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

 

Last day at the beach

Here we are on our last day at the beach.

Flo testing out a snorkle

Arthur trying on a knock off replica kit 

Dog walk

 We dog sat for April's rugby coach on Saturday night / Sunday.  She'd kindly looked after Arwen whilst we were away in Spain.  We took them for an hours walk round Dean Park, a local wood.  The dogs had a great time.  So did we!

Ribs for lunch

 I over ordered food before we left for Spain so had these to look forward to when we got back.  This was our lunch on Sunday.

Dog biscuit omleette

 I had some left over egg (for coating the pie), so I made a dog biscuit omelette for Arwen and Brody

Chicken pie with sweet potatoe

 With a little help from Florence, April  and Arthur I cooked this for tea last night.  Not bad.

Idiots

 I ordered 24 bottles of wine a couple of weeks ago and one of the boxes had pink fizz in rather than my wine so I took the box back to Waitrose and asked them to send me the correct wine. They've just redelivered the whole order of 24 bottles, not just the 6 that I was short! Plus i've been given a £15 voucher for my inconvenience!

Dog agility

 One of April's work colleagues looked after Arwen this weekend whilst we were away in London for the Metallica gigs.  There's a dog agility course near their house.

Metallica gig 2 (Sunday)

 

Metallica gig 1 (Friday)

 

Metallica weekend!

 It's the long awaited Metallica weekend. My friend bought them for us last year as he's a season ticket holder at West Ham but they were only delivered in the app on Wednesday!  It's all good, they've been transferred over to me now.

We're going with Shaheen and Kate, we're picking the kids up early at school (4pm) driving straight to to theirs, dropping the kids off with their baby sitter then Kate's driving us to the London Stadium.  We'll see the gig then head back to Shaheen's.  I think we have a restaurant or two planned on Saturday, then it's rinse and repeat on Sunday night.

England are playing Mexico at 1am on Monday morning so there is a plan to stay up and watch that!  Then we need to drive back (April's driving) and we're dropping the kids straight into school.  Urgh!

Wrong box

 One of my boxes of wine from Waitrose was incorrect.  What was supposed to be pinot grigio, is sparkling rose. Not really my cup of tea really, or wine for that matter.

Nice surprise

 I received a letter from HMRC yesterday and it said i'd overpaid £460 in tax last year.  Whohoo!  It was a little convoluted to arrange to get it back but that's done now.