The Secret Diary of Manky Badger

2 February 2012 (Thursday) - Baggy Trousers

2012-02-02T22:15:00.003Z

Another cold day. I seemto be feeling the cold this winter. Possibly due to the fact that I'mcarrying a lot less insulation compared to previous winters. I spenttoday's tea breaks and lunch breaks wearing my fleece as it was sonippy.

I came home to find that I'dhad a visit from "DaddiesLittle Angel ^TM"during the day. The house was awash with dog biscuits. I scraped upthe worst of them,and then had a root though my cupboards. As theweight loss continues so my trousers are getting progressivelybaggier. I managed to find a few pairs of trousers that aren'thanging like a bag of poop. They might need some taking up, but I cando that at some point. I also found a pair of jeans that seem to fit.Jeans - I can't remember the last time I wore jeans.

Aftera bit of tea I found myself home alone again as "erindoors ^TM"set off bowling. I wrapped myself into my snuggie and had a bit moreof a download, but there's not a lot more ebooks that I'm activelylooking for at the moment. Or, to be more precise, there's not a lotmore ebooks that I want that I can find for free at the moment.

Oh, life is dull at themoment....

1 February 2012 (Wednesday) - More Stuff

2012-02-01T22:44:00.002Z

Acold morning - perhaps not as cold as elsewhere in the world; but asAlbert once remarked, everything's relative. I take the line that ifI have to scrape ice off of my car then it is officially cold. Thismorning was officially cold.

Myattention was distracted as I drove along the A28 this morning -there seemed to be a large bird hovering over the fields. But therewas something wrong with the bird - we eventually realised it was atethered kite. Someone had set the thing flying and left it there.Bearing in mind we drove past at 7.30am on an icy morning, I can'thelp but wonder who has nothing better to do with their time than setkites off at that time on a cold day.

Workwas much the same as ever; I was given some gossip - some colleagueshave apparently been spotted holding hands and snogging over at theMcArthur Glen outlet centre. So I spread the word (whatelse doe one do with gossip?)and came home again. With "er indoors ^TM" off out doing whatever it is that she does when off out I was leftto fend for myself. In years gone by I used to fend in the generaldirection of the KFC. Nowadays I forage where there's fewer caloriesto be found. Admiral's pie and peas went down very well.

Whilst I searched forsome more ebooks I put the telly on; I have to ask myself why Ibothered. There was hardly anything worth watching. I started offwith some dribble on the Discovery channel about Area 51. The programwittered on for an hour without actually saying anything. The nextprogram was more dribble - this time about some martyred saints. Iturned that off and found something about Frankie Howerd which wasn'ttoo dull. I rounded the evening off with South Park and WIlly Wonka,and then put tonight's haul of ebooks onto my Kindle.

So far this week I'vefound over one hundred and seventy ebooks that are my sort of thing:all free....

31 January 2012 (Tuesday) - Stuff

2012-01-31T22:54:00.003Z

Iwent for a tiddle at 5am this morning and looked out of the window onmy way. I always do whenever I get out of my pit – I don’t knowwhat I expect to see in the universe outside my window but I alwayshave a look-see. Overnight we’d had snow. Not much. A meresprinkling, but snow nonetheless. Bearing in mind that my Americanreaders will fall about laughing at what we call snow, I lay worryingabout getting to Canterbury and back again with one millimetre ofsnow on the ground. England stops when the word “snow”is even mentioned.

Beingon a late start meant I had the chance to stay in pit longer that Imight usually do, and I took that chance. I actually dozed throughtill when "erindoors ^TM"left at 8.30am. I got up, abluted, brekkied and toyed with the ideaof downloading some more ebooks, but decided against it. After allbetween Sunday night and yesterday evening I’ve got myself 113books that I’ve wanted for some time. I’ve found a site thatrequires no log-in, no registering, just type in the book you wantand down it comes to your PC. I’ve been busy (!)

Isuppose it could be seen as taking money out of the pockets ofauthors. Or could it? The books I’m seeking are all over ten yearsold: many much older than that. And of these 113 books I’ve got,over 100 of them are books I already have in paper format. I’vepaid for them once already. I’m taking the line that what I havedownloaded is a backup (ofsorts). I’msure that there are those who would disagree with my reasoning onthis…

Soinstead of downloading I spent a happy half hour playing “Wordswith Friends”– Facebook’s version of Scrabble. I started playing this game acouple of weeks ago, and have got quite hooked on it. I’ve beenpretty much non-stop scrabbling these last few days, and currentlyhave ten different games on the go. It has the advantage overconventional scrabble that you play when you have chance. So if youand your opponent are both otherwise free, a game can be played outin half an hour. If you have other things to be doing in themeantime, a game can be strung out over a week.

Ithen had a look on myfitesspal.com. Since I started logging my foodand exercise I’ve been joined by a dozen or so on-linemyfitnesspal.com friends. Of that dozen, a quarter of them would seemto have given up. Which is a shame. And of the rest, not many haveset their account so I can see what they have been eating. Which is ashame because, being nosy I’d like to see what they’ve beenscoffing. And (more importantly)because they might be scoffing something that I’d like to scofftoo.

I scraped the remnants ofsnow off of my car and set off to work; did my bit and came homeagain. Home via Chris's house, where we had the traditional Tuesdaygathering. We watched the last episode of the first season of "BeingHuman" - an excellent show. And then i picked up somebrewing bits and bobs that Chris was otherwise going to bin. I mightjust be producing a bottle conditioned beer over the next fewweeks...

30 January 2012 (Monday) - Downloading

2012-01-30T22:39:00.001Z

Yesterday I mentionedthat I was looking for free ebooks. I've found some. Quite a fewactually. But, as is always the way in life, getting them isn't asstraight-forward as it might be. First off one needs to sign up withthe website which supplies the free ebooks. The website in questionis.... well, I'm not going to be daft enough to tell the world whatthe website is. Not that I think it's illegal (it looks legalenough). It just strikes me that if something like this gets toowell known it will get shut down. Which is usually what happens togood things (he typed cynically).

And then there's theproblem that one is restricted to how many ebooks one can download.It looks to have a limit of forty downloads per day. I suppose in thefullness of time forty a day will be plenty, but for now I wanted todownload loads (before the website gets shut down).

But it didn't take longto find another website that did free ebooks too. And this one didn'trestrict me to forty books a day. So I got jiggy with the download.

Imagine my frustrationwhen (with over a hundred downloaded ebooks) I found that notone of them worked on my Kindle. It doesn't recognise the .epubformat that the books come in. But if you knowwhere to look there are free converters available.

So having spent an hourdownloading files I couldn't use, and finding myself with more ebooksthan sense, I set the converter running. You can convert filesindividually, but it's as easy to download your books, set theconverter going, and clear off for a shower and a cuppa whilst thecomputer works it's magic. And then all I had to do was download mynewly obtained .mobi files to my Kindle. I still had to do thecataloguing on the Kindle itself, but I now have books by IsaacAsimov and Arthur C Clarke that I've wanted on my Kindle for ages.Stuff by Fred Pohl and Stephen King. James Bond books and TerryPratchett books. The Mote in God's Eye, The Death of Grass, loads ofstuff.

