Hi, Sorry i haven't had much to say lately.
Thought I'd update you all on Grace. She is now very nearly crawling, but also is getting better and better at walking too! She can get into the correct position for crawling, but instead of moving her knees forward she pushes them backwards so she collapses on the floor! This has been her trick for about a month or so now, she's the only one in our swimming group who can't crawl so when it comes to an exercise which involves crawling across a large float and then diving into the water she has to do a different exercise, I'm very embarrassed. I know i shouldn't be but "Dad envy" seems uncontrollable. I want her to be the best at everything but as she's small for her age she isn't as strong as other babies and i know i should just except the fact that she will eventually crawl,walk, get more hair, get teeth (that's Biffys fault, she didn't have any until past 1 year!) i can't help but feel dissapointed! I'm bloody awful! I can't believe i've become a competitive dad already! What am i going to be like when she starts at school!
Anyway, walking is her thing now, she is starting to walk around the furniture, she thinks she can walk on her own now which obviously leads to problems when we try and get her to walk to us across the room, she doesn't want to hold our hands which means she just falls over or cries uncontrollably! We have Biffys old baby walker which unfortunatly is too tall for her right now but as she seems to be continuing on her growth spurt she may well be ready for that soon!
Her hair is growing, from the back forward. She is getting quite a nice bit of hair back there, just not at the front yet!
No teeth to speak of, but as i said earlier, thats Biffys fault.
Biffy went and bought a new car seat today, Grace will now be facing forward on journeys!
That's about it for now, Grace is a fantastic addition to my family, she's very happy, has a great little laugh, is very beautiful (well she is MY daughter), quite frankly i couldn't ask for a better child.
Tuesday 22 December 2009
Sunday 22 November 2009
House misery
Well after months of faffing we are finally moving out. The problem is we have nowhere to move into. Well actually we are going to move into Biffys parents but the house we are buying is still occupied as our sellers have had to pull out of the house they were buying due to a greedy man who wanted £60k more for the house suddenly so they had no choice but to back out. This now means we are asking them to find rented accomodation so that we can move in. This is still in early negotiations as this all happened last week so we don't even know if they are now thinking about just staying put or what. I think whatever happens we are definatly not going to be in our new house for Christmas or new year, maybe not even Easter, who knows.
So at the moment we move out of our house in the next week or two and then live with Biffys parents for the indefinate future.
Ho hum......
So at the moment we move out of our house in the next week or two and then live with Biffys parents for the indefinate future.
Ho hum......
Wednesday 21 October 2009
I was born in the wrong era
I have decided i was born in the wrong era. My music tastes, my favourite films, the fact that I have an allotment, use a handkerchief, etc might just have something to do with it.
My favourite film, The Great Escape made in 1963, my favourite song, "Let there be love" by Nat King Cole, first released in 1961. I should have been born in the 40's so therefore to enjoy all these great things when they first came out.
My favourite artistes are Frank Sinatra, BB King and Nat King Cole. Steve McQueen is my icon, Marylin Monroe my favourite female movie star.
My fashion taste has never really been current. I must admit i don't actually wear clothes from the 60's but i don't really pay much attention to the current fashions. You won't find me wearing low slung jeans, or the latest trainers, probably a free show t-shirt and a pair of comfy boots!
I do want a cardigan for Christmas and yes i do wear slippers at home, actually thinking about it I would quite like a rocking chair too, I don't think i will go the whole hog and get a pipe yet though!
Yes I have an allotment, something that up till recently only old fellas had. Well I don't really think this is relevant in this blog, one of my neighbours is about 30 and he looks kinda cool and trendy. Gardening is very trendy at the moment, which means for once in my life I'm actually trendy but hardly Stella McCartney! (just to show you how uncool i am i nearly wrote Linda not Stella, she does (did) make very good veggie sausages!)
You might be saying that writing a blog is hardly old school, but actually it's kinda like writing a diary and people have been doing that for centuries!!
Toodle pip.
Saturday 3 October 2009
Every allotment needs a "Ted"
Every Allotment needs a man called Ted.
On my allotment we have a man called Ted, he's brilliant. He is the quintesential british allotmenteer. He has been on the plot for over 30 years, has about 5 different plots, knows everybody, makes fantastic tea and is always smiling.
