Tonbridge Festival this weekend

 We're not going as the music is shite.  It's held right next to the rugby club.  We're going to Tunbridge Wells instead, they've got their own music festival held in various pubs and the Forum.

Back to front crawl

 I went to see my physio yesterday and she's pleased with my 3 month progress.  I've been putting off doing front crawl since the operation but she said give it a go.  I certainly didn't push it but I did more than half of my 24 lengths in front crawl.  It's feeling okay.

New game

 We're playing the Basic Fantasy Roleplaying Game now.  It's pretty much the same as 1st edition dungeons and dragons.  It'll certainly be a marked change from our last high level game.  My character is a dwarf fighter

Flo's gig!

 Flo's singing teacher asked her if she'd like to sing in a band last Monday.  Two 13 year old girls and a drummer needed a singer at the monthly gig her music school puts on.  She learnt the song and did great!  Well done Flo!  Flo's teacher even got April up for one song too!

Skunk Anansie

 Shaheen messaged me a couple of days ago and asked if I was free to meet up in London on Monday.  I was in London anyway and haven't seen him in a little while so said yes.  He kept everything secret, but eventually I worked it out.  Skunk Anansie was playing at the Water Rats!  A tiny venue just off Kings Cross Station.  It was amazing, she was once again superb. Great night!  We're off to see Dodgy on Thursday too!

Twickenham on Saturday

 Along with around 50 other TJs members we popped along to see the harlequins play at Twickenham.  It was along day 2h each way but we had a good time and was good to see everyone again after the season finished a couple of weeks ago.

Garden's looking nice

 

Shoe blankets?

 One of the heads in my department has shoe shape protectors and shoe blankets. Wtf?  I imagine he got rinsed with a massive upsell at Jones the Boot Makers.  That will go down well at the annual dinner with Jones senior management.  Someone actually bought a set!!!

Driverless car

 I'm in London today and have just spotted my first driverless car.  It's very weird. 

Office move

 As part of our merger, my department has had a small office move.  We now have two buildings, but we're staying in Plantation Place.  Our desks have been moved round the corner, and I now look out onto the Lloyd's building.

New game

 After a mammoth 2 years+ of playing d&d we're taking a break and going to take it easy for a while by playing Basic Fantasy Role Play.  We've played it before a few times and is very similar to the original 1st addition dungeons and dragons. I thought i'd buy myself a copy.

Hail

 We had hail in Tonbridge yesterday

Much better today

Excitement on our street

There was a fire in one of the old people flats opposite our house this morning.  3 fire engines and an ambulance were called and they had to use a cherry picker attachment on one of the engines to stretcher an old lady out through her smashed window.

Tarasque killers

 We fought two tarasques last night in a one off battle with our level 20 characters!  We beat them!

Tiamat fully painted

 We handed over a fully painted Tiamat to our GM last night and he was chuffed to bits.  Sarah did a great job in painting it.  It's absolutely massive!

Sunday roast

 We met one of the other rugby families out for a roast on Sunday.  The Rock Inn, Chiddingstone.  It was great fun.

A whole chicken, 3 ribs of beef and a shoulder of lamb

Hook the ring on the bulls nose game

Saturday cooking

 I made roasted chicken breast with dauphinoise potatoes (used the new mandoline) on Saturday.  Not a bad attempt.

I wasn't a bad rugby player

 When clearing out the shed I showed the kids all the trophies i'd won when I was a kid (including one of Steve's that I have for some reason).  Player of the year, clubman of the year, players player and a 2nd team player of the year.  Not bad.

We cleared the shed out on Saturday

 Quite hard work lifting all the heavy stuff down from the garden and out the front.  A few people asked to take some bits but the rest was taken away this morning by a removal firm.  The idea is to referb the shed, insulate it, new floors, windows and patio doors.  We can then use the garden more.

Had to show ID to get a mandoline

 FFS!  How many mandoline attacks are in the latest knife crime statistics?

Ducklings!

 Spotted a bunch of ducklings on my dog walk yesterday

Tiamat

 As a thank you to our GM I organised getting this 3D printed Tiamat, one of our players has kindly put it together and painted it.  It will be ready for our last session next week where we'll finally put down our characters who we've had since level 1 (although mine died at level 16).  We're going to fight a tarrasque.  The one we left on an island when we were around level 7.  Should be fun.

We beat Vecna

 We finished off the Vecna campaign last night.  We brought along a portable short throw projector for the game mat too.  It was a great campaign.  Although slow at times (lvl 20), it was fun and we had lots of laughs along the way.

One of the many highlights was actually last night, Our cleric casting Wish on our traitorous Sorcerer, who back stabbed us in the last session.  It didn't kill him, but brought him down to 0 hp. 

Another highlight was the return of my wizard who i'd brought up from level 1 to 16 only for him to getting disintegrated by a death tyrant.  Unfortunately he was on Vecna's side.

Arwen's haircut

 Arwen got her Summer haircut yesterday and I think she looks very smart.

Shadow puppets

 The sun shines through the blinds in the front room so we had some fun with shadow puppetry.

Arthur loves a hotdog

 I cooked these for Arthur and Florence on Saturday.

Nic Cage Against the Machine

 Tunbridge Wells Forum.  One word review.  Brilliant!