Damn cats.. They managed to pull my suit off the hanger and use it as a bed.. oh well, down the dry cleaners I went, but thats another story..

I am currently sat on a bus to no where, well no where for me anyway! My bus forgot it had to do a diversion, forgetting my stop! So I waited patiently for the next bus to come.. and was not happy!

Bless the driver who stopped, getting on the radio to find our where the bus was, and the new driver who did not know what a diversion was!

So I am now sat on a bus, heading around the city, before taking me to the depot half way home to find me a way to get the rest of the way home.

I can not grumble though, they could have left me stranded to spend 15 on a taxi, or to sleep it rough on the streets of the city. Maybe it is revenge for having to cover our rail replacement work. Maybe he just forgot because he new.

We finally got a bit of rain.. why did I not think to get my raincoat out? I am going to get absolutely soaked! At least there wont be a hosepipe ban this week!

So now terrorists are targeting night time socialites. The bomb plot was warned of by various anti-west groups a fortnight ago and nothing stopped them except a vigilant paramedic.. I suppose now that they will target ambulances in revenge as well. On the plus though, it was not a suicide bomber being promised 47 virgins, but someone who prefered to stay alive, giving the chance of a bomb squad diffusing it.

NOW IS THE TIME to start sending those who decide to blow up the country they live in as far away as possible, regardless of whether they are British, Middle Eastern, or bloody Outer Mongoliam, send em all to a desolate isolated island and blow it up.

Its been a quiet day for me today. Not much to do, not many people to see, a chance to flick through the papers.

A lot of the morning front pages were about the arrest of two people for attempting to extort money from the parents of Madeline McCann extensively covered so I will not dwell on it here.

I wonder though if Lily Allen will dwell on her arrest tonight when she hosts tonights Friday Night Project. She was questioned over an alleged assault on a photographer at a night club, or will she just become the butt of jokes? Speaking of butts C4 last night had a documentary about a 13 year old chain smoker who seems to enjoy every puff.. especially as he never buys them.

So the Spice Girls are making a comeback huh? I wannabe far away from that, but I doubt it if they are anything like before. Mama I love you, but don't make me listen to them.. please!

The EasyJet boss launched the last in orange holidays yesterday. He said that the trade often offers "shabby hotels, with flights at the most inconvenient times". My question is who has the first 4 or 5 flights out of Gatwick South during the week?

and finally, America has spoken. San Fran Giants baseball player Barry Bonds is guilty of using steroids to enhance his game.. not proven by court, but because the American public said so!

TTFN

So the residents of the West End awoke at 2am to find police blowing things up in the Circus. Go a few minutes down the road and its considered the norm for gangs with bombs guns and not a copper in sight.

what I did find humoured was the press coverage. Here we have an explosives expert saying that we do not know what it was so we can not say who COULD be responsible for it, but in the next sentence he was asked whether he thought it was terrorists! I smell a badly written script there..

I sent last night sat behind that young pregnant girl on the bus again. This is the one who had sex at her 13th birthday party. This time though she was with friends and one comment proved just how little she knew:

"... he told me to go on pill but its not cheap so I dint..."

Sorry, I can not replicate the youth style of talking.. well this ones anyway.. too well. To me though, this just proves that sex education is not taught young enough.

Well I an at work now.. time for me to sign off. I am sure though that I will be back later.

Its not often I admit to enjoy the thought of going back to work. Not being at work did get kinda boring. Its nice to see that things in pear shaped just as I open my eyes to feed the cats.

just heard an interesting conversation on the bus between a mother and her daughter, and someone the knew. The mother was openly complimenting about the fact her daughter, at 13, had just found out she was 3 months pregnant and that they think it gasped at her birthday party.

Surely if the party was that boring then there was something more fitting to do.. I wondered whether this party was at the family home, maybe just a teenagers twilight drink at a local park, or maybe its was at the local McDonalds with the boredom factor kicking in around the disabled toilet.. the latter maybe a highlight of the day for our demoralised burger cooking friends.