In the past I've bloggedabout how free downloads are a bad thing. They probably are but inthese days of austerity, principles are not cheap. And, to be honest,something for nothing is never a bad thing when I am the one gettingsomething for nothing.... Sorry...

29 January 2012 (Sunday) - A Walk

2012-01-29T19:34:00.003Z

it's quite amazing howlarge a part Facebook plays in my life these days. It's quite a goodwebsite: but it could be just that little bit better. This morningover brekkie I noticed that it's got a new feature - it suggestsupcoming events that you might like to join in with. Today itsuggested that I might like to go along to a teenagers' school partythat my nephew is going to. I can just see the teachers loving that(!)

Whilst I was brekkie-ing,"er indoors ^TM" had her weeklyweigh-in: she's dieting as well. But (because she's a lot smallerthan me) she's allowed a lot less calories every day, and so herweight loss is slower (or so I am reliably informed!). Aproposof nothing I did some sums - yesterday I mentioned how much weightI'd lost. But another way of looking at it is that since I started upwith myfitnesspal.com I’ve lost twenty per cent of my body weight.Not bad going, I suppose.

I then spent a littlewhile trying to find free James Bond books for my Kindle. Trying; notdoing. I couldn't find any. I was also looking for "The Primeof Miss Jean Brodie" as a freebie, but didn't have any luck.I'm having a phase of reading "classics" on myKindle at the moment. "Gulliver's Travels" was good.I'm half way through "Moby Dick", but am finding ithard going. If any of my loyal readers have any suggestions forclassic literature that's actually worth reading, I'm all ears.

The sun was shiningoutside: it looked like a lovely day so we decided we'd go for awalk. As we stepped out so the sky darkened and the rain started.Only drizzle, but rain nonetheless. We decided to press onregardless, and after a thirty second downpour the rain actuallystopped. We took a scenic wander through Clockhouse to Singletonwhere we stopped for a while at the pond. I felt sorry for the geese- they came up to us obviously expecting to be fed. Next time we'lltake them some bread. It was at this point that we realised we shouldhave stopped and picked up Fudge on the way - he would have liked theexercise.

We carried on round thepond, spent five minutes trying to get the gunge of of the lens of"er indoors ^TM" 's camera, andthen made our way back along the river. The river is a lot cleanerthan it was when the children were small - the AshfordGreen Corridor project has worked quite well.

We stopped off in thepark to look at the fountain - it had been cleaned out and was infull flow. it looked quite impressive: a shame it had been painted ahorrible orange colour.

Back home for lunch. Isay "lunch" - I wasn't especially hungry and so madedo with a bag of crisps, and I settled in for the now traditionalSunday afternoon and evening's watching hours of Star Trek: Voyager.With the USS Prometheus captured by Romulans, Hirogen running riot,Borg getting up to mischief, it's good stuff - just a shame there areso many adverts in it...

28 January 2012 (Saturday) - Stuff

2012-01-29T00:24:00.001Z

At this morning'sweigh-in I saw I'd lost another two pounds. That's only a couple ofpounds short of four stone lost. Also I've lost another half an inchfrom around my neck. With a collar size of sixteen and a half inches,all my shirts are now too big.

And, perhaps moreimportantly, a threshold has been crossed. With a BMI of just underthirty I am now no longer obese. I am merely overweight. I've notbeen merely overweight for years.

Over brekkie I had a lookon the Internet - there was a lot of bad feeling on the astronomyclub's Facebook page yesterday and today: the club had been invitedup to a Stargazing Live event on the Downs. The organisers (NOTthe astro club) had sold out of tickets and the general publicweren't happy and felt that the club was in some way responsible.They (mostly) seemed to overlook the fact that they'd beentold to book tickets in advance from the organisers. And most (all)of the whingers weren't actually astro club members; just peoplewho'd signed up to the Facebook group. Perhaps we might chuckeveryone who's not a paid up member out of the Facebook group ?

Bearing in mind thehorrible journey I had coming home last night I thought I'd check thetravel websites to see if the A28 was clear this morning. No websitementioned any problems. No website mentioned there had ever been aproblem. So I phoned Kent police. I got though to a vague chap whowas helpful enough,but had no record of the A28 having been closed.He asked me who told me it had been closed, and was rather surprisedwhen I told him it had been a policeman.

I left home perhaps alittle earlier than I might have done (just in case), and gotto work early. But an early start made for an early finish. It wasgood to drive to and from Canterbury in daylight for a change. I camehome via Perry Court farm shop, bearing in mind the fruit and vegstall hasn't been in the town centre since Christmas. I got what Ineeded, and got a bit cross with the normal people there. How cananyone have the ability to drive one's self to and from the shop, butnot have the intelligence to pay for your purchases. One chap was sodithery that he just held out a hand full of coins and the girl onthe till took what she needed (or wanted). Another pair burstthrough the doors, flattening people on the other side, then juststopped still. They were completely unaware that they were nowblocking the door. When asked to move they were genuinely surprisedand shocked to see they were in everyone's way.

Once home, over a spot oflunch, for want of anything else to do, I thought I'd have a clearout of my list of friends on Facebook. After all I had three hundredpeople on that list. Surely there must be some people that shouldn'tbe on it? So I went though the list. But between people I know fromwork, from astro club, from the arky-ologee club, family, friends,kite fliers I only found two people that I didn't actually know whothey were. So they've both gone from my list.

It was a shame I'd had towork this morning: I'd had an offer to go for a walk along the beachthat I'd had to turn down. But so that the afternoon wasn't entirelywasted we wrapped up and went for a bit of a stroll whilst thewashing machine did it's best on my shirts and trousers. Oncethoroughly frozen (it was a cold day today)

we came back to findshirts and trousers washed and ready for ironing. Yesterday I saidthat the laundry would still be there today: and it was. Whilst Iironed we watched Johnny Depp in "Charlie and the ChocolateFactory" on the Turner Classic movies channel. It seemed oddto me that a film that was only seven years old could be a classic,but what do I know?

And then we turned to theDiscovery Shed channel for an hour of Bob Ross and his painting. Bobwas working wonders with acrylics today. I felt inspired again: ashame I have no acrylic paint. If any of my loyal readers have anybrown, crimson or black acrylic laying about that they don't want,spare a thought for me. I only want a few drops, and it's daft tospend out on pots full when I only need a tiddly amount.

And then, seeing how itwas Saturday night, we went round to Chris's house for the filmnight. First we watched "FeverPitch" - a film I've always liked. And then "TheWedding Date" - a new film to me, but quite watchable. Ispent the entire film trying to work out why the lead actress lookedso familiar: it turned out that she was Grace in "Will andGrace". And then I slept though the Shrek Halloweenspecial...

27 January 2012 (Friday) - Going Home

2012-01-27T23:15:00.001Z

In theory tonight wassupposed to feature a meeting of the astronomy club. But due to achange of the committee that runs the hall we meet in and a completefiasco with the year's hall bookings we were unable to have the hallfor a meeting tonight. Still, we had Stargazing Live last weekend.That'll have to do for one month.

