Tuesday 14 April - PC's Maths, Bicycles and a Sleep Over

This Day In History

I Am Buying An Apple Mac... I Am Buying An Apple Mac... I Am Buying An Apple Mac...I Am Buying An Apple Mac...I Am Buying An Apple Mac!!!!!!!!!!

Or A Mac-Book

because once again the PC is buggered, and this time it’s buggered BIG TIME!!!!!

The Main hard drive appears to have vanished. I came down this am and found it off. When I tried to start it up I noticed I got the CPU over temperature warning, which usually means the fans are clogged with dust and the case needs removing so that I can use and air blower on the inside. Dully did so. Tried to fire the system up again but still no sign of Windows XP or Ubuntu 08.04. Loaded the Knoppix rescue disk and load it in repair bios format. Knoppix loaded OK but when I shut down and restarted still no Windows or Ubuntu. Loaded the Ubuntu disk I’d made and this was OK of course it didn’t show the files I saved on the copy I’d installed alongside windows but it did show that the hard drives weren’t showing. I’ve tried all I know through out the week, with the exception of going the windows rescue route, as I want to save the files if possible, but no luck. I’ve got a working system only if I load Ubuntu from disk and of course nothing is saved unless I save it on line – thank god for Google Docs. I may put the old PC back on line, with Ubuntu loaded on the system, whilst I think about what to do. As at Sat 18/4 the situation remains as described above.

Maths

Nat’s been given quite a bit of work by Deb, and the lady who takes his extra lessons class, to do over the break in anticipation of his SATs tests. Today he was having trouble with percentages, not the concept so much; he’s got that when he thinks about it, but more the mechanics of working them out and converting back and forth between decimal, fraction and percentage. They haven’t enough time at school to cover these areas for long enough so it’s hardly surprising that so many kids give up on maths at secondary school. You can’t build on weak foundations in this subject. If you haven’t understood what went before you ain’t got as chance of understanding what you’re doing now. I spent some time with him trying to help and give him some tips; the trouble is that this level of maths comes so naturally to me that I find it difficult to understand where he might be having a problem – my fault not his. Personal experience of badly taught secondary school maths illustrates my point. When I arrived, at secondary school, I was really pretty good at maths and I though by the time we had done O level that I had understood everything we had done to date and that I was well set up to start studying for A level maths at Bedwellty Grammar (the 6th form school we transferred to if we stayed on to do A levels). It was only when I got there and had been to the first lesson that I discovered that my low O level mark, wasn't due to the fact that I’d had a bad day but was, rather, due to the fact that we hadn’t covered half the syllabus because we’d had an incompetent teacher. Suffice to say, that like all good rats I quickly abandoned the sinking ships of maths and physics and sailed off on the good ships history and economics. Those who had transferred from the same school as I and who stayed aboard drown to a man when they took their exams. From day one they were lost and as each day passed they drifted further and further off course.

It’s Bicycle Repairman

I had arranged with Deb to meet her at the bike shop, after she finished work, so that she could pay for the repairs to the bike and I could ride it home. Approx 02:45pm I left the kids at home and set off to walk there. I thought I’d give myself extra time because it is still pain full to walk and how painful varies from day to day. As I was making my way under the underpass I was approached by a couple in their 20’s who were clearly lost and who a wanted to get to Kingsway North, we’re Kingsway South. I wasn’t sure of the best way to suggest that they go so I pulled out my trusty Nokia N95 fired up the GPS and opened up Google maps.

I got the address they were looking for entered it as the destination for our current location and a few seconds later I had the best route for them door to door, GPS in a phone, its gobsmakingly amazing when you think about it!

Once more, I set off on my quest to reach the bicycle shop before Deb got there. As I emerged from the underpass who should I bump into but John, Donna’s dad. John is a smashing Geordie

fellow, he’s lived in Leicester for years but not lost his accent, and I like him immensely. The only problem is, that he’s quite deaf and it’s difficult to have a conversation sometimes because, he mishears what you say. Despite this we happily chatted as we walked, together, down Narbro Rd. By now I was expecting Deb to be there, waiting for me, but surprisingly, despite the distractions, I still arrived first... Deb arrived, eventually, and we paid for and picked up my bike. Amazing, I now had brakes that worked and a new basket with a handle on it! I cycled home whilst Deb went to ASDA for provisions for tonight’s sleep over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jacob’s Coming!!

Nat’s been desperate for his friend Jacob to come for a sleep over at our house, he’s already been to his, so tonight was to be the night. After his extra lesson he and Deb would pick up Jacob and bring him back for the night. When Deb returned from ASDA y6ou’d have thought she’d been shopping to feed the 5,000!

How much food, even with the help of an 8 yr old girl, can 2 11 yr old boys eat. Pop, crisps, chips, dips, coke, sausages, sausage rolls, biscuits etc etc…

Jacob arrived and after Monty spat him back up, he went upstairs with Nat (Han was in close pursuit). The plan, games and films upstairs, them downstairs to watch films and TV (especially Family Guy which they love)


No Sleep Ever WE R Staying Up.

They came down about 10:00 and I stayed down with them until around 12:00, saw a couple of episodes of FG (Is this programme really suitable for 11yr olds?) with them before I went up to Nat’s room to use his computer. Deb told me next morning that she had popped down around 3 AM and found them both fast asleep with Quantum of Solace playing in the background. Because Han had climbed into bed with Deb and fallen asleep I left her there and eventually bedded down in Nat’s room.

VERYBODY UP - JACOB’S MUM IS PICKING HIM UP AT 10AM

Monday 13 April - Open Day at the Allotment

This Day In History

Early start today, up for 9, we’re off to the allotment to get some serious work done and to take part in the open day. But first, we have to watch Jeremy Kyle ripping apart another group of dysfunctional sociopaths from the “new” Great British Underclass. These are the real children of Thatcher. What she did, Re:the economy, had to be done; but the consequences were far more far reaching than she ever thought they would be, if in deed she ever did think about them. She was most certainly wrong about there being no such thing as society, there certainly was such a thing before she, through her actions and her lack of concern for the unintended consequences of those actions, created this enormous self-perpetuating group of asocial fuck-ups. Every morning it’s like watching a rerun of the same mistakes made by the same people with the same lack of foresight. Anyway JK was great fun and once more did the job of proving to me that no matter how low my self esteem might fall there are still people who are far below this level on their best day. How strange that some else’s lack of life chances makes me feel better about my own inadequacies. Judging by how popular he is it must do the same job for many others. Thanks JK for making me realise I’m a Cu*t.

