Steve from England

I spent a few days coming up with a new concept for Gay Dad Support Net and I think I’ve cracked it! Site Here The old site was, well, ‘OLD’ and was put together with a decade old software and it showed. There was nothing dynamic about it at all, just bland and inviting. I’d love to know what you think :-)

Thanks to the help and imagination of Chris & Sean I have my office how I like it, covered with stickers and licence plates from my trips and other things which are part of who I am.

David Mackintosh Conservative Party Julie Hawkins Green Party Kevin McKeever Labour Party Sadik Chaudhury Liberal Democrats Rose Gibbins UK I I know it is tempting to think of the May elections as a choice between David Cameron and Ed Milliband, some may feel they’d be voting for Clegg or Firage too, who know, it doesn’t much matter because, none of those will be representing Northampton or, I suppose, giving a moments thought to the place after the election. One of the people above will be our the one representing us for the next 5 years. It is tempting to vote for the ones who always get voted for, if you’re true blue then it doesn’t much matter what you know about David Mackintosh, you’ll vote for him any way, same goes for the other parties. Now, I only know of David Mackintosh and what he has done with Northampton Council and I am not happy at all. We’ve all see huge cuts in services, road lights off, fewer rubbish collections, terrible roads and all under his lead...

I know right, just rattling these things off in an evening! To be perfectly honest, I am not 100% satisfied with it yet but … not bad considering I’d never used the software until I wrote this blog! Gay Dad Support Site That’s the link should you wish to take a look. Like I said, a few rough edges and I might play with it more over the next few days Normal running back and forth today. Cough/cold feeling better today, apparently I’ve sent it to the Philippines as Randy has it now, not nice! Plenty of cold showers for him I think.

I thought I’d do some tweaking with the blog earlier, thankfully I also had an inclination to back up the entire server space. My tweaking totally screwed things up and my blog looked like it was written in notepad! The back-up file did the trick though and everything should now hopefully be restored! Meanwhile … earlier on, at a brief loose end I found myself in M&S at Sixfields. I didn’t even know they had a café but they do so, fancying a slice of bakewell and a flat white I wandered over. The general conversation was as ‘one’ might expect. The ladies before me had ordered some Earl Grey and some Green Tea and spoke like they had horses outside, the ladies behind me were similar, beige coat, fur hat sort of thing and a handbag, his wife was dressed similar  ;-) I found myself automatically dropping in to posh speak when I ordered my bakewell and coffee, quite relaxed and enjoying the moment. The lady serving, lovely woman, somewhere like Sheffield she came from if I had ...

One Direction confirm Zayn Malik has left the group | Music | The Guardian . I guess this news isn't going to impress many either. It's a brave decision though, hope he understand what a normal 22 year old is else he's going to have a lot of trouble being one.

Jeremy Clarkson dropped from Top Gear, BBC confirms - BBC News . How typically BBC and it's Old Boy network that regardless of who Clarkson has attacked over the years they've made their excuses and let him carry on yet, he attacks one of the 'Boys' at the BBC and he's sacked! It says way more about the BBC than it does JC. Even when announcing the news the man from the Beeb was practically apologetic as though, if he could find some way of letting it go he would. I'd not be at all shocked were JC not back on Top Gear in 2016 Now, sadly, this does leave rather a lot of confusion for those booked for a 'Top Gear Live' event. I am not entirely sure what is going to happen there but, surely all must be cancelled now? As of the latest I've been able to discover, the organisers and promoters are certain the shows will go ahead as planned with the Top Gear presenters, May, Hammond and Clarkson. Whether they can legally use a man sacked from the show to rep...

I cancelled them nearly 2 months back because they were costing too much … I look at my account with them and it seems they overcharged me, on average, £20 a month based on actual usage. When I left I got charged a £60 fee for leaving and that still left me in credit by nearly £40! I’ve been trying to get the money back for a while but they say they won’t pay until a 3rd party organisation verifies that the switch was all above board and my meter readings are likely to be accurate! They already done this for gas and I was ‘honest’ there, my last meter readings for electricity were slightly higher than the estimate OVO made so, you’d think they’d take it as a given I am not trying to commit fraud but, anyway … Stupid me didn’t cancel the direct debit with them, today they took another £163 from my account! Spoke to OVO, they said they’re entitled to keep taking payments until they finalise everything and they’ll refund me with my last bill which can take up to another 3 weeks! I men...

