Hungover from Dr Dave's

So I finished my seven-day stint at work and immediately went over to Dr Dave's to unwind. Gareth and I brought along some beers so not to look rude, and it turned out that pretty much everyone else did the same. On top of that the Knights had provided an absolute ton of alcohol themselves, so there was no shortage. It was a good night; my dad's band were playing in a big marquee out the back and the weather helped to give a great atmosphere. It was basically all the tennis players from the club who were there so everyone knew everyone which was also good. In the end I ended up having a mixture of Carling, Carlsberg, Boddingtons, Stella, Lambrini and red wine so today I have a well-deserved hangover.

It's been a while since I've had a day off and there's so much I could be doing that I'm having a hard choice picking what to do. There's Wimbledon to watch, I could be playing darts (seriously need to practice), I need to play a bit of guitar, I REALLY need to play tennis (have a match tomorrow), I could play some poker, try trading some of the tennis, then there's the Euro 2008 final on later.... so far I've just been staggering round the house doing absolutely nothing. I must take action but I don't know what to do.

-J

Seven Days at Work: part 7

So this little chapter of the blog comes to an end. I'm just about to leave for work on my seventh day in a row, with Dr Dave's party tonight acting as the carrot on a stick.

Yesterday: needless to say, I wasn't allocated crew baggage. Instead I was stuck in front of the ticket desk for 75% of the day, which was pretty long and boring though not taxing in the least. Afterwards I went to the tennis club with the old man for a couple, and I caught the Don with his dad and brother getting in a cheeky practice session at darts. I tried to organise a 'Super Sunday' this weekend for our darts Premier League, but there were only three of us who could make it so I guess it's probably not going to happen.

To finish with, I'm going to include an excerpt from a recent thread on Facebook. I'm guessing I must have caught Gareth in a bad mood, LOL!!

-----------------------------------------
[the thread is regarding darts on Sunday]

Gareth: I won't be able to make Sunday. I'm going to a BBQ at my Aunt's and i think Chrissy B is too. I also need to pack my shiz for america, which again i imagine C-dor also needs to do.

Me: Well there's no point doing it then unless Darren comes along. The practice of packing bags is something that always intrigues me. I've never understood what takes so long, or why whole days have to be allocated towards doing it. This isn't a pisstake but an honest question; how the fuck does it take longer than an hour (maximum) to pack a bag?!

Darren: I cant make this sunday. but its not because I am packing my bags.

Gareth: It's not as though i'm going to be packing my bags all day. I will be at a bbq for most of the day and then will pack in the evening. I also need to make sure I have all the paperwork and arrangements sorted before we leave and i'm going to try and get an early night. It's not as though i'm taking all day to just pack pants and socks. I thought this was a darts only thread?
-----------------------------------------------------

I've read this about seven times now and each time it makes me crack up, he was the one who mentioned packing bags in the first place not me! Hopefully G-Dor has calmed down a bit because I'm seeing him later!

-J

Seven Days at Work: part 6

Yesterday was actually a 'good' day at work. They've recently opened up an area at T5 only for accepting crew baggage, and it's totally separated from the main concourse so you never deal with any passengers. You only see the cabin crew and flight crew, so it's all chilled out because you're all staff and there's nothing that ever goes wrong. I was stationed there all day yesterday, which is pretty much the best day I can ask for.

You also get to see all the cabin crew hotties. Suprisingly there weren't actually that many. Maybe 1 in 15 was a good looking young girl. There were an awful lot of older guys, which bucks that stereotype of stunning blondes. Anyway, one of the girls was obviously on heat and was really coming onto me (this does not happen to me often), and began to tell me that she was single without me even asking. I was just about to get her number when I was interrupted by one of my supervisers and she left while the superviser was talking to me. For God's sake. By the way, when I say 'I was just about to get her number', I mean it, I actually was. It was the first time I'd actually encountered that tired airport cliche of a horny cabin crew girl and it was brilliant. But in true James style I still managed to get nowhere.