Off we go, everyone into the car and lets hope Mummy doesn’t slam the breaks on because if she does one of us is getting impaled on a rake. Last time we’ll have to do this, from now on they can stay in the shed. Got to the main gates
at about 11:00 to see everyone setting up the stalls for the Easter open day stall sale – all the money’s going toward a composting toilet for the Rosamond Avenue site, which will turn out to be an issue at the SAGM later in the week.

We got a lot of work done today. Nat, after a few fraught attempts, managed to get the potatoes trenches lined with comfrey leaves and the seed potatoes laid on the top of them and covered over. I finished off the roofing on the shed, laid a carpet inside and then pulled back the covers at the front of the plot and dug it over. Deb took the kids to see the stalls whilst I got this done. She and Han had been weeding and planting up until then. I got it dug over and when they returned we put up the bean sticks and the pea nets (add Pics when able). We stopped for a drink and some nibbles. Deb was trying to clear the area around the shed where the fruit beds and fruit trees are. I removed some of the covers from the grassed over areas and dug up a number of clog’s of earth. The kids for some reason started digging a trench over on the other side of the plot just down from the shed, but were happy to take my clog’s and put them there, God knows why but it kept them quite. I took the kids with me to see the stalls and to give Deb a break; she was beginning to feel quite unwell and was developing a stinker of a headache. We had a look round the stalls and I paid 20p for a patch work elephant that Han has christened Elitusk and who now shares her room. Got chatting with Pat (PJ) Bates wife of the chairman (Eddie) and recently retired teachers at the kid’s school. Popped back, tied up put the tools away and headed for home around 4:15. We stopped to check if we’d won a raffle prize but no such luck. Home around 4:30.

We were all pretty knackered and Deb, by this time, just wanted to crash (yes I’m an aging hippy – Man). Watched a few, of our many, recorded programmes, 2 episodes of Argumental, with John Sergeant, Marcus Brigstock and Rufus Hound, which was well funny man (yes I is down wid da yuff 2 ).

Made something to eat, had a few beers and settled in for the evening in front of the telly. Not a bad day!

Sunday At Home

Slept until 3pm after which can't remember much else of the day. That's the problem with our last night. If you can't stay up when you get home you lose the day. Trouble is if you struggle to stay up and then you fail and you still want to get back to a normal sleep pattern for the next day you have to get up mid afternoon when you're still tied and then spend the remainder of the day semi-comatosed before going back to bed - Hence - NOTHING 2 Report.

The Piccadilly Cowboys

Adding books to LibraryThing (whose widget, in a post below this one, appears to have died) has been quite an odd experience. I keep dredging books up from memory and suddenly started to remember all the western series that I was hooked on during the 70's and 80's. Like the cowboy film genre the western book genre had all but died by the mid 80's. However for 10 years these western anti-heroes were so popular that they had their own section in most bookshops. The original was Edge the Loner by George G Gilman (real name Terry Hacknett) and this character spawned a plethora of imitations, some very good some not so great. Oddly enough it appears that all these various titles were written by a very small coterie of writers (Hacknett amonsgt them) who were collectively known as The Piccadilly Cowboys.

Looking at the various websites it would appear that I collected virtually every one of every one (if you get my meaning) of these series with only a few exceptions.

Those I collected included:



The Writers

LAURENCE JAMES
ANGUS WELLS
JOHN HARVEY
MIKE LINAKER
FRED NOLAN
KEN BULMER

and of course the man who started the ball rolling:

The Man Called George G Gilman
Bibliography

One of the things I really liked about these books was the consistent cover art. Once a character's appearance was established it was maintained, from book cover to book cover, for the entire series run however long that might prove to be. The other good thing was, these were series, you could look forward to the next book and there were so many series you could be sure there would be one along almost weekly.

Latin For The 21st Century in 140 Twitterable Characters.

Latin for the 21st Century the first and possibly last lesson - veni, vidi, video - I came, I saw, I videoed (then uploaded it to you tube).

Latin for the 21st Century 2 - Quod erat demonstrandum fx (QEDfx) - what was to be demonstrated was done with photoshop & wicked graphics man!

Latin for the 21st Century 3 - Quid pro quo - Something for something from a very low maintenance dyslexic hooker who bills you in sterling.

Latin for the 21st Century 4 - Semper fidelis Jeremy Kyleis -

Always faithful until Jeremy reads aloud the results of the lie detector test.

Latin for the 21st Century 5 - Semper paratus fredricshredis

- Always ready to take an unearned and undeserved pension whenever I can so FU

Latin for the 21st Century 6 - Yo puella sermo ut spolium quoniam manus manus est off officium
-Yo girl talk 2 da booty cos da hands off duty

Rugby - Leicester Tigers V Bath - Heineken Cup quarter-final

Home, Bed, up for 4:00pm as we going to go to a rugby match. Deb managed to get 4 tickets for the Leicester v Bath match kick-off 6:00pm.
It was a fantastic game, slow to get started, very defensive, but it gradually got more and more tense. Bath were very much in the driving seat during the 2nd half ( the 1st half ended with Leicester ahead) and as the end of the match drew near the teams were tied 15 all and it looked as if the game would go to extra time.

At roughly 79 Min's and 40 secs Tigers scored, under the posts, and it was all over, the stadium erupted. Julien Dupuy's brilliant last-minute try gave Leicester Tigers a 20-15 win over Bath Rugby in the quarter-final of the Heineken Cup.
The Frenchman found a gap in the Bath defence from the back of a ruck to dart through and score under the posts.
His opportunist effort with the last play of the game brought the Walkers Stadium to its feet and booked a semi-final game against Cardiff Blues.

It added to five penalty kicks from man-of-match Sam Vesty, whose 100 per cent kicking record replied to a try in each half for Shaun Berne and Joe Maddock, and a penalty and conversion for Butch James.

A good time had been had by all. For in depth coverage follow the above link.

And Now - Too Work; last night tonight off until next Friday as I'm taking Thursday night as a holiday so I can spend the week with the kids, I should have my bike back so it'll be a chance to get back into the saddle and do a little exploring.

