Fruity topic

Is a nectarine the same as a peach, except with different skin? They taste much the same to me. If I had to choose a favourite fruit it would be a pineapple because they are so juicy and mouthwatering.

I found this quiz on Tara's blog and what do you know?

What Kind of Fruit Are You?

You are a Pineapple...the traditional symbol of friendship, you embrace everyone as a friend...you are loyal, kind and always there for a friend in need...
Take this quiz!








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TV Thoughts

The new series of the UK version of X Factor began last Saturday, the viewing figures were something like 11 million. This is very good for a UK Saturday evening show these days, long gone are the days when figures were much higher for Saturday evening variety shows. My wife looks forward to the X Factor not for the show itself but the knowledge that it begins the run-up to Christmas (when the series traditionally finishes). The show itself began with a tension between the judges, Brian Friedman (US dance expert) was eventually replaced after the first week with Louis Walsh (who was unceremoniously sacked after the last series). We are led to believe that "the chemistry" is right again and miraculously the acts started improving and more were let through. I'm not sure I would have let some of the acts in that they did but they're the experts. What I didn't realise and what is never made clear is that the judges only see a proportion of the acts that are let through by the shows producers. This knowledge ruins for me the parts with truly terrible singers, it just feels exploitative: I know (newsflash: music industry exploits the young!) but combined with lowering the age limit to 14 year olds I feel more and more uncomfortable. Perhaps I'm just being a grumpy old fart.

Hello again, hello

It's good to be back! I feel refreshed and reinvigorated. It's probably down to spending a week away from work and home last week - we all went to the seaside for a week. Even though the weather was mixed we had a good time, did I mention we managed to walk about 40 miles in total during the week? Pretty good going I think. My left calf muscle has been aching a bit last couple of days but tonight it seems to be OK. It's good to be home but when you're away and the day when you have to return home is approaching there's a feeling you get that is half-glad and half-sad, sad because it's nice to do things different for a while. Even the small things like the changes you have to make in how you prepare your food can seem like quite big. It teaches you that changing behaviour is not that hard and that change can be good. Having to live differently is also good to demonstrate how adaptable you can be. Don't get me wrong, I'm talking about small changes here - we stayed in an apartment so the only major differences beside location for us were the facilities available for washing, cooking etc. It's not like we were living in a remote island or anything. Being somewhere else, in someone else's place without making it your own, is like living as a different person for a while. That's probably part of what I needed. Something to think about, anyway...

Recharging

Just recharging my body batteries....hence the lack of posts...

Feeling

I haven't been feeling very well lately. Hence my lack of posts. I've got some stomach bug I think, but yesterday I was asleep by 8pm. Today I looked after my son and we got my boxes of magic tricks out and I amazed and confused him with some of those I could do. I love magic trick kits: I urge you to go out and buy a cheap box of tricks for your own amusement in times of boredom, it works a treat when you need a diversion from any trouble or feelings you want to suppress.
The other thing I've been doing is reading my kids a new bedtime storybook, well actually it's not a new book at all. It's The Wind In The Willows by Kenneth Graham, a book I know from my childhood but I don't remember where exactly I know it from. I mean whether my parents, or a teacher or myself read it. I started out encouraging my daughter to read a page while I read two but it quickly became apparent that there were some huge words in it that she had not come across and so needed explaining. This was in almost every sentence. I like the way it is written and the language but it uses so many grown up words and is complex in its use of language that I don't think it would make it as children's book in today's world. I may be wrong, my wife (who was a good reader as a kid) said she started it so many times as a kid and always gave up because the words were so difficult that she now hates it (and complains it is boring). It probably is a bit boring but is also fairly gentle and pleasant (at least so far), that I'm going to continue reading it as the bedtime story.
Lastly, I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to our summer holiday at the seaside, it's coming in about 4 weeks time. Yippee!

Chill-out with a Chillow

I've just seen something that might be wonderful on Amazon. It's called a chillow. Nothing beats waking up on new clean sheets and moving your head to rest against a cold, fresh part of the pillow that has been cooled by a gentle breeze coming in through a window. Obviously, I am talking about the kind of coolness you only get on summer mornings. In the winter I hate cold.

Compose

It feels like a longer gap than it actually has been. I've had some great thoughts for blog posts but again when I am here I can't remember them. My potato and onion curry is cooking, it smells lovely and I'm starving! The diet is still going well, my tea and coffee consumption is down to just a cup of coffee per day now. I'm drinking more water and eating bananas. I'm resisting the temptation to eat crisps and biscuits. My one luxury is a bar of plain (dark) chocolate per week - this is over 70 per cent cocoa so is quite strong and bitter for chocolate - I would usually buy milk chocolate, which has more fat and sugar in it. I'm trying to lose a couple of stones and I'm 7 pounds lighter after three weeks. My wife has more to lose, traditionally she looses it slower than I do - she's probably a bit miffed by that. But she is also losing it gradually, which is probably the thing to aim for instead of sudden and dramatic weight loss.
My brother and sister inlaw were over in this country at the weekend, visiting parents. I took the kids up and saw them. It's been eight years since I last saw them both and it was a little odd at first but was good. It's too long to leave it really. I hope next year we can fly over to Boston and go visit them.

Finish the sentence meme

I've been tagged by L.B. to do this meme, its a day late but here goes:

Finish The Sentence Survey Meme

Maybe I should....: buy an Xbox360?

I love...: my new car (picked it up last weekend)

People would say that I'm...: not a risk-taker

I don't understand...: womankind

When I wake up in the morning...: wondering how long I can pretend to be asleep for

I lost...: All of my school friends

Life is full of...: people doing grown-up stuff I don't relate to

My past is...: sometimes embarassing

I get annoyed when...: I see people drop litter on the street

Parties are...: uncomfortable

I wish...: I was doing more to move house

Dogs...: are great friends but high maintenance

Cats...: like me better when I'm not moving

Tomorrow...: is a Friday Yay!

I have low tolerance...: for any sort of bullying or spiteful behaviour

If I had a million dollars...: I'd buy a big house

I'm totally terrified...: of dangerous drivers

Thanks L.B., I'm not going to tag anyone but if you want to do this one feel free.

Experience

For the past week and a bit, my wife and I have been following an online GI diet. I have also reduced my tea and coffee intake to just one or two cups per day compared to the eight or ten cups I was drinking. In place of tea and coffee I'm drinking water, semi-skimmed milk or orange juice. What effects is this having? I'm losing weight gradually, it's coming off me - my waist belt feels a little slacker. I'm a bit more relaxed in general, not as much as I'd like though. I know now that I can live without drinking copious amounts of tea and coffee. In terms of my sugar and salt intake, it's definitely gone down - I haven't drunk any fizzy drinks, or eaten any ready-prepared meals and because I'm drinking fewer beverages I'm not consuming the sugar that would have been in those. So, in general I feel a little healthier. The diet has also got me and my wife cooking again, our cupboard has now got some spice jars in it. I'm preparing meals I've never tried before - favourite meal last week was fried green lentils and onion topped with toasted ciabatta slices with goats cheese topping, I added a few salad leaves on the side just to fill the meal out a little (we had a guest staying with us). This week a block of plain (dark) chocolate is on the menu, so I've had a chunk of that each day while preparing the kids dinner. Doing the online diet gives us some variety each day and my wife sets the menu at the weekend for the week ahead. We are spending more on food but there is definitely an improvement in our diet - we're eating a healthy amount of fresh fruit and vegetables. This time of year, there are so many delicious fruits out there too. I bought limes for the first time yesterday for our dinner tonight, chicken and bean salad with avocado. I haven't really missed anything yet to be honest, I think I'll be able to keep this up. I just need to start doing some exercise next...

In quiet moments...

There are times during the normal week when I get a chance to have a sit and think about stuff other than work or the family. My times for doing this aren't usually planned or anything, they are spontaneous and are probably the kind of thing one does more of as one gets older. Over the past month or so one news story haunts me more than others - probably because it involves a child and I can empathise with the parents by imagining what it must be like for them, I can't of course imagine the full horror but its bad enough. I am referring to the case of the missing Madeleine McCann, the four year old who was snatched from a holiday apartment while her brother and sister slept nearby. Her parents where eating at a local restaurant only yards from the apartment and were checking on the sleeping tots every half hour. This happened while they were on a family holiday in Portugal, a time when they should be relaxing and having fun family time.
It is a heartbreaking story and the parents must be torturing themselves. The crime is so horrid I don't even want to consider the possibilities of what has happened to the little girl. To be so young and be snatched from your mum or dad is just so terrible and terrifying. In my few moments of reflection I do find myself thinking of the family and I pray that Madeleine is returned to them safe and unharmed. I also pray that whoever did this vile act is caught and severely punished.

