Kenya Third Round, N8 Fiddling, Photo, Boxing, Work IT Problems, Feed By Hasmuhk, Return To Twitter,

It looks as if I’ll have to find even more money from somewhere (where???) as Nat advised us today that he’s been told that he is through to the 3rd round of the Kenya Trip selection process… Lucky Bugger! Now I’m in the position of hoping that next winter will prove to be as bad as this has been. If it is then I’ll at least have the opportunity to do masses of overtime and accumulate mucho needed spondoullies. This being the case then next year we’ll most likely have the mildest winter since records began…eternal optimist me.


I recall little else; I stayed up on the PC until approximately 12:30 after which I climbed the stairs sleepily to Bedfordshire where upon I alternated between napping and listening to podcasts. I think I was a little light on the napping because when I woke at 6:00 I was totally fricking knackered as we say here in Englishland (yes where the history comes from). Oh I forgot, I know what I was doing on the PC I was alternating between reading up on mobiles, the N8 in particular, and playing with the camera application on said mobile to see what it was capable. I took a series of close-up photos of Monty and then played about photographing the hot water bottle cover; yes I know that sounds weird but you’ll get the picture (ouch) from examining the pictures below. When I got up and after I’d eaten I continued doing this for a little while with Hannah, trying to get multiple images of her into a single panoramic photo. I wasn’t very successful at achieving the desired result, in part because she wasn’t sure what I wanted her to do and partly because I was in a rush to do it before changing to go to work. I’ll have to try again when I’m off and explain what I want her to do more clearly and take more time setting up the shots. Well you can’t learn from your mistakes if you don’t make any to begin with…can you?

The kids had been busy; when I first came downstairs Nat was away boxing and Han was at ballet. When they returned Nat immediately went upstairs to get changed for scouts where, typically, he faffed about and was still not dressed when Darren turned up to take him there.

Ended up leaving a little late and there was a strong head wind on the way in I barely made it to work on time. I told JDM that I’d be a little late starting to take calls because I needed to catch me breath. I needn’t have worried as soon as I’d signed on it was apparent that there were problems with my account and I couldn’t access the main programme we use. Fifty minutes, and many attempts, later the IT desk was finally able to solve the problem and finally at 20:45 I was able to start work.

The night was very changeable, early on, until 23:00, we were heavily overmanned and had little to do. At 23:00 when everyone other than our team left we were inundated for the best part of the next two hours. After that it settled down and was reasonably quiet throughout the rest of the night. Yet again H’s wife had made him far more food than he could possibly eat and Prash has brought his own so I, once more, had the pleasure of enjoying H’s wife’s wonderfully delicious Indian cooking. Why are people under the impression that vegetarian cooking is boring and tasteless? They couldn’t be more wrong! I feel a little guilty taking all this food but as H says if he goes home with uneaten stuff he gets into trouble so really it’s me that’s doing him a favour…does anyone think I should charge him for this or should I continue to be the selfless one?

Isn’t it weird a little while ago I was convinced that I had nothing to write about today and then before you know it I’m close to hitting the seven hundred word mark? Oh it truly is a strange world where these words can mysteriously appear from nowhere and it also obvious when someone has started writing drivel in order to reach that magic One Thousand Words point. Wait a mo, there’s no need for this pointless prevarication I’ve just thought of something real to write about.

Tonight signalled my real return to the Twitter sphere; I’ve made a few random posts over the last couple of nights but tonight I started remaking contact with some of those I exchanged regular tweets with prior to the inclement weather. Got back in contact with @RobinEccles earlier in the day and exchanged a number of tweets with @Fab44Me in Las Vegas; she’s the native American lady who’s son got a copy of Call of Duty on the same day that Nat did and who Nat’s played against a few times on his X-Box. Sent a terrible joke reply in response to @CrispySea

Re: his comment on sexing up the Opera;

@CrispySea Surely (yes I called U Shirley) there's no need to sex up Opera unless or until the Fat Lady Minges. So, Sorry I couldn't resist!

no response to that one as yet.

