Woke up early which was odd as I’d gone to bed quite late. Working on artist problems for the beginning of this week, so a whole new world of pain. At least I was left mostly uninterrupted. Nice weather again today, but bloody freezing, so Sasha got a nice long walk. Walked to gym, did Combat, came back and did another two and a half hours, need to make up some time as I’m out for a while tomorrow afternoon. Now time for some salad and then probably bed.

So started the day with coffee and another paper. Walked Sasha, picked up the poo and then drove up to Satverton. Weather wasn’t bad, a bit chilly, but a northerly wind and good visibility. I did almost an hour of general handling, a couple of auto’s, a confined area and some truly bad quick stops, that got better as we went on. Ben said I looked tense when setting down, I said I was somewhat wary of the ground, he said that it is usually the first thing you hit. I got the hang of it again after a couple and was setting down like a feather. Drove back and took Sasha out ageing until it was dark. Did the accounts, had a bath, phoned mother, she’s still alive.

So next week I have my medical, I then need a vict…volunteer to take a short flight out to the north over the Malvern Hills, so I can do the safety briefing etc. Will be very pleasant.

This morning was the standard saturday affair, breakfast, coffee, reading the papers. We eventually got up and walked the dogs. We then walked into town via ‘Forbidden Planet’ where much tat was bought. When walking back through the city centre I could hear a voice, ‘Tim, tim’. This is normally something I seriously try and ignore and it’s normally some poedo who banged me when I was thirteen. But when we eventually went into the Hipprodrome booking office he caught up with me, there in front of me was a friend who I had on Facebook, but who I actually hadn’t seen for the best part of 25 years. It was Adam Lukas, or ‘Spex’ as he was known. We had a chat, it was nice, but he was with someone even more special, ‘Jane Gilcrest’, Del’s mum, who I hadn’t seen in the same amount of time. She was looking well, which was nice to see, as she cared about me more in that time of life than my own mother. It was fun to talk about old times for a few minutes. We’d all moved on, but for five minutes we were sixteen again, we had some good times, never to be repeated, but they were good times.

Tonight we ate at the Swan, not the best menu they have ever done, but nice food none the less.

Had just about enough this week. Spent most of the day with people moaning at me that I wasn’t replying to them, they don’t seem to appreciate that there are only two of us supporting around a hundred people, and everyone is a priority and every problem is ours. They can all generally fuck off. I was pretty much stuck working on something I know nothing about and at the end of the day what I’ve done on it has made no difference at all so was a complete waste of time anyway. Conferences are fun, but they take it out of you mentally, today was very hard physically, I’ve walked lots and been to the gym etc. So this weekend its time for some ‘me’ time, everyone else can bugger off.

So just back from a two day conference. All I can say was that it was in London, with work colleagues. We ate lots and got very pissed. Most of it was quite dull and it was difficult to stay awake, some bits were indeed useful though. Managed to get some nice walking in though, walked to the station and then from Paddington to venue which covered a fair bit of London, then walked back tonight, in the rain. Had a nice bath. Tomorrow will no doubt be very frustrating as I’ve had two days away from work, so there will be some mass panic about something.

So got going this morning without any problems, which was odd as it was a Monday. Ended up spending all morning fixing some animation tool. Took Sasha out on yet another nice but cold day. Did lots of other bits in the afternoon. Walked to Combat. Came back and transferred the new white, that’ll have to sit for about ten days now. Talking of alcohol that’s it, challenge finished, one month of complete sobriety complete. Quite pleased with that. Time to put the wind fridge back on.

Oh, I phoned mother yesterday and said I’d booked the helicopter for the day before her birthday, depending on the weather of course. I explained the route, the response I got was typical, “Oh I can’t fly over my house then?”. There are rules and regulations and one of them is a ‘land clear’ rule, so hanging around over a built-up area in a single engine aircraft is not allowed. Obviously crossing the Severn and flying past the suspension bridge and Concorde is a bit of a let down if you can’t view your shitty bungalow with a knackered fence from 1200 feet. I can’t wait to give her the list of CAA rules, which include absolutely no loose items in the cockpit and that includes handbags.

This morning actually started quite early which was surprising after the length of last nights film. ‘Interstellar’ was good, if somewhat very long and did descend into a bit of an ‘Abyss’ moment for the last forty-five minutes. Walked Sasha early for a couple of hours, had a quick lunch and then drove up to Staverton. Ben and I were flying down to Weston to the helicopter museum. Hotel-tango was still damaged so we had an old crate with lots of bits failing on it, but it did fly fine. Flew down the Wales side of the channel and then across the old Severn Bridge, which was a hell of a way to avoid a bridge toll. Then followed the M5 down to the museum. Easy place to land. We had a good look around for an hour and then headed back via the suspension bridge and Cribbs Causeway, also took in the old Filton airfield. A good 1.9 hours, so makes me much more current again. Got some really good video footage, so will edit that together over the coming week or so.

Annoyingly I had no paper to read this morning, so had to settle with watching the ‘Song for Europe’ thing for the Eurovision Song Contest. At least the winners were quite cute. Walked Sasha and then went out for an hour in the freezing cold and picked up a couple of Geocaches. Came back and then drove into town. Popped into Bristol museum and looked at the ‘Death’ exhibition, fairly interesting, but no real dead stiffs to look at. Got a few ideas, just a shame that pentobarbital isn’t available on Amazon Prime. Talking of Amazon I sent them a stinking email about Lovefilm by Post overcharging me. It said this billing cycle was four quid, but they ended up charging me £9.99, so said I’d like the £5.99 refunded, they refunded the whole £9.99 three hours later. Can’t fault them for their customer service, even if they are a bit dense at times. Going to watch ‘Interstellar’ now, it’s about three hours long so may not make it.

Work was rather dull, debugging some debug primitives. Then I tried to do a manual resolve for another project and that failed miserably. Another fairly nice but cold day, took Sasha for a long walk. In the post today came another two PAYE coding notices, so that’s ten now. Walked to the gym, did Pump. Laverne’s stalker was there, apparently she was talking to my sister at Zumba yesterday, she’s bloody weird, I think she has the hot’s for Laverne. Did a long session with her anyway. So now my final weekend on alcohol free lager, I may even miss it.

Managed to get a few bits done before disappearing down the road for a meeting with a financial advisor. I was covered in dog hair and looked like I’d just arrived from the skate park. He went through all his stuff and had a brief look at my pensions. He kept on talking about ‘if you ever have to pay higher rate tax’. Eventually he asked the question, I replied that I pay 45% tax, he didn’t dig any further. I think he’ll do a reasonable job for his £250. He’s got a couple of weeks anyway. Another nice day but very cold, walked Sasha. Went out for a run this evening. About to watch a film now I think.