Festival fever

It's that time of the year. I get envious of the young people who can disappear for a few days into the adventure of a music festival. I love music and watching bands perform live. I've enjoyed a few festivals in the past but there has never been a "gang" I could go with, I think festivals are better experiences if you go with your mates. I've never been to Glastonbury but I think it's probably the best UK festival, given the historic landscape and the calibre of the acts it attracts and its broad appeal. Last weekend the Download festival catered for the hard rock community, I like the music but I probably don't have anything in common with the rest of the audience and would stand out like a sore thumb. This weekend it's the Wireless Festival in London and Leeds. There are a few acts on the bill I like, especially the White Stripes and the Kaiser Chiefs. There are aspects of festivals I don't like: toilets being one, although they are probably better than ever. They stink in the hot weather, I hate queueing and would be completely embarassed if I had to stand there in a queue clenching my buttocks with fifty other bearded blokes holding a toilet roll while happy people walked past. I also don't like the cost of the food and drink inside the festival. You'd think that law of economics would allow prices to be lowered within the boundaries of the arena but no, the reverse is true. You end up feeling really hungry because of the nice smells and you wander from stall to stall not knowing which takeaway food looks nicest and which one you know will cause you severe bottom trouble. I've also wandered around festivals feeling really alone because I didn't have weird clothes, long hair, tattoos and body piercings - surely the uniform of festival goers. No, on the whole I enjoy festivals from a distance - either the TV or radio. In a way I'm quite sad about that.

Movies

Ever rented a movie that you didn't get around to watching? Its so annoying isn't it? I had to take a movie back on saturday, it was called Pan's Labyrinth and it looked really intriguing. I'm gutted I didn't get to watch it. Anyone seen it?

Full

The last couple of weeks have been so busy. At the weekend I put a deposit down on a car. I pick it up next weekend. My wife activated an online diet for herself but I'm going to be doing it with her to share the responsibility and hopefully save some money. It's nice food but takes more preparation and thinking ahead than our usual diet. It's a GI diet (whatever that means) and it includes chicken and salad and fish and yoghurt. My wife doesn't like yoghurt or cottage cheese, so I think she'll find it hard. I am not sure about brown rice and fish, I don't enjoy eating it although I know its good for me. The low fat cheese I bought is very rubbery - think of the texture of Swiss cheese - and I'm not sure about the taste. I'm trying to drink eight glasses of water a day and cut down on tea and coffee.

What is your seduction style?

Your Seduction Style: The Natural

You don't really try to seduce people... it just seems to happen. Fun loving and free spirited, you bring out the inner child in people. You are spontaneous, sincere, and unpretentious - a hard combo to find! People drop their guard around you, and find themselves falling fast.

What Is Your Seduction Style?

Big Brother

Big Brother is on again. It's been a very uneventful start except that there was a first today - a housemate was removed for using racist language. I haven't seen the footage because Channel 4 has not shown it but it sounds like it was more on the stupid and innapropriate side, rather than their being any race hate behind it. It does demonstrate that the Shilpa Shetty racism in Celebrity Big Brother and the resultant telling off Channel 4 received from the regulator has had a big impact. There are several housemates I'd like to remove, Emily wouldn't have been top of the list but then again I am not sorry she's gone.

What planet should you rule?

I did this thinking it would be fun, but actually I found it to be quite accurate.

You Should Rule Saturn

Saturn is a mysterious planet that can rarely be seen with the naked eye. You are perfect to rule Saturn because like its rings, you don't always follow the rules of nature. And like Saturn, to really be able to understand you, someone delve beyond your appearance. You are not an easy person to befriend. However, once you enter a friendship, you'll be a friend for life. You think slowly but deeply. You only gain great understanding after a situation has past.

What Planet Should You Rule?

Chip off the old block?

Having young children is great fun most of the time and sometimes the enormity of being a parent who your children love and "look up to" just hits you in a wave that almost knocks you off your feet. I love my kids dearly. My son might be showing some symptoms that are known as Asperger's Syndrome. It's hard to tell and at his age its even harder, since he hasn't started school yet. I was talking to a person recently who I mentioned this to and she told me about a relation of hers with the syndrome and it hit me for six, to think about my son being a young man and how it might affect his life. Part of me thinks that my son's behaviour might not be this syndrome and that it's related to diet or his age and just being a boy. How much do I know about myself at his age? Maybe I was like that?
There is some evidence to suggest this is true. I remember prior to joining school not wanting to sit down and do writing. I wanted to play all the time, I had no interest in doing writing exercises. My older brother was lauded as being more intelligent than I was at school. My mum told me recently she had asked my teachers when I was started school to stop showing me work done by my brother a few years earlier - I had no idea about this until she told me. I also heard that my mum didn't really know how to handle the fact that I was so not like my brother, who was always very studious. There were times at school when I was just not interested at all and played around and got into trouble. It was probably very embarassing for my parents now I think about it. Even now I am drawn so much more to things that interest me than other things I should probably be doing. My teenage school days weren't great for me. I didn't like the authoritarian ethos and I feared the teachers, I withdrew into my shell a bit and I think it made me distrustful of others. I was also a very self-conscious teenager and had poor self esteem. So if my son does have something, perhaps he has just inherited this from me. Even so, I don't think I've done too bad in life - I have a beautiful wife, two adorable kids and a good job. So I can't say it has been a severe setback in my life.
We're hoping to have my son assessed by a professional, who can help us to take the right approach to schoolwork and life in general to help him as best we are able to. It's the not knowing that I find troubling.

Beth Ditto's NME Cover

I see quite a few photos of Beth Ditto while reading newspapers and magazines and I get to read some of her opinions on the music and fashion industries. Most of what I read is reported rather than Ditto actually doing the writing, so it's not very easy to tell the truth from the journalistic speak. I listen to her wonderful voice and am transported to a wonderful place by the music. You can read some comments on this cover article here. Here's the cover:



I think it's a great NME cover. It's so refreshing to see a strong woman voicing her opinions and not being afraid to challenge an industry that makes a virtue of Bulimic teen models. Beth's nude cover challenges the conventional idea of High Street magazine covers (predominantly read by men) and demonstrates perfecty that a woman can be big and beautiful. I'm delighted that she came from the punk underground because I feel alternative, independent music made by bands today is some of the best music I've ever heard. It's great for young people to have inspirational role models who make us all think and a great time for music - The Gossip are an awesome band and Beth an awesome talent.

Wargaming

I have a bit of a yearning to get into wargaming. I like the thought of buying, glueing, painting the miniature soldiers and then creating the landscape and scenery in which to fight battles. Will anything come of this idea? I don't know. I am reading a Warhammer 40,000 graphic novel at the moment and am enjoying it. I even went into a Games Workshop hobby store at the weekend and the guy in there was really friendly and helpful - he showed me how to play a quick skirmish game and it seemed like good fun. It would be a nice, social hobby for me and the kids. The reason we were visiting a games store like this is that my daughter has entered a competition to design a small 3D garden - so we were visiting model stores for ideas and materials like shrubs or foliage. The guy at the store was so helpful I think I might write to their HQ and tell them how helpful and friendly the staff were.

Power

It's funny when something happens that make you realise how much more dependent we are in todays hi-tech world. I was with my wife last night when BLINK, the power went off. Darkness. Almost total darkness. The funny thing was, my mother in-law had had a powercut the day before and had our matches and candles. I was cursing because I love my Maglite torches but they get used by the family and the batteries were dead. After half an hour or so we were in a better position and had got things together a bit more but the power went off 10pm yesterday and wasn't restored until 5pm today, 19 hours without heating, lighting, hot water, hot food and hot drinks. I did make a few interesting observations:

• I missed the internet more than the TV
• I don't feel good if I don't feel clean
• Torchlight bounced off the ceiling gives a better light for moving about in than torchbeam
  
• It's nice to play a game together than do stuff separately
• We all got a bit stir crazy without our comforts at home

The one thing to come out of this was an educational lesson for our kids on the importance of having an emergency box with candles, matches and other stuff you need for when there is no power. Thankfully, this is a fairly uncommon event in our lives.