Spending too long trying to work out how to do what isn’t really that important, how to change a crew logo to get a transparent background … I know, it’s the riddle of the century! Well, I worked out and the finished bit says that the background is transparent, just need to wait see if it ever actually uploads to the game now! The white should be invisible when used in the game so, we shall see. On another note … My mystery bug seems to be getting better, yay! I also really do feel Vision Express cannot make glasses! I am sure the lenses are not thinned at all, they are way thicker than my old pair which were no more thinned than the new. With the new pair giving me headaches because of the pressure, I am not a haply bunny!

When I go to edit the pictures on the memory card of my camera …  

Pork Adobo this evening all gently simmering, the rice will go on in about 30 minutes Tonight is also time to watch ‘Arrow’ & ‘The Flash’, can’t go wrong with those two. Did some cleaning earlier, heavy attack on cobwebs, floors sucked, bathroom & downstairs cloakroom given a once over. (sometimes several times) I feel no better yet but, sitting on my arse isn’t going to improve matters. Tidied the garden too, cleared up all the rubbish which had been blowing about for weeks, all except a cardboard box which is currently housing a family of spiders, a LOT of spiders. Thinking about it, I’m flippin’ shattered!

       Not my first solar eclipse, the best one was in 1999, I think it was that year, in the summer so it was warm. The effect that year when the heat went was very dramatic. This year it did still get very cold and quiet. Birds get confused and fly back to their nests.  

Yes, my good friend Randy is 52 years old. He’d tell you he’s ancient but, anyone who knows me and remembers that I’ll be 52 in June, will know, he’d never get away with that! I do not consider and will never consider 52 to be old! It’s the sort of age when some of us are still thinking we might be too young to commit to a whole new life direction, that’d be for after retirement and then, a great many people don’t consider gardening their only option when there is a whole world of experiences out there. I know that we can get to yet another birthday, especially when we’re alone and wonder, is this it? Is this how the rest of my life is going? Well, it could be but then, quite possibly we’ve got another 40 years or so which means we’d have been equally justified asking the same dumb question when we were 10! Life just switches and changes all over the place, not much easier to predict than the weather. Our attitude to life is what steers us, actually having some ambition will drive...

When we're feeling low, when life seems at it's worst, when we're embarrassed or our ego just took a knock, we failed an exam or our beloved pet just died, when life just feels shit, we need to remember: 1. This time in our life will be history Thinking and believing this one sure fact will stop us thinking we will always feel this way. We all remember horrible moments before and now they're history, this will be too. Life is like a beautiful flower, it will only bloom when things have got wet and dirty and it's been through some shit! But, at the end, we have that flower. We learn and flourish by accepting some shit in our lives, it's our fertilizer, we do need it. 2. You are not on your own. Sure, it feels like it, no one could possibly have ever felt this bad. But, there are billions of people alive now and there were many more before this lot were born. There would be thousands or millions of people who knew exactly how we feel now, they may live in you...

When we're feeling low, when life seems at it's worst, when we're embarrassed or our ego just took a knock, we failed an exam or our beloved pet just died, when life just feels shit, we need to remember: 1. This time in our life will be history Thinking and believing this one sure fact will stop us thinking we will always feel this way. We all remember horrible moments before and now they're history, this will be too. Life is like a beautiful flower, it will only bloom when things have got wet and dirty and it's been through some shit! But, at the end, we have that flower. We learn and flourish by accepting some shit in our lives, it's our fertilizer, we do need it. 2. You are not on your own. Sure, it feels like it, no one could possibly have ever felt this bad. But, there are billions of people alive now and there were many more before this lot were born. There would be thousands or millions of people who knew exactly how we feel now, they may live in your ...

“There are things we know we know about. There are things we know we don’t know. And there are things that are unknown unknowns. We don’t know that we don’t know” Said by ‘ Donald Rumsfeld ’ of course Many find it a mouthful and confusing but, to me, it’s important that we can clearly define the difference between those things and always seek out what we don’t yet know we don’t know. Always be on the lookout for interesting facts which help us build up a picture of reality.

I’ve been in deep for over a year and today I was able to set a date when I am clear, on the home straight! True, that date is in October 2015 but I am quite certain that by that month I will be back to normal spending limits, no debt …. unless something happens to bugger all that up!