Tonight the Hash Tag I played with was #sagamusic and I think that I did manage to come up with quite a few pretty funny ones, certainly I had a retweet and a number of direct responses to a few of them. So, in all their glory here they are:

I Only Have Dies for You #sagamusic


I Wanna Be Sedated By Dignitas - The Ramones #sagamusic


I'm So Lonesome I Could Die, #sagamusic


Good Golly, Miss Molly...U Dead!, #sagamusic


Blueberry Hill Cemetery #sagamusic


I Heard It Through the Gravevine, #sagamusic


Papa's Got a Brand New Hag, #sagamusic


Tangled Up in Glue, Bob Dylan #sagamusic (for horses)


When a Man Out Lives a Woman, Percy Sledge #sagamusic


The Tracks of My Fears, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles #sagamusic


You've Lost That Livin' Feelin', The Righteous Brothers #sagamusic


(Shittin on) the Doc of the Day, Otis Redding #sagamusic My Fav


A Last Day in the Life, The Beatles #sagamusic


Old People Get Ready, The Impressions #sagamusic


Slowin' in the Wind, Bob Dylan #sagamusic


Ground Dog, Elvis Presley #sagamusic


Purple Haze With A Strange But Beautiful And So Alluring Shiny White Light I


Dust in the Wind #sagamusic


A (last) Change Is Gonna Come, Sam Cooke #sagamusic


"(Last of) My Generation", The Who #sagamusic


Shells Like Teen Spirit #sagamusic


Johnny B. Gone, Chuck Berry #sagamusic Retweeted


Shake Rattle and Drool #sagamusic


"Last Nite (Of My Life)" by The Massive Strokes #sagamusic


"99 (Age Related) Problems" by Jay-Z #sagamusic


"Take Me Out (Of These incontinence Pants)" by Franz Ferdinand #sagamusic


"Jesus Walks With A Cane" by Kanye West #sagamusic

As everything changes so some things always remain the same and as usual C continues to loudly sound off with her very own Mersey Tunnel.

How true the famous proverb is;

The Emptiest Vessels Do Make The Most Noise!

Just another nine words and that’s twelve hundred altogether.

PC, Twitter, Booze, Civilisation, Boxing, 10 year old Girl sparring, nerf gun, scouts, Jacob

Again the day passed with me at home mostly on the PC tweeting and drinking beer, civilization you gotta love it. Nat had boxing this evening, before scouts; apparently he had thee sparring matches, one of which was against a Ten Year Old Girl,(it seems she wanted to fight him)all of which he won by applying the berserker within The 10 year old was stopped after 10 seconds apparently when he floored her.


Later in the evening when at Scouts Jacob gave him his birthday present which was a double barreled Nerf gun.

Nat's notes Wednesday 18 August

Wednesday 18 August

Today was pretty much standard. Apart from the fact that I went to the Cinema to see Marmaduke which is a film about a dog. I would of preferred to see death, violence and killing 8 but we went with Sian and Josh, plus its not a real movie, but it SHOULD BE!!!! The movie was very good I will not talk about the it as I don't want to give any spoilers.

The one thing that was annoying was that Josh had to constantly go to the toilet, only twice this time but when we went to see Twilight last week he must of gone enough times to water a field with his pee. This time my mum made him sit at the end of the row, but last time he was in the middle!! You must feel sorry for the poor people who he kept walking in front of.

After the cinema I went to have my hair cut a number 2 all over so I am now a bristle head.

Later that day....I went to Boxing where we did circuit training. The easiest part of today exercises were when Paddy threw a medicine ball at you whilst you were doing a sit up on the inclined bench.  

To Town, The Apple Store, Hand Made Burgers, Apple Store Again, Creepy Crawlies tour, Boxing, Swimming with cubs

By unspoken consent a veil was drawn over the previous day’s turn of events and today we went into Town to do a number of things. Deb started two weeks leave today and had made plans for the kids to go to see the Natural History Museums travelling event “Edible Creepy Crawlies” which was being hosted in the Highcross Shopping Centre in Leicester. This wasn’t all that was on the agenda, we were planning to have a meal and Nat had to pick up some tickets from the GamesWorkshop for an event of theirs he is attending at the NEC next week. The first place we visited was the Apple Store in the Highcross where we spend an enjoyable half an hour playing with the superlative tech they sell. I enjoyed myself on and iPhone and an iPad while they may have done the same. Once I’m in there I’m oblivious to what’s going on around me. I seem to recall that Nat spent his time on an iPad and Hannah was playing with an iPod touch, this being what she wants for Christmas this year…has she no idea of the value of money…no she hasn’t after all… She’s A Girl! Eventually Deborah, the spoil sport, dragged us away and we went to get Nat’s tickets. He’s a Jammy Little Git; he (we) had paid for a standard ticket but after we’d left and he was checking it out he realised that, in fact, they’d given him a seminar ticket which entitled him to attend additional events and presentations. From there we went to get something to eat and decided to try the Handmade Hamburger restaurant. Good choice, expensive but the burgers were large and delicious; my blue cheese burger was scrumptious. After we’d finished eating there was still a half an hour before the start of the tour so, as it was close by, we went back to the Apple store…Oh Joy! The tour was great fun, we were escorted round it by an Indiana Jones look alike (although I think he may have in fact been an Australian), complete with bullwhip and giant bubble blower, who was humorous and good with the kids.