Motor Museum photos

Here are some photos I took at the motor museum with my cameraphone, I didn't take many at all. The model in question is a Hillman Imp: a car I've never owned, driven or been in and yet I do have some affection for the design. There were lots of much earlier vehicles on display, including Brum (the kids love Brum), and the resemblance of some of them to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was noted. I love those old cars, they're actually quite small and very sparse inside. I like the long bonnets and big headlamps that are mounted on the body rather than being an integral part of the car and I like the fact that there was a much greater mix of other road users (horse drawn carts, cyclists, etc.) - ah those must have been the days...

Kids laughter

My kids are in the bath at the moment upstairs, they're laughing at Home Alone 2. It's playing on my personal DVD player perched on a stool (it's ok, on battery power). We started watching it during dinner and just this once we've let them watch it while they bath just before bedtime. I love their laughter, its so infectious.

We had a great day today, despite it being really wet and cold. We visited a railway exhibition and a motor museum - photos to follow.

Our washing machine just tripped out the power. Everytime we switch it on, the power trips. It's seven years old now and had been getting louder and louder. It reaches the same volume level as a jumbo jet taking off from Heathrow Airport - I'm surprised the neighbours haven't been around to complain. I guess 7 years is a good long time for a washing machine these days - especially considering how much it is used with two adults and two kids.

Cassette Tape RIP

One of our largest highstreet electrical chain stores in the UK has decided to stop selling the blank cassette tape. The technology has long been out of date, no albums I know of are sold on cassette tape these days, and the cheapness of MP3 players that can store many more songs has made the poor old cassette tape obsolete. I have had several cassette tape recorders and tape players over the years, it has been a format that has been a great success.

The cassette tape epoch was not always a pleasant experience: I remember the problems taping songs from radio and waiting with fingers poised on Record and Play buttons, hoping the DJ would leave a little gap long enough for me to avoid his voice. The height of sophistication was using the Pause button.

I had experiences with bedroom recordings - either me playing my own songs or doing comedy sketches (that only I would find funny) and the novelty of hearing my own voice coming through the speaker - or at least something that could have been me - it was hard to tell through all of the tape hiss.

I remember too, my experiences with my first home computer (Sinclair ZX Spectrum) and the frustration of waiting for games to load from my cassette recorder - waiting five minutes only to have the load crash at the last moment.

My first personal portable cassette player with headphones was a Sanyo. A huge heavy reddish coloured brick with chunky white buttons and shoulder strap. The innovation was a tape counter that allowed me to fast forward and rewind to the songs I liked - great (except I never used it, the only way this would have worked was if I wrote down all of the numbers for all of the songs on a tape and ensured I started from the beginning of the tape each time: far too tedious ).

I only ever bought ready-made music tapes when they were on sale or were much cheaper than the vinyl or CD (later) equivalents. This accounts for a rather strange collection of audio tapes. The idea for this post came about because while clearing our shed I have come across my cassette tape collection and am now engaged on a project to transfer them to MP3 format. This is probably a project that will never get finished, already I am disappointed by the sound quality but I'd hate to lose some of this music.

The equipment for playing tapes can still be bought, so the death of the cassette tape will be a long and slow one. Many of us still have favourite mix tapes made by friends or by us for friends or lovers. I have several made for me by various girlfriends of the past, I don't have the heart to throw them away just yet.

Here is an example of one of my cassettes. I bought many of my commercial tapes in the 1980s (the height of highstreet gadgetry was a Sony Walkman), so this is probably why my collection is a bit odd. Debbie Bonham was the daughter of now deceased Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham. This was possibly her first album and is classic 80s rock with guitar riffs, emotionally charged songs and the overuse of synthesizers (because you could do that back then). It's pity I can't play the songs to you, I don't think it was ever released in the US - it was published by Carrerre Records. You can find Debbie Bonham on My Space now, going under her name Deborah Bonham. While you can enjoy her songs on My Space, I'll be re-living the 80s with this album, For You and The Moon. Have a good Sunday!

My Top 3 Eurovision Song 2007

It's been a week since the final of the Eurovision Song Contest and it just occurred to me today that my favourite songs from the competition might be on You Tube. Well, wadda-u-know they are! Now I can relive the memory and you can enjoy my top songs from the competition this year, the web is a wonderful thing.

In order my top 3 are:

Hanna Pakarinen - Leave Me Alone (Finland)


Natalia Barbu - Fight (Moldova)


Magdi Ruzsa - The Unsubstantial Blues (Hungary)


Note for obsessives:
I know my scoring last week had Russia as the top song and indeed it was a catchy pop song, however the scoring included dance and outfit in there. I'm just going on song and performance only this week, so Russia would have come 4th on those things alone.

Bloggers Block

I've been suffering a bit lately from Bloggers Block: when I wake up in the morning I generally have an idea for a blog post or I'm at work or travelling and another idea comes up but somehow it just seems to vanish as I sit down at the PC and open Blogger. So here I sit desperately trying to remember what it was I was going to say and nothing comes...but this. So, my apologies folks. I hope normal brain function will be resumed soon. But do any of you have any tips for overcoming this affliction? And what's been your longest break from blogging since you started?

Board Games

A few weeks back we attended a few car boot sales and bought some board games. One of them was Monopoly (a classic) and another was the board game from the TV series The Crystal Maze. I've posted before about this show. The board game is devilishly hard to win because you have to complete small mini-puzzles before the sand runs out of the egg timer. There are a few of these that are impossible to beat in the time limit. The games looks better than it actually plays:

Eurovision 2007

I watched the Eurovision last night with my beer and my unhealthy snack food, it was great. The production just seems to get better and better each year - it must cost millions for the host country to stage. I enjoyed the songs and performances and my own scoring (I'm a sad, sad man - taking this far too seriously) produced the following top five:

1. Russia
2. Finland
3. Moldova
4. Hungary
5. Greece

I woud also have given points to Georgia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Lithuania and Spain. My scoring is based on the official scoresheet and is a combined total score - song, performance, dance routine and outfit are also scored (just to add to the confusion). I tried to score fairly strictly concerning dance routine and outfit so that they didn't have a great impact on the total score, so I concentrated my attention on the song and performance.

Here are the actual results for the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, but if you want a quick look at the top five here they are:

1. Serbia (268 points)
2. Ukraine (235)
3. Russia (207)
4. Turkey (163)
5. Bulgaria (157)

The winner was a complete surprise and Turkey's final position was good too. The UK came second last, drawing with France, and poor Ireland came bottom (they also got the lowest score on my scoresheet).

The voting usually follows a very predictable pattern with Western Europe and Eastern Europe countries voting within their own borders but sometimes the odd surprise vote comes along. Terry Wogan, the UK commentator, made some comments about the Eastern European countries "block voting" but, to be frank, I thought the songs from Western European countries were poor: with only Finland, Spain and Greece entering songs that were contenders.

Ah well, all the excitement is over for another year...

Collectormania 10

Here are some photos I took at this event on Monday. All Dr Who related, these were the most photogenic objects - if we'd been there on another day I think there would have been more to see. Ah well, there's always the October Collectormania to look forward to!
















Don't ask me what all these things are because I'm not sure I can answer (apart from K9 and the Dalek of course!).

Time

We have a limited run of life on this planet. Many of us will die of natural causes or illness and some will die because of those seemingly random acts of violence encountered through accidents or crime. Some of us will die because of our occupations. Thinking of these things often makes me pause and ask am I using my time on this Earth to the best effect? The answer is usually a "no" but I suspect it is the same for many: the hard bit is to recognise what would make life better for us and then implement a change process in our lives to achieve what we identified. Sounds all very simple doesn't it? Well, it's not really. What makes life better changes as life itself brings changes we couldn't contemplate into our reckoning. I was once quite a social person and seeing as many friends as possible on weekends and evenings was my goal. That changed a lot when first I met my girlfriend (now wife) and it changed even more when I married and then again with the arrival of children. Now, an observer would say I was not very social at all. I guess the point of that is to show how my goal of being a social person changed to be more family-centric. My goals now are about fun, love and care for my family and friendship is probably not a high goal at the moment but I know I don't want to ever lose that.