From what i can gather Ted used to be the caretaker for the allotments (i'm on the new part but he's on the old, together there are over 15 acres!), but ill health stopped him. It certainly didn't stop him from growing veg though! Teds plots are emaculate. Rows upon rows of every veg you can imagine. I don't know what he does with it all but none the less it doesn't seem to stop him from growing more!
He is always the first person you see in the morning, and at every 11,1,3, and 5 o'clock the hooter sounds and he's making a brew for whoever wants one at the allotment tea hut.
I've got a few friends on other allotments and they all too seem to have a man called Ted on their plots too. I'm not sure if these other "Teds" are as good as mine but none the less it seems to me that if you want a good allotment, don't just make sure the soil is good, the position with the sun seems right or how far it is from your house, just make there is a man called Ted on the allotment somewhere, then you'll know the plot is right for you.
On my allotment we have a man called Ted, he's brilliant. He is the quintesential british allotmenteer. He has been on the plot for over 30 years, has about 5 different plots, knows everybody, makes fantastic tea and is always smiling.
From what i can gather Ted used to be the caretaker for the allotments (i'm on the new part but he's on the old, together there are over 15 acres!), but ill health stopped him. It certainly didn't stop him from growing veg though! Teds plots are emaculate. Rows upon rows of every veg you can imagine. I don't know what he does with it all but none the less it doesn't seem to stop him from growing more!
He is always the first person you see in the morning, and at every 11,1,3, and 5 o'clock the hooter sounds and he's making a brew for whoever wants one at the allotment tea hut.
I've got a few friends on other allotments and they all too seem to have a man called Ted on their plots too. I'm not sure if these other "Teds" are as good as mine but none the less it seems to me that if you want a good allotment, don't just make sure the soil is good, the position with the sun seems right or how far it is from your house, just make there is a man called Ted on the allotment somewhere, then you'll know the plot is right for you.
Thursday 17 September 2009
Tuesday 15 September 2009
X factor
I hate X Factor. I hate everything about it. I hate the way it exploits people, I hate the way it makes fun of people and I hate the whole pointlessness of it all. I know most of you are probably fans of X Factor. Well just bear with me.
When did it become OK to publicly humiliate people on national TV? I know most of the people going on the show understand what they are getting themselves in to but there is also the very small amount people who are completely deluded. These poor people are thrust in front of the cameras, encouraged to perform then shot down my that absolute wanker Simon Cowell. Would you laugh in someones face if they had been asked to perform in front of you and they were crap? No you wouldn't, because it's just plain rude. It's at if we've been taken back hundreds of years to Roman times and we're all the emperors giving them the thumbs down so we can throw them to the lions!
Another pointless thing about X Factor is the actually prize. Nobody watches X factor because they want to see the next big thing. I admit there are the occasional ones that become successful, but on the whole, they go to number one at Christmas(if they win) or they release one song and then are suddenly dropped by the record company. There is a reason why these people haven't been found by record companies before, it's because generally they aren't really that good!
Please everyone read Ben Eltons Chart Throb. It is hilarious and absolutely rips apart the whole X Factor wonderfully.
I could go on and on but I'm sure by now you've already stopped reading.
Tara for now.
When did it become OK to publicly humiliate people on national TV? I know most of the people going on the show understand what they are getting themselves in to but there is also the very small amount people who are completely deluded. These poor people are thrust in front of the cameras, encouraged to perform then shot down my that absolute wanker Simon Cowell. Would you laugh in someones face if they had been asked to perform in front of you and they were crap? No you wouldn't, because it's just plain rude. It's at if we've been taken back hundreds of years to Roman times and we're all the emperors giving them the thumbs down so we can throw them to the lions!
Another pointless thing about X Factor is the actually prize. Nobody watches X factor because they want to see the next big thing. I admit there are the occasional ones that become successful, but on the whole, they go to number one at Christmas(if they win) or they release one song and then are suddenly dropped by the record company. There is a reason why these people haven't been found by record companies before, it's because generally they aren't really that good!
Please everyone read Ben Eltons Chart Throb. It is hilarious and absolutely rips apart the whole X Factor wonderfully.
