Tuesday 30 April 2013

It's going to be a long wait

Earlier today. Waiting at the post office to send off some documents. Urgh, it's going to be a long wait.

Monday 29 April 2013

Spelling / grammar

I'm well aware that my spelling and grammar could be improved but half of the time it isn't me. Predictive text and my fat fingers are the culprit. With perhaps a little bit of added laziness from me for not checking what I'm about to post.

Back to the grind

Back to work tomorrow. Can't wait...

The sooner I get these three days in the office complete I'm off for another 10. Cannot wait.

No idea

I think I can just about work out which bit is the engine but not sure about anything else.

Happy faces ...

Going for a pub lunch in the fancy new car.

Sad face

Selling the old car. Boo!

Sunday 28 April 2013

The other monster

The other dog on our holiday. I wish we had dogs.

Upside down dog

Trust me, there it's a dog there somewhere.

Controlling the tv

One of our two for legged friends sharing our cabin whilst on holiday.

Only one near death experience

After years of trying we finally got round to going canoeing.

We nearly fell in just the once when we were caught in a fair bit of wind we were blown into a dead tree. In trying to avoid this we were a little overt zealous with the paddling and nearly capsized.

Good fun, but certainly hard work.

Saturday 27 April 2013

Welly wine

We'd just done some shopping for our mini break in the Forest of Dean and didn't have much room left in the boot.

Thankfuly we'd brought our wellies and that's how welly wine was invented. It does leave a delightful after-taste of rubber however.

Oops!

I think we've just bought ourselves an Audi TT. We're picking it up on Monday on the easy back from our holiday.

3.2 litres.

Not bad considering a week ago we test drove a Mazda 3. He, he.

Wednesday 24 April 2013

April open mic

Found a new spot to have lunch

Not a bad view

Amusing mix up

I had a chat about a new internal role yesterday that went fairly well. Will I get it? It's a long shot...
I was a little early for the meeting so was hanging around the meeting room. There was a chap in there already that I didn't recognise so I went to get a water.
On returning, the young chap came out and asked if I was here for the interview. It was a bit strange as he was so young but I went in and waited for him to ask me some questions.
He was doing the same. A short while later HR cane in and said there'd been a mix up with meeting rooms. Doh! The young chap was applying for a graduate position. Ha, ha.
All this meant I was 5 mins late for my chat. They laughed about it which was good.

Test drive

We're test driving an Audi TT on Friday. Should be fun.

Sunday 21 April 2013

Saturday 20 April 2013

Not bad, not bad indeed

Just got back from the Mazda garage and got quite a nice surprise.  We're due to get it serviced / MOT'd in the next month or so, so wanted to check out what options we had with regards to selling / part exchange. 

We bought it for about £9,500 four and a bit years ago and it has a dent on the back and the front wing needs some attention but other than that it's a very nice car with very low millage (37,000).  We were expecting £4,000 for sale but were offered £5,000, £6,000 part exchange.  Not bad at all, and that's without my amazing haggling skills.

April's been wanting to get a Mazda 3 for a little while now so took one for a spin.  It was nice enough but certainly nothing special.  We need to have a rethink about what we want versus what we need.  It's looking like what we want is coming out first.  Yeah.

What to buy though?  I'll see what Ross thinks.

Kitchen update 400

Phil, the kitchen guy was in till 8:30 again last night and is due to head round again today. He takes a lot of pride in his work and the quality is fairly good but he just takes too long. He's supposed to be finished later today but the flooring might have to wait another week as he has another job to start. April's going to see if he can rearrange to get things finished sooner than that as it's been 4 weeks already. Well see.

If I was a catholic

That would have Been fairly cathartic.

Over the past few weeks I've gradually halved my Facebook friends. From 500 odd to less than 250. It felt good. There were people on there that I barely knew but they still had access to my life.

Not that I think they would care that is...

The general rule was, have I had a beer with them in the last 5 years? If not, have they bothered staying in touch?  If no then bye bye. There were a few exceptions but I was fairly strict.

Sorry if I've dropped you, but if you've not been in touch then I hardly think you're going to be reading my blog to recieve this apology.

I remember having a bet with my brother about 5 years ago, who could get to 200 Facebook friends first? We were neck and neck coming up to 190 as for 90% of the people he knew I probably knew and vice verse. Steve didn't count on me being a sneaky git however. I saved a few friend requests till the end so that he wouldn't have a chance to catch up. Winner!

Friday 19 April 2013

Phew! Had me worried for a while

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22221666

Thursday 18 April 2013

It's a hard life

Two sleepy cats after a hard day's sleep.

And the lord said let there be light...

... in Stuart and April's wine cooler.

Spent slightly more than I wanted

I went out with Shaheen and April last night. Spent a bit too much, but great food though.

