Redditch, Hannah, Bickering, Divorce

Hannah’s been away for a few days staying with her grandparents, Deb’s parents mine are both deceased, at their home in Redditch. We all drove there this morning to see them and to pick her up; unfortunately they said that they wouldn’t keep her no matter how much we offered them! She’d had a great time and they’d spoiled her rotten, she’d been taken to the cinema to see Toy Story Three, in 3D, and had gone shopping with Grandma. She had been bought a Hello Kitty T-Shirt, amongst other things, which she had to show me within minutes of our arrival! Deb’s mum and Dad were as lovely as usual, obviously I’ve been unfortunate and missed out on having a traditional mother-in-law. While I was there I went on Alf’s (Deb’s dad) PC and set up bookmarks for our YouTube and Ovi accounts so that they could see the family photos and videos I upload there, assuming that they want to. We only stayed until 4:00 and then came straight home. Hannah had only been away for a few days, but once she and Nat started bickering, I realised how quite it is when we only have one or the other of them at home. If either of them thinks that they are ever going to be allowed to give up Scouts they’ve got another thing coming. When one’s at a camp the other is not only significantly quieter but is also far, far more sociable. I’ll have to suggest to Deb that we get a divorce and then, that way, we can arrange access such that when I have one of them she has the other…bliss!

GAMER TAG

Thursday 29 July - Boxing

Today was great why was it great you might ask it was great because I got to box 2 other people in the ring. That's right some poor estate kids had to fight me the 2 times I fought were epic and awesome and other fights would have been epic but there were only 2 fights. The punching of other people was well worth the waits and the skipping and even the plank god how I hate the plank do you know how much I hate it a lot in fact I hate it this much well you can’t see the jester I am making but it is from the end of one hand to the other when I spread my arms out. I also got some raps (I think there called raps I don’t know there proper name) for my hands and wrists which are essentially bandages that I rap round my hands and wrist under my Boxing gloves to protect my wrist’s. When I got home I ate a bowl full of pasta and meatballs they were lovely meatballs then I had to go to Judo the first time in 2 months when I got there I was 1 of only 2 people to be there one think I have to say about today was that I was tired by the end of it.    

Nat (The Ginster) Jones

Wed and Thurs

Han off to grandparents
watching smallville
thursday sleep, occ health, nat boxing, judo, han calling

Wednesday 28 July - Hannah, Redditch, Babylon 5

Today All that happened, today, was that Hannah went to stay, for a few days, with my our grandma and granddad who live at their house in Redditch Redich. Meanwhile, my Dad and I are watching watched Babylon 5 series Season 5. In this the particular episode, we watched, the Inter Stella Alliance (ISA for short) are were at war with the Centaury Centauri Republic, and I will not won't tell you about the rest of the episode, as that would spoil it for you, and suffice to say, it is was a particularly great episode. of Babylon 5. Now, I am just going to get to a 100 words; then, tomorrow, I will do write 300 in tomorrows in that post. Damn 8 more words, how will I get to 100? Oh wait, I'm am at 108.*

Nat (The Ginster) Jones
*or I was before Dad started editing my grammar
Well done Nat, I knew what you were saying you just need to prcaticce how you say it...Dad.

Tuesday 27 July

 

Today I built a new forge map like the last one I built but a very very sad thing happened near the end of its completion some people joined the game with out asking and deleted everything or destroyed it they ruined hours of work those people were Sam Small and a person who's gamer tag is X DARKLORD these people were promptly removed from my Xbox live friends list. This may seam very relaxed and laid back my day was very undemanding and easy but soon that would all end if you recall I said I did a boxing taster session yep that's right I went to a boxing lesson and was not to bad. First we (we being Hannah and I) did some practise at punching I was not terrible but not the best either. Then we did some of the most dreaded thing in the world fitness training the first thing we did was called the plank this involved laying on the floor supporting your self on your arms for 1 minuet then you get 30 seconds rest and do it again 7 times. After that we had to put or backs on the wall and get in to a position like sitting on a chair for 1 minuet we did this 6 times.

By Nat  

Monday 26 July

 

Today I slept till god knows how late as I had stayed up till 0300 hours the previous night. When I finally got up I went down stairs Hannah had the Disney channel on so I almost immediately went back up stairs. When I got back upstairs I set about building a map on forge*. The purpose of the map was simple, a ball rolls down a ramp in to a tube and then the ball falls from the top of the map down in to another tube, which funnels the ball in to a hole in the ground, the ball falls down the hole in to another tube and finishes the word HALO which is spelt with weapons. the hard part of building this map was lining up the different tubes. The longest bit was clearing the map I built it on of everything else that was already on the map. But I was sadend shortly after creating the masterpiece my map was I could not save it as I already had 100 maps oh the sadness. 10 words to go how will I get to 200 thanks to saying that  I have now.

By Nat  

* Forge is a thing on halo that lets you build maps. 

Monday and Tuesday - Nothing Monday, Slept Most of day, Throat OK, Boxing

We didn't do anything of note on Monday, if we did I don't recall any of it. I stayed up all night watching Smallville series 4 - Love Lois Lane.
Tuesday, went to bed about 9:00 slept until 4:30. Throat seems to be better still a little sore and occasionally coughing up green mucus but much less than before. This afternoon we attempted to discover where the boxing club is and after a few false starts (we went to the wrong side of Braunstone Park) we eventually located Bendbow Rise and the club is located in this building.

View Larger Map
We met a very chatty chap named John, drives for Walkers Crisps, who's daughter boxes at the club; apparently she's a real up and comer and has boxed at county level. In fact she, Paige, took Nat and Hannah under her wing for their first taste of the sport. After they had punched the pads, she held for them, she introduced them to the reality of boxing training and my god did they sweat. Good on them, hard as it was they both stuck it out to the end. There are sessions from 5-7 PM Monday to Thursday. We're planning to go every day that we can over the holidays. In term we'll see what we can manage. The club is certainly cheaper than kick-boxing, 31:00 per session, and the training is intense. Hopefully this will burn off the fat that both Nat and Hannah are carrying; time will tell! The kids that do go there regularly are all as fit as a butchers dog.

