Those were the days!!

Fun Monday is here!!!
Before we go to all the participating blogsite and have a good laugh or go all soft about the cute pictures, let me just say this:

I am tagging Swampy to suggest the next Fun Monday post on the 5th February!
So, go girl, GO!!

So here then without further delay are my pictures:


Me being 3 years old (above)
and 13 years old (below)


Now go and have a look at the other participating blog friends:

Vicki at Living Life & Catching Light
Swampwitch at Anecdotes, Antidotes & Anodes
Beccy at Peppermint Tea
Kila at Momto3cubs
A Novelist at All you can't leave behind
Peggy at Peggy, as she is
Robin at Pensieve
Songbird at My Way
Karmyn at Dreaming of What If's
Tiggerlane at Tiggerlane, the Neophyte Blogger
Willowtree at A Dingo's got my Barbie
Marnie at I didn't say it was your fault . .
Leann at View from the Eagles Nest
Heather at Fumbling for Words
Desert Songbird at The Ice Box
Chrisb at Ms Cellania
Amy W at A Family Story
Anvilcloud at Raindrops
Yara at Hovering over Mediocrity
Jenny at Mama Drama
Cuppa at Brown Betty Brew
Enid at Third-Person Singular
Sharon at From Fattie to Hottie
Mert at Almost somewhat positive

Thank you to all of you who have taken part!
Erik

Remember, remember!!

Fun Monday

Just a quick note to all you blog friends out there to dig out and scan in your childhood photographs and to post them this Monday!

The Artist formally known as "My Daughter"!

Some of you might remember this post about my daughter's drawings versus my own!
Well, in a further attempt to discredit my work she has created this masterpiece, thus putting me firmly in my place - Last place!!

I came home one evening still feeling confident in my artistic naivety to be greeted with the words:
"Hi, Dad, have you seen Angus?"
After searching my brain for friends and associates called "Angus" and coming up blank she produced this!



She has now enrolled into a local "Watercolouring Art Class" and only had one lesson.
The mind boggles!!
Even though it pains me to admit, I think the score is:
Erik 0 - Victoria 1

Addendum:
Debs pointed out that the above score is incorrect as Victoria won the last time as well!
Under protest and with much squirming I hereby declare the score to be:
Erik 0 - Victoria 2
(I hate you, Debs!!)

IKEA strikes again

Since my DVD, Video and CD collection is constantly expanding I felt the need to visit IKEA to buy some shelves and attempt to put them up!
I think I did quite a good job! What do you think?



Now that I have more space I also have a good excuse to buy some more DVDs.
Any suggestion of good films I should get??

Fun Monday:
The following people have so far indicated that they wish to participate in posting a picture (or pictures) of themselves when they were a child on Monday, 29th January:

Vicki at Living Life & Catching Light
Swampwitch at Anecdotes, Antidotes & Anodes
Beccy at Peppermint Tea
Kila at Momto3cubs
A Novelist at All you can't leave behind
Peggy at Peggy, as she is
Robin at Pensieve
Songbird at My Way
Karmyn at Dreaming of What If's
Tiggerlane at Tiggerlane, the Neophyte Blogger
Willowtree at A Dingo's got my Barbie
Marnie at I didn't say it was your fault . .
Leann at View from the Eagles Nest
Heather at Fumbling for Words
Desert Songbird at The Ice Box
Chrisb at Ms Cellania
Amy W at A Family Story

To partake, just indicate this by leaving a comment or send an email to me!
Thanks

Please scoot over to Swampy who has put up a tremendous post regarding Breast Cancer with several useful links!
We all need to support the fight against this affliction!

Now that's more like it!!!

Having bitched on about not having any snow here to all of my American blog friends, I woke up to this:







So thanks to all of you who have sent some of the white stuff over for me!


Fun Monday:
The following people have so far indicated that they wish to participate in posting a picture (or pictures) of themselves when they were a child on Monday, 29th January:


Vicki at Living Life & Catching Light
Swampwitch at Anecdotes, Antidotes & Anodes
Beccy at Peppermint Tea
Kila at Momto3cubs
A Novelist at All you can't leave behind
Peggy at Peggy, as she is
Robin at Pensieve
Songbird at My Way
Karmyn at Dreaming of What If's
Tiggerlane at Tiggerlane, the Neophyte Blogger

To partake, just send an email to me!
Thanks

My suggestion for next Monday

Hi, Blog friends!
After Vicki's successful suggestion to post a view from our front door I thought it might be fun to carry on doing something similar every Monday.
So my suggestion for the next Monday would be this:

On Monday 29th January we should each post a picture (or several pictures if you like) of ourselves as kids, stating the age we were when the picture(s) was taken!

If you are up for it, then please email your blog address (http://.......) and your Blogsite Name to
talktothefly@yahoo.co.uk
and I will add you as a link on my posts.

Here's hoping for a good turnout of participation and for many more ideas for future Monday postings!

Vicki's International Front Door View Day

Vicki wrote:
Using my very best British accent when I say, "What a grand idea!"
I had an idea yesterday that perhaps we could post a picture on our blogs of the view from our front door. Willowtree had the idea we post them all on the same day. I thought that was just a fabulous addition.
So here's the plan Stan.
So that all people who are participating can have one central place to see all the front door views, if you want to participate (and I hope you do) email me your blog link and the name of your blog by January 19th and on Monday January 22nd I will post a list of blogs that are participating. We can all post our view from our Front door on the same day, Monday January 22nd.

So, folks! Here is mine!!
Happy Front Door View Day!!!

