The daily merry-go-round...

I can’t think what we have been up to this week but it seems like we have not stopped. Let’s see…

…we had Sue’s sister and bother-in-law, Deb and Fog, over for dinner on the weekend.

…I received a ladybird house as a belated birthday present from Sue’s brother and girlfriend, Chris and Lynne. A ladybird house is like a birdhouse but for ladybirds – of course, what else would it be? It is useful to encourage these little wee beasties at the allotment as they eat the other bugs that can damage the crops.

…had lunch with our neighbours and their son (our godson), Deb, Dave and Tom. Dave wanted to come over and watch his beloved rugby team the Wasps on satellite. They stuffed Munster and are now in the final. He was well chuffed.

…spent more time on the allotment weeding, preparing the ground, sowing seeds etc. Having the greenhouse this year has helped us with starting the seeds off. There are now many green shoots heading for the light. The wet and warm weather has helped things grow out in the ground too. So we have potatoes, onions, garlic… …and other herbs (sorry did you nod off? Never mind I am sure I will mention the garden again some other time).

…the decorator come around to give us an estimate. We are having some work done on the insurance after a pipe leaked, so we thought we might see how much it would cost to do the rest of the house. We are looking at doing something similar with the carpets.

…still trying my hand at short stories. I write a short piece each month for my study group’s bulletin board competition. No success yet – but the trying is a useful exercise. It is giving me confidence to try something a bit more adventurous (I’ll let you know what later).

… another entertaining StarWars role-play session. The guys are really jelling together. Kevin showed us a new game he bought where you play superheroes – we are going to give it a go after StarWars. James also is keen to have us play Badlands that he picked up cheap.

…my folks have just had there latest olive harvest and they are busy with that and with the new shop outlet. It is all looking very professional – I could become an heir to an olive-oil multinational. They have sent over some more photo’s and are looking at providing more info that our friend Chris and I can get put up on there web site. Have a look and let us know what you think could be added, you’ll find it at:

fylde fields

St George’s Day

Happy St George’s Day to all Anglocentrics out there. This year the English patron’s day is being promoted more than usual, possibly due to the recent success of various English sports teams. There are always calls at this time of year to make St. George’s Day a national holiday by patriotic souls and people wanting to cash in on the St. Patrick’s Day phenomena.

There is a web ring dedicated to all things English (including English Martial Arts?) which can be found at…

The Cross of St George

Dr. Who?

I heard a radio doctor talking about the names of doctors and how many of them appeared to have professions that were strangely appropriate. He noted there were several people called Blood, Bone, Cream (a dermatologist) and Love. There are even two doctors registered called De’ath. No kidding I looked at the General Medical Council web site and its true, see for your self at…

General Medical Council - Registered Doctors

A taste of Lambchop...

We went out to see Lambchop perform at the Swan in High Wycombe this last Saturday.

We have friends out that way and so we organised to see them in the afternoon where we caught up, played with the baby and the dog, and ate a good meal, and drank a few cold ones. They are off soon back to South Africa, where they come from, for a holiday. Yendall had told us of the Swan as a good venue before, and he came with us to the gig. He is a bit of music enthusiast too, preferring the old school rock and blues, but like me he will give most things a spin.

The venue was great, very intimate but without feeling claustrophobic.

We liked the support band, The Clientele. Although some of the audience were a bit rude, disappearing back to the bar to wait for Lambchop. Lambchop were very good, as expected.

The piano player had a habit cracked terrible jokes as the band tuned up, like this;
Two guys were discussing the President and one described him as a post-turtle.
The other guy asked what he meant.
"Well" he says, "Its kinda like when you drive down a road and you see a turtle on a post and you think to yourself...
how did he get up there...
he has no right being there in the first place...
you just know he is not gonna get a damn thing done while he is up there...
and you just want to pull over and help the poor fella down"

Needless to say I bought a couple of CDs. One of the support band and one of Lambchop's tour disc.

Lambchop home page
Clientele home page
The Swan at High Wycombe

insurance claims... why is such a hassle?

We found a pipe was leaking on the radiator in Jamie's room, soaking the carpet and staining the ceiling and walls in the dining room below.

We have a service contract for the central heating and so we organised for someone to come out. Of course they can't tell you what part of the day they will be around so you have take the day off work to hang around and wait for them. They turn up and have a quick look a tell you they will be back tomorrow cause they don't have the tools. Another day of work and you kind of hope it's fixed.

After our holiday we arrange for the insurance assessors to come out. Again the builders won't come out on the weekends so another day off work. Another quick look, a photo, a few measurements and there off. Now we wait and see when someone can actually come over to fix things.

The carpet people were better. They came out on the weekend and they have authority to proceed. Also they have a show room just down the road so we could choose the replacement carpet. Unfortunately we need to have the walls and ceiling done before we can have the carpet fitters in.

