First game of the season

We've managed to arrange an old boys game against Gravesend 4th team.  Not bad for a 44 year old.  Let's see how long I last before I get too carried away.  I've been nursing a sore achilles since Sunday when coaching with the kids.  Other benefits of playing on Saturday are I miss out on the school summer picnic (actually it would probably be quite fun), there's a beer festival on at the club followed by the 3rd England rugby game on TV.

After that we're going to a dinner party / wine tasting round friends.  Struggling to get a babysitter though so I may have to stay at home.  

 

800k views of the blog

 Just past 800k views of Watdefu.  Won't be long till the million!

Another attack by next door's cat

 

This morning's walk

 13,000 steps, 8.5km.  Lovely day.

 

Free stuff

 One of the ladies that works behind the bar of my local also cleans houses, one of her clients is going to a lot of the England games over in France so was given a load of free merch.  They passed that on to her and she passed it onto me.  I've also got a battery bank, bottle opener and some extra tat.

Although i'd rather have cash the second bit of free stuff was from our old builders who we've recommended and the family of one of Flo's friends are now using them for their building project. It's the second bottle of fizz we're had from them.

Working from the car

I was chatting to one of the old locals at my pub a month or so ago and he happened to mention that he sometimes struggled to get to his local hospital appointments. I mentioned that if I wasn't busy is be able to help him out.

Well, he asked last week and I'm now waiting on the carpark trying to work on my car.  There's a junior doctor / strike today I think so hopefully that won't impact things.

He turned 90 last week and have managed to get him safely to the hospital. Just got to get him back to Tonbridge without him dieing...

I'd never live it down!

Comedy goal

Again, I don't want to criticise the game because i've put in hours into the game (Currently the most ever at over 1000h for FM23).  I mostly have played the game without the actual gameplay though so maybe there's actually more.  I mostly just play the game with commentary as my old laptop really struggled with it's battery if I played with full video.

Sweetcorn chowder

Made this for lunch, yummy. A bit of a mess afterwards though.

The model of my new D&D character arrived this morning

 

His staff is a little wonky

Got to love pewter, bent it back into shape

Making the most of the early Autumn weather

 It was a bit chilly at 7:30 dropping off the kids but the sun was out and shining and soon warmed up.  The farmer had mowed his lawn too.  Finally! They were too quick for me to take a photo but Arwen had the shock of her life when two pheasants decided to take flight right in front of her.  Other than being terribly stupid birds they are very colourful.

Tonbridge velodrome is coming along nicely

They had a mini digger in Tonbridge Castle moat yesterday. They've cleaned it up well, must have used a pressure washer.

Now on wheels

 Why cart your crucifix on your shoulder when you can drag it along on it's own wheel!  I would like to have seen this pitch on Dragons Den.  We've got a fair few Jehovah Witness in Tonbridge and they're usually hanging around the train station or big bridge and they usually just stand there smiling hoping people pick up their magazine. 

Games night

 It's games night every Tuesday and because the new games club venue is a lot smaller we had to find an alternate venue every other week.  I've offered up my place and everybody seems to enjoy it.

Here we are fighting the big bad (Dorothy and a cyber lion), we got to use some of the kids toys as models

It was the last Cyberpunk session 

Rolled up my D&D character for next week, amazing rolls.  The 13 there was originally another 16 but being the hero that you all know I am I swapped it with another player who was less fortunate with the dice rolls.  We're playing Rime of the Frostmaiden

The guys don't have to but they usually bring drinks and snacks, and there's usually a lot left over.  I'm sure we can do something with these.

Just me today

After Arthur was sick at school on Monday we had to take him home and he has to stay off for two days.  We had both of us looking after him yesterday whilst working from home so we could tag team.  April did more tagging than me, but at least I got to have lunch down the pub with Jono and try out the new chef.  Just me looking after Arthur today though as April's had to go into town.  We managed to walk the dog for a bit this morning but a friend is taking her out for a proper walk now.

Arthur was still a little ill yesterday morning but was right as rain in the afternoon and had his appetite back.  You wouldn't know there was any problem with him now.

