In other news I won employee of the quarter with a shiny gift card. The balance is about 2 days' wages...
Trying to avoid overdoing things work wise, trying to keep getting time for exercise in, done well this week on that front. On paper I have 9 working days left this year...
I got paid for those days! Just normal rate not overtime... and thanks to it being a big lump, the tax impact was rather hefty...
Now trying to not do anything too daft like "ooh black Friday sale on latex..." and spend hundreds on outfits for a custom. Think I might have something roughed out that would give better value, assuming it can be organised...
Theoretically, 4 working days remaining, I've clocked up 21 hours this weekend so safe to say that isn't happening, so my leave slides into next years which just means I'll start late on that pile of work...
I'm technically on holiday... I'm still working though... A few more days before I'll actually be done and then see if they'll pay me for the overtime or if I'm just taking the days back before I start back next year...
On Thursday I ventured out during the day to point a camera at a steam engine, which involved a decent walk to a good vantage point. The total walk amounted to six miles and aside from the out of town trails, every stretch of footway was obstructed... The joys of authorities that turn a blind eye to what they class as low level issues, this person with a blind eye finds having to walk down the middle of roads rather unsatisfactory - if it's not safe for your steel van to be on the road then how is it safe for me? Govt rush through laws to jail folks for protesting in days, their consultation on banning pavement parking ended over a year ago... Anyway, that side of things really didn't do me any good, every turn seemed to be another kick. The camera decided to really excel and throw up an unreadable error message when I tried to use it... the joys of modern technology, let's be progressive and replace the concept o a reliable hard disk with stupid little SD cards, so when you take your camera outside it reacts to the cold and can't fid the card that's been in it for three years... (and before anyone says "yeah but you can take the cards out to download them..." they can only be removed with the screen open, which turns the camera on, which corrupts the card... Same if the battery dies, which it will...) The only consolation was the black five had the regulator shut and was drifting along, so it would have been a pretty rubbish shot anyway.... Ended up getting pizza delivered so pigged out and that in turn meant little sleep, I had around 7 hours sleep over 48 hours...
Oh and to really top it off, yesterday I awoke to a message from the covid app, telling me that a contact had tested positive... I kept about 2 metres from the nearest person at the vantage point but that must have been it (had it been a neighbour the work phone would have had the same message) so now I've a PCR test in the post... Venture out once during the day locally in 6 months and get pinged in addition to reinforcing the reasons for not venturing out during the day...
I'm about to be on holiday and able to do things, just as it seems we're headed back into chaos as the stable door is once again secured after Dobbin's all knackered from a fortnight's gallop... The "have a look in three weeks" stuff just screams that I'll be cancelling my trip home for Christmas at the last minute... It probably also limits any opportunities for catching up with people that I haven't seen for nearly two years...
I'd probably be just as well working...
Did the sums and realised I've just had custom number 30 from the Mostwam gang, it's a fun one. There's three of mine yet to go out in the stores with one more to shoot this year (oh I wonder what that might be...) As I said last week, I've something in mind for a few scenes with someone, but in the current circumstances, I'm not sure we'd be able to do all of it...
The weekend's storm has put me off venturing out for the usual early morning walks, only been doing around an hour a day on the bike with the amount I'm working...
Doesn't porn get unexciting for you after so long with no contact with anyone? Maybe its' just me, but I just don't get how anyone can be happy without ever having a significant other to do it with. :,(
newpieguy09 said: Doesn't porn get unexciting for you after so long with no contact with anyone? Maybe its' just me, but I just don't get how anyone can be happy without ever having a significant other to do it with. :,(
It's not just you but you do feel that way because you haven't had a chance to check out next doors grass. I could get messy with my other half and choose to self WAM. I'm not into watching vids but the things that do work for me continue to do so. Sex drive has a lot to do with it. Age, hormones and health have a hell of an impact on libido and the lower your libido the less focused you are on sexual stimulation and the more you're focused on wanting someone to cuddle up to. I've had a live in life partner who was a WAMer in fact we met via splunches. Don't get me wrong there were times when it was epic but my current relationship with a non WAMer is by far the best relationship I've had and much of the time when I was single was happier than when I had someone. We all want what we don't have. Learning to recognise and enjoy what you've already got is one of the most difficult and worthwhile things you can do.
