New Sock Day!

Like anyone that works in an office I have an assortment of dark coloured socks that are missing a partner. There is the morning ritual of seeking a whole pair from those recently dried. Even when there are two that match in design, pattern and material, one appears to have faded more than the other, although quite how this happens I am not sure.

Every year or so I go on a sock buying binge to banish this hoserial curse. This year it was different, I did it by e-bay. I ordered twelve pairs each of two different kinds (just to be safe you understand). The first consignment arrived this morning and after test driving a pair all the old office-work-formal socks were binned. Hot sock tip: Either buy a lot of pairs of exactly the same socks, or pairs of socks that are so different that you can match them up in a dark room, in a darker mood, with a hangover, a cold sweat and only five minutes to get out the door. It saves frustration, workday embarrassment or both. Anyway, you are probably asking yourself why I am sock rich......

I start the new job on Monday which after six months off is much needed mentally and financially. Although we have had to pack up a few places and move about quite a bit since my previous employer shut. They still owe me a considerable amount of money, which is a pity as I think I'll have to sell my motorcycles and possibly my place in Gibraltar to finance the wedding and our condo in Toronto.

We bought a car yesterday so Laura will be fully mobile while I am at work and able to spend her time fruitfully traipsing the aisles of England's feminine footwear vendors' emporia and other such noble pastimes.

For those wondering: The shin befronting the muscular calf in the right foreground is my own. Ladies should use caution when viewing this photo as I am no longer available merchandise.

About ten days ago I flew back to the UK. It was proving impossible to find a decent job in Spain given the political climate in the US that is impacting on the business sector I have worked in for the last five years. I have reluctantly left Laura with my friend Ken but she'll be flying here soon. I have had a few interviews and am waiting to hear if there are any positive results. I'm not really keen on anything I've found yet, but I've never really looked at work as something to enjoy, it's just what you've got to do to enable life.

I am very grateful to my friends who have really pulled for me recently, Ken, Dave and Amanda are all helping. It's hard not to feel a little dispondant, but I know something will turn up soon.

I'm looking forward to getting back on a motorcycle after a year out of the saddle and looking forward to seeing my wonderful soon-to-be-wife at the airport later in the week.

Laura was running a mop around the bathroom the other day. She moved the laundry bin and behind it was a little Gecko. He, a presumption as I am not able to determine Gecko genders, was so scared he dropped his little tail and scampered off to hide, leaving his now detached tail wiggling on the floor. A little while later, Laura caught him and released him in the living room. I could not get a rational explanation for his release in the living room rather than outside, but she has a thing about creatures, desiring to touch, hold and make friends with anything that isn't a spider. Personally I think that with the sole exception of cats, any creature inside the house should be hot, dead and covered in gravy.

Unless something somewhere warm turns up soon, I think that we may have to return to the UK, where I shall prostitute my brain for the filthy lucre in IT contracting. Which to be honest, money apart depresses me enormously.

So apologies for my prosaic hiatus. The company I worked for in Costa Rica that kept me in Canada shut down. So I packed up my apartment in Toronto and moved all my stuff into Laura's parents house, tripped down to San Jose, Costa Rica said goodbye to some friends and packed packed my chattels into four suitcases, flew back to Toronto and helped Laura pack up her apartment. The available ground floor space in Laura's parents house has been reduced by 50% and their lounge reduced to an assault course of our bags and boxes. We left three apartments in the space of three weeks and flew to the UK to say hello to the family and then on to Spain where my friend Ken has very kindly put us up while I look for my next job.



Ken is working on Laura's health issues and has her taking Vitamin C every eight hours, CoQ10, Evening Primrose Oil, ginseng and Silibinin. The current train of thought is that the root cause to Laura's vast array of medical issues is liver malfunction. Although what caused this is unknown. These supplements seem to improved Laura's thyroid function. When Laura and I first met she used to get heart palpitations and shake when she was tired, which I recognised as a calcium deficiency due to her diet. When we applied the SCD diet and and started her on increased Vitamin C and Calcium amongst a general vitamin and mineral regime. This sorted out her heart palpitations, shakes and showed some improvement in intestinal problems. Her thyroid seemed to improve a little and her Doctor suggested a decrease in her thyroid supplement from 180mg per day to 120mg. This left her tired and listless but she was OK on 150mg. After being on the Ken regime for two weeks Laura has been able to reduce her thyroid supplement to 60mg per day, with no ill effects so there are some definite improvements. We hold out hope for a complete cure.

