Friday 29 April 2022

Free virtual gift

 I received a free virtual gift from LiveJournal today...  It's 18 years since I started my blog!  Wow.  That's a lot of live that's covered in here.

For those not in the know I moved from LiveJournal to Blogger in May 2008 and managed to migrate most of the old blog to this platform.


https://wat-de-fu.livejournal.com/

Wednesday 27 April 2022

Nobody to see me sweat

If a tree falls down in the middle of the forest but nobody was there to hear it. Does it make a sound?

If Stuart has a curry in a completely empty Indian restaurant. Does he sweat?


I'm out watching the football later but the child minder has already arrived, I've not had any dinner so thought I'd treat myself to a curry.



Growing

 Here's some carrot and bean stalks.  Really kicking off this week!




Tuesday 26 April 2022

Boris sheep?

 Spotted some funny sheep this morning on the dog walk.  These guys are funny.  Haircuts like Boris Johnson plus additional knee pads.  What are they for? Inline skating?


Friendly visitor

 One of next door's cats comes to see me most mornings.  As soon as I open the window to give it a stroke  it runs away.  One day i'll get it.




Monday 25 April 2022

First day of my new contract

 This will be my fifth different company i've worked for in 3 and 3 quarter years.  I'll be mostly validating again with perhaps a little bit of capital modelling.

Lunch on Sunday

 A lovely lamb chop hotpot.  Not bad but I foolishly dished mine up last and didn't get many crispy potatoes.




Soon cheered up

 Arthur was especially cuddly when he woke up from his afternoon nap and wouldn't let me put him down.  That is till he found his new game.  He was very amused.




Don't fall asleep at the dinner table

 Arthur was up early on Sunday morning and nearly fell asleep whilst eating his lunch.  




Friday 22 April 2022

Rock Lobster

 It's World Earth Day today so Flo's school let them dress up.  Dress in blue or as a see creature.  Flo chose the latter. 







Thursday 21 April 2022

Ducklings!

 Lots of ducklings in the moat at Tonbridge Castle this morning.  There were 12 at the weekend.  How many are left?  By my count, still 12.




Wednesday 20 April 2022

Gaz Coombes

 8 of the core members of the Tonbridge Massive went out to the Forum in Tunbridge Wells on Saturday night, we were there to see Gaz Coombes of Supergrass fame.  He was excellent.  And came across as a very nice man.  






First picnic of the year

 10 of the Tonbridge Massive ventured out to Tonbridge Castle on Sunday afternoon.  Not as warm as it had been over the previous week but it was nice.


Florence letting Lesley play with her new bunny

The new bunny

Arthur loving Florence's rugby tots ball.  Me in the background receiving a Hail Mary





Learning disguised as play

 One of Flo's favourite TV shows is numberblocks, so I bought her the base set to play with.  She's already very good with numbers but it doesn't hurt helping her push herself a little.




Family walk round Dene Park

When the weather's nice Dene Park is lovely.  Not so great in the winter months as it can turn into a bit of a quagmire. 



 

Took Flo to Pizza Express again yesterday

Flo likes it and it's nice and easy for me with it only being a couple of hundred yards away.


Flo's back at school today so will have to find a new lunch buddy.

 

Friday 15 April 2022

Homemade pesto

Flo helped me make pesto with the foraged wild garlic. It was nice.

New ice cream shop on the corner of our street

Thought we'd try the new icw cream shop on the corner of our street. Flo was very pleased.

It's not really my thing, and this one is aimed at the lower end of the market but was fine. There's a better one a little way up the high street.

First BBQ of the year

First BBQ of the year. The garden is not in a fit state to eat in at the moment so Flo insisted on eating on a beach towel like a picnic.

The girl of many faces

Went to Havat our local Turkish restaurant yesterday with Florence. 

Here she is making some of her many faces whilst we wait for our food.

Cat in a push chair

Josie in a push chair.

Cat in a basket


Kicked the cat out this morning and she was sitting in the kindling basket when I got back from my mammoth walk with Arwen.

Thursday 14 April 2022

Potato rosti attempt

Not bad, a little soft in the middle. We used the new ovens turbo grill mode. I mean, why wouldn't you?

Wednesday 13 April 2022

That gave me a fright

Arthur's back into his nursery this morning so I took Arwen out for a big walk around Lamberhurst. It's the 4th time I've done this route, it's about the right length (1h30) had a pub along the way (I didn't pop in at 9:30am) and two pubs at the end, it's got a nice mix of farmer's fields, woods and rivers.