This weekend is the May Bank Holiday in the UK, which means I have a long weekend because Monday is counted as a holiday by my employer. We have several Bank Holidays in the UK each year and with every one of them so far I've not really capitalised on the extra time available: I suppose that's because it is only one extra day and weekends just seem to fly by anyway that it doesn't seem so big a deal when it comes down to it. But somewhere within me I feel I should be doing more on these days than I actually do. However, perhaps tomorrow will feel different than other Bank Holidays have this year because tomorrow I'm attending Collectormania again - last year was great, so I'm hoping for good things this year.
I'm looking forward to next weekend when The Eurovision Song Contest is on Saturday Night. I'm going to eat loads of unhealthy food and drink beer and enjoy the competition. I hope Scooch do well but the quality of performance and songs just seems to go up and up each year. I love it, even though I know lots of people hate it and call it naff. I love the little promo clips for the countries that take part. The only sad thing in a way is that there has been a move away from the traditional dress/song to a more generic Euro-centric dance beat, that's OK but it does mean there are less of the strange and bizarre acts than there used to be. Still good fun though.

Car

My car is getting pretty long in the tooth, which is OK for a runaround vehicle for the kids but I worry about it on the longer journeys I have to make for work (there have been more of those in the last few months and no sign of that changing). So I'm having a little trouble matching my expectations with my principles and my price range. I always drove small hatchback cars until my last one, which was a Honda family saloon: I love it because it's an automatic transmission and it is very comfortable for long journeys. Part of me thinks I should go for something smaller because it is going to be a little greener and will be less expensive to tax. On the other hand I want a car that matches up to my home and work needs - at home it needs to be comfortable and zippy, but at work it needs to make me look good (professional, stylish etc.). The practical side of my nature says I only need something that gets me from A to B safely and comfortably. I also look at the prices and my heart sinks. Why are cars so expensive? The other ambition I have is to buy a newer car than the ones I normally seem to buy. I know newness isn't everything and I don't think I'll ever be able to afford a brand new car, regardless of my income - it sounds daft to say that but that's a feeling I have. I know someone who has a car that cost 32,000 pounds and to me that's just INCREDIBLE: (a) I don't know how they found a car so expensive (b) why even contemplate spending SO MUCH on just a car is beyond me. I'm going to be thinking about cars a lot in the coming days, I just thought I'd pass on my worries since I've found little time to blog on other things the last couple of weeks.

Good Postman

A good postman can make a day. If a Postie has a smile, a sense of humour and greets you in a morning it's a win-win situation - even if the weather is drizzly. This morning, I was called out of my bath by my daughter shouting "Someone's at the door". I wrapped a towel around my midriff and rushed downstairs. (Now, a bit of back story might help: I was refunded only yesterday for a package off e-Bay that never arrived). I open the door and there's a happy, smiley postie - he asks if I'm waiting for an order off e-Bay or something and it turns out that my package was delivered down the road. The Postie was great, he made my day because I got what I ordered (I had resigned to it being lost) and he worked out where the package should have been delivered to. Postie's like that are worth their weight in gold.

US TV

When I moved up to secondary school at 11/12 I received my own TV, which I had in the bedroom. Over the next couple of years I had some favourite TV shows. The real treat was being able to "stay up late" to watch a few shows that my parents wouldn't have let me watch. I say "late" but it was probably only 9pm, it was a different time back then though. A show that was regarded by my parents as "borderline" watchable for my age was SOAP. I haven't seen it in years but I did find it funny and daring (for my age). It would be interesting to watch again to see what I feel about it today. The other show that was OK by my parents for me to watch was WKRP In Cincinatti, I loved this show more than SOAP. I've always wanted to work at a radio station like that. I love the way that the shows were based around characters, just like Friends is really. My other favourite US show as a kid was Mash, I loved the theme song and I thought it was witty, intelligent and was certainly not your straightforward comedy sitcom. I was surprised a few years later to learn that the show aired with canned laughter in the US, it doesn't work with canned laughter. It would be interesting to know which (if any) British shows were popular in American homes a few years back.

Energy and Memory

For some reason, I'm finding it really difficult to find any energy this week past 7pm. I'm sure there is something I should be doing about that but what?

A weird thing happened this morning. I got up at 6.20am (later than usual for this week) and made my daughters lunchbox up for her to take to school. The Thermos lunchbag from the day before was out and I got a couple of iced gel packs from the freezer to put in it and I put the lunchbox in and closed it up all ready for it to go. I knew exactly what I had made and as far as I was concerned it was all done and dusted. I went upstairs to start running my bath. I came down as the bath was filling and my wife was saying to my daughter "You'll need a fork". They had the lunchbag open and were looking at the contents. "Is this yesterday's?" my wife asked, "No, I've made today's and she's got a spoon in there - I put one in". The thing is this: in the lunchbag was yesterday's leftover pasta lunch and on the table was the lunch I had made this morning. When my wife opened the bag I couldn't believe it - I would have sworn I put the lunchbox I had packed in the bag and taken the old one out. I think I must be losing my marbles.

My family and I have been doing some brain training this week, with a DS game designed to stimulate your brain. There are different types of number and word puzzles. The object of it is do use it daily and track your own progress and compare your performance with others (it holds 4 profiles). My wife is quite good, she has a brain age score of 28 today while mine today is 48 (about 10 years older than I actually am). The brain is certainly a weird and interesting thing - I'm quite good at some types of puzzles and can score well without really feeling I'm trying but for some other types of puzzle I just end up guessing. There's a game that starts off with a set number of stick people and then a house drops on top of them and the occupants leave and new stick figures enter. You have to do subtractions and additions at the same time and at the end say how many remain in the house. The speed gets faster slowly but at the end is really too fast for me. I'm not very good at that game. Another game is where you have 6 or seven numbers that appear briefly for a couple of seconds and you have to indicate where they were by going from lowest to highest and tapping their location on screen. I'm not too bad at that one. My brain was operating at Train Speed it told me and a picture of train went past. It don't feel like it now though!

Sleeping....

Sorry folks, several "up at the crack of dawn" mornings this week has left me needing my bed over my need to blog. Normal service will be resumed tomorrow.

Without Thinking

Rachel's post about stuff she did as a child got me thinking about some of the skeletons in my closet from my younger days. One incident happened quite innocuously one summers day while I was spending time in the back yard with the daughter of a neighbour.

The houses we lived in at the time backed onto a field, which was actually an exhumed cemetary. Although I say we were neighbours there was one house inbetween us and the occupant had recently died, he used to have an old shed at the end of his garden but it had been pulled down by his surviving family to make the property more saleable. One upright beam had been left standing for use as something to attach a clothes line to. My friend was female and about 3 or 4 years younger than me, I can't remember exactly how old I was - probably 9 or 10 maybe. We were on the field near the upright beam and for some reason had a length of white plastic clothes line wire - the type to really sting if you got whipped with it in a fight with a brother or something. I don't remember the conversation but the game involved tying one end of the wire to the beam and the other end around the girl's throat with a knot that would tighten. Her task was to run as fast as possible to the trees on the other side of the field. The wire is probably between 30 and 60 feet long and is clearly not long enough to allow her to reach the trees. But we are a little more than just friends, she's smitten with me and would jump off a cliff if I told her to. So anyway, she's motoring on and I can see her running through the heat haze above the grass. Suddenly the wire is at full stretch and silently she is yanked backwards off her feet and onto the grass on her back. I race to her and she's in tears. The wire is tight around her throat, really tight and she can't get it undone and is struggling to breathe. I start desperately trying to loosen the knot. I know it was stupid. It was cruel. Now all I'm hoping for is to get the knot loosened, slip the wire off her neck and comfort her with the aim of stopping her crying and from telling on me to her mother. Time seems to stretch out into an aeon of despair when horror of horrors - her mother comes into her yard and starts calling for my friend to come in for lunch. I can't loosen the wire, she's crying, her mother's yelling and now getting angry. Her mother is a fierce woman. The one Saving Grace is that we're too far for her to hear the crying and they have a tree in their garden that obstructs the view. It must have felt like years but it must only have been seconds because I was able to get the wire from her neck without her turning blue. She went in for lunch, after the tears had subsided a bit (although her mum must have known she'd been crying) and as far as I know that was the end of it. She probably got a telling off for being late for lunch, how unlucky is that? A scary few seconds though and how stupid could I have been to do that? I'm just glad it wasn't a hanging prank, I would definitely not have got the wire off!

Post-Easter Catch Up

Easter is over, it was OK actually. The weather was incredible - sunny and bright and warm. We all caught the sun accidentally on Sunday, it wasn't red hot but was obviously hot enough to burn. I feel awful that my son and daughter had red skin where the sun had been because we didn't cream them up.