Anyway, we are in sunny Spain and taking day trips out to various places of interest. We recently visited a Moroccan festival at a town in the hills near Monda. The street lights were all turned off and the town was lit by candles every few inches along the sides of the road and lining the balconies. The town squares were filled with stalls selling all sorts and there was a magical air about the who affair.

We have tripped out to see Seville, Ronda, Gibraltar, Castellar de la Frontera and other nearby sights. I had a couple of interviews last week, but no news yet and I am still being courted by a start-up in Canada that still don't have the money to run the project. So we'll hang out here a little longer. If nothing has turned up in Spain by the end of October, I'll renounce gaming and go back to IT contracting for financial services companies in London. The gaming world pays well enough to keep us in a warm country with a low cost of living. But if we go back to the UK then I'll go back to the far more lucrative world of banking.

A while ago I received this handy good wife guide. It was in the hands of an angry female colleague shocked at the subservient domestic home goddess approach displayed therein. I started reading it and became not a little impressed with the sound advice offered by the author. Then I noticed that it is dated 1955. I hope attitudes haven't changed since then. I must show it to Laura and pin it up on a wall in a prominent place or something, after all, we will be getting married and I hope she gets it tight. Click here or on the image to see the full version.

Something that Laura will definitely not be allowed to see is this. It is a sad and shocking indictment of Christian womanhood and perfectly explains the demise of religion in the West. Well it does if it's true.

I have left Costa Rica for the last time, for a long time. Someone new will soon be enjoying the views over Santa Ana from what was my terrace. It was sad to leave, somehow I feel cheated, I never had the time to get that motorcycle and explore the mountains as I had wanted. I left some things at the apartment, the landlady said goodbye to me and gave me a painting from the apartment that I had always liked.

I got to the airport and the problems started, a change in dates meant a charge had been added to the already enormous excess baggage fee and this needed to be paid in cash as my credit card doesn't seem to work at San Jose airport, even though it works everywhere else. This was sorted out by Pauline, the formidable yet diminutive New Yorker that arranges all my travel. She is phenomenally cool at fixing flights and someone that should you work in the industry, you should treat with the greatest respect. It took two hours to sort this out and in compensation they upgraded me to Business Class. The company I worked for always flew me cattle class, the Directors however were unable to lower themselves for this economy and most of them were unaware that there was anyone sat behind the curtains on the plane. Due to the recent terrorist scare in London, security had been tightened to the point that the queue stretched out of the airport. On arrival at Toronto Pearson airport at the centre and unconnected terminal, I positioned myself on the bus to terminal one so that I would be at the front of the queue at immigration control. I wasn't. I had landed just after two Jumbo jets full of visiting school children from China and Singapore. Everyone of whom was sent through to the interview room to have a chat with another one of the semi-evolved chimps of the Canada Border Services Agency as I was. Most of them were in front of me in the queue and I had to wait an hour to repeat the same thing to another one of these mentally subnormal cretins, that unable to get a real job, decided to work for the gorvernment. I couldn't phone Laura, who was waiting for me as they block cellphones in that room. The CBSA guy did, he asked if she knew me and what I did for a living and other questions that would safeguard the country of Canada from IT Project Managers and other people that know what they are doing. Eventually he stamped my passport for 6 months as they always do and I went through and answered the same question set with another group of these sphincter probers at customs. Two and a half hours after landing, I finally emerged from the arrivals doors to be greeted by Laura. She was looking phenomenal, elegant and refined in a black dress and some rather naughty shoes she had bought before I'd left for Costa Rica the previous week.

Between the two of us, we have moved out of three apartments in the last three weeks. Tomorrow, we leave for the UK and by the end of next week we'll be in Spain where we shall enjoy the last rays of summer while awaiting the next job. Which could be anywhere.