I could go on and on but I'm sure by now you've already stopped reading.
Tara for now.
Saturday 12 September 2009
Allotment
I haven't written about my allotment yet! What have I been doing!
Well to start at the beginning. I got my plot June 2008. It was very overgrown and in need of much love and attention. So I started hacking and chopping to my hearts content. And then I continued hacking, chopping but also digging. (I officially hate dock, it's a weed for those of you who think I'm being horrible to someone I know called dock, I don't know anyone called dock, er where was I?) I suppose it took me and my family (thankyou all) only about 2 weeks to clear all the weeds.
I then started to draw a plan of what my plot would look like. As it's very long and narrow I thought it best to have a path straight down the middle with beds on either side. I wanted a few fruit trees and maybe a fruit patch too so decided to make the beds go only three quaters of the way down the plot. The last quater I decided was going to have berries, rhubarb, fruit trees, my compost bins and most importantly my shed!!
Now the next task was to find enough wood to make my beds. Fortunatly Biffys Grandad had loads of old wood in his garage. I think the wood I got from him made about 4 of my planned 9 beds. Oh and also I managed to get some old windows and a glass door which I made into my cold frame. I think the best bit of wood foraging I did was when I saw loads of planks in a skip. They looked to have been from a roof as one side was painted with black tar stuff. I asked the bloke who I knew the skip belonged to if it was OK to have the wood and he was more than happy for me to take it!
So I eventually got all the beds made. I think it was about January when I finshed them.
In October I had got my first produce in the ground, Onions! This meant I would have Onions for Spring/Summer.
I ordered all my seeds through the allotment seed scheme where you're given a catalogue and choose your seeds, then order them through the allotment trust, this is cheaper for me and I believe the trust gets some money from it.
My choices were: Potatoes; Red King Duke of York, Cara, and Kestrel. Tomatoes; Gardeners delight and Golden Sunrise. Sweetcorn, Beetroot, Runner Beans, French Dwarf beans, Parsnips, Leeks, and Celery. I also bought from garden centres Rhubarb, Blackcurrants and Autumn Raspberries. Plus I had leftover seeds from the previous year (from my small patch at home), they included Carrots, Thyme, Courgettes, Squash and Rocket. Blimey that's a lot of stuff!
I realise I'm wittering on here so i'll stop for now and continue another time, where I'll tell you all about the how I got my shed, my turf and fruit trees all for free!
Ta ta for now.
Well to start at the beginning. I got my plot June 2008. It was very overgrown and in need of much love and attention. So I started hacking and chopping to my hearts content. And then I continued hacking, chopping but also digging. (I officially hate dock, it's a weed for those of you who think I'm being horrible to someone I know called dock, I don't know anyone called dock, er where was I?) I suppose it took me and my family (thankyou all) only about 2 weeks to clear all the weeds.
I then started to draw a plan of what my plot would look like. As it's very long and narrow I thought it best to have a path straight down the middle with beds on either side. I wanted a few fruit trees and maybe a fruit patch too so decided to make the beds go only three quaters of the way down the plot. The last quater I decided was going to have berries, rhubarb, fruit trees, my compost bins and most importantly my shed!!
Now the next task was to find enough wood to make my beds. Fortunatly Biffys Grandad had loads of old wood in his garage. I think the wood I got from him made about 4 of my planned 9 beds. Oh and also I managed to get some old windows and a glass door which I made into my cold frame. I think the best bit of wood foraging I did was when I saw loads of planks in a skip. They looked to have been from a roof as one side was painted with black tar stuff. I asked the bloke who I knew the skip belonged to if it was OK to have the wood and he was more than happy for me to take it!
So I eventually got all the beds made. I think it was about January when I finshed them.
In October I had got my first produce in the ground, Onions! This meant I would have Onions for Spring/Summer.
I ordered all my seeds through the allotment seed scheme where you're given a catalogue and choose your seeds, then order them through the allotment trust, this is cheaper for me and I believe the trust gets some money from it.