My Librarything - Still In Development

This Day in History - 11 April

05:36am - So bored I've spent the last hour writing twitters of exactly 140 characters includin the spaces;

#goodfriday He was dead until Sunday, then the Bunny found an egg, which it hatched, so that he was the 1st born again Born Again Christian

Atwitternation those that tirelessly twitter their theories to those they think take the trouble to thoroughly think through their thoughts.

Download Free Books

Get your own - Open publication

Good Friday

This Day In History - 10 April
So, Whats Good Friday All About Then?

Summary of Good Friday

A Christian Festival that Commemorates the crucifixion
and death of Jesus Christ* (the Son of God in Christian mythology).

Date Friday immediately preceding Easter Sunday
2009 date April 10 (Western)
April 17 (Eastern)
2010 date April 2 (Western)
April 9 (Eastern)
Celebrations No traditional celebrations
Observances Prayer and vigil services, fasting,
almsgiving, some family gatherings

* Apparently he stayed dead until the Sunday when the Easter Bunny found an egg from which he was hatched to be born again as the first born again Christian.

Home for 8:00am, kids not up chatted with Deb, had a beer.

Deb took the kids out for the day, I’ve not been made privy to what they did/). I went to bed.
Up for 6:00pm, pizza for tea which we unanimously didn't eat, twas orrid...I know not why. I went to work. No staff so despite the fact that call volumes were tiny we were quite busy. Dawn returned my pen drive and brought me an Easter HotXBun (thanks Dawn).

I logged onto Librarything, for the first time in months, and uploaded a few more titles. I embedded their widget on this site (see above if you haven't already). and noticed that I'd received a friendship request from Eve BrownWaite, now normally I tend to ignore these, as I'm usually decades older that the person making the request and I don't want to be accused of grooming anything except horses. For some reason, on this occasion, I decided to check this one out and I'm glad I did; her bio is hilarious and she's written a book that I think I might buy.

Shook Changes effect BBC News Website, police suspect hackers involved. A BBC spokesman today confirmed the accuracy of the Oral Sex story, but then, the HE would, wouldn't he!

Thursday 9 April 2009 - An Original Title If Ever There Was One

9 April - On This Day In History
If you click the link above, you'll be astonished by what memorable things have happened on this date in history.... However, I really can't say that this day has stood out in any particular way.

Got home just before 8:00am intending to take the kids and Monty for a walk before climbing the stairs to Bedfordshire. Unfortunately this AM was cold, wet and overcast so my initially intention needed a rethink. It's the holidays and I forgot to recharge the prod so the kids got to stay in bed a little longer that I had intended. Necessity is the Mother of invention... boiling water thrown onto the bed works as well as a fully charged prod...Hurrah!

After treating their burns I prepared breakfast for the two of them, A handful of Hot Blue Gravel for Nat

Whereas Han expressed a preference for raw Spiders.


By this time the prod had recharged so I had no difficulty with them when it came to eating breakfast.

As I mentioned above the weather was pretty shitty and got worse so I went to bed and left the horrors to their own devices. Went to sleep to The Economist's optimistic (ha ha) assessments of the World economic meltdown. On the subject of economics I've recently come across a new biweekly online economics magazine that's very good; here's the link - Global Economist Review

Anyway, I slept the day away, wasn't woken by the kids fighting, which is a good sign, and was up for 6:00pm.

At work I did the manuals so I had a fairly quite night after I'd helped Julie B clear the EA work. Munched my way through 4 HotXBuns so it's no wonder I'm getting so fat, can't wait to start cycling again even if it's only for a short while. Nothing much else to report, finished 7:30am and headed for home.

Wednesday 8 April - Back 2 Work

Up early, God I love that cattle prod, watched Jeremy Kyle - I use it to frighten the kids "If you don't do your homework and watch the Discovery channel you'll end up with a boy/girl friend like. Is that what you want, Well IS IT?". So far its been very effective even Han's now scared that if she so much as looks at another girl without wearing a condom she's going to end up on JK having to do a DNA test! They keep saying that so and so (usually Stephen Fry - much to his embarrassment I'm sure) is a "National Treasure" it's our JK who's the real Treasure.
Anyway, after JK it's time to go for:

Another Long Walk,
last chance this week as I'm back to work tonight and the weathers supposed to be fairly rubbish over the next few days.
We've got our supplies, a packet of crisps each and some drinks also Han's remembered to take a towel so she can have a paddle.
We went under the underpass, over it would have been cleverer, and down to the playing fields. Nat, plus rucksack, ran round the field whilst Han and I crossed diagonally. It's quite a long run and by the end Nat was fairly breathless and very red faced. Well done Nat, it's a shame I forgot to put the bricks in his rucksack though.
We mooched along until we finally reached the River Soar where upon Han started stripping off(her shoes that is) and waded in all the way up to her ankles (see photo's below).
After she's dried off we crossed packhorse bridge and examined the plaque explaining it's history. Then, over the humpback bridge and up the steps to the Great Central Way. The GCW is what remains of the Great Central Railway on this side of Leicester (South). Over on the north side the railway has been renovated and a regular steam train service runs from there to Loughborough. I believe they are trying to renovate more to the north with the intention of reopening a workable route all the way to Nottingham.
We didn't go very far along the GCW just had a look around and sat on a bench to eat our crisps and have a drink. Made our way back to the canal towpath and back home. I forget sometimes how lovely some of the country side near us is, we've got a canal within 10Mins walking distance of our front door.



Heavy Conversations
I don't quite know how this subject came up in conversation, but while Han was upstairs Nat started asking me what I thought about abortion. My views on this subject are quite complex so we had quite a heavy duty conversation. As an atheist, of course I don't believe that the soul enters the body at the moment of conception, because I don't believe there's such a thing as a soul. However, I am aware that what has been created is unique, that if it is left alone to develop and if it survives the normal traumas of the womb it will eventually be born as a perfectly normal unique human baby just like you and I were. I don't believe that one can simply say that ethically it all comes down to a "woman's right to chose". If we say that we have laws in order to protect us from each other why is it that we refuse to extend this protection to the unborn and keep it safe from it's mother? To kill it, even a split second, after it's born is to murder it, so why is it acceptable to abort it whilst it remains hidden behind the mother's skin? As an atheist shouldn't I be more protective of the fetus that a religious person; after all I don't believe that Jesus wants it for a sunbeam! I do support legalised abortion but only in so far as I see it as the lesser of a range of evils. As a chosen method of contraception it leaves a lot to be desired.

