I'm back (no thanks to aol)

VampJack is back......welcome to my new lair!!!

AOL well & truly screwed up my house move so I had to wait until this week to get my broadband back on, they very nearly lost another customer. The only reason I'm still with them is that I managed to speak to a customer service agent NOT based in india who actually knows what customer service is. When will companies realise that just because you can get some poor idiot in india to work for pennies does not mean customers will accept speaking to someone who can barely speak english, why do they think some companies have based a lot of there advertising around the fact that they have UK only call centres.

 

So on to all my news. The house move was a pain in the arse, it is a nightmare trying to move with a 6 month old baby who's teething. The first 2 days when we actually moved our stuff Jack spent with his nanny & grandad but after that it was a real pain trying to sort everything out with a screaming baby demanding attention every 2 seconds. The house itself is nice, we are no longer right near a railway so we don't the train noise all day & night, we also live away from a main road so we don't get to hear the sirens of police/fire/ambulance all night long. We have a bath which is a real luxury, sometimes it would be easier having a shower but we have really missed having a bath as the last house only had a shower. It is so much easier bathing Jack Jack without having to get his baby bath out, especially as he outgrew the baby bath a coupla months ago. He loves having a bath as well, he likes having more room to play & splash around.

While I have been away from j'land Jack Jack has learnt to walk with the aid of his Tigger ride on toy, he holds on to the front of Tigger & walks pushing it along. He is so fast when he's crawling as well, his favourite things to do at the moment is either playing with any wires he can find so we have to watch him all the time, the other thing is switching off the Sky box (not a bad thing sometimes but a pain if something good is on).

The cats are getting very wary of him now, he hasn't quite grasped the concept of stroking the cats, he thinks he's supposed to grab a handful of fur & hold on tight. Angel tends to stay away from him when she can, Bailey on the other hand is a bit more tolerant & lets Jack grab him sometimes.

Jack Jack no longer gives me gummy smiles when I get home from work, on 31st august his first tooth came through, quickly followed by the 2nd & we think the 3rd is about to put in an appearance. My son now has teeth! Jack has taken to using his dummy again, he did stop for a while but I think he just loves chewing it to be honest. Occasionally we get bitten, he seems to think it great he can now bite anything in the house. At meal times we either have to take it in turns eating or we sit him in his high chair between us with his own dinner. If we don't do this he stands in front of us with mouth wide open like a baby bird expecting to be fed, he also tries to grab our dinner so meal times can be real fun in our house at the moment.

BIG NEWS:

Jack Jack can now say dada. I was so emotional the first time he said it. The novelty seems to have worn off with him now but for a few days no matter what he was doing he would be shouting dada dada dada all the time. I have captured this most treasured of moments on film, i think i must have shown it to nearly everyone i've talked to at work but what the hell, its a proud moment in a dads life. Nic has been trying to get him to say mama, her mum has been trying to get him to say nanny & grandad has been trying to get him to say grandad (i think he might struggle with this one) but his daddy is his first word & no one can ever take that away from me.

It seems that in the last month Jack has made so many advancements, he really is learning so much with every new day. Can you believe he was 7 months old last sunday? Just this last week he has learnt to clap his hands & he can now wave (as opposed to randomly throwing his arms around like all babies seem to do). The nights have been a pain since he's been teething as he was back to getting us up 2 or 3 times a night, luckily the last few nights he has slept through until at least 7am and he even goes to bed earlier now as well. Nic gets up early for work and Jack has been waking up just as she's about to leave so I get an early morning wake up call each day, its not so bad though, she only works 3 and a half days a week so I get a bit more sleep on fridays when she doesn't have to get up for work.

We've been into town today to try & get Jack some winter clothes, we have a few bits but he really needs some proper thick winter coats & jumpers before the weather turns any colder. The range of boys clothes is appalling. If you have a little girl you are spoilt for choice but if you have a little boy....tough! We have been in bhs, woolworths, adams, primark & boots. They all have only a small selection of baby clothes for boys, tomorrow we are going to go to matalan to see if we can do better there, asda is nearby so we will no doubt try there as well. Okay I know that people say you can dress girls up more than boys but honestly, do they really think we will buy only a couple of items of clothing to last the whole winter? Or maybe they think what few items they have are so good that we will want to buy loads of the same thing so he can wear them each day, if so they are dead wrong, who the hell designs these clothes. I think some ceo with no morals has found that he can get clothes designed for next to nothing if he sponsors the local mental institutes.

Anyway enough of my incessant babbling. I hope you are all well, I will have to catch up with all your journals over the next week or two. Enjoy the rest of your weekend & I hope you like the new pics...VampJack x

 

PEPSI TATE 1965-2007

My broadband is still not connected at my new house & my works computer resource policy forbids me from using my pc to update any blogs...but today I really need to express my grief over the loss of my friend. I wrote this entry last night at home & today I really don't know why I came to work.

