We're off to see the Cure tomorrow

 All the way up in Manchester.  Dropping the kids and dog off at my Dad's then heading up to MAnchester for a couple of nights.

Lamb Casserole

 I made this yesterday.  A delicious lamb casserole.  It turned out pretty well considering I only had a little over an hour to cook it.

Wildlife photographer of the year

 I disturbed a Heron this mornings dog walk and tried to take a photo as it flew away

Character death

 One of our characters died last night.  Oops!  I nearly did too!  It was a fun session though.

Waitrose soup update

 No more chunks, back to thin strands.  I reckon someone was fired over that!

Early birthday present

 We tried out one of my birthday presents early yesterday.  We cooked steak and lobster on a hot rock.  Not bad!

Oops!

 April managed to drop my left over pea and ham soup yesterday.  The dog enjoyed it.

Fat greedy cat

 We accidently fed Josie twice yesterday morning.  Fat greedy cat!

Niche

 Spotted this in the back entrance to our local Waitrose.  A bit niche.

Walk with Arthur

 I took the dog out with Arthur on Friday morning, we ended up walking round the lake.

Early birthday present

 One of my birthday presents arrived early this week so we tried it out on Sunday.  It's basically a big chunk of stone that you heat up in the oven then cook the food on it at the table in front of everyone.  Pretty cook.  We did surf and turf.  Steak followed by lobster.

Solar Eclipse is Kent

 We popped out after dinner last night to see if we could see the eclipse. We didn't have our own glasses but the trick with the colander worked well.  Later on we bumped into a friend who had a pair so had a shot with them.  Very strange!

Can't make it out with my phone

The colander trick with Flo

And with Arthur

Back at the pub

 We were back at the pub last night, playing fantasy roleplay basics again.  With one thing or another I haven't played it for weeks and weeks, either it was too hot, I had other plans or the GM was off.  I only missed 1 session though.  We didn't really do much, met a fairy, killed some weird beasts, you know, the usual.

Levelling up is a bit quicker than in d&d 5.5, as I dwarf fighter all I did was roll a d8 and add it to my hit points. Luckily I rolled an 8!

AI PAw Patrol Judge Dread

Travellers

 We have some new additions to our playing pitches this morning.  Overnight some travellers decided to break a gate and set up camp.  Apparently, they'll be gone by Friday. 

Head shot

 I popped to the club on Saturday to watch a development team team play against Tunbridge Wells.  They were also doing headshots for social media so I had mine done too.

Disco boots

 I spotted these gold boots in a charity shop a couple of years ago and thought Flo might like them.  They were too big for her but they now nearly fit.  Today is Tonbridge Pride and Flo is dressing up so dried them on.  We realised that they both have USB ports! WTF!  We plugged them in to charge    

Charging

Flash dance

Now to leave them charging!

Hight update

No i've not grown.  The kids have though.  It's been 6 months since the last measure and they've both grown 3 cm.  Both still above average.  Interesting fact:  Arthur is 5cm taller than Flo at the same age!

24

 I tried to watch a couple of films on Kris' Plex but the quality of them wasn't that great.  I watched an episode of John Oliver's show instead.  It was about surveillance.  It got me thinking.  Maybe I should watch 24 again.  So I did, i'm 5 episodes in from the start again.  I've probably watched it 3 or 4 times now.

I wonder why this place shut down

 I bet they weren't expecting that type of clientele. 

Last night's session

 We played another one shot with the d&d cartoon character from the 80s last night.  It was a lot of fun.

I bought this for the kids.

And now it lives in my office

Arthur made this at forest school

 Not sure what it's supposed to be (something about a turtle), Arthur's left it out to dry in the sun.  Looks more like something Arwen produced.

I think this is the coolest place in the house

 Stupid dog

Sneaky morning dog walk

 I took Arwen out for a sneaky dog walk whilst it wasn't too hot.  She managed to find another baseball.

Wow. Chicken in a chicken soup

 I quite like Waitrose's chicken and vegetable soup for lunch when working from home.  There's occasionally a tiny strand of chicken in a spoon full when eating it.  I bought some more yesterday and cooked some for m lunch and there is actually large pieces of chicken breast in there.  Either i've been very unlucky over the past 5 years i've been buying it or they've listened to customer feedback and have actually started to add proper bits of chicken.

Fruit trying

 Our local food market (corner shop) has a strange mix of fruit available to buy.

Although Arthur still refuses to eat fruit (don't ask), on Saturday we had some kumquats, lycees and a mangosteen.  I've never had a mangosteen before.  Not bad.

Good look

 Flo had her hair in a plat all day and tired to take the bands out last night on her own.  April was out so I had to cut them out.  Good look though Flo!

Making the most of the garden

 Pork chops, corn and potatoes on the bbq.

They do like each other

 Another photo of the animals.  This time it's Josie's turn in the sun.

Stupid dog

 

Not sure

Sun bathing

New Kids on the Block

Just had a quick pint in my local and a song from New Kids on the Block came on, Step by Step.  I recognised it straight away.  I only know this as it was on the first album that I ever bought.  How my musical tastes have changed! 

Saturday walk

 We forgot that it was Arwen's 6th birthday last week so we took her out for a big walk.  Here are the minis pitches which are in a desperate need of a good watering.

The original plan was to go to the plan but mid walk I had the brainwave of checking if it was open (it sometimes holds weddings during the summer).  It was due to be closed by the time we got there!  Change of plan, we went to the Nelson which has won Kent pub of the year twice in a row by CAMRA.  Rubbish larger though.  

We played a game of Flux, and then a bunch of games of Star Flux.  Such a good game.

Low month of blogging

 Only 21 posts in July 2026, I usually post more than once a day on average.  It's not that we haven't done anything.  Maybe it's the weather.  It's too bloody hot!

More Sunday cooking

 Chicken and mushroom risotto with hand depodded peas and home made chicken stock from the chicken spine.

Firepit chicken

I cooked this on Sunday. Even with a thermometer it's difficult to make sure it's all cooked,  but I think it turned out pretty well.

D&D 1 shot

We did a d&d 1 shot last night.  We all played characters from the d&d cartoon from the 80s.  Good fun.

One of the players kindly painted up my dwarf fighter.

 

Looking a little parched

 They're looking terrible at the minute, let's hope we get some rain soon.  At least the 1st team pitch is getting watered.

3rd and 4th team pitches

2nd team pitch

1st team pitch

Another gig for Florence

 She sang two songs this time.  She's a confident girl!

Jealous

 Arwen was jealous of the attention I was giving Brody.

Tonbridge swans

 

The view for the England Argentina game