So, the beat goes on.

God of Terminal 5, please post me back in Crew Baggage today!!

-J

Seven Days at Work: part 5

It's starting to get a bit tedious now, but I'm alright. This should be the end of a normal week, but I still have another two days left after today. The last couple of days have been more or less a complete doss. There's no one at the aiport to check up on you or who should know what task you should actually be doing, so there's a hell of a lot of slacking that goes on across the whole of BA. Each member of staff is given a mobile phone at the beginning of his shift, and is allocated tasks via this phone by a machine. So there aren't any actual humans who know what you should be doing. You might get asked by a manager what you're supposed to be doing, but you can say whatever you want. So you might supposed to be on a desk at one end of the airport, but you actually hang out down the complete other end and just loiter around 'hosting' with your mates. Yeah it's money for doing nothing, but it's soon going to get extremely tiresome. It's a wonder the airport actually works.

-J

Back in the game?

As some of you may or may not know, I used to be involved in the local amateur bodybuilding circuit until about November time, when I had to stop because I simply couldn't afford it any more. Well today I took my first footsteps back into a gym under the watchful eye of Daz. To be frank, I am pathetically weak compared to my former self and it was sad to find out just how much I've lost since winter. At least I've been back though, so maybe this will be the dawn of another bodybuilding era in my life. It will be interesting to see how I manage the required eating at work, but at the moment it seems managable so we'll see how it goes.

A subtitle to this entry should be 'Seven Days at Work: part 4'

The first three days have gone by pretty quickly, so let's hope that the next four go by in similar fashion. I've been thinking a bit lately about what I'd like to accomplish in life, and you can expect a post sometime soon about how people measure success and happiness.

Sport.... Murray won in the first round of Wimbledon, which sucks. Tonight it's Germany v Turkey in the semis of Euro 2008. I'm more excited about who wins our predictions league than which team wins the title, but it will be good to follow nonetheless. Now it's time to think about my prediction for the correct score....

-J

Seven days at work: part 2

I'm doing seven days in a row at work and today is the second of those days, hence the 'part 2' in the title rather than part 1. Surprisingly I'm not actually feeling that bitter or demotivated about it at the moment, but we all know that will probably change. A guy called Dr Dave is having a big birthday bash round his house on Saturday, which is my final day on, so that's what I have to look forward to in times of need.

I want to give a mention to another blog out there which is updated regularly but is struggling for readers apparently, http://blog-of-a-blogger.blogspot.com/ . It has a good mix of everyday life stuff crossed with the odd bit of gambling, so it's my cup of tea. The guy is on a physiotherapy placement up north and it's an entertaining read.

But who am I to plug other blogs, I think only a couple of people read this one!

That's all for now

-J

PS. I'm on the verge of laying Federer but something is stalling me. Fate?

Update: I layed him.

Exciting new band

I just thought I'd mention a great band that's recently surfacing that you may or may not have heard of. They're called Trebles for Show and I've heard some of their stuff and I like their flavour.

Check out their MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/treblesforshow

Cough

I've been waking up in the middle of the night these last few days with a really irritating cough. I'm just about to go to bed and hope it doesn't happen tonight.

What a quality blog entry.

PS. I'm pretty much screwed in my predictions contest now that Italy are out.

-J

Beer, football, gambling

I find myself in a cycle these days where I'm at work for 6 days and don't drink anything at all, and during this period I'm always thinking 'wow, I'm being so healthy'. Then on my three days off I go and drink a lot during the afternoons and evenings, and end up thinking 'Jeez, I need to take it easy for a few days' but then it's straight back to work. Such is life.