(note: Its nothing against McDonalds workers, really, its not)

Well I am almost at work now.. as I get closer I can not believe that I said I am glad to be going back to work.. I have seen the publicity about our company.. especially on the front page of The Times. I really do wish that the media would realise that all they are doing is making it worse when they report half a story and in fact they are only reporting half truths as usual!

I am back.. I enjoyed it.. I realised I was back in the Uk when I heard the following conversation between a mother and daughter..

Daughter: Mummy. Why is that man looking at me?
Mum: Because you are black and white men dont like black children.

I really felt sorry for the poor bloke at the bus stop. He did not know which way to look.. I could not suggest whether he was staring or what, because at the time I was buried in thought, but is this kind of upbringing really necessary?

Well its back to work for me. I am busy training a new presenter this afternoon.. then off to the pub I think.. need to recover from all that local portugese beer!

Well we are currently sat in JoJos for lunch reflecting on the last 18 hours or so. We spent dinner last night in a place called the Paella Bar. It was not actually a bar, looked more like a restaurant really but..

The Paella looked really nice, although the shellfish are not my cup of tea so I stuck to pasta carbonara, which was okay. The paella was apparently really nice.. err.. if you say so.

we ended up at that Irish pub that is also an American bar.. its amazing how you can wall two minutes and into a different world. The first place we find with no waitress service (although I generally try to order the first round from the bar anyway) and the prices treble of anywhere else! Apparently even after all the cars finish happy hour its the most expensive..

but now we are at the pub for lunch, having packed our bags, left them in store at the hotel and come for a wander.. I cant wait to sample JoJos chocolate sponge..

Well next time we talk, I should be in the UK.. baring any mishaps.. TTFN.

I know what I said earlier about ZooMarine. But the dolphin experience is one of the best I have seen. I saw a smile I have not seen in a long time.

If your loved one wants to swim with dolphins then damn, try here! A group of about 10 get to swim with 2 dolphins and do loads of stunts with them. They offer photos and a dvd for a small extra, but brilliant.

.. the mouse will moan.

ZooMarine.. hmmm while my partner in crime prepares to swim with the dolphins I will reflect on the rest of it.

Its a very small park. Considering the 18 quid entry fee and comparing maybe to London Zoo, the only reason I would come again to the park is to swim with the dolphins.. if she does like it.

I had better explain the she.. She is the partner I have never mentioned here. I have tried to avoid it during turbulent times, yet I do deep down care for her so much.. I am glad however for single beds.

So anyway.. I do not think much of the park.. there is not a huge amount here unless you include the shows which are full 10 minutes before even on a quiet day like today. The gift shops are very generic and quite pricey.. but I am about to see her swim with dolphins.. so TTFN!

Wanting to sample more than the traditional I found myself yesterday at The Strip. Pubs, bars restaurants and the occasional gift shop litter the street with the frequent visit from people offering cheap Rolex or a bouncey thing, neither of which have any touristy links to the Algarve!

its a shame I have not hired a car. Most of the tourist transport facilities end up at pubs and bars, unless you count the short walk to the beach from the old town. Its not quiet school holidays yet, but I can imagine the sandy haven to be packed thirt next month.

suitably brunched and watered, the gift shops became more enticing with increasing numbers of Algarve branded gifts instead of just toys and novelties. I did like the New Town but I think it is too new, too much a place for hard core drinking and eating.. you even have an Irish pub which doubles as an American bar, not that I think the resort is really an American destination of choice.

a quick trip to the supermarket and the party returns to the hotel for a quick break. That is when we realised that chambermaids will invade once a day.. and there was up leaving clothes in a heap and dirty glasses on the table.

the evening found up back at JoJo's sampling the delights of their ex-military chef. Mmmm was all we could say as we tucked into battered mushrooms, (battered? Only ever tried them breaded before) chicken curry, calamare and chocolate sponge. The done was lovely as was the free half litre of wind that came with it! Live music was supplied across the street by a local band singing songs from REM and others. Good music, their accents occasionally making the songs hard to guess.

well its off to ZooMarine now, on a tourist special. I am getting funny looks so I had better leave you all too it and see you all tomorrow.. TTFN

The sunny delights of Portugal. 24 hours in and I am nice and red as I enjoy a short break in Albufeira. My home for these three nights will be the Almar Appts. A spacious self-catering studio within walking distance of most of the town (and thankfully downhill).