Oh what a palaver.

laugh your head off...

There is a website called Classic Comedy that was created by Michael Bentine's son as a place where enthusiasts can watch free clips of classic comedy moments.

Artists include; Michael Bentine, Charlie Chaplin, Tommy Cooper, Benny Hill, Frankie Howerd, Laurel and Hardy, and Monty Python.

Classic Comedy

MonkeyLord online...

I friend of mine has also joined the online blog community. James's Blog can be found at...

The Ramblings of an Inattentive Mind

the 'father of the web' awarded...

(from the BBC)

The inventor of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee, has won a prestigious award which comes with a prize bag of one million euros (£671,000). The "Father of the Web" was named as the first winner of the Millennium Technology Prize by the Finnish Technology Award Foundation. In 1991, he come up with a system to organise, link and browse net pages which revolutionised the internet. The British scientist was knighted for his pioneering work in 2003.

Tim Berners-Lee

the sky is falling...

Ever wondered what would happen if an asteroid hit the planet. How far away would you need to be to survive? Well the BBC report that scientists in the US have created a website to help us assess the risks.

Researchers at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory say their web tool will predict the effects different types of impactors would have if they hit different places on the planet.

A relatively modest sized asteroid of 45m (150ft) in diameter is said to strike the Earth approximately every 1,000 years.

So if the next one did come down, just how far would the devastation spread and how much time would those living and working in the city have to grab their bags and run?

http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/

A little gem…

I like my music and this week I had a nightmare when my CD player stopped working (to be fair it is nearly 15 years old). Sue was very supportive and even suggested if I bought a new one I should get a multi-disc player. Anyway, I took the top off it and ‘titted’ about for a while and it appears now to be working again… phew!

I bought a new album while I was in the states (only the one?). I bought Finally Woken by Jem (a Welsh artist)…

Jem, Finally Woken

… who the young people would probably class as a dance act (in the slow, swaying sort of way). She has a lovely voice.

Sue also chose an album while we were away, ‘the very best of Africa vol-2’. A compilation of current African music including artist such as Youssou N’Dour, Hugh Masekela and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. It is a very good collection.

The very best of Africa, vol.2

play it again…

Washington DC in the spring…

We have just come back from visiting Greg, Fi and the girls in the US of A.

Normally we do not enjoy air travel, and although Sue still needed the valium to calm her nerves, she was not bothered with the no-smoking (still on the no-smoking wagon). We also found ourselves upgraded and sitting in bigger seats with more room and facilities. We weren't so lucky on the way back, suffering cattle class.

Fi picked us up from the airport and took us home (we were very impressed with the house. Jamie thought the living room alone was bigger than our place). Greg was still in NZ on business, and as it was evening, most of the girls were in bed, so we had a small chat and then it was off to sleep ourselves.

We had a great time mixing excursions into the city for doses of American culture with relaxing at home with the girls and local trips out and about.

We managed to see quite a lot of DC in out time there. We went in one day and saw the US Botanical Gardens and some of the National Gallery of Art (Jamie deciding to make his own way about much to our consternation), meeting up again to have a late lunch and head home. Sue and I also took a bus-tour around the sites, stopping to take photos of many of the Capitol's buildings and monuments, and to visit the awe inspiring Arlington National Cemetery.

Sue and I also went into town with the twins one day to visit the zoo, and another day with Bexi to visit the National Museum of Natural History (in the afternoon she stayed with Greg at his office while we looked around the Freer and Sakler Galleries.

One of our favorite views was all of the cherry trees in full bloom everywhere, beautiful.

In between times we went with Fi and the twins to a local garden. We also went shopping at the supermarket and the mall. Sue baked with Bexi. Jamie played computer games and basketball with the girls. We took the twins down to the nearby creek (and saw half a dozen deer and a woodpecker).

We watched a few of Greg and Fi's extensive DVD collection. We watched 'The man who new to little', with Bill Murray, and noticed that the Morris Dancers were the ones who my Uncle Terry plays for.

We had quite a few meals out, some for the whole family, and some for the grown-ups. We went out with the girls to the Outback, Australian themed (we sampled the Blooming Onion, listed as an Ab-Original!!). Sue was asked for ID when she ordered a beer, it made her night and had Jamie shaking his head. We also took the girls out to the Rainforest Cafe which is full of animatronic animals and tanks of tropical fishes. Greg and Fi took us out to McCormick's & Schmick's fish restaurant...

http://www.mccormickandschmicks.com/index.cfm

... a great place where we had our own snug styled booth and ate fantastic food.

Stephen and Scott came over for dinner one evening and we had a great time comparing the relative merits of UK, NZ and US society, and laughing at the mistakes made in the use of slang in each others countries.

Greg, Fi and the girls were all very well.

Alas the break was all too short and we soon had to face coming back to UK and work.