Sunday 25 July

 

Before I continue I will say two words SPOLIR ALERT now you can’t sue me.

 

Today started of with me getting up nice and late at about 0900 I think. Once I had got up I got dressed and then after some Gaming on the PC we went to sea Percy Jackson and the Lighting Thief for 95p each because they were showing it at Kids AM. the film was great with killing and Questing* and all kinds of shize you would not expect in a Kids film but it is not a Kids film it is a 12A. Essentially a boy who’s name is Percy Jackson, turns out to be a Demi-god his dad is Persidan. He then has to go to a special camp*1 to survive being hunted by Hadies because he is trying to get his filthy mitts on the lighting bolt.Now all the gods think that he has stolen Zeus’s lightning bolt, and as a result Zeus is preparing for war with Persidon as Zeus thinks Persidan has sent Percy to steal the lighting bolt. That was a mouthful.

 

* Is that even a word.      

*1 but special as in talented not special as in special needs.

Sunday - Percy Jackson

Deb took the kids to see Percy Jackson and The Lightening Thief at the Vue Cinema Kids Club in the morning. having stayed up late, again, I slept in and missed this. Shame really as apparently it was a pretty good film. Nothing much else of note happened today.
That afternoon, while I was STILL in bed Han went with Shantelle and her family to Abbey park.

Percy Jackson, Abbey Park with Shantelle

Holding

Saturday 24 July.

 

Today was AWSOME! It was a day in which I did something other then sit on my Xbox although I still did sit on my Xbox for a while well a bit more then a while more like a very big chunk of time. One of the cool things about today was that I went to a fair at Mostail Meadows with my dad and sister. Apart from the dad and sister bit only joking but to every one else who is not my dad or sister I’m not joking.When we got there Hannah and I joined in in a tug of war and as a result our team won. Soon after this I went to the air force cadet stall where I looked in a camp they had made and took some leaflets. Later that day but only by about 10-20 minutes later we continued walking round the fair we found a stall that sold that's right it is so blindingly obvious they sold golf clubs at £1 each what amazing value seen as Zak’s dad bought one club for £110 when we paid £5 for six. soon after this Hannah and I met a Boxing instructor who was running a taster session and I threw punches at the pads he was holding. Several minutes later I went and did some fencing which is now anther thing I would like to do but there aren’t enough days in the week. Later on once we had bought the hole set of golf clubs we walked home when we got home we got back home I went on my Xbox but I have already talked about that or haven’t I MU HA HA HA. Also a new Halo Reach video was realised today well they would realise more videos it is Comic-Con.  

How AWSOME is that it is also EPIC and IMMENSE as well as being described with the most adventures word ever NICE oh how nice it is to be nice. Hang on a sec have I already put this video on the blog its not a big deal its like I always tell every one “A quitter never wins and don’t trust whitey” * 

By Nat

* I am not a racist by the way.

Mossdale Meadows Festival, Tug-a-War, Broken Phone Strap, Air Training Corp, Sundry Stalls, Hannah Off with Shantelle, Me and Nat, Golf Club, No Cream Teas with Jesus, Golf Club 2, Hannah Boxing, Nat Boxing, Nat Fencing, More Golf Clubs 3 4 5 and 6, Walk Home, Zak

It's the Mossdale Meadow Summer Festival today, I don't know if this is the first time it's been held or that we've just missed the previous ones. Anyway, we were all planning to go and see what's what but Deb was still quite unwell and decided to stay home. Nat, Hannah and I walked to Mossdale and we arrived there around 12 PM, as it's at the top of the Kingsway it's hardly a hike. It was a lovely day and, luckily, it held off raining until after the festival ended at 4 PM. There weren't a huge number of things there, as you can see from the photos, but it looked fun so we hastened, hastily, to discover, uncover and delve into ALL it's hidden secret treasures of mystery (OTT or What???).


Nat and Hannah immediately joined in the tug-a-war and, according to Nat ,that's what won it for their side! Somehow Han managed to break the strap on Mum's N73 while tugging but eventually we found the broken strap and tried it back to the phone.
Just after this Shantelle showed up; Han demanded her money then she and Shantelle set off on their own. Nat and I stayed together; the first stall we visited was that of the Air Training Corp. As a teenager I'd been a member of the ATC and done quite a lot of exciting things, including gliding, so I wondered whether we could crowbar this into Nat's already busy schedule. They meet twice a month but, unfortunately, the meetings are on a Monday (kick boxing and Queen's Scouts award) and a Thursday (judo) so it doesn't look like a feasible option.
We continued round, the stalls, to see what there was to see. We bumped into Maxine with daughter Amelia, broken ankle freshly plastered* , in tow and had a brief chat. I'm sure Nat gave thanks that Henri wasn't with them, he absolutely detests Henri.
The first thing we bought was a golf club for a whole £1! We thought we could buy few balls and when walking Monty over on the sports ground we could have a knock around. This might aid in countering Nat's eye/hand coordination problems. Just beyond the stall where we bought this was the cream teas stall. Fifty pence for a Cream Tea!!!! The OAP's were queueing to get a seat and the sign said it was fully booked for the rest of the day. How could they do it for 50p, I hear you cry? It was a church stall and they, like drug dealers who give free samples to reel in new users, were using it as a lose leader to gain new converts.
We acquired another golf club, this time a left handed driver (I know...Why?) at a further stall and proceeded to use them to mug pensioners! Having recouped our cash through this inventive use of our golf clubs we wandered on. Off and on we were joined by Han and Shantelle and while Nat was queueing for a burger I saw them again. They were with Shantelle's Dad, whom I'd not met before, and he turned out to be a charming fellow. Han and I walked over to the boxing ring that had been set up in the middle of the meadow.
Han decided to give boxing a try and turned out to be quite good at it; after all she spends enough time, at home, punching the karate pads she makes me hold. Below are the videos of her in the ring:






I phoned Nat, who was still queueing to buy a burger, to tell him where we were and shortly after he joined us. If Han was going to box then, of course, so was he. Below are his videos:
 


The bearded chap who was instructing, a settled former traveller would be my guess given the accent and the van, was very complementary about them both and both of them expressed and interest in attending the club. I got the details and we're planing to visit one evening next week. The club runs from 5:00 PM Monday to Thursday and charges a £1.00 per session.
Han, once more, departed with Shantelle and Nat and I went to see the fencing; Nat has fenced before, at scouts, so once more he joined in.