Han becomes Immune 2 teasing
It is terribly easy to upset Han by teasing her, so this pm was revelation when she calmly ignored Nat's attempts to wind her up and responded with sarcastic disinterest. Unfortunately it didn't last and half an hour later she was once more in tears because of something he's said. She's enormously sensitive, to her credit, and part of the reason she's dislikes meat is because she understand that it involves having to kill the animal she is being asked to eat. If she sees cruelty on the news towards people or animals she's quickly in tears. She has amazing empathy.

Tuesday 7/4/9 ByeBye Bike & A Long Walk

It's a beautiful day today and we're going out for a long walk.

First off, we're going to take my bike to the Raleigh dealer and get it serviced, then we're going for a walk to the canal.

Dropped off the bike, explained that the brakes were in dire need of attention and described how the handlebars had come away in my hands whilst I was riding, Christ I was so luck not to be badly hurt when that happened. I remember that I went down as if pole-axed and that two drivers stopped to see if I was OK. Should get a call later this week telling me when I can pick it up and how much it's going to cost!

Off we go, got to the park via the jitty next to Donna's Dad's house. From there we walked over to the play area where the kids amused themselves for 10 Min's. Why have they taken away the swings?

Because of the very limited facilities we didn't stay there for any length of time. Continued on over the fields until we reached the River Soar where we stopped for a drink and some crisps. Han wished she had brought a towel so she could have a paddle. Maybe tomorrow. Mooched about for awhile before setting off for the canal. We crossed the old packhorse bridge (the bridge dates back to the 15th Century and according to the plaque before that there had been a ford at this site for centuries) which brought us onto the canal. We walked away from town toward Kings Lock to see whether the cafe had opened yet. The old lock keepers cottage has been converted into a lovely little cafe but it's not open in the winter. According to the sign on the door it's reopening on Good Friday. It looked as if some work has been carried out in the garden area to create a larger sitting area, but I couldn't confirm this.

Nat jogged around the playing fielded for the first time in an attempt to start building up his stamina for rugby. Did really well for a first attempt and completed the distance in a reasonable time. I don't know how he's going to cope when I start making him wear a brick filled rucksack!
Home, rest, TV , Games, Computer etc.
Nothing particular happened during the rest of the evening, unless you count my discovering that I could communicate telepathically with Monty. Every time he wanted to go outside for a pee I was able to tell because I started to experience a strange sensation in my mind that I can only describe as a kind of whining sound. I'll keep you abreast of further developments. This could be a breakthrough moment for animal/human communication!

Cubs, Shed, Rugby (but not in Rugby) and Shed

It's been a busy weekend. Got home sat 8.00. First order of Business - check out the Sandisk Sansa e260 Deb just collected from the Post Office. First impressions, it's rather beautiful but, as I was to discover, over the weekend, not without it's problems.

We managed to get the kids up without too many problems; thank the Lord for Cattle Prods.



Nat's got extra lessons on a Saturday morning during the run up to his S.A.T.S. and this morning we also had to get Han to Saffron Lane Sports Ground in order for her to get her Cuds Sports Badge. Before we left, I loaded a few tracks onto the Sansa's hard drive and also took the SDHC 8Gb card out of my phone and put it in the card slot in the side of the player. I thought I would take the opportunity to see what the Sansa was like whilst I was watching Han. The sound quality was excellent and it picked up everything off my card without a problem. However, the audio books I'd loaded onto the internal hard drive did not arranged themselves properly and I resolved to investigate this further that evening.

We got to Saffron Lane with time to spare, Deb dropped Han and I off at approx 9.30 and immediately raced off in order to get Nat to his lesson on time. We walked into the stadium with the other cubs and parents, the Evil Julie

(Donna's former best mate, since they were little girls, who ran off with her husband) had brought Josh (Donna's Son) and as usual she was busy on her phone. It seems to act as her comfort blanket and it allows her to avoid making eye contact with people and gives her an excuse not have to speak (not that anyone is speaking to her, even after 2 and a half years) to anyone. Whenever I see her she's either talking or texting.

Han did her sports without a problem, came second in the sprint, the only girl runner, and pretty much excelled at everything else. She was one of the few in her troop to clear the high jump first go. I'm going to have her "speed" legs transplanted onto Nat whenever he plays rugby.



Can we get to Nat in Time?

I rang Deb to let her know that we'd finished and that she could come pick us up whenever she was ready. We met her in the car park about 10 Min's later. I hadn't time to belt up before she roared off, Nat was due to finish his lesson, on the other side of Leicester, in approx 6 Min's. It now appears that Einstein was wrong, when he stated in his Special Theory of Relativity (1905) that the speed of light is the ultimate barrier which cannot be exceeded. We arrived in time to pick up Nat roughly 5 Min's before we set off to fetch him, boy Deb sure can drive FAST when she sets her mind to it!!!!!!

Shifting out of warp drive we drove off at a slightly more leisurely pace to drop Han off at Ballet for Mid-day. Leaving Han there we prepared to face the greatest test ever undertaken by man... we were going to build the Shed!!!!

Deb, Nat and I drove to the allotment to get started whilst Han was at ballet (she does 3 hours on a Saturday). We figured this would be enough time to make a good start and that we could get it finished on Monday afternoon.
As we were driving in we bumped into George and Margaret, they run the allotment, who wanted to ask me how I had managed to uploaded photo's of the allotment to Google Earth. Deb and Nat continued on as I gave them a brief and truncated lesson in posting items online. I agreed that I would call at their home, when it was convenient, and show them how to do it. This all took about 10 Min's during which time Deb and Nat made a start. By the time I'd walked to them they'd managed to get the base down onto the slabs and were trying to get one of the sides and back attached to this and each other.

Armed with 2 small screwdrivers a toffee hammer and an absolutely useless electric screwdriver which would , I swear, have had difficulty screwing screws into the walls of a house made of hard paper, we got down to work. Despite the fact that we had such crappy tools, Deb bought the electric screwdriver bye the way, we did, I think, pretty well for the time we had available.



In the end we gave up trying to screw things together, Deb had left Nat and I for awhile to fetch some refreshments, during this time, using the toffee hammer (I kid you not) he and I had started to nail things together just so they'd stay in place long enough to screw. The screw drivers proved to be too much, sod this, whats wrong with nails anyway. 3 walls and a door later we called it quits and went to collect Han.