For those of you that found the timing of my last two posts confusing, I am actually in Costa Rica as we speak (or more correctly, as I write). I woke up this morning with agonizing pain in my right leg and serendipitously happened on a couple of intellectual blogs of note from opposite sides of the political spectrum while researching a new hobby of my father's; Tug Boat Potemkin which lead me to Catalaxy . Both the authors appear to be in Australia. While surfing the links therein I came across something unusual. People that work in IT (Information Technology for Mac users and other technologically challenged folk) have long had a bit of an image problem and to counter this the wiley Ozzies have released a hot babes in IT calendar. I fear that this will have done little to reform the nerdyboy geek image of the trade if this crew of snarling sheep farmers' daughters are the pinup ladies of the profession.

This got me thinking about other vocation specific calendars featuring the people that do the job. The hose fondling British Firefighters, beloved of a distant ex-girlfriend, UK housewives and gay men the world over. I mean it's not as if fireman are short of shags regardless of their gender preferences. But it is in a good cause I suppose. Obviously, the excellent Rylstone and District WI calendar which featured in the Calendar Girls film comes readily to mind. This has raised a substantial sum for leukemia research. I am in fact so inspired by the success of this charitable venture that I think I will make a calendar of my own this year in order to raise money for London Pride, which is a fabulous beer.

1) Any offense given to Mac users was purely intentional for an explanation of just a few of the reasons why Macs are crap go here.

2) Not all firemen are gay, not all Yorkshire women are willing to get their kit off for a camera, buy the calendars (except the butch Ozzie IT girls one of course).

As I write, my exceedingly beautiful ex-girlfriend is getting changed in the bedroom. Laura and I haven't split up or anything, it's just as she is now my fiancee having been promoted two weeks ago to her current position, she is no longer my girlfriend. But I digress...

Laura is currently on the fourth change of clothes in the last quarter of an hour. There is a crisis forming, you see we will have to go out of the house where people whom we don't know and we don't care about will see us. If we are not paragons of up to the minute yet timeless sartorial style, the shame will be immeasurable. Not only clothes, combinations of clothes, make up, lipstick and hair style issues. This attitude is of course not confined to Laura, it is nearly all girls, girly-boys and some men (not real men of course oh no!). Things are different if you are a bloke.

Let me explain......
Girl getting ready to go out: Into the shower, feel the relaxing warm water and worry about whether it will dry out your skin; wash body all over except for face with pH neutral body milk type soap and body scruffing glove, sponge or flowery thing; step out of shower and snatch boyfriend/husbands shaving cream and razor. Use whole can of shaving soap shaving legs, armpits and possibly trimming the lawn, but not too much as there is a Doctor's appointment later in the week, nothing too adventurous, can't have the doctor thinking that sort of thing oh no! Worry about cellulite and legs being too fat. Shampoo with correct combination shampoo suitable for dry/greasy/normal and blonde/brunette/redhead hair. Wash hair thoroughly, gently massaging the scalp and cleaning the hair from the root to the ends. Worry about split ends and whether the hairdresser will have a slot free on Thursday. Apply correct conditioner type for hair type light/normal/dark, blonde/brunette/redhead, normal/fine/damaged. Leave conditioner on as specified on bottle or last week's article in Cosmopolitan. Reach for clean fluffy towel and dry off being sure not to abraid skin before applying moisturising body milk to stop skin drying out. Remember that you want a wee, have a wee, get back into shower, showering from waist down only. Worry about too much tummy fat. Dry off, and reapply mosturising body milk to waist down. Inspect toenails and decide against varnish as you won't be wearing open toed shoes that night. Towel dry hair. Wash face with exfoliating scrub, wash face with pH neutral face soap. Worry about pimple and whether other people will notice it. Clean ears with cotton buds. Dry hair thoroughy with hairdrier. Worry about split ends. Style hair up, style hair down. Apply makeup, a process too complicated to be described by modern science. Leave bathroom for use of boyfriend/fiance/husband. Tell man to stop playing on the computer and hurry up or we'll be late. Select panties, select bra, select blouse, change bra because it doesn't match the blouse, change panties because they do not match the bra. Select shoes. Select skirt/trousers (pants if you speak North American). Tell male partner to stop playing on the computer or we'll be late. Worry about whether it will be cold out. Decide better safe than sorry and select jumper/shawl/jacket. Realise that warm article doesn't match shoes, change shoes, change trousers or skirt to match shoes. Change blouse to match skirt/trousers, change bra to match blouse, change panties to match bra. Put on lipstick.