HEre he is colouring in on my tablet

Games with Arthur

 With Arthur off school yesterday we had some entertaining to do

Snap, he won 3-0

One of the games April got me for my birthday is a little too old for him so we enjoyed stacking the naughty goats instead

A bit annoyed later in the afternoon waiting for mummy to come back from picking up Florence so resorted to a chocolate biscuit to keep the peace.

1/3 done

 I've been at my current place for a over 4 months now, it's gone fairly quickly.  The contract is maternity cover and is due to end at the end of May, that's just over a third of the contact.  If the lady i'm coving decides to come back early i'd get 3 months notice.  Although i've enjoyed it, i'd be fairly happy for that to happen, i've taken a bit of a pay cut to take on the fixed term and I earn so much more as a contractor.  If only those contracts were outside IR35

Spotted a fox

 We spotted a fox on our tog walk this morning.  We've seen deer, herons and plenty of rabbits but that was our first fox.  Arwen didn't know what to do with her self.

Poor Arthur

 We had to pick Arthur up from school yesterday afternoon as he was sick.  He seemed fine yesterday but wasn't eating. Something must be wrong!  He even had a lay in.  He's still not 100% but managed to do lots of jam on toast this morning.  Nothing a day or two of watching Paw Patrol can't cure.  We're got to keep him off school for a couple of days now but i'm sure we can rearrange things at work to cope.

Big steppage this morning

 14,500 steps or approximately 11.5km.

I left home with Flo to take her to school, headed back and walked the dog through the fields and round the lake, then back out quickly to grab something from the little shop.  

I've been slacking a bit over the summer as the kids have been at summer clubs which we have to drive too and start much later so don't get as much time out and about with the dog each morning.

The dog's tired now though.  She must have done 30k steps at least.

Bucket hats are all the rage (apparently)

We watched the England game round a friend's in Saturday and bucket hats were the theme. I didn't get the memo.

Good night

I had a few beers / wines with my brother last week. Then popped along to Eliot's. Is been before with April 10 years ago it so and it was still excellent.

FM blunder

 Football manager is an amazing game but sometimes it makes me chuckle.

Breakfast bbq

With the last of the heat probably over this week I thought I'd cook breakfast on the bbq. I love the little bits that came off whilst I was placing each piece. Chef's privilege. Yum.

Prick

Asked this chap to remove his feet from the train. He said no. What a cock.

Off here tonight with Steve

 https://www.elliots.london/borough-market

I went with April years ago and it was great fingers crossed.

Skyline view

 View of the city skyline form the train this morning.  I've worked (currently working in one) in a couple and have been up a couple more in various events.

First day of the new term

 Flo's now year 1 and Arthur is in his second year of nursery.  They were sweaty messes when I picked them up at 5:30.

More fog this morning

 Probably only 10m visibility

Strange fog this morning

Make BBQ whilst the weather's hot

He's in the money

I was collared walking past my local on Saturday by one of the barmaids.  I won my local pub's bonus ball competition last week and won £150, but as i've been off hadn't been around to collect my winnings.  Not bad.  It's £5 per week for a even number and there's the same for an odd.  The winner is whatever the bonus ball is in the last Saturday national lottery of each month.  The even number is up to £600!  That's one i'd definitely like to win.

I've won a couple of other things in there which is quite nice, although I imagine i'm probably at a net loss in the grand scheme of things.

Well this has been a long summer

 And now we'll finally get one with 30C temperatures!  Kids go back to school on Wednesday which means they'll have had a total of 56 days off or a little over 8 weeks.  Is it just me or did we only get 6 weeks off when we were kids?

Getting back into a more regular routine will be good.  Although pretty sure it'll be half term soon.

Under 6s rugby has started again

 Sunday saw the start of the new rugby season for Florence.  We still had Flo's friend over so she was dragged to the rugby club too.  I think she enjoyed it.  Or maybe just the bacon roll afterwards.

We've got a big group of kids at TJs, as we're looking after the u5s and u6s in one large group.  I think we had 40 on Saturday but at our peak last year we had around 60!  

It was a lot of fun although very hot.  I think I might have a game myself next Saturday!

Clip and climb

 It was two of Florence's classmates birthdays this weekend so they invited us to our local clip and climb.  Flo's been a couple of times before and she loved it.  I think i'd quite like it too.

After that we went to Tonbridge food and drink festival before we had a friend's daughter over for a sleepover.