Without.......

(2026 Edit - This post comes from the archive; it was first published on 26th November 2007. Things, views and events may have changed since then.)

Image by Tracey from Pixabay

How come it's dark before 4pm these days? Where do the daylight hours go? I'm enjoying the first day off of my set of four after a rather low, almost depressing shift of four on! Apart from making up silly songs in the middle of the night, gorging ourselves on chip kebabs and two people doing the jobs of 6, it's been rather sad. Dear old David has completed his last night shift, not just for this week or month, but ever. He's departing the dark side and heading onwards and upwards to the day shift; the nights just won't be the same without him. He was the glue that kept sanity together; he was the voice of reason and was my lunch partner. Trips to Legends at 1.30am will just not be the same, but, hey, I wish him well in his new job, am sure he'll do well!

OK, so the world and his wife and four kids have all gone social networking mad! It seems these days you just can't be anyone until you have an online profile on one of the major social interaction sites. I must say, the fear of being left out of this cyber-space world of social interaction has prompted me to get on this thing called Facebook! Oh, so yes, I'm a few years behind the 'in crowd ', but hey, what else is new? I think I've been playing catch-up since the day I was born! Anyway, I digress, there I am on Face Book and it's all rather confusing at first, within my first week or so, I've been 'Poked' 5 times, I've had a 'sticky' pasted on me, I've had to build a fun wall, grow a garden, plot a destination map, been sent 3 beers, been blocked once and been invited to join a stranger in Bangkok! It's all very errm social in an interactive cyber way; one of the nice things about being a new FaceBook inhabitant is that I've got back in contact with a couple of old friends I haven't seen in years and long since lost contact with, which is jolly good! Another good thing about it's crazy and confusing and has too many applications for a silly fool like me to understand, is people send you funny videos from YouTube and the like all the time. (out of date link to an amusing video about the perils of bathing in Domestos has been removed)

Meanwhile over on the other side of Brighton, David was back combing his beehive in preparation for the Amy Wineglass, oops Winehouse gig at the Brighton Centre tonight. As he was getting ready, I asked what else he'd done to be like Ms Winehouse to get in the mood; his reply: "Had 6 e's, done a couple of lines, sunk a bottle of JD, just about to start self-harming and putting on my 'fuck me' pumps and fallen over twice" Oh, exactly like the girl herself! I am in awe!! I wait with bated breath to hear the tales of mayhem. If indeed she turns up this time, if she does, I hope s
he does fall off the stage!

Will it be a white Christmas?

Can you believe it's just four weeks till Christmas? Well, look on the calendar, if you don't trust me! So just four weeks to go before the big day and all that card sending and gift giving. Apparently, according to recent research, over 60% of gifts are unwanted and are returned to shops for something better within the first two weeks of January! It all seems like an over-hyped, over-commercialised waste of good money if you ask me! We have, as a society, lost all sense of reality in the silly season; we've long since forgotten the real meaning of Christmas, and the only kind of Christmas spirit we get into is the kind that comes in bottles with 37.5% proof on the label!!

Jake asked me what I would like as a gift this year; he said something that I couldn't live without! Now, that's a really hard question to answer. I mean, what could I want that I couldn't live without, something that would make my life complete? I don't have a scooby doo! But it's got me thinking, what do you have in your life that you just can't do without?

DB says he can't live without his phone, OK, so he's splashed out on a new iPhone, so it's a bit more than just a way of communicating, but that's not the point, he says speaking from his most valued possession (which sounded as tinny and echoey as and old tin can on a bit of string by the way) His whole life revolves around either calling people or texting them on his phone and he couldn't function without it.

Mo say, sex!!!!

Jake says, caffeine, burgers, condoms and beer, but not necessarily in that order!

David says, the answer is easy, I couldn't live without my MacBook! It's got my whole life on it, all my music, my access to all the Dvia gossip, my shopping and even my secret porn stash! (Oops, not so secret anymore!)

Can you think of the one thing in your life that you simply couldn't live without?