As with all the European Championships and World Cups, it's so nice to have a top quality football match on every day. During the World Cup it's three a day, and that's coming close to heaven. I've enjoyed Euro 2008 a lot so far; it's been pretty exciting. The World Cup in 2006 went a bit stale once it reached the knockout rounds with a lot of 0-0 games and teams playing defensively. This year though there's been a lot of attacking, and a few surprises. Last night I watched the Croatia v Turkey Quarter Final at the tennis club with Daz, Gareth, Gary and Tom and it was good fun even though the first 90 mins were drab. We had all submitted different predictions in the little contest we're doing, and were all cheering on different teams and individual players to score. I had actually predicted 0-0, and it's weird watching a game of football when you want it to be goalless. You find yourself being pleased when the ball is being passed along the back line or back to the keeper, when everyone else is yelling for it to be played forward. The end of extra time was incredible, with Croatia scoring at the death and thinking they'd won it, only for Turkey to level it with literally the last kick of the game. Croatia looked like they'd already lost before the shootout started, and unbelievably missed the target on two of their penalties. I'm a big fan of their coach Slaven Bilic now though. He took the defeat on the chin, and he kept us all entertained throughout the game with his antics when his team missed sitters (throwing himself onto the floor, LOL!)

I've been reading some articles about 'Britain's biggest punter' Harry Findlay. His attitude seems similar to that of your typical mug (continually backing short-odds favourites), and indeed he has gone broke several times. However, his selections must definitely carry more analysis behind them than most peoples because he's a very rich man at the moment. He lost something like 2 million quid when the All Blacks didn't win the last Rugby World Cup, but has won many more millions than that over the years backing Roger Federer. Reading the articles has made me thirsty for a punt, but I can see things going badly if I act as boldly as Harry so maybe not...

Speaking of Roger Federer, I have to say I am tempted to make a large(ish) lay of him to win Wimbledon this year. He is definitely a player in decline, and it will take an enormous effort for him to win it this time round. In years gone by he has just walked it, but this year there are actually serious challengers for the title in Nadal and Djokovic and this might be the time to oppose him with his price still just above evens. He even has Djokovic in his half of the draw, leaving Nadal with a relatively simple path to the final. It's a shame, because I am a huge Federer fan and like the guy (I can't say that about Nadal and Djoko). More on this to come.

So, (more) drinks later. On Wednesday I had a few with Gareth during the day and then a load of cider that evening. Thursday I was down the club and had all sorts with the Don. Last night I ended up sampling the new cider at the tennis club, Gamers Olde English, which turned out to be very nice. We went to the RE Bar afterwards and continued the fun. Today I'm actually feeling up for some more, plus Lawrence is back from holiday and we need to catch up. Gareth's also working the bar tonight so that spells trouble.

Ok, that's a nice long entry and I feel better for writing it for some reason. Someone comment, go on.

-J

Haircut again

The other hair had to go; it was an unsustainable style. Someone at work said that it made me look like Hitler (but they liked it), and I just didn't like it anyway. So it's back to short hair again for the time being.

Yesterday we had drinks at the tennis club, during which I invited myself over to Covey's house today to play on his PS3. We played out the remaining games of Euro 2008 on Pro Evo, and Croatia beat Spain in the final - could this be an omen? It would be the muggiest of mug punts if we bet on it, but I kind of fancy the idea.

Tonight something is happening but I don't know what yet. I guess I should try to sort it out, but Darren doesn't pick up his phone these days.

Other than that, not a lot has been happening. I'd rather make posts on this blog long and interesting when I have something to say, rather than forcing short entries and it becoming boring. But not much interesting happens, so I'll have to revert to posting every day or two with the usual stuff. I'm beginning to ramble. Have a good Friday night folks.

-J

Bureaucracy

This morning I'm going to have to chase up some people at a company called Experian; what must be one of the worst-run firms in existence. They are in charge of collating people's references for BA so they can get their airside security passes issued. My pass had taken a conspicuously long time coming through, so I gave Experian a ring to find out what was happening. They said they were still waiting on a reference from someone I know at the tennis club, so I sorted it out and was actually there with the guy when he filled it out. He also showed me the email they had sent him where they offered to send a courier to pick it up.