Han had had a good 3 hours and was by now, after all the exercise, pretty exhausted. We headed for home for a well deserved rest and, for me, a few even more deserved beers. Obviously, the kids didn't have a beer, as always they both preferred to have a very dry vodka martini. Deb, as usual, stayed loyal to her preferred tipple, a pint of absinthe with a dash of coke, ice and a slice.

When the kids and Deb regained consciousness we had dinner (can't recall what) and I decide to see what I could do with the Sansa. I removed my card and put it back in my N95. Next I tried to install the Sandisk CD on the downstairs PC. The disk displayed but would not load anything. I thought I'd try it on Nat's PC upstairs and see if I had better luck - this was at approximately 5:30pm. I had no success loading the software but eventually managed to get things to load onto the player in the way I wanted. I ended up loading the audio books into Microsoft Media Player, then reordered them in a play list then transferred the play list to the Sansa.... Sorted. Nat knocked the door to tell me it was now 9:00pm and could he play on his computer if I'd finished...PLEASE!

Downstairs to watch a bita telly, fell asleep and yet again woke up on the settee at approx 3:00am. Off to bed, altogether not a bad day.


Sunday

Up early as it's Rugby today and The Vipers under 11's are playing Rugby in Rugby against Rugby, so we've got to go all the way to Rugby.

"Deb, do you want me to put the address into my N95 in case we need the GPS?"
"No I've written down directions, it's ever so straight forward so there's no need."
"Are you sure? OK then I won't bother."
8:50 am off we go.
9:30 "I think we're lost."
"See if you can pull over and I'll get a GPS fix and work out how to get where we want to be."
09:40
"Here we are, at last, Rugby Rugby Club."
"We love you Nokia N95."
"You know what, there's something wrong here, I can see our people but where are the other team."


"Oh dear, they appears to have been a mix-up."

It appears that someone forgot to check that the fixture was a go and of course it turned out that there had been a communications cock-up earlier on in the Season and Rugby weren't aware that we thought we were supposed to be playing them today. Oh well, it's not the end of the World, back to the Vipers ground and lets see if we can scrounge together a game with someone. we were back within 30 Min's and it was decided that the under 11's would play the under 12's again. Not a bad match but the 11's weren't listening to the instructions that Neil was giving them. At one point, quite understandably, he lost it with them big time and told them, in no uncertain terms, to pay attention if they wanted to become a better team. I spent some time chatting with Jacob's Dad Bruce and alternating between watching the under 11's and the under 15's - who are scarily good!



Because we had come back from Rugby and because there was only the one game we were finished much earlier that expected and left The Vipers ground around 12:30pm. Deb hadn't left anything cooking because she wasn't sure what time we would be home. We decided to call into Sainsburys to buy a chicken and some fresh bread for lunch. Nat stayed in the car, because he still had his boots on, when we went in. Wait a moment!! What's this!! Sainsburys are giving away FREE cream eggs to any child who goes up to the customer services desk and wishes them a Happy Easter. Han and I went to Customer Services and got her an egg. Back at the car we told Nat about the off, despite his boots, Nat and I went to Customer Services.

When we got home I ripped the chicken to pieces and cut and buttered thick chunks of fresh bread. We had decided on the way back from Vipers that as it was still so earlier perhaps we should finish building the shed today. After lunch, which we all enjoyed, we decamped to the allotment to see what could be done. This time we ensured that we took better tools, including a proper hammer, than we did yesterday.

As you will see below, we got the shed finished but it's not the best job in the world. We really could have done with getting some sand to put under the base slabs so they were level. It's hard getting a good right angle when the floors a bit on the piss.




Home, Beer, 2 martinis & an absinthe coke ice and a slice.

Nat dissappeared upstairs to play on his PC, Han sat next to me for a big cuddle and we watched some TV. Can't remeber what we watched as Han was too busy punching the karate pad she made me hold. She's got a hell of a punch for an 8 year old!

Finally, the kids went to bed, Deb went to bed, alone at long last - started writing aide memoir heading for this blog entry.

The End..... Or Is It?

Monday

First day of the Easter Hols, we didn't do a great deal. The kids slept in until mid-morning and when they got up it was quite a blustery day so we stayed in. Nat and Han and I watched TV, they did some school work and played on the computers. About midday I decide that the house was a complete shit hole and it was time for a spring clean. Between us we did, downstairs, Deb and my bedroom and Nat's room, Han's wasn't to bad to start with. When Deb got home she was somewhat gobsmacked to put it mildly. I made a huge mistake, I didn't take any photo's. The house is once again a mess and I've nothing to remind me of how clean and tidy it once, very briefly, was!

Spent the evening doing NotaLot, Deb took Han to Cubs then she and Nat messed about whilst I did some work on the PC. I hadn't realised that Deb had left to fetch Han and that it was, in fact, after 8:00pm. I missed the beginning of the Gadget Show. I love that program and was most upset by this turn of events, fortunately the prod was still fully charged and so I was able to take my frustration out on Nat.

Kids off to bed without too much fuss approx 9.30pm. Fell asleep on the settee: to bed 3:00am AGAIN!!!

Last Night....... Again!!!!!

It seems that yet another Yank went postal



yesterday, and ended up killing a dozen or so hapless victims. My question is, instead of shooting a load of innocent bystanders before killing themselves, why don't they just shoot themselves 12 or 13 times? I'd have thought that would be a far more intense final experience!

Answers, on a postcard, from any of you Son's of Bitches that they've managed to take alive!



On a very different note, I'm really pissed off with the British Press. Once again, in their haste to make a story out of nothing, they've possibly bolloxed something pretty amazing. I refer, of course, in this instant, to Google Street View, the navigation aid that's finally come to the UK and that many of us have been eagerly anticipating. Privacy (something they're happy to ignore when they're invading yours - 3 Cheers for Max Mosley - Whip Whip Don't Fray) they all scream whilst, yet again, inaccurately reporting a story.