I'm on holiday! Until the second week of January! Yikes... Aiming to avoid lots of days of sitting around getting fat, so when the weather's nice, I'll go up to Kew to enjoy the tranquillity. Hoping to do a few wamstructions as well. I probably should give some thought to a few more scenes too...
I'm jealous to hear you get to visit Kew so often. I've only been once but I do have a nature reserve within a couple of miles of home so I guess I shouldn't winge. What kind of ideas for scenes are rolling around in your messy mind?
Struggling to answer the "what do you want for Christmas" question, cos on the occasions I need or want something, I tend to just buy it... I nearly blew that voucher from work on a new tablet, but it wasn't any bigger than my current one, just a newer model and the current one works fine...
Scene wise, it'll be a few NCs, they take a lot of research to find things with useful numbery answers - if things get really bad, there'll be a few countdowny type things on over Christmas to assist...
It's been nice having a week of not working, managed to do a couple of Candy's Wamstructions and a couple of Jelly n Custard's splosh casinos - I'd only had them on the to-do list for 3 years... Going to try to tick off a few more in the next week or so as well.
I've been up to Kew a couple of times this week, not sure if that'll be the case next week as with things tightening again I'm not sure yet what the next week will bring.
Bit of a strange week, still on holiday from work, managed to do a few wamstructions and splosh casinos although now have a lot of recycling to put out and a lot of cleaning to do... There's a load of laundry to do and I think I need at least one more shower... update: the joys of catching the washing machine halfway across the kitchen while zwifting and a long shower later and I might be there...
Off home tomorrow for a week and a bit, escaping what is being reported as the highest cases rate in the country... It's easy enough to avoid people by staying in, but with around 8 hours of travelling tomorrow, I'm not exactly confident in my fellow travellers, thanks to the great example set by those supposedly leading us... I can never get my specs to avoid fogging up either so it'll be listening to the radio and looking out the window. Have to say I'm worried about the risk of taking the virus up with me... Not exactly full of exciting things to talk about either, I think it's been a good thing that I've been so busy with work as that's limited the time I've had to rattle around on my own...
I had a scene go up during the week and hopefully another shooting tomorrow, I say hopefully as it's been quite a saga with a lot of things that aren't anyone's fault affecting the shoot.
Sounds like you've been a busy boy. What do WAM instructions and WAM casino comprise of? Didn't there used to be jerk off instructions where there was a series of pics and instructions I seem to remember there were some which finished with a nasty picture at the end to put the bloke off his stroke.
WAM_in_Bed said: Sounds like you've been a busy boy. What do WAM instructions and WAM casino comprise of? Didn't there used to be jerk off instructions where there was a series of pics and instructions I seem to remember there were some which finished with a nasty picture at the end to put the bloke off his stroke.
Things have progressed a bit in recent years, Candy has Wamstructions which take you through a sesion, what to wear, what to use and how to use it, sometimes with jerk offincluded, although i suspect most can manage that bit without instructions. They cover solo play from simle and silly to "actually it'd be easier to just move!" There are also some designed for couples such as a nice scene to introduce someone to the fun and another to talk the reluctant splosher through trashing you.
Jeremy Custard's (not sure the ones with Maria or Jelly'n'Custard are still available) Splosh Casino is a similar type of thing, just now you play against a model who also gets messy as the cards are turned.
In both cases, you know what you're getting covered in, but not when nor where. For solo play they are good fun and help to avoid the anti-climax of solo play Handy for folks as socially awkward as me and there's no small talk required!
Well, it's another year... It was nice getting home for a few days, although I did manage to catch a cold... and yes I've done a test and it is just a cold... I travelled south on the sleeper, largely as I thought it would be the least covid risky routing. I'd love to say lots of nice things about it, well presented, comfy mattress, great staff, but the lack of sleep was the big issue. It's a train so it does have quite a bit of ambient noise, I've a railway line outside my flat, I've grown used to having music on to give a relatively balanced soundtrack so that's what I did on the train. The trouble I think was the movement, again you expect some movement, after all it's a train and it runs at 75mph. However, with my cabin over a set of wheels, the vertical movement was entertaining, at one point I'm sure I got air!