Bloke getting ready to go out: Walk into bathroom when girlfriend/wife is in the shower. Wonder whether it is time for romance. Get told that it isn't or 'we'll be late'. Go back to computer. Ignore requests to get in the shower as it will be at least another hour before she's ready to go out. Go into bathroom while female is applying makeup naked and wonder whether it is time for romance. Get told that it isn't or 'we'll be late' and go back to computer. Involve oneself in matters of vital national importance on news sites, ebay etcetara. Notice lady of the house in state of semi nudity, wonder if it's time for romance, realise from the hard stare that it is not and go into bathroom. Shrug off clothes and step into shower and feel the relaxing hot water, look down admiringly. Realise you want a wee and wee, try to hit plughole no hands. Hope that noise of shower will mask indiscretion. Wash all over with first bottle that comes to hand. Wonder about why the soap doesn't seem to work and realise that you have been trying to wash yourself with light blonde normal hair conditioner. Reach for dark coloured bottle of manly showergel or any other detergent. Wash everything, well not that thing, at least not too thoroughly, there may be time for romance later! Wash hair with fluid from any bottle except the one with conditioner in it. Step out of shower and dry off with towel previously used by female. Rub hand through hair and consider it dry. Look in the mirror admiringly. Wet face with water from basin in preparation for shaving, look all over for shaving cream, find can in the shower, be confused about why you'd have left it there of all places. Attempt to squirt shaving cream onto palm of hand but there's none left, ask lady of the house if she has used shaving cream and razor and on hearing the answer decide to forego the shave. Notice spot on cheek and squeeze it until a satisfying pop noise and squirt of puss are achieved. Wander about the house/apartment aimlessly without clothes on for a bit. Walk into bedroom, put on underpants, socks, look at the jeans you were wearing yesterday, sniff them, put them on because the smell does not making you gag, stand up, notice curry stain on thigh, take them off. Select new pair of jeans from closet, put them on and grab shirt that will probably not look offensive with the jeans. Put on shoes and feel confused about why you are ready to go out when your better half is halfway through her third change of clothes. Wait for her to be ready to leave, walk to the door together, quick check (Wearing trousers? Yes! Keys? Yes! Wallet? Yes! Mobile phone? Yes!) and it's off to the supermarket.

As I have mentioned previously, the company I work for has had a couple of issues. After much legal mastication and machination the company has terminated its operation in Costa Rica. I got a call from my boss explaining the situation on Thursday. The company has said that it will try to fulfill its contractual obligations to employees. Which means in theory, I should get paid in lieu of notice and a sum for repatriation, when this will happen however, is another matter.

I'm heading back to Costa Rica on Wednesday to pack the things from my apartment in Santa Ana, submit my expenses for the last time and close off the utilities accounts. I don't think that I'll look for something else there. There was something reassuring about working for a publicly listed company, rather than a privately owned affair and the public companies in my industry will be shying off the US market after what has happened. Laura will fly out to meet me wherever I am in a couple of weeks. I'm not sure quite what happens next.

My friend Ken has offered use of an apartment he owns in Gibraltar for as long as it's necessary and that might be a fine option. It's above a marina and close enough to Spain for the shopping, beaches and restaurants. It would be nice to see my friends Kay, Ken, Anas amongst others and pay a visit to my family and friends in the UK perhaps.

There are opportunities to be had in a few countries, so we'll wait them out in the warm I guess.

Tomorrow I am packing up my chattels from the company apartment in Toronto and carting the boxes off to Laura's parent's place to await shipping to the UK, Spain or wherever. It feels like the last few years have been nothing but moving home and moving country. I'd like to settle down for a bit some place. I mentioned to Laura last night, that so soon I'll be homeless again and she reminded me that home was wherever she is. Which is handy really, as Laura is portable.

I took last Friday off work and Laura and I drove to Niagra on the Lake. Laura didn't know it but I was going to propose that day. It was her birthday. I have often said to Laura something to the effect of, "so shall we get married then", she always responds "yes" and asks if it is a proposal. I say "no, maybe, do I look like I'm on one knee?" But this time it was going to be for real. We had discussed it, but as my job is in a perilous position right now, we had decided that it would not be sensible to blow a large chunk of money on a ring and you can't get engaged without a ring. So we were going to wait until things were a little more stable financially and professionally. At least that's what she thought.


