blogtribe

Had some fun since I last spoke here, got to see some bands, drive the Beetle and ride my bike, hey maybe not exciting to some but good for me. Pics will be added at the end.

Bands were The Blisters and The Half Cuts, bands from Ashington, both containing Posties. The Blisters were ‘headlining’ as it was their CD Single launch, excellent tracks, Un-Ltd and Trust, both on their MySpace page. Go check them out and watch the video for Un-Ltd.

The Half Cuts opened for them, 2 parts Morpeth, 1 part Ashington, 3 chords. Good old fashioned punk, nothing too serious, just some guys having fun, but good. They’re also on MySpace however I don’t think the tracks they have up there do them much justice, they were better than that live.

Bev and I also had a trip out in the Beetle on Mothers Day, heading up to Seahouses for Fish & Chips, turned out, after a few spots of rain, to be a lovely day and it was a nice leisurely drive, no other type in the Beetle ;-) It was fun seeing the looks and waves, even though it isn’t the best looking car yet. Got a nice wave from a guy heading in the opposite direction driving his Morris Minor, returned of course. Got a box of bits arriving in the next week, new interior and trim etc. should smarten it up no end :-) Bev also bought me a campervan, pics will follow ;-)

I’ve now eventually recorded my first miles on the bike for the year, got out on 1st of April, no, not a joke, I really did ;-) As well as taking part in the monthly challenge, #Apr100 this time, I’m taking part in the #30daysofbiking challenge, to ride every day throughout April. This includes “any” miles on a bike so that makes my chances of accomplishing this much better as I cycle every day I’m at work, it does mean I have to make more of an effort on days off which should give the necessary kick for the rest of the year and help me beat the year long target of 1,000 miles.

Just a quick update for anyone that didn’t see my tweet the other day, sadly I didn’t get the job I was interviewed for. I got a nice rejection email though:-

Thank you for attending the recent interview for the above position, we enjoyed meeting you.

I regret that on this occasion we will not be taking your application further.

I appreciate that is disappointing news; I would like to thank you for the interest you have shown, and encourage you to take the opportunity to apply for other roles with us in the future.

Ah well, however with people leaving, new jobs coming up (nightshift) and duties to be advertised internally I may get either my own duty or a full time position, or maybe even both sometime this year in my current job.

Had a busy week! Last Friday Bev and I took a trip South to Lincolnshire, Woodhall Spa to be exact, to the Bainland Country Park where we met up with our friend Andrew, who travelled North from Watford. We had a fantastic, quiet, weekend doing not much more than eating and drinking :D The food on the site was excellent and servings were very generous so the only cooking we attempted for ourselves was bacon butties in the morning. It being the end of the school half term everyone must have left to go home as it was very quiet, just what we wanted. We were in a Lodge, well kitted out, comfortable and with electricity and gas included in the price, brilliant.

The view from our French Doors to the Lodge opposite.

We took a drive to Skegness on the Saturday, for brunch, where we found very little open and nothing special to see. Would probably need to go back in Summer to see if it changed but seemed to be a poor man’s Blackpool. ;) But we did find a lot of supermarkets. Sunday we took a walk up into Woodhall Spa and on to the Kinema In The Woods, showing films since 1922, The Kinema is a unique, independent cinema and is well worth a visit if you’re in the area.

Kinema In The Woods

All in all, a great place to stay and a lovely relaxing weekend with good company.