On Sunday the Car Boot season began again. Car Boot sales are run by entrepreneurs who own some land and they charge something like eight pounds for you to park your car and sell your stuff. Somewhere close by, controlled by what I would loosely term "wardens", there is car parking where the buyers park. If you pay a pound each you can get to the sellers before 11am but after 11am it is 30 pence to get in. People sell all kinds of stuff - I like to see stuff that reminds me of when I was a kid because either I had it or I wanted it or I knew someone who had it. Literally anything can be bought and you often see the same stuff for sale on lots of stalls - kids clothes are very common for obvious reasons and kids stuff in general come to that. You have to appreciate how some stuff must have sold in the millions for so many people to be selling it in car boots - like board games, exercise equipment, kids annuals, toys and so on. We came away with the game Monopoly (British version) and it was in good condition for one pound fifty. OK so the new version does do away with money and has a "banker unit" but the old version with sorting out the money by hand is just as good in my opinion - it's nice to get loads of 500s in your hands because you know its never going to happen in real life.

Speaking of business, making money and financial greed. The Apprentice has started again on the BBC and it's as entertaining as ever. Jadine and Tre seem to be the most irritating people so far but they have narrowly escaped being fired. It's about the only regular programme, other than re-runs of Friends that I watch.

The fine weather is expected to continue for at least until Sunday, which is going to be very warm. So I expect to be out in the garden mowing the lawn at the weekend. I have Monday off, so I'm looking forward to that. Not sure how I'll use the time, my daughter will be with me as her teachers have training on that day. We might have to invent a game. She loves the re-runs of the competitive fitness and body building show The Gladiators. So maybe I can come up with Gladiator style physical challenges for her at the local park's playground?

Dirty Weekend

It's the Easter break yay! The weather is going to be fine. No work for four days in a row. We're at home, so no rushing about (apart from me picking my daughter up from the grandparents today). So it's going to be a dirty weekend for me, yes you guessed it - time to go out in the garden and begin sorting it out for the summer. I don't mean the patio, my wife has done her part - planting the pots and stuff. Now it's my turn, that means mowing. I have a hover mower that was the cheapest model in the range and although it cuts the grass, if the grass is long you have to go over it twice at different blade settings. So, as a consequence of that, it takes twice as long to cut it. It doesn't pick the grass up either, so I'll have dirty green fingers at the end of it (I don't like wearing gloves). There may be other dirty jobs to do too, like sorting the shed out. I've put this off too long, now its time for action - unless I can find something else to suggest we do instead (like go to the zoo) ;-)

Whatever you get up to over the break, I hope you have a great time.

Forced Absence

In the past week I've had time off, hit several IT problems, enjoyed myself 10 pin bowling, been away from home and generally been forced to take a break from Blog World and my podshow. Although the sequence of events was something I didn't choose, in a way I had a good time despite the difficulties.


The photo above is of Sooty and Sweep, two characters who have been part of childrens television in the UK since the sixties. I enjoyed watching them as a child and we took my children to a live Sooty show this week. Some shows appeal to children and adults alike, like The Simpson's. This was definitely a show aimed at the kids. Fortunately, for the first time in what seems like ages we weren't sitting in the first two rows and were infact several rows back and to the side. There was A LOT of water going into the audience within the first three rows, so I'm especially glad we didn't get a soaking. I didn't enjoy it very much, the kids loved it and I think a soaking would have just made me annoyed (a Grumpy Dad attack), a little bit of a water is OK but there some very wet people by the end - who must have found it uncomfortable to sit in their clothes.


I don't go ten pin bowling very often but it is always good fun when I go. We went out for bowling and a Chinese meal this week, as a small group of couples, and it was great fun. So hopefully, we'll be repeating the event in May. I prefer a lighter ball, it had a number 10 on it but I'm not sure if that referred to size or weight or what. I didn't score a strike unfortunately but someone in our group managed to score 4 strikes in a row, which I just find incredible. I didn't manage to win any of the games, the boys beat the girls, and I didn't even score over a 100 in either of two games. I did improve with practice though, it's just that I don't think I can afford to practice very often. Nevertheless, I enjoyed myself and it's a good sport to enjoy with friends.

Muted

Teatime last Thursday our Internet dropped again and it only came back on this morning. This is starting to become a monthly occurence and I've had enough, so we'll be changing our Internet provider. I'm also experiencing problems uploading last week's podcast and lack of internet has meant I've not been able to follow the problem up and I've been unable to do the research for this week's show, which I would have recorded over the weekend. So it's not been a good week for me techno-wise. I feel like I've been muted. I'll post again later to today, I've got today off so have things to do now - catch you laters.

Shocked and appalled

I just read this. I'm just so shocked and appalled at the level of mysogyny and lack of restraint some men show to women. It makes me want to stop blogging and have nothing to do with the Blogosphere, it's a salutary lesson in the dangers of blogging. I hope this explains why I don't stray into areas of my life that reveal more about me than I'm comfortable with and to regular readers: I thank you from the bottom of my heart that you continue to come back and read my thoughts, even though I'm not giving out the full details of places and names.

What colour is yours?

My wife's anniversary present for me this year was a Ninentendo DS Lite, a truly wonderful present. It came with the game Bomberman, which is one of those maddening addictive games that transcends generations. I've never played the game before but I love it. The DS Lite makes my existing Game Boy Advance games look great too, the backlit screen is such a massive improvement over my old unlit screen. So I now have my first new game console since I bought my PS2 at the beginning of 2005. I was looking at the PSP and considering it but I'm so glad I went with the DS Lite, there are so many really good GBA games that I can play on it. Backwards compatibility was something I went for on my PS2. Over time, you grow out of the older games and move on and the double screen, touch screen, microphone input and wifi mean that the DS is going to be a console I keep well into the future. My wife and I are already discussing buying the baby pink version for my daughter for her birthday: the really fun part is called Pictochat where you can chat with friends by both typing and drawing pictures and sending them to each other. Also, you can play games wirelessly with friends - Bomberman allows up to 8 people to play with just one game cartridge! A terrific gift. Now I have to match it, which won't be easy.

The Wriggler

I went shopping with my son at the weekend and we ended up in Hawkins Bazaar, which is a shop I love because it has toys that remind me of my childhood. There are loads of little things that are very cheap, which is another reason I love taking the kids there because it's one toyshop that includes toys that require imagination. I ended up buying a few small items, one of which happens to be my daughter's new pet Melissa - see the Magic Wriggler picture above. It's just a bit of fluff and a strand of nylon but it's great fun to watch kids marvel at it in the playground. I remember really really wanting one of these as a child and I was so happy that after begging for one for days that my mom finally got me one. I think I played with it for a few hours after that and then got bored as kids do. I'm sure it was called something different to Magic Wriggler when I was a kid but I can't remember what it was.

I have to also mention the weather here. I cannot believe the weather in just one day:- it's got really cold and it changes from being sunny and bright to dark and pelting snow in what seems like an instant. Most odd. I have got to travel tomorrow and I don't think I'll have much time for checking up on the Blogosphere until the weekend unfortunately. Have a fun week though, whatever you get up to.

Losing Stuff You Never Meant To

Tara's blog post inspired this.

Every year for certain things, like car tax for example, you need to be able to bring together different documents: in this case an MOT certificate from a garage, an official form, your cheque and a valid insurance certificate. I have to hand it to my wife for instigating the introduction of "the grey box", which is a filing cabinet system to help organise our stuff. Some documents you have are not necessarily required annually. Documents like examination certificates, birth certificates and passports (we don't leave the UK that much in general) and so I think some stuff has been forgotten and just not made it into the "grey box". The other problem is that the "grey box" was getting rather full and it was getting harder and harder to put stuff into it easily, so she bought a set of drawers. So unfortunately now we have the "grey box" and "the drawers". But that's not all, we also have "the pigeonholes" that are part of our computer desk, my own "daddy's cupboard" which is where I just file stuff (ie. put it in a disorganised pile) and separate "car folders". This organisation crap has got totally out of control in our house and it drives me nuts!!! I can't find anything and the worst is I'll ask about something and even though I've been told where it is I still can't find it. I'll get all angry and hot in my frustration and I'm sure that this actually prevents me finding stuff even when it is under my nose because as soon as my wife looks again (in the same place) she usually finds what I was looking for: arrggghhhh! But what I don't understand is how someone who is as good at organisation as my wife loses her car keys everyday. We have a bowl near to our front door and I make it a habit to always drop my keys into it - I find the jangly clang noise satisfying in a "Honey, I'm home" kind of way even if its just myself in the house. But my wife just seems to drop her keys anywhere and then shouts "Has anyone seen my keys anywhere?" in a mild panic - arrgghhh!!!!!! The sooner they implant chips in us that bring together all this stuff so we can get rid of paper and keys and everything the better. There - that's my rant over with.

