Odd Bob and Lil Miss Millie see the American idiots...

Yeah so on Saturday me and Millie and Hubby (hers not mine, I am so not married!) and birthday girl and birthday girl’s friend (hereafter BG and BGF) wandered down to Wembley Stadium to see Green Day! Woo hoo!!


Although, me being involved, things were not that simple…

So the plan was: Meet at Mill Hill Broadway (Me via train, everyone else by car)
Go from there to fav restaurant (and see if this time they might have raspberries…which of course they didn’t)
Then on to Wembley!

So naturally my train decided not to bother running on Saturday. And National Rail decided not to bother putting this on the internet. So I turn up at train station (having checked on net and bought tickets early) and…no trains!!

Luckily after some nifty texting it was all sorted and I met Millie et al and then…BG was a little car sick…all over her jeans:S Poor thing!! So quick pit stop to sort that out, dinner (with overly crispy chicken but very good Woo woo!!) off to buy clean jeans and then finally to the car park…in a school!

Sat nav then had great fun trying to direct us right through buildings, but eventually we found the right place, parked up, wandered down (just head towards the distinctive arch) bought Tshirts and found seats…just in time to miss both support acts!!


I generally wouldn’t be annoyed by this, I can never normally remember or afterwards find any support acts I’ve previously seen. But that day it was Frank Turner! Who I love! Saw him at reading a couple of years back and have been singing along to him ever since. I really enjoyed seeing him on a smaller scale where it feels friendly, intimate even I guess, but I was looking forward to seeing how he’d fare on the big stage!

O well, Green Day more than made up for it! They were brilliant. Did all their best tracks from the new album, all my favs from American Idiot and some old time ones I love! They also had a go at a few covers, annoyingly only singing snippits of each!! We wanted more!!

They were great at the whole 'audience participation' thign too, dragging people onto stage (and generally getting hugged and snogged int he process) and getting everyone to sing along (and I was surprised to fidn that I still know most of the lyrics!)

So now I’m still wandering around in my Green Day top signing along to Jesus of Suburbia …it’s a good job people here know I’m a little odd.

I survived!

Yes I survived the ‘incident’ or ‘Exercise Clover’ as it was officially named! Woo hoo!

Actually it wasn’t half as bad as I thought it would be. Despite getting woken up at 5am by drunk and noisy people yelling and throwing stuff right outside my window and then having to be in work for 8am on a Sunday...

So it all starts with a nice briefing and no cup of tea as a fuse has blown and the inflatable tent deflated! Then we finally get started...by entering an abandon building and sitting around to wait for a while (that was pretty much the theme of the day: hurry up and wait, and wait, and wait some more...)


After a few unhelpful conversations with police officers (just wait there and help will be here soon...very soon...half an hour later...yep still on their way) we got bored and set the fire alarms off! Then found the library hidden away between abandoned offices and I read turn of the screw for a while...odd book.

Finally we were rescued from the fake chemical spill!! Admittedly by people who looked like they’d just stepped off of the set of some crappy sci fi movie, but it was a change to all the book reading and throwing buckets of sick (water) out of the window.


So then it was time for the dreaded decontamination showers...

Hidden under a giant orange poncho we all had to strip to swimwear. In a real emergency we’d have to strip fully:S Which wouldn’t be a problem under the stylish orange ponchos...but next it’s a hop into a shower tent with 4 other people and bye bye poncho! I would not have liked doing that without my bikini!


Shiny and cleaned and dressed in green scrubs and cheap-plastic-smelling water proofs we finally got free lunch (sandwiches etc) and got to go home...or in our case straight to the pub for a proper lunch. (unfortunately no pics of the lovely green scrubs and waterproofs:( )

All in all, not a bad day and I am now confident that should a major chemical spill endanger the staff at my institute...the emergency services will in no way be ready to deal with it:S From first symptoms and ambulance calling to decontamination we were waiting about 3 & 1/2 hours. Some 'casualties' were able to escape and potentially contaminate the police and anyone else near by. O and seriously injured casualties practically ignored throughout the exercise would probably have died had this been real. A little worrying.

But hopefully they should learn from this event...right? That was the whole point of the exercise.

In the mean time I think I’ll avoid too many potentially hazardous chemicals...

(PS I’m told I shouldn’t have taken any photos of this event...ooops)

What have I done?

I know I said I'd work Drew Fuller:


into the next post (Yes solely to work another 'fitty pic' into the blog, yes I know...) but something far more important has happened...

I got an email earlier this week asking for volunteers to act as casualties in, what was called, a weekend 'incident'... The idea is that all the regional fire departments, ambulances and other rescue services want to practice working together (in case of a real 'incident' requires a multi-agency response) To do this they need volunteers to play with.

I, being the wonderful person that I am (and having been bugged by my friend who couldn't do it herself but really wanted to know what would happen) signed up. O dear.

