Everyone has something up with them just now Lincoln has chapped lips Reagan has an absess under one of the teeth she is waiting to have removed, and Mommy keeps getting dizzy which is possibly due to low blood pressure.

I have made an appointment to see a doctor again about the lumps I have under my right arm which I have now got under my left arm too now? It’s concerning me what they are because they did get better on the right although they didn’t go they just weren’t painful but those and the ones on the left have been painful for a couple of days now. I just can’t ignore them even though the last thing I want to do is go to the doctors….

Work can be very trying right now because the company I work for believe a one size fits all way of changing the IT infrastructure to their preferred solution, but with our existing set-up they just can not install the way they normally would and expect to continue trading during that period.

I have tried to tell the suits what will happen if they carry out the planned conversion, in the way they want to, it would bring the company to its knees. There has always been resistance to believing what I was telling them was true, it was like they thought I was being obstructive? That could not have been further from the truth, I care about what I do and could see catastrophe heading our way and was just making them aware of it.

Finally the suits have realised that what they were going to do was wrong and carrying on in that direction was stupid. It took some brave people to stand up and tell them, they had made a mistake but more importantly for them to admit it. This meeting happened in the last couple of months and today I met with 3 IT people tasked with moving the project forward and within 20 minutes of meeting them not only had they listened to what I was saying they also understood that I was right and 3 hours later we had a plan they could take back to the suits and explain and they were so relieved that what they were being made to do was unnecessary and the destination was achievable in stages and with little down time.

It does not matter how we got here and I take no pleasure in finally making all those people who didn’t listen realise I was right all along…well maybe a little pleasure hehe! I would have loved to have been in the meeting when my arch nemesis was told the software she hand picked and she put all the companies resources behind “it’s shit and not fit for purpose!” now that would have made me happy!!!

Tomorrow is another day but today I won…

Having arranged with Lincoln’s school, on Thursday to allow him to store his saxophone and ukulele at school so he didn’t have to carry them from and to Nannies on Friday while we went to London I let him down today. We had agreed that I would meet him out of school to help carry them home but it never occurred to me especially working in Warrington it just never crossed my mind.

I do not like letting any of my family down because I would do anything for any of them but today I failed one of them and left him to walk home carrying a heavy burden.

Sorry buddy!

Got a call tonight off the Grim Reeper or as I’ve known him all me life, Lance. If Lance phones me someone has usually died and tonight I assumed he was calling to tell me Debbie Farrington had passed away but I knew about that one so when I picked the phone up I was prepared for that and opened the conversation with telling him I’d heard about her demise from drugs a couple of weeks ago when it happened.

For him to reply with no this is worse Pinhead was found dead in bed this morning probably been there a couple of days absolutely floored me.

Pin was Debbie’s next older brother who I  had not seen since Pete Farrington’s funeral 18 months ago so out of 6 children 3 have passed away and Debbie’s funeral is not until next Friday?

From when I was at school playing darts in pubs and more specifically in Potbank club I became friends with the Farrington’s Pin, Pete & Mike and  Rob who I hung around with aswell as Spike  Lance, Trev, Bucko and we spent a lot of time together for years and would have considered Pin one of my best friends back then. We all eventually went our separate ways and although our paths cross occasionally we lost touch, it sad to think that the people who made me who I am in some ways are no longer part of my life and haven’t been for many years but that’s life I guess.

Although sad I fondly reminisce about those days  and the great times we spent together but also think how different we all were too. Pin, Lance, Spike Trev and me were into punk music Pete was into rock as was Mike and Rob but we all liked the pub and they were my gang. Debbie was always around because of her brothers and many others were bit part players in the crowd but the core group hung together every night.

Pete and Trev passed away in 2021 from a heart attack and cancer respectively and both were shocking and unexpected.

Drugs were around at the time and I know I was the only one who didn’t try them out of all of the names above. Spike was a willing participant and succumbed many years ago Debbie a couple of weeks ago but I am not sure how much the rest took but for me alcohol was enough and I think Pin was the same so we just got on well.

He got a stomach illness which his dad Herbert suffered from a few years ago and I don’t know whether that has anything to do with his passing but I guess we’ll find out

REST IN PEACE PIN!