Well what summer we had has now passed that we enter September and the approach of autumn, over the next few weeks we shall see the leaves change colour before falling to the ground. The mornings will be crisp and the nights will start to draw in.

You’ve gotta love this time of year.

Rather annoyingly I went to my car on Tuesday morning to discover that some swine had stolen my car aerial. It is something that I have worried about happening in the past but as it is a screw on aerial there is not a great deal I can do about it and removing it every time would be to much hassle.

Anyway I drove to work with the intermittent radio signal and wondered how I was going to replace the aerial. I am sure that whoever took it had a similar car and needed a replacement rather than it just being some random incident.

Leaving work I notice that the passenger door on my car has been hit, I know it happened in the work car park as I had checked around the car earlier when I had noticed the aerial had gone. Spoke to security and the cameras don’t cover that section of the car park and the next day I did rather hope that I would get an email from the person who had damaged my car. No email but as the parking spaces are allocated to people I have been able to get the names of the people who had use of the space – I have been trying to see the same car parked so that I can check if for damage before confronting them.

However knowing my luck the car that hit mine would have been cleaned and any trace of my paint work removed by now. I think what makes it worse is the fact that when they hit my car they got out and inspected the damage to my car (I can tell as they had wiped the door)

August already and once again I can contemplate just how quickly time is slipping by. Okay since last time I have recoded my pages so that the gobbledegook that has been effecting the pages on the site has gone – I had originally thought it was only effecting my WordPress pages but it was the whole site (in fact it was every site I host.)

Helped a friend at a car boot sale a few weeks ago, I was not selling anything but have been thinking about having another clear-out and maybe looking at what I could sell at a future car boot sale. From past experience I know that my massive collection of VHS video tapes would be difficult to give away let alone try to get some money for it. I do however have some gift sets that I have bought over the years in the January sales that I maybe able to sort though and get rid of the stuff that I have not been able to make use of as Christmas presents.

Since the start of the month I’ve also been looking at buying a digital SLR camera and have to admit I did not know it would be so difficult, I have had a quick look online, read a few reviews and been to the local “national” chain to look at a few cameras and actually touch them. Of course I did not realise the price that I would have to pay for a camera with prices ranging from just under £400 to over £600 (I’ve decided I can’t justify spending over £600 on a camera)

So any recommendations??

I did actually get a new hard drive that I’ve connected up to my television, I had been looking for one for a while and was waiting to come across one that offered fantastic value for money – thanks to a local electrical shop closing down I was able to get a 1Tb hard drive at half price. Now if I know I’m not going to be home I can set the TV to record the programme.

I did go to see the film last night and have to admit that I was rather disappointed with the film. I’ve been trying to think what it was about the film that I disappointed me and ultimately felt it did not follow the book as much as it should have. I know that because they cut the last book into two films there would have to be some poetic license and did notice that some scenes in the film never actually happen in the book.

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I should apologise about all the gobbledygook that has been effecting the site for the last few days this was due to an update on one of the systems I use and meant that some of the coding used needed to be changed, there are still problems with my contents.

Anyway this is my second “Official” Saturday not working and again it is starting to feel like a wasted opportunity. Last week I visited a local church and later on also took some photos of the another graveyard. I had planned on going to a carnival in Kidwelly but apathy set in and even though it was not a wasted day as my photos of the graveyard have proved valuable.

Today I had planned to have a walk around town, even though I really can’t stand having to walk around shops- I decided not to waste my time with town.
I was then going to go and do a little research and with the weather being okay I had no excuse, I did visit the location I wanted to but not wanting to get arrested for trespass I was unable to actually do what I wanted. Drove home via some country lanes and got itchy eyes as a reward!!

Now tonight I an toying with the idea of going to see Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows pt2, one of my friends had asked if they could see it with me but they don’t plan on seeing it until the start of August and I’m not sure I could wait that long.

Think I will see it tonight and will go and see it again with my friend next month – only problem I have now is do I admit to already seeing it?

Just over five years ago I started my new job, when I started there were a few other people who had started at the same time, I would say I was friendly with at least four of them. After our induction we were sent to our various teams and would meet for breaks and lunch with at least two of my fellow new colleagues. A few weeks after starting there was a promotion exercise and a few of the new friends I had made were considering applying as the job was on a fixed term contract. I was happy to stay in the current job and learn the ropes before thinking of advancing – however I was physically given an application form and completed it.

Now the story of how I nearly missed out on getting that promotion due to my involvement with a certain carnival is something that not many people would know and thinking back potentially very silly of me.

Anyway I got the promotion and went off for extensive training for my new role with new people and sort of lost touch with those people that I had originally started with, I would pass them in the corridors but found that I did not have a great deal to talk to them about any more – originally we were all new and I suppose that is what we had in common and being honest it was easier to interact with my new colleagues.

I have heard through the office grapevine that one of the people I originally started with has now left the office along with some others of the same grade after taking an early release package. I do feel bad that I did not get the chance to wish him well for the future and am hoping that the other person who I started with has not gone.