 

Today is a bad day, I found out a friend of mine died yesterday morning. Pepsi Tate was the bass player in the rock band Tigertailz. I met Pepsi years ago when I was just another fan & we became friends. He would always put my name on the guest list for Tigertailz’ shows all over the country, one time when I went along to the soundcheck during the day he asked if I was coming to the show that night, when I told him I couldn’t afford it he told me not to be stupid because I’m always on the guest list, I explained it was the taxi fare home that was the problem. I did go to the show that night, Pepsi had insisted on it, he gave me the taxi fare home himself. 

 

Each time they toured I would go to as many shows as I possibly could, and I was always on the guest list & each night I would get to go backstage after the show. Pepsi always recognised me every time I turned up to the first night of the tour, sometimes he’d write letting me know about the tours in advance so I could let him know which shows I would be at.

 

I have not spoken to Pepsi for a while as we lost touch but he still remembered me when I got in touch a couple of years ago. We’d talk on the phone sometimes & we’d write occasionally (this was at a time before email made keeping in touch easier) but I would not consider it a close friendship. This made it all the more surprising today when I heard the news, I was stunned & had to take some time out from my desk to gather my thoughts. I feel so empty, I have lost some very close friends in the past so I am no stranger to grief but today I feel a great sadness. Pepsi was larger than life on stage & that is how I will always remember him, but I will also remember him as a Pepsi Tate the man. Pepsi died yesterday morning after losing his fight against pancreatic cancer.

 

It is difficult for me to share my feelings sometimes but I feel so emotional at the loss of my friend that if I don’t open up to someone I think I will start to slip back into depression. I suffered with depression for years but have been okay for some time now & do not want to go back to the fragile person I was when my depression was really taking over my life.

 

Pepsi you will be missed by a great many people. Goodbye my friend. 

 

19th September 2007

 

Tigertailz

 

Pepsi & Jay

My journal entries will resume once my broadband is up & running, today I don't care what my bosses may say about me updating the journal. Some things are just too important

 

Pepsi live 2007

We're moving soon

So here we are, our last weekend in this house. On tuesday we collect the keys for our new house just a few minutes down the road. The new house has a small front room & kitchen, we would have preferred a bigger place but it has 3 bedrooms which we wanted & it also has a bath!! There is gonna be a fight for that bath on our first night there as we have spent the last 18 months in this house with only a shower. The road we will be living on is a dead end so it will be quieter with not having to put up with cars racing past at all hours. We also have a small conservatory which will be nice in the summer, unless of course next summer is like this..a complete washout. We have 2 cats which is always a problem when it comes to finding a house to rent but getting rid of them was never an option, we will just have to make the best of what we have. And at least we have not had the terrible floods that a lot of people have had to endure this summer, sometimes we moan about not being able to afford to buy our own house or not being able to rent places we like because they won't accept pets but we have been very fortunate this year. I would be absolutely devastated if I had lost what so many others have, my heart goes out to everyone effected by the floods. I was never the sort of person who attached themselves to any place, to me if anything had happened to my house or flat I would have just moved on without a moments hesitation but having Jack has changed my outlook on life completely.

Talking of my little Jack I hope you like the new piccies, as you can see he really is a little devil now! He is an absolute nightmare, we can't take our eyes off him for a second as he is always crawling everywhere, chewing everything. Ever since he could crawl properly he has been trying to stand up on his own ( and consequently fallen over so much ) & he tries walk which ends up with him doing a strange hybrid mix of walking & crawling on his hands & feet. He can pull himself up on his own now (as you can see in the piccies) & he manages to stand for several minutes, all he needs to do now is develop his balance & he will be walking (and then the fun starts). Jack can also sit up properly on his own now, he just gets very frustrated that he can't stand unaided. Today we were in the post office & there was a little girl in a pushchair next to us, Jack & this little girl were staring at each other (Jack is definitely a ladies man already) & we got talking to the girls parents, she is 10 months old (the girl, not her mum) & she is so much smaller than Jack. When he was born he was tiny but he seems to be growing at a rather accelerated rate. He was 6 months old on thursday this week, I can't believe it has been so long, it seems like only a few weeks ago since I brought him home from hospital. My little boy no longer seems like a baby, we have so many photo's & video's of him but I wish I could have captured every minute of him growing on film. it seems like such an old cliche that everyone says how fast kids grow up but it is so true.