Wednesday 17 April 2013

Taking the FUN out of funeral

Walking from Cannon Street to Fenchurch Street today I spotted about 15 police officers. Very strange as you normally see none.

You can see how today's funeral cost can easily escalate to the reported £10m cost.

Tuesday 16 April 2013

Not well today

I was fine when I woke up this morning but about halfway through my train journey I started to feel a little ropey. When I got to my office I was sweating and within 20 mins had to dash to the toilet to be sick. I'm feeling much better now but I was terrible earlier.

Now that google reader is ending, try this

http://laughingsquid.com/starrss-a-creative-rss-feed-styled-after-the-iconic-star-wars-opening-sequence/

Monday 15 April 2013

Some kind of monster

I finally bought some kind of monster (Metallica) about a year and a half ago on honeymoon in Melbourne.

I'm now finally getting round to watching it now. Bring it on...

Breaking ET news

http://www.northantstelegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/film/review-the-hobbit-an-unexpected-journey-1-5000309

Only 4 months after the film's release date.

Willow

Watching Willow on the way into work. I forgot that out was a Ron Howard film.
It's good fun and some might say it's Val Kilmer's greatest work.

9 days

9 work days left till our mini break to the Forest of Dean. Can't wait. Then 3 more and we're off to Turkey for a week. Can't bloody wait. We haven't been away or had more than bank holidays off since early November when we went to Mexico.

Sunday 14 April 2013

Update 19

We now have tilted floor in the kitchen bit. Looking good. Not bad from discarded tiles from the local Porsche garage. April picked them up about 4 years ago on freecycle and they've been in our garden shed till now.

Other new additions include a nice boxed in boiler and a wine cooler.

Saturday 13 April 2013

Willpower challenge

April's gone to ikea to pick up some chairs for our new dining room table. I've challenged her to come back only with the chairs.

The Hobbit

Watched it again last night. This time with no interruptions. Very good film. Can't wait for the next one.

Long commute

Not sure this worm intended to hitch a lift all the way  into London.

Friday 12 April 2013

Thursday 11 April 2013

Come in store?

Waiting for a delayed train to work and saw this advert

We believe borrowing should be simpler.

Come in branch and talk to us today.

Really? We also believe we need to talk to you like a child.

Wednesday 10 April 2013

Might be worth listening to

Just listening to the back log of The Bugle. Gadaffi's death episode.

Now Mrs Thatcher has died, I imagine they won't pull any punches this Friday.

Progress?

Probably another couple of weeks.

Tuesday 9 April 2013

Tonight I will mostly be drinking mead

The Hobbit turned up today. April's finishing work late so I'm watching this.

Well, it amused me...

I had a look on Imdb earlier and spotted the Cube 2. I own the Cube, or at least did... I think I know who's still got it (borrowed for over 5 years).
Anyway, in the section People who liked this also liked... I'd understandably expect to see The Cube, but the other stand out film was The Sphere.
Have I missed a new sub-category of filming genre? Are there any other geometric shape based films out there? The Pyramid exists. Not sure about the dodecahedron

Super 8

Watched Super 8 yesterday and really enjoyed it. If you like The Goonies you'll love it.

SC rating: 82/100 (1 vote)
Imdb rating: 7.1/10 (172865 votes)

Monday 8 April 2013

Must be comfy

It's a wine cooler, not a cat warmer.

Best of friends

Intrepid Fox

Finally got round to popping onto the Intrepid Fox when Ian came down to London for an impromptu meet.

50,000 views

According to the counter on my blog I've had 50,000 hits.

Friday 5 April 2013

Another big building going up

This one's by Fenchurch Street Station. It's amazing how deep the foundations are.

I was chatting to our kitchen builder yesterday and he was telling me that there was a good foot of space under our floor boards. I guess you need a bit of space for all the electrics and pipes.

April thinks two weeks to go so expect invites for dinner parties to follow shortly. Not having a dining area for the best part of 5 years has really hampered us on that front.

Thursday 4 April 2013

That well known phrase

April snows. I thought it was supposed to be April showers but we were caught in a mini blizzard on the way into work. When will it warm up?

Wednesday 3 April 2013

First chink in the new kitchens armour

Whilst the kitchen is getting prepared all the boxes and new appliances are being stored in our living room which are blocking out the infrared beam of the Tivo remote. I now almost have to get up in order to change channel. What did we do before remote controls?

Finally watched...

Clerks

Another one of those DVDs I bought an absolute age ago and have finally got round to watching it.

Very funny indeed.

SC rating: 79 / 100 (1 vote)
IMdb rating: 7.8 / 10 (133,028 votes)

Tuesday 2 April 2013

Wow! Blue sky

It's been a while. I've missed you. Now if the temperature can warm up a touch too that would be great.

Monday 1 April 2013

April fool

Even football manager are at it. Bastards!

Current kitchen

Whilst our kitchen is rebuilt we have to make do with this in our living room.