Geoff's Bit About Him

The car is playing up again.  I say again, this is a little unfair really, the last time it played up was over two and a half years ago.  But, it was exactly the same fault.

That time it was fixed under warranty, this time I may not be so lucky and may be faced with a £750 bill!!!  Sodding strong letter to Saab UK if I have!

 

Just learnt today that for the last couple of years I've been wearing the wrong size motorcycle helmet.  This is a pain on a couple of accounts.  Firstly I've only had that helmet two years so would rather not replace it, although I ought to really.  And secondly, I don't really want to be spending £300, especially if I'm going to have to spend £750 on the flipping car.

 

I was wanting to order a sofa as well - not sure if I'm going to be able to do that now!  We shall see, hoping that Saab will apologise for the same problem with the car and agree to pay.  We shall see.

 

Anyway, I have some feet to rub apparently, so I'm going to make this one a short one.

 

Cheers for reading

 

Geoff B

Well another Christmas has now passed us by with little or no changes in life generally apart from a diminished bank balance ...... as normal!

My Christmas has been somewhat unusual and yet also very nice; I have actually had one of the most relaxing Christmas’s that I can remember.  Christmas Day was especially relaxing which has to be a first for me.

My lady and I decided to forego the usual “run around like headless chickens” Christmas Day and to instead take advantage of the extremely quiet roads and mildish weather that this year had to offer and spent the day on our motorcycles.

We spent the morning with her on her little 125 getting some practise in, in readiness for her test, (which I don’t believe will be too long in the booking of) and then the afternoon on my 1300 for a ride over the passes of Yorkshire, in particular Woodhead and the infamous Snake Pass.  The latter especially was a lot of fun, despite having to keep my speeds below three figures for fear of being caught in the new 50mph speed limit!!

We stopped at Glossop, only to find that Glossop was pretty much closed.  There was a hotel open, but they were apologetically only serving to guests.  One of whom incidentally, was Jesus himself.  He was quite drunk and appeared to well on his way to becoming very drunk.  He was a nice guy and was wearing what appeared to be a very nice suit, had a very strong handshake and even blessed me as I left.  Ok, it is quite possible that his name wasn’t actually Jesus, but he told me that it was his birthday and I made the obvious presumption.

Following our ride out, we came back to mine where we spent a very quiet and pleasant evening watching the new Batman film (ace!) and having our Christmas dinner, which due to the time and the fact that neither of us could be particularly bothered cooking was a pizza for her and a burger for me!!

But hey, the rest of the day had been extremely relaxing and fun and we had no intention of spoiling that by spending two hours plus in a hot kitchen simply to eat a meal that neither of us really wanted but tradition dictated that we should!!  Sod tradition!

Then yesterday was spent at my parents, eating, drinking and chatting.  I can see that my parents like my new young lady, which is a good thing, especially my Mother who is clearly very fond but also my Dad, who has now mentioned a couple of times that she is a very pretty lady indeed.  Hands off Dad, she’s mine!!

I have to say, I’m very fond as well!!  Indeed, and I have to be careful what I say as she does read this, but I do feel that I could be beginning to fall for this lass.  It is still only a couple of months that we have been seeing each other, but she could well be someone who I could “be with” if you understand.

She’s very nice, funny, interesting and yes, very pretty, nae, gorgeous and I love spending time with her.

Saying this, we were joking last night about marriage and she did tell me that she’d consider marrying me if I asked.  I’m pretty sure (he says!!) that she was joking, but even so, it scared me a little lol!!

Ok, it’s obviously far too early to be thinking of things like that, but that’s not the reason it scared me.  It wasn’t the thought of marrying her that scared me either, but rather the simple thought of getting married again lol ........ I still do believe that some people are made for marriage and some aren’t.  I tried it, it didn’t work and I am now of the opinion that I am one of the latter lol!!

Anyway, gonna leave it at that.  We are going to spend a short time on the bikes again this morning and then we are going to hers to cook dinner and to see her cat.  So I’m going to love you all and leave you.

Cheers for reading

Geoff B

It has been a good week.

 

As well as putting nearly four hundred miles in on my bike over the weekend, my new lady friend and I have been seeing each other a fair bit and it seems to be going very well.  I can't believe that not only have I met a girlfriend who is happy for me to go off on my bike, but actively encourages it ....... or at least if I am happy for her to come along as well lol!  I can put up with that lol!!

 

We had a discussion yesterday evening and agreed that trying to see each other every day is not only going to prove very difficult, but could also hurt our relationship in the long term.  As such we have agreed that a few times a week is probably a good compromise.

