The Blog of Kris Middleton

  Hello everyone, There was so much to do to get the house sorted this morning I ended up being 30 minutes late for work. I got there just in time for the school assembly, something which I hate to miss as a bit of faith sets you up for a good day. Why was I late? The dishwasher hadn’t been loaded last night. I had to scrub all the dried stuff this morning, and then put it all in the dishwasher. It took a good half an hour, half an hour I didn’t have but I couldn’t leave dirty plates and kitchen equipment laying around. After this I decided that, now I am back on a positive routine, part of this can be a cleaning routine. I have a blackboard hanging in the kitchen which I usually write on what I will be making for tea when I get back from work (Spaghetti Bolognese and Garlic Bread tonight). I decided to draw a line half way down it - the top part for food, the bottom part for saying which room will be cleaned today. Monday - the living room. As I was running late I used the car to get

  Hello everyone, I’ve committed to a proper morning routine to make sure I don’t fall back into any bad habits, as mentioned yesterday. I woke up just after 7am, got the house sorted out, got myself sorted out and dressed, and did some meditation. With no football match to referee today it was the perfect time to sort through the DVD, games, and books I had brought back from my mums a few days earlier. I didn’t need any of them - DVD’s are no longer needed as everything can be streamed, I had read all of the books, and I had played all of the games. The only games I wanted to keep were my beloved Final Fantasy games. I could never part with them! I didn’t have the motivation to list everything on eBay to sell individually. I wanted to get rid of all of it pretty quickly. The value of everything was irrelevant, so I decided to use the Music Magpie app to get rid of most of it all in one go. Anything they didn’t want I will simply donate to some charity shops around the town. 14 books a

  Hello everyone, I had to stop myself from restarting a computer system I knew didn’t work this morning. A couple of months ago I had built a Betfair Exchange system that placed bets on Greyhound Racing using the Oscar’s Grind gambling system. Everytime the favourite dog lost, I increased the size of the bet by one until the dog won and I was back in profit. I ran it for a couple of days, and within a couple of days I had run out of my bank balance, which was only £40. I didn’t want to use, or waste, any more money because I only built the system to prove a theory - a theory that such gambling systems do not work. I had the urge to want to restart it again, even though I knew it was nonsense. I was bored, couldn’t think of anything positive to do at that moment, and so my mind returned to this disastrous plan. Drastic action was needed on my part to beat the urge to waste my time in front of a laptop. I kept myself busy by washing clothes, tidying up, and meditating. After an hour I h

  Good morning folks, It has been a week since my last update, for which I wholeheartedly apologise. After my 2-week break from work I returned and suddenly realised I needed to make some adjustments to my life in order to fit in doing these daily updates. I have spent the week doing that, and going forward from now I shall endeavour to post daily updates. For now though, in order to make sure the days are all accounted for, let me give you a breakdown of everything that has happened over the last few days. Sunday 14th April 2024 I registered my Nintendo Switch and downloaded Pokemon Home. This is in preparation of beginning to play the new Pokemon games so that, I can finally, begin to catch them all. I got a free Pikachu to get me started too! In the afternoon I travelled to Darlington to referee a cup semi final between Darlington Spraire Ladies and Durham City Ladies. It was a brilliant game, and although the scoreline of 6-1 doesn’t suggest it, it was a very end-to-end game. Darli

  Good morning again everyone, I was on refereeing duty this afternoon, so I spent the morning lazily sitting at my laptop looking up interesting news. Today’s subject - Pokemon! Some of the possessions I had brought home with me involved my very old Pokemon games. Back when I was a kid I had spent a rather large amount of time playing all of these games, never quite collecting them all as I had no one to trade with. I was happy though, I love Pokemon. Even at the age of 36, I still love Pokemon. Which is handy as I have just read online that Nintendo have just disabled the 3DS eStore, and it is no longer possible to transfer Pokemon from older generations unless you already have Pokemon Bank downloaded (which I don’t). I can see this will annoy a lot of people who wanted to transfer their old Pokemon into the newer games on the Switch, but to me this is a massive weight off my shoulders. I kept hold of all of those games for years to see if Nintendo would come up with a way of making

