity to put the problems right but I told him my patience had run out & as the problems with aol are intermittent he may resolve it but I have no confidence in it not going wrong again next week. He has agreed to cancel my account despite the fact that I am stll under contract, perhaps the fact that I have spoken to trading standards & ofcom had something to do with it but I have got what I wanted.

 

Over the last (nearly) 2 years I have made some friends in j'land & I will be sad to end my time here but I cannot put up with aol's abysmal service any longer. I am not sure yet which broadband provider I will go with but at least it won't be aol. As my journal is on a user account set up as an extra account & not my  main aol account I may still be able to continue this journal, if not then I'm afraid it is goodbye from me & goodbye from him (Jack!).

Take care all...VampJack x

Its been a while...

Well its been a while but I'm back, how long for I have no idea. I have been so busy with work & being a daddy that I have not had much time for my journal, then of course there is the problem with a bloody o soddin l. Ever since the recent(ish) so called upgrade my connection has constantly been dropping out causing me to lose emails, journal entries, etc. Also the service has been so slow as to be unusable, I cannot wait for my aol contract to be over..I will print out my journal before then because unless aol drastically improves I will not be continuing to use them, they are CRAP!

So lots has obviously happened since my last entry, the main event of course was Jack's 1st birthday. We had spent ages preparing for his party then on the night before my sister called to say she had been ill & may not be coming, her husband came home from work that night saying he wasn't well either so it looked like the most important guests (for me at least) would not be present. On the morning of Jack's birthday we got up early as we had a photo session booked, my sister had given us the session as a christmas present so we thought it would be nice to use it on his birthday. After the photo 'shoot' we dashed round town to get the last couple of bits we needed then headed home for lunch, I got a text from my sister....she was on her way, with my bro in law & 2 nephews...instantly making the day better. After lunch we had to go to Nic's parents to set everything up, Nic's niece was helping to put everything on the table while I waited outside for my sister to show up (its on a busy road so they might've driven straight past had I not waited outside), when they arrived we went inside to be greeted by jack with a face (& hands) full of pasta salad that he had pulled off the table.

The house was packed with friends & family, we had pass the parcel, musical statues & loads of food. Jack got spoilt rotten with presents and quite rightly so, we brought some home but left a few at nanny & grandad's house as they look after him during the week when we're both at work. We had bought him a trike which he insisted on going on with no trousers but he loved it so thats all that matters.

At the end of the day both Nic & I were absolutely exhausted, if anyone thinks organising & hosting a childs first birthday party is a simple task think again, we had a great day but it was one ofm the most exhausting days I've ever had.

Since christmas Jack has been walking with much more confidence, he has even started running around which can be frustrating, annoying but also so funny. At night when he's tired he still stumbles but apart from that he's pretty much steady on his legs now. he has developed so much more character, he is the cheekiest little boy I've known but it is an absolute joy to watch him explore his world, even if that does mean he steals our dinner.

It's not all smiles though, the last couple of weeks he has been waking more regularly at night & most nights will not go back to sleep in his own bed, we have to hold him for anything from 10 to 40 minutes so he is sound asleep before we can put him back in his room, otherwise he screams all night. Because of this we hae not had much sleep & so we are getting very tired & snapping at each other. He is a real handful, I love him more than I could ever explain but sometimes I wish I could go back to my old life just for a couple of days to get some rest, I'm sure all the parents out there will know exactly what I am talknig about. it doesn't help that at work things are changing for the worse. The dept I work in is being effectively demoted back to the position we were promoted from, we are not losing any pay but they have decided that it would be in the interests of the company to bring all the staff up to our level, this means we go back to doing what the lower grade does now. Even management don't seem to know where the hell our roles are going but it looks like we will be doing the lower grade role for 3 weeks out of every 4. Needless to say most if not all of my dept are pi**ed off & want to leave (if there's any company bosses in Cov reading this & you want loads of highly skilled workers who already have a great team spirit let me know). The morale at work is so low that its draining all our energy, I hate feeling like this but its so difficult to lift my spirits when everyone around me is as low as I am. The company I work for keeps bleating on about putting its staff first but in truth they don't give a damn, as long as they can restructure the company in a way that they can shift our work to india & pay a whole team what we get each then they are happy. I can't wait to find a new job.

 

Anyway, enough of my moaning..here's some more pics of my cheeky little chap>