I'm happy with that.  After all, absence makes the heart ..... etc etc!!

 

To be honest I am struggling a little.  I keep having to remind myself that it has only been a couple of weeks, but I am in serious danger of falling for this girl in a big way.  I wouldn't say I was there yet, after all, too many people use the term 'love' far too frequently and easily, but if things continue as they are this could easily be a word I may be using in the not too distant future.

 

Suddenly I make myself feel nervous lol!

 

Mr Weatherman is threatening arctic conditions for this coming weekend which is a pain.  I'd like to get some more miles on the bike, especially if my new lady friend is able to come along as well.  But with anticipated temperatures of less than four degrees, it wouldn't be a pleasant ride at all.  May have to suggest that we spend the day curled up on the sofa together instead ......

 

She bought some more gloves yesterday and they were quite expensive.  Ok, she was pretty determined to come out of the shop with some gloves, but I feel a little guilty for not talking her out of buying the ones she did as I do feel she could have got away with a cheaper pair.  We shall see, if they do the job then she may be very happy with them.  If she isn't then I'll be doing my utmost to get her money back for her.

 

I am considering treating her next weekend anyway.  Can't put too much info on her as she does read my blog.  Will post how it all goes.

 

Watching the news on tv at the moment.  They are on about the Shannon Matthews case.  Ok, I don't want kids, been there, done that and got the t-shirt!  But really, some people just don't deserve kids, they really don't.  I am glad I've never met any of these people as I could find myself getting very angry, very quickly.  Anyway, not going to spoil a very positive blog with too much doom and gloom!!!!

 

Best start getting ready for karate.

 

Cheers for reading

 

Geoff B

Well things have taken an unexpected turn for the much, much better!  Suddenly, it would appear that life is pretty good.

My “friend” that I mentioned in my previous blog has since become somewhat more of a friend.  It is still very, very early and so I’m not making any long term presumptions.  But so far, it is looking good.  Certainly, my concerns about the suggestion of a kiss, were completely unfounded and perhaps even totally unnecessary.

Am I in love?  I’ve “been” with this lady for one week, so without wanting to upset the lady, no.  Could I fall in love with this lady?  Again, this early on it is difficult to say, but yes, I believe I could.  Which is, quite frankly, a little scary!!  It is a long time since I’ve felt that way about anyone.

I have always been a fan of the word ‘enamored’ though.  The definition of enamored is to be captivated and/or being willing to pursue love.  In this case, then yes, I suspect that I am enamored!!

It is still early though as I mentioned above.

When I told the guys at work today, the first thing that Judi, our secretary, asked was “Will she be coming to the work’s Christmas do?”  Well, I kid you not when I say that the question left me stumped a little at first.  Did I want her to come to the do, or more specifically, did or indeed do I want to still be with her in four or five weeks time?  As I feel at the moment, yes, definitely!  But can I say where this “relationship” will be in another month, no, not really.  Am I even able to say whether she would want to come with me to something like a work’s Christmas do a month after starting to see me, no again.

The answer was simple of course.  I told our secretary to book another place and if she is there, then she is there and if she isn’t ....... then she isn’t!

But I tell you, my kind readers, something.  I am feeling very good right now and I have my fingers well and truly crossed.

Who is this strange fella you may ask?  Yes, it is me and yes I haven’t blogged for a year and a half now.  No real reason for that I suppose, just that I have been so busy over this time that I have forgotten about it.

I have though decided to start again for a number of reasons.

I went out to a cold fireworks display last night with a friend and afterwards we went for a drink and a chat before heading home.  It was during this drink that she mentioned that she had read my blog and enjoyed what she had read.  At first I was a little confused, but then remembered that I was, at one time, a persistant blogger and indeed enjoyed doing it.

Whilst being away I am afraid that I have lost contact with some good friends, some living a long way away, some not so far and some very near indeed.  Far too near my my loosing contact to be considered reasonable and for this, Lou, I am sorry.  I will ring sometime.

So what have I been up to this last year and a half.  Well, in one word, loads!

I bought a new motorbike early last year with the plan of going on a trip with it.  Well, that plan of one trip turned into a plan for several trips.  Indeed in the last year and a half I have taken my bike to Wales twice, Scotland once, Spain, Portugal (nearly lol), France several times, through Belgium to Germany, and an amazing fortnight in the Alps of Austria and Switzerland.  All within eight separate trips!

Bought brand new last January, my bike now has over twenty thousand miles on it with the plan to stick many, many more on top of that.