It was just as well theclub wasn't meeting tonight as I'd been rota-ed to do a late shifttoday. The morning's lie-in was good, and I got to catch up with somefiddling about with household paperwork. I got to have a look roundthe garden pond in daylight - all looks fine to me. I even exchangedinsults with "My Boy ^TM" whohappened to be passing. But the best part was that I got to drive towork in daylight. I do find leaving for work in the dark and cominghome again in the dark depressing.

Work was work, and thenhome again. I got to leave a few minutes early and was making plansfor the evening. With "er indoors ^TM"flogging candles I had good intentions of doing the ironing. Usuallycoming home from Canterbury at 8pm is good: with no traffic on theroads I get a straight run home. But after a couple of miles I gotstuck in a traffic jam. After twenty minutes I got as far as apoliceman who told me that the A28 was closed because of a fire downthe road. He gave me the options I could take to get home; both ofwhich would have added twenty miles to my journey. So I smiled, toldthe copper I'd take the Stone Street option, drove into Chartham totake a cut through that I knew, and met another copper who also knewthe cut through and had closed it. I knew another way home, so Itried that, and after five miles I found myself at the end of acountry lane. A cul de sac. Perhaps I didn't know the area as well asI might.

So I activated thesat-nav. It had a go at getting me home, but on finding that two ofthe roads it wanted to take were closed, and on losing the satellitesignal three times I found my patience wearing thin.

I expected to get home inless than half an hour - it actually took just under two hours. Oh Iwasn't happy when finally I got home. And to add insult to injury,the official trafficupdate website knew nothing at all about any problems on the A28.By the time I'd got in and had a bit of tea it was getting on for10.30pm. I couldn't be bothered to iron: shirts will still be theretomorrow....

26 January 2012 (Thursday) - Stuff

2012-01-26T20:19:00.002Z

YesterdayI mentioned about looking for a local Art & Craft club. I'vefound one. Mind you, details on their web site seemed ratherlacking. I've emailed them and got a reply. Apparently their meetingsare for members or guests of members. Hmmm!

They'vegiven me the option to join. I must admit I'm rather loathe to handover fifteen quid on the off-chance I might get arty. Added to that,they meet on Saturdays. I'm not keen on that - I have other thingsgoing on on Saturdays.

Inan attempt to tout paintings I've advertised one for sale on a localFacebook buyingand selling group. It might sell there. I hope it does. Failingthat I shall have to tap up a local gallery. I wonder if there areany?

Alternativelyin an attempt to rake in some cash I could take a leaf out of thebook of thereverend doctor canon JohnMagumba who has married no end of illegal immigrants to easternEuropeans in sham ceremonies up north so's they can get legalresidence in the UK. As well as conducting these sham marriages, hemade a profit of several thousand pounds. Mind you, he's now got aprison sentence. So I suppose that if I'm going to start marryingpeople for financial gain, I should be sure I don't get caught.

And that's all I have tosay for myself today. Some days are eventful - today was a tadaverage really. Back in the day, after putting up the day's blogentry I would have then spent some time catching up on other people'sblogs.

But in the five yearsthat I've been active in the blogsphere, blogging seems to have lostits popularity. I follow over thirty blogs, of which maybe half adozen are updated more than once a week. Which is a shame because(being a nosey sort of chap) I like seeing what other peoplehave been getting up to. I wish more people would blog; and blog moreoften.

25 January 2012 (Wednesday) - Dene Holes

2012-01-25T22:41:00.001Z

Another day with no morefatalities in the pond. Thank heavens for small mercies. Regularreaders might recall that when I first mentioned my problems with mypond I also mentioned a friend's cat who'd had an altercation with acar. The moggie is still under the vet, and the most recent update ishopeful.

Yesterday I was ratherdisparaging about the entire concept of arky-ologee. Tonight was ameeting of the arky-ologee club. I'd not slept well last night, andso dozing through a dull talk wasn't an appealing option. But(against my better judgement) I went along to the club. Itdidn't start well. The chair-lady started off her welcoming speech,and (as is her way) she rambled on somewhat. Maybe one personin five in the audience had the good grace to shut up and listen toher: most continued their noisy conversations.

I was about to actuallytell people to shut up when the main speaker started. Fortunatelypeople shut up for that. And things picked up. The talk was good. Itwas ostensibly about dene holes; holes dug around Kent for miningchalk. They were dug all over the place over the last five hundredyears, and when they were finished they weren't filled in with muchcare. And so now they periodically appear when people's back gardensfall into them.

Some dene holes arebigger than others. Some are just a hole; others are networks ofcaves. I started getting rather excited at the thought of cavenetworks. Maybe investigating some of these could be a project forover the summer.

Whilst at the arky-ologeeclub I noticed that the Lenham Arts and Crafts society wereexhibiting their members' paintings on the walls of the room we metin. All of the paintings were up for sale; none were up for less thanfifty quid, most (in all honesty) weren't as good as theseascape I did on Monday. Perhaps I might find a local Arts andCrafts society and see if I can't tout my paintings through them...

24 January 2012 (Tuesday) - Northern Lights

2012-01-24T22:51:00.001Z

After I finished mypainting last night I spent the rest of the evening in front of thetelly, since "er indoors ^TM" hadgone bowling. I did the same the night before as well.

Thank heavens that I hadmy laptop with me. The amount of adverts between and during theprograms is getting beyond a joke. For all that I like Star Trek,Porridge and Blackadder, I really wish I could fast forward through the adverts. I wouldn't mind so much, but there's only about a dozenadverts and the constant repetition of them gets rather gutty afteran hour or so.

One of the programs Iwatched was "Time Team". As they got to the end ofthe first day's digging, Tony Robinson held up a manky bit of brokenpot. It was about half an inch long, and maybe an inch deep. One ofthe program's experts nearly tiddled his pants in excitement,announcing that this manky bit of broken pot was the best thingthey'd found all day. (Which is why I have absolutely no interestin going digging with the arky-ologee club).

Yesterday I touched onthe costs inherent in the hobby of oil painting. And I haveidentified an economy. But before I make that economy I have aquestion. What is the difference between "Artist's WhiteSpirit" and "White Spirit". One comes invery small expensive bottles from the art & craft shop. The othercomes in large cheap bucketfuls from B&Q. In my naivety it looksto me that the only difference is about five pounds per litre.

Being Tuesday the clansgathered at Chip's house and we watched an episode of Doctor Who. Thethird one with Christopher Ecclestone which had teh Doctor and Rosemeeting Charles Dickens. A good episode, and it was good to meet upwith friends.

The plan was to watch theNorthern Lights this evening: with the sun going doolally, aurora wasapparently visible tonight. Or that it it would have been if therehadn't been 100% cloud cover. Astronomy is a crap hobby; every timethere's something worth watching, you can't see it because it will betoo cloudy...