The festive NC was out just in time for Christmas and the tale of how it came together is partially told in the thread. I'm already looking at what to do next...
I've another week off work to go and now in that fun position of having lots on my telly box to watch, lots on my PC to watch and lots of things that I know I should really get on with and not feeling like any of them... At least knowing it is just a cold eases some things, I'm not as worried about venturing out for a walk and get back on the bike.
I've managed to compile another NC question set ready to go, there's also one booked in to shoot towards the end of the month. Rather interesting to see a new quiz show launch here last night where the answers are always a number. No gunge gunning though... Oh well, it'll probably be a lot of work, but it should give me a nice question reserve for future NC editions!
Well, the workload isn't too bad, but enough to enable the first work email of the year to include "and assuming nothing else lands on us, I might be able to devote time to this project in the summer..." and the next day something else landed...
I've started turning on Strava when i go for a walk, if only for the comedy that follows. The other day my walk was 4.7 miles on Fitbit, 5.8 miles on Strava and 7.7 miles on Google...
The Ant & Dec resource for NC questions has been fun. I downloaded a speech to text app and after a couple of minutes gave up on it as I'd have to watch the show twice to correct all of the mistakes... Still, a nice pool of numbery questions is building.
Well another of my scenes went live this week Ready, Steady, Splosh! Bit complicated, but good fun. That leaves us with one outstanding scene to go up. Another NC shoots this week too! Was lovely to see one of the girls we trashed in the GungeMistress days return to Mostwam, I suspect she'll be in a round of NC soon enough! Indeed, I'm about halfway through cobbling together an NC, which means I've got lots of windows open on the browser and they'll probably stay there unlooked at for the next week...
In other stuff, I took a day off work on Friday and went up to London for a wander around Kew (already had the full value of the year's membership - my aim is to go at least monthly) one thing that spending so long indoors and mainly venturing out in the early hours is that I seem to have become more sensitive. Kew had the sort of levels of aviation fuel in the air you expect at an airport (Kew is the lovely green bit you fly over on the final descent into Heathrow) there was cloud cover so guess that wouldn't help... Anyway, yesterday I felt rubbish, didn't go out for a walk, or get on the bike, indeed it seemed all I did was eat and watch telly... On Friday I visited the scales for the first time in ages and discovered I'd lost 3kg, but I might have put it all back on now...
Work rather exploded this week, or more accurately, an 11,000 volt transformer exploded (or at least went "PHUTT"...) lots of work, mainly with the sort of deadline that is classified beyond optimistic... When it starts with "we'll confirm this by lunchtime on Wednesday" and that doesn't get sorted until Friday afternoon... If that wasn't enough the project incompetence lot are back... the joys of working seven days a week are back, still they're paying the overtime this time!
Anyway, on the more fun stuff, Sky as Britney has gone live, remembering back to the shoot day, I was sure t would be good when Sky shared some behind the scenes selfies on her insta. And the combination of dancing, trainers and gunge lead to a rather good comedy moment.
If that wasn't enough, NC has gone back to St Trinians, not sure when that will go up, but it was fun. And all those tabs that were open last week as I cobble together another NC are still open and it hasn't progressed...
Another hectic week, bit of a shock during the week learning that a relative had taken their own life, after battling depression for some time. I will add, not a relative I'm close to, indeed it might be 10 or more years since I've seen them - as someone who struggles with socialising, traipsing to the other end of the country to socialise isn't something I tend to be that keen on. As I eventually said in response to mum, it was a shock and I don't know what to say, but then I don't suppose anyone does. Of course mum's tend to worry, especially when their kids are all one their own, and I think the fact I've been snowed under with work has been rather beneficial, and this thread probably helps a bit, whether anyone actually reads it or not...
So the panic work ended for me on Thursday and typically the engineering folks decided we needn't have bothered on Friday, so cheers for that... Project incompetence are wanting more and our folks seem to have gone loopy... A bit of work the PI lot said they could do in 37 hours, but now have 61 hours to do it in, and lots of folks want to start their slot earlier, which really only affects me, so thanks for that... as they seem to think they might not do the work on time...
The work madness lead to a pretty rough weekend as I've consumed more alcohol than I probably should and eaten rubbish... at least I've done some decent kms on the bike and with a day off tomorrow, will get out for a decent walk in the sunshine.
