For Lis

Here you go, Lis (and for those who don't know who Charlie is) Here's a pic of the first lady of the gardening progs....



See what I mean? :-)

Garden Update

Here are some pics of the garden which is noe pretty much finished bar the cleaning of the patio and growing of the grass seed. I have been away, so these are pics from last week and today. Its been a long haul, and with no help from any saggy boobed ginger tit.

Enjoy...

Dug out all the 2-5" think concrete path. I think you can see my mate, Eddy in the background working for his supper! The more work done, the more it seems to turn into a builders yard.



The bits of smashed up path, you can see how thick the path was.



The trench the path left - just gotta fill that in now :-(



This was the finished result on Sunday. I had dug it over again (that was about the 6th time since the start), and my dad flattened it out and levelled it. I really have no idea how he managed this. I went to the garden centre in Brigg and got the stepping stones and the shrubs. Im so pleased with it! Gotta thank my mum, dad and sis for helping too!



I just need to feed and weed the top garden area, and of course, cut the grass at the top there. I never thought doing a garden could give you so much pleasure!



I have decided my next project will be to finish the garage off before winter draws in. I am utterly rubbish at D.I.Y though (I'll explain in a post, how 'Frank Spencer' has nothing on me) But you have to try these things.

I have a picture on my phone of what the garden looked like when I bough the place - I just need to be able to locate the adaptor, to get the pictures off!

Confusing Messages

Some stories in the media always make me laugh. But its not really a laughing matter. We're always bombarded with the latest health stories/scares, and these usually only serve to confuse. For example....

Recently in the news we have been hearing about how we are all going to be enormous tubs of lard by 2010, and if we have kids, they will be so enormous, that they will die before their parents. Of course its all down to the evil's of society, including X-Box's, DVD's, McDonalds etc.
Personally, I reckon how you exercise is a personal choice, and we don't need Emperor Blair telling us how many miles we should be running a day. It would also be nice if they hadn't sold off all the playing fields to build more houses, but thats a different debate :-)

But in the interests of a balanced media, we are all told that because we are living longer, companies can no longer afford to honour their pension provisons, and we will all have to work until we drop.

So which scare story is right?

Also, we all need to be afraid of binge drinkers these days, because they are putting a strain on the health service by storing up health problems for the future. They are causing havoc in city centres in the evening, and over stretching police resources.

On the other hand, we are told we should be downing red wine by the bucket load for a healthy heart.

Posh Spice is too thin, but has the recent photo of her been doctored to give her a J-Lo arse? Charlotte Church has put a bit of weight on...has her photo been doctored to reduce her arse? I dunno!

Jog more, its good for weight loss, but don't come running to us when you knacker you knee joints up

The Atkins diet is King...or is it?

God Im confused...Im off to the pub for a few pints and several bags of crisps!

Bank Holiday

Bank holiday weekend....3 days off - yay! Im sure the weather will be bad, but I've finished the patio now (pictures to follow) I have also dug up the 5" thick concrete path in the garden, so all I have to do now is level the garden ready to seed. I think its going to be quite a big job though :-(

Maybe if I stare at it long enough while drinking beer, it might sort itself out? Its a theory that needs testing I reckon...all in the interests of science you understand :-)

I reckon TV programs like effing Garden SOS or whatever its called is a load of bollox. For example, you get 'Saggy Juggs' Dymmock saying "Oh, we have ten minutes left before Joe Public gets back to his cosy little terraced dwelling, and we still need to build the decking, the water feature and build a gazebo"

Have they any idea how long this takes??!

But hey presto, 10 minutes later, you have an oasis in the middle of the city humdrum, and some smug twat turning up from a weekend break with a new, all singing all dancing garden. I really went around this garden project the wrong way didn't I? I should have written to the BBC claiming to be a lazy no good for nothing lay about who can't be arsed to do his garden.

Then they would have sent a team of Z list celeb's to do it for me. Im just not thinking 'out of the box' when it comes to DIY

Bah

Tired

Im tired today. I have been working away in Wethersfield this week, but Im back now.

Did anyone watch 'Alive' last week? This was on when I was in the states (forget which channel), but it was called 'I shouldn't be Alive'

I wonder why they changed it for the English audience?

Mythbusters

Mythbusters was on BBC2 last night, well it was a dumbed down and heavily edited version, and they had even dubbed over the American commentator.

It seemed they had cobbled together 3 or 4 myths and cut out all the experimenting bits, and then rushed to the conclusion

Its just not the same :-(

Over Looked Again!

Time have published a list of the 50 most coolest websites, and I was amazed to find 'Letter from America' did not rank among them.

Its a very entertaining and informative blog. I can only imagine the list is corrupt and the 50 listed websites must have paid for the priviledge! Well, I cannot be bought, I will continue writing entertaining and amusing posts, just to show those gits at Time!

Its the same with the New Years Honours list. Every year, Im over looked. Im a good citizen, surely I deserve to be Sir Mark T?! Again though I wont be posting a cheque to Mr Blair to buy one of these gongs.

Anyway, on with the informative posts...Did anyone see 'The Man Who's Arms Exploded' last night?

