Mind the child !!

Well last night we started the painful task of trying to find childcare for Isa when Mum goes back to work in March. Last night it was very much hit and total miss.

We weren’t off to a good start when we pulled up to what looked like a rundown house. Luckily it wasn’t the childminders house. Although she did come out the house next to it. Whilst I am sure she is lovely person the house didn’t really say “Come in and your kids will be safe”. She did have all the paperwork but we were left the feeling of “NO WAY IN HELL”. I guess I am spoilt as Charlotte Old (now) childminder was very good. Anyway.........

Whilst out we thought we would have a look and see where the two nurseries are the first one was blinding very nice. Kind of on a farm in a barn. The other again really did say “F**K off and die”, but impressions are not all they seem. We did have a quick tour round the barn one and Mari is going back next week for the full tour.

Sometime I wish we were closer to family.

Man down

Chaiboy has gone off sick with bad ribs......... oooh dear.


Bad night last night. Isa had not gifted us with a nice runny nappy yesterday so I think she was feeling constipated. Which meant she wouldn’t settle at all. Fortunately that has resolved itself today and she seems much happier........ according to Mum.

Follow the Blue line.

Had a cracking weekend this past one. I took a long weekend to spend time with Mari and Isa. Bearing in mind I spent last Saturday at Fairford and Tuesday night beating up Chairboy. I thought it only fair.

I had my first experience of proper Sat Nav at the weekend. In that I mean I wasn’t really sure where I was going so was relying on my phone to do the work for me. I have the nokia OVI maps app installed and to be honest it worked really well.

I need to work out how to set waypoints. The damn thing wanted to send me to junction 12 to pick up M4 when it is actually quicker to go to J11.
It coped really well with the A404 being closed at the junction with the M4.
You really need to follow the Blue line on the map rather than the vocal instructions.

I then got into a debate with the some of the guest at the house we were at. It was definitely a Male/female split. The guys wife was saying that he would not allow her to use Sat nav until she learnt to read a map. Having watched on various occasions Airplanes trying to land at the wrong the airfield (including a Russian transporter heading Farnborough) I would have to agree that in the first place you should always consult a map so that 1) you know where you are going 2) Know when it is going wrong 3) If it does go wrong you know how to fix it.

Spare ribs.

Seems that there are two casualties to Tuesday night’s game. In the red corner is Chairboy. It seems that the author of this blog maliciously damaged/Cracked/Broken one or possible two of Chairboy’s ribs in vicious challenge. I am feeling rather guilty about if I am honest but I have evidence to present in mitigation.

First off your honour, it was about ¾ of the way through the game. My knees had decided to pack up and go home about ten minutes before. Chairboy and I were challenging for a 50 / 50 ball. No Knees meant I had feck all chance of stopping or turning. Imagine a runaway train.

Secondly we were treated earlier to Mr Gurney “bouncing” of Chairboy in a similar challenge. It was true comedy moment as Dorothy met the unmoveable.

So with those two points in mind I decided to take the impact, dust myself off, laugh and get on with it. Unfortunately I think Chairboy was thinking about his Iphone4 and lack of signal because he didn’t read the script and didn’t brace himself.

Result = Chairboy going ouch. Me going ooooh.

I truly am sorry as it was his birthday yesterday and he spent on the sofa in pain.

The second causality was me.
Late football + unsettled Isa + hunger = Me in dog house. It is all totally fair and I can’t complain although I think I will need to wait until Isa settles more in the afternoons.

A tale of two stories.

First up had a bit of scary moment on Monday night. Mrs H was not feeling to grand. So after a visit to the Northhants doc they prescribed a some pills for an infection she has. The only place still open was Tesco complex , which had a boots. After getting the drugs she want chocolate so went to Tesco’s. Anyway there some teenagers hanging around. High class kids if you catch my drift. They type that should probably get used the layout of Tesco’s car park as I am sure the local knowledge will do them well when they are trolley collecting. Anyway, one of the little gits was hiding the bush and jumping out at unsuspecting passersby and giving them a bloody good scare. Anyway they did it some Lady:
Me “OI PACK IT IN”
Them “ WHA We just havin a laff init”
Me “Well it is not funny”
Them “yes it FUCKING is” and started getting a bit.................eerrr agressive

At this point I started to regret my bravado and ushered Mrs H towards the shop. Where I did the very brave thing and informed the security guard.

Secondly Footie last night were I seemed to have broken Chairboy..... Here is the excellent match report by the excellent Chadwick.

The Venue: Reading Uni Cage Fighting Arena, temporarily relocated in the middle of the Sahara

The Teams:
Whites
Adam "My Legs HUUURT" G
Graham "The Cat" T
Calvin "Lampard" M
Rich "Thwack!" W
Alex "The Other Alex"
Blues
Doug "Excuses" G
James "No Middle Name" D
Paul "Last ditch tackle" N
Gareth "Wheres My Finger?" H
Alex "Messi" G

The Score:
11-9 to the Whites (according to Gareth)

The Pre-Match Build-up:
(this was written BEFORE the match)
With everyone full of bravado prior to the big kick-off, you just know its going to be a major let down.
Doug "dorothy's red shoes" Gurney started getting in the excuses early, claiming to have "pulled a muscle". I'm sure by this he means that big burly chap he was talking to.
My own legs and feet are hurting from playing last night (monday), but i'm not telling anyone that. D'oh!
At least the weather is on our side, with the forecast "heatwave" turning out to be a blatant lie. Hmph. Scratch that. Having been out, its still darn hot.