Quite enjoying the winter Olympics, amusingly the commentators referencing a "nice backside" seems to happen only in the baggy clothed events when bottom rating is rather difficult!
I read it. I don't normally have much to say as you're usually just venting. I know things haven't been easy for any of us, but you have a unique set of challenges as well.
I'm sorry for your family's loss. It doesn't matter if you were particularly close or not. Hearing someone felt their best or only option left was to take their own life is never an easy thing to hear.
It's also one I can relate to as I have come very close to taking my own a couple times back in 2017.
Well Monday as nice, day off so went up to Kew for a walk, forecast said at best 8 celcius, so rather surprising hat it was well into double figures, lots of wildlife, flowers starting to appear, really did feel that spring had sprung. The trouble with having a really positive mental day is it tends to make the next few worse... I seem to have more ups and downs than the halfpipe events...
Well I survived Dudley (the storm, not the place) (names after Moore the comedian, actor and pianist?) and Eunice (another storm) (named after the winner of UK Gladiators in 1994) looks like there's another one, Franklin, on the way... Hope everyone's staying safe.
Not been too bad in the day job, well apart from a 90 minute meeting that was mainly spent going over and over on something completely irrelevant and purely theoretical They've only put them in every week for months...
Typically, I decide to have a bit of a break before the next custom and lo and behold a cracking idea came into my mind and it's now all ready to go! The one that has been in progress for most of a month now is still in progress, it's great to see some new girls joining the roster at Mostwam, , we're heading towards having a list of prospective girls for scenes which can prove rather helpful (as we found out last year!)
iain-ecgunge said: Well I survived Dudley (the storm, not the place) (names after Moore the comedian, actor and pianist?) and Eunice (another storm) (named after the winner of UK Gladiators in 1994) looks like there's another one, Franklin, on the way... Hope everyone's staying safe.
Not been too badly hit here thankfully, just lots of rain and wind.
Hopefully Franklin passes by without too much damage!
Managed to get out for a walk yesterday, the first in more than a week... That's the trouble with these weather events, you stay in to avoid them, so get less exercise, so end up not sleeping as well, so end up not being in the right state of mind to go out... If that isn't enough, I wasn't great on the bike all week either...
Heard a mouse rummaging around yesterday, so set a humane trap and this morning woke in time to hear Mickey wandering around, then, just as I was thinking I wasn't up for venturing out, the trap shut. So out for a walk, releasing the mouse by some allotments - the third time I've done this, and a different place this time, probably the nicest release too, open the trap, a little wait, then a look out then it just pootled off into the night. Sounds like the partner is here, so the trap's set again and when we catch the mate, I'll take them to the same place.
Having the joys of managing expectations at work, there's currently three piles of work, each will take roughly a month to do, I only have a month. It doesn't help when people who have been around for more than a decade don't know basic stuff and they're seen as experts... I've spent a decade now making things that inherently don't work, work.
Oh, and the button's been pressed on the scene I mentioned, it's a bit tight to meet the ideal release date though.
The mice tally now stands at 4... somehow the one I released this morning had managed to get a fair bit of net curtain into the trap... at the release end... it did look a bit thin so might have been in there since yesterday... I'm not sure a cheap net curtain gives much warmth! Anyway, it scampered off when released at the same place as the others.
The joys of modern tech reminded me that it is now two years since I've caught up with any friends...
Had a tiring week at work, took Friday off with the intention of going to Kew as the forecast was alright. Got to Friday and it had deteriorated... So I managed to do a bit of boring adminy stuff in the flat and made a bit more space.
Woo another week... This week's update probably should be sponsored by Looney tunes...
