Thursday 30 March 2017

Monday 27 March 2017

Fuckwits

After eight or nine years we're moving from our TV providers from Virgin media to Sky.  When we first moved into Tonbridge we did try to get sky but there was a tree in the way of the satellite dish so rather than adding a pole to the side of our house we decided to use Virgin.

We've been generally pleased with them until recently when during a software update the system kind of died.  We had an 'engineer' round a couple of months ago who replaced our main box and it went back to normal however, during the 8-9 years the cost has risen considerably so we have been looking for alternatives.  We currently pay £124.11 a month for Virgin TV, Sky sports, BT sports ('free'), phone line (don't use) and broadband.

One of my friend's friend's works for sky and has a number of deals available to new customers.  Seeing as we were looking to move we duly took up their offer.  An 18 months deal but offering a massive £56 a month saving.  That's over £1k over the duration.

Our plan was to keep the broadband with virgin as we can't get any better than that and replace the TV.

Anyway, we managed to get Sky in within a week and they arrived this morning to install everything.

We now have no broadband as the engineer decided on his own cut the wire!  Luckily virgin are sending someone round tomorrow to fix it but I will have to take a day off from work to let them in.

Argh!

Fish cakes?

I tried to make my own fish cakes on Sunday, they ended up being more like fishy bubble and squeak.

They might not have looked the best, no photo, sorry, but they did taste pretty good so not a total disaster.

April thinks I should have tried to remove most of the moisture from them first, I think I should have compressed them more before putting in the egg and bread crumbs.  April couldn't contain her laughter.  Thanks for the support.  But who had the last laugh?  You didn't see me clearing up afterwards did you?

Another win, just

Rugby was good on Saturday, we were 19 nil down within the first 15 minutes, but ended up winning 37-32. I set up the winning try with about 4 mins to go after a 50 yard break. We've got the only other team that can equal us on points next Saturday away.


What I didn't say last week was that all we needed to win the league was to win one of the 3 games, then turn up to the other 2 games (you get a point for turning up) the best Thanet can do is equal us. Before Saturday's games we had a 61 goal difference advantage. That's now been cut to 19 with a big win. We're playing them next, so a loss could seriously turn that around. However if we lose but only lose within 7 points, we'd get another bonus point, where all we would have to do is turn up in Folkestone and we'd win the league.


I think we should just try and win on Saturday then it's all irrelevant.


I've had a number of people saying it's the best they've seen me play during my 9 seasons with TJs. I can't possibly see how this is true as i'm 37!




Poker night two

We had a late call off on Friday (wife didn't come either) and the two other wives that joined us just sat there and talked so didn't play.

It still left 5 of us with a total pot of £100.

It was an enjoyable game, highlight for me was getting a pair of aces in my starting hand and winning around £5 from April with 3 aces beating her lower 3 of a kind.  Lowlight, April winning much more  back later in the session with a very good hand.

The winner was probably Mark, but in the last few hands he was just playing anything as he needed to get back home.  This made April (£40) the winner followed by Jonno (just less than £40), and Mark (£20).

Myself and another Stuart came joint last.  Although I wasn't first out so not technically last.

Next time, no wives invited unless playing.

Friday 24 March 2017

Mark Thomas' latest show

We went to see Mark Thomas' latest show last night at the Trinity Theatre Tunbridge Wells. The Red Shed.  I have to say it was excellent.  I don't agree with all of his political view points but he's certainly very passionate about showing them, which I admire greatly.

He spoke mostly about his time supporting unions and strikes up and down the country, but mostly he talked about his the love of where his political yearning began.

The Red Shed in Wakefield.  A meeting hall and social club for like minded people.

At the end of his show (which went down surprisingly well in a town like Tunbridge Wells) ended with him inviting people to the said shed.  I think I would be too scared.

15 years ago I would have said that I was definitely a Tory, but bit by bit I have mellowed.  Having a very active Green party supporting wife certainly helps.  I've never really held any real strong political views but more and more often these days I find myself embarrassed or ashamed of what other people are capable of.

I personally have not been massively effected, after all I have a good job in the city where I earn far too much money, and maybe that gives me the space to think and behave in the way I do.  People from less affluent areas may feel that they have very little going for them and are gradually losing the little say they have in society so feel it necessary to vote for things like UKIP or for Brexit.

I generally just hope that people try not to be dicks.


Will we win the title?

I've got 3 games left for the 3rd team this season and we're sitting pretty at the top of Shepherd and Neame Premier 2 East.  If we win 2 out of the 3 we will be crowned champions.

We're quite capable of doing this but all 3 games are away from home (over an hour's drive), and one of them is against another challenger.  Anyway it's our league to lose so we'd better give it our all.

I've only ever won one other league, that was when I played for the Mayfair Occationals (Barnes 4th team), we started in the bottom league and were far too good for the opposition, we'd quite often win by 70+ points.  We've done done that a fair few time this season too which is nice.  Still only one personal try for myself to show for it though, but I do see myself as more of a creator these days.

Why run 80m flat out when you can pass it to a young lad to run for you?

2nd poker night of the year

Tonight is the second poker night i'm hosting this year.