I've over hear people tonight saying how they don't want people to be able to see them sunbathing in their back gardens - it's Google STREET View for fu*ks sake, it films the street, it would only film You in Your back garden if You were in fact in Your front garden. For that to happen You would have to be a bit "special" when it came to identifying and classifying gardens, and that wouldn't be Google's fault! Google maps (satellite view) can see your back garden and has been able to do so for years. The good news (for the topless sunbathing fraternity anyway) is that these photo's show off your Great Tits at their best,


the way they were before the Sun damage made them go all wrinkly

and well before they went south and got saggy!


If you actually take the time to view GSV you'll see that faces are blacked out and number plates made hazy. As for burglars using it to case your house, well if they are happy to use infomation that's at least a year out of date rather than follow their usual practice of spur of the moment opportunistic break-ins I think that will actually make it more likely that they'll get caught, especially if you've bought a big dog in the interim.


"get im offa me"

GSV is designed (to be used on a mobile phone or GPS device) as an aid to navigation for people who find themselves in unfamiliar surroundings; it's not a charter for voyeurs.

Anyway, now I've got that off my chest on to more important matters, to wit. Have YOu Seen Some of the Chests on Google Maps?? My God, at first, I thought I had discovered a new range of big pink mountains. I give you :



On a final note; I'm sure there are still people who really don't think that the cusrrent financial crisis is a big deal, that it's all been hyped-up by the press.

To these people I say:

When was the last time, that YOU remember, the leaders of the 20 richest countries in the World sitting down and agreeing to a joint plan of action that involved them committing to expenditures of over $1 trillion in the space of a single day and where the French didn't get up and take their toys home?

Be Afraid, Be Very Very Afraid!!

CO Posioning = "Cooperate Or" Die = Shut Up And Listen!

I’m sitting next to a colleague who is desperately trying to tell someone, who has a carbon monoxide alarm going off in her house, what to do to ensure her, and her friends, safety, she and her friend are both experiencing symptoms that sound very much like the symptoms caused by CO poisoning. She won’t let him complete a single sentence and I can hear her even though my colleague is wearing an ear piece. Politeness aside, there are occasions when we should be able to shout “shut the fu*k up you stupid cu*t I’m trying to save your fu*king life you tw*t” as only something like this will be sufficient to shook them into shutting up and listening! Any fuel burning appliance can create a CO hazard...



My cousin died from CO poisoning when a shower heater blockage pumped CO back into the bathroom – the stuff is insanely lethal but some fools can’t grasp this simple fact. The bloody stuff binds to the haemoglobin in red blood cells more efficiently than oxygen does see below...



You can happily breathe it without respiratory distress right until the moment you drop dead!!!!! If you inhale it in smaller quantities then look out for the following danger signs...



Some people, however, appear determined, whether through stupidity or wilful ignorance, to earn themselves a full Darwin Award (the rest of us would be embarrassed just to receive an Honourable Mention.

In the words of Confucius the Special Dyslexic Window Licker (GCSE Grade A HIstory - Isn't it) shortly after he delivered (in an envelope) the Gettysburg Address to the French farmers collective at the UN General Assembly in Nanking, "you can take a house to water but you can't make it think".

Wise Words, I'm Sure We'd All Agree.

The Post that think's it's Educational

Absolutely knackered tonight and unable to think of anything to write.

So I'm gonna take the cowards way out and produce a blogalinks (my word for cribbing lots of links I like from other places) issue.

Insert - (I've done the bits below already).

I've thought of something to say, the kids behavior, at least over the last two days, has improved vastly. I came home yesterday morning and this morning to find that they were dressed, washed and making breakfast (yes they really were!!!) plus they are playing together using toys that haven't been out of their boxes for a couple of years. They have worked together building towers to run marbles down without a cross word. However, I now have a dilemma: if I give them back the things I've taken away because they've behaved, will they revert to their previous behavior but if I don't give them back then what incentive do they have too behave? I think this is called a cleft-stick. Wait a moment, I think I know what to do, I could beat them with the cleft-stick..... SORTED !!

Richard Dawkins - The Second Coming!

Not bad for chap who's just celebrated his 68th Birthday

Happy birthday Prof. Always remember

Jesus only came once - that's official!



Back At You Big Boy - Who Are You Anyway? (click here for full story)



Shock Horror - The Truth About Barack Obama*

Hillary Clinton - Finally It Can Be Told*

Gordon Brown - I'm Not Lying - It was The Bankers!*

Oral Sex - What's That All About Then - A Blow By Blow Guide*

The deification of stupidity
by AC Grayling

Magic in the Huffington Post

Spot The Suicide Bomber - He's The One In The Iron Lung


Crap-Based Hypocrisy Jenny McCarthy Indigo Mom of a Crystal Child - She Actually Believes This Shit

Jenny (pictured above) is a minor US TV personality, girlfriend of actor Jim Carrey and major anti-vaccine campaigner who believes her child is autistic because of the measles vaccine. She's wrong but that's not stopped her causing a lot of harm!

Whose The Man?



You Am!!!!

X-Men Origins : Wolverine : In UK Cinemas 29 April 2009 : Can't Wait



Origin

The character known as Wolverine was born in 19th century Canada to rich plantation owners as James Howlett. He grows into manhood on a mining colony in Northern Alberta, adopting the name "Logan". Logan leaves the colony and lives for a time in the wilderness among wolves, until returning to civilization, residing with the Blackfoot Indians. Following the death of his Blackfoot paramour, Silver Fox, he is ushered into a Canadian military unit. Logan then spends some time in Madripoor, before settling in Japan, where he marries and has a son.

During World War II, Logan teams with Captain America and continues a career as a soldier-of-fortune/adventurer. Logan works for the First Canadian Parachute Battalion and the CIA before being recruited by Team X, a black ops unit.

As a member of Team X, Logan is given false memory implants. He continues on the team, until he is able to break free of the mental control and joins the Canadian Defense Ministry. Logan is subsequently kidnapped by Weapon X, where he remains captive and experimented on, until he escapes, as shown in Barry Windsor-Smith's "Weapon X" storyline which ran in Marvel Comics Presents. It is during his imprisonment by Weapon X that he has unbreakable adamantium forcibly fused into his bones.

Logan is eventually discovered by James and Heather Hudson, who help him recover his humanity. Following his recovery, Logan, this time under the supervision of Department H, once again works for Canadian Intelligence. Logan becomes Wolverine, one of Canada's first superheroes. In his first mission, he is dispatched to stop the destruction caused by a brawl between the Hulk and the Wendigo.