Also, work is going far better than it was a couple of years ago.  I have been recommended for promotion and although the “credit crunch” has hit us a little bit, we are still ticking over quite nicely with the workload running in serious peaks and troughs.

We did lose a major client earlier in the year and frankly this was because we, as a company, didn’t provide as good a service as we could have, or indeed should have.  By the time the scheme had progressed to the point where I would be involved, the mistakes had been made and the damage done and in a couple of incidents serious problems had resulted from this.

But that aside, we haven’t suffered as bad as I was expecting.  As I mentioned above, I have now been recommended for promotion again which will probably result in my own profit centre as well as a very good pay rise and will result in me being an Associate within the company.

I am still single and I am again starting to think of having someone else in my life.  I did go through a long period where I was perfectly happy on my own and even now, although I would again like to have someone special, I am not thinking of anything like living together etc.  Just some form of relationship that is more than simple friendship.

Which leads me to another other reason for blogging again.

My friend mentioned above and the fact that last night I did something really silly.  We have been chatting for a while now and yesterday was the second time we met.  And she is lovely!  She is nice, both physically and personally.

Anyway, we had a nice evening, which I am afraid I spoilt a little.  I am afraid that at the end of the night, I made a pass at her.  Well, a kind of a pass!  I didn’t suggest we sleep together or anything like that, that would be really silly and I ain’t that sort of person.  But I mentioned that I would of liked to kiss her.  I also mentioned that I wasn’t going to, or even try to, just that I would like to.

That was silly.  Really silly.  I shouldn’t have done that and I am really, really kicking myself.

Already I do value her friendship.  And to be honest, although I would be very pleasantly surprised, I don’t actually expect this friendship to turn into anything else.  For one thing, although I can’t actually put my finger on what it is, I do feel that we are a little different in some way and I don’t feel that she would normally go for someone like me.  But also, she is a lot more attractive than me and although I know I am perhaps putting myself down a little, she could do better!

But I do want to get to know her and I would like her to be, at least, a good friend and I like to feel that I am mature enough to accept no more than that.  But now of course I am worried that my stupidity could have in some way ruined this.

Actually, this has hit me a little.  Silly?  Yes, but it has.  I have actually rung in today to let them know that I am working at home today.  Mainly because of this but also because I do feel a little under the weather, quite possibly related!

I think one reason why this has affected me so badly, is because I have done this before and the incident really reminded me of what I did then.

My best friend’s girlfriend, had a very attractive sister.  Now firstly, I should point out that this was a long time ago and I was much younger.  I was 22, but worse, the sister was only 17!

My friend, his girlfriend and myself wanted to go for a weekend motorbike trip camping and the sister wanted to come as well.  With me having a spare pillion seat and a roomy tent this wasn’t a problem.

However, when we started pitching our tents I was a little surprised to learn about the sleeping arrangements.  I had presumed that it would be boys in one tent and girls in another, but learning that the sister would be sharing my tent with me, I am embarrassed to say I got the wrong impression.  What I didn’t know was that this was simply because my mate and his girlfriend wanted to be together and the sister had been convinced that I was trustworthy.

It is at this point I should point out that I didn’t actually make a pass or anything like that, but that wasn’t the point.  When the two of us were alone briefly that afternoon, I had a quiet word with her about us not really knowing each other and that I was happy to take things slowly.  But we were going to share a tent and I was hoping that something would happen and she clearly knew this and this scared her.

She of course told me that she wasn’t interested at which point I felt really bad.  I tried to convince my friend that it should be boys in one tent and girls in the other, but couldn’t bring myself to explain why and so him and his girlfriend didn’t feel it was necessary.

As such that night, the poor young girl had to get partially undressed and go to sleep alongside a man who she didn’t really know, but who she knew did find her attractive.  She was quite a small girl and without being boastful, I am a fairly well built fella and if I had of been the sort of man to “force” myself onto her, I could have easily and I am sure she knew this.

Of course, I’m nothing like this and so nothing happened, but she was clearly very, very scared.  I apologised the next day but the damage was done.

I have never really forgiven myself for that weekend, despite it being nearly twenty years ago and the incident last night, although some may consider it fairly minor, really reminded me of it and of what a ba**ard I am occassionaly.

Anyway, I’m off to actually do some work.

Cheers for reading.

 

Geoff B

I love my work and yet I am not happy AT work - the reason has struck me following learning a few interesting facts - ambition.  I have always thought that ambition was a good thing, but I have learnt that ambition can become too strong.

When you learn that 'friends' within my team have issues with how you manage that team, that I can live with.  No one's perfect, least of all me and if I have made mistakes then this only proves that I am human.  However, I expect 'friends' to tell me that I have made these mistakes as I would them.