  Good morning folks, I had the pleasure of taking Fearne to school today as Juli was getting organised to host an early morning Zoom meeting in my still-clean-and-amazing office. I also took the opportunity to post another item I had sold on eBay, a collectible toy car still in its original box, as the shop was only around the corner from the school. Returning home I had to keep myself occupied while Juli used the office, so I took the opportunity to deep clean all of the kitchen. I cleaned the Washing Machine thoroughly, wiping down all of the surfaces and running a hot cycle with Bicarbonate of Soda and Vinegar. Then I moved onto the Dishwasher, again cleaning the surfaces before putting it on a long wash with more Bicarb and a bowl of Vinegar. But the biggest challenge was next - the Oven. It needed a lot of attention. I unscrewed the glass doors and used some heavy duty creams to loosen as much of the build up of splashes as I could. Then I got my handy glass scraper out and spent

  Hello everyone, I started off the day by returning the laptop I spent most of yesterday fixing to the charity I had taken it from. I plugged it in at their premises, checked that it booted up and allowed the emails to be opened. It did, but as expected it was slow and sluggish. I recommended the Charity Manager see how they get on with it, and if it is not usable then it is time for a new laptop. Returning home I was confronted by the possessions I had retrieved from my mothers home as they piled up in my only-recently-tidied office waiting to be sorted out. I couldn’t cope with the mess and felt an urge to sort it all out. So that is exactly what I did. I spent a good couple of hours setting up my two laptops - one will be used for entertainment, such as playing music, movies and games, while the other one I will keep for work. I need my work laptop to have very few distractions as I really do need to be getting on with things. I also took the opportunity to personalise both my lapt

  You will all be delighted to hear I have stuck to my hourly exercise regime. I will keep doing it again today, and in a few weeks time I will start to see some visual benefits. Today was filled with a lot of nostalgia and doing work for organisations I have been helping for years. It started off with an email from a charity in Sunderland, whom I manage their email system for. With only 4 members of staff, and none of the staff looking likely to move on for a few more years at least, it is very rare I hear from them. It must have been 4 years since their last message. They had a new staff member joining them and needed a new email address setting up! That was a nice easy start to the day. I logged into their Microsoft 365 Portal and added a new user. Job done. Even more nostalgia followed. My mum is moving home soon. She is moving to the same area as her mum and sister live, and has found a bungalow within walking distance of them both. My step dad passed away last year, and my mum ha

  I had to rebuild mine and the missus bed today. For some strange reason all of the slats had fallen out at the bottom half of Juli’s side of the bed. I would like to say I had some say in this, but sadly not! On closer inspection the frame had come away at the bottom end of the bed, leaving just enough space for the slats to wiggle free and fall out. What happened next was a gruelling game of tug and war between myself and the bed, as I attempted to wrestle a frame back together with one hand while repositioning slats in their slots with the other. 20 minutes of my life gone in a display of composure and balancing, before the final ‘click’ into position of the frame once again as it all came back together. Then I popped the mattress back on, made the bed, and I am pleased to say you would never know it had ever fallen apart in the first place! My early morning start fixing the bed made me realise I need to start making sure I exercise on a regular basis. I spend way to much time sat

  Hello everyone, And here we go! I needed a week to get myself organised to start this mammoth journey. Over the past week everyone at home has been putting in the effort to make the house clean and decluttered. For the first time in 6 years we have space! Lots of items have been thrown out or donated to others, and I was particularly impressed by how easy it was to let go of the vast majority of the ‘stuff’. The living room looks livable, the bedrooms are all tidied up, and the kitchen is holding together nicely! Most importantly though, my tiny little office has been thoroughly decluttered, with literally nothing remaining in it that isn’t useful or designed to inspire me in my times of need. My desk is clean and tidy, there is nothing leaned up against a wall waiting to be sorted out, and all of my tools and boxes, which for some reason I kept in my office (as if I wanted to be close to them??) have now been sorted and stored under the stairs in my now-organised toolbox. I’ve put a

  All great stories start with a fantastic opening. This opening, perhaps, won’t be as grand as you were hoping it will be, but it will hopefully set the scene for what is to come. You are reading the blog of me, Kris Middleton. This is attempt number 36 of starting this blog, and after 35 failed attempts I am determined to make this attempt work. And because I am determined, I am overly optimistic this will be the one! Who am I and what do I do? That, my friend, is the first interesting question of this blog. I am Kris. I also get called, incorrectly I must point out, Skippy; a childhood nickname that seems to have stuck. At the time of starting this blog I am thirty six years old (there’s that number again!). I work in a school as a rather handy Computer Technician, as a person who knows how to throw data at a spreadsheet and make it look incredible. I fix things, I teach people how to use software to its full potential, and I have a burning desire to help as many people as I possibl