Professor X recruits Wolverine to a new team of X-Men. Disillusioned with his Canadian intelligence work and intrigued by Xavier's offer, Logan resigns from Department H. It was later revealed, however, that Professor X had wiped Logan's memories and forced him to join the X-Men after Wolverine was sent on an assassination attempt to kill Xavier.



There once was a rector from Kings,
Who's mind was on Heavenly things,
But his heart was on fire,
For this boy in the choir,
Who's ass was like jelly on springs.

A Daily Moment with Zen

1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me, either; just leave me the hell alone.

2. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and a leaky tire.

3. It's always darkest before dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it.

4. Don't be irreplaceable; if you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.

5. No one is listening until you make a mistake.

6. Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else.

7. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

8. It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.

9. It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help.

10. If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments.

11. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

12. If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.

13. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat & drink beer all day.

14. If you lend someone $20, and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

15. Don't squat with your spurs on.

16. If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

17. If you drink, don't park; accidents cause people.

18. Some days you are the bug, some days you are the windshield.

19. Don't worry, it only seems kinky the first time.

20. Good judgment comes from bad experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

21. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.

22. Timing has an awful lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.

23. A closed mouth gathers no feet.

24. Duct tape is like the force; it has a light side & a dark side, and it holds the universe together.

25. There are two theories to arguing with women. Neither one works.

26. Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your mouth is moving.

27. Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

28. Never miss a good chance to shut up.

Eminem's tour of Ireland is to go ahead despite concerns over a sickening attitude to women, appallingly obscene language, an irresponsible attitude to sex and violence, and, of course, the booze.

Eminem said that, despite these shocking traits, he would wait and "judge the Irish for himself."

Cosmetics heir and fugitive rapist Andrew Luster, great-grandson of makeup legend Max Factor, was captured in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico yesterday by a bounty hunter. Luster had jumped a $1 million bail and fled the US during his trial for drugging and then raping three women. He was sentenced to 124 years in prison, a sentence he began serving today.

The rest of the Factor family was said to be in hiding, avoiding all contact with the press, deeply embarrassed by having such a bad heir day.

What do you call a 30-year-old chavette?
Granny.

You’re in your car and you see a chav on a bike,
why should you try not to hit him?
It might be your bike.

What is the chav boy next door getting for
Christmas? Your bike.

What do you call a chav in a white shell suit?
The bride.

What do you call a chav in a tastefully
decorated house? A burglar.

What do chavs use as protection during sex?
A bus shelter.

What’s green and gets a chav pissed?
A Giro.

"Won't you kiss me, Doctor," asks a beautiful woman.
"No, it would be against my code of ethics," says the doctor.
"Please just one kiss," begs the woman.
"It's completely out of the question," he goes on.
"I shouldn't really be having sex with you."

* These are the the truth, everything else is APRIL FOOL

Finally, a Photo I absolutely love of Han and Me in Florida July 2006 - No Reason other than it makes her head look like a piece from a game of Cluedo



See What I Mean

Oh My God

RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For the love of God everyone run. Everybody everybody run, run for your lives oh my God it's finally happened Aliens have landed and they're killing everything they see. Oh God the Humanity








APRIL FOOL!

I'll Kill Those Bloody Kids!!!! - Not Really BUT Very Very Nearly

I’m posting this some time after the events recorded below because at the time they were happening I was too busy, trying to convince myself that I wasn’t a murderer, to think about writing anything!

I’ll explain. For some time now we’ve had a number of, worsening, problems with Nat & Han, mainly:

1) That they are continually arguing about nothing;



2) That they can't be relied on to get themselves up in the morning without being micro-managed and



3) They won't go to bed when they’re told.




On two occasions over the weekend, I had already had to remonstrate with them about arguing and I was becoming increasingly irritated by the other things.

Every morning it’s as if they’ve never ever had to get up for school before, they have to be cajoled to get out of bed, to stay out of bed, to wash, to brush their teeth, to dress, to eat their breakfasts, to brush their hair etc etc etc.

Every evening, it seems, there’s an argument about them going to bed, Nat wants to stay up later than Han who wants to stay up as long as he does. When, eventually, they go upstairs they proceed to run riot and I almost invariably end up screaming at them to settle down.

Well on Monday night (30/3/9 – for posterity) we finally had our very own perfect storm; it all came to a head - BIGTIME!

They’d been allowed to stay up until 9.00 but had been told,in no uncertain manner, that as soon as The Gadget Show finished they had to go straight to bed because Deb and I wanted to watch Law & Order UK which:

1) is not suitable viewing for children of their ages, and;

2) Requires a modicum of concentration and quite if you’re going to follow the rapid plot developments (it’s effectively made up of 2 separate but conjoined stories).

Them: BANG BANG BANG SCREAM SCREAM SHOUT BANG SHOUT SCREAM

Me: “Shut up or I’ll come up there and kill you, you little (expletive[s] deleted)”. **

Them: BANG SCREAM SHOUT SCREAM OF PAIN, HANNAH RUNS DOWN STAIRS NAT CONTINUES TO SCREAM UPSTAIRS.

Me: “What the (expletive deleted) is going on up there”?

Nat: Ow Ow Ow

I run up the stairs (as fast as my duff hip allowed me to) to find Nat on the landing, moaning, holding his hand over his mouth, rocking from side to side asking “why’s it always me”.

They hadn’t gone to bed, of course, instead they had chased each other from bedroom to bedroom in an increasingly frenzied manner until finally the inevitable happened and Han slammed her door in Nat’s face catching him in the mouth with the handle smack plum between the teeth and possibly loosening one in the process!

By this point, however, I had little sympathy for Nat’s injury which had been caused by his own misbehaviour.

They had ruined L&O (luckily I was recording it in anticipation of missing the beginning – not that they were told this), once again they had not done what they were told to do:

Now, Finally, It Was Time To Unleash The Daddy Volcano.



Nat managed to make this eruption twice as bad as it would have been when he had the audacity to say that

“I hate my life”

This, after he had spent much of the evening boasting about all the things he had done by the age of 11 and mocking me for fact that I hadn’t had the chance too do those things – this was a very very bad move on his part.

Christ he couldn’t have picked a stupider thing to say. I gave him a hell of a roasting about what he had and what others went without!! The upshot of it all was roughly the following statement

WE HAVE TRIED TO TREAT YOU LIKE HUMAN BEINGS BUT THAT OBVIOUSLY DOESN’T WORK; SO MUCH FOR TRYING THE CARROT, GET READY TO MEET THE (metaphorical) STICK.