Have a simply wonderful weekend everyone :-)

Friday 5

I Got these from here.

1. What do you like most: Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays (and why)?

I prefer Friday's because I can look forward to the weekend with anticipation all day and really relax Friday evening knowing that I have two days of rest to come.

2. What was the best weekend of your life?

I've had so many good weekends, if I have to choose I'd say the weekend I got married because it was so wonderful and I'll never forget it.

3. What weekend of the year is your favorite?

This is a hard one. I think it would be the first weekend of the year when the weather gets warm and dry enough to stay out in just a T shirt and shorts all day and much of the evening.

4. Do you have any weekend routines?

Absolutely do, involving alcohol during the evenings and possibly takeaway food (though not every weekend), certainly watching a film or two and playing videogames, visiting our library and playing games with my kids. I have boring stuff to do too though, like cutting grass, visiting the dump, doing the weekly shop etc.

5. Describe your ideal Saturday night.

Spending the evenings laughing and talking with friends, listening to some live music, drinking beer, going for an inexpensive but really satisfying meal with friends and falling contentedly asleep with my wife .

Springlike?

The weather over the last few days has been bright but cool. In the car or the house you might think it was warm and Springlike. Outdoors though it is still a little too cold to gad about in T-shirts, not that that stops some people I see. When I see folks wearing just a thin shirt in cold weather I don't know what to think:

• don't they feel the cold?
• are they just concerned with the fashion of how they look?
• maybe they forgot their coat? Or it was stolen?
• maybe they didn't realise how cold it was, or they just came out of a really hot environment?

It does puzzle me.

It's the time of year when my thoughts turn to the Eurovision Song Contest, an annual TV song competition I've loved and watched since I was a kid. The British entry hasn't been chosen yet, it's being chosen on March 17: contenders include Justin Hawkins (ex-Darkness singer), Brian Harvey (ex-East 17 singer) and Liz McClarnon (Atomic Kitten). Unless I'm mistaken it seems this year that the individual performers in the selection contest are of a higher quality overall than in recent years, I hope this is good news for a good UK position in the competition proper but you never know what's going to happen with Eurovision, that's why I love it.

Mugshot

Here is the mug my daughter painted for me. It says "I (heart) tea" on it, very true - I do love my tea. The box it came in is behind the mug.

What's Your Personality Cluster

My phone went off yesterday morning, so I had no internet again for a day and a half. It's back today though.

Your Personality Cluster is Extraverted Intuition

You are: A true wordsmith - a master of words Original, spontaneous, and a true inspiration Highly energetic, up for any challenge Entertaining and engaging, both to friends and strangers

What's Your Personality Cluster?

Sunday Sunday Ah Ah, Ah Ah Ah Ah

I've enjoyed quite a good weekend. Shame its almost over. On Saturday I picked up my own copy The Sims really cheap, I bought it for my wife a while back and she loves it - her Sims are certainly enjoying the high life. I picked up my copy really cheap and its just the original version but it runs alright on my old PC upstairs, which is what I wanted it for. My Sim house is very humble compared to my wife's, she does enjoy lying on the bed telling me how I should run the world though bless her.
My daughter painted a mug I've had lying around since Christmas yesterday, it was a present to me. It came with some paint and you just paint a picture on the white mug and put it in the oven for half an hour to fix the paint. I'll have to post a picture of her handywork.
Today we went as a family to see a show, a sort of comedy/pantomime show. We went last year. I was dreading it slightly because I sat on an end of aisle seat and there's part where they come into the audience with custard pies and you can guess what happened. The custard is actually shaving cream and while its funny to watch, it is a little bit uncomfortable to sit with the dampness and the smell on your clothes. Well fortunately this year I only got squirted with water! I managed to cover my son with his coat before the water hit him, he cried last year when he got wet but he's older now and even the "baddie" made him laugh out loud - especially when his wig got pulled off. Kids laughter is very infectious.
The last act of the day has been to launch the second series of my podshow, the opening episode is a special longer edition with me talking to a friend who writes songs. Great fun to do, hope you have time to check it out.

Five on a Friday

Five in a Row

1. Name one thing you do everyday.

Drink tea. I'm a tea-aholic, I drink far too much tea but I do love my brew. I especially find it reviving after a shopping trip with my family and I get home, put the TV on and settle down with a cup of tea for 5 minutes peace (not that I ever get my 5 minutes).

2. Name two things you wish you could learn.

I would love to play guitar better than I do. The other thing has to be that I wish I could swim. I know I should take lessons, so I should probably do that. I just feel so stupid that I can't swim at my age.

3. Name three things that remind you of your childhood.

Penknives. I always had a penknife as a kid. I've never owned one as an adult.
Ice lollies. I like nothing more on a hot day than sitting down with a plain orange ice lolly.
The Stranglers. My first crush was the older sister of a boy I used to play with, she wore Stranglers T shirts and wore incredibly tight jeans.

4. Name four things you love to eat but rarely do.

Anything with prawns.
Malayan curry.
Thai food.
Strawberry pavlova.

5. Name five things that make you feel good.

Dancing
Making love
Jogging
Watching shoppers file past as I sit with a coffee and a paper in a cafe
Laughing and joking with my kids

Midweek Happy

This week started badly for me. A lot of things seemed to be going wrong for me on Monday, I was just glad to be able to get into bed and rest. Tuesday came and I knew I had a list of stuff to do to put right what had happened the previous day. This included taking a new headset back to a shop, it wasn't working on 3 different computers I tried it on and when I was given the choice of trying another or my money back I took the money. At least my old headset works and I'd rather that than a new one that doesn't. My daughter is having a bit of a rough time at school and I had to go and see the teacher about it. I had a lot of stuff to sort out for work but got all of it done. I did some more work for my forthcoming podshow and I'm pretty nearly all set for the new series starting on Monday. Today was fine, I allowed extra time for travelling past some roadworks on my journey but infact I turned up early for my appointment so I went for some breakfast. I was glad I did because it was way past lunchtime before I ate again. I did make myself a tasty sandwich though: ham, tomato, mayo, salad and sweet onion sauce on white bread but its somehow white wholemeal bread - I don't know how they achieve that but it tastes good. So the final bit of today was attending a private viewing of my sister inlaw's art. Some really cool abstract paintings, I like abstract art because there are so many levels to it. I like depth.
I'm also quite pleased it is midweek and that the weekend is coming up. I've also got to book some holiday time before the end of March to use my allocation of days up, I can't carry any unused days over unfortunately - which means I can't store them up. I hope you all are having a good day today too.

Meet Wilbert

My son had first choice and therefore the name of our first goldfish is to be Wilbert. Next weekend we'll get him a partner, they wouldn't sell us two at the same time - I hope Wilbert doesn't get territorial about his fishtank. He seems happy enough on his own but he could use some company.

Remembered Post

This morning I had a good idea for a blog post and I didn't write it down. Now I'm left with a blank space and I just don't know how to fill it.

I just remembered what it was about!

I was pondering that insects and humans don't get on. We squash them or step on them or have zapper lights on walls or sticky papers. What if, one day a giant super insect came into being. Imagine something the size of a car that could multiply extremely fast. Imagine legs as hard as steel rods. Human society and insect society are totally different things. Imagine how hostile it would be to live in insect society. They would be like robots (The Terminator), killing without mercy. I remember as a child being terrified by a black and white science fiction film (it was probably called The Incredible Shrinking Man but I probably never knew the title). In it a man reduces in size every day until eventually his human friends lose him and he has to fend for himself. He has to fight a spider with a pin that, to him, is the size of a lance. It's horrible. Probably the reason I don't like looking at spiders or insects too closely even now. I once wrote a poem about the insect world (that I can't find tonight). If I ever do come across it I'll post it.

