Save the words, for gods sake man! Save the words.

Yesterday I had the website http://savethewords.org/  brought to my attention.


A fabulous little site designed to highlight the number of words that are being eradicated from the English language every year.


I have personally adopted three of these words in an attempt to save them from the literary scrapheap.


The words I am attempting to save are below but in all honesty there are hundreds of words on there I would save given half the chance. 

I have adopted squiriferous, Snollygoster and Panchymagogue

Squiriferous – Having the characters or qualities of a gentleman.

After 30 years in the jungle living with monkeys, Mongo had lost his squiriferous manners, but he was a whiz at collecting coconuts.

Snollygoster – A shrewd, unprincipled person, especially a politician.

Instead of giving snollygosters the key to the city, it might be better to change the locks.

Panchymagogue – Medicine purging body fluids from the body.

I can’t belive you tongue-kissed Chris – here, you’ll need this panchmagogue.

Infuriation!

Infuriated, that is the only way to describe the feeling I currently have. I shouldn’t be, Millwall have started the season well, England are the no.1 test team in the world but neither of those can mask the outrage and disgust I felt on Saturday evening.

It was meant to be a few drinks in town with some friends, it was meant to be enjoyable, it was meant to make me realise that town wasn’t that bad, that a good night could be had.

I was hopeful when I left the house, I was still hopeful after an awful pint in walkabout, I was still hopeful as we sat in the Yard waiting for friends to come out of the stadium. The streets were full of people enjoying themselves, England fans mixing with Welsh fans, banter with the local police, the mood was good, the result didn’t matter. Wales had won, fair and square they were the better team, there was no sign of any public disorder. I was still hopeful. This was going to be good. We had got ourselves a good table at just the right time in the Yard.

Then it happened, we decided to leave the Yard, the girls wanted to dance, I wanted to carry on drinking so a decision was made. Reflex was the place to go, it would satisfy their desire to dance, I could get a drink and listen to some cheesy 80’s pop. Or so I thought.

I have never been so disgusted, we walked in, ordered our drinks and for the hour we were in there we were served up music from the current charts. I was expecting to be transported back to 1988, Reflex offered Cardiff something different to the bog standard Saturday night bar. Or so I thought.

My infuriation, has turned, from infuriation to disappointment. I feel let down. 

Housework is bad for you. FACT

Last week I thought I would do my bit around the house and hoover the stairs and the living room. BIG BIG mistake.

After doing it, I popped out and had the feeling that I pulled my hamstrings, by the next day my back was shot. I bit the bullet and paid to go and see a chiropractor. The verdict; torn Cartilage of the L4 vertebrae. The up shot of this is that standing up or walking for anything longer than 2 or 3 minutes is agony. Sitting creates the same problem, which leaves me prone in a 'V' shape on my back with my shoulders supported and my legs supported easing the pressure on my lower back. This coupled with a painkiller cocktail of Codeine, Paracetamol, Ibuprofen and Alcohol in varying measures seems to be keeping the pain at bay, just.

This has allowed me to read a couple of books in a week and rewatch the Lord of the Rings trilogy, epic films.

I did also watch a program over the weekend on more4 which gave the top 50 comedy characters of all time. I missed the first part so watched from 40 onwards. I will be giving my views on that seperately as it could go on a while.

I just have the feeling that this injury will continue to haunt me now, it seems like one of those that even after recovery will return again.

I certainly hope it doesn't because I cannot afford to keep paying a chiropractor.

Maybe it isn't all housework that causes these injuries but just to be sure I am going to avoid it all in the future.

Armed Forces Day

Another cracking Armed Forces day in Cardiff last weekend. A fantastic opportunity to show the debt of gratitude that we have for the Men and Women of our amazing armed forces. Protecting our freedom and liberties. It is amazing though, that people still protest directly against our Servicemen and Women. They fight for and protect the very freedom that allows people to protest.

Once again the people of South Wales were out in Force to support the day, despite the poor weather. There were some fantastic displays, from the The Royal Signal White Helmet Motorcycle Display Team through to the battle re-enactment and the Cadet Gun race in the middle, I probably shouldn't mention the defeat that was dished out to Cardiff, but I suppose teams in Cardiff have got used to defeat recently.