I arrived at Faro at 9am. A 40 minute transfer to my hotel.. and dirt cheap at only 35 quid.. and I was ready to drop my bags and go exploring. Heading down to the Old Town was a sight. In between the off-season building works that were going on, was a small market place, selling everything from sweets to toys to anything not to do with tourism. Then you come to the local hotels and ex-pat bars. Settling down to a nice cold pint of local beer, I chatted to the owner of JoJo's and found a lot of the local sights.

Catching the tourist road train back up the hill to the hotel was a blessing. 3 euro gets you a day ticket for the service that runs every 20 minutes from 0930 to 0330! Now thats a service!

The evening led back to the Old Town and to Roberto's Pizzareia and up dozens of stairs to the roof restaurant. Looking out over the square and the ocean (photos when I am back) a filling home-prepared pasta meal, which you can watch being made in the lower restaurant as well as pizzas being made.

The 7 1/2 bar had live music as well so it was off there to watch highlights of the cricket while listening to very good english lasses belting out classic tunes. They have been living there 5 years and seasoning for bother 8 or 9 on top, but do not consider themselves ex-pats!

Well I am off for a shower then off to explore the bars of The Strip and the New Town. ...

I posted the following piece in a forum where I am bery active. It has brought a mixed, but mature responce.... I would appreciate any thoughts on the matter here as well:

Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2007 9:33 am Post subject: The arrest, re-arrest and subsequent outcasting of a person

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The latest twist to the story regarding the tragic events of Stewart Lubbock has resulted in the re-arrest and release of television personality Michael Barrymore. For those of you that may not know the outline, Mr Lubbock passed away at a house party hosted by Mr Barrymore, his body containing both legal and illegal drugs as well as alcohol.

Although I am all in favour of the police continuing to investigate tragedies such as this, the fact that it has to be reported that they arrest the same person on numerous occasions - over a number of years - is surely both detrimental to the case itself and shatters the life of the individual.

Last night Mr Barrymore was released yet his carrear remains in tatters over something which he might not have even had knowledge of prior to the event, let alone be responsible for. He was originally dropped by UK commercial TV station ITV in September 2002 and had a failed comeback attempt a year later.

He left the UK for New Zealand with his partner amid both financial problems and the resigned realisation that he would have trouble finding profitable work in showbiz again.

The point of this post though is that if the police had investigated the case and not arrested Barrymore so many times, the possibility is there that he could still have a job. Accusations flew around the press, his name became the mud that sticks to the bottom of your shoe. Imagine if that was a normal human being, arrested for a rape you never commited, charged but never convicted of interfering with a minor. We have all seen it happen and that persons life is effectively over, innocent or guilty.

Should this method of policing change? More recently, we have had the pleasure of seeing the Portugese police investigating the case of Madeleine McCann and I seriously believe that had that have been a British investigation a dozen people would be arrested, interviewed and become a social outcast. Regardless of the fact they do not know what is happening in Portugal, I feel that their method of investigation is considerably more "citizenship" friendly and even if it was happening right here in the UK I think the current stance in relation to definate suspects would be the same.

I would appreciate your thoughts.

I don't seem to write much when I am not at work. Maybe it is the boredom of the job, cobbled with the ease of getting material to write about that does it.

I am currently on two weeks vacation. I fly away to Portugal on Monday for a few days of hardcore drinking and sunning.... I have changed up £250 into Euro's.... That should be enough for 4 days/3 nights!

I am still not right in myself... its something I quite can not put my finger on.... Maybe I am not drinking enough...

I sit here, on the back seat of a bus, watching a homeless person rooting through a bin. Nothing unusual in a big city environment such as this, yet this individual found a bag of fruit and checked each one, discarding every single one into the same bin from whence it came.

I have a lot of respect for the homeless. Many of them are not there through choice, yet they survive. One wonders though, quite how desperate they are if they can discard food in that manner. Surely if desperation was high then the bad pieces can be seperated. This person was in fact very clean, well dressed, of course I can not make assumptions on his true state of affairs..

it does though, make me think.