My choices were: Potatoes; Red King Duke of York, Cara, and Kestrel. Tomatoes; Gardeners delight and Golden Sunrise. Sweetcorn, Beetroot, Runner Beans, French Dwarf beans, Parsnips, Leeks, and Celery. I also bought from garden centres Rhubarb, Blackcurrants and Autumn Raspberries. Plus I had leftover seeds from the previous year (from my small patch at home), they included Carrots, Thyme, Courgettes, Squash and Rocket. Blimey that's a lot of stuff!
I realise I'm wittering on here so i'll stop for now and continue another time, where I'll tell you all about the how I got my shed, my turf and fruit trees all for free!
Ta ta for now.
Thursday 10 September 2009
Kit Kats
Has anyone tried the new kit kat? It's caramel, well it's supposed to be. That's my problem. Whats the point in caramel flavour? Caramel is hardly difficult to make and it's probably more trouble to make a flavour and than just to put in a layer of tasty caramel in between the wafer and chocolate!
Oh if you hadn't guessed, i am severly dissapointed with the new kit kat.
What's next? Bringing back the marvelous whisper gold but only caramel flavoured? (probably not actually, whisper is made by the great cadburys not by the rubbish nestle which makes kitkat). Oh and on that note, bring back whisper golds!
This is nuts, i'm not even that much into chocolate!
House update
Well, it's all been go the last few days! Our 2nd offer was accepted on wednesday and now we can start thinking about moving! Well actually we've got a long way to go before then. We have the sale of our house first, then sorting out a mortgage, more than likely move out and into Biffys parents, sort out storage, get a surveyor in, and then finally move in! Wow that's a lot to do and hopefully all before christmas!
See I told you the saying was rubbish!
See I told you the saying was rubbish!
Sunday 6 September 2009
House buying
Well, today we think we've found our new house. It's pretty much exactly what we've been looking for. 3 beds, all good sizes, off-road parking, in berko, etc. Tomorrow i shall phone the estate agents and put an offer in!
Our search for a new house started about 3 months ago. We went through the usual houses, too small, too much, too much interest!
Finding a house is a funny thing, you work out what you want and how much you can afford and then go searching! Our first few houses were completely wrong for us, but then we saw an absolute gem. Unfortunately so did a load of property developers. So we canned that one quickly. After another few wrong'uns we found one that might just do, unfortunately it had a downstairs bathroom and a north facing garden. So again no winner. Then all went very quiet. Then suddenly we sold our house! Shock horror, after about 20 viewings and about 20 people saying that our house was lovely but our 2ND bedroom was too small someone finally saw the light the said sod the 2ND bedroom I'll have it! Thank the lord!!!!
So tomorrow we will put in an offer and wait and see. We're being very reserved and not holding out too much hope but hopefully they will say yes it's yours! Bloody stamp duty will be a real issue with the offer. We can actually afford more than the guide price but with Grace and other expenses we don't want to take a mortgage like that.
So tomorrow it all starts, they say you always lose your first house, but lets hope that's bollocks eh?
Our search for a new house started about 3 months ago. We went through the usual houses, too small, too much, too much interest!
Finding a house is a funny thing, you work out what you want and how much you can afford and then go searching! Our first few houses were completely wrong for us, but then we saw an absolute gem. Unfortunately so did a load of property developers. So we canned that one quickly. After another few wrong'uns we found one that might just do, unfortunately it had a downstairs bathroom and a north facing garden. So again no winner. Then all went very quiet. Then suddenly we sold our house! Shock horror, after about 20 viewings and about 20 people saying that our house was lovely but our 2ND bedroom was too small someone finally saw the light the said sod the 2ND bedroom I'll have it! Thank the lord!!!!
So tomorrow we will put in an offer and wait and see. We're being very reserved and not holding out too much hope but hopefully they will say yes it's yours! Bloody stamp duty will be a real issue with the offer. We can actually afford more than the guide price but with Grace and other expenses we don't want to take a mortgage like that.
So tomorrow it all starts, they say you always lose your first house, but lets hope that's bollocks eh?
Saturday 5 September 2009
Fatherhood
Well, in my first blog i thought I'd write about fatherhood and babies. (very manly)
When Biffy and I found out we were going to have a baby I felt very excited but nothing really changed then. It was a great day too as i got my allotment that day!