Finally, we watched the marital arts demo which, unfortunately, was cut short when one of the demonstrators hurt herself; hope she's OK now. Han and Shantelle turned up again; Han wanted to go to Shantelle's Dad's house with Shantelle and her brother but I said no. Shantelle's Dad wasn't there to say it was OK and anyway she was only going there for a little while before going back to her Mum's house. I told Han she could see her then.
By now it was nearing 4:00 PM, and the sky looked set to rain, so we decided to head home. On our way we again stopped at the stall where we'd bought the first golf club and purchased the remaining four for £3:00.
We bumped into Zak on the way home and separated him from Sam and another lad by threatening them with our clubs. After Nat, Han and he  had performed, or attempted to perform, some "gymnastic" manoeuvres in a tree he came home with us and immediately disappeared upstairs, with Nat, to play on the X-box.
Shantelle too turned up a little while later and that was the last we saw of Hannah for an hour or two.
Again, I stayed up, watching Smallville on the PC this time, until 6:00. I went to bed and stayed there while the others went to the pictures on Sunday morning.

*she broke it during the school trip to Twin Lakes last week

Sword Fighting Mossdale Meadows Summer Fate

Hannah Dancing

Halo Reach

 

There is a new Halo Reach ViDoc

out today about a map called forge world which is going to be in Halo Reach. Its so AWSOME!!!

Thursday and Friday - Throat Still Sore, Slept All Day, Awake All Night, Spartacus,

I'm still suffering greatly from Deb's infectious bug, my throat continues to be as sore as a "bear with a sore head"...yes, it's Un-Bearable!!!! The result was that I sleep most of the day on Thursday and ended up awake all night. Nat stayed up late with me and we caught up on our backlog of unwatched Spartacus episodes. It would seem that the film "The 300" has generated a demand for unrealistic blood letting. I know that when you hit a major artery the pressure causes the blood to shoot, from the wound, for some distance BUT it does not spray out the amount of blood that's depicted in Spartacus. I think we managed to get through about 4 episodes before Nat gave up the ghost and went to bed, about 3;00 if I recall correctly.
I remained awake until 6:00 and then caught a quick couple of hours on the settee, while Deb was getting up to go to work. My phone alarm woke me at 9:30 to advise me to ring the Occupational health nurse, Lucy, which I did. I explained the situation and I'm ringing her on Monday to arrange another appointment.
Nothing much else during the day just hung about feeling sorry for myself. Deb and the kids went to bed after BB11 leaving downstairs, as usual. I was watching Family Guy but had to freeze it as I kept nodding off. I woke when it came on again, watched the remained and at about 1:30 went to sleep on the settee. Slept quite well...Mossdale meadows park Summer Festival in the morning.

Now you are in Newport

TEE HEE

One quick note I am now a Spartan!!!!

Join the fight.

Join me defeat the covenant my name is Nathaniel-237

Swimming With Jacob; Sailing With Scouts

Wednesday

Today was very wet in fact it was very very wet.  Why was it so wet? You might ask well there are two reasons you will have to wait for the second one but I will tell you the first one. The first reason is that I went swimming to Enderby with Jacob, Josh, who is Jacob’s brother, and Zak. While we were there we played a game were three people had to get a float from one end of the pool to the other sounds easy well it is for the first ten seconds because after those ten seconds a chaser is let lose on you.

The Second reason it was wet was because I went sailing with Scouts.    First I got picked up by Darren and he took, Jonathon, George and me sailing.

Once there we met Jacob, Zak, Brandon and the rest of the troop – Yahoo NO BEN.

Once Jacob and I had our life jackets on we got into our ‘pink’ boat this was the only ‘pink’ boat and took to the water. Jonathon ‘the wimp’ went in the leaders’ boat because he didn’t want to get wet!!!!!!!!!!!!

We sailed around and got attacked by Darren who has a super soaker, but also he capsized twice ha ha ha…..

Later on we purposefully capsized our boat twice – the 1^st time I got my leg caught on the sail the 2nd time I was at the front and got wet.  We also jumped into the water multiple times – I even jumped in when we were moving at speed and was abandoned by Jacob in the middle of the lake. Well maybe not the middle it was close to the shore but not to close.

By Nat (The Ginster) Jones 

Tuesday and Wednesday - Phone John, Occ Health Tel, Sore Throat, Occ Health Reschedule Friday, Shitty Day, No Sleep, Wed Am Bed, Swimming, Sailing

No much has happened over the last two days. Just after midnight I phoned work and spoke to JDM (mgn) re: my return and occupational health appointment. I explained that I was hoping to return, for at least one night, on Saturday but before then I had an appointment to see Lucy the Occ Health Nurse this morning. I explained that I still hadn't heard back from her to confirm this appointment and did JDM have her number so that I could check this morning. Luckily he had her number and I took it down. During this time I'd been feeling more and more unwell as my throat became increasingly painful and I continually coughed up a thick yukky mucus. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to go to the appointment and this, in part, was why I'd rang to get her number. Things got worse, I was unable to get any sleep and finally at 9:45 I gave up can called Lucy to explain why I wouldn't be able to make our meeting. Hearing my squeaky and croaky voice she thought this was best and we provisionally arranged to meet on Friday. I'm to call to confirm I'm fit and to arrange a time that day. I didn't really do anything much else for the rest of the day other than watch TV and drink too many beers in a vain, but enjoyable, attempt to ease the soreness of my throat. I stayed up after everyone else had gone to bed and eventually at 6:00 on Wednesday morning went to bed and slept until Noon*.