Patio and the Weather

The patio is nearly done! This guarantees that it will now rain from now until next summer, because Im looking forward to utilising it. It has been raining on and off since yesterday afternoon here, which means we haven't been able to put the last few bricks down and the coping stones on the top

I also need to dig the garden over again and prepare it for the grass seed. Its gonna look so nice when its done. I must be getting old, Im talking about enjoying my garden. When you rent you miss all this fun of creating your own though, so indulge me for a while.

I don't think weekends are long enough. I reckon we should only work two or three days a week, then we should be allowed to spend more time at home or doing 'proper life' stuff. I love my job, don't get me wrong, and sometimes it too can be pretty exciting (It took me to America, and spawned this blog, after all), but sometimes I'd much rather be at home or meeting up with mates than sat at my desk writing off an e mail to so-and-so about such-and-such, or sitting in some HR 'course' about how to lift a bottle of water correctly.

I need about £3 million to do all the stuff I want to do - i'll have to set up another donate button :-)

Worcester Beer Festival

Well its almost that time of year again, the 8th Worcester Beer Festival


Been going every year since 2000. They hold it on Worcester race course, over a period of 3 days, but usually by the last day, most of the beer is gone! Its really good because its a great place to catch up with everyone...most of the people I used to work with will be there, all having a good time and hopefully the weather will be great.

Last year was my leaving do - I can't believe this year has gone so quickly and how things have changed. I never thought I'd have a house by now.




Unfortunately, Tony is on holiday this year, and Baz is whimping out because he has work deadlines coming up - as I said, how things change in a year! (you are a big wussy girls blouse, Baz! Next time we're out, I'll buy you a pint of lemonade!)


Tony last year











What Baz would probably say this year :-) If he was going!












Oh well, I gotta go and get ready for tomorrow. Im off to Broughton for a couple of days - lucky me eh?

My House

Spent all this weekend building my patio. Its still not finished but it almost is. Me and my dad have pretty much broken the back of it. I even built my first ever wall! I decided to take some pics of the whole house too. Check them out below.....
This is the front of the house. The front garden extends around the half finished garage, which you can see below. The front garden is pretty big. You can see the gap in the hedge, the garden bit round there is mine too.

This is the kitchen. I love the kitchen - nice and big!


Living room - very much like the place I lived in in Hanley Swan, except this place has an open fire. You can see the conservatory in the background

And here is the conservatory :-) It gets really hot in there in this weather - hence the fan in the bottom of the picture. I got the furniture for £26 on eBay, how cool is that?!

And lets not forget the bog! (Heh heh, Ive just blogged my bog!) This pic doesnt really do it justice, cos you can't see the jacuzzi bath. But it is a big bathroom.

Well, here's a few pics of the patio that me and my dad have been building this weekend. I dug out the soil for it a couple of weeks ago, and on Saturday we started to build it. This shot shows the mini mountain I moved (with a shovel, not faith)

This is it once the pavers were laid. That wheel barrow full of hardcore used to be the wall around the edge of the garden, which I knocked down.



This is the wall I built! You can see it taking shape now. Pretty cool wall eh? And the steps are going to look damn good when its done.



Hopefully it will be finished next weekend...why does work have to get in the way of doing stuff you enjoy? :-)

Much as I Hate Adverts

I decided to listen to Free FM on the internet this afternoon and tuned into the Jagger show. I was quite amused/impressed to find that the adverts on the radio where synchronised with banner adverts on the player software I was using.

Safety Camera My Effing Ar$3!

Imagine the scene...driving down the A1500 in Lincolnshire doing 40 in a 40 zone, and then you happen upon a tractor doing 25. You slow down, waiting until it is safe to pass, then you accelerate to overtake. Over taking on a country road is a manoevre that needs to be carried out safely and quickly, however, as you pull out, you realise you are now in a 30 zone and waiting to catch you is a fecking 'safety van' So what did I do? I made sure I was doing 28mph, thus making the overtaking incredibly dangerous...I made sure a flicked the V's as I went by, what an utterly ridiculous place to put a revenue generat...oh sorry safety van.

The irony of it is this. They set up outside a primary school, which, when I thought about it, is probably a good reason to put one there. But then I realised the kids arent at school for nearly two months, so what is the safety case?

I decided to ring the Lincolnshire 'Safety Camera' department up to find out. Here is pretty much the conversation:

"Im ringing to complain about the dangerous setting of a speed van" (I gave the location and the story)

"Ok, well if you were speeding you have to pay the fine"

"No you're not listening, Im ringing to tell you your safety van isn't in a safe place"

"It was outside a school"

"Yes, but its the summer holiday"

"Hmm well, we have safety officers who go out and choose these sights based on research, if you have broken the speed limit, you have to pay"

"I didn't break the limit, but you made it less safe for me to carry out the over taking manoevre, Im drawing your attention to the fact your safety van is in a dangerous place"

"We have noted your comments, thank you"

It was so obvious these people aren't bothered about road safety...he automatically assumed I was trying to wriggle out of a ticket, when actually I was trying to help

Happy Birthday to Me

Oh well...I was 36 on Sunday. I always considered that to be old, but now Im here I dont think it is! I am 36 going on 20

Went bowling in Malvern on Friday night then met up with everyone on Saturday night for a curry. We were supposed to be going to Zam Zam's at 9:30pm but we were still waiting about an hour later. We decided to go to the Bengal Brasserie instead. I think everyone had a top night - I certainly did :-)