So he left the letter behind his reception at work, and two weeks later it still hasn't been picked up. During this time, Experian hadn't bothered to call me back (not even once) to tell me that the reference still wasn't there. And they should be trying to get it sorted fast, because people's Criminal Record Checks are only accepted by BA until 10 weeks after they've been issued - so guess what, mine is running out very soon if it hasn't already. And employees have to pay to get their checks done again (30 quid). Some people at work are refusing to pay it and it's a bit of a circus to be honest.

Too much bureaucracy, way too much.

This is the first time in a while that I'm not working all late shifts. Today I'm on at 12.45, tomorrow at 9.30, then Wednesday.... 4.45. It will be interesting to say the least, though in a strange way I'm kind of looking forward to it.

On a separate note, Alex has booked our lads holiday for this year so I have something definite to look forward to in September. We're off to Tenerife for the third time, and there's a lot to live up to from the past. As I experience patches of excitement the nearer we get to September, I might pepper this blog from time to time with some of my favourite stories from holidays gone by, so there's something for everyone to look forward to.

Ok folks, more soon.

Thanks for reading.

-J

PS. Russia and Romania still doing ok in Euro 2008, come on both of you!

PPS. My hair is still dodgy. I'm having to style it in some dodgy side-parting kind of way. On my days off I may well have to get it all cut off and start again

Post-haircut blues

Had my hair cut this morning, and the barber has left it a bit too long on top I think. In a few days if I still don't like it I'll have to go and get it all cut short and start again.

Yesterday there was a car crash in Eastcote, which is very near where I live. The main road was sealed off by police cars and tape, so I knew it was serious when I walked by. I found out today that a lady had left her car unattended with the keys still in the ignition, and a youth nicked it. He went and picked up a few of his mates and went speeding around the town. They pulled into a layby and sped down it at 70-80mph (according to the barber), before crashing into a car at the bottom of the road which was pulling out. The youths got out and legged it, but the people in the other car were in a real mess apparently. The fire brigade took an hour to cut them out. As far as I know, the youths are still on the run. Shocking stuff, because the victims could easily have been people I know, or even myself.

Gareth and I have our first round match in the mens doubles tonight, hopefully we won't make idiots of ourselves.

-J

Day off 1 of 3

So, three days off to play with. I was planning to have a buffet curry this afternoon with Gareth and then go to the Woodman again to play darts, but things have changed and I'm being forced to go into London to meet up with some of his pals from his law course. Will end up spending more than I had hoped, again. Not good.

The forecast is for showers, but at the moment it's bright and sunny. Which presents me with the dilemma of whether to wear shorts or not. I'll probably wear jeans, but will roast alive on the way.

Russia didn't get off to a good start at Euro 2008 yesterday. Romania, my hopes are pinned on you.

-J

Scorching weather

My post about wet weather last week was successful - it jinxed the system and resulted in some serious sunshine, so everyone has me to thank for that. I haven't seen too much of it though as I've been stuck in the Terminal 5 greenhouse for the duration. Now that my days off are coming up, the forecast is for sunny intervals at a lowly 19 degrees. But as long as it's not rain, I'll bite your arm off.

Euro 2008. A good start for Romania! Now all I need is a good start from Russia today against Spain. However, my shout for Italy to win in the predictions league with my mates is looking pretty bad. I was thinking that now might actually be a good time to back Italy proper, but I have yet to commit.

That's all for now

-J

Romania to win Euro 2008 50/1 each way

Another bet inspired by Kickingbets.

So yeah, come on Russia and Romania!

Euro 2008 begins

Well I've been lucky so far this year healthwise, but I'm ill now. Normally I'm one of those people who gets ill quite frequently, but I've escaped it the last eight or nine months. Yesterday I got a bit of a sore throat and today I'm a bit bunged up, but I'll live.