Shortly after I came downstairs Nat left to go swimming, with his pals, Hannah was almost inconsolable when she found out she couldn't accompany them, at Endeby Leisure Centre so we'll see him when we see him altough he can't be too late as his Scout Troop is going sailing this evening. I made Deb and Han and myself some salad sandwiches (it took me 30 minutes!) for lunch and now, because I used all the remaining bread, I'll have to pop to ASDA at some point to buy some more.

*When she got up Deb finally accepted the inevitable and phoned her work to report that she was sick and would be absent for today. While I've found this bug unpleasant it's hit her much harder and she's been feeling quite unwell for the last several days. In fact, as I was writing this she quietly crept upstairs and went back to bed where she's now fast asleep.

20/07/2010

via AudioBoo

Posted via email from mysickbones's posterous

Best Pictures I've Ever Seen of Abertysswg the Village Where I Grew Up.

ABERTYSSWG ON WIKIPEDIA

Abertysswy on Panoramio

nat's blog monday 19 july - jacobs, walking monty, swimming in river

NOT BEEN DONE

Me and Han, Nat Gets Back, Walking Monty, Swimming In The River, Mud Mud Mud, Shrek 4, So Nacho

Deb woke, ate, washed and departed for work without disturbing Hannah or me. We were both flaked out and  fast asleep on our respective settees. My phone alarm, reminding me to take my daily tablets, woke us at 9:45. I immediately changed the channel so that we could both watch the great J.K. whilst we finished regaining consciousness. I can't remember a single thing from this programme so obviously I wasn't as awake as I thought. Nat was away over night at Jacob's and expected back any time after 11:00. He eventually turned up around 11:45 and I told them both to get ready to take Monty out for a long walk. if I hadn't Nat would have been straight upstairs to his room , on his X-box and not seen for the remainder of the day. They got changed, I filled a bottle with squash we grabbed a towel shoved everything into a bag and departed at about 12:30. We planned to walk to Kings Lock on the Grand Union  Canal and stop at the Lock Keepers cottage, which is now a lovely small cafe, for a drink and a sit before turning round and heading home. On the way there we stopped at the river where Hannah and Nat both went paddling. Monty didn't go paddling and appears to have a strong aversion to the water. This is unusual in a gun dog, he's a Labrador Retriever, but Monty is definitely hydrophobic! We finally arrived at the cafe only to discover that it doesn't open on Mondays and Tuesdays. We sat for a while, ate crisps and drank squash, well I had a larger, before returning home. While we were there three boys turned up and started swimming in the lock and jumping off the lock gates into the canal. They're not my kids.


Viewap

On our way home, after we crossed the bridge over the Soar, we diverted through the filed to where some kids appeared to be swimming in the river. Both Nat and Hannah knew one of the kids, Jasmine a former cub with Hannah and now a scout in Nat's troop, and so we arranged to come back for a swim after we'd taken Monty home and picked up some trunks. We did exactly that, I popped to ASDA while the kids were getting their stuff, then we walked back to the river.  Hannah and Nat were both in the water as soon as we arrived and they both used the rope swing to jump in. neither appears to be able to hold up their legs and as a result as soon as the swung out their legs dragged in the water and pulled them off the rope and into the drink. We stayed until 4:00 then left for home as we were suppose to go to the cinema and I got the times confused and thought we had to be there for 4:45 when in fact the film started at 5:45.  Deb came home just after we got back and the kids were getting cleaned up. We left for the Vue and there discovered my error. We decided to spend the unexpected hour travelling to Huncote tot he pavilion leisure centre to see if we could sin Hannah up for some of the courses that Shantelle was going to. They're fully booked but will give us a call as soon as they become aware of any vacancies. This was the first time I'd been into Huncote in years, I used to shoot large calibre pistols at an outdoor range nearby during the 1980's but it seemed little changed from what I remembered. We headed back to the Vue via the Sainsbury's supermarket at Grove Park Triangle, I noticed that the empty Borders store was being stripped and refitted, where we purchased some nachos and dips for after the film. Sherk 4 was made to be seen in 3D and we watched it in 2D, it was no longer being shown in 3D?. I haven't seen Shrek 3 but Deb, Nat and Hannah all say that it wasn't as funny as number 2. Shrek 4 was OK but not particularly funny, but I think the script was, to a degree, sacrificed on the altar of 3D. We were home at around 20:00 and I prepared the nachos. Nat wanted to immediately pour all of them onto a plate, cover them with cheese and microwave them. I prevailed upon him to let me see what happened when we did that to a few before we risked ruining the all. It worked a treat so we had; Nachos, regular and tangy cheese, covered in nacho cheese and grated cheddar microwaved for a minute and then eaten with salsa dip... yummy!!!

We all watched BB11 then the kids went to bed, Deb watched the reminder of the Bruce Forsythe "Who Do You Think You Are" while I sat down and wrote this. When Deb goes to bed I'm going to watch the TV, then, after midnight I'm going to call John, at work, to see if he's heard anything from Occupational Health about my supposed appointment at 11 AM tomorrow morning. I'm not travelling all that way if it's not definitely been arranged; I still haven't heard back from Lucy either by phone text or email.

Sunday at the Leicester Mela, Apple, iPhone

Today I went to the Mella in the centre town which is a big Indian festival in Leicester which is were I live. While we (we being me and my family) were there we got some free gingerbread men, a bag, a glass of Rubicon, an Ice poll, two Frisbees,  some biscuits, a balloon and a whistle that's right a whistle a free whistle and to make it better it was on a lanyard a whistle on a lanyard for free how amazing. Also when we were in town I went into Men Kind and Red 5 which are gadget shops that sell things that I like E.G. water guns, robots, jokey things and other novelties while I was in there my dad was in the Apple store and I joined him later to have a look at the signal drop on the iPhone 4. When you hold it in your left hand the signal drops off dramatically, as the antenna gets covered by your skin. This is a serious design flaw but you can always buy a Apple certified case. These were £40!!!! but Apple has finally bowed to pressure and made the available free of charge. I know something free from Apple; I fainted too!!!!!!!!!! Mind you, they only did this after first saying that this happens to all smart phones! Totally Bogus; Damn You Apple!