Mousewatch - early on Monday, another mouse caught in the trap by the window. I leave it to amuse itself, gorg on the food and the like. So a few hours later when I'm able to take it out to release it, it had quite a lot of the net curtain in there with it... I started the retrieve the curtain, but it caught on the release hatch, sending it, the curtain and the mouse flying... I'm not sure f it did splat against the window but it would be fitting... Tuesday night, a different trap caught a mouse, this time I placed the trap in the bath to both keep the antics away from me and there's no net curtain there either! A few hours later, i get up to go for a walk and release the mouse and... the trap is empty! Yep, Houdini the mouse! After that, the trap involved wouldn't set, so new ones ordered. Houdini could be heard under the floor... New traps arrived on Thursday and quickly caught one mouse just after I went to bed. So, out of bed and off to release mousey (I did get dressed btw), i went to a different location, a little further from the flat (for those that have been paying attention, it was where the mice in the past were released) Mouse released onto a tree, from where it leapt into the darkness. Back to the flat, set the trap again and off to bed. Woke a few hours later, another trap had an inmate. Off we go on another release mission, this time I went to the furthest point of my usual walk, mouse two was released onto a wooden fence, and again leapt into the darkness (madly as there's a pond there...) There's a bout 5 miles between the two locations, so I suspect I've rather split up a couple... So far so good.
It's concerning to see cases on the rise again here, just when thoughts of possibly catching up with people for the first time in two years was there, it looks like the sensible approach would be to stay away. I know I wasn't exactly the world's biggest socialiser before the pandemic, but I don't think hospital appointments should be looked forward to as they mean you get to talk to people... Work's keeping all of the covid policies in place for now, which is good, and they've started doing stuff on mental health too, although telling us to find time to watch a half hour video isn't the best starting point for some of us...
I did start the year with the intention of getting to Kew gardens at least monthly, and it's now more than a month since I was last there, which is frustrating as there'll be quite a change. Hopefully, I'll get there on Friday.
Trying hard to stop myself overdoing things with work, so I ended up working 3 hours on Friday to pass my week's hours and then was able to make the most of the nice weather and get up to Kew. Was lovely wandering around in the sunshine, a lot had changed in the month since I'd last been.
Bit of an unusual week where I didn't feel oodles of pressure from work, got lots of exercise in and felt like some things were actually achieved!
Bit of juggling around with the custom scenes, we've paused the one that was in the works so it may well be the next to shoot, but will have a lengthy wait before it goes live, but as it's one of the NC spin-offs that won't delay everything. The joys of a numbery quiz format, where ideally you have two questions for each number is there's a lot of trawling through statistics to find suitable questions on a theme. The one that's been developing over several months has started throwing up double numbers... So I've four questions for 2 and for 7... A raid of chart history can be helpful, with varying stats on songs - some I even know!. There might now be enough to give a couple of rounds from it, which should be fun.
A week where at wok things were largely frustrated by someone who suits the phrase "having a dog but choosing to bark himself" - funnily enough it doesn't provide any help and really is just a nuisance at best... Trying to look afte my mental health (not to mention computer peripherals - nearly broke the mouse on Friday...) so hoping to get away to Kew during the week (nice TV show on C5 a day or two ago(
No mice for a couple of weeks so I guess the attempted rehoming has succeeded.
Bit of a knock to the summer plans as the Foo Fighters have understandably cancelled their tour...
That NC I've been working on for ages is finally ready to go over, indeed there's two on the same theme and probably enough questions spare for a third!
I actually managed a fairly relaxed week for a change, got up to Kew on Tuesday for a nice daytime walk amongst the trees and flowers. I even managed some unintentional wam on my walk this morning... local paths, night time and deceptively deep puddles... My fitbit's gone all wierd, it keeps reversing the display so every character is backwards, it does sort itself if you reset it, but after doing that yesterday it went wrong again this morning. New one ordered.
My folks came down with, thankfully mild, covid this week. I feel like I'm turning into Lance Armstrong as I seem to be one of the few who can say "I've never tested positive"... Given how little I've seen of family and friends over the last two years, I guess that isn't so surprising.
Well I don't think I've gone totally crazy... yet... I seem to have become a professional sportsperson as I now have developed the knack of picking up injuries while sleeping...
Made it to Kew on Friday for a nice walk (pic below) got there early and glad I did as when I was leaving just after noon, it was already rather hot and the "oh, the weather actually is nice, let's go somewhere" brigade had turned up to enjoy the great British pastime of queuing while grumbling about the queue! I might get back up tomorrow, will see how things go.
Managed a bit of a play yesterday, it doubled my energy use for the day... Which probably says more about my efficiency than anything else, a carton of custard costs more than the extra energy used.