Contract news

 I just received a message from the recruiter and i'll be getting the formal contract through next Tuesday.

New job

 I've decided to accept the new job offer.  I'll be starting at the end of next month!  It's also bonus day at my current place so a good reason to celebrate!

The garden's looking nice

 It's a pity it's a little bit too cold and windy to sit out there.

It must get pretty windy down at the bottom

 I thought we'd lost another cover for our bbq, the wind must have blown it off again.  Just messaged April, apparently next door has already messaged to say that it was in their garden.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it but I have been a numb nuts with the bbq.  I forgot to extend the legs and melted off the rubber feet in a hurry to get it up and running.  Doh!

We're nearly there

 But everything is taking so long!  We're level 19 now and so close to the end but every battle takes ages.  With so many attacks / abilities each person's turn can take 3-4 minutes (some players longer), if the fight lasts more an 2 or 3 rounds we're talking hours of play.  Urgh.  It's a slog but we'll do it.  I've suggested to the GM that if the fight isn't going to be that difficult for us then we should just narrate it without all the rolls etc.  He agreed.

3 interviews yesterday

 I had 3 interviews yesterday, 1 for a job I think I already have (if I want it), and another for a consultancy.  There's nothing coming out of my current role (just been bought by another company) so I think i'll take it.

I even put on a shirt

Bowling

 Arthur had a bowling birthday party on Saturday morning and he had a great time.

Matching hoodies with his best buddy.

Useless tags

 When learning to play rugby you start off with tags.  You get a velcro belt and a couple of tags to simulate a tackle which they pick up in u9s.  During the winter the tags get covered in mud and fall off as soon a there is a slight gust of wind, i.e a slow walk.  This weekend April washed them, let's see if they work next week.

I think Arwen has lost something

 She was like this for a good minute before I helped her.  Am I a bad man?

Pizzas again

 We had friends over on Friday night for some more pizza.  Another success. 

70 donations

 Yesterday I passed 70 donations of blood.

Fish pie

 I made my own fish pie yesterday and it turned out pretty decent.

Before

After

Plated

I made too much mash potatoe

New job?

 I had an interview for a new contract yesterday and they have made an offer.  It's slightly less than i'm on now with less bonus opportunity.  It's also 4 days a week in the office which i'm not keen on but it's an offer.  My current place wants me to stay but no formal offer has been made (they're in the process of a take over), despite my boss trying, but I can't hang around.  With only 6 weeks before this contract expires, i'll need to start looking for the next one soon.  If they get back to me with an improved offer, and agree to being flexible with working hours I might take it.

RPG display

 My local second hand bookshop has a rpg display this morning.  I sent a message to all of my local nerds and most of them already knew. 

More arrivals

 These two i'd written off as hey never turned up.  I managed to get a refund from etsy because of it.  The postie came round yesterday and apologised as they were delivered to the old peoples home opposite by mistake (Mid January).  Doh!  I tried getting in touch with the company I bought them from but they were no longer on the etsy site.

Oxen Bone dice

 This arrived yesterday, it's quite nice.  Made from real bone.

Moussaka

 I made my first moussaka yesterday.  Not bad.  Perhaps a little too brown on top, but other than that, it was nice.

Finally, some prolonged good weather

 Walking with the dog yesterday for lunch.

Shoulder update

 It's been 5 weeks and a day since I had my shoulder operation and think my recovery is going fine.  I think I slept awkwardly on it last night so it's a little akey, but I managed to go on the cross trainer this morning and think it's going okay.  I had another physio session last week and he's got me doing lifts with 1kg and 2kg loads.  Not what i'm used to but little by little will be a better then lots and the repair failing.

I had a look at the claim from for the operation last week too and it was over £5.5k!  Ouch!  Ouch indeed.  The total cost so far is probably over £8k.  With a number of consultations, a pain injection, an MRI, a separate bill from the anaesthetist and multiple trips to the physio.  

New D20

 My new d20 made out of bone arrived yesterday.  Back to the game's cafe tonight so will put it straight into action.

Pizza and rugby

 What's not to like?  We had 3 rugby coaching families over on Saturday including their kids.  We made pizzas for everyone before watching the rugby.