Post Pancake Day

Yesterday was Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday. We made some panckes and I also picked up a couple of offer packs of frozen ready-made pancakes. The ready made ones were smaller and not as tasty, not surprising I guess. However, we had the for breakfast today and they were nice and quick and easy. We don't tend to have pancakes for breakfast but I know this is more commonly eaten by some people in the US. We didn't have any Maple Syrup and that is my favourite pancake topping, we made do with squeezing orange juice over them and sprinkling brown sugar.

Yesterday was also very important for us because we received the official letter telling us which school our son was going to start attending from September. To out greatest relief, he got the same school as our daughter. It would have been really really hard for us if he hadn't got in. So I'm heaving a massive sigh of relief!

A new week begins

A new week and I'm posting this from an older PC I have up in the bedroom. Boy is the screen bright, or maybe its just that I'm tired, I can't tell. At the weekend my wife bought a fish tank, so next weekend we'll be buying a Goldfish - poor thing, I hope it lives. We haven't had any pets while the kids have been young and I'm a bit disappointed in that because pets are great but where we live there is no room for a dog and I'd be frightened that a cat would be killed because the cars drive down the road so fast. So, out of the range of available pets my wife chose a fish. I guess she thought it would be relaxing to watch the fish after a stressful day at work and I suppose she might be right. It was just a bit sudden, her coming through the door with a big box like that. She bought me a game called Mancala too, its a wooden board and has glass beads you move from hole to hole. It's good fun, I played it with my daughter. I think several games probably go by the name of Mancala, so I'm not sure which variation we play - I got the rules off the Internet because the rules that came with it were just impossible to understand - there were no pictures and whoever wrote them, well, English was obviously not their first language.

It's been a weird time with the media at the moment, all I seem to notice is news about Anna Nicole Smith or Britney Spears or Robbie Williams. It's all about rehab, going nuts and dying young. What is wrong with everyone these days? It seems like you can't be famous unless your infamous. Sod dying young, its not worth it to put poison into your body. I'm not a practising Christian really but I think religion could definitely play a big role in the lives of people who have enough money that they will never need for anything else the rest of their lives. If I made millions I'd want to put my money to good use, rather than squandering it on drugs or whatever. Maybe I'm being unrealistic, afterall I have no idea what life is like when you can't go anywhere without being recognised. Maybe a Fame City is needed: where just famous people live. There would be no photographers or press and everyone would be treated equally, money wouldn't buy you any dream tickets. Huh! Never gonna happen is it?

Frustration!

It's been a disjointed, unnatural week. The biggest problem with the week has been the lack of Internet access since Tuesday afternoon until this morning. It's been very frustrating not to be able to see what the world is getting up to and not having access to my favourites. I've had some days off with the kids this week too, so I've not had a good chance to sit down and get work done apart from Monday which was business as usual. The problem with the Internet wasn't of my doing either, so its not like I could have done anything about it. I am seriously considering changing ISP now because its happened three times in the last twelve months. My wife and I need Internet for work as well as for home, so its not acceptable to be without it for two and a half days.

Monday Monday

I had quite a good weekend. I did miss my wife and daughter who went to Disneyland Paris for the day on Saturday: pity the weather was wet and miserable. I spent the day on Saturday with my son and we had a great time together shopping, playing, eating, watching TV and reading stories. Saturday night I was in online multiplayer mode on the Playstation 2, had good fun but got shot up many more times than I needed to. My wife and daughter were back really early on Sunday and it was a relaxed day. I went out to see some friends on Sunday night, which was great. Then today I realised I should try and take some leave because my daughter is off school. Luckily, my boss was OK about it and I got Tuesday and Thursday off, so tomorrow it will be great to be off from work. The other piece of news is that I bought a personal DVD player on Friday. It was going to be for my wife to take on the trip to Paris but she didn't take it in the end. This may strike you as odd but my wife and I don't always watch the same stuff, but now I can be close to her in the same room AND watch what I want to, instead of having to sit in another room.
At the weekend I also sorted out the accomodation for our summer holiday, a nice apartment near the beach in Bounemouth where we went at the end of last summer. It's nice to have something to look forward to and this time we're away for seven nights instead of three.

Weekend Ahoy!

It's a Boys Weekend coming up as the women in my household are spending most of the weekend travelling to Disneyland Paris and back. I hope they have a great time while they're there and especially that the snow stays away. It's freezing snow tonight so tomorrow is not going to be good driving first thing.

Not too much to say in this post, it's been a tiring week at work and I haven't slept all that well this week - I think its the cold.

I'm working my way slowly through the first series of Star Trek on DVD. Admitting you are a Star Trek fan is a little risky because some people take it really seriously - doing degrees in Klingon and dressing and living like intergalactic tribes. It's the best series for me and I love the young William Shatner in it as Captain Kirk. It's the series I saw as a kid and I remember being fascinated and scared at the same time while watching it. So many of the gadgets I saw as a kid in Star Trek have actually come true in todays world of technology. Bluetooth earpieces, communicators (3G phones) and the like. There is a sort of camp quality to the stories as well. I love the sets and costumes. And the women were really awesome - not skinny models but women with curves and an attractive shape. What's your favourite version of Star Trek and why?

Weather thoughts

I just noticed the temperature for London at the moment is -6C and given that I live in a rural area some distance outside of London I bet its colder than that. No wonder its so cold in our bathroom this morning. I wonder whether we'll have some snow later?

Everyday Object Photos

I visited my mum's today. Here are a few shots I took of everyday items, including a food label. Tara's blog entry asked for everyday food labels, my mum gave me this bottle of mulled wine as a leftover from Christmas. I'm not sure I could drink a bottle of mulled wine, it's a bit spicy for me.

Online Gaming

I did something this week I've never tried before. I hooked my Playstation 2 up to the internet to try out the world of online gaming. The games are good fun but you join games with people of all different levels and the main problem is that if you don't know the game environment well and all the moves and combos (who has the time?) then you can get turned into toast pretty easily. I tried out the free game military game Hardware and its good shoot 'em up fun, just driving around shooting other players but after a while it is a bit repetitive and there is no story to play out. But that's OK, it was easy to join a game and worked well and the environments and vehicles are pretty cool, which made up for the repetitiveness of the action. I was doing well to turn 5 other vehicles into toast but some players were getting scores into the 20s - probably mostly off charring my vehicle. The other game I tried out was SOCOM a game about Navy SEALS where you play either with a team of SEALS or a team of terrorists. I was a terrorist in the game and I played about 7 games and didn't manage to kill another player. I seemed to be quite good at getting shot up though. I have other games with online modes, I'll check those out over the coming weeks.
I also wore my USB headset naively. It's a bit strange and there isn't really anything to say - I heard a variety of questions that went mostly unanswered, I certainly didn't answer. Any talk was minimal, it was mostly "Nooooo" as someone was blown up. There were a few "Good game" comments and stuff. I heard some swearing and in one game a guy and a girl were chatting constantly in an accent I didn't understand or recognise but they spoke as if they weren't playing the game at all. I don't think they were talking about game, odd really that they would be choose to be chatting in a public game rather than somewhere else more private. I don't think I'll bother wearing my headset again.

A lot of the new game consoles like XBox360, Wii and soon the Playstation 3 seem to emphasize the online side of gameplay. I'm glad I tried it out but I wouldn't say I'm addicted to games online, I just don't play enough to get that good. If I could play games with other newbies it would be better but I think the stigma of any match called "For Newbies" is off-putting, that's why nobody was joining those games.

Computer Nerd

A friend of ours wanted me to look at her computer one evening this week, I get asked now and again by various friends. It was running slow, same problem that my mother in-law had but for a different reason. She had two different security programs running and they were working against each other. She has a teenage boy who likes to play games and do his music on the PC, so it was mainly to help him. He gave me a list of stuff that needed doing but I didn't have much time to do it all, so I removed the security program that they didn't want but couldn't remove themselves - it was a bit complicated but I got it sorted. But then as I rebooted, it wouldn't recognise any internet connection so I left her feeling bad about that even though she tried to reassure me it happens regularly. I refused any payment, as I would for any friend I can help. When I got home, I got a text saying that the internet was OK again and that her son was well impressed with me. Apparently it's much faster now, so I was pleased in the end. So I think the other playground mummies think I'm a computer nerd. My son was even called that by one of his nursery teachers because he likes his computer games so much.

