Andy's Blog

I have been asked, on a fair number of occassions, why does everyone call you “troozers”?  So, to hopefully shortcut the next asker and provide the definitve answer… here is the full, sordid, story;

Many, many, (way too) many years ago when I was a teenager in the fine borough of Corby, or little Scotland as it’s sometimes called, my friends decided it was time that I had a nickname – they all had one; Moggie, Caz, Rocky, etc.. why didn’t I?

The decision process was long and convoluted and some of the suggestions were downright rude, but no name was settled on until the father of one of my friends told us that I had a famous namesake; Andy Stewart the  Scottish folk singer.  Worse still, my friends father had one of Andy Stewart’s records!  When the offending item was found and placed on the record player, out popped the song “Donald where’s ya troosers?”

…and as they said, it would be ridiculous to call me ‘Donald’ so they settled on ‘troozers’.  Yes the spelling is different, we didn’t actually bother to look at how you were supposed to spell troosers – my friends just decided that it was spelt with a ‘z’.  And, thus, a legend was born (in my own mind at least) and I have been called troozers ever since.

A boring, yet truthful, humdrum story of troozerdom!

I find myself, almost unconsciously, wandering back to facebook to check out what my listed friends are upto, moving my cars around in Parking Wars, building up my castles in the Knighthood game, updating my profile and uploading more pics.  She-who-must-be-obeyed is starting to feel like a facebook widow.

As some of you may know, I am an iterate IM’er (Instant Messaging), and facebook also allows you to IM friends when they come online – hallelujah!  …or as I am beginning to wonder “uh-oh”.

IM’ing for me is a simple, and cheap, way to chat to friends and gets over some of the inate shyness that is, unfortunately, built into my DNA (which is one reason why I don’t use the phone on a constant basis).  However I am beginning to wonder at what point does IM’ing friends start to become, for them, something coming close to stalking?  The unfortunate element of IM’ing is that you don’t know what the person is doing or feeling at the time you send a cheery little “hello” down the line to them, and people (despite beliefs to the contrary) will always try to remain polite, especially to friends, whatever their mood.

So I think, from now on, I shall try and keep my IM’ing to a minimum and only on a as-needed basis – unless of course I am IM’d first.  Maybe I am overly worrying about a non-issue, but that is a side effect of having too much time on one’s hands during the wee hours (I go to bed WAAAAAY too late).

So if you do find yourself being pestered one too many times, a “feck off” is always taken in the mood it’s given . What’s more worrying, is the following reply given by a friend when I brought it up with them;

coooooool, i have my own stalker….wicked !!

Buggar!  Left it WAY too long to update this blog, so in ‘twitter‘ stylee here’s a VERY rushed update of life so far;

• Didn’t get sunburnt on hols! yay!
• Sitting in the total darkness of a Toledo countryside, with a beer in hand, and family around you looking up at an unspoilt view of the stars IS as good as it gets.
• Number 1 son finally learns how to use the gears on a mountain bike. yay!
• Coming back to a rainy Luton after the hols have finished is a rude landing back to reality.
• Being in a hall full of 300+ karate instructors and black belts, being taught by the founder, and moving in perfect synchronisation is VERY cool!
• Visiting Alton Towers this Bank Holiday was loads of fun.
• Being able to sit on all the BIG and SCARY rides with Number 1 son was a defining moment.

All updated? Good