Virgin On The Ridiculous

You don't need me to remind you that the price of petrol and diesel has gone through the roof; with additional duty, followed by the increase in VAT; a couple of weeks ago.  This didn't bode well when I accepted a new contract, in Crewe.

Now back in the world of mobile phone retailing (for a large supermarket chain, where every little helps!) I travel from Manchester to Crewe on a daily basis.  Once upon a time, I used to drive almost the same journey for nearly 7 years.  The M60, the M62 and the M6.

My oh my!! The volume of traffic has increased exponentially over the interim years, and the journey has become nightmarish.  You may already have seen comments to that effect, on Facebook!

So, I decided to try the train.  This is as simple as a tram from my local station, to Piccadilly; then a lovely Virgin train, to Crewe; followed by a not-too-bad perambulate for the final 10 minutes.

The overall journey time is no quicker; but it means I don't get all stressed about sitting in traffic; I can read a book, or even doze for a few minutes!

With the price of fuel ever rising; it's also cheaper than driving; especially as there's no wear and tear on the car (or me!)  The walk is also proving to be quite beneficial; from a health perspective

As they say - everyone's a winner!!

I Can See Clearly Now

On Saturday I had my contact lenses fitted. It was a weird experience, followed by a short lesson on how to remove and refit them. It's quite unnatural to play with your eyes. There is such a strong reflex to protect them, through blinking. Over time I will get used to this, a countless others have before me. At the moment, I just need to persevere until I get used to it. Once they are in, it's amazing. There are no more 'edges' where the frames of the glasses were. Just plain vision.

I've been given one pair of lenses for the week, and 2 different types. Apparently, one is more comfortable (read 'expensive') than the other, but I wasn't told which. That way, I can make a more informed decision. I'll be going back at the end of the week for a check-up and to get the first lot of lenses.

It's been an interesting few days, and I'm slowly getting the hang of putting them in and taking them out; although first thing in the morning is not easy.
------
Facebook is taking off. I mean, it's already popular with millions, but a certain inertia seems to have taken hold, and 'friends' are popping out of the woodwork (so to speak). It's great to hear from them. My friend base has almost doubled overnight!
------
I went to the gym last night, and starting to feel it now. The pecs are tightening up. You know what that means, don't you. Yep - I'll have to go again.
------
Tesco are coming tonight. I love this delivery to your door thing. It's lazy, but after a hard days work, who wants to schlepp around a supermarket?
------
Right - that's enough chitter chatter. Back to work. More soon.

It's Day Two...

No, I'm not referring to Wimbledon, although Tim Henman has got his work cut out against Carlos Moya to remain in the Championship. It's a shame that Andy Murray had to pull out.

No. I'm referring the survival of Mickey the (Gold)Fish. Once again he has beaten the odds (and the strangely shaped vase) to survive another night. Phew!
------
Stopped at Tesco this morning to pick up some fruit and a sandwich for lunch. Also ended up with deodrant, Soreen, chewing gum and a 4-pack of J2O (Orange & Passion Fruit). Why can't I just buy what I need?
------
I've been thinking about the video I'm putting together for Center Parcs. I've sorted through the photos, and this evening will create a montage. I might even put it on You Tube; as a sort of teaser to the full video.
I have my own channel there.
You can also get to it via my other blog at http://www.jetpictures.co.uk/. This doesn't get updated as often, but I still use it to link through to my videos.
I also need to work out the credits for the video. They're always fun to think up.
------
Right - I'm at work, so I'd better look busy. Off to the machine to get a cup of coffee, then work out what I need to do today.
Don't work too hard.

Survival of the Fish Kind

It is with great relief that I can report Mickey alive and well this morning.

I was half expecting to find him floating at the top of the water, but, there he (or she) was, gently swimming around the vase.

Yes, a vase.

We don't own a goldfish bowl, or fish-tank, and so have resorted to a vase.

It's not round. But it is quite big, and should be sufficient for Mickey to have a good exercise.

------

Whilst I'm here, I thought I'd update you on my shares portfolio. You may recall that I invested in some shares a while back, and have been keenly watching the value ebb and flow with the stock market.

Well, things haven't been going so well. Everything has fallen in value, with my darling, Stagecoach, being the worst offender. OK, so I had a return of £40 when the dividend was paid, but then the quantity of shares was consolidated, so now I have less, with a much less return. In fact, the value now is a paltry fiver!

Tesco has slid backwards as well, worth just over a pound, and even Standard Life has reduced to just over £200.

BSkyB is holding on around the £12 mark.

BT were doing OK, but have also slid back.

Still - as I've always maintained, this is a long term investment, so hopefully things'll improve with time.

Twice In One Day

I just wanted to report on two things.

1. Today I invested in more shares. In Photo-Me International. They're cheap (75p), and they appear to be on the up. So, we'll watch and see. The Standard Life shares powered ahead, and even Sky didn't do too badly. Tesco, on the other hand, didn't fair so well, and was one of the FTSEs biggest fallers of the day. Stagecoach remained fairly static, as did BT.

2. The bath has now been installed in the bathroom. Maybe that should have been point number one.

That's all.

ShareWatch

Back on the 5th March, I wrote that I had invested some money in the stock market, when the prices fell due to issues in China.
Then, not long afterwards, the prices fell even further, and I started to think I'd made a big mistake. Oh, what a great start.

Anyway, over the last week or so, things have started to improve, and hopefully will continue to do so in the coming months. I wrote that I am in it for the long term, and I may look to invest more.

So, how are they doing.
Well - BT was slow, but appears to be growing
Stagecoach is my 'winner' at the moment, with a 14% gain
BSkyB was my worst buy - fingers crossed things get sorted soon in the Pay-TV row.
Tesco is doing alright too, with a 4.3% gain.

If you just make sure you subscribe to Sky and buy all your groceries in Tesco, I should be laughing. Oh, Stagecoach? They have a major stake in Virgin Rail, for which I booked tickets to London in June.
As for Standard Life (my freebies), they're at an all-time high, with a gain of 24.8% (or £136).

OK - so it's not big money. But it's fun, and I enjoy watching the rise and fall of the prices.

That Friday Feeling

Well, maybe it's too late for Friday, but anyway.

It's THAT weekend. My baby is going to be one on Sunday, but we're starting the celebrations early; i.e. today. As Sunday is going to be so busy, we're going to give him his presents today - well he doesn't know any different - in fact one of them needed to be put together and I've already done that. It's a Fisher Price giraffe, that should encourage him to pull himself up.

This afternoon, I took my oldest to Borders to buy a couple of books. He's recently got into Captain Underpants, and having read one of them the other day, I promised we would get another. So that was a pleasant little trip (plus he wanted to look in Game - he loves that shop).

I've just finished watching King Kong (the Peter Jackson version) which is why I'm still up. It's very long, but the effects are terrific, and there are some scenes that are totally computer generated. Beautifully done, but the scenes on the ship could have been shortened. I saw the original not long ago, and that was also great, and about half the length.

Apparently it's going to snow tomorrow. It tried this evening, when I went to Tesco, but since then nothing. I think we're going to get away with it.

Right then. It's late, and it's going to be busy tomorrow. Off to bed.

Sleep well.

Happy Hump Day

Yep. It's Wednesday. Halfway through the week at last. Once again I had to scrape the ice off my car, before heading to Tesco to get some nice fresh fruit (and the latest Empire magazine).

Hopefully, my Sky Broadband router will be delivered tomorrow (there was no-one in to receive it yesterday) and I can get going with them. At only £5 per month, this is almost £15 cheaper each month, saving a massive £180 per year. What can I spend that on?

Ah. Break over. Back to work.