My only suggestion would be to move it back down to Cardiff Bay as opposed to Cooper's field.

We followed this with a mini bar crawl through Cardiff, well a day out in 'diff wouldn't be complete without it. Would it?

The boring bits

I should start with the boring bits (this could go on some time).

I have recently (running out of time to use that) turned 30 and even more recently got married to the most amazing person I have ever met. She really does make me the person I am today.

I now live in Wales but it has taken me a while to settle on Wales.

After finishing full time education I started working at a business travel agents, but the pay was awful so when the opportunity came to move into IT recruitment I took it and at 19 years old I was earning good money. Being 19 I also spent good money, mainly on boozing and nights out. After the millennium bug things slowed down and I decided to move on, I say move on it was more like jumping ship. I ended up training to be a croupier and landing a job for London Clubs. It was different to anything I had done before but it was a good job, paid reasonably well and the people were incredible, such a mix. Unfortunately that didn't last long, a hard night partying led me to break my ankle and after 6 weeks off work I went back and was made redundant (LIFO). A chance conversation with my local landlord had me applying to help them out behind the bar and in the cellar when they went away for two weeks. My first day involved Sam (crazy) pulling a gun on a group of holidaying South African coppers so I am surprised I went back the next day, but I did, and I loved it. When the managers came back I had a glowing reference from the assistant who had been running the place and I was duly offered a position as trainee assistant manager.

From there, I never really looked back and when the landlord took a position at a pub in Wales and offered me a job I went. I was there 6 months initially but it wasn't really working so I moved back to London. As soon as I got back to London I regretted it so when the call came offering me the job back in Wales I bit their hands off. Within two months of being back I was on my first relief and before long I was pretty much covering all the pubs in the area. The opportunity to open a new pub (again as assistant) then arose in Barry. Before long I was "reliefing" for Barracuda bars.

I'd had enough, enough of living out of a suitcase in B&B's with people I didn't know in towns I didn't like. I wanted to get home, home to Wales, because it felt like home, I had been there five years, had friends, had a place to live, had a life. A life that was slowly drifting by as I worked in Chesterfield followed by Colchester, no days off, no time for anything but work. I quit, I had to. I had no job to go to, but I would be alright.

I got a job 4 and half years ago (wow that time has flown by) and at the time it was for a couple of months until I found something else. Well I am still here but not really looking for anything else, other than the elusive lottery win.

Well that's the boring stuff, I hope my next post(s) are a lot more interesting than this one has been but we will see.

A change of heart

After some careful deliberation (and realistically harsh realisation) I am going to continue writing a blog but it is going to be a general blog.

I am no Bill Bryson, whatever made me think that I would be able to write anything that would be a fraction as interesting as someone like Bill. So with that in mind, if you do read my blog, you are going to have to put up with my general ramblings about life in general, or more acurately, my life, my world and what happens in it.

It will probably involve lots of thoughts about sport, general moans etc etc.

The Reasons

I love travelling, I love it as an escape to the way day to day life can fade and drift into one. Week fades into week, month into month and the year passes by before you even realise it has started.

Travel breaks this and brightens up the everyday and brings new opportunities.  Opportunities to learn and explore. The thought of seeing a part of the world that I have never seen before or meet people I have never met before and learn about different cultures, excites me, more than that, it drives me.

I don’t know when I got this bug, maybe it was when I was younger and I was lucky enough to see lots of exciting places both with my parents and with my school. Or maybe it is just a thirst for knowledge but my laziness forces me away from books and into feeling, touching, tasting and genuinely living the experience. 

Why did I want to start a blog, well, I have been lucky (extremely) to see parts of the world that some people may never get the chance. I continue to be lucky in the fact that my wife likes to see the world as well.  We both work hard to save money to go on the trips that we really enjoy, with a little help along the way from Mr. Visa and Mr. Barclaycard.

My plan is to write about as many of my trips and cover as many places as I have been as I can (as I can remember really) . Any and every trip I take that involves going somewhere other than my normal day to day life I hope to cover.

I suppose the main reason for writing this is to stop me from forgetting.  I hope you enjoy reading this as much I am going to enjoy writing it.