Last week I noticed that the local B&Q (DIY store) store had rather cheekily in my view stuck up a banner on the fence what would have been a competitor store, the now closed down Focus store. I was going to take a photo but being in a rush I did not get the chance only to discover a few days later that the sign has been removed. Now I can’t imagine Carmarthenshire Council doing it so can only guess it was a former employer who took offence (and the sign!)

Was it really two weeks ago since my last post, well I did indeed take a look at the outstanding items on my 101 list and took a look at the things that were achievable over the next couple of months. For far too long I have been wasting my time when I could be out and about crossing things off my list.

I also discovered that some of the items on the list I had already completed but I have never actually updated them so that is something I am currently working on. I also “helped” one of my friends who I felt was become a little despondent and getting stuck in a rut, hopefully the ideas that he came up with and the focus he will now have on achieving them will be a positive thing.

This week is also the last week that I will have a day off work on a Thursday, I have to admit that that I quite liked having a break during the week as you can do so much more than on the weekends, I tended to visit my grandparents or friends. It does however mean that my whole Saturday is free now and that is one of the reasons I’ve been looking at how to fill my weekends and not just let them drift into the past.

Today is a good example, with the sun shining I have spent most of the day inside this is because I have a routine and it is the same every Sunday – I sleep later than normal then either watch a film/tv while cleaning then its off food shopping then up to my mothers for dinner I’ll go home and iron some shirts and watch tv.

I’m sure we all get that feeling of being stuck in a rut and after another weekend nearly over with me doing very little (or at least it feels like very little) I do wonder if I am living life to its full potential?

Of course when not it work it is nice to just be able to relax and people can relax in many different ways – you don’t have to actually do anything. I think my problem is that I have once again set myself a routine (every Sunday I sleep later than normal and when I wake up I will do some cleaning and take the rubbish out, then a spot of shopping and to my mothers for dinner).

Nothing wrong with this but sometimes it can be nice to just be spontaneous. I was driving through Llanelli yesterday and could see clearly over to the north Gower coast, part of me was thinking of stopping somewhere so that I could take some photos – I did not stop as I figured I would stop another time to take the photos but what if tomorrow never comes?

I have take a copy of my outstanding 101 things and will be looking through that and making an effort to finish off that project – more than TWO years after it should have ended!

Thought for the week:- carpe diem

I am not sure how many people would choose to spent their birthday, I decided to climb a mountain and not just any mountain but the highest mountain in Wales – Mount Snowdon.

Set off from Carmarthen at 6.30am for the journey north and arriving in Llanberis at around 10.30am. The original plan was to use the Snowdon Mountain Railway to travel up to the summit and to take in the views get a few photographs and have a bite to eat before beginning the decent down on foot.

When we got to the station in Llanberis they had just put up a sign to advise that all the trains for that day were fully booked – if I had considered this that I might have pre booked some tickets. With no chance of being able to get on the train if there were any spare seats we decided to walk to the summit.

The walk from the train station to the start of the Llanberis walk (which is the longest but easiest) was easy enough then the ascent began and not being the most healthy person in the world I will readily admit that I found the going tough – this when still walking on tarmac roads. We soon turned off the road on to a path and the ongoing walk upwards.

As I was walking up I could see the trains going past and how I envied those lucky people being carried up to the summit. A lot of the way I was actually staring down at my feet as I walked as I found I was able to travel more ground instead of actually having to look at how far I had to go.

Stopped for a break at the Halfway House (halfway point) and was told that the ascent was a lot tougher at this point, and that it would take another couple of hours. I had also in the distance seen the trains going up the side of the mountain and the path that I would have to walk on to get to that point, However I pushed on hoping to get just a little further up Snowdon.

What seemed like a nightmare I pushed onwards and upwards, my friend way ahead of me and I am not sure if this was a good thing or not – sometimes you can cover more ground if you have someone to talk to on your journey.

One thing I will say is just how friendly everyone was on the mountain by offering words of encouragement or just a simple smile.

I did not make it to the summit due to time constraints and the fact that I was mentally and physically exhausted, today while typing this with my sore feet and legs I feel dreadful that I could not push myself that little extra to get to the summit but I know that the 20 minute walk would have take me at least an hour.

After resting for about 30 minutes the decent began and my idea that this would be easy was soon forgotten it actually felt that the journey back was longer – of course it wasn’t but this time I was racing racing against the setting sun to get to the base before sunset. This meant that there were no real rest breaks on the way down.

We started the trek up at 11am and got back to the base at 10pm!

What people need to consider is that this a mountain and can be very dangerous but it appears that because it is such a well know tourist attraction people come here unprepared.

Focus the DIY store has recently gone into administration, I had heard online that they had been unable to sell the business as a going concern so all the stock was to be sold off.

Since they announced the start of the sale the car park at my local store has been jam packed, I noticed the car park at the Focus branch in Pembroke Dock was also full. Out of interest and to see what sorts of bargains they had I called into the local Focus store a few days ago and the store was just as busy as the car park.

The reductions were from 10% to about 30% and having a quick look around the shelves even with the level of discount the items were still available elsewhere cheaper.

Yet the checkouts were busier than I had seen in a long time and it is a shame that those bargain hunters had not supported the firm prior to them going into administration – it reminds me of the days when Woolworths vanished from our high streets and everyone picking at the bones.