I am following modules on ‘Self Esteem’ and it makes for interesting reading. There are 9 modules and I am on module 6 of the set. I am finding myself agreeing with everything I have read so far except on the basis of, how I advise other people. Everything I am reading is just stating how I have naturally approached issues of self esteem in others. This is both true but, a little unhelpful. I accept and acknowledge the causes, that’s spot on for me. I was bullied and put down a lot as a child into my teens and my memories are of not being good enough so that obviously will have had an influence upon me but, to be honest, I feel I conquered all that in my 30’s. I stopped making excuses and protecting myself, I really did become a different person and especially from around the end of the 1990’s. Many who’d known me prior to being 30 wouldn’t recognise me as a person today. You know, it’s funny, I do still have some pointless hang ups from my childhood. Part of me still gets a little ...

So, we have the ‘Let’s buy a whole host of gullible voters day’ with George Osborne. No doubt we’ll be told how employment is rising, how the deficit is falling, how we’re all so much better off now than we were (compared to what?). We’ll be told that there are still tough times ahead but that only a Conservative government can steer us through them. It will be pointed out how inflation remains low, how not raising duty on fuel has helped everyone as is seen by the current lower prices at the pumps (it’s going up again George). In short, I should listen to this budget later and decide to vote Conservative in May but, I won’t. Labour certainly did nothing to avoid the mess the country got in but they didn’t cause it. They made the mistake of trying to be too conservative, allowing high finance the freedom to cause a catastrophic cock up for which they took zero responsibility. They made the mistake of allowing Gordon Brown to take the job of Prime Minister, one for which he is totally...

Still suffering the effects of a nasty virus so, feel dizzy (more than usual, I am generally a dizzy person), sore throat, cough, aches, fluctuating temperature, allergies gone somewhat mad, not sleeping well, you know, normal virus stuff so, unpleasant but not likely to disable me much, I am still doing what I usually do. Depression? Well, I don’t think anyone who has ever suffered from depression ever really gets rid of it, we just have unmanageable and manageable levels of it. Right now, it’s manageable but there are still times on certain days and especially at night when it’s, well, I’d rather not have it is the truth but situations and experiences change throughout life so I am not going to presume for one moment that how things are now, how I feel now are permanent. Weight, well, I have conceded that I can’t just los weight right now, not sustainably. So, thanks to Primark I have upped my sizes which makes me feel better about myself and I don’t look quite so much like a fat...

Feeling somewhat poorly, let’s just say ‘man flu’ because I don’t know what it is, I find it difficult to remain calm and relaxed. Actually, relaxed is not a word which applies at all right now, anything but! Anyway, I’ve had to deal with silly people over the telephone and am proud of myself for maintaining a degree of humour and understanding for their predicament even when they were so clearly talking complete nonsense. This is not least because Sean now works for such a call centre and has to deal with people like me calling all day and I know it sours his day when someone awkward calls. Sadly, ‘Molly’ at Ovo Energy was extremely unhelpful and I had need to speak to her boss but, even so, once he had sorted my quite basic requirement, I did ask him to speak to Molly and explain that my assertiveness was not a personal affront on her, that I accept I was probably expecting a result beyond her remit, hopefully that was passed along to her. As for the lady at Scottish Power who asked...

Feeling somewhat poorly, let’s just say ‘man flu’ because I don’t know what it is, I find it difficult to remain calm and relaxed. Actually, relaxed is not a word which applies at all right now, anything but! Anyway, I’ve had to deal with silly people over the telephone and am proud of myself for maintaining a degree of humour and understanding for their predicament even when they were so clearly talking complete nonsense. This is not least because Sean now works for such a call centre and has to deal with people like me calling all day and I know it sours his day when someone awkward calls. Sadly, ‘Molly’ at Ovo Energy was extremely unhelpful and I had need to speak to her boss but, even so, once he had sorted my quite basic requirement, I did ask him to speak to Molly and explain that my assertiveness was not a personal affront on her, that I accept I was probably expecting a result beyond her remit, hopefully that was passed along to her. As for the lady at Scottish Power who asked...

I may double entry here occasionally but generally speaking I’d like my readers to go to http://ruright.org.uk/blog/ where there is a link to subscribe to email notifications of my blog, it will be more generally updated than this place and is a much better site technically

For some reason today has not been good. Last night I was up a little late but, that’s normal for me. Thing is, I felt physically ill and weak. That’s carried on today as well, no doubt some sort of bug. I had a nap earlier, was meant to be a quick, hour or so catch up, it was several hours and I felt I could stay there all night. Damn depression has kicked in again, been pushing myself through it rather a lot, that’s quite tiring. Somewhat fed up with what the doctor reckons are the symptoms of allergic rhinitis but I am not so sure. I get very sore spots all over the place, itchy to the point of wanting to scratch my skin off and scabs on my head like I have a serious flea issue (I don’t) Generally just rather unpleasant, not sure what else to do about it if the doctor seems convinced it’s the rhinitis and just wants to keep experimenting with new meds. With some good fortune I might wake tomorrow feeling altogether different. I don’t have any plans this week other than trying dai...