This morning I heard a loud bang that gave Arwen (and me) a huge shock. I walked round the corner and heard another then spotted this. It's a bird scarer. Crazy.

Tuesday 12 April 2022

Shelves are in

Kitchen very much nearly done now that the shelves are in.

Stir crazy

The dog didn't get to go out for her lunchtime walk yesterday as I had both kids so she was extra cuddly.

Any ideas?

Any idea what these are? They're in one of the immaculate fields of Tonbridge School (private) that we pass on the way to Forest School.

April suggested Quidditch.

Forest school for Flo

I've got Flo in the afternoons plus Arthur at the minute. Yesterday we watched Is it Cake?
In the mornings Flo's at Forest School, yesterday she brought back Goose grass and some wild garlic. The weather's luckily been great.

The plague

Arthur's off school at the moment as he's caught chicken pox. Poor guy. He's more or less okay just a bit spotty. Fingers crossed we'll be able to take him in tomorrow. Here he is watching Clone Wars with daddy.

Friday 8 April 2022

London was fun yesterday

I went into London yesterday to see my mate James.  2 of his ex-colleagues who I get on with joined us in the Counting House for their lunch.

Pre lunch meal.  

I was a little early so I popped into Breakfast and Burgers for lunch.  I used to pop in there every now and again when was I was back in the city regularly.  It's good to see it survived the lockdowns.

The Counting House certainly survived, but that might have something to do with charging £7.10 for a pint of Asahi!  FFS!


 

Thursday 7 April 2022

Off to London today

 Off to London today to see my mate James.  Haven't seen him since before Christmas so will be good to catch up.  Other than meeting in our favourite old pub (Counting House) there's no plan.  I think I might grab a bite to eat first...  Might be wise.

Wednesday 6 April 2022

Popped to Bluewater

 I popped to Bluewater this morning to grab a couple of cooking dishes from Le Creuset, but the real reason was to grab a cheeky Nandos!  It's been so long.  I've been thinking about going since I knew i'd be off for a few weeks.  Only problem is I cannot stand the public.  I hate people dawdling along aimlessly.  I'm aware the issue is all mine, but doesn't stop me being annoyed.



Jukebox update

 The jukebox has been delayed till June which is a shame.  It was originally planned to arrive for April's birthday but they've had supply chain issues.  At least we haven't paid for it yet.

Arwen found a ball

 I went to Dene Park woods this morning with Arwen.  She found a ball and insisted we play.



There were quite a few trees ripped out of the ground.  That wind a couple of weeks back must have been strong!

Arwen taking a breather in the mud



Went to the pub to watch the football last night

 For some reason the last few times we've watched a game we've drank wine.  We did have a couple of pints before hand in a different pub.


Great result.  Bring on Man City at the weekend

Tuesday 5 April 2022

Won the raffle at my local

 I won £80 from my local's (Ye Olde Checkers) today.  I was stung a couple of weeks ago as much of the money was going to charity and the smallest thing I had on me was a tenner!  Not bad.  Should pay for a week's worth of drinks there.  Only problem is they gave me a £50 note as part of the winnings.  Now I have to try and get rid of it.  I could always spend it there!


Bad habbit

 When I haven't been walking the dog i've been playing on my computer / getting admin done upstairs in my office.  I can't stop myself looking for my second mouse and giving it a quick waggle.

Monday 4 April 2022

Thank you for cleaning my toilet

 Flo got me with this great joke on Saturday.  She's been watching far too much Bluey!  It's a pretty good show. 


Decorating

 Some friend's of ours are getting some decorating done this week so invited us round yesterday to do some decorating of our own.  Let's hope the kids don't think they can do this round ours...




New contract has arrived

 But I don't start till the 25th!  I wanted 2 weeks off in between, but they wanted the extra week as my boss would have been off the week before so didn't want to miss me during my first week.  Other than not getting paid I like the extra time off.  Other than every afternoon next week when I'm going to be looking after Flo the time is pretty much mine to do with what I want.  

I've got nothing specific planned other than lots of long dog walks with Arwen.  Shame the weather's turned.  But there must be some nice dry days in the next few weeks.

Friday 1 April 2022

Suckers!

Popped to the tip earlier but there wasn't enough space in the car for the old lawnmower. So what did I do? Left it on the drive. We were only gone 30 mins and it was gone. Not sure it was worth stealing though as it had a bent blade from when I ran into a tree stump. Hence getting anew one.

I did the same with an old bike in Clapham!