The Mobile Strikes Back

Again.

I keep getting phone calls from numbers I don't recognise. You expect the odd wrong number now and again, but I never thought my number was so close to other peoples.

I think the worst one was when my phone went off at 2am. I didn't answer it, I just turned it off. You expect all sorts of drunken phonecalls at that time. The next morning when I looked at the number I was surprised to discover it was a landline, I thought it'd be a mobile looking for a taxi or something.

Just out of curiosity I put the number into google. I thought if anything could help me, it would be a search engine that picks up the most diverse things. Apparently the number belongs to a company on an industrial estate in Elgin, Scotland. Somehow I doubt they were working at 2am on a Saturday Morning.

I missed another one from a mobile number I didn't recognise at Lunchtime today. Somewhere along the way my number seems to have got really popular. I don't think I should be getting a warm glow from all of this, but I do like receiving lots of calls...

... just not at 2am. ;-)

12 of 12 June

I'm sorry abour missing last months 12 0f 12. I wasn't really feeling in any shape or form up to it last month. In fact last month can really be catagorised by a lack of anything. I'm beginning to feel better (and happier) now though, so I can now return to that world of a number no less than 11 and not greater than 13.
---

1. 01:45 am Approx

This is my mobile phone that sits on my bedsite cabinet. It doubles as my morning alarm during the week for work (as it has an alarm you can set for Monday - Friday). It has also just gone off! Well not just as this was written about 20 hours later, but I couldn't resist taking a picture at the time. It was actually a text message from Helen in reply to one I sent her earlier. I forgave her though as I did find a parcel on my doorstep yesterday evening contains a DVD she had bought me (V for Vendetta).

---

2. 06:50 Approx

Now this is more like my usual time to emerge from my room. This is my newly decorated bathroom. It's not quite finished yet as I still have to finish putting the floor down and accessorise it. All of the tiling is done though and the radiator and shower have been installed. You don't know how good it feels to be able to have a shower on a morning after all this time. The 5 weeks I couldn't use the shower seemed like a lifetime.

--- 3. 07:15 Approx

Breakfast. Currently breakfast is Muslei with pineapple chunks and slices of Banana. I've actually lost 1/2 a stone in the last month and I've put that down to tweaking my breakfast slightly. That and the illness anyway. ;-)

---
4. 07:40 Approx

I had to collect a parcel from my local sortting office as they had tried to deliver it while I was out last week. Our sorting office has some really annoying opening times. It is only open Monday - Saturday, 07:00 - 10:00 am. Also, parking there is a nightmare at those times as all of the postmen (and women) are there picking up there morning deliveries. Speaking of postmen, this one caught me taking a picture of the sorting office and wondered what I was doing. When I told him he insisted I take a picture of him in action instead. Unfortunately it turned out a little blurry, but here he is world:- Pete the Postman.

---
5. 09:30 Approx

I bought some new glasses the other week to replace my old ones that were starting to get a bit battered. In total they cost me £300, that's the frames + lenses which are thinner than normal. Plus the lenses are the type that go tinited in sunlight, which I'm finding very useful at the moment. The thin lenses were really a must as well, as my prescription is rather large. If I can find somebody to take my picture then I'll post a picture of me actually wearing them.

---
6. 10:45 Approx

My first cup of tea of the day. Work has been so hectic this morning as my boss is on holiday this week. I didn't actually sit down to have a cup of tea until mid morning. Of course you can't have a tea break without the obligatory chocolate biscuit. In this case the last 2 Jaffa Cakes from the bottom of our biscuit urn.

---
7. 13:40 Approx

During my lunchbreak I was trying to download maps to a friends PDA. These maps are Ordinace Survey maps (basically the most detailed maps of the UK) to use with his GPS so that when we go hill walking we don't get lost. They take absolutely hours to download which is why I'm doing it at work and not tying up my laptop at home.

---
8. 14:30 Approx


This is a machine for cremating small animals, mainly dogs and cats, although at the moment it is only half finished. It has 3 seperate chambers arranged in such a way that they all supply each other with heat. You can either bulk burn or you can individually cremate family pets. It depends on the owner. Pet cremation is a big business on the continent where this is destined.

---

9. 16:20 Approx

This is an Air Blast Cooler. It is used to cool down the water from big boilers that are used in the filtration plants we build. These plants are added to the cremators to clean the flue gases from the cremators of particulate (especially mercury). You could in theory use the heat from a cremator for a practical use rather than waste it by cooling it with a fan. But most places don't like the ethics of using waste cremation heat for things like heating the building. However in Sweden there are crematorium where the waste heat is re-used to heat nearby buildings.

---
10. 18:35 Approx

Ths is my parents house. On Tueday nights I perfrom my duties as a Civilian instructor with an ATC (Air Training Corps) squadron. I have been an instructor with the same squadron for 5+ years and when I moved house I didn't change to a different squadron. So I always visit my parents (and get fed) on my way to the Sqn on cadet nights.

---
11. 18:40 Approx

Me, in my new glasses. My sister kindly took this picture while I was my parents. I know they're fairly similar to my old ones, but I imagine everbody wonders if there new pair suits them. I don't pose well for photographs and it's not really the 'rugged' look. More the 'After work' look.

---

12. 19:35 Approx

This is the squadron building. And yes it is as small as it looks. We're currently an expanding squadron, rapidly outgrowing our current premises. We don't know when (if ever) we'll be getting new facilities that are more suitable to our current strength. If you want to know more about the ATC, then our website is here.

---

BONUS PIC: SECRET

As part of the ATC we have to know all the different security cleareance types in the military. We never need to handle anything with "Top Secret" stamped all over it, however there are one or two documents which have "Restricted" on top. Here's the only picture I can bring you as it's got "Unrestricted" plastered on top.

---

So that's it for another month. I hope this makes up in some way for missing last months 12 of 12. It's a little annoying that I can't claim a clean sweep of 12 of 12's this year, so I'm aiming for 11 from 12. Gods, there is so many numbers in this blog, I wonder if in the years somebody will read it and decided there is some secret code imbedded in all of this. Then they'll create a cult dedicated to the "Da Ellis code" and cities will crumble, thensociety falls into the abyss.

If you have read all fo this and have no idea why I did this, then pop over here and read Chad's blog.

Ill Again

Well not quite, I'm actually out of the sickbed and into the recovery position (ie the couch). It started on Thurday night during my Tai Chi lesson as my legs just felt like jelly. I got back home and didn't sleep at all that evening, I just couldn't stop shaking (like I was cold).

The doctor thinks I've caught (another) viral infection affecting the glands in my throat. It's basically a fluids, paracetamol and bed rest scenario and so it has proved this weekend. I'm starting to feel better, but I'm really annoyed that another weekend has gone by that I couldn't get stuff done. I've yet to start the floor in the bathroom and I really want to get this project finished. I can then get the house tidy again and stop it resembling a workshop.

At the moment I'm just tired, so hopefully if the recovery continues I might actually get somewhere this week.

Fingers crossed.