Spring's certainly here

 According to the garden anyway.  The temperature outside doesn't feel that way!

Cooked for 10 yesterday

 We're away next weekend with a couple of families from Flo's class.  I practiced cooking a roast lamb for some Tonbridge friends this weekend as i've promised to do the same on holiday.  It turned out okay, but won't be doing the potatoes again.

Arthur rugby

Arthur's been playing rugby since he was 2 and is still doing rugby tots on Saturdays but we've started taking him to the u6s which comprised of under 6 kids and under 5 kids.  Arthur is officially under 4s (4 in May) so a little young.  He's a little intimidated during a couple of games but April's with him throughout so loves it.  Here he is after Sunday's wet and muddy session.

Flo started at 2 too.  She got to grips with it straight away, but after a year or two Arthur's really started to enjoy himself and has gained a lot of confidence.  At one point when he was very young I had to basically carry him around for the full session.  Arthur was and still is a lump so you can imagine how my back felt after that.  With a little break we've persevered and very pleased with his progress.

 

First bbq of the year

 We had our first bbq of the year on Saturday.  Although it was fairly delayed...  It was pretty moldy!  Yuk!  Nice though.  And nobody has died so we must have cleaned it all up enough.

Rugby club

We met up with a few of the other u6/u7 families at the rugby club on Saturday or some of the final weekend of the 6 nations.  It was good fun but we need to get April more involved.  She's been brilliant and has been helping out getting Arthur integrated into the u6s (and u5s) before he's officially allowed to start next season.

Arthur got a little pooped at one point.

Partners in crime.

As we were all leaving someone bought me another pint...  Much to April's annoyance she allowed me.  I drank it very quickly and even made it back before them all.  Good fun though.

15 days left

 I don't finish my latest contract till the end of April but with holidays / bank holidays i've only got 15 working days left.  I've enjoyed my time and it's been a fairly relaxed working environment but I want to go back to proper contracting.  I'm going to start looking properly next month. Let's hope something comes along...

So I got my bonus

 Although it's not been paid into my account yet. Should be Friday.  I received the most I could get (for a good rating). 110% of 15% of 66.67% (only there for 8/12 months of 2023) of my gross salary.  Half's gone straight into my pension as it's tax free and they inflate it what they would have paid in employers national insurance, 6.5%.  The rest i've taken for myself to pay off a couple of bits and maybe buy myself something nice.

Well that's a bugger

 Luckily one of our party had some glue on him so was able to get fixed.  We might not be using him for too much longer anyway as the GM thinks he's going to TPK us next week.  That will be fun!

Yesterday's walk

 We were both in London yesterday so Arwen didn't get much of a walk.  I took her for a quick 30 mins to the local park and her favourite part the model railway.  We don't like leaving her on her own and it's very rare, maybe once or twice.  She mostly sleeps all day anyway but sometimes it can't be helped.

Found this on my walk this morning

Another 11k, 14 thousand steps this morning.  During the walk I found this in the the middle of a farmers field!  A large I assume freshwater mussel.  I've seen a few before but very strange to see out in the open 500m from the river.