23 January 2012 (Monday) - A Seascape

2012-01-23T22:12:00.002Z

I've taken to watching anepisode of "The Joy of Painting" most mornings.Yesterday I commented that I had the urge to paint, but felt ratheruninspired. This morning Bob Ross was painting a seascape. Thatinspired me. It was a shame that I couldn't start painting there andthen because I had to go to work, but until such time as BadgerOriginal Landscapes starts raking in hundreds of pounds on aweekly basis I shall have to continue to prostitute myself elsewhere.

I then did exactly thatfor the day, and came back home again. I checked the pond - bearingin mind the attrition rate I'd had with the Koi over the weekend Iwas expecting the worst. But fortunately there were none floatingtoday. I shall now worry about what might happen in the pondovernight.

Fortunately there is onlyso much attachment one can have for a fish. I'd ask my loyal readersto spare a thought for Steve and Sarah tonight - their cat is notwell. It would seem he's come off the worst in a squabble with a car,and is currently in cat hospital.

Tonight's paintingproject needed me to prepare the canvas - the piccie above is "beforeand after". I got the "before" bit done,and left it to dry. And then the doorbell rang. The Bat had come fortea this evening. He don't like having a fuss made for his birthday,but we had to do something in honour of the event. And as the bowlerswent bowling I was able to get my paints out. I'd spent most of theday thinking about the morning's TV show, and I knew exactly what Iwanted to paint. What I wanted to paint wasn't exactly what I endedup with, but I'm rather pleased with the finished result. The cloudsaren't quite what I was hoping for, and the main wave certainlyhasn't come out as good as Bob Ross would have done. But it'll do.

Ideally someone will nowgive me cash for the painting. Not so much to finance my life, morealong the lines of clearing some space so I can paint another scene.And getting a little bit of bung for the painting will help to payfor the next painting. With canvases not cheap, and Bob Ross oilpaints costing the best part of twenty quid per tube, I need to coverthe cost of painting somehow....

22 January 2012 (Sunday) - At the Seaside

2012-01-22T19:06:00.004Z

I spent a little whilethis morning going over the astro club's accounts: last night'sStargazing Live event raked in quite a bit of cash. Without goinginto details, it's fair to say that we covered our costs.

Something I realised lastnight whilst setting up was how out of date our posters have become.Many of them were made for the 2009 International Year of Astronomy;and so are three years old (if not more). Bearing in mind theamount of space probes which have been going here, there and thither,a lot has changed over the last three years. I wonder if we mightorganise a competition for club members to come up with some newposters. Being A4 in size and featuring the club logo, people coulddesign posters on a range of subjects. Planets, dwarf planets,asteroids, comets, meteors, space rock thingies, the sun, stars,galaxies: there's scope for twenty or so new posters. Club memberscould even laminate the posters themselves. I've posted somethingalong these lines on the club's Facebook page: we'll see how muchinterest there is.

Something which worked atlast night's Stargazing Live was the "Ask an Astronomer"panel. Perhaps we might make this a regular event at club meetings?I'll bring it up at the next committee meeting; with the proviso thatit be run on a strictly timed basis. Otherwise it might go on formost of the evening.

Yesterday I mentionedthat some Koi had died. Two more died today. I'm rather concerned,but have absolutely no idea what's gone wrong with the pond.

And so to Folkestone.Coffee and then to the harbour for a bit of a walk. Sid (mygrand-dog) enjoyed charging around the beach. As did I. A shameit was rather cold, but we had a good wander before making our wayback to the Admiralty for another cuppa. There's talk of assembling awork party to fix the flashing and do some painting there. That mighthave the makings of a future blog entry.

In retrospect I am soglad we went out today - over the last few weeks, Sundays have becomeso dull. Whilst I enjoy sitting in front of the telly with my laptopfor a couple of hours in the evenings, doing it for a whole day canget rather dull. Going out with people is so much better.

Home again, where I had afiddle about with the website of BadgerOriginal Landscapes. The trouble with a website is that, like anastro club poster, it soon becomes out of date. The website hadseveral references to buying early for Christmas. Those referenceshad to go. I've also added another testimonial. There are those of myloyal readers who might like to add a testimonial to that site -please feel free to get in touch to tell me how wonderful you feelthe painting on your wall is (!)

I had half a plan to doanother painting this evening, but the muse wasn't with me. So Islobbed in front of the telly for a bit. You can't beat back to backepisodes of Star Trek...

21 January 2012 (Saturday) - Stargazing Live

2012-01-22T00:26:00.000Z

By the time we'd tidiedup after last night's dinner party it was rather late. Even so, wesat and watched telly for a bit. There was a dodgy moment when Istood up - my knee bent backwards. If I hadn't grabbed the table itmight have done some serious damage: as it is, the knee has beenquite painful today.

Having had a late nightI was hoping for a lie-in this morning: instead I was woken at about7am by next door shrieking at their dogs. I tried to get back tosleep, but didn't. Instead I dozed fitfully. I really should just getup on these weekend mornings rather than lying there, unable to sleepand bursting for a tiddle. I eventually got up, and had the weeklyweigh-in. Another pound gone. I've now lost fifty pounds and am underfifteen stone for the first time in years. In fact, I only have tolose two more pounds and I will no longer be obese, but merelyoverweight. According to the figures I still have to lose anotherthirty seven pounds to get into the "healthy" range. I wonder if that will eventually happen?

There was a bit of adisaster in the garden - three of the Koi were dead. I'm putting itdown to old age - fish do die from time to time, but three at onceis a tad excessive. I'm hoping that there's nothing serious goingwrong in the pond. It was my plan to leave the pond alone until itgets a bit warmer; I didn't expect to have to do anything with ituntil April at least.

And then I popped roundto see Brian: he had some masking tape I wanted for artisticpurposes.

I came back home to find"My Boy ^TM" visiting. He hadstayed overnight with a friend who had during the course of lastnight struck up a friendship with a young lady of dubious morals."My Boy ^TM" had been unable tosleep because of his friend and the young lady "going at itlike a pair of bison". Which was nice for them, but not sogood for anyone in the general vicinity who was trying to get someshut-eye.

I set the washingmachine loose on my shirts, and then delivered the vacuum cleaner to"Daddies Little Angel ^TM" who washelping her pal move into the house just round the corner. I camehome and ironed the shirts whilst "Daddies Little Angel ^TM"and her pal used our table to eat their KFC. Apparently the tables ather mate's house house are under several feet of clutter, I wasn'tcomplaining: I got to scoff the left over chicken.

Pausing only briefly topull another dead fish out of the pond (what's going on !),the Rear Admiral arrived with Stevey, and we set off for theevening's excitement. Earlier in the week I mentioned about the BBCprogram "Stargazing Live". Whilst I wasn'tpersonally impressed with the TV show, it certainly raised theawareness of astronomy in the minds of the general public.

We were using the scouthunt in Woodchurch, Personally I prefer the Memorial hall, but thatwasn't available. We arrived early to set up, but found a hive ofactivity already going strong. And once we'd set up, the puntersarrived. Drew gave an excellent talk involving the audience, and justas he finished speaking we got the message that the sky had cloudedup. Which was just what we needed for a stargazing event (!).So we had tea and a chat, and then we used the stellarium software toshow people what they would have seen had there been no clouds. Andthen I wittered on about the Fermi Paradox and the Drake Equation forfifteen minutes.