My attempt at a calzone

The best pizza

Arwen helping

Rugby training

 We had good numbers on Sunday for our rugby training.  Here's Arthur outrunning one of the other boys.

Doh!

 I went to a rugby training course on Monday night and only realised i'd brought the wrong boot bag when I got there.

Back to work

 I'm finally back to work after 4 weeks and a day off.  Not much has happened really.  Only two weeks to go before I use the last of my holiday and have another 2 weeks off!

Big weekend

The weekend was fun, we did loads and I was tired at the start of the week.  Luckily I wasn't allowed to start back at work till Tuesday.

Thursday:  April went to a gig

Friday: Under 6s coaches curry night followed by April singing karaoke in the Chequers. 

Saturday:  April in London to see Harlequins ladies play at the stoop.  8:30 train to London followed by bottomless brunch (prosecco) with the ladies rugby team.  I watched the first rugby game of the day with my mate and his kids round ours.  After that we headed to the rugby club to watch the England game then onto a 50th birthday party.

Sunday: Edenbridge Festival or at least for 15 mins.  Flo was sick in the morning but still wanted to go to the rugby festival so I took her.  Once there she was clearly not well, so I took her home after about 20 mins.  I missed the u6 training session but it went well.  I then went to the rugby club as April was playing that afternoon.  I needed to look after the kids whist she played. How things have changed!

A spot of sunbathing

 It's lovely in Tonbridge at the minute and Josie is making the most of it.

World book day

 It's world book day today so April made Arthur a Timmy the dog outfit from the Famous Five, and adjusted an adult dress for Flo.  Can't remember who she's supposed to be.  The book's called something about a clockwork something or other.  She does make a real effort with all this stuff.

Back to D&D

 After a month off due to the operation, GM holidays and not wanting to spend £40+ on baby sitting for a one shot in a system I can't be bothered to play, I had my first d&d session in a month on Tuesday.  We're level 18 now so only actually did 2 things.  The first was a bit of investigation which my character is useless at, the second was a fight which takes fucking ages.  

With all the powers and abilities characters have in 5.5 at level 18 you really do need a tablet or phone with a d&d app installed to speed things up.  Unfortunately we have one old school guy that played the original when it first came out and it can sometimes take him minutes going through the rule book each round to work out what spell he can cast.  He's a good chap so I don't bust his balls but it was painful at times.  In other news.  I did a quivering strike on the main bad guy and got a nat 20.  The GM tried to block it by making me have disadvantage, so I rolled again and got another 20! That's 20d12+8 damage.  Oops.  The for my other 4 attacks!  I nearly one shotted him!

This is a 3d printed Tarrasque that our GM's nephew printed for him.  I have a sneaky feeling we may be meeting it soon.  Where did I put that scroll of the comet?

Trip to Worthing

 I popped down to Worthing yesterday to see my brother and we popped into a Turkish restaurant sandwiched between a couple of pubs.  It was pretty decent. 

Weekend

 We had a good weekend last week, and going to have another hectic one this week.

Saturday we had lunch round one of Arthur's school buddies house, this was followed by a dinner party round some friends house.

Sunday was rugby training, followed by roast beef with friends round ours.

This weekend, we have a rugby coaches curry on Friday then April is off out in London on Saturday morning  with the ladies rugby team to watch a Harlequins game, followed by a rugby 50th birthday.

Sunday, will be more rugby training, although I might take Flo to Edenbridge for a rugby festival, before heading back to Tonbridge to watch April play her first home game of rugby.

When April first met me, I bet she didn't realise she was going to have her whole life focused on rugby.

Ha!

Not back to work

 So, no return to work note so looks like i'm stuck on sick leave.  I've tried my physio and doctor and they can't do it and i've had no response from my surgeon.  Oh well, I could take holiday, but that's currently booked over Easter so that I have 2 weeks off in one hit and don't want to miss that so going to take the hit.  I've just been told about my bonus for 2025 and it was pretty decent, so not worried about cash.  It was 31% prorated down to around 20% as I only worked 2/3rds of the year.  Pretty decent really, although a good proportion will be taken away as cash so not as good as the headline figure.