You find me in Manchester for a second week. Same job. Same hotel. Same room. Same noisy fucking airplanes.  Not much to blog about, then.
So, texting (he said, going off at a tangent): I hate it.
Well, that’s not strictly true.  I’m not a big fan: I prefer to call people usually and actually talk to [...]

Amelia had a day out in London last week, having accompanied her best friend on one of her routine visits to Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. From there, they went to visit Buckingham Palace -which is once again open to tourists.  She returned home with her Buckingham Palace carrier bag, full of pamphlets and books, [...]

The wife’s car got broken into during the night.
Somebody smashed the side window, emptied the glove box and had a good ol’ rummage amongst all the crap on the seats (Mrs M doesn’t keep the tidiest of vehicles - I often refer to her car as the new Vauxhall Corsa Landfill).
So, what did they get [...]

My next door neighbour died this morning.
He’d been ill for a long time and over the past year, there has been a constant stream of carers - and every so often, an ambulance - parked outside the house.  This morning was no different, except that this time, rather than a wheelchair, he was stretchered out [...]

This kid rocks!
Take 4 minutes out of your day to watch this young fella in action.
Guaranteed to make you smile.
Clicky

I’m seated in the airport lounge, waiting for the board to change and show that we can make our way down to the gate. Sometimes I like to while away my time just by watching people.
The pretty girl with the improbably short skirt, seated opposite me, obviously catches my attention. But so do plenty of [...]

I was talking to a friend and ex work colleague on the phone today.I hadn’t spoken to him in quite some time.
“Oh, did you hear about Trevor?” he asked. When I replied in the negative, he  regaled me with a tale that left me almost speechless.
I’d worked with Trevor many times in the past on a [...]

This post wings it’s way to you all the way from bonnie Scotland. Although, there’s nothing bonnie about it as I type this. Looking out of my window of my room, in the Premier Inn at Glasgow Airport, all I can see is grey cloud and drizzly rain. And the concrete flyover for the M8.
Hopefully [...]

I was working in Salisbury yesterday and on the way back, found myself driving past a big pile of stones.
Now, I’ve never visited the henge before, so thought I’d take the opportunity to stop and imbibe some of its mystical power.
The place was crowded with lots of tourists: mainly Japanese, German and American, it [...]

Stories like this are thankfully rare, but they never fail to sadden and shock me.
Sadly, such atrocities seem to be on the rise.  It seems that every couple of weeks, I read about just such a thing… or something in a similar vein.
Stories of children suffering were always upsetting, but they’ve never affected me like [...]

I took the kids into town on Saturday, to do a bit of shopping.
Because I’m a tight-arse who doesn’t like paying to park my car, I parked it - as I often do - in a side road behind the Police station. It’s only a 10-minute walk from there - even at Harry’s dawdling pace.
Once [...]

I took the kids to school on Monday morning. En-route I stopped to pick up Amelia’s best friend, Katie.
As we drove along the girls started singing a playground song:
“Alison and Thomas sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g”
They laughed and I laughed along with them.
“We know another song, Daddy” said Amelia. I asked them to sing it.
“Alison [...]

So, what’s been happening this weekend in Chez Masher?
Decorating, mainly.
I have moved everything out of my small study room and placed it around the house. The computer desk and bookshelves are in the living room; there’s crap stuff under the stairs and in the kitchen, and the spare bedroom is chokka. I swear that study [...]

I went to the dentist earlier. I have a new one, as my old dentist buggered off to Dubai for more cash.
The  new one is quite delightful… and very pretty.
I lay back in the chair and stared up, into her gorgeous brown eyes, losing myself in her dusky beauty and feeling no pain at all [...]

As I mentioned in my previous post, staying in a hotel normally means I am working nights away somewhere.
Usually, by the time I rouse from my slumber, I have missed the opportunity to break my fast in the hotel restaurant.
But this week, I am working days, and so I have made a point of getting [...]

Not much to tell you about, so I’ll just bore you with where I am at the moment.
Leeds.
Bored yet?
I’m working up here for a few days. It hasn’t been good so far: almost everything that can go wrong with the project, has gone wrong with the project. Undoubtably, I shall have to return.
I’m staying in [...]

Burning those candles
I’ve been all over the place this week, it seems. And I’m tired, so goddamned tired.
I had three days of nightwork oop north at the beginning of the week. Nightwork isn’t usually a problem for me, but I do struggle to sleep during the day. This week, for some reason, moreso than usual. [...]

Even though I’ve mentioned it here before (actually, it was on the old site), somebody I was talking to at work yesterday, didn’t believe that I was once kissed on my leg by former Miss Whiplash, Cleo Rocos.
So when better to repeat myself - and provide photographic evidence at the same time [...]

When I arrived at the office this morning - in Northampton - I found my access card wasn’t authorised to let me in. A quick phone call to the security people told me that I’d have a bit of a wait before it could be sorted, so I went off in search of some tea [...]

Last night I was working in Oxfordshire.
The work didn’t go quite as smoothly as it should have and I was still on-site when the cleaner turned up at 05.30
He introduced himself as Reg.  He was an old boy, with a nose that made Karl Malden’s look like it belonged to a small girl… a small [...]

The more astute amongst you will have noticed that I am now halfway through my self-imposed annual challenge, to wit: post something up on this site every day for the whole month of February.
I haven’t mentioned it before this. I don’t know why. But, I’m pleased to see that I’m not alone and at least [...]

Did I ever tell you about the nutty woman? I wrote about her on my old site - as more of an essay than a blog post. But I don’t think she’s ever been mentioned here.
It was quite some time ago, when I lived in the house on the hill; just me and my German [...]

Mrs Masher went to a funeral yesterday.
It was for Nikki - a girl who worked at our local nursery as a carer.
Both Amelia and Harry went to that very nursery and  - along with a couple of dozen other kids - would have been looked after at times, by Nikki.
By all accounts, I believe she [...]

She was the prettiest girl in the school, right from the very first day.
Her blond hair shone like spun gold and her eyes were a piercing blue. The smallest of smiles from her perfect lips were enough to send any boy’s heart a flutter and mine did so on many occasions.
Though I’d seen her around [...]

Pie and mash and liquor has always been one of my favourite dishes.  My mum used to do it occasionally for us tea, but after I moved out, it was many years before I got to sample it’s savoury loveliness again.
It’s a traditional London food and the place where I’ve been working this week has [...]

This week saw Harry’s 5th birthday and yesterday, we threw a party for him.
As he’d invited every kid in his class, we hired the local church hall to hold it in. On Friday night, I picked up the keys from the caretaker. “Ahh, yes” he said, thumbing through his diary, “you have it booked for [...]

Golly, I haven’t written anything for a week!
Been busy.
I’ve been working away this week, down in Southampton. To save on all the driving, I booked myself into a Premier Inn for a couple of nights. It’s just off the M27. Next to Rownham Services.
Which is where you have to get your breakfast and evening meal. [...]

I got home from work yesterday, just in time to take the kids to their swimming lessons.
I don’t mind taking them and I enjoy watching them in the pool, but I do find the waiting around rather boring.
I was watching them from a window in a large room above the pool. A young, fit-looking chap [...]