Saturday, November 15, 2008

Saturday Night

We're well into the weekend now, it is early Saturday evening and I'm starting to think about getting ready to bath and put the kids to bed. I have snatched a few minutes from domesticity to write this.  You see, this weekend my wife is away with a large group of women who have descended to a large cottage in the forest to eat, drink, dance and have facials. Oh and taste champagne as well, did I mention that? Yeah, so while she's been living it up since Friday afternoon, I've been home with the kids. It's not so bad, there are times when I wished that they could be nicer to each other and times when they are just so moody - but outside of THOSE times we have fun. Today, I had to take my son for his swimming class, so we up relatively early and after swimming I had a bill to pay and we took a trip to the library. Then I had to take my daughter to a friend who was having a party, while she did that I took the boy to the supermarket to get some food. I bought us some root vegetables and hot dogs because for tea I made:

Vegetable and Hotdog Hash! Swede, parsnip, savoy cabbage, potato, sweet potato boiled mashed and fried with lovely hotdog sausages. I loved it, the kids weren't too fond, except for the sausages that my daughter picked out. That's the trouble with kids, you go to great lengths to try something different, buy fresh seasonal veg, chop it up, cook it up and deliver it right to where they sit and then they pick what you knew they would eat and disregard the stuff that would do them some good. At least I can say I tried. Its just a good thing I had a backup cooking in the oven (frozen pizza). That picture was from the recipe although I have to say mine looked almost exactly the same.

Since my wife is enjoying herself, this evening I have plans for my own fun. Last Christmas we got a gaming chair from my mother in-law. It was a very strange choice of gift but who am I to quarrel? I rarely get the chance to get it out but tonight is the night; oh yeah baby! I've bought some beer with a hint of lime that's chilling nicely in the fridge and I have a bag of nuts to consume while I play videogames until I fall asleep.

It may not be champagne tasting and a facial, but I'll be home, warm and cosy. Oh crap, it still doesn't sound as much fun as my wife's weekend! I should get some friends, I really should....

Friday, November 14, 2008

Fitness Freak

I'm generally not fit. I have been trying to spend some time these last couple of weeks on Wii Fit. I bought some running shoes at the weekend:

Running shoes

I found a new discount sports shop on my local trading estate and its great - I got these shoes for only 11 pounds. For the length of time I spend running each week they are just right, they probably wouldn't be any good for your marathon runner but for me they'll do.

My Wii Fit age is around about my real age on average - it was 37 this week, which is -3 years: so that isn't too shabby is it?

Award Time

Hey, I've been given an award by Mrs Hairy Woman! Thanks so much. I would nominate 10 other bloggers but I don't know that many!

Monday, November 10, 2008

Back To Monday

In some ways, the familiarity of a return to work after a weekend is a nice thing but mainly it just reinforces the sense of oppression I feel in having to perform a function from 9 to 5 to earn enough money to maintain a home and sustain a quality of life. When its cold, wet and grey outside it just doesn't make it any easier. Its one of those weeks when Monday could have got off to a better, cleaner start, rather than moody silence.

This weekend I had the chance to laze in bed on Sunday morning, great! I watched the Stallone version of Judge Dredd. I was watching it to really give it another chance; I've seen it before and it didn't spark my interest. However, this time I thought that while it could have been cast better and the storyline made too many concessions to Hollywood, overall I enjoyed it better than I thought I would. The motorbikes the judges ride were laughable though, they should be fearsome machines but in the film they come across as no more fearsome than a Shop-Mobility cart!

It was a bit of a film-frenzy for me this weekend actually, as I watched Hot Fuzz and Daredevil. Three films I enjoyed the second time around more than the first; that's what these all have in common. It's good to have films on DVD in your closet so that you can go back to them and re-watch. Tonight, I'll be recording the film Underworld off the TV, I have a VHS copy but since our videoplayer is under the bed now we don't bother watching videos anymore. It's a bit of a shame I know but over the last couple of years we have been downsizing - the TV has become an LCD flatscreen and we have got rid of the DTV receiver (incorporated into the TV) and the video player: so we are nice and light with only a DVD player attached (aside from the Wii and Xbox360 consoles - but they're hidden away almost out of sight). I have considered converting my VHS tapes into DVDs but the time it would involve makes it cheaper to just replace the tapes with DVDs when I see them on sale and to be fair, there are not that many I really and truly miss.

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Halloween Breakdown

The Halloween party was very cool. It was held by a family I've only been out with once but they are very nice. They live out in the country and have the most amazing large garden - I think several generations of their family bought it together and now co-habit in different parts of the house: ideal, I'd love to do that - it would be great for baby-sitters! Our host had such a great authentic bullet shot in the centre of her brow, even the bruising and brain stuff around the entry hole looked awesome. The fire took a long while to get going and it was such a cold night, the kids went indoors to keep warm. After a lot of fanning and (eventually) a rag soaked in petrol, it kicked into life and was lovely and roaring. I love the radiant heat from a good outdoor blaze. The baked potatoes were eventually found after a bit of raking through the ashes and most were perfectly cooked, I had one half that was perfect and the other half a little underdone - but then cooking outdoors is not an exact science. All in all we had a great evening, I liked the part where us men stood around the fire grumbling about cars breaking down and how garages seem to apply charges quite arbitrarily.

The film I chase eventually was Freddy vs Jason. I was laughing at it because it was so NOT a scary movie. If you've seen the parody Scary Movie it wasn't dissimilar. Oh well, you live and learn.

I have been reading the book I bought recently, it is volume one of a collection of Judge Dredd stories. He's a character from a comic titled 2000 AD, I don't think it's around any more. It does have me reminisce about the comics I used to read as a kid in the 1970s. I started with Beano and moved on to Krazy Comic and then Cheeky. My dad used to buy me comics like Battle, Warlord and Victor (more for his own entertainment I think). For some time I have been trying to remember one title I used to enjoy and this morning I looked it up on the Internet - isn't the web great for recalling memories from childhood? The comic in my memory was called Bullet and it featured a special agent called Fireball, he was a guy with a moustache (like one I am currently growing incidentally, more about that another time). I remember it so vividly because I sent off to join the Fireball club, I received a red plastic wallet and special story card to put inside and I got the Fireball pendant of which I was very proud. It was a large black plastic thing with embossed gold flames and I think an F in the middle, although I might not have remembered that part exactly. I loved British comics back in the 1970s and wish they would make a return.