 

I have always known that certain people are not to be trusted as these people are perfectly happy to do vicious things to their fello colleagues in order to guarantee their progression.  I have recently realised that perhaps the reason I haven't progressed as well as others is simply because I won't do this - maybe this restricts me professionally, but at least my conscience is clear.

 

However, when I learn that 'friends' have sent quite vicious emails to senior management about me in order to try and improve their position then that hurts.  Then when those 'friends' continue to act as though they are your best friend it leaves me extremely disappointed.  It also leaves me even more resolute to push for progression myself and if this fails then it is truly time to leave.

 

On another note I have had a comment left regarding our hatred of the daily routine.

 

We all do it - day in day out, get up, go to work, come home, have tea, get a wash, go to bed!!  Yet we all have dreams, things we would love to do, places we would like to go but generally we don't do these things or go to these places.  Why do we do it?

 

I have a theory that it is all because of modern society and what it is commonly accepted is ok to do in order to be a member of this society.  People talk about their dreams; travelling around the world, moving to hotter climes, a holiday always wished for etc but society tells us that we should put family, work and neighbourhood first and our dreams can wait.

 

But I say sod that!  The truth is we can have our dreams and if done sensibly they don't have to be at the expense of family etc.

 

I have been there, I spent seven or eight years putting my wife and her kids before anything else and society told me I was doing right.  It wasn't until my marriage was over that I realised that I had in reality spent those years totally ignoring what I wanted.

 

I had a nice motorcycle parked in the garage which was my pride and joy.  I loved riding my bike and yet did less than 10,000 miles over the full eight years.  I love motorcycle touring and yet took the bike no further from the house than the coast, 70 miles!  I stopped playing snooker, lost contact with many friends and was only able to do karate by taking the boys.

 

And besides all this felt I was doing the right thing.

 

Nonsense!!  I have now learnt that I was wrong.  The only thing stopping me from doing the things I wanted to was me.  Since then I have put me first and life is much better.  However, people still seem to consider me as a generous, helpful fella which tells me that I can have fun and still think about others.

 

And if I can do it, anyone can.

 

I now have a new policy for life.  If I have the money and the time, I do it.  The money; I can't take it with me and I could get run over tomorrow, so as long as I ain't borrowing for my pleasures, why worry.  The time; I can't turn back the clock so would I rather look back at yesterday with a smile and a laugh or with the knowledge that yesterday was no different than any other day?

 

So my advice is live your dreams, you can't do yesterday again.

 

Cheers for reading

 

Geoff B

 

On a last note - I fancy organising a motorbike trip to the south of france, anyone want to join me??

Oh wow!!!  Really, sorry one and all.

Nearly six weeks and I haven't said hello, that's awful.

All I will say is that I have been ill - pretty poorly actually.  Started about five weeks ago with a bad cough, that developed into a full blown flu which knocked me for six.  I seemed to be getting over that a few weeks ago, but was left with blocked ears, this developed into a nasty ear infection which led me to go see the Doc.  He told me off for not going sooner and warned me that even with drugs my infection would get worse before it got better.

Very true cos this infection spread into my throat and then my chest which left me having difficulty breathing half the time, in a lot of pain and deaf as a doornail.

Well happy to say that apart from still being a little deaf in my right ear, everything seems to have cleared up.

 

Really glad to say as well because I am hoping to go off for a long weekend on me new bike sometime within the next few weeks before I go on my two week (nearly) trip touring Spain that I have booked myself on.  Jeez, I'm looking forward to this.  This very evening I have laid out absolutely everything that I am planning on taking from chain lube down to painkillers (in case) and have practised packing and re-packing it all into my panniers and topbox.  Got it sorted now with loads of room to spare should I decide to bring things back.

 

Saying this, I am going to have to take pretty much the same stuff for a long weekend away.  The thing I learnt a long, long time ago about motorcycle touring is that packing for a few days is not much different to packing for three months!!  On a bike you simply don't have the space to pack a clean set of underwear and t-shirt for each day of your twenty eight day touring the USA.  So do what I do, pack no more than four or five changes and if you are going to be longer than that, wash them!

 

Also found out that my landlady is definitely going to put the house on the market, so I need to move out.

 

Things getting busier and busier at work, too busy a lot of the time actually - I have noticed that apart from the fact that I am feeling a lot more stressed recently, everyone else is as well.  Need to get another bod, pretty soon.

 

Anyway, thought I would drop in and write - will make a point of bobbing around to say hello to people individually.

In the meantime, farewell.

 

See you all later.

 

Geoff