I thought the topic of today's post would centre around Euro 2008, which kicks off today, or rather the milestones in my life presented by past international football tournaments. I know I said in a recent post that I didn't care about England not being in it, but today I have to say that I'm a bit sad about it. Just seeing all the hype in the news (though nowhere near the hype it would have been if England had pulled their weight) brings back memories of how excited I've been in the past at the prospect of big footy contests.

So it's time for another one of those posts which looks back on the past.

Euro 96 - this was the first footy tournament which I followed properly. We had just moved house, and I remember watching all the games in our new sitting room. I clearly remember watching England v Scotland and Gazza's goal; the penalties against Spain; and my first bout of football heartache when Germany beat us in the shootout. Fantastic memories.

France 98 - I remember saying to my mum when New Years Eve turned to New Years Day, 'wow, there's a world cup this year'. I'd never experienced one before (as England didn't qualify for USA 94 and all the games in that world cup were played after my bedtime anyway) and I was totally captivated when France 98 began. It was the first time I'd seen a lot of the players who were playing for the other countries, and it was those players who would become the key players for the next ten years. Zidane, Ronaldo (Brazilian), Davids, Seedorf, Batistuta are all names which stick out. It makes me strangely emotional thinking back to France 98; it's funny how sporting event can induce such feelings.

Euro 2000 - not many fond memories of this one. England were shite. France dominated. At least most of France's good players shortly moved to Arsenal and led to some glory years :-)

Japan/Korea 2002 - the first cup where alcohol was involved. I watched England's first game, v Sweden, at the tennis club early in the morning with all my mates and then went to a barbecue that afternoon for the Queen's Jubilee. Also went to the bookies that pm with the boys, what a laugh. I had an exam on the day of England v Brazil, and went into it knowing that Ronaldinho had just scored that goal. Unlucky England, they did well.

Euro 2004 - England should definitely have won this. If they'd just beaten Portugal, it would have been such an easy draw. Greece won in the end, what the...? Anyhow, I remember this tournament more for the accident I had after England v Portugal than anything else. I was hit by a drunken woman driver while I was on a pavement, and broke my wrist/hand. At that time I was set on joining the Army, and the next week I was scheduled to go to the fitness tests. The injury meant I could not do it, and my bursary from the Army to see me through uni went up in smoke. If this had not happened, who knows where I would have been now...

Germany 2006 - England were bad and boring, but I have fond memories of watching this World Cup with my housemates at uni, drinking ourselves silly from 2pm everyday when the first game would start. We'd sit there on the couch all day, watch all three games, then go out in the evening. The next morning we'd have a kickabout in the park, then report back to the front room for 2pm. The girls we lived with had to wait until gone 10pm to watch any TV. Brilliant.

It's a shame I won't be able to look back on Euro 2008 with any memories like these, but at least I won't have to see Wayne Rooney's ugly face all over the papers every day.

-J

Not worth it

It was an ok evening in Windsor last night, but not worth the whole effort and cost. It cost the best part of a hundred quid all-in, and that's just stupid. Won't be going there again on a staff do. I'm now knackered and have work at 3. Boy oh boy. I wonder how T5 is coping with all the new flights, maybe it will be carnage when I get there.

Ok, too tired to blog any more.

-J

Work party tonight

Tonight there's a BA bash at some club in Windsor, and I kind of have to go so that I look 'cool' and my colleagues won't think I'm sad etc. It's one of those nights where I think it will either be really good, or really bad. Windsor isn't the easiest of places for me to get to either, so I'm staying in a hotel with a guy who I trained with. I'll have to get up relatively early tomorrow so I can get home, 'freshen up' as it were and then go back to Heathrow to start work at 3. There are 8 more routes moving over to T5 tomorrow, including all the JFKs, so there is a chance there might be chaos. In a strange way I want it to be chaotic, just so I can say 'yeah I worked on the 5th of June' and everyone will think of me as a BA hero, similar to those people who were there on T5's opening day in March. Or something like that at least.