Sunday at Jacobs part 1

At 1600 I went to Jacob’s house when I got there we almost straight away went on the Xbox and played on Halo 3 and Call of Duty world at war or COD 5 we first played on Nazi Zombies a game type on cod 5 so after we went on cod 6 and played spec ops in which you play certain parts of the campaign as a team of two we played a mission called home land security where you have to defend against enemy choppers and drones and troops it is hard work to stave of the hord but we triumphed in the end and stood a top the enemies bodies and crouched and stood up  and the name of this action is tea bagging tee hee. Later on we played more Xbox games but this time we were all so eating chicken nuggets, hot dog’s and chips and drinking drinks from the following list: Pepsi, lemonade, 7UP, shandy and tango orange. Soon after this we had to go and ply on Josh’s Xbox as Jacobs mum and dad wanted to watch TV. When we got back down stairs we set up the tent which was very easy and simple well it should be for a Scout. After that we went back on the Xbox and played more of the best game ever Halo the almighty Halo to its fans like m it is like a religion hay that sounds cool the Religion of Halo it would be the best ever religion with gaming and snacking involved.

Sunday at Jacobs Part 2

You may wonder why this is in two parts the reason is I accidently posted the first one when I just wanted to save it OOPS!!

Back to talking about being at Jacobs once we had played on the Xbox for another couple of hours we went into the tent and started playing cards or more  specifically Black Jack also Know as 21 we used Starburst also known as Opel fruits or as Jacob would call them April fruits for betting I won every hand literally so by the end of the game I had a massive pile of Starburst and everyone else had tiny little piles MU HA HA HA!!!! After this  we talked about Halo Reach and Rugby as Zak is going to join the Vipers when the season starts back up again but he won’t be able to replace Robin she was so so scary one thing Zak will never be. At about 0300 we got to sleep and the rest of this griping story will be told in the blog post for Monday.
By Nat      

The Leicester Mela, Nat's Overnighter, Forgotten Controller, Bondage Bunny Phone!

Today was the annual Leicester Mela, a celebration, taking place in Leicester, of South Asian Arts and Culture. This event used to be held in Abbey Park but these days it has spread out across the city centre. To be bluntly honest it should have stayed in the park. One thing, that was fantastic was the Guide Dogs for th Blind stand. Not only were there numerous dogs there to pet and play with - Hannah's idea of heaven - but you could don a blind fold and be led round a course by a dog to get an idea of what they did. This was, perhaps uniquely, an eye-opening blindfolded experience for both Hannah and Nat.
Hannah went first and I only managed to film a little of her time because she was halfway through it before I was ready to film. I managed to get more of Nat when he had a turn.
 

It's to spread out in town and lacks a focal point. You wander from one area to another but there's no sense of occasion it's just a lot of disparate stalls hawking their wares and a few stage areas featuring Indian performers. That said it was kinda fun. The food stalls smelled wonderful and the free samples tasted all the better for being free. The sound stage was "LOUD" of that there can be no doubt and perhaps if we'd lingered for a while we would have enjoyed the performances.
 
We had parked at the Highcross Centre and on our way back to the car we stopped for a little while, there's no such thing as long enough in this shop, at the Apple Store* where we played with the new iPhone 4 and the iPad and Hannah, in addition, played with the latest Nano. We went into town at 11.30, Hannah had already , along with Shantelle, gone into town with Harleen and her Mother. We had arranged to meet up with her there which we did shortly after we got there. We left at about 2:00 so we weren't there for very long. Another advantage to staging this event in the park would be that families would make a day of it there.

When we got back home Nat immediately started preparing to leave again. He's staying the night at Jacobs and they're all going to sleep in a tent in the garden. Apart from Jacob's brother Josh their friend Zack will also be there.  Deb dropped him off there at 4:00 and about 10 minutes later he returned to pick up an X-Box controller he'd forgotten.

Then of course there was this sexy little picture:
Bondage Bunny Phone

 

Once seen: never forgotten!

* I'm not an Apple FAN-BOY, I've got major issues with their battery philosophy for a start, but I admire beauty when I see it. While my smart phone can do everything the iPhone can and many things it can't; it can't do any of them with the same grace as the iPhone. The user interfaces (UI's for those in the know) on all of Apple's devices are exquisite they are an incredible match of form and function and utterly intuitive. I played with the new iPhone, as did we all, and read a little Huck Finn on the iPad...more than ever I want an eReader, after all I've got over 5,00 ebooks stored on this PC.

Saturday: Hannah's Den, Indian For Tea, All Day X-box, Mental Horse, Famiy Guy, Smallville,

Off and on today I've been helping Hannah making building a den, on the settee, for Hannah. We haven't made one of these for years; not since Nat's age was still measured in single digits. Eventually we ended up with a pretty decent den. We thought that Nat was staying over night at Jacob's today so Deb hadn't planned to cook for him and had got the three of us a family chicken tikka plus nans and mini bargies and samozas. It turned out the over- nighter is tomorrow so Nat had a pizza. The curry was delicious and we all enjoyed it. I assume that Nat also enjoyed his meal but given that the was ensconced in his room on his x-box while he ate it we'll never know, will we? No change there, he'd been on the bloody thing since he got up that morning. Deb said to let it ride as today was the first day of the holidays. I did but made it clear he wouldn't be doing this everyday!
Shantelle popped in this evening and spent some time with Hannah in her den while we all tried to stop Monty joining them.
After BB11 finished Deb departed for Bedford-shire while the kids stayed down with me. Hannah kept getting hysterical every time I pretended to be Brain Damaged Horse (or Mental Horse) from Family Guy and in the end wouldn't stop pestering me to be him "just one more time". Nat managed to remained with us for the last part of V for Vendetta and two episodes of Family Guy but then gave up the ghost. Hannah stayed awake for three episodes of Smallville before she crawled into her den and went to sleep.
Then I came and typed this.