My pre-match prediction is a narrow victory for the whites. But I'm biased, obviously.

The Report:
After a short 5(?) year break in playing, the usual suspects returned (minus Michael "The Scud" Biggs who was the subject of a big money transfer abroad to Melaka United) bringing with them some new signings. These new signings included top flight shot-stopper, Graham "The Cat" Tucker who was signed for a record-breaking fee of 5 coke bottle tops (3 normal coke, 2 coke zero) and a dairylea triangle, and Alex "Messi" Gibson nicknamed not cos of his silky Argentinian skills but because of his unkempt 1970's hairstyle.
The first test of the day was to find the changing rooms, with the blokes having been replaced by the birds in the 5 years since the last game. They turned out to be along a first world war trench that led back to the Shinfield Park sub-sub-sub basement. Many good players were lost on the journey.
Calvin was the first to the pitch and promptly started jogging around, showing his intent on taking the match seriously whilst Adam and Graham ambled across feeling knackered just watching him. That soon changed, during the pre-match warm-up when Adam and Graham tired themselves out in the extreme Iraqi heat whilst Calvin watched on from the sidelines before coming along to launch a Frank Lampard "did it cross the line" ballistic missile of a shot. Next game will be £500 each as we need to fund the goal-line technology we quite clearly require.
Before the match could start, there was much discussion of which ball to use. Gareth took on the role of goldilocks (from the much loved children's story, Goldilocks and the Three Balls - you can make up your own jokes about that):
"this ball is too light"
"this ball is too hard"
"this ball is also too hard, but i'll shut up now or they'll think i'm a wimp"
With the arrival of Alex G, the match started with the Whites 4 taking on the Blues 5. This unbalance in the sides was laughed off by the Whites who's mantra was "we can take these with 4". All I can say is, thank flip the other Alex appeared shortly after or it could've been a cricket score (although I think Gareth thought he was playing Rugby with the number of conversions he made).
All the media focus before the game was on who was going to score first. All of the sensible money was on Calvin, and he failed to disappoint, slotting home the opening goal within the first couple of minutes. But it wasn't long before the Blues hit back with a well worked equaliser.
At some point during the first half, someone managed to hit Rich smack in the side of his head with the ball... it made one of the most painful sounding "thwack!" noises I've heard in a long time. Quite how he managed to stay on his feet is anyones guess.. Not long after this, Gareth almost left his finger behind in the fence following a good side of the pitch battle with Graham. He'd have lost more than a finger if Graham had caught him.
Graham himself was a victim of the fence later in the second half, taking a blow to the ribs after clattering into the fence.
With 10 minutes remaining, the weather decided to cloud over and cool down, much to the relief of everyone, especially a totally knackered Adam who them promptly found his scoring boots (they were under Doug's bag). Shame he kept falling over, like Bambi on ice.

After Thoughts:
We must pay the extra for ball boys next time..
To those who asked "how much did it cost to rent the pitch for an hour?"... £50, hence me asking for £5 from each of the 10 of us.
Don't those little rubber pellets get everywhere? (including my desk, thanks Graham!)

Quote of the Game / Unwanted Mental Image of the Week:
Calvin: "I'm going to be pulling little black bits out of my bum for weeks"

Raptor man

What a cracking weekend.

First the IAT at Fairford was incredible. Had a real MasterCard moment.

Tickets to Air show £90
Fuel £50
Queue to get in 2hour
Seeing your Dad cry as the Vulcan took off – Priceless.

To be honest they were both like big kids when she taxed from the dispersal. Great fun. For me the Raptor was by far the best. I also enjoyed the mighty Wokka and the tornado Gr4 display mainly because I have worked with both.

Sunday was a family which involved playing Wii with Charlotte. Singing with Isa (Charlotte taking the English lead and Mari the Spanish). Then Golf for Mum and Dad. Finally Chinese food which also a guest appearance by Brunx

Dream on...

Today’s early alarm was sponsored by the sound of silence.

I got the nudge at 4am this morning.

Mrs H – “ Bebe...... BEbe.......BEBE!!”
Me – “ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ The cow just robbed brazil in pyjamas’.... WTF?”
Mrs H – “ Isa has been a sleep for 8 hours it is not like her can you check”
Me – “Where am I ???? Huh ??? WHAT?”
Mrs H – “ Isa has been a sleep for 8 hours it is not like her can you check”
Me – “ Mumble mumble”, 'kicks toe on bed', “Shite”
Creeps to Isa’s room avoiding creaky boards. Slowly opens door.
Isa – “zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz”

So I was basically woken last night for no noise. To be honest though the love has been feeding every 2-3 hours during the night. I of course then struggled to go back to sleep while all around slumbered sweetly.......................... nice

and in the Blue corner......

