Started at 6:20, back in bed by 7:10 and working by 8:40. I won’t discuss work, but lets just say I resigned twice, called the MD a twat and the last I heard from him was six missed calls and a text message saying ‘Answer your phone you diva’. All over grass. End of.

Walked Dillon. Picked up Sasha. First proper Pump session. New release, not sure about it yet. Came back and got the keyboard out. Now I’ve learnt all the patches I’m now trying to play against the music video, I think this is a good way of learning the rhythm. Boy is it bloody difficult. I was really drained after an hour.

Now sat down. Half pissed already. Hell of a day. Watching ‘Celeb Big Brother’. This year, so far, only three in, but looks interesting.

So this morning started at a record 8:36. I was so shocked I almost went back to bed. Worked all the way through for five hours. Then, as it was a nice day, it really was, almost eight degrees, I went for a run. Came back. Had a shower and then carried on with work. Still finished by just gone six. Then downloaded both Cubase and Ableton. The object was to assess both. Cubase didn’t get off to a good start, first the installer didn’t work with OsX, then after it did install, it seemed to take ages to start up. Still when it did it was fairly intuitive and I managed to record a midi track without too many problems. Then I installed Ableton, which I’d already played around with last night on the MacBook, installed no problem. Fun to play with, intuitive and lots of help windows, ideal for a noob like me when it comes to these things. Managed to record a track in that in sections and then piece them all together. I quite like the work flow in Ableton, I think I can have a lot of fun with it. It’s only after you record your midi playing you realise how crap your timing is, and boy is mine way out. Okay, so waying it up, Cubase has been around for four thousand years, is used by shit loads of people and is a very advanced tool. Ableton is very flexible, supports loads of shit, does everything I want and is half the price of Cubase and is also on offer at the moment. It’s about £46, which I can live with for a bit of software. I think the next step I need to do is pretend I’m part of ‘Tubeway Army’ and start playing along to the music video, that should hopefully improve my timing.

On an unrelated note, I need to file three years of notes in my old Filofax. That’s will just leave 2012, which will be filed at the end of the year. I will then bin it, in some sort of weird ceremony. I have then every single year since I was sixteen documented and stored in a drawer. Until I moved on to the online blog a couple of years ago. It would be fun to actually transfer all those notes into the blog, but twenty-three years worth would take some typing. It’s a shame actually that I don’t have entries from about the ages of twelve to sixteen, by god there would be some good shit in there. I will reveal all when I hit my fiftieth, you have eight years to wait.

So this morning I was up at half eight and started work bang on quarter to nine. Within ten minutes I was pissed off and people were generally annoying me. This is pretty much what I expected though. Spent some time fixing a memory overwrite issue, then it was on to a GUI glitching bug, which I’m still on, but found the cause of now. Will need lots of testing. Took a half hour break at lunchtime to walk the dogs, then straight back on. Was determined to finish bang on quarter past five…well managed twenty-five past, so not too bad. Then I piddled around a bit and then went to combat, which was busy, but not as busy as I was expecting. Came back and practiced Gary Numan again, pretty much got all the patterns nailed now, need to work on fluidity. Then had a pop at a couple of others, now working on ‘Imagine’ which is quite difficult as you have to jump around the keyboard a lot, getting the hang of it though, that’ll be the next one to play on the big keyboard. I need to start working normal sort of hours and ignoring everything work related outside of them, otherwise I don’t really have much of a life. So I’m determined now not to check any forums until work time tomorrow. Not my dog walking day tomorrow, so may be able to go right through. Oh, also saved two more baubles, the rest are now sadly in a land fill somewhere.

So today started a little late, but coffee was soon had an paint stripper soon applied. It was then on to the next job of the day which has been outstanding for about a year, putting the edging round the skirting board in the hall and fixing up a couple of bits that had fallen off in the kitchen. That was all done by lunchtime. Ate Bakewell tart in the aim to get rid of all the crap food in the house. Walked the dogs and picked up the poo. Then it was on to packing away the Christmas decorations. I emptied out one box to put the baubles in and there I found two boxes of Homebase baubles. Now these I one’s I bought for my first Christmas when I first moved out. There was a very bad tinsel star, a box of six hand painted blue baubles that only contained four and a box of sixteen red baubles that only contained about ten, all of which were slightly chipped and no longer had their perfect sheen. I tried to think back to when I first got them. All were perfect, all were well kept, Christmas after Christmas they came out, with the tacky star. Then one year after Nat had moved in the cat had got one, then one broke. Then a few years ago Sasha decided to attack a few more. So now I was left with a tacky star that would be never used again, and two boxes of rather sad looking baubles. Time to say goodbye. I tore up the cardboard boxes and stuck the remaining baubles into a bag and stuck them in the bin. It’s sad to let go, I have very fond memories of them and all the Christmases they represent. So much so that I may have sneaked one red bauble back out of the bin and put on my shelf, when I catch a glimpse of it, I will always remember Christmases past.