Anyway I'm trying to organise when we're heading down to Windsor and all that, but no one from work is answering their phones at the moment and it's pretty annoying.

I might be heading out shortly for another Karahi lunch with Alex, and I could really do with one now as I'm absolutely starving. I'll ring him in a minute.

Jessica Ennis is out of the Olympics. There goes one of my bets on Sports Personality of the Year. The others better brings golds all round to maintain hope.

Euro 2008 starts soon. Come on Russia! In the predictions league that I run with my mates, I've also predicted Italy to win, so I'll be cheering them on as well.

In a strange way I'm actually happy that England aren't in it. They don't deserve to be, and it would have been too stressful. Also, I can't think of one England player apart from maybe Steven Gerrard that I even like. In the regular season, I hate them all. So I hope they enjoy watching from the sidelines and wishing they'd put a bit more effort in during qualifying.

Righty ho, that's all for now.

-J

On fire at darts

Yesterday was a good'un. I went for lunch with Alex at Karahi, where we treated ourselves to the 5 pound lunchtime buffet, which was very good. I can see myself going to Karahi quite often; all the curry is cooked to order rather than lying around in a buffet cart for ages.

Then we went down to the Woodman and played some darts, where I went on a hot streak. I mean HOT. I was barely missing a double and won 8-0. We then sat outside for a bit, where some older guy started talking to us about the pros and cons of going out on the pull. A bit strange, but some valid points were raised, lol! Then Daz turned up and we drank all the way through until the tennis club opened. Someone was practicing on the dart board when we went back inside the pub, and I challenged him and won. Even better was that it was in front of a crowd of boisterous regulars, so that felt good.

By the time we got to the tennis club I was pretty pissed. By that point my darts standard was going down rapidly, so I quickly beat Daz and then pulled the flights out. End of the day: played 16 legs, won 14. Not bad.

Today I haven't done too much, but I played some poker earlier and won about $20 so that will do. I hope there's going to be some drinks later, but nothing has been sorted yet. For some reason I feel like drinking scotch on the rocks, I have no idea why.

We're also hopefully going to be booking our lads holiday soon, so there's a lot to look forward to.

Thanks for reading.

-J

Summer is here (in theory)

Theoretically, there are four seasons in the year so each one should last three months. I'd break it down as autumn = September, October, November; winter = December, January February; spring = March, April, May; and summer = June, July, August. Therefore summer is here. But it sure as hell doesn't feel like it.

Last year apparently we had Iceland's summer. That would have been fine if we'd had Iceland's winter as well. But no, it was just a bland and boring winter with little snow or anything exciting. I love it when it snows in the UK, as it absolutely cripples the country even if it's just for one day. The roads jam up, trains stop running, planes don't take off. It's pathetic, seeing as other countries manage just fine when they have snow all the time. But it has always resulted in days off school or whatever, so it's been fine with me.

I'm digressing. What I mean to say is, last year's summer was bad beyond any imagination, and I definitely definitely can't take another one like that. However, there are no positive signs to suggest that the UK might get a 'normal' summer. I'm looking out the window now, and it's dull and overcast. What the...?! It's June! April showers etc should have ended over a month ago. Yet the forecast is still for heavy rain and so on.

Let me guess, it's because of global warming. Wrong. Maybe I'll do a separate post on global warming another time. One thing I did learn from doing a geography degree is that there are an awful lot of misconceptions (read: bullshit) floating around out there about GW. I'll give three facts right now though:

Fact: the planet Earth has been heating up ever since its formation (ie the Earth warming up is a natural process).

Fact: the rate of this heating has accelerated during the time that humans have inhabited the planet.

Fact: there is no concrete evidence to suggest that the human race is entirely responsible for this.

This has turned into quite a different blog entry to the one I had planned to write. I'll call it quits for the time being and end it here.

I guess the message of this entry is PLEASE EARTH, PLEASE GIVE US A DECENT SUMMER!

-J