Being still unable to seeanything through the clouds we rounded the evening off with an "askan astronomer"

session in which theassembled throng had the opportunity to ask questions of a panel ofexperts (and me!)

For all that I've beenrather unimpressed with the Stargazing Live TV show, the evening wentreally well. This was the astro club's fourth big event, and again itwas done excellently. With seventeen members having volunteered tohelp the committee this evening, the club is going from strength tostrength.

Mind you I must admitthat I felt for my father-in-law: on this his first ever visit to theastro club he was dragooned into doing the washing-up. And I feel Ineed to make it clear that the catering was not done by the club, butwas provided by an outside concession. The club makes great show ofthe fact that we run on a "not for profit" basis -we just cover our costs. So (on that basis) I couldn't believethat burgers were being touted at four quid each. Next time maybe wemight do the catering ourselves: I did hear someone volunteer to dojust that...

20 January 2012 (Friday) - Dinner Party

2012-01-21T01:13:00.001Z

Admittedly I did get homelate from work yesterday evening. But the work hadn’t been thatarduous. So why did I keep nodding off in front of the telly? I wishI could stop doing that. There will be something good on the box, orI will be in the middle of an on-line game, or there will be somevalid reason for why I should be paying attention, and all of asudden I wake up to find it’s half an hour later, the telly programhas finished, my laptop’s gone into automatic shut-down, and I’vewoken with a neck-ache. And having had a bit of kip it

somehow stuffs up mygetting a proper kip at night. For all that I actually slept throughlast night, I woke tired, and fell asleep at lunch time. If I don’tnap during the previous evening I’m (usually) good for thenext day.

To work – dull. Over abreak I went over my presentation for tomorrow’s Stargazing Liveevent. The latest weather forecast gives it being a cloudy night. Orto be precise, a rainy evening giving way to a cloudy night. Thatwould be a nuisance. Whilst (I have to admit) I am very muchan armchair astronomer and have little interest in staring throughtelescopes, the whole “staring through telescopes” thingdoes rather feature highly in astronomical activities. Oh well – if it is cloudy I’ll just have a bigger audience for my talk.

Home again - and havinggot the table organised, people arrived. Having been round to friendsfor dinner before Christmas, tonight we reciprocated. Eight of us satdown for three courses. Even if I do say so myself, "erindoors ^TM" does boil up a decent bit ofscoff. Two choices of soup, two choices of main course, various puds,home brew, red & white wine, port, Brazilian cocktails. And afterwe'd scoffed (probably scoffed too much) we had a game or twoof "Dirty Minds". Long and thin and full of seamen?HMS Vanguard!!

19 January 2012 (Thursday) - Camping

2012-01-19T21:47:00.003Z

A late start, so (aproposof nothing) I mucked out the fish tank. It needed doing. And thenover brekkie I went through the accumulated post. Other than a billfor the next year’s hall bookings for the astro club there was verylittle of note. Which was probably for the best. And then I muckedout the fish tank again. Where does all the gunge come from?

In the past I've whingedabout the demise of the kite festival at Teston. But I've not justwhinged. I've sulked, hinted, smiled sweetly, and threatened to cry.And so, completely unconnected with any of my sulking, "erindoors ^TM" and The Bat have secured theuse of a field in which we can stage "Not Teston KiteFestival". The field is not a million miles from Ashford,and "Not Teston Kite Festival" has beenprovisionally planned for the second weekend in June.

I'm not sure that theentrance to the field is wide enough to get a caravan into it, andthe fishing isn't what it might be. Having said that, I'm sure thatthose with caravans could secure the use of a tent for the weekend;and there is fishing within five minutes of the field. Otherfacilities include a tap, a turdis and a poo pit, a pub two milesdown the road, and a supermarket some five miles away.

It's not a replacementfor the kite festival - it's not even going to be a kite festival;and it certainly isn't going to be open to the general public. Itwill be just a weekend in a field with like minded friends. But ifany of my loyal readers would like to join us at "Not TestonKite Festival", please drop me a line.

18 January 2012 (Wednesday) - Wikipedia

2012-01-18T21:03:00.001Z

This morning as I startedmy car I noticed that the temperature was a full ten degrees warmerthan it was yesterday. It was plus five rather than minus five, whichmakes quite a difference. And that would be thirty degrees warmerthat that which some of my loyal readers are currently experiencing.(Waves in the general direction of the Great Lakes and gloats!)

Today the font of allknowledge, Wikipedia, is shut down. They have done this in protestagainst the "Stop Online Piracy Act" - somethingwhich is possibly going to enter American law (and probablyBritish law too eventually). Apparently the main thrust of thelegislation is that it will put the burden to police user-contributedmaterial on website owners.

On a personal basis Idon't think that's unreasonable - I realise that I can't just blagsomeone else's efforts and blog it as my own. There would arguably bea grey area over some of the pictures I use for blog posts: clip artand stuff I find on-line I usually re-colour so's I've had (atleast) some input into the creation of the picture. Veryoccasionally I might use a photo I find on-line. But if the photocomes with any copyright disclaimers, then I won't touch it.

And the same applies toany of the other websites I run. I am responsible for what I put onthe Internet.

And therein lies theproblem that Wikipedia faces. It's summed up in the sentence "Iam responsible for what I put on the Internet". I don'tallow anyone else publishing rights on any webspace that I use.Wikipedia does: by it's very nature absolutely anyone can publishabsolutely anything on Wikipedia. And so, for all that the vastmajority of Wikipedians contribute properly and sensibly, there isnothing stopping the rogue element publishing foolishly ormaliciously. Or from blagging someone else's work (piracy).

At the moment I'm notsure who is responsible for any copyright infringements that appearon Wikipedia. But should the Stop Online Piracy Act become law, thenthose who own Wikipedia would become responsible for the (possibly)illegal acts of others. Wikipedia have got the hump - they claim thatthe Stop Online Piracy Act will "fatally damage the free andopen Internet". Will it? I don't really know. I suspect theStop Online Piracy Act was never drawn up with Wikipedia in mind.

One possible answer mightbe for Wikipedia to reconsider who it allows to edit their articles:after all I am one of the resident experts who contributed to thepages on "Upstairs Downstairs" and "TheTreacle People". However for all that this idea might workin principle, in practice the licensing of thousands of Wikipedianswould probably prove impractical.

Will Wikipedia survivethe legislation? I expect so. After all, it's not Wikipedia that thelegislation is supposed to be targeting. And is anyone going toprosecute Wikipedia for any alleged breaches of copyright? I suspectthat over the next few weeks a button will appear on every page ofWikipedia allowing people to report supposed infringements of theStop Online Piracy Act, and an army of Wikipedians will spend theirtime painstakingly rewording the article generating the complaints.After all, armies of Wikipedians have painstakingly reworded everycontribution I've ever made to Wikipedia for no apparent reason. TheStop Online Piracy Act might just give them something to do...

