Walking Amongst Dark Shadows

<Insert something cool here>

It is 02:13 on a Friday morning and I have spent the past hour reflecting on the last month as I walked home.

I’m doing this because in about 8 hours from now, Friday evening to be precise an important project that I’ve been working on at work will finally end. I feel a huge weight has been removed from my shoulders and I feel looser now. See, back in July 2007 I made possibly the worst mistake ever. I agreed to assist on a project at work, a product of ‘Innovation’. Well that had to be completed by August 24th and our team of 13 strong engineers/testers/electrical experts (the best of the best as I call them) ended up working through the whole night getting it ready for that Friday. I came in on Thursday morning at 07:00, and left at 01:45, completely shattered. I was even more annoyed that I’d have to return to work at 05:00, in just 3hrs. I had contemplated sleeping at my desk in the office, but the security guard said "No! Can’t have that cos I’d have to make 30min checks on you to see if you were dead…"

I walked to the bus stop at 01:50. The roads were dead and there was silence in the air, and then came my bus. Figuring that no idiot would be on the bus at this time I quickly ran to the top floor and sat down, I then hesitated and turned to look at the back seat…at three Irish half drunk chaps singing away! After eventually realising that I had no chance in hell of listening to my mp3 player whilst they sang away, I got up and wandered over to sit nearby, normally I wouldn’t but I was so tired that I just couldn’t give a damn. "So what ya all celebrating" I asked, "Ah ere! Brendaaaan here is getting hitched up e pole next week!" he stammered back, "ah married ya mean? Congrats man" I replied back.

They continued singing, and I just had to inquire further "So how’d the stag night go lads?", "ah ere, Eamonn shacked one of the strippers eh? He gat lucky!" I think I got a rough idea of what that meant but needless to say I didn’t want to know any more as they sang all the way home. I jumped off at my town, now devoid of life which felt strange and said goodbye. I was known as "Derren" to these chaps.

I faced a 15 minute walk home from here. Bugger me it felt like an hour. An hour to spend reflecting on various things revolving around me. I’ve hardly got anything done since I moved onto this project. I have about 8 HD-DVD’s sitting at home to watch, 3 PC’s to build for friends, 2 to fix. I have an angry girlfriend who has the impression that I am ignoring her, hopefully the breadmaker I will soon buy her will keep her quiet and off my back for a bit… and my health has suffered horribly. The latter irritates me hugely.

Working late hours equates to us engineers  feeding off the contents of our company vending machines, which consist of chocolate, crisps and bloody flapjacks. All of us as a result have become noticeably tubbier too. I know I have, I can feel it and I hate the sensation. At this stage in my life I just can’t find the time anymore for visiting the gym, so what can I do? I’ll be buggered if I am to end up like your typical fat old goit. I need to fight back somehow.

I have never been so drained in my life, mentally and physically. The team would eat, drink and sleep around this project and because of that we had no time for anything, and just think - they’ve been working on it for four years! Though it has all come a full 360 three months ago. On Friday evening at 4pm, after the project had ended and it had been shipped on a lorry, we just sat around our round meeting table just looking at the empty desk and each other. Three of us are meant to fly to Toronto in a few days time, the 28th of August to be precise to the visit the owner of the company who is financing this project. I was meant to go representing my portion of the Engineers but I turned that down earlier tonight. I’d love to visit the place but cannot fathom another week discussing the very thing that has occupied so much time in my life. Now its time to put things right

/unignore life*.*

Keep em in business!

Amongst all the chaos over the past week with the two attempted terrorist attacks on a London nightclub, as well as Glasgow Airport, and the mass floods around various parts of the UK, something did manage to make me smile over the weekend. I was already in a mood as my planned Paintballing session had to be cancelled due to my assumptions that it would pee down with rain, and it did on Saturday morning. I love getting predictions right!

I had a relaxing weekend on the whole, beginning with me clearing out my room filled with ever increasing amounts of cardboard packaging from all the junk that I tend to purchase. Cardboard packaging annoys the hell out of me too. I order a tiny weeny minute 40mm fan, and it comes in a box that resembles your average shoe box! By the end of the week I get so much packaging material accumulating in my room that it takes an entire day just to sort through it all and bin it.

So on Sunday evening I’m chatting to some of the kids who are playing football on the road…being the UK, every single last remaining park has vanished and is now filled with sodding houses, so kiddies have no-where to play in but on the roads. I’m outside emptying the rubbish, whilst trying to understand these nosy little brats who are chatting away (in a language that only Cypher from the Matrix could understand), whilst kicking a ball, listening to their mp3 players and sucking on some sweets. Multitasking little twerps.

Suddenly in the distance I hear a familiar little musical jingle I haven’t heard in ages. "It’s the Ice Cream Van Man!" I cried out. The kids looked at me startled as the van pulls up nearby. Three of the girls ran inside screaming while the young boys grabbed sticks and rocks to defend themselves. Apparently this lot haven’t even seen an ice cream van man before! It’s shocking when you think about it. These guys were so common back in the 70’s and 80’s and loved by children. Sadly they began going out of business towards the 90’s, and are a rarity around my area of Harrow. Indeed I haven’t seen one around for ages anyway. So after persuading the children that he wasn’t a kidnapper, I bought them all ice cream cones. Awwww!

Now I’m a fiver less then I started with, and I’ll never see that it again.