First we saw the photo exhibition, adjacent to the John Lewis’s store, and then we went to see the giant insect animatronics.


Finally we return to our starting point where “Indi” build a large balloon insect* that Hannah managed to nab. All in all a fun day out but it wasn’t over yet. By now it was 4:40 and the kids were supposed to be at the boxing club at 5:00. W raced back to the car park where we weren’t able, at first, to find the car. The clock was ticking but by some good driving and sensible routing we made it to the club just in time. Deb and I waited in the car reading, they don’t encourage parents to remain in the club during training, until the kids finished at 6:00. From here we sped on to Braunstone Swimming baths where Hannah’s Cub pack had arranged an evening in the pool. Our haste proved unnecessary because by the time everyone had arrived and sundry parents, including myself, had been dragooned into joining the kids in the pool it was 7:00. We were in the pool for an hour and it was great fun, luckily I’d forgotten that Hannah had painted my toenails bright green the previous week and so I wasn’t at all embarrassed by them until I remembered. No one appeared to notice or if they did they were too polite to say anything. Eventually we were home for 9:00 and after watching BB11 everyone but me went to bed. I stayed up alternating between playing on the PC watching TV and reading.


* Thanks to the “insect’s” remarkable resemblance to an octopus rather than an insect we named it “Paul the Octopus” in tribute to that world famous result predicting octopus of 2010’S Football World Cup

Nat Doen't Quit Boxing Torture, Return to Work, PC Problems Continue

Slept all day, up at 5:45, everyone out, I thought at boxing. However Hannah turned up alone and told me she’d not gone because she had a bad tummy and had walked to the park with Shantelle instead? Bad Tummy my arse, just because Nat and I had that yesterday; methinks this may have been a lie convenient excuse!!!

Nat and Deb arrived home about 6:30 and Nat was in tears. It appears that, in addition to the normal routine, they’d been on an hour long run as part of their fitness training and he was absolutely shattered. I’m really proud of him because despite of the pain he didn’t quit and completed the run

Finally, went to work this evening, I’d begged off Monday and Tuesday because of my tummy upset. I cycled in and, despite the fact that I took my time, by the time I arrived on site I was drenched in sweat and thought I was dying, it was a very humid evening!. When, eventually, I had managed to cool down I logged on to my PC only to discover that my system still wasn’t working properly. There were a plethora of emails, in my mail box, advising me that “my account had been deactivated due to it being inactive for more than 30 days”. That’s good to know but what would have been better was if someone had shown some initiative and reactivated it! After all I already knew it wasn’t working, I’d phoned IT to resolve the problem not explain it!

Wednesday 11 August

Wednesday 11 August

Today I suffered through one and a half hours of Boxing. In that one and a half hours I: hit a punch bag, did weight training, did push ups, did tummy exercises and RAN UP A BLODDY MASIVE HILL not once not twice but THREE TIMES. So it was not much fun!!!!

Hannah did not go as apparently her tummy hurt or in other words there was something she wanted to do more, in this case go to Mosdale Meadows with Shantell. You know this happens a lot when Hannah wants to play out with her friends her very fickle friends.

When I got home I had two tea's as I was that hungry!!! The first tea consisted of begets with chicken and salad in. and the second was beans and sausages after both of these dinners I felt slightly less worn out but only a little bit less. After I had eaten Hannah's friend shantell came over and we went on the trampoline in three sleeping bags. After doing this I went back inside and watch Big Brother in which they had a task which involved dressing up as a horse.
By Nat (the Ginster) Jones

Stomach Pains Still, Boxing, No Jacob

My stomach was still quite upset today and it turned into another day of my trying to sleep but being frustrated by innumerable trips to the loo. I begged off work again and I’ll be in for the last two nights rather than the first two. In anticipation of my eventual return tomorrow evening and the need to sleep in the day I again stayed up all night watching Smallville. Nat and Hannah went boxing at 17:00 but Jacob (who was to come supposed to come too) decided not to join them. Deb said to leave it and not badger him about it; if he wants to go he’ll say so, otherwise we’ll assume he doesn’t.