17 January 2012 (Tuesday) - The Musgrove Fox

2012-01-17T22:32:00.000Z

For all that I wasn'timpressed with last night's Stargazing Live, half a dozen people havejoined the astro club's Facebook page overnight. And the morning'spost had a cheque for a hundred quid for the astro club to go towardsthe weekend's planned event. So I suppose some good has come of theshow. (Grumble, Grumble...)

I saw some of thisevening's show. I think I know what I consider to be wrong with it.It's too basic. Bearing on mind it's on BBC2 I'd expect it to be justa little more high-brow.

At the weekend Imentioned that I'd been painting. I posted a photoof what I'd done and it's had encouraging reviews. Ten peoplehave clicked the "like" option, and there are quitea few positive comments. I must paint something else and post it onthat website.

Meanwhile on not such agood note my grand-dog can't be allowed in his garden on his own - atthe weekend a fox was seen walking about that garden; bold as brass.And shortly after that the remains of a seagull was littering thatgarden. Bearing in mind that Fudge isn't much bigger than a seagull,I for one am worried about the pup. Apparently the fox spent a wholeday sprawled out on the shed roof. It would seem to be fearless.Urban foxes often are. I have suggested that "The MusgroveFox" have its own Facebook page, but those with moreimmediate access to the fox wouldn’t seem to be especially botheredabout producing one. Given some more photos of the beast, I might doone later.

I was half expecting avisit from the "Folkestone Massive" this evening,but I came home to an empty house. Which was a disappointment. Mindyou we had quite a few other friends round for the Tuesday eveningbash. Rather than watching "Bleach" we carried onwith "Being Human": I like the show - a shame Idozed through large parts of it....

16 January 2012 (Monday) - Stargazing Live

2012-01-16T22:36:00.003Z

I could have gone to bedslightly earlier than I did last night, but Monty Python and the HolyGrail was on the Sky Arts channel (!). I have seen that filmso many times - it was actually the second film we watched on the VHSrecorder/player we hired back in 1985. I've lost count of the amountof times I've seen it, but once more couldn't hurt.

And so.... the weekend'sgone again. For all that Saturday's films were a tad iffy and thatyesterday was rather quiet, the weekend that's just gone wasn't a badone really.

I liked getting my paintsout yesterday: I must do it again. I really would like to find somebigger canvases: if any of my loyal readers know where I can pick upa canvas which is 18 x 24 inches (and cheap!), please let meknow. And, whilst I'm asking, if any of my loyal readers know of asupplier of Bob Ross art supplies please let me know as well. Mylocal art shop has stopped supplying the stuff. I *can* order thestuff on-line, but that would necessitate a trip to the post officeto pick up the delivery. And getting to Ashford's collection officeis a pain in the bum these days.

And if any of my loyalreaders would like a "Badger Original" please let meknow. And if anyone would like to pass on the word about "BadgerOriginal Landscapes", please feel free. The trouble withpainting is that you end up with paintings. Obvious, I know, but Ineed to shift the existing paintings to clear space for any new ones.

Today was painful -whilst swimming on Saturday I managed to fall over and land on mybum. My chuff still hurts. Also whilst swimming I managed to dosomething to my left knee which is still sore.

I also have donesomething to my gob: I think I yawned too hard on Saturday evening,and I've strained something. The bit where the jaw meets the rest ofmy head feels swollen and my gob doesn't close properly. I expect itwill all get better eventually.

This evening saw thelaunch of the BBC's "StargazingLive": for all that our astro club ran a very successfulevent in conjunction with the program last year I didn't watch it atthe time. Perhaps I should have. So this year I did. Or that is Iwatched tonight's program. Or that is I tried to watch tonight'sprogram. After twenty minutes I was rather conscious that for all ofthe spectacular pictures and amazed noises from the presenters,nothing had actually happened. The interview with Gene Cernan wasinteresting enough I suppose. But from my perspective, the show wasstreets behind any meeting of the astro club.

However, it would be,wouldn't it? It was all rather "wow!! space !!! science!!!"The program was clearly made for the general/mass interest. Will Iwatch the rest of the week's programs? Having fallen asleep afterthree quarters of an hour, probably not...

15 January 2012 (Sunday) - Doing Little

2012-01-15T20:09:00.002Z

A bit of a lie-in, butI'd leapt into action before 10am. A quick shave, then I had a go atyesterday's washing up and had some brekkie. Whilst scoffing weturned the telly on and watched "Man vs Food". Intoday's episode our hero was faced with a pie the size of a dustbinlid, and had an hour in which to devour it. Which he eventually did.

But once that was over Icouldn't find a single program worth watching on the telly. So wecleared some more space from the Sky-Plus box by watching some of thestuff that we'd recorded during the week. Now that "Charlie'sAngels" has been cancelled I seem to have decided that Ilike the show.

It would have been goodto have done something with the day. But we had no real need to goshopping, and for all that it was a bright day, it was a cold day sogoing out was a bit of a non-starter. With very little else to do, Igot my paints out and got artistic. Today I tried somethingdifferent. The painting (pictured above) was based onsomething that I saw on the Bob Ross show last week. I started off bypainting the background trees in acrylic and letting them dry beforeadding the foreground bushes, river and trees. The finished paintingis 10 inches by 16 inches and I've managed to sell it for a tenner.

However there's nodenying that BadgerOriginal Landscapes hasn't been the money-spinner I was hoping itwould turn out to be.

And then, just to becontradictory, we went out. "er indoors ^TM"had found a bargain from someone who was moving house. A real bargain*if* we could pick it up within the hour. So we popped up toKennington, collected the bargain, and came home via Lidls (it wasSunday after all). Lidls had quite a bit of art stuff for sale,but nothing from the Bob Ross range (I was sorry to see). Mindyou, I wouldn't expect to see Bob Ross stuff in Lidls.

The Great Unwashed woundme up in Lidls. Am I the only member of the human race who actuallylooks where he's walking? People were blindly blundering about theshop; bouncing off of each other's trollies, the shelves, thefreezers. Trying to navigate between their random wanderings was nighon impossible.

Back home: it's becomesomething of a tradition to switch on the Sky Atlantic channel on aSunday afternoon and watch back-to-back episodes of Star Trek:Voyager. And that's what I did. And after tea with "erindoors ^TM" gone bowling I carried onwatching Star Trek, and through the wonders of lap-top computers Idid some job hunting. I applied for half a dozen repping jobs.Something might come from the applications - one lives in hope...

14 January 2012 (Saturday) - Doing Lots

2012-01-15T00:48:00.002Z

Yesterday I mentionedabout a rumoured explosion in Folkestone. I have since been told thatthe so-called explosion was actually a solitary firework. Rather aloud firework, but after all was said and done, it was a falsealarm. Mind you one has to take rumours from Folkestone seriously --that place has earthquakes when no-one is expecting them.

I was up relatively early this morning to sort through the astronomy club's account: oneof our number has been lecturing to various W,I, branches, and theyhave been very generous in making donations to the club. Added tothat there was the money taken at the last meeting to tot up too. Ispend half a frustrated hour trying to account for a missing fivepounds. And then the doorbell rang - the astro club's quartermasterhad come for some cheques for more astro club purchases. He'd runfrom his house to mine (about two miles), and was then goingto run on to the chairman's house for another signature (aboutthree miles) before running home (another four miles). Hemust love it.