It'sThe End of the (School) Year as we Know It...Already! No Spondoolies, Lucy Lawless, Spartacus, Edgy Photo, New PAYG Three Android Smartphone, Doit4Real, Cumbria, The Lake District, Castle Head, Ghyll Scrambling.

After what seems like only a few weeks there Nat has reached the end of his first year at Brockington College and Hannah now has only two years left at Millfield. OMG they will be adults before you know it, Nat acts as if he is already and Han has been for years, but that's just like all girls isn't it? Spent the night with a sore throat (contracted from Deborah) that has been getting worse rather than better all day. I had to run for the kitchen tap in the middle of the night because I woke feeling as if I were choking. I can confirm, without hesitation, that waking that way is very very unpleasant and most distressing! What I hadn't realised was that today is the 16/07 and that I paid yesterday. I "asked" Deborah whether she's paid my "allowance" into my account and if not could she do so before she left for work. This simple question and request somehow turned into a "knockdown and drag out" fight between us before she left...without her having, of course, transferred the spondoolies! Bang went my idea of "perhaps" popping into the local pub for a lunch time pint prior to my being stuck with the kids for the rest of the summer.
I've got six unseen episodes of Spartacus: Blood and Sand on the Virgin+ box which I must get round to watching because I've just found out on the Inter-Web that Lucy Lawless, yes Xena Warrior Princess, gets her Norks out in a number of them and, apparently, they are very nice Norks indeed. On top of her lovely Norks, or to be more anatomically accurate below her lovely norks, she also wears her very own Merkin! Well that's one night of severe wrist ache pencilled in; probably best to pencil that in now... while I still can! I think that's more than enough lawless lusting for today, wouldn't you say?

Is this what you call "Living on the Edge"?

It seems that Android smart phones are becoming more and more affordable. My favourite carrier (my only carrier since 2006 when I got my first smart phone - Nokia N73) Three have just announced a sub £100 Android phone called the ZTE Racer. An Android (with resistive touch screen) smart phone, running firmware 2.1 and with both Wifi and GPS for under £100 on Pay As You GO is astonishing...and very very tempting!

It looks pretty decent too:

Nat's Doit4Real course got sorted out yesterday. It seems that Deb's conversation of the previous evening had not been entered into the record hence the phone call. Nat missed his "extreme activities" courses but has ended up with one that he should enjoy greatly. It's in the lake district at Castle Head Field Centre,Grange over Sands, Cumbria and it's pretty nifty. The course doesn't included paint balling and the like but it does include activities such as hill walking; camping; ghyll scrambling; rock climbing; caving; canoeing and rafting. This should be more than enough to keep and adventurous twelve year old boy happy. we didn't actually know what ghyll scrambling was so we Googled it and it turns out to be, walking, running, sliding, diving and generally navigating your way down Cumbrian rivers. It looks like a darn fine way of passing the time and building moral fibre as this terrific video from the BBC's "Country File" demonstrates.

The centre itself (Castle Head) is very attractive; it lies between the fells of the Lake District and the shores of Morecambe Bay, in a secluded corner of north west England. The Centre includes an impressive Georgian house which is enhanced by a Victorian verandah and is surrounded by 20 hectares of grounds.

Hannah Twin Lakes...again, Calls, Calls, Calls, Occupational Health, Tweet 1,000

Millfield School Year Four are off to Twin Lakes today, it's a shame that the weather's so yukky, because it's the last day of the school year tomorrow and this is their end of year trip/treat. Hannah should just get a room in Melton Mowbray as it seems, at the moment at least, that she lives at Twin Lakes so frequent are her visits!

I received a plethora of telephone calls this morning; first  "Doit4Real rang wanting to speak to Deb about booking a week with them for Nat this summer because the two sites we'd already applied for were fully booked. I explained that Deb had spoken to them about this already because they'd called about it yesterday.I'd understood, from Deb, that she'd already booked an alternative venue. She had no record of this so I gave her Deb's work number so that she could check directly with her.
As I hung up the phone it rang again. Answering I could not understand anything the person on the other end said. The line cleared and the caller explained that she was Lucy and she was calling from the Occupational Health Dept at  work. My mobile rang at this point and I had to put Lucy on hold; it was Deb wanting some Doit4Real info, I explained that I couldn't speak and would call her back ASAP. Back on the line with Lucy she explained that John, my manager, had referred me to OH and she was calling to follow up his referral. She wasn't aware of my situation Re:Hip Replacement at all  so I explained the position, told her that I was now walking and that I was considering returning to work next week. She was surprised that I was thinking of returning so soon but, as I said, I was getting cabin fever at home and I was now virtually fully mobile. I suggested that perhaps I could return first for one night, then two, then three, until I was sure that I was up to returning full-time. She agreed this might be a good idea but, whatever I decided to do, she wanted to see me before I returned at all. We had provisionally agreed to meet at 11:00 next Tuesday but, as she was giving me her direct contact number, before we confirmed these arrangements she was cut off. I hadn't managed to get her number when this happened and so I was about to 1471 her call when Deb called and made that impossible. I tried, instead, to ring Reception (at work) but this number kept putting me straight through to a CSO. Apart from the fact that lines had a queue of backed-up calls a CSO wouldn't have been able to help me so I rang off to wait for Lucy to call me back... I'm still waiting!
Today I posted my 1000th Tweet and it was a dozy; I'd come across a video of famous movie themes played on the vuvuzela and posted the link to this. Here's the actual tweet:
#vuvuzela #vuvuzelafilmscores #vuvzelamusic #movies #vuvuzelas #films #filmscores Film Themes on Vuvuzela  http://bit.ly/cOmomu MY1000TWEET. I've actually embedded the video itself in the post below this one.

Film Classics on Vuvuzela

Nat's blog Wednesday again but this time I am talking about Scouts.

Wednesday again but this time I am talking about Scouts.