Nic has worked full time over the last 3 weeks but we now have 2 weeks off so we can move & have time to sort the new place out before having to go back to work. When she goes back she will be working 3 & a half days a week, she has not been as grumpy as I thought she would be with going back to work. It has tired her out having to get up early every day but its been the same for me as I have been taking her to work nearly every day. I feel so drained that if we hadn't got the time off work for moving house I think I would have had tp book some time off. I have been getting up at 6:30am every day, taking Nic to work, dropping Jack off at her parents & going to work myself, I really don't like getting up so early every day.

I will be sticking with aol when we move (stop laughing at me, sometimes its better the devil you know), hopefully they will get the line active quickly, I really don't want to be spending too long on dial up waiting for my broadband connection. Dial up is such a pain in the ass, its too slow & you have to be so much more cautious with regards to surfing the net. I used to work for ntl (please do not send me hate mail, I hated them as much as any customer ever could) & used to regularly have people ringing up complaining about premium rate phone charges because they used a dial up connection for the internet & didn't take care what sites they went on. I will let you know how the move went once my broadband connection is back up & running.

I have just finished reading Robert Rankin's The Toyminator which is a great read, very funny & it raises some serious questions (where do all the chickens come from?), he has a new book out called The Da Da De Da Da Code which I intend getting very soon. I have just got Born To Be Mild by Dave Armitage & The Gospel According to Chris Moyles, will let you know if they are any good. Also not sure if I have already shared this with you, but if you like a good thriller then you might want to check out Alex Barclay's Darkhouse, it is a great book & I will be checking out her follow up novel The Caller soon.

Well it's time to say goodbye for now, I hope you are all enjoying the sunshine which has made a rare appearance this weekend....VampJack x

The calm before the storm

Today is the last day before Nic goes back to work, temporarily she is having to go back to her old hours starting at 7am. I'm on lates this week so I can look after Jack until I go to work when one of our friends is going to be looking after him, when Nic's parents are back from holiday later this week they will be doing the babysitting job. I'm glad for Nic that she's going back, she's been getting fed up with staying at home but she will be more tired than normal so she'll be short tempered this week, joy of joys. Having said that, as I will be getting up early to look after Jack & then working late I will also be a grumpy ba$**rd this week. So the message here is ..... don't come visiting this week!

Last night Jack was crying in his sleep, all I wanted to do was pick him up & cuddle him but he was fast asleep so I didn't want to wake him. It broke my heart listening to him crying, what was he dreaming about, the farley's rusk factory burning down, prohibition on milk, ferrari not winning....it was so sad.

Nanny came to visit yesterday, I wish she could come over more often to visit but as we don't have room for her to stay its a little difficult. We have seen 2 houses in the last couple of days that would be suitable for us, we have another couple in the pipeline for this week so hopefully by next week will know where we are going.

 

Right i'm off cos Nic wants a paper today, she wants the Bananarama cd in the Mail & i desperately need a coffee.

 

Take care...VampJack x

 

Well hello again.

 

So much has happened since I last updated my journal so i'd better get on with it.

 

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Honda F1 charity open day at Brackley which was fantastic. We met Jenson Button & a couple of drivers that Honda are bringing up through the ranks. The whole day was great, there was so much to do. Unfortunately due to them running overtime I missed out on my chance to take part in a real pit stop, I should have been doing the rear jack but hey, I'm sure after the success of this event they will have another & I will make sure I get to have a go next time. Just think, if they hadn't been running over the times set I could now sit watching the races & going "i've done that" whenever I watch the pit stops. maybe I will get my chance at the Renault World series event at Donington in September. Nic went with me to the Honda day & she really enjoyed herself as well even though she's not really a racing fan ( oh yes she is now, she thinks Jenson's cute!!!!, still didn't stop her from telling him to shave his beard off though ).

 

Last weekend saw a fantastic race in Germany, Lewis had a big accident on saturday but thankfully he was okay. The race itself was frantic, there was a huge downpour shortly after the start and cars were flying off the track. For a while it looked like we were going to get another Ferrari victory but Kimi's car let him down & so it was down to Massa to bring it on home. Unfortunately near the end of the race the heavens opened again & Massa's wet tyres had rotated on the wheel rim which cause lots of vibration making the car a complete bitch to drive & Alonso got by & took the win. Ferrari may not have won but we had the pace to do so & at the end of the day it was a great race so no complaints.

 

During this last week Nic & I have both had our birthdays so it was a good week. There was an announcement at work that I think is a good change to how we operate, the potential is always there to screw up when you make changes but I think this is a good start to improving things for us & our customers. Our centre was named the Customer Contact Centre of the year ( throughout Europe, Middle East & Africa ) & on friday we had a bit of a party at a local pub with free food & drink, normally you wouldn't catch me attending a works party but the small group of people I would choose to socialise with all decided we'd go. It was a good night out & a chance to share a drink & a laugh with friends outside of the office.