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHH !!!

So yesterday I took part in the Boxercise demo for a promotion of the gym. Originally there were supposed to be eight of us taking part but once the “too much work” and the “I don’t want to do it in front of people” volunteers pulled it left two of us. Which meant we had to work double as a hard. Bearing in mind you didn’t want to look a twat while people watched you, meant we both probably pushed ourselves a lot more. Add the no AC and warm lights. So today I am feeling it.

Second night of random alarms going off but this time it wasn’t ours, unless you count the four month old talking alarm. Who by the way has decided to get up every two hours. Anyway not sure where it was but not really appreciated at 3am.

Finally this weekend we are off to Fairford in the hope that Mum and Dad can see XH558 fly. Dad actually worked on this bugger when it was proper low level bomber. They have tried for some years to see it fly and have contributed a large amount of money to the restore.. so wish us luck.

Fire, Fire, Fire

Holy hell and all the saints of doom I am knackered. Very short of sleep last night. Some of it is self inflicted whilst some just bloody annoying. For some reason the smoke alarms in the house went off last night at about 3am. So after jumping out of bed first checking for fire and then checking I had turned them off from the mains I went back to bed. Only this morning I was starting to think it was a dream until I went downstairs and found the fuse box open. You see I had to turn them off from the mains as they had been going of spuriously during the night. I thought this had solved the problem but seems not.

So I am on my second cuppa of the morning and might need to borrow some coffee of someone this afternoon.

now with wings

Couple of points from the weekend.

1. Isa now seems to recognize her Dad. Keeps smiling when I come in the room and cries when I leave.
2. Always takes some adjusting having CN after a break. Kind of like adjusting to our house.
3. Red Bull must employ the same PR guy as the Iraq’s in GW2. “There are no Tanks in Bagdad”, as a US tank rolled past behind him. “There is no favouritism in Red Bull”, as they nick Mark Webber’s font wing for their number one..... umm sorry other driver.
4. Holland ... SHUT UP about the ref. If anything you should thank him for not sending of at least two of your players. Prehaps have a word with Moaner Robben, who missed the easiest chance of the final.

Friiiiday Baby

.. and it is much needed.

Yesterday was a long day. I didn't get home until 8.30ish and was totally knackered. Bit of soup, bit of Two and Half men and bed for me. Didn't get to spend any quality time with Isa as she had just gone up and didn't want to distrurb her. Did poke my head in later.

Plans for weekend involve British GP, World cup final and maybe a trip to see Shrek.

How Long???

Could be a long night. Reinstall of software going ahead tonight.

In other news.

Isa had her 3rd set of jabs on Tuesday and is feeling a little bit under the weather.
Diet, can't really call it a diet just less eating, is going OK. Tis the weekends that cause the most fuss.

It continues

My nightmare continues with the bloody software. We are now in the process of re-installing the core software in the hope that it will resolve our issue. Which means a late night at work today but a later one for Dev in India.

Now it bleedin wont install.......... grrrreeeeeeat

Barrel of a gun

Addiction runs deep in my family. I think I mentioned before my Uncles unfortunate demise. However I probably didn’t mention my Mothers addiction to the drink as well. She has been sober now for nearly 25 years and I have massive respect for that. I always thought my Farther was probably borderline but he has gotten his act together over the last few years.

So what is my addiction. Well having avoided alcohol, drugs and smoking I am starting to think it is food. No seriously. Sometimes the urge to eat is so over whelming it consumes my every thought. The hung pains kick in even though I have just eaten and should be full. The only thing saving me right now is the gym as I think this keeping the weight down. I feel guilty when I stuff myself and can’t shake the feeling.

What am I going to do about it? Well for start I have stopped snacking in between meals, which is incredibly hard. I have cut down on the potions and started to try and eat healthy. IF I need to eat I try some fruit or veg.

I appreciate that this sounds a bit stupid but I can’t help but feel this my ‘thing’.

Back at yer

I decided to try and get back into updating this on regular basis. Reading back through some of the older posts I remember now why I started it. It was never as an award winning advert for my writing talents but rather a diary. It was great reading some of the old posts and remembering the events around them. Guess I lost sight of that.

It’s been a bit of strange week to be honest. I have had this feeling of uselessness all week. Mainly brought on by work and not really being able to support Mari in the evenings with Isabel. In practice this is not true since I am taking care of the house while Mari feeds and then settles her in the evenings. I get to bath and prepare her for bed but since she is going to Boobarella’s to feed I can’t really do more there. I guess once we go to bottles and weaning that will change. This feeling was doubley compounded this weekend by lack of cash (end of the month and all that) and leaving Mari’s very nice changing mat, that went with her bag, in the baby changing in the Oracle. It may seem small but it was the only think I was asked to do and managed to screw it up.

Sunday was grand with a nice picnic with the NCT gang even though it was a little cold. Guys ended up doing laps of the pond with babies while the women (and Phil) chatted. It was a bit like a full scale squadron alert as each time we picked up one more Dad and Buggy.