At Scouts I got a black eye from the fat ginger twat Known as Ben god I hate that fat shity dick sucking FUCKTARD!! There is only one person who is worse then him that person is Henri who same as the above insults but worse and with the added disses of a lair, a shit face, a c#nt and a knob jokey. Any way the basterd gave me a black eye by elbowing my in the face he also hurt Joseph’s leg by dropping a log on it and Jacobs Foot by standing on it with his full 1000 of tons of weight. As a result I punched him in the stomach and made him double over and next week I am going to capsize his boat when we go sailing with scouts Ben you are going to swim with the fishes MU HA HA HA HA!!!!!  HA. As well as this we made Chinese lanterns and mine said Ben you are a dick on the side, when we went to set them lose my team set a record of the longest time with out catching fire at three minutes not one lantern has never flown ever in the history of Forth Leicester Scouts so I am the best go me go me go me go me and one last time go me’ and the number of words is 240.      

The Periodic Table of Irrational Nonsense and The Periodic Table of Swearing

The Periodic Table of Irrational Nonsense

The Periodic Table of Swearing

Nat's Blog: Drayton Manor Park School Trip

Wednesday

Today was one of the best days of the year because we went to Drayton Manor Park and Zoo. I was dropped off at Brocko by my Mum so that I could attend Breakfast Club. Before I continue I would just like to say that my dad is an inconsistent idiot as he asks me to write this and then calls me over to watch the TV I think he wants to ruin my Sumer holidays and stop me going on my Xbox (“I do” Dad). Anyway back to writing about my day at Drayton Manor Park and Zoo (can you tell I am making every thing as long as possible E.G. Drayton Manor Park and Zoo to take up as many words as possible like this line I did not have to write this line at all and it's the same with this one I mean am I right or am I right or am I right I definitely am but which one is the correct right). Anyway we (we being my form now and later the group I was in) went to the sports hall and were then sent to the different buses we were on number three we then had a very fast bus trip to Drayton Manor Park and Zoo. 

When we got there the first ride I went on was Maelstrom which is a ride that spins and swings you it was immense, next up was rocky rapids a water ride although not a very wet one at all, Soon after was storm force ten although it was a massive twenty minuet wait and again I came of dry while every one else was soaked but never mind it was a great ride because your not on a track your boat actually jumps and you can see the drop if you are at the front which of course I was.  Later that day but not much later I went on a ride called the WILD WEST SHOOT OUT YE HA on which we had to go around on a cart shooting things with a laser tag pistol my score was 8000 which is a very high score although the high score this year was 30,000. Next I went on APOCALYPSE which is so fast you go up and when you get to the top ten seconds later you are at the bottom it was so fast and epic I want to go on it again and then possibly a third time!!! Next I went on Pandemonium a ride which spins you round and round and you guessed it round on this ride I almost fell out of my seat when we were upside down like when I was on a similar ride in Alton Towers. Soon after this I went with a friend on one of the scariest rides it comes after the Ferris wheel and hook a duck this ride is called the Flying Dutch Man soon after we went on Shock Wave well queued for it as when we got to the ride we had to go back to the coach but we were still late but did not get shouted at as the teachers understood we could not of got out of the queue so after this we got back to Brocko and went home.        

Today Will Mark My Thousandth Tweet or Will It? Conning Christians, Jason Bradbury, How Not To Film Yourself, How To Film Yourself

I've just noticed that I'm on my 992 tweet which, of course, means I'm only 8 away for my thousandth. Will that be today? I've not tweeted much recently but, of course, now I've spotted it the pressure is on to hit that landmark number ASAP. Christ, what's gotten into me, I've been consistently writing my Blog and I've tweeted for over a year now. I'm not normally this committed, by nature I'm always been a quitter OR  at least I've always seemed to be; afraid to commit myself in case I fail. Giving up means you never fail you just chose to stop. Self-delusion, it's a hell of a powerful thing!
Anyway, I've just discovered a way to easily collect twitter followers; when you tweet anything taking the piss out of religion just include the # tag #Jesus #God # and such like and some dumb arses will follow you without reading the content of your tweet. I tweeted the following - Jesus Saves: But unfortunately not enough to fund a 2/3's of final salary pension! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10630893 #pension #jesus #saves - within 5 minutes I been followed by two USA churches who obviously hadn't read what I'd written. So on the run up to Tweet 1000 I'm going to add as many hashtags (#) as I can to my tweets to see how many followers I can get before I hit the big 1000! It'll be interesting to see if I can get anymore followers; I'll have to plan the next few tweets carefully cunningly! I have sent one tweet to Jason Bradbury (The bald mad well-good Gadget Show presenter) in response to a request he made asking for the location of a Little Boots song. I've done this once before for a request he made and that time he sent me a thank you, I wonder if he will this time too?
Nat went on a trip, with his school, to Drayton Manor Park and Zoo today. I asked him if he could take some photos and perhaps the odd video while he was there to include in His this blog. He had my old Nokia N95 which sports a 5 Mega-pixel camera and a video that films at 30 frames per second. In other words he had a top notch camera/camcorder phone which has stood this family in good stead since January 2008. Unfortunately a good camera doesn't make up for a .................. (fill in the blank as you think applicable).
First, here are the THREE photos he took; yes I know, without a doubt he's obviously destined to be the next David Bailey:

There is his video:

and here's how it should be done:


P.S. Re: Twitter - ((* or 998 if you don't mistakenly hold down the shift key! If I do Tweet another Two before Midnight I'll return to tell the tale.

Seeing Shrek 4 - NOT, A Tearful Girl, Stanford University, Sports Day Certificates.