For some reason today has not been good. Last night I was up a little late but, that’s normal for me. Thing is, I felt physically ill and weak. That’s carried on today as well, no doubt some sort of bug. I had a nap earlier, was meant to be a quick, hour or so catch up, it was several hours and I felt I could stay there all night. Damn depression has kicked in again, been pushing myself through it rather a lot, that’s quite tiring. Somewhat fed up with what the doctor reckons are the symptoms of allergic rhinitis but I am not so sure. I get very sore spots all over the place, itchy to the point of wanting to scratch my skin off and scabs on my head like I have a serious flea issue (I don’t) Generally just rather unpleasant, not sure what else to do about it if the doctor seems convinced it’s the rhinitis and just wants to keep experimenting with new meds. With some good fortune I might wake tomorrow feeling altogether different. I don’t have any plans this week other than trying dai...

Anyone who doesn't watch 'Constantine' will get the 'size' thing

Sir Philip Green sells BHS to Retail Acquisitions - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31851887

I just heard this on the radio. Sent from Samsung Mobile

That Starbucks is likely to open one of their largest ever coffee shops in Northampton not so long after they claimed repeatedly that a Starbucks in Northampton at all wasn’t a viable prospect! So far we got the first drive through which is always heaving and another outlet at sixfields! Of course, I am thinking perhaps we need more than coffee to sustain the town centre, some decent chain and independent stores is what we really need! We are a county town struggling to be a village! These places shouldn’t have to think too long about coming here, it should be unthinkable to them that they’re not here. It would also help if the management and ownership of the Grosvenor Centre had the first clue how to attract and keep new concepts and established brands. Losing existing high profile stores such as the Disney Store & House of Fraser is plain idiotic. Failing to cement the deal on Ed’s Diner is just as stupid! Yes, we have a lovely shiny Primark and Next but, we had those stores alre...

Having a pee and noticing movement out the corner of your eye, looking and seeing a spider on your shoulder, well …. That!

Have just received my 2015-16 council tax demand, it’s wrong!!! I am just totally flummoxed as to who exactly at Northampton Borough Council cares enough about their position to get the job done right.

Jeremy Clarkson 'punch': Top Gear episodes to be dropped - BBC News . Why can they not just sack this horrible man? Why is one man more important than a show which existed prior to his joining it? Top Gear cancelled for the rest of the series because of this one man so, no doubt, they can sneak him in again next series as though nothing ever happened! I can't help thinking that the BBC still courts celebrity too much and, whist he's not a child molester, isn't it time the BBC put standards before popularity?

On the left of the page now should be an easy way to subscribe to the blog.. Each individual entry also has the option now to share to Facebook, sent to email or to print. I am done testing now unless someone lets me know of a problem :-)

Should anyone hit an obstacle or, better yet, find something working, please let me know!

You should now see a really obvious subscribe option over to the left ... if I got it right, it'll will work!

Watched the first episode of 'Constantine' last night. It's potentially a little scary but, a good series, well, looks like it could be so, another to add to the ever growing list of TV I am either watching or intending to watch .... total fail so far on 'Breaking Bad' which I have not even started despite there now being a spin-off series, I need to get going on that. Currently on Season 6 of Stargate SG1, half way through that and still enjoying it. My new found love of watching TV comes with regaining control of my lounge, it's a huge benefit to me to have somewhere to escape to. I do think that I need to leave my phone out the room, can't seem to ever watch anything all the way through without interruptions. As I've always said, if it's REALLY urgent we have the house phone. 'Agents of Shield' is back, we need to watch that, not even started on 'Agent Carter' yet, same goes for 'Warehouse 13'. I am up to date on 'B...

