New Camera

I have just bought a FinePix S9600, so i'll be posting a few more pics from now on! Heres some test ones I've been taking...
















This one shows the garage (Front *and* side door!) and the patio. I really need to get the roof finished off soon.
















This one shows the area by the side of the garage that has just been dug over, seeded and a pond put in
















And heres a closer look at the patio

More pictures will follow, as I get better at working out what all the buttons do!!

Saving Paper

I see that hatchet faced Harpie, Cherie Bluregh (or Booth, what ever the hell shes called) is writing her auto biography.

Thats good, Im just about out of arse wipes at my house...

More Work

I have had a patio area built at the front of my house now, as you can see from the pictures here.

I decided to get someone in to build this, rather than attempt it myself, becuase it covers quite a large area, and I didn't think I'd have the time or patience to do it myself!

These first pictures shows the area that was dug out and flattened ready for the paving stones






























And these next few show the inital pavers being laid. You can see from these pics, the drain lids. These were all on different levels, so they had to be cut down or raised up to get the right levels. Can you imagine what they would have been like if I had attempted it?!






























These last pictures here shows the whole area paved. There is a space left in the middle for a gravelled area to put tubs on etc. It should look really nice next summer (if we actually get a summer in 2008!)






























And here is a picture a few days later with it all grouted and finished off with some tubs on display too.

















Here's a couple of pictures of the Dorset Naga's. I have quite a few of them growing now...looking forward to burning my mouth out on these in a month or so :-)

X Factor

I've been watching X Factor recently and i've noticed that if you want to get through, you need to have some kind of sob story to guarentee your place in the boot camp round

Next year I have decided to borrow someones child, dress them in rags, make their faces all dirty and say:

Me : "I had to adopt little Oliver here, because his mum and dad left him on my door step when he was 1 day old"

Judges: "Awwwwww, he's so cute"

Me: "Yes its terrible, we haven't eaten in three years, but it was either us or his pet rabbitt"

(I kick the Urchin's ankles)

Urchin: "Booo Hooo"

Sharon: "Awww bless, he's crying about his rabbitt"

Me: "Yes, he's very upset - it might be a good idea not to mention his pet stick insects. He still thinks they're on holiday"

I belt out some popular tune of the day, in drunk, pub singer karoke style, and voila, a record deal lands on my lap.

Im a friggin genius, I am

Ouch

Well, that'll teach me to try and keep fit - went to the gym on Tuesday, and pulled a muscle and trapped a nerve in my back doing leg presses :-(

So, I smell of deep heat at the moment, and Im finding it hard to walk

Who said the gym was a good way to keep fit??

Last Weekends Surfing

Last week end me and my brother, took off down to Devon to get a bit of surfing in. Usually there are quite a few of us who go, but this year, due to weddings, weather, work commitments and holidays, the turn out was pretty low.

As you can see, the weather wasn't exactly great this year either! I have a brilliant knack of picking the worst weekend to go - this I certainly didn't disappoint...

Anyway, we got the tent up in good time, after fixing some of the poles, and I think this was probably the best the tent as ever been put up!
















Every year, it always rains, and invariably, the tent lets water in (well it does in force 9 gales and horizontal rain) so this year I decided to pack my camp bed - much more comfy that sleeping on a deflated airbed and in a puddle (and no, not a puddle of piss!)
















Mongy came well stocked with Cider from the Brandy Wharf centre in Waddingham




















As you can see from this picture, the chimnea was well stocked with combustibles :-)





















On Saturday we went to Woolacombe to surf. The waves were the best I have seen them in a long time, and we spent about 3 hours in the sea, catching the pipelines :-) It utterly pissed it down, but as we were in the sea, it didnt really matter...by evening time, it became quite pleasant, and we hit the bar for happy hour.

Saturday night/Sunday morning was a bit windy - I would estimate around about force 8! So by 9:30, we had packed up and headed off home. Next year, I am determined to pick a decent weekend!

Away

I've been working in Broughton this week, hence the lack of writing. It comes to something when work gets in the way of writing ones blog!

Anyway, Me and Mongy went surfing last weekend, so I have that to write about and post pics...so when I get home I'll post more - I promise!