Today we were intending to go to see Shrek 4. Because I'd stayed up all night I went to bed at 11:00 to catch a few hours before the cinema so that I wouldn't end up sleeping through the film...as I did, apparently, according to Nat, did during Mission Impossible 3! Well I duly got up when the others got home and we jumped in the car at 4:30 in order to be at the Vue for 4:45. What a delightful surprise awaited us; Nat has a card, in fact two, from Nat West that allows him to have an "Orange Wednesday" any day of the week. What we hadn't realised was that, always read the small print, in order to qualify for "two for the price of one" the film you wish to see has to have been on General release for a minimum of two weeks. Shrek 4 was released on the Thursday 1 July and so therefore does not meet this criteria until tomorrow Wednesday 14 July. So it turned out that we didn't go to the cinema today after all!
Poor old Shantelle came to see Hannah this afternoon, after we'd got back, in floods of tears. Her Mum is getting remarried soon and today  Shantelle's bridesmaids dress arrived. Now she is a little over weight and it turned out that the zip on the dress couldn't be done up. Her Mum, it seems, probably already pretty stressed by all the preparations, lost it big time and told the poor little thing that she was fat and had ruined her wedding because of this. You can imagine the effect this had and when her Mum's new chap didn't intervene to defend her this made things worse. Deb ended up giving her a cuddle and reassuring her but it wasn't nice and my heart bled for her. Eventually she calmed down and afterward she and Han and Harlene all went upstairs to watch a video.
Finally, after nearly a year of knowing about it, Nat and I sat together and watched the first Stanford University Software engineering video. He managed to get most of the way through it but eventually got bored because the first video contained allot of material relating to the course as it applied to campus students. What I did do, when it was over, was finally get round to downloading the course software from Stanford and installing it on the PC. This proved to be a more fiddly exercise than it first appeared but eventually I got it all up and running. Now we can watch the next video and start programing Karel the Robot.
While I was doing the install Nat went upstairs and continued to build a Halo game on his X-box. He later came downstairs and took me back up with him to show me what he'd done. It was very impressive,  in collaboration with Jacob, he had built a new and original game site where humans were pitted against zombies.
Han was finally given her Sports day certificates at school today and below are some photos of her with them.

Nat's blog,red vs blue,nats notes,uniform,

Monday

 Last day of school, well at least in school uniform. In fact if it was not induction day we would not have been wearing school uniform at all this week. Because nothing else happened today I will show you the Bungie Day celebration video by Red vs. Blue.

As you can see from the video not only do Bungie love us but also they are letting us out of the canyon at Comic-Con 2010. Judging from the last few scenes of the video this map is going to be VERY VERY BIG!!! As well as this you will notice the Warthog with missiles on the back and a new armor ability that uses a hologram that  Simons demonstrates very well. Sarge is the luckiest as he has a new way to greet people but we all know this as an assassination move. Grif was right at home straight away as he was sleeping on the job after three minutes. Sarge also had a spell of bad luck as he is going to have to bankrupt the UNSC to pay of the water bill because Simons left on the sprinklers when they left three years ago. It is not just the reds who went home the blues went too. It is going to be a great season of Red vs. Blue next year.               

Nats blog : Monday Last day of Uniform

Monday

 Last day of school well at least in school uniform in fact if it was not induction day we would not have been in school uniform at all this week. Oh and while I am writing this I will show you the Bungie day celebration video by red vs. blue.HAPPY BUNGIE DAY!!!!!! 

As you can see not only do Bungie love us but also they are letting us out the canyon at Comic-Con 2010 which judging by the last few scenes this map is going to be BIG VERY BIG!!! As well as this you will notice the warthog with missiles on the back and a new armor ability hologram which Simons demonstrates so well. Sarge is the luckiest as he has a new way to greet people but we all know this as an assassination and Grif was right at home straight away as he was sleeping on the job after three minutes, but Sarge was also unlucky as he is going to bankrupt the UNSC to pay of the water bill as Simons left on the sprinklers when they left three years ago. It is not just the reds who went home the blues went two so it is going to be a great next season of Red vs. Blue.               

Trying to list and remember the Holidays since the kids were born

2009 Devon (Oct)

2008 Wales (Feb.) and Spain (July)

2007 Cornwall (Oct)

2006 Florida (July)

2005 Tenerife

2004 Fuerteventura (Oct)

2003 North Wales (March) and Tenerife (June?)

2002 Fuerteventura and Portsmouth

2001 France (July) and Lyme Regis (Oct)

2000 Pembroke (Oct)

1999 Greece (May)

1998 Northumberland (Oct)

Not Sitting in the Sun, Twitter Bollocks, and two Hundred Words of Nothing

Well if today is anything to go by then Summer is well and truly over. It's peeing down and as dreary as can be. It's raining I'm sitting at home doing nothing in particular so can I find two hundred words of something to say. This is the challenge I set Nat everyday so am I up to it? I can say that I'm totally confused by a tweet I've received:
to-wit this one
 BritishRT  @mysickbones cheers via @JasonBradbury I sent a the following tweet to Jason Bradbury : @JasonBradbury Some one tries to explain them here if this is of any use to you http://bit.ly/9SQ22P PS Loved the Gadget Show Live this year
In response to his query  about the lyrics of this song http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858700024/
I don't know why I've received this follow up from BritishRT because I can't work out what British RT (retweet) is. maybe I'll get a response which will explain everything. In the mean time I've followed the links and it just leads me to this site Favstar.fm and this site makes even less sense. maybe I'm just being stupid but the intricacies of Twitter are weird! I've watched their video and I'm still not clear what it's for. But, I've proved that you can write two hundred words about nothing.

Audio Reminder - Coach Trip: Barcelona - it's amazing what you learn on the oddest of programmes

The Sagrada Família

via AudioBoo

Posted via email from mysickbones's posterous

The Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família (official Catalan name; Spanish: Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia; "Expiatory Church of the Holy Family"), often simply called the Sagrada Família, is a massive, privately-funded Roman Catholic church that has been under construction in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain since 1882 and is not expected to be complete until at least 2026. A portion of the building's interior is scheduled to open for public worship and tours by September 2010.^[1]
Considered the master-work of renowned Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926), the project's vast scale and idiosyncratic design have made it one of Barcelona's (and Spain's) top tourist attractions for many years. The church is to be consecrated by Pope Benedict XVI on November 7, 2010, during his visit to Santiago de Compostela and Barcelona.^[2]