Professionals at Work?
I had to chuckle this afternoon when I arrived home from work to see some so called professional painters working on the house opposite. And as soon as I got out of my car I was approached by one of them offering to quote to do my exterior paintwork too.
I made my excuses and went inside.
One of the guys was working on the porch area and judging by his top he wasn’t the most careful of decorators.
Then the second chap started climbing a ladder and proceeded to paint the eaves, from the roof!
I couldn’t resist getting out my camera and snapped a couple of shots of these professionals at work.
I don’t think somehow they belong to ‘The Guild of Painters & Decorators’.
In: Stuff · Tagged with: cowboys, health & safety, painters
Fat Git Alert
I’ve not weighed myself for a while; I knew I’d put on a bit of weight through the summer as I was starting to feel uncomfortable even in my elasticated shorts 
And so last night I weighed my self and I was shocked to see I was now heavier that I’d ever been at 16st 8 1/2 lbs.
And so on climbing into bed like a beached whale, I vowed to Tina that I will go on a diet.
And so with a sense of purpose I got up this morning and weighed myself again and hey presto I’ve lost 2 lb overnight.
Good start but somehow I don’t think the next stone or two will be quite as easy as that.
I intend to publish a regular report on how my mammoth task is going so watch this space!
In: Me Stuff · Tagged with: fat git, overweight
Winners & Losers
Yesterday we attended a charity football match in honour of our next door neighbour Rebecca who was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer earlier in the year.
The match was organised by her two sons Ben and Harry, who felt it would be a good way to raise some money for the Woodlands Trust Cancer Care Unit at Hinchingbrooke Hospital, Cambs who have been caring for Rebecca. And an article with of the match even made it into the local newspaper, the Kettering ET.
Rebecca is such a well known and popular person around Thrapston and beyond; it was really good to see so many people turn up to support her and the charity. The world will be a sadder place when we lose her, but hopefully that won’t be for a long time yet!
The game was played out in good spirits, with the referee issuing red and yellow cards galore under the strict instructions that the players had to pay their fines to the charity. A prize raffle and auction of the Ian Rush signed Liverpool shirt followed adding more money to the total, which eventually came to over £800.
Well done to the boys for organising such an event, you did your mum proud!
In: Sports Stuff, Stuff · Tagged with: fooball, liver cancer, woodlands trust cancer care unit
We must be home…
Coz…
there is a pile of washing in the kitchen
there is a heap of bills on the doormat
there is a garage full of suitcases ready to be stored away
there is a foot of grass waiting to be cut in the garden
there is a load of credit card receipts in my wallet
there is a load of provisions in the fridge after visiting the supermarket
there is a load of photos that need copying from my camera to my pc
there is a load junk e-mails to delete
I think I need to book another holiday!
In: Home Stuff, Travel Stuff · Tagged with: bills, holiday
Riding the tracks
This week whilst in Kent/Sussex just for pleasure we have been on a couple of train journeys, which is not something we normally consider when at home (to me trains take you to somewhere you want to go and that is it). But when on holiday I seem drawn to these types of attractions and so when Tina and I were looking to pass some time I suggested we ride the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Light Railway.
This railway was built in the 1920’s by two men Captain J. E. P. Howey and Count Louis Zborowski and runs for 13.5 miles between a small town called Hythe, close to Folkestone and the Dungeness peninsula.
We decided to ride the train from end to end and whilst some of the journey covered some nice scenery, much of it was along the back gardens of properties backing on to the line; and looking into people’s living rooms is not really that interesting. And when we arrived at Dungeness the landscape was featureless, with the now decommissioned nuclear power station dominating the skyline. I appreciate that this building was not around in the 20’s but I cannot see why they decided to build the tracks to that part of the county anyhow. Yes, there is a lighthouse but that’s about it. We didn’t stay long there, especially as it started raining soon after we arrived.
The second railway we rode this week was in Hastings and was slightly different to the first. This one was a funicular railway, which is one that gets you up a cliff or incline. In Hastings there are two to choose from and we rode the West Cliff one.
This railway was finally opened in 1889’s, rather later than planned and takes you up an incline of 1 in 3 for 152 metres to a park at the top of the cliff. Although the views from this one were not panoramic as it rides up a tunnel, the engineering feat of building such a railway was fascinating, and still as good today as it was when it was built over 120 years ago.
So out of the two railway journeys taken this week, it was the second that I enjoyed most and judging by the number of these types of railways around the world, I think I will make a habit of trying out some different ones whenever I come across any more.
In: Travel Stuff · Tagged with: Dungeness, funicular, Hastings cliff railway, light railways, Romney Hythe Dymchurch Railway
Passing the time
It’s been a disappointing week weather wise hear in Kent, which has meant I have spent more time in our accommodation than I would have liked to. So thankfully my iPad has come to the rescue and kept me entertained during the heavy rainfall we’ve experienced. Light showers wouldn’t normally stop us from venturing out but the quantity of rain over the last couple of days has been quite restrictive. We did go to Dungeness and got soaked, the adjacent picture showing the rain on the window carriage of the light railway that got us there.
