A broad mix

What a day Friday promises to be this week in the first instance we have a mini Tweet meet at the Hoodeners Horse Great Chart Ashford Kent Lunch Time 12:30 - 2:30pm all welcome within reason. This is the 2nd one we have done and looks to be going to be attended by at least twice as many people, at the first meet last month June there were four of us.

The Roll of Honour Babssaul, Niftynits,Kent_it & myself.

I think you always ask yourself what is this going to turn out to be like and I can honestly answer it wasn't too bad, meeting strangers is always fraught with potential for embarrassing pauses, but when you feel you know them from talking on twitter it becomes real time face to face twittering. Well I think it used to be called talking but this is the 21st century c'mon catch up!

So we got the introductions over and done with and settled down to a bite to eat. The Homemade chips lived up so I'm told to expectations and as often is the case the size of the portions surprised. However what with Food, Real Ale and banter no sorry Twitter the time flew by and we left swearing we would meet again next month and that we had made new friends.

So to this month people should arrive around 12:30 doesn't matter if they arrive early I know a joke and can tell it 15 times if I have to. After which I expect introductions of the "Much Mwhah MMWhahing kissy kissy variety" ,just thought perhaps i should shave tomorrow. Anyway we will then get drinks decide on a bite to eat and get to know one another over a period of time. I must admit I'm looking forward to this one.

After the dust settles I have a little time to get ready for the 20/20 Hoodeners Horse vs Great Chart Cricket Match in the evening at which the pub normally gets beaten but everyone swears they have a great time. Normal food service continues at the pub whilst the regulars are just down the road hitting the little red ball. Weather forecast is horrible for Friday perhaps this year we can get a draw.

On other fronts the prospect of Swine Flu coming to a place near you looms ever larger and with over 10,000 diagnosed cases and assumed 100,000's of people infected the predictions of 100,000 new infection daily from September looks frighteningly realistic. A Vaccine we were told is weeks away but 60 million doses have been ordered.

Today it materialises that to be effective two doses need to be administered and that means half the population will be unvaccinated. The priority cases being the elderly, those with asthma , the emergency services , those in the health service, those in government et cetera I'm sure you get the picture. The fact is I'm more worried about what swine flu will mutate into as that is likely to be the deadly one.

On the gym front yep still going and had lost some inches around my middle, discretion and modesty and the fact its hard to tell prevents me from saying in excess of 4" and as a result I bought some new trousers. It was getting embarrassing walking around the golf course holding my shorts up with one hand and trying to swing the club with the other.

So evidently although I have been slow to get onto the weight loss path it is clear I'm now there as having gone out and bought 3 pairs of trousers of a lesser waisted variety (smaller that is), at certain points of the day those seem to be vertically challenged in the way a Brian Rix English Stage farce would be. In other words I can't keep my trousers up.

Yes its 8 months now even the gym can't believe it, food retailers are going out of business because the new me eats less a lot less and wait for it several major lager brewers are thinking of further redundancies due to an unexpected downturn in trade. A one man recession that's me.

All in all I'm extremely lucky I've decided because ignoring for the moment the obvious family comments which some people use to try and make their selves seem like well rounded people, I work when I want, do what I want as I like my work ( self employed), have trusted friends and no one could convince me that i would be able to earn money doing what I do for a living.

The Secret and what works for me was I told myself early on I was lazy and would have to work harder to achieve what others seem to achieve routinely. However when the evidence is weighed up I often find I'm working twice as hard as other people but not noticing as I regard it as the cost of Success. Interestingly it gives me a margin of error at times that other people don't have because if I have problems I work harder to solve them.

If you've just read this and are still awake please read the real ale blog below and come and visit us at the Hoodeners Horse.