On to the Beetle, Bev has been driving to a few places to price resprays, sadly because the car seems to have hammerite as paint no-one wants to touch it, too much like hard work :( However she did manage to get a deal on a box of goodies including 2 new doors (one brand new never used), new bumpers (still wrapped), 2 rear wings with lights, new upgraded headlights, new indicators, new mirrors, aerial, interior light, boot lid, handles, trim, chrome, wheels, a full high back interior and more stuff I’ve forgotten, with a promise of anything else he finds to be thrown in. So the decision now is to replace the interior, trim, bumpers and get new chrome and add some decals and run the car as it is till the MOT runs out, once the MOT runs out we’ll strip it ourselves and get it to a state where the painters will touch it and then hand it over to get anything done that is needed for MOT and then respray and Bev can then go in the direction she chooses. Oh and one of the goodies in the box, which she brought away with her (she paid a deposit and picks the rest up when she has paid up) was a nice shiny new exhaust, a zoom tube I think someone called it, makes it sound like a V8 ;)

Girl Racer Pipe

I had an interview today, it was for a 1 year Traineeship with the National Archives at Woodhorn Colliery Museum (about 3mins walk from me), I thought the interview went well but there were a lot of candidates so I’ll just have to wait and see how I did. Will be a big step to take if I were to get the position, going from a permanent job to a 1 year post but it was too good an opportunity to miss. The job description is:-

This placement focuses on digital delivery and the use of social networking to develop and promote our services. You will help us to add content to our digital libraries and add to the digital content available to view in our e-catalogues. At Woodhorn, we are currently exploring how social networking might be used to increase engagement of new and existing audiences with our service and how IT might be used to improve our visitor experience. The placement will provide you with the opportunity to develop digitisation and web authoring skills and work with us to use the internet and mobile phone technology to deliver exciting and engaging archive content to new audiences.

I so want to do that :)

That’s all for now, getting late, so “Smoke me a kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast”

We got it!!

Picked up yesterday and driven all 367 miles back home from Cardiff by Bev, greedy bugger wouldn’t let me have a go! ;)

Here she is, love that stance!

12months MOT and runs sweetly. And now the work begins. More pics at Flickr

Pickup

The day itself was free of incident, we left the house at 3:20am to drive to Cardiff, brilliant drive down, so quiet and got there about 10:00ish where we were met by the owner.

A nicer seller you couldn’t meet, not only was there tea and cakes but when he heard we’d not had a Beetle before he showed us everything, took out carpets and seats and showed us welding that had been done, banged around and showed us it was solid. Told us all the good and bad bits, offered loads of advice and gave us his email address and told us to phone or email if we needed any advice.

He took Bev for a test drive, hmm, better rephrase that, he sat with Bev while she took the car for a test drive pointing out different things, then took us to a filling station and then took us to pick up some lunch (on him) before pointing us in the right direction home.

Wish buying a car was that pleasant all the time.

We left Cardiff, from the market at the Millenium Stadium, how I wish I’d remembered my camera or even got my phone out. We stopped quite a few times on the way home before we got too tired so we didn’t have to worry about finding somewhere to stop if tiredness set in. We had another uneventful journey, apart from part of the A1 being closed near Newcastle, and arrived home at 21:30.

Stats for the day:- 716m round trip, 55.9mpg (Fiat 500), 46mph ave spd, 18h30m out of the house, 15h29m driving time, I’ve also managed to work out the mpg for the Beetle, 40+mpg, excellent. And not bad that it travelled the 367 miles home without incident :)

Plans

To start with Bev has removed stickers from the inside and rear window, we’re planning on polishing the hub caps to see if the rust is just surface, we’re stripping the paint off the bumpers to see how the chrome is underneath. We need a new passenger door as there’s a bit of rot on current one, although you can’t see it. Seat covers are planned for now until the outside is done then Bev can start on the inside, we’d like some high back seats instead of the low back ones. Major plan is a new paint job, Bev has already booked in multiple overtime shifts to put towards it.

Keep watching, I shall update this as things go on :D

We’ve done it, we’ve only gone and bought a VW Beetle. It’s a birthday present for Bev, she’s always wanted one and as it’s a special birthday this year it’s what I wanted to get her. I originally wanted a 1971 car but you can’t be picky when what seems to be the right car comes along. It’s a 1972 Beetle currently in satin black but originally orange, which we plan to restore it to. The car currently resides 330 miles away in Cardiff so a road trip is in order, plan is to leave at 3:30am Sunday morning so we can get there early and won’t have to rush to get back, can just take a leisurely drive home.

