A dilemma I have..

***Precious metals update.. Silver sails up towards $22 per ounce, Gold seemingly set above $1,300/oz. Things seem really cagey right now.. so I say again, get some if you can***

So me and Ellen are trying for a baby right now. My mind didn't even conceive parenthood a couple of years back, but now it's become a major foundation of my future plans. How much life can change, huh?

Anyway, gotta do my share. E is monitoring her diet and bodily state daily, and I made an appointment to get my swimmers tested. Seems a bit unfair, really. In the struggle for conception the woman has to check her cycle, diet, body temperature, and all that.. all the guy's gotta do is provide a sample of his goodies.

..and that a real burden.. right lads?

I paid a visit to the GP who was a girl about my age. She couldnt fully keep the smile off her face whilst detailing the donation procedure whilst I tried to remain neutral. However, I couldnt help but raise a bemused eyebrow a la Roger Moore as she reached the coup de grace.

1. The clinic which receives samples is at Kingston Hospital and is open daily from 9-11.
2. Those samples need to be under an hour old to give an accurate reading.

That leaves me with a problem. Putting it delicately, do I 'prepare' a sample before I go or generate one on site? The idea of sprinting for the bus with a cooling tube of my vitals does not appeal, so I'll probably need to pay a visit to the gents in the hospital instead (?!!) Now maybe its just me, but I was brought up thinking doing stuff like that is pretty seedy.. I'll need to get a long grey coat to look the part.. Will it set a precedent? I hope not. But if I get an urge to stick a coffee vending machine and MRSA posters into the bedroom, I just might start to worry...

Sept 4th - Got some chopping and burning to do

Timbuk3 - The Futures So Bright (I Gotta Wear Shades)

On dogging and weightier matters...

That got your attention didn't it?

A thought I want to share with you.

Peoples' actions can really fire the imagination. One of my work colleagues is a regular absentee, she appears intermittently in the office with a smile and a cheery manner before being signed off for a further week. Her absence is not the issue though. Lets call her 'Beth' 'Beth' always has a cheerful, flirty manner about her which doesn't gel with her sometime angst ridden facebook posts. The girl has issues, methinks.

Anyway, 'Beth' also has a reputation. To some, she happily recounts tales of her romantic entanglements and they're sound pretty checkered! Now I try my best to remain non-judgemental: the girl has a sex drive like the Flying Scotsman, that's fair enough. However I do fear for a single girl who parks up in isolated car parks looking for 'company' and is a regular on the swingers scene! What is going on in the mind of the person doing that?

Besides that I'm casting my mind to more worthy matters. I'm on a real self sufficiency tip right now. Maybe it's my time of life or maybe its all the the racy economic material I read at work (ha ha), but I want to get back to the land a little. Have been stocking up on the gold and silver to satisfying effect (get some! If you can) but want to move into other avenues of self sustainment (is sustainment a word? I digress). Brewing my own booze is the next dream. The idea of having a few kegs up in the attic would give me a real buzz and it sounds simple. Sit and wait. You can't really cock it up too badly, right?

Where I go from there in any one's guess, but breeding chickens in the back garden is a long way away..

I miss my salad days..

Even if they weren't as salady as other peoples'.

Today is alot less debauched than it used to be. The sensory pleasures which my young work collegues talk of are a fond memory.

Dont get me wrong, I wouldnt have my life any other way right now. Its just sometimes my eyes go misty with the tales of swordsmanship and nights out that get told.

Working in our facilities team is a young lad called Joe. Charming and pleasant, he has a guy next door kind of vibe to him. In conversation with him recently, I discovered he is also in a purple patch with that ladies which he'll remember for the rest of his life! Ever have one of those moments, when you're bagging the ladies well out of your league? Joe is the Wayne Rooney of the romantic stakes and is scoring some stunners.

Red top talk aside, an afternoon chat with Joe made me think. He was showing the facebook pics of his latest honeys to me and Denis, a Ugandan father of four in his forties. We expressed our respect and admiration at the high quality ladies he'd been bedding (and I mean, lad's mag class) whilst he laughed awkwardly.

Good luck to him. He is 24 and should make the most out of him prime 'duelling' years (know what I mean? ha ha). Sometimes I still feel like I'm still in the middle of my twenties with a prodigious alcohol tolerance and a taste for night time antics. Hell, sometimes I even miss it. Reality kicks in when I do hit the town. It's loud, normally I'm standing and there is a faint tang of desperation in the air.

Can't wait to November, a social visit to Edinburgh is planned. Will be wonderful to hang out with dear old friends who I see too little of. My life consists of mainly parenthood and powerplates right now, along with attentions and creature comforts I've never come close to experiencing before. However, something I feel something has been lost.

So, no midlife crisis yet. But in the meantime a bender with the boys would be a treat