Not much to report

I've been a bit out of sorts for the past 10 days actually. Despite having 9+ hours of uninterrupted sleep each night, I am still constantly tired with my eyes feeling dry. I've had these symptoms before and they do go eventually but I just wish I'd wake up tomorrow feeling refreshed instead of knackered.

Last Sunday, John and I met up with friends Suk, Leigh and their daughter Emily and went for lunch at the Tandoori Parlour in Thundersley. It's an all you can eat buffet with a starter, for a mere £7.95. Very nice! We went back to their place afterwards and I ended up watching the Villa v Chelsea game on Sky. Leigh is a Chelsea fan and therefore not a happy bunny when they lost 2-0.

Tuesday I went into work as a representative of Posturite was coming to meet me about providing a new adjustable desk and chair to help my back problem. The appointment was at 3pm but due to train strikes, the bloke was delayed so I had to wander around the town and return at 4pm. I answered the same old questions about the history of my back pain and now Posturite will submit a recommendation to Occupational Health the get the new equipment in place as soon as possible. It was weird being in the office after so much time but nice to see familiar faces. It also gave me the opportunity to say goodbye and good luck to Carole (my former supervisor) who was leaving for London that coming Friday. I brought her in some flowers and a card. She'll be sorely missed as she really was a breath of fresh air when she joined us from Lloyds a couple of years ago. In fact, probably the best supervisor I've had in all my 22 years of service! I'll be back there again next Tuesday when I have a meeting with my manager Gill.

On Thursday, I went around my parents' house for most of the day as they were looking after Ronnie. My nephew is now 22 months old and such a good little boy, and such a character. He's like a sponge at the moment, he copies every word you say and his vocabulary for his age is amazing. I've even got him saying 'Come on you Spurs' much to the dislike of my brother who is a Liverpool fan! We played football in the garden and he can kick and throw really well for a little person. Later on, we all went and collected Kasey from school and then the playing continued once back at the house. I went home about 5pm. I saw Kasey again in the evening when Tina came round the use our gym, which she does twice a week. Kasey wanted to watch 'The Wizard of Oz' and pretty much gave me a running commentary and explained what was going to happen - like I didn't know! However, humouring kids comes easily to me and I enjoyed it as much as her, singing along to the songs and mucking around! We didn't manage to see it all but we'll watch the rest of it next week probably.

Today I spent most of the time in the garden reading. This week's weather has been pretty warm, considering the lack of summer we've had. I'm now watching the new series of 'Hells Kitchen' because I don't have the energy for anything else. No Gordon Ramsey this year but instead one Marco Pierre White. Now that's one scary intimidating dude! When the celebs were first introduced to him, he said to half of them that he'd never heard of them and refused the shake the ladies' hands. He has also been rude to the celeb customer's when they'd complained about the food. However, as the days go on, you can't help but warm to him when you see him interacting and smiling with the celebs. At least he doesn't swear like Gordon.

Another telly highlight of the week for me was 'Dumped' on Channel 4, running from Sunday until Wednesday. Eleven people were selected to take part in an eco challenge but were not told any details. They travelled on a coach with all the windows screened off so they couldn't see where they were going and they ended up on a landfill site in Croydon! For 3 weeks they had to live on a tip next to the landfill site and make a shelter from the rubbish dumped. They were given running water and food because of the health and safety issue, but after a few days they took their portable loos away so they had to build their own. Along the way they had various challenges, all to make them aware of the landfill problem in this country and why we need to recycle more. During their time there, they even managed to build a sauna and a solar powered shower - all from stuff people had thrown away! I already recycle everything and I was aware to a certain extent of the problem, but this programme has certainly opened my eyes even more. I would now like to start a compost heap to cut down my food waste; the only issue is the lack of space in the garden. I could get on my soap-box about the government slacking in the recycling issue but I'm not going there at the moment because I just don't have the energy.