Same stakes (£20) but this time we should have 8 players (small chance of 10) rather than 5 the time before, so a whopping £160 total winnings.

I came third back in January i.e. I was the the third player to lose all his chips, I was extremely conservative last time, but that may have been more to do with my beginning hands.  Perhaps I will be lucky this time and get into an early lead like Jonno who won.

April's making sausage rolls and honey and mustard mini sausages.

Wednesday 22 March 2017

Magnetic attraction

Whilst walking to work this morning I spotted that I'd picked up a hitch hiker. My cat's laser pointer was stuck to the magnet connector on my man bag.

Anyone missing an umbrella cover?

Took the cover from my umbrella before heading out and it looks like I've been using two covers.

April: Is this yours?

I know it sounds stupid

But yesterday I had to google "why do my laces keep coming undone?"

I've noticed over the past few years that my shoe laces would untie themselves on a semi regular basis throughout the day.  I thought that it was just down to the actual laces, it couldn't possibly be me.

Eventually I snapped and googled it.  Apparently over time my knot tying skills and morphed into a tying 'granny knots', the knot was on a diagonal slant rather than straight across the shoe.  A simple fix was to swap which bow to tie round the other.  

1 day and counting and i've not needed to re-tie my shoes unnecessarily. 

The new shoes are still giving me grief though.

Not the best experience

The post office in Tonbridge has finally shut, WH Smiths has taken on the role in the community by devoting the back section of the book store to the role.

I popped in on Saturday morning as I need to send off my broken mobile phone to get repaired (yes again).  There was an old chap there to help people using the baffling self service machines, noticing that I couldn't find what I was looking for he asked if I needed assistance.  I told him that I needed a padded envelope so that I could send my phone to get repaired and he said that I would need to pop to WH Smith's other store 10 shops down to buy any stationary.  Urgh...

Ridiculous.  The WH Smiths at Cannon Street is shit too.

I think i'll use the independent post shop next time.

Monday 20 March 2017

Forced to buy new shoes

The amount of grief I got at Sunday's christening was too much so I was shamed into buying a new pair this morning.  They were in a fair old state and I was planning getting some this week anyway. I will be a cripple by the end of the day.

Saturday's games day

My Tonbridge games day was postponed on Wednesday night but the dweebs came over on Saturday for our monthly meet. We ended up playing a couple of new ones. Highlight being Gloomhaven.

We're going to need another boat

I cooked a lovely rib of beef for the dweebs on Saturday. It turned out well, although I might cook it a little less next time.

Wednesday 15 March 2017

April's got too many friends

April's got far too many friends. Here's the bill from her birthday Sunday lunch at the Plough, Leigh. I paid for the lot on a card to make it easier for the staff. 12 separate card payments wouldn't have been fun.
Still waiting for 2 people to pay up. I know where they live so not too bothered...

Tuesday 14 March 2017

My first attempt at a lasagne

And it didn't turn out bad. Next time I will probably leave the bolognaise on for a little longer or grate the carot but I was too hungry to wait. I'd also add more cheese. You can never have enough cheese.

Monday 13 March 2017

Looks like I can now access my blog at work

After a week or so of being blocked I can now access my blog whilst at work.  I can only assume that my legions of work based fans threatened to go on strike till they got their daily fix of Stuart related nonsense returned.

The truth will be televised

April didn't want the truth out there but I can no longer stay silent.

April insisted on washing her wellies before going for a walk through muddy fields and parkland on Sunday. Pointless?

Sunday 12 March 2017

Charity Ska, reggae and northern soul night

We went to a local charity night last night, some really good music.

Well that is a tasty burger

Although a little rare for April (I had to fry it some more) it treated good.

Kenny

This is a skylight in the Wetherspoon in the city. I think the circled bit looks like Kenny from South Park.

Testing

I thought I would try the Google speech recognition to write my next post. It works, although you can only say a few things at a time. It's spelling is much better than mine as well.

I am currently watching the TV show Grimm, it's ok but does get very silly at times, I think it's the last season I probably won't miss it.

One thing with this voice recognition is that I sound like a t*** talking out loud.

Shame it's stars out swear words c*** b******* f*** s***. And yes I said the c word first.

Mostyn is a greasy t***

I can't find no 7

I've recently bought the rest of the wheel of time books to complete my set but cannot find no 7 in the same collection. Being a little ocd, I find this a somewhat annoying.

The next stage will be to actually get round to finish reading the things.

Monday 6 March 2017

Spot the cat at the station this morning

There's also a dead pigeon there too...

Sunday 5 March 2017

Sorry St Pancake

We were busy in Tuesday so had to wait till Friday for my pancakes.

Daffodils are out

Unfortunately so are the weeds and a neighbour's cat!

I need to get out there soon and get the shed ready for the spring / summer.

Saturday 4 March 2017

Fm update

Football Manager January transfer update is finally out.  Excited, but also disappointed. The update will make sure all of he correct players are exactly where they should be but it also means i'll have to give up my saved game and start again from scratch.  Boo!

Thursday 2 March 2017

I don't say this lightly

But last night's Apocalyptica gig was one of the best live acts I've ever seen. Amazing!