As I’m normally an early bird, I find it difficult to adjust when on holiday, so usually get up and go for a walk on the beach or do some exploring before the family gets up, but this week I’ve not bothered as the weather has been so crap. 
Instead I’ve stayed in bed and watched some of the tech video’s I’ve subscribed to and previously downloaded (iPad today, This Week in Tech to name but a few).
Another use of the iPad this week that I haven’t really used before is it as a games machine. Whilst I have many games apps installed, I hadn’t really bothered with them, much preferring to read or watch content rather than play. But due to the additional time sitting around waiting for the weather to improve, I have been playing Scrabble and We Rule, a very addictive social game where you try to build a kingdom by growing food for gold coins which allows you to buy buildings which make more gold coins (sad I know but as I said very addictive once you start).
And the last use of my iPad has been to write this blog using a Wordpress app, whilst lying in bed listening more rain outside. Looks like another day of iPadness.
In: Gadget Stuff, Travel Stuff · Tagged with: holiday, iPad, Scrabble, Twit
Holidaying in Britain
The weather is crap, the accommodation is grim, the holiday site is dated, the bathroom is awful, the location is questionable, the other guests are common and the food and drinks expensive.
But hey, what did we expect… we are on holiday in Britain!
In: Travel Stuff · Tagged with: Dymchurch, Kent, Summer holiday
A very young team with a tough challenge ahead
Tonight is the first Championship game of the new season in which Norwich entertain Watford at Carrow Road and is being televised by Sky Sports.
It will be an interesting game, with newly promoted Norwich eager to start the campaign with a win and for a young Watford side a good test to see whether they are going to be able to step up to what could be a make or break season.
The Watford manager, Malky Mackay has resisted a signing spree after offloading a number of senior players in the summer, looking towards youth to build for the future. Whilst it is a bold step, I do wonder whether a squad with the average age of twenty one is going to be strong enough to get through the season unscathed and I have a feeling we will be looking to fight a relegation battle if we don’t get off to a good start.
Fingers crossed.
‘Come on you ‘orns’
In: Sports Stuff · Tagged with: watford fc
Finished at last and so on to the next…
Well it took me eight months but today I finally finished the latest Dan Brown book, The Lost Symbol. And boy was it hard going.
I have read all of his previous books, including the best seller The Da Vinci Code and found them okay reading, despite being a bit far fetched, but this one I really struggled with. It just didn’t spark me to want to read on, like most books I have read and so I tended to read a couple of pages, get bored and pick up my iPad instead.
I will admit there was a couple of parts in the book that I did think “that was clever, I didn’t see that twist”, but all in all I found it disappointing. Perhaps it’s just my reading tastes have changed?
I am now about to start the second of the trilogy written by Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Played With Fire. The first book, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, was the first ebook I have read, using both my iPhone and iPad and I thoroughly enjoyed using the new technology medium and enjoyed the book too.
I have just finished another book, this time an audio version called The Accidental Billionairres, an account of how Facebook came into being. Again a good read, which kept me amused during my recent drives to work.
I have another audio novel to finish, The Geneva Deception by James Twining which has also been hard going, but now I’m half way through it and the storyline is starting to come together so I will crack on with that one to the end. I still haven’t started the second instalment of Michael Palin’s diaries, Halfway to Hollywood, that’ll be the next audio book I guess.
I have also been reading two other ebooks on my iPad, Excel VBA Programming for Dummies and Excel 2007, Power Programming with VBA; more for reference than passing time as these have helped me with a project I have been working on at work.
So actually on reflection I can see why I have taken so long to read The Lost Symbol, I am reading too bloody much!
In: Book Stuff · Tagged with: Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol
Weekend Trip
With the kids not around this weekend, we decided to make an overnight stay in Suffolk in order to go and visit Sutton Hoo, a National Trust estate close to Felixstowe, contrasted firstly with a trip to Clacton-on-Sea in Essex.
We arrived at the seaside resort yesterday afternoon and wandered around the famous pier, mingled in the shops and walked the promenade. We were not impressed, both agreeing that most British seaside towns are now run down and not really appealing. And judging by the amount of people there yesterday, others felt the same, with most visitors foreign or Essex dwellers out for the day at their nearest seaside resort. It clearly needs money spending on it, but I guess the council realise that it would be wasted and cannot compete with the cheaper foreign destinations that most people opt for nowadays.
We left after two hours.
That night we stayed at a comfy Premier Inn on the outskirts of Ipswich, giving us a short journey to Sutton Hoo this morning. On arrival we did a short woodland walk, before joining a party for a guided tour of the site. The guide was very enthusiastic about the history, so much so that she took nearly two hours to explain the burial mounds, with many tourists dropping out close to the finish line, including us. Whilst it was good to hear the history from someone who clearly knew her stuff, we both had information overload towards the end and were glad to get back to the visitors centre for some lunch. Still the £5 charge for the tour was good value.
We then spent time in the visitors centre before looking around the estate house, which had been decorated in the period of the 1930’s, the time when the burial mounds were excavated. Again quite interesting to see the house left in this way.
We then drove home in good time, worn out after a busy couple of days.
In: Travel Stuff · Tagged with: Anglo Saxons, Ship burial, Suffolk