Its been a dead boring day really. Pottering up and down the coast on seaside stoppers. Plenty of time to check the news.

Judge Sauer finally got it right. Paris is on her own little express train to the clink via the quack! Shame there are no butch rough lesbians to share a cell with.. money does not always talk.

damn. A station. I had better slow down.. I am joking of course.. even I am not stupid enough to drive a train and write a blog.. I am in fact on my dinner break!

Now I am suprised that Lesley has left Big Racist.. err I mean brother.. I would have put her as a contender for the top spot as she is not a twin who likes to share, a dirty hopeful who lives in a pub car park or the boyband wannawas.

Channel-hopping now and a celebrities sister battles it out with one of my old classmates sister.. yes its the final of Grease is the Blurb. Actually I always found michelle cute, but her big brother put her off limits and I am a fat bastard anyway.. Ooopps I forgot the stars. I enjoy musical shows and towards the end it has some real talent so I might catch it on *on demand*

Mika who not only is on my phone as a mp3, but is the only bloke who can talk to a kid like a lover and NOT get called a paedo (vid Grace Kelly), is now officially skint. He had considerable trouble getting a mobile and his mates are more than happy to remind him!

well time for work.. Then to the pub.. laters!

Boredom. Thats what I feel working a train. Jealousy. Thats what I feel when I see a young couple truely in love. Sex. Thats all I see in a pretty woman.. not that I want to.. I saw what I considered as one of the most women, yet I wondered what it would be like to sleep with her. Am I really that desperate that I would sleep with the very thing that repulses me?

On the plus side, working on the railway means i dont actually work hard. Being a guard means essentially you work when you feel like it on each train. Quite how many other professions have shifts where you just sit.. waiting.. for something to happen.. Then 75% of the way through the foreman comes in telling you to p**s off home.

But. There is more to talk of. Big Racist.. err I mean Brother. So the increase of popular culture and words like fk, ct and of course n****r is not a problem? 50cent can rap about it, ghetto communities can use it cs a sign of affection (it was rife in a predominantly African area I used to live in) and you expect people not to use it? Maybe while your at it you can can the use of the terms cripple, queer, nutcase and the like.. Ahhh but no. They are degrading everything but a black man so they are fine. You wont get much media for calling me a crippled faggot.. maybe I am maybe I am not.. not that it matters.

A Polish pervert is requesting deportation to serve his sentence as there is more chance of being released. I say chop his dirty c**k off!

And finaly.. Penny Smith (48) reveals her love for Curtis Stiger and Leonard Cohen.. damn if she was single and I was 20 years older!

I got that song in my head now. The James Morrison one.. Your Beautiful? I have visions of me singing it to Sarah just to tell her how I feel. Everytime I think I will see her, hear her, the hairs on the back of my neck salute the sky.

I know however that it will never be. I always get the impression that she tires of me very quickly, making conversation sound laboured and unwanted. I think of her more than I think of myself and sometimes that is hard to do. I cant wait to find a way to avoid her.

The job itself is getting better. I have not had to fight moan or grumble at a passenger.. I have not had a journalist moaning in my ear about how we have taken his favourite train away.. just happy passengers heading to and from work and play.

'spose I had better touch wood now.. people might complain if I touched that though.

Two black girls kissing like lovers do. Its not often you see that.. well not in public anyway.

BLIMEY! I forgot I had started this a few hours ago. In between police asking for CCTV pictures from my train and moaning passengers at having to show their tickets I forgot I was doing this. I am off to do my voluntary work now, back to the grind!

i still have not stopped thinking about Sarah though. Her lovely see locks, that infectious smile..

I have had enough already. This job is slowly grinding me down to a point where I would rather wall in front of my train than onto it. The passengers are unusually chirpy this morning, its a shame there is a manager lurking around. I suspect there will be some kind of reprimand.. Not following announcement scripts, not getting through all 12 carriages between every 2 minute stop, usual management banter.

roll on any chance of promotion. I can show them how to properly manage people, not grind the moral down so low its in Australia.