Post 500

Yes it's my 500th post on this blog, that seems quite a lot. Nothing much to report though, it's a funny old week really. The slapped cheek virus is lingering round our household, now that my son has got rid of it the girl has come down. I'm trying to stay good eating-wise even though everyone else in the household is eating pure evil food - chocolate Flake bars galore. Somehow I'm managing to keep on the straight and narrow, well at least to severly limit my intake of intoxicating deliciousness. I am having great lunchtime sandwiches though - crammed with tomato, cucumber and lettuce with Paul Newman's Italian dressing drizzled in. Absolutely gorgeous!

The weather has improved, last week it was bitterly cold and windy but it's just grey and drizzly but not so cold now. Well that was a boring weather report wasn't it?

Is there no way I can liven up my 500th post? I could mention that Shilpa Shetty won Celebrity Big Brother on Sunday. I either wanted her or Dirk Benedict to win. I watched the few episodes and thought it was good but then when Jade Goody and her family went in I turned off, couldn't be less interested in the twiddle twoddle they talk about. From the pieces of footage I've seen I can't believe how someone can get so angry and wound up over something so petty and to be honest I can't quite believe someone so stupid exists. Then again I've not been confined to a house with ego-maniac celebrities before. But the thing that I find most annoying is that they get PAID to go in there! But putting even that aside, I hope C4 have learned their lesson about putting people who haven't really earned their celebrity centre stage like that. Well, that's my tuppence worth on the subject.

A perfect egg morning

Oh yes! I've cracked it on my second attempt at the microwave egg cooker. Here's how:

• use a medium sized egg
• with an 800 watt microwave
• set power to 50%
• set time to 1 and a half minutes
• break egg into one half
• take a cocktail stick and pierce the yolk and white lots of times (but don't mix it up)
  
• add 3 tablespoons of water to the empty half

Wireless and Wired

I've had 3 annoying days where I couldn't log into two of my favourites - Blogger and My Space - and my wife couldn't get her favourite online newspaper. The problem was since installing an adsl wireless modem/router to replace our usb modem. I'm glad to report that things are looking up and I think I've got to the bottom of the trouble - I had to change personal firewall software. It was getting out of date and needed to be changed anyway, I would have liked to have found the answer sooner though. Now though, I can work upstairs and my wife can share the connection downstairs at the same time. I might also try networking my PS2 but I need a rest first! All that troubleshooting and looking on tech forums really does my head in.

Tuesday Telling

Eggs are a great breakfast food aren't they? It's a pity about the cholesterol but they are pretty tasty to have now and again. I like the Egg McMuffin because of the round chunk of egg inside them, I like soft boiled eggs and dipping my toast soldiers into the golden yoke and I like the allure of the poached egg with its yoke veiled in a long white dress. Going back to the McMuffin, how do they get the egg perfect like that everytime? Is it that they buy them frozen like that and just reheat them or are they actually cooked on the premises? I don't know. Well, now you know I like eggs but I also like gadgets. OK, so now put the two together and you have Egg-Gadgets, that's right and I'm up for a cheap gagdet now and then. So here it is: I said to my wife as she left the house recently, "See if they have those egg cookers for the microwave, find out how much they are". Little did I know hours later that I would be blessed with my own microwaveable egg cooker. My wife unsportingly used it first I'm sorry to say and I wasn't around to oversee her (that's my metaphor for her telling me to get out of the kitchen). So I heard about the aftermath - explosions and all. Well, I kept the instruction on the card and put the device away until I required an egg next. Not for several weeks I have to say and by that time (this evening) I'm sorry to say that the instructions were nowhere to be found. "I have it!" I shout, running like a man possessed to the computer "t'net will 'ave it" (for suddenly I've adopted a Northern accent) and into Google I do type "microwave egg poacher instructions" and there I do find some instructions. 4.5 minutes on a 600 watt microwave at 50 per cent power. My stomach is rumbling well bad because last time I ate was lunchtime and it's gone 8pm now - I spent the early evening sorting out my mother in-laws computer around her house. So now I'm well up for some egg to go with the fries I'm cooking in the oven (that are just almost cooked). So I make some quick calculations in my head: we have an 800 watt oven. I have no idea what formula I should use to calculate this but like every good man I authoritatively dial in the first number that comes into my head (3mins 30 sec) pretending there is some scientific pretext. My wife stands back. I stand proud. On goes the light, round goes the turntable and my stomach shouts "FOOD!". I think to get a plate, take the fries out of the oven and arrange them (leaving a nice round shape for my lovely well-formed egg disk to go into). "I think I'll just..." BOOM KAPOW! Oh no! Egg disaster! Egg Alert. Egg Alert. Egg Alert. We have an egg down. Repeat. We have an egg down. Well not so much down as spread, all over the inside of the microwave. I reach into the blast zone and retrieve a fragment of yoke "Do you think it'll be edible?" I ask my wife, who has that raised eyebrow that says "I told you so". I did eat some egg at least. Shame about the timing. I've got to get that right. Many eggs may be lost in the struggle but I'm gonna do it, damn it!

My Dream Holiday

Rachel's post on this got me wandering what my dream holiday would be. I have two versions: on one level, a dream holiday would be where my family are all together on a hot sunny beach enjoying spending the days playing together. Eating great barbecue food and never getting burned by the sun or getting sand in our sandwiches AND never arguing once. There would be a creche to allow me and my wife to go visiting museums and art galleries. In the evening, we'd both be free for Love Duty.

The other version is where we go and visit Iceland and the Scandinavian countries because they always look so beautiful in the photographs I've seen and I've always wondered what they were like. Following that, we'd go to Germany for a beer festival and have a merry old time eating and drinking.
I've never been skiing, so that would be my next 3 destinations: France, Switzerland and Austria.

After that I'd like to visit Russia because of the architecture and the history. Next on my tour would be Turkey where I would indulge in the food and warm up after all of those coler countries. Italy would be next for a bit of clothes shopping and wine drinking.

Japan is a place that intrigues me too, I'd like to visit that country to meditate in a Buddhist temple and experience a completely different culture to the West. I'd probably round off my tour with a trip to New Zealand. I'm sure there are loads of places I'd like to visit that I've missed off this list.

I was looking at jobs in Canada just the other day. I didn't see one but I would consider living near Toronto. It must be beautiful in Canada near all those enormous lakes. I'd live in the USA too, the food is just amazing and so plentiful.

If you've never seen Google Earth, its really fun way to zoom around the world and look at places you've never been to. All of the above countries can be visited in less than 5 minutes and it's probably closer than I'll ever get otherwise.

2 Years Anniversary

This day marks the 2 year anniversary of this blog. I feel like it is in need of a makeover, so I'm going to investigating all of that stuff. Expect to see some changes to the appearance over the coming weeks.
When I started this I didn't really know what I was doing or where it was going. Today, I'm probably still not clear on either of those things but I do know it has allowed me to share some thoughts with people whom I never would have met otherwise, so I think it is a positive thing to be doing. So thanks to every visitor who drops in and leaves a comment, your comments are truly appreciated!

A Mix of Stuff

It's been a very windy day here in the UK and several people had their deaths attributed to the weather. The power of nature is a frightening thing, especially driving on motorways with rain, wind and heavy lorries passing. I always think about what could easily happen to cause my own death...

...maybe death by strange natural forces is on my mind because I've recently seen Final Destination 2 and 3 recently. I'm sure everyone has seen the Final Destination film and there are no big differences between all three films, they are and remain hugely enjoyable shock horror films. Worth a look if you've never seen them. I found myself chuckling while watching because I knew what was coming but first time around I must admit I was a bit scared. They have great replay value and are still entertaining.

The other thing I've got into recently has been re-runs of a TV game show popular at the end of 80s and start of the 90s called The Crystal Maze. It was adults running around a TV studio with four different sets styled as Futuristic, Aztec, Medievil and Industrial. They contained a series of rooms where one contestant from a group of six had to enter and solve a puzzle or perform a task to try and win a crystal that is traded for 10 seconds in the big crystal at the end of the show. This big crystal had a fan that blew gold and silver foil chits and the contestants had to try and capture as many gold chits as they could, any silver chits mixed in with the gold collected are deducted from the final score. I think it's a great show and I really miss this kind of TV.

The other TV game show I really liked was an earlier show called Treasure hunt. It involved two studio contestants talking to a "skyrunner" in outside broadcast who travelled by helicopter to find clues aided by the studio contestants. An adjudicator in the studio made sure everyone played by the rules. I liked the variety of locations and I admit I liked watching Anneka in the tight jumpsuit, the camera viewpoint sort of concentrated on her bottom as she ran infront: at least that's my recollection.