I had driven round to her parents house on the Wednesday. I left work a little early, went ring shopping; my wallet is still bleeding and drove over to ask her dad's permission. A little traditional, but a nice touch I thought. Laura's car was parked outside, I cruised past, parked and called her. "I'm just driving home, where are you?" "I'm at my mum and dad's, I'll be leaving in ten minutes." This was a Laura ten minutes, so I stopped by at a florist and picked up some flowers, read Popular Science for quarter of an hour and drove back. The car was still there, the ten minutes now being thirty minutes old I gave up, knocked on the door, handed Laura her flowers and made an excuse about getting lost after leaving the freeway to avoid a jam (which is believable for me). Her dad, Dave, offered me a beer and I suggested we have it in the garden. As I am a filthy smoker, this all seemed natural. While Laura and her mum Judy were in the house chatting about girly stuff, knitting, make-up, Brad Pitt, shampoo or some such I imagine, Dave and I went out for the beer. I asked permission, got the all clear and the plan was underway.


We parked at the little airfield and walked into the shed labeled 'Terminal' and jumped on a National Helicopters Bell 206 Jet Ranger. I have never been on a chopper before, but Laura likes it. (Ooh Matron!). The take off was smooth, it seemed to flutter into the air. Initially I was filled with trepidation, as my only experience of helicopters is from watching American Vietnam war movies. "Charlie don't surf, we're hit, going down, mayday mayday." I chilled a little and thought about the ring in my camera bag. If anything happened and it looked like we were going to die, I'd have to get it out quick, propose and get the ring on her finger before we hit the ground. The scenery was magnificent. We flew over Niagara Falls, the town of Niagara on the Lake and twenty minutes or so later landed safely back at the airfield. Heart still beating wildly from the adrenaline we got in the car and went to the Prince of Wales Hotel.

After lunch at a pleasant cafe' I suggested we take a meander about the town and down to the lake. It is a beautiful place, every house a little different and each a quaint expression of the traditional wooden North American home. Spoilt perhaps only by the cars driving up and down the main street.

Our stroll took us down to the lake shore and we sat on a boulder looking out at the blue horizon. I was a jangle of nerves. We were sat together, I stood up, got down on one knee and asked "Will you marry me?" She said "Yes" as she had so many times to my test drive not really proposing proposals; I took the ring from my pocket. Then the realisation grabbed her cheeks, a brilliant smile erupted; she saw me on one knee in front of her with the ring in my hand and knew that this meant it was really happening. She slipped the ring on, I sat back on the boulder and we kissed.

After our vacation Laura and I went back to my apartment in Costa Rica, which truth be told, for me, felt more like a vacation. I love my place in Santa Ana, it is peaceful, warm, the views are great and there is something reassuring about it. We had a couple of days off that I found truly relaxing. Which was good because I got back into the office on Monday caught a rotten cold and found out that the CEO had been arrested by the FBI who are also indicting the company. By Tuesday afternoon the company had voluntarily ceased trading pending legal moves and everyone was worried about whether the next pay cheque would be the last. It might be. This on top of an unwelcome appointment made by the boss two months ago that has put a lot of noses out of joint and caused many to consider their resignation.

Tuesday saw a few drinks at Jazz Cafe which temporarily relieved the symptoms of my cold. Laura got to meet a couple of my pals and we flew back to Toronto on Wednesday. Arriving late we dropped in to Laura's parents to pick up her car and drop off some the presents which we had bought at a roadside shop (well a little house on a country road that sold stuff) on the way back from Arenal. They had a sign up outside that offered free "agua de pipa fria" I stopped as I knew Laura would not have had any before, at least not the Latin American way.

Agua de pipa is the water from inside an immature coconut. You put the cocunut in it's husk into a fridge, then pull it out when cold. Holding the coconut in your left hand jam a bowie knife down into the husk penetrating the inner shell, twist the knife to open the knife hole a little, withdraw the knife and insert a straw into the hole. Then suck. (Proffesional Tip: Try not to stab your left hand through the coconut.)

We are very much in love. While cuddled up on the sofa watching a TV program about Americans I did have to mention that if she got big and fat we would have to split up. I mean love is one thing, dating fat birds is something else entirely. Laura countered with "Well what if I get super-fit and you get fat?" Well I gave it to her straight "You should love me for who I am, not the way I look!" This is the advantage of being superficial, different rules apply.