And then some brekkie.But before I ate I had the weekly weigh-in. I've lost another pound.The rate of weight loss has slowed down - where I was losing fourpounds a week, I'm now down to a pound a week. That's either a lotbetter for me, or a sign that during the week I found a tin ofQuality Street left over from Christmas.

We then popped to town: Ihad astro club money and cheques to pay into the bank. There wasuproar in the bank. They had a new system. Rather than queueing upyou took a ticket and waited to be called. Personally I liked theidea - you got a ticket depending on what service you wanted -business account, mortgage, personal account, and then you'd get tosee the right person. But the Great Unwashed weren't happy. Theywould all rather have queued, and were very vociferous about thematter.

After waiting for a totalof nine minutes I got served, and got out. It was about as long as queueing would have taken, but I couldn't face telling the shriekingharridans that. Finding the fruit and veg stall again not where itusually was we then had a quick look for cheap canvases. I wasparticularly looking of a 14 x 18 inch one. I eventually found one inWilkos. But it was part of a set of three for four quid. And bearingin mind I didn't want the other two with it, I gave it all a miss.I'm getting mean in my old age.

And then home. As wewalked home, so my piss boiled. I watched some chap finish with hiscigarette and he just threw the butt on the floor. he didn't evenstub it out. And I saw it bounce along with the other cigarettebutts. I've never really noticed it before, but on every step of thewalk home there was at least one discarded fag end. Hundreds, if notthousands on the way home. No other litter whatsoever. I reallycouldn't understand it: why do people not see finished cigarette endsas litter?

Within ten minutes ofgetting home, "My Boy ^TM" arrivedand drove us all to Tenterden. Today was nephew's birthday, and thefamily gathered at Tenterden swimming pool for a swim. Fifteen (orso) of us spent a really good couple of hours swimming, splashingand sliding about. We had a great time, but somehow or other Imanaged to knack my left knee and I fell and hurt my bum too.

All too soon it was timeto go, and we came home via Swallow Aquatics (since we were in thearea). I couldn't believe the price of the tropical fish: overthree pounds for a guppy (!) I shall have to check out otherfish shops, but at those prices I shall probably be closing down thetropical fish tank when the current shoal of fish croak.

And so home via Tesco.With littlun fast asleep in the car, I volunteered to wait in the carwhilst everyone else got supplies. And I used the opportunity to havea snooze myself. On getting home I watched a couple of episodes of"The Joy of Painting" before scoffing tea. And thenwe all went round to Chris's house for the now traditional Saturdaynight film night.

Tonight was a bit of adisappointment. We started off with the latest "Transformers"film. It had pretensions of being an adventure film, but (to mymind) there is a lot more to the concept of an "adventurefilm" than two and a half hours of things exploding. Thesecond film, "Captain America" might have been good:I don't know - I slept through it. I'd probably overdone it at theswimming pool earlier...

13 January 2012 (Friday) - A Game of Cards

2012-01-13T23:41:00.004Z

Having had a spate ofmild weather, it was cold this morning. In the past I've not reallybeen overly fussed by the dark winter mornings, but this year itseems to be getting to me. So much so that I think I am noticing thesmall amount by which it gets lighter every morning.

And so to work. Acolleague (long since retired) used to take every Friday 13thas holiday just in case the date lived up to its reputation. Andtoday it did for me. All that possibly could go wrong did go wrong. Iactually achieved nothing today.

Home again: we hadvisitors. Terry and Irene were in the area and called in. A shamethey live so far away - we don't meet up anywhere near as often asI'd like. And all too soon they had to set off. A shame they couldn'thave stayed: with "er indoors ^TM" flogging candles I had the house, and so had decided to stage a gameof cards. Eight of us sat down for an hour or so of Texas Hold 'em.Full houses, four of a kind - a really good game. And after a fagbreak (for those who like fag breaks) we had another hour orso of Omaha Hold 'em in which I amazed the assembled throng byachieving a straight flush.

All too soon it was timeto pack up: and as we packed up, through the wonders of mobiletechnology we heard mention of rumours of an explosion in Folkestone.Bearing in mind half of our card school was heading back toFolkestone, we couldn't help but wonder what had exploded.

I've been playing poker(on and off) for at least six years, and tonight was the firsttime that I've actually hosted a game. I really like having ahouseful, and a game of cards is a good excuse for having a houseful.I really must organise another game before too much longer...

12 January 2011 (Thursday) - Dull

2012-01-12T21:03:00.001Z

A late finish at worklast night followed by an astro club committee meeting meant forgetting home very late. By the time I'd had a bit ot tea I didn't getto bed until far later than I should have done. Within minutes ofnodding off I was woken by my mobile. I'd received a picture messageof my grand-dog and grand-cat fast asleep. Feeling glad that someonewas sleeping (!) I eventually got back to kip, only to bewoken by some drunkard shouting the odds up the street at 3am.

Consequently I was rathertired today.

Work was work, and I camehome to find "er indoors ^TM" outfor the evening. Fending for myself entailed boiling myself up somebeans on toast: a good trick if you can do it. I then turned on thetelly and watched "Adventures of a Private Eye".It's an amazingly low budget film that was on telly at the weekendand I'd recorded onto the Sky-Plus box. If nothing else, it featuredJon Pertwee in the nip.

Having wasted an hour orso, I found myself at a bit of a loose end. There was nothing on thetelly or on the Sky Plus box. I could have worked on my presentationfor Stargazing Live. But I don't have Microsoft Office on my laptopand I couldn't be bothered to go upstairs. I could have got my paints out and been artistic. But I couldn't be bothered.Eventually I found that "Rock and Chips" - theprequel to "Only Fools and Horses" was on one of thesatellite channels, so I put that on and spent the rest of theevening exchanging insults with most of humanity via Facebook instantmessages. And occasionally getting angry with everyone else's ability at on-line scrabble. Why is it that I can make the word "contrafibularity" and only get two points, whilsteveryone else gets ten thousand points for words like "it"and "the"...

Some days in my life arefrankly wonderful. Others are so dull....

11 January 2012 (Wednesday) - Getting Ready

2012-01-11T22:32:00.001Z

We had a relatively latenight last night, but being on a late start meant I could have a bitof a lie-in this morning. And I did. I staggered out of my pit justas "er indoors ^TM" was going towork, and I had a rather leisurely toast and jam whilst I browsed theInternet. It’s amazing what happens there.

I saw that I have anotherfollower on Twitter: the Health Channel is following my tweets.That’s nice of them. Someone else who is also following my tweetsis miloochocinco64, who invited me to do unspeakable things to herchest area. I wonder how and why these people find me on Twitter –bearing in mind I’ve not twitted since last October.

I had an email about somekite festivals for the summer – in Lingfield, Shoreham and deepestSussex. I might be more inclined to go to some of them if only theyweren’t so far away.

And I got turned down forsome of the jobs I applied for on Monday. But am I downhearted?