I am hoping this picture adding works, not tried it before but, Danny just insisted on posing the other day and, normally I don't like posed pictures but this one is cute :-)

To your left, in the section marked 'tools' you should see an option to 'register' which will add you as a subscriber. There are also options for RSS feeds which you can use that will offer you updates in your favourite RSS reader. I'd quite like this to get off the ground, it certainly has a lot more options for feedback. The software is new to me though so expect some weird stuff happening. I can tell you that the photography section is screwed up already. It might look OK but it's totally not doing what it is meant to be doing in some browsers! The video section seems to be working OK and I've managed to get the entire archive from my old blog here going back to 2004! This software also has some stuff I totally don't get yet so be prepared for some weirdness!  

http://ruright.org.uk/blog/ is the location of the new blog which I hope shall replace this one. It’s significantly different in just about every way containing not only blog entries but also pictures and video too on separate pages with more to come shortly. Unlike the current one which uses some convoluted way to get messages out to you which, apparently, stopped working for two years (You have some catching up to do), this one has to be subscribed to. Thankfully, this should be a simple procedure as the ‘register’ option is quite near the top of the page, just under the calendar section. I can only hope that by subscribing you do actually get messages, this seems to be the most difficult thing to achieve!

Have spent most of this afternoon getting creative so I hope it works. I've not seen it without being logged in but, I think if you want to subscribe there should be an option

please hang in there, am just trying to get this working

If you are getting this, please let me know, especially let me know if you get the same post more than once

Apparently, the system for entries to get sent out stopped working in 2013! I may have something working again now but, any posts since then, you probably didn’t see them unless you subscribe to my blog

I am currently working through modules on Self Esteem. I can honestly say, it’s tough reading! So much does relate to me it hurts to read it. Already I am wishing for answers that I need. It’s like, I know and understand what I am reading and acknowledge it as a fair representation of my current state but, where is the hug? The reassurance that it’s all going to be OK? The issue, for me, of doing this sort of thing is that it highlights possibly the greatest issue I have, I am alone. Someone special to hug up to, to talk to when I need it, well, I don’t have anyone. Perhaps that is a good thing because, right now, I’d probably question all their motives, what is their ‘real’ agenda? Even knowing where those feelings come from, where they started and so on is not yet helping me to overcome them. I’ve become somewhat insecure and full of self doubt, all negative stuff. Frustratingly, I can damn well see it too, it’s like there are two of me, am sure someone would say that’s because I a...

I am currently working through modules on Self Esteem. I can honestly say, it’s tough reading! So much does relate to me it hurts to read it. Already I am wishing for answers that I need. It’s like, I know and understand what I am reading and acknowledge it as a fair representation of my current state but, where is the hug? The reassurance that it’s all going to be OK? The issue, for me, of doing this sort of thing is that it highlights possibly the greatest issue I have, I am alone. Someone special to hug up to, to talk to when I need it, well, I don’t have anyone. Perhaps that is a good thing because, right now, I’d probably question all their motives, what is their ‘real’ agenda? Even knowing where those feelings come from, where they started and so on is not yet helping me to overcome them. I’ve become somewhat insecure and full of self doubt, all negative stuff. Frustratingly, I can damn well see it too, it’s like there are two of me, am sure someone would say that’s because I a...

I finally discovered why my PC wasn’t working. Not that your interested in techie stuff (but I am going to tell you anyway) … the Power Supply (PSU) wasn’t able to cope with the hardware I needed to add to the PC so I took too long working that out but once I twigged, I got the one that came with it swapped over for my older and more powerful unit. It still objects to some of the hard drives but they do now all work and it can get the updates it needs, seems to be running OK. Am loving the new headphones, I can now listen to music or watch a video in privacy and quiet so I get some valuable my space and others don’t have to be woken up by loud music at 1am! What is it with the Tories? Have they become so arrogant that they feel they can afford to be blatant about it? At least previously they tried a little pretend to not openly say they believed they were above mere mortals, now they don’t seem to care! Cameron and his announcement of what democracy we can expect with TV debates! Wha...

I finally discovered why my PC wasn’t working. Not that your interested in techie stuff (but I am going to tell you anyway) … the Power Supply (PSU) wasn’t able to cope with the hardware I needed to add to the PC so I took too long working that out but once I twigged, I got the one that came with it swapped over for my older and more powerful unit. It still objects to some of the hard drives but they do now all work and it can get the updates it needs, seems to be running OK. Am loving the new headphones, I can now listen to music or watch a video in privacy and quiet so I get some valuable my space and others don’t have to be woken up by loud music at 1am! What is it with the Tories? Have they become so arrogant that they feel they can afford to be blatant about it? At least previously they tried a little pretend to not openly say they believed they were above mere mortals, now they don’t seem to care! Cameron and his announcement of what democracy we can expect with TV debates! Wha...