1. Han – No iPod until I give it back so no Harry Potter audio books at bed time.

2. Han – No videos in bedroom

3. Nat – Bedroom computer pass worded and out of bounds until I say other wise

4. Nat & Han – ditto downstairs computer.

5. by the way don’t turn on the downstairs TV without permission

.
The worm has turned, the above routine will continue until such time as we see a marked change in behaviour. No more chasing in the morning, no more messing about at bedtime!

**(thank you President Nixon’s Secretary).

Hot n Cold : The Original 1950's Ukrainian Video

Everyone loves Katy Perry's version of Hot n Cold but now researchers, in the Ukraine, have discovered a, previously unseen, film of the original version.

Lost in the Ukrainian Communist party archives for over 50 yrs we can finally see that:

She's GOOD but they were BETTER!!

I Just (nearly) Pooed My Pants

I've just had the weirdest experience, which may have proved that I have a strong heart, sitting her typing when suddenly there was this enormous BANG!!!!!!!!!! against the french window to my left.

At first I thought someone had kicked a football, or something, over the fence; until I looked up and saw that a hawk or falcon (or some smallish bird of prey) had just taken a pigeon in flight and was still following through when, not realising that it was aimed at a wall of glass, smashed into the window.

It took me a few moments to realise that I was looking at two birds. At first it looked like a large pigeon that was shedding a 3rd wing. Astonishingly, the bird dragged the pigeon up the garden and after a few seconds took off and flew away as i was trying to get my camera up and running.

So no photo's I'm afraid unless you'd like to see a garden with a lot of feathers.

I've just looked at google images and the photo that looks most like the bird I saw is below. So maybe it was a hawk.



I'm a sceptic but unbelievably the Now Show, which is playing in the back round, has a feature about urban falcons/hawks hunting pigeons - weird or WHAT!!!
Well actually it's not; it's an example of what happens when you start dealing with large numbers. There may only be 1 in a million chance that a hawk hunting a pigeon will hit my window at approximately the same time that there's a TV programme discussing the subject of hawks hunting pigeons. However, if the programme has an audience of 4 million than what's just happened to me has probably happened to 3 other people as well.

It's like being 1 in a 1,000,000 in China - it means that there are 1,300+ people just like you in China too.
That fact alone actually brings home to you just how many people there are in China!!

Storing Good Pics

I've Installed Ubuntu

Finally, after God knows how many false starts, I've got Ubuntu on the hard drive and by god it's fast. No lose of Internet connection, as we've been experiencing with XP, and as I said it's bloody fast - about 3 secs from clicking a YouTube link to the video starting to play!

However, I can't find one of the hard drives and I had to restore Windows, in safe mode. because I somehow managed to delete one of the root files and couldn't load XP normally.

Restoration appears to have solved that problem. I might find that I've lost some data but given how much better this seems to run and how much more secure it is than Windows that might be a small price to pay.

So Hurray For



UBUNTU

By the way; did I mention that it's
FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE

Ubnutu - It's African for - "Bugger Off Bill Gates I'm not giving you anymore money - Na Na Na Na Na."

SH*T - It's the Shed!!!!!!!!!!

"Now Dear, don't forget, the shed's being delivered to the allotment today, the nice man said he'll get the drivers to call you 30 min's before they arrive so that you can meet them there and would you like a sandwich?". Which is what my wife said to me but not the way she said it - she doesn't call me dear, she isn't Bill Bryson's mother and she never offered to make me a sandwich.

09:50 (CTU ringtone from Hit TV series 24)

"Hello"

"blar blar"

"Sorry, didn't catch what you said. Is that the guy with the shed"?

"Yes mate, we're at the gates (of the allotment) with your shed"

"Sh*t Fu*k Boll*cks etc I thought you were going to call ahead so I could meet you there"

"No one told us mate"

"OK I'll be with you ASAP but I've got to cycle there and I've recently had my hip replaced so I could be 20 mins (Sh*t Sh*t Sh*t Sh*t Sh*t Sh*t Sh*t Sh*t Sh*t) or so".

"Alright mate we'll go get a paper"

Why Oh Why does this always happen, I'd been assured that I'd get a call, Christ, my bike's brakes are virtually non-existent (note to self - take it to the bike shop) so I'm going to have to peddle like hell on a main road, with no real means of rapid deceleration available to me, if I'm to get there anytime soon. Problems mate?

Shedloads mate!


The ride was everything I was afraid it would be, BUT, I got there in 10 Mins and the guys from Garden and Leisure were a really pleasant couple of blokes who unloaded everything and took it all the way to the back of the allotment for me.

Here's what all the fuss is about:-



Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this at the moment, more a pile of bits awaiting assembly.

Have fun kids, you're about to learn you the real meaning of "management supervision"
(note to self - take enough supervising beers)!



After all I've got a serious investment here that needs to be properly nurtured!!

Sunday Morning.

Nat & Deb are at Rugby - it's a tournament day, I'm stuck at Home because Han's in bed poorly with yet another cold that she'll surely share with me. I'd better go and wake her shortly because if she sleeps all day she'll be up all night.

I'm writing this in the firefox browser whilst running Ubuntu Linux instead of Windows XP as an operating system. No problems with the Internet connection as we have been experiencing when using XP so the problem must be with the XP OS and not the computer hardware. This would seem to confirm the experience we've had with Nat's computer which has never lost connection. It looks like I'll eventually have to reinstall XP or switch to Ubuntu full time.

Nat and Deb have just returned home. Apparently the Vipers under 11"s got the grand slam by winning 2 out of 3 of their games. He's full of himself and just interrupted me and messed up my typing because he's a Plonker of the 1st Order!!!

People often ask; Whats the difference between Rugby and Football?

In Rugby it's only the Players who fight each other -




Unlike Football where the Players and the Fans fight each other -



I thought this PM would be a good opportunity to watch Casino Royale again before watching Quantum of Solace, unfortunately, Deb and Han are watching a Biopic of the Osmonds Story. So if there isn't another post here you will know that I have committed suicide!

In The News

Former judge fired up on making pot legal

Major cyber spy network uncovered

Veteran is UK's oldest ever man