 

**** BIG NEWS ********

The big news since I last updatd is that although Jack has been able to pull himself around using his hands or pushing himself with his feet he was not co-ordinated enough to crawl properly - well not any more. Yesterday we got back from town & he just got up on his hands & knees then crawled over to me. He never ceases to amaze me with his achievements. Last night we went to a friends party & there was a girl with her baby daughter there, the baby is 7 months & 3 weeks old but she doesn't crawl yet, I was so proud that Jack was crawling. 

 

Why  do all houses in Coventry seem to have kitchens smaller than a shoe box? We're still trying to find somewhere suitable to move to at the end of this month, we have officially given notice on this house today so we either find somewhere pdq or we stay at Nic's parents for a little while. Would be nice to save some money but we'd have to put our furniture in storage & I really don't want to have the 3 of us living in 1 room, plus the fact that her folks have got Virgin & not Sky so I would miss Prison Break season 3 when it comes on soon.

 

Right, off to catch up with some reading....c ya later...VampJack x 

Half day off work

Today when I got to work I thought it was going to be a very bad day....the coffee machines weren't working.

Turns out this was something to do with the fact that we had no running water. We had an engineer out who blamed it on the water company who then snet someone out who blamed it on our building owners. We were advised by our fearless leaders that it would get resolved....then a little later we were told that if we needed to go to the toilet we could go home & wouldn't have to come back!! Why they didn't just tell us to all go home I don't know because obviously we all did.  So today I had half a day off work & it was great.

I got to spend more time with Jack which is always a bonus (honest, it is....even when he is screaming). A friend from work has seen pictures of Jack but hasn't seen him since I took him into work when he was less than 2 weeks old so we went round to see her today so she could have a 'squidge' as she puts it. I think she's getting broody now!

Little Jack is so fast now, he still can't quite coordinate himself enough to crawl on his hands & knees but he manages just fine pulling himself along. Once he does get the hang of crawling properly its gonna be a nightmare, nothing will be safe, least of all Angel. Jack adores Angel, he will watch our other cat Bailey but not the same way as he does with Angel.

I hope you like the new pics.....until next time take care..VampJack x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The passion

Today is a good day. Kimi Raikkonen has just won the british grand prix with Alonso 2nd so more points cut from Hamilton's lead.

I am really bored of listening to itv drone on & on & on & on & on about Lewis Hamilton. Today Kimi drove a great race to bring another win home for Ferrari. Ferrari seem to have well & truly bounced back from their recent slump which is great for the championship. This year looks to be a close fight between 4 drivers, usually by the halfway point in the season it is clearly between 2 drivers but this year we have Kimi, Fernando, Massa & Lewis all capable of winning this years championship.

I am looking forward to next weekend, Honda are having a charity open day at their Formula 1 factory in Brackley which I have tockets to. Nic is coming with me as she wants the chance to have a go in the F1 simulator. Jenson Button will be there as well as Anthony Davidson, Murray Walker, & loads more..including Jody Scheckter, Ferrari's last world champion before Schumacher. It should be a fantastic day.

I haven't had much time to update my journal recently so I apologise to those of you who have told me you need more entries. I just never seem to have enough time for everything these days, between looking after Jack, work, housework, & my limited social life I think I need about 36 hours in each day.

Jack is now sort of crawling, he either pushes himself along with his feet or pulls himself along with his hands but hasn't quite got the hang of using both together, although I think it is only a matter of weeks before he is crawling properly. He has progressed from milk to having 'mush' as well now. We have a freezer full of pureed veg & fruit for him, he doesn't like baby rice at all but give him apple puree or sweet potato puree & he will eat it all. Nic moans becasue when I feed him he doesn't make much mess but if she feeds him he gets covered in food, I've tried telling her Jack knows daddy is the boss but she doesn't believe me.

He has started waking more during the nights now, either 2 or 3 times between midnight & 8am he wakes up for a feed. I would love for him to go back to sleeping through the night completely but who knows when that will happen again. My friend at work brought her baby in to see us last week, she is gorgeous & I am so jealous because her daughter has slept through the night ever since she was born.

We are looking at moving house at the end of august when our tenancy ends as we only have a shower here & it is not big enough to be able to take Jack in the shower with us & he is very nearly too big for his baby bath already so we want a house with a bath. It would also be nice to have 3 bedrooms so we can have family come to visit & have somewhere for them to sleep instead of just having a few hours visit before they have to go home again. Moving is horrible so we will let my mum or Nic's parents look after Jack for a couple of days while we move. Nic will be going back to work next month as well so its all happening here.

Right better go before I get told off for not doing my jobs around the house!! Hope you are all well..take care & I will be back again (hopefully) soon...VampJack x