The End is in Sight

Dear friends,

I thought it is about high time to update you on my situation at work.
As you may or may not know, my company has decided to once again reorganise and in the process lose a lot of people via redundancy.

When I joined the company in 1986, there was a truly international feel to things, people were seen as the most important asset of the company, training and development opportunities were good and there was a buzz of work and excitement in every department.
This is in stark contrast to the company that exists now and I have returned home from work nearly every day in the past 3 years without ever feeling that we actually achieved anything, made any difference leave alone being appreciated.

It is therefore time to end my employ with this company, thus avoiding yet another two years of utter frustration in the hope that “things are going to be different” only to find myself back in exactly the same position we are in now.
My exit will happen anytime in February or March.

Am I bitter?
I am disappointed, since most of this could have been avoided had someone listened to the people in the first place.
I am also relieved to have finally made this decision and a burden has been lifted from my heart.
After 20 years, it is an end of an era but for me it is always better to have ‘an end with horror’ rather than ‘horror without end’. At least I have preserved my dignity and most of my sanity and health.

Well, that’s about it for now and if you need someone to do a job or know someone who does . . I might well be your (very nice) man!

Tagged again!

I have been tagged by A Novelist (thanks Desert Songbird for pointing it out!)

Here then are five useless facts about Me:
1) I have never taken any drugs (not even smoked a joint)
2) From the age of 16 to the age of 23 I had over 30 girl-friends
3) I am one of those men who will cry with others without feeling embarrassed
4) When I was a boy, I used to listen to music with my headphones on in a dark room and dream of being the lead singer of a band (me . . singing??? Mohaa!)
5) One of my dreams is to win a few Million Pounds on the lottery so I can help a lot of people

Right . .
I am tagging Tonya, Heather, Kila, Leann and Aisby

The Master at Work

This picture greeted me on my way to work this morning!
God's recreation of a new day!
The master painter at work!

Getting p*ssed off

OK, I have resisted this for a long time now, but with pressures mounting I think now is a good time to release some steam!
Every day at work we gents are facing this sign at the urinals:

This is now beginning to p*ss me off, if you excuse the pun!

So this little session is for all of you women out there who seemingly have no clue as to how things work in this department:

1. When we men go to the toilet we do not use our private parts as a garden hose waiving it about and making water loops for several reasons:
   a.) It's not long enough (well . . . )
   b.) This will not impress the guys standing at the adjacent cubicles
   c.) You would make an almighty mess including p*ssing your shoes and trousers
   d.) We do actually have better things to do!
   
2. It is actually not as easy as just "point & shoot" in the right direction.
   Now I really do not want to get too graphical here but anyone who has ever had closer contact with a male member will know that there is very little similarity between a penis and a garden hose. Let's just say (and leave it at that) that asking us "to aim too" is almost as ridiculous as us asking you girls to pee into a bucket standing up without spilling a drop!
   
3. Since the cleaners clearly think that we p*ss on the floor on purpose and cannot imagine that there is maybe a design reason why we can't aim perfectly all the time it leads me to conclude that they are probably
   a.) uneducated (you'd learn stuff like this in basic human biology)
   b.) Never got laid
   c.) Do not understand men, since they seem to think that just because they put a sign up we would actually give a rat's arse!
   

Don't make me come to your toilets and put up signs!
I have a stack of ideas for some fitting slogans, collected by some of my fellow loo visitors!

Let's just start as we mean to carry on!

Unperturbed by threats of redundancy and scaremongering everywhere we have decided to remain positive and trust as always in the one constant and utterly reliable force in the (uni)verse, the good Lord Himself!

We have therefore already booked the following little holiday for June:

Rome and the Amalfi Coast
The Eternal City of Rome is one of the world’s truly great cities, a destination where history and culture abound. The picturesque Sorrento Coast meanwhile is the perfect base to either relax or discover the treasures of the Amalfi region and the extensive ruins of Pompeii. Experience both on this exciting new two-centre holiday.

Day 1. UK to Rome

Day 2. Rome: included walking tour
Day 3. Rome: Open-top bus tour
Day 4. Excursion to the Vatican City and Sistine Chapel
Day 5. Rome to Castellammare di Stabia
Day 6. Full day tour of the Amalfi coast
Day 7. Excursion to Capri

Day 8. At leisure
Day 9. Castellammare to Rome airport

Are we crazy to book this at such a precarious time??
Do we care??
. . . . . . . .
That’ll be a NO then!

Of Guns and Squids!

Here then is the very last picture I took in 2006!
The pub was crowded to say the least but everyone seemed to have a good time waiting for the new year to arrive.
What I want to know is . . who on earth is pointing a gun at my daughter and why is she so happy about it??
Could it be that it is better to be shot at than to be attacked by a giant squid like this unfortunate creature on Marnie's blog??



My new years resolutions for 2007 are:
. . . eeehm . . ehrrr . . .

Happy New Year 2007

Dear blog friends,
We wish you a very happy, healthy, successful and peaceful 2007.
May your dreams come true, your days be filled with joy and laughter and may your troubles be few.
We pray that you and your loved ones are surrounded by Angels and that the favour of the Lord will rest on you.


New Year Fireworks in London... London Eye in the background

Here are some lyrics which summerise our hopes for you for this new year:

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder,
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger,
May you never take one single breath for granted,
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed,

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise me that youll give faith a fighting chance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.
I hope you dance.

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance,
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Livin might mean takin chances but theyre worth takin,
Lovin might be a mistake but its worth makin,

Dont let some hell bent heart leave you bitter,
When you come close to sellin out reconsider,
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.
I hope you dance.