So started the day off after coffee by stripping the paint off the door frame. It will require another coat for sure. Then I went off to Tesco’s to pick up a paper. Also asked about blinds, they are coming round in a couple of weeks. Think they will be pricey. Then went and did a home check for a cat in Almondsbury, lovely house. Came back and walked the dogs. Then set up all the lighting and stuff and made an ‘update’ video. Afterwards I tidied up and practiced on the synth for a bit. Then started editing the videos. The dog hairs on the couch our beautifully in focus, even if I’m not at times. Did the accounts. Ate shite. Lots to do tomorrow.

So started this morning with a round of paint stripper. Well actually coffee, followed by a coat on the door frame. Then it was down to filing the tax return, it’s pretty straightforward these days after calculating electricity usage and unit costs. They owe me just over three hundred quid. Then did all the end of year filing. Again, pretty straightforward. Ordered the doors for the bathroom cabinet. Walked the dogs. Synced all code and data ready for work on Monday. Went to Pump, surprisingly quiet. Didn’t do a session afterwards as need to build up to that again. Came back and practiced Gary Numan again. Getting quite good at it now, needs to flow a lot better though. Right, not sure about the weekend. Pack all the decorations away again for another year. May make a video, still have one to edit. May go shopping.

So I woke up just fine. Jamie had something resembling a hell of a hangover. Last night was quite a success. We may very well do it again next year, we shall see. We had thirteen people here at one point, which is twelve more than I’d like. Dillon was fine. Sasha had to be kept outside, she was completely uncontrollable.

Anyway, I spent two hours cleaning up, it was fairly painless really. I then had a choice, I could do my tax return and end of year accounts, or something more interesting. I went for option two and got my new years toy out. Which was Casio’s top end keyboard. I then sat there for three hours attempting to master Gary Numan, followed by a ‘learn to play’ keyboard book. I must admit, in ten minutes I was playing ‘London’s burning’ and within half an hour I’d mastered ‘ode to joy’. The problem I have currently is trying to control my left hand and the right hand at the same time. Put a collective in it and I can fly it to within a millimetre of an airfield, but by god I can’t do a G chord after a C. But give it time, I’ll master it. Still another few days off and back to work. In the meantime, I have those accounts to do…

So here we are. The end. Or I suppose you can look at it another way. The beginning. Or at the moment, the beginning of the end. Still. So started up this morning with coffee followed by a never ending spree of cleaning. No matter how much dog hair I was sweeping up, Dillon was shedding it faster. Jamie got on with the catering side. We spent ages buggering about with a sub woofer. I took Sasha out for a couple of hours and ran her round a muddy field. Came back and put the washing away. It’s now kind of the calm before the storm. The inflatable Jesus has fairly lights and is attached to the stairs. Just gone 7PM. Still only the two of us. Just imagining all the clearing up that will be required. Still tomorrow is another day, in fact tomorrow is another year. Lets have one like this one, after all, it wasn’t too bad.

Started this morning fairly early I guess. It was back on to that bloody unit again. After a couple more hours swearing it was finally done and almost level. Cleaned up the spotlights. Had lunch, walked the dogs, then finished off the lights before it got dark. Did the first coat of paint stripper. Set up all the disco lights. Then made a rather fun video, that will require a lot of editing. Then mother arrived. I made a curry, she behaved well, so did the dogs. Showed her a few youtube videos. So a long day tomorrow. Can’t remember how many people are coming now, but ‘far too many’ springs to mind.

This morning started fairly early, Jamie went to work. I removed the sink out of the bathroom and started coating the wood with paint. Sooner rather than later it was time to head of for Lunch with carl. It was the usual round of six monthly catch-up accompanied by a rather large burger. After two hours of rabbiting it was time to go. Stopped off in B&Q and picked up wood to reinforce cabinet. So got back home and got on with it. Several hours of sawing and shouting followed. It’s still not quite finished, but it’s well on it’s way now. Need to get that finished off tomorrow morning, then need to do a bit of a tidying spree. Mother coming round for tea. Need to make videos and all sorts of stuff. Practiced Mr Numan again, almost got the hang of it now. Apparently according to Carl, Ableton is the way to go, and it’s on sale at the moment, so may look into it. After it, it is tax deductible.