It wasn't really until the birth that it hit me that my life was about to change. The birth was amazing, all men out there, if you're there at the birth and can stomach it, go and see the business end because it is phenomenal. I won't go into detail but I will say that I TOTALLY respect every woman who gives birth.
The night Grace was born was surreal. I didn't know what to do with myself. I emailed my family, friends, looked at the pics on the camera, I was buzzing. I was in awe of Biffy for what she had just done and how amazing Grace was.
The first few weeks were intense. I was off for two weeks then back to work for one then off again! They say having a baby changes your life, it does. But for the better. Yes we were very tired, yes it was hard work, yes we didn't know what we were doing but we loved every minute of it.
Biffys parents were truly amazing, we can't thank them enough. My mum arrived when Grace was about 2 months old. (my mum lives in Thailand most of the time, i will write about her another time) She has been very supportive too. (thank you to all our families, we understand you can't help as much as Biffys parents do, they do only live around the corner!)
Anyways, Grace has always been a chilled out baby. She rarely cries and when she does it's usually for good reason! I remember the very first time i fed her. It was amazing, i was providing directly for my daughter. It was a great feeling.
Our first holiday was a challenge. We didn't really expect Grace to impact too much on what we wanted to do. Unfortunatly she did. Not her fault, she's only a baby. After the first 2 days we were wiped out. We had tried to do the usual things we do on holiday. See the sites, go walking, go for a drink, but Grace had other ideas. It was a complete oversite on our part. Grace didn't want to be carted around in her buggy for 3 hours while we looked at the sites. She got bored of being in the back carrier after a while too. So on day 3 we just started taking everyday as it came. We only did one thing a day, and it worked.
Jeez, i've written a lot. I better sign off now.
One last thing I want to say is to anyone thinking of having a baby, do it, but don't expect your life to be the same again. It's the greatest feeling to know that you "work" and have helped bring a living thing into this world.
Bye for now, see you soon.
When Biffy and I found out we were going to have a baby I felt very excited but nothing really changed then. It was a great day too as i got my allotment that day!
It wasn't really until the birth that it hit me that my life was about to change. The birth was amazing, all men out there, if you're there at the birth and can stomach it, go and see the business end because it is phenomenal. I won't go into detail but I will say that I TOTALLY respect every woman who gives birth.
The night Grace was born was surreal. I didn't know what to do with myself. I emailed my family, friends, looked at the pics on the camera, I was buzzing. I was in awe of Biffy for what she had just done and how amazing Grace was.
The first few weeks were intense. I was off for two weeks then back to work for one then off again! They say having a baby changes your life, it does. But for the better. Yes we were very tired, yes it was hard work, yes we didn't know what we were doing but we loved every minute of it.
Biffys parents were truly amazing, we can't thank them enough. My mum arrived when Grace was about 2 months old. (my mum lives in Thailand most of the time, i will write about her another time) She has been very supportive too. (thank you to all our families, we understand you can't help as much as Biffys parents do, they do only live around the corner!)
Anyways, Grace has always been a chilled out baby. She rarely cries and when she does it's usually for good reason! I remember the very first time i fed her. It was amazing, i was providing directly for my daughter. It was a great feeling.
Our first holiday was a challenge. We didn't really expect Grace to impact too much on what we wanted to do. Unfortunatly she did. Not her fault, she's only a baby. After the first 2 days we were wiped out. We had tried to do the usual things we do on holiday. See the sites, go walking, go for a drink, but Grace had other ideas. It was a complete oversite on our part. Grace didn't want to be carted around in her buggy for 3 hours while we looked at the sites. She got bored of being in the back carrier after a while too. So on day 3 we just started taking everyday as it came. We only did one thing a day, and it worked.
Jeez, i've written a lot. I better sign off now.
One last thing I want to say is to anyone thinking of having a baby, do it, but don't expect your life to be the same again. It's the greatest feeling to know that you "work" and have helped bring a living thing into this world.
Bye for now, see you soon.
Hello
Hello, i've always thought that having a blog was a bit geeky. Well i still think that a little but thought it might be a bit of a laugh. I'm married to the fantastic Biffy and a beautiful daughter Grace. I work as a theatre technician in london. I'm very interested in photography. This blog will be my thoughts on life. I might even put a picture or two up now and again. Anyways speak soon.
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