Howdy boys and girls. How ya all feeling? Well there’s a lot for me to talk about so I’m going to seperate this into two seperate posts.

First of all I’ve been speaking to Dave about the future of this website. I’ve just put in an order for a wireless network and a Mac Mini this morning so they should be arriving next week. One thing that no-one can dispute is that when it comes to Apple’s products, anything creative is far better when done on a Mac. All you have to do is just watch some of the product tours to see. For those of you who don’t believe me – make sure you have the latest version of Quicktime (which at the time of writing is version 7) and check out the Keynote 3 Quick Tour.

Now compare that to Microsoft Powerpoint 2003.

Yeah, I think you’ll agree that there’s no contest.

So, about plans for the site; The first main one obviously is those blasted comic strips that you’ve all been waiting for. We have a few ideas to keep us going for a bit, along with different types including “Dave’s Dating Tips” featuring failed dating techniques that he’s used in the past along with ones that he’d love to try for real if it wasn’t for the fear of being punched in the face.

Secondly, something that will be far easier for us to both set up and produce on a mac is going to be podcasts. What we have planned are 30-60 minute podcasts featuring myself and/or Dave in a completely random, unplanned improvised format where you can basically listen to us talk about nothing. And monkeys. As well as those Eskimo Ninjas and the women they love (not be be confused with Penguins).

Possibly further into the future, we might do shorter video podcasts in a similar fashion to the audio versions as well as video interviews with respected web celebrities (such as Chris Kite, aka flyakite) and whoever else we can get hold of. Not to mention the odd random bumping into a random stranger in the street and asking them what they think of wet lettuce.

So fortunately, there’s lots more to look forward to in the future so please, stay tuned!

Meanwhile, back in the present…

…I had an appointment somewhere in a place called Holmes Chapel today at 2pm. Without my car I had to get the bus which I used to do all the time but today’s been a nightmare!

I realised I could arrive in Holmes Chapel at 1:50pm, but knowing how rubbish the local bus service is I decided to take the bus an hour earlier to give myself plenty of time. The only problem is that I didn’t…

I was buying a new computer and some equipment to set up a wireless network for my business and it took a little longer than I’d planned and by the time I was out of the house I had to run to the bus station. Then I realised I had no cash so I had to quickly withdraw £10, buy a bottle of water and then continue to the station so that I had enough change (cos they won’t accept notes grr). Anyway, fortunately I got there just in time. Phew.

And then I looked at the bus station.

It’s all been barriered off because they’re ripping it down and starting from scratch. I asked the builders where the bus stops have been relocated to and he said “Mill Street.” Unfortunately, I suck at road names. I’ve never been able to learn road names and had absolutely no idea where that is. What made it worse is that he’s not from this area at all and so he doesn’t have a clue where it is either.

So whilst most men have a mental barrier that somehow makes it impossible to ask for directions, it doesn’t apply to all of us – thank goodness!!! I managed to find out where the bus was supposed to be and there it was – just about to set off. I got on, bought my return ticket and sat down with a great big sigh of relief.

Then I arrived in Holmes Chapel about 20 minutes later. But the way I wanted to go the driver wasn’t going and he turned down a road I’d never been down before. Luckily for me he dropped me off right then and there and I got to my appointment with an hour to spare, only to find that actually it wasn’t until 2:45pm anyway.

Then it got worse. I suddenly realised that I couldn’t get home. I had a return ticket for the bus, but because I wasn’t dropped off at an official bus stop, I didn’t know where the next one was, nor did I know the route that the bus was supposed to take! After asking about 5 different people and walking around for an hour in the direction the bus was originally going, I finally found the bus waiting at the bus stop, albeit facing the opposite direction to what I had expected it to. Nevertheless, it was the right bus back to Congleton and so I proceeded to step on.

Turns out that the first driver only gave me a sodding single one-way ticket!!! But the driver was nice and let me on for free anyway and fortunately it wasn’t long before I was back home.

I’m not sure what’s worse – the fact that I’ve had that sort of day or that it’s just typical that these things happen to me?

I received the best e-mail ever when I got home though.

[To be continued...]