It turns out that what they want to simulate is a massive chemical spill requiring decontamination of all 'casualties'.

Which in short means that i have to turn up at work at 8am on a Sunday morning (feed my bees) then get ordered around by firemen/paramedics/random others, told to strip off my clothes (it is suggested that we wear a swimming costume for this bit) and then get shoved into a decontamination shower!

At this point I'm starting to regret having signed up...but it gets worse!

I just received a new email this morning stating that they don't have enough volunteers! This means that I may have to go through the whole process twice!!

Help!!


On the funny side (you have to look on the funny side after signing up for something like this) the 'incident' has been named 'Excercise Clover'! Which mostly just makes me think of walking a cow...

If a real emergency should transpire I get to shout 'Excercise Clover for real, for real!' he he. Not that I want there to be a real emergency, but if there is I feel I may be giggling too much to do anything useful.

Phones and chocolate do not mix!

I learnt this important (and in hind sight, obvious to anyone with half a brain cell) fact a few weeks ago. This is what happened:

Take one foil wrapped chocolate and place in pocket. Add mobile and heat gently over several hours. Remember to lean on and or sit on from time to time just to ensure that phone is liberally covered. Remove phone and swear!
Then I decided to wash the chocolate off (again not the best move; hind sight is an amazing thing...).

Surprisingly the phone still worked! Briefly. Until the battery died and I had no charger (long story). So I bought new charger, charged and...discovered that various buttons are now less than perfect. Specifically all the buttons down the right hand side and the big ‘ok’ button needed to unlock the phone! Very useful buttons in fact. Incredibly important for say entering the pin code...which I did wrong...three times.

Now I needed a PUK code! (Oooooh.) So I phoned up Orange who kindly provided a computerised voice telling me everything but what I needed to know (To hear your messages press 1, for billing information press 2, to hear plans for world domination press 3, if you are about ready to kill yourself press 4...) I tried every likely combination I could think of, (Yes I want to talk about my phone: 1. Yes I’m having trouble with my phone: 2, um now where’s the yes I need a PUK code option...?)

Finally I gave up and resorted to the internet...where I got the answer I needed 2 minutes later! Eventually forced my phone to type in the code (those buttons that didn’t work did, just about, with patient perseverance). Finally, miraculously, my phone worked again!

Currently it will do most things again (although I’ve taken the pin code off just in case). But vibrate has sadly died and half the buttons are still temperamental to say the least. But I have definitely learnt my lesson: phone + chocolate = bad combination!


And yes this was just a thinly veiled excuse for another Johnny Depp pic...I think I'll challenge myself next time to work Drew Fuller into a post...(and no I don't care if you don't know who that is, you soon will if I put him in the next post)

Odd Bob enjoys the rain...

Which is a good job considering I live in the UK where the summer consists of days of scorching sun interspersed with days of torrential rain. Pretty much like today then.

It started at 4am when the sun rose and I woke up. I think I may need new curtains:S Grumbling I rolled back over and dozed for a few hours until I could stand it no more and had to get up...or at least get lap top, which is almost like getting up.

When I finally did get up I had a quick check outside and saw someone in a jacket. Jacket weather then, I decided and dressed appropriately. I then promptly stepped outside and into an oven! I have no idea who the jacket person was but they must have been insane. It was not jacket weather. It was lather on sunscreen and search for the barest hint of a breeze kind of weather!

Admittedly this was quite enjoyable as I didn’t have to be bundled up in a bee suit and slowly cooking to death. But you’re probably wondering where the rain comes into this?

Well I had to head into work (feeding my bees and weighing out fungus...so much fun) On the way in I’m slowly cooking in the not-quite-summer heat. By the time I decide to head home it’s chucking it down with rain! Typical. And me being me I don’t have an umbrella, a coat or even a jacket.

I dive out the door and sprint down the road until, 30 s later, I realise that I am already soaked to the skin. Giggling like a 5 year old I decide, why bother? I think the people huddling under the brollies or dashing for their cars must have thought I was a little insane when I came strolling along the road grinning like an idiot and only failing to sing ‘singing in the rain’ because I’m humming along to some MGMT track that’s playing in my ears.

By the time I got home it looked like I’d hopped into a shower in my clothes (except that the middle of my back and my arse were almost perfectly dry!) But it was strangely fun:) Possibly more fun than the blazing hot sunshine of this morning.

I think I would have wandered around a bit longer enjoying the weather, but I had to get home and cook dinner for Sam, not this Sam:


Flat-mate Sam who isn't quite so kick ass, but I don't really care about that. I'm more interested in having a flat mate who can cook and fix the shower when it breaks than one who can fight ghosts and demons...although that might be more fun even than singing in the rain...and now I'm rambling on again so...TTFN.