Photos and information will come once we have the car, can’t wait! :-)

Or so they say, hope so as I’ve not heard a thing about the job I applied for.

Damn post went weird there, posted itself and thought it was November. I couldn’t find it when I went to fix the error.

Well, last post I was wondering if I’d get off my ass and get some of these websites updated, well the process has begun on one of the sites. Not just an update though, a redesign and update and a change of backend, switching to WordPress to make for easier updates and the hopeful inclusion of extra contributors. And means I can update the site via the iPhone and the WordPress app.

As well as that I’ve begun to put my ideas down on something other than paper, started with a draft WordPress post, but at least it’s better than paper. It also means that by having the WordPress app on the iPhone I can add to it any time I get an idea.

In fact my only problem at the moment is the fact I’ve been in bed over an hour now and start work in 6 hours but my head is still buzzing and I’m still putting ideas down, just hope I can bring some of them to fruition.

Before I start with my stuff I’d like to offer my congratulations to our friends Mike and Debbie, The Morgans, who are celebrating the birth of their first child, a beautiful baby girl, Megan Elizabeth Gabriel, 7lb 8oz, born at 5.10am on 5th February 2011. Congratulations to you both, enjoy the sleepless nights ;-)

2011 may be the year of changes, I’ve applied for a new job, made my interest known for a secret voluntary position and I need to kick myself up the ass to get some website updates done. If someone asks me to do something I do it, no hesitation, just get on with it and do it, if I have something to do for myself it’s more “meh, I’ll do it in a moment” and the end of the day appears and it’s still not done. These website updates have been planned for almost a year now, one site is almost 2 years out of date, ouch! I need to set myself some time aside and plan it, I always seem to sit down to do stuff then think, oh hang on, this needs done or that needs done and I’m up and off again.

Also I think it’s about time I got some of my ideas down somewhere safe, I’m always in trouble for bits of paper lying around with ideas scribbled on them, then they get ‘tidied’ away, I think Bev throws them away to be honest, she just doesn’t understand the creative process ;-)

I think we’re also going to make a change to our garden this year, been 2 years or so since the last change. Want to make the pond bigger this time and fix the waterfall, the pond loses water when the waterfall is running so think we have a leak at the back somewhere, need to carefully dismantle it and rebuild, with some new liner underneath.

For those who don’t know here are a few pics of previous changes.

So that’s the garden from rubbish dump to lovely outdoor space (twice). I’ll keep you informed with changes once they begin.

And finally, looking for a VW Beetle, preferably 1971, for Bev for her birthday this year so saving hard, I can mention it here as she knows all about it, joint accounts means not as many secrets. ;-) So any pointing in the right direction or advice is welcome, her birthday is September but if the right one at the right price appeared beforehand then that may be an option.

Closing date for that job application mentioned in the last post was midnight last night, as of 23:52 I officially applied, now I just have to wait for contact, good or bad.

Quick update, in 2010 I cycled 470 leisure miles, hoping to double that this year with the #20111k, 1,000 Km in 2011, however I want to do 1,000 miles.

Christmas came and went with happy kids, success :-) New Year came and went very quietly, not like our usual NYE.

Work was very very busy in the run up to Christmas, seemed to average 50hrs a week, working 7 days a week from the beginning of December to try and get cards and parcels out. Ended up I was delivering my duty then coming back to take out a van load of parcels, bad weather slowed everything down :-(

Some bereavements and bad experiences in 2010 so pleased that is over, hoping for a better 2011.

Debating on applying for a new job, working with Social Media, blogs and the web to promote the place I’d be working, better decide quick as I just found out closing date is tomorrow. Only thing holding me back and making me hesitate is it’s only a year and not permanent. My next update will show my decision.

If I do decide to go for it I better get practicing by updating this more frequently ;-)