I Got Sent This

I was sent this from a respectable mother and daughter, who shan't remain nameless! It was spotted in a DIY store. The daughter was shocked that her mother actually laughed at it, instead of being offended!

Don't worry Barbara and Helen, no one will know it was you :-D

A Round Up

Well, last weekend, I managed to get both my front and side doors on. I say *I managed*, but it was more of a team effort. Martin came over from work on Friday night to give me a hand with the front door, and Carol helped me finish it off on Saturday, and then we put the side door on.

Carol has infinitly more patience than I do :-) She is also miles better at DIY/practical stuff too. Well, anyway, the only thing I have left to do now is finish the roof off (ridge tiles) Don't worry, I'll be holding the ladder as she climbs on the roof :-D

I have pictures, which I will post as soon as I get them off my phone.

Also, Im going down to Devon this weekend to go surfing. There are a few of us going, but not as many as in previous years :-( Im really looking forward to it though - hopefully the weather should be reasonable - fingers crossed...

Doors

My garage door turns up tomorrow! I can't wait :-)

Eddies Elegant Cocks

Had a BBQ on Saturday night with some mates. Eddy has recently been to Maritius and brought back some mosquito repellant coils.

As you can see from the name of the product, I think something may have been lost in translation!














The buy one get one free cracked me up too :-)

Noooooooo!

This years Worcester beer festival has been cancelled due to the floods :-( Gutted...

I think that I'll probably organise the surfing weekend for the 17th & 18th August, weather permitting of course.

Random Blog Stuff

I just thought I'd take some time to post a few bits and bobs that I have been meaning to post, but not had the time to getting round to doing...

Anyway, heres a pic of the driveway when the slate was delivered in front off the garage. once the delivery guys came back twice and finally got it in the right place, I managed to shift 5 tons of it 'by hand'. It was totally knackering! So last Friday I got them around again to lift the last two bags up and I basically slit the bags and raked the into the position I wanted
















One man, his wheel barrow and spade, and 5 tons of slate later.















As you can see by this picture, this is what 7 tons of crushed slate looks like. I need to rake it a bit more flat, and even things out a little, but it looks really good and gives a nice little 'off road parking area'. I just have to build a couple of steps up into my 'allotment' area, and it will look nice















Also, I want to put some wrought iron gates up at the front, and I'll be building a patio area under the bathroom window (not visible on this pic). I dont think the work will ever end!

Anyway, its looking pretty good now.
















Here we have a piture of my toe. I was reading Lis's blog the other day and she had posted a pic of her foot after she broke it. I was all mankey with stitches in, and I thought I'd share with you all my minging toe. As you can see I have no big toe nail. I like to tell people that when I was captured behind enemy lines, in my job as secret agent, and tortured for information, they removed my nail to try and make me squeal.

However, ill fitting walking boots, a long walk and blood blisters are slightly more closer to the truth...(well a secret agent would say that now, wouldn't he?!)

Its my birthday tomorrow - happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me! 37 years old. Oh my god - how old is that? Presents in the form of tenner's can be posted to Lincoln :-)

Eleven Years

Eleven years of compulsary education, and according to a report today, some parents have trouble reading a bedtime story to their kids. How do you go eleven years at school and come out not being able to read? Especially if its at bedtime story for kids level...

Yes, I know what you're thinking, its probably down to dyslexia, or some other form of learning difficulty, and I accept that some of it is down to that, but not all of it. Apparently 5 million adults lack functional literacy. Thats apalling....

So whats the problem? Well, I imagine that when most of these adult were at school, because they found it too hard, they just 'couldn't be bothered', but some of the blame must be borne by the educational institutions too.

As a footnote, Im not expecting many people to comment on this, because the target audience probably wont have a clue what I've written :-)

Heres the link to the story

How Difficult Can it Be?!

So, anyway, I gets home from work last night, only to find that the bags have been moved. However, instead of moving them to the right like I said, they moved them to the left, right slap bang in the middle of where I need to dig out and level :-D

So, I rang them up again this morning. After a polite conversation, they are coming back this afternoon, where I will be on hand explaining left and right to them!