I had a go on Facebook:it’s amazing how much time I waste there. I realise that some of myloyal readers aren’t impressed with that website, but I find itinvaluable for keeping up with what others are getting up to, forlooking at photos, for showing off photos, for organising events andget - togethers. And for playing games – a shame that its versionof scrabble (words with friends) is playing up at the moment.

To work, where I did mybit, and managed to get out a few minutes early: tonight we had anastro club committee meeting. The BBC2 TV program Stargazing Live2012 is back on TV on the 16th, 17th and 18th of this month (nextweek!) and we are holding a "Stargazing Live"event a week on Saturday. Following on from last year's franklyamazing event, this time we will have a huge selection of telescopesset up outside for some public viewing (weather permitting).Inside the main hall, we will be having a selection of highlyentertaining astronomical talks and planetarium shows on our mainscreen, including me wittering on about matters astronomical. Therewill be a telescope workshop with our resident experts and retailpartners. Refreshments will be available, there is ample parking andall are welcome.

And as well as whateverthe BBC throw at us for staging the event, the Federation of Astronomical Societies have given us a hundred quid for getting offof our backsides and doing something.

See you there?

10 January 2012 (Tuesday) - Entertainment

2012-01-10T22:50:00.004Z

Over the last few weeksand months I've been watching "TerraNova". It was really good, but still no decision hasbeen made about the future of the show. Will it be cancelled? Thejury is still out. And I've also been watching the re-imagined"Charlie'sAngels": an entertaining show, but cancelled.

Last night I watched thelatest David Jason comedy - "TheRoyal Bodyguard". Amazed with how bad the show was, itwas promptly followed by "MrsBrown's Boys" which was dreadful. These programs reallysum up what is wrong with the entire concept of the BBC. With decentand watch-able telly programmes being cancelled, the "unique"funding of the BBC allows them to make absolute drivel whencommercial companies struggle to keep good shows going.

After ten minutes I gaveup, changed the channel and watched "Man vs Food".It was whilst on the Good Food Network that I saw an advert whichmade me think - the novels of Agatha Christie are being knockedout in newsagents at the moment. Starting with an introductoryoffer of two quid, subsequent books are a fiver each. When you bearin mind that after two minutes on Google you can download Christie'snovels for free, I can't help but wonder why people pay good moneyfor books.

I wonder if the days ofthe professional author are numbered: there are so many people whohave published books in e-format that are available for free, andthere are so many books that are out of copyright that are availablefor free. I've got weeks (probably months) of reading loadedonto my Kindle that I've downloaded for free. Why should I shell outgood money when authors aren't asking for it?

9 January 2012 (Monday) - Stuff

2012-01-09T19:21:00.000Z

Thismorning's news gave me food for thought. Or drink for thought, tobe more precise. The latest recommendations (from those whorecommend such things) is that we should all have at least twodays a week when we don't have any alcoholic drinks. Well, I probablyonly have two days a week when I have a drink. (My problem is thatI don't have "a" drink - I have too much in one go!)

The radio programinterviewed a broadcaster who'd given up all alcoholic drinks for amonth: the chap interviewed said that he hadn't really missed thebooze. The radio program then interviewed a professor-type whoclaimed that not missing the booze was the reaction of most people.And, having been relatively off of the booze for the last few monthsas part of the ongoing diet, I'm coming to that point of view myself.In years gone by I would be looking forward to the upcoming beerfestival at Dover. But (quite frankly) I'm finding myselfquestioning the sanity of spending the best part of one hundredpounds just to make myself feel ill for two days.

Don't get me wrong - Ican't see myself going teetotal; but cutting back can't be a badthing, and is probably going to be the way forward for this year.

Last Saturday I mentionedthat I'd broken a tooth. I phoned the dentist today to see aboutgetting a fix. They said they could fit me in at 2pm. So I sucked upto the boss, and got the afternoon off work. One economy I reallydon't want to make is my dental insurance. I shell out a monthlypremium, and all my dentistry is done for free.

As I got into thedentist's chair, the dentist commented on how much weight I'd lost.He then rooted in my gob. Apparently in the fullness of time thebroken tooth will need capping, but for now he's effected a fix to begetting on with. I couldn't help but wonder why he didn't cap thething right away. But then I remembered another tooth that has atemporary fix on it: that temporary fix has been in place for fiveyears.

Having booked theafternoon off work for the dentist, I found myself back home by2.30pm. So I spent an hour or so putting in applications for jobs. Iapplied for a dozen or so jobs. the applications might do some good:they might not. If nothing else it will remind the agencies that I'mstill keen.

And having prepared tea(to save "er indoors ^TM" a job)I climbed into my snuggie and slept in front of the telly.

I spent quite a lot oftime trying to get my snuggie organised - it seemed to be very openat the front, and the pockets were in rather daft places. I'veeventually found that wearing it back to front (that is with theopening at the back) puts the pockets in the right place and hasme covered up at the front. All I need to do now is to figure outhow to get it to go down to cover my feet. Mind you, when I stand upwhilst wearing the thing I seem to trip over it. So extending it overmy feet might not be a good idea.

Mind you, it's stillearly days as far as the snuggie is concerned...

8 January 2012 (Sunday) - Bored

2012-01-08T20:17:00.001Z

We got home from the filmnight at about 12.30am last night. By the time we'd showered, writtenyesterday's history and watched a little telly we didn’t get to bedtill nearly 3am. I quite like the late nights. But consequently Ididn't wake till gone 11am. By the time I'd shaved and had brekky, Iwas resenting having wasted half the day.

The weekly weigh - in.For all that I lost another pound over the last week, over the lastmonth I've put an inch on around my hips. I wonder what that's allabout? And then whilst checking emails we found ourselves wrapped upwatching "Willy Wonka" which was on the telly. Thatwasted more of my time.

Eventually we got to goout. Only food shopping, but it was still "out".First of all to Lidl for the makings of tea, and then on to FarmFoods for the makings of tea for the rest of the week. Whilst wewere out we popped round to see Chris I was rather concerned thatyesterday we'd left his pinball table in rather a state. It wasmostly reassembled, but still not wired up. Whilst there was probablyvery little that I could have done, I wanted to be sure that thething was up and running. It was. Mostly. One of the flippers is abit sticky, and one of the effects isn't working, and there was(apparently) a burning smell at one point. But it was workingwell enough for me to have a go. I felt happier that we hadn't lefthim completely high and dry yesterday, and then we came home.

I spent the rest of the afternoon in front of the telly, wrapped in my snuggie, sleepingthrough episodes of "Star Trek: Voyager" whilst "erindoors ^TM" sorted out tea. It has to besaid that she boils up a decent bit of scran. And when she wentbowling, I had a minor disaster.

Having planned to host agame of poker this coming Friday, I couldn't find my poker chips.Eventually they came to light, but it wasted half an hour I couldhave spent more productively. And then I carried on sleeping in frontof more episodes of "Star Trek: Voyager"....

Yesterday was reallygood. Today was rather dull...

7 January 2012 (Saturday) - Helping Out

2012-01-08T01:54:00.002Z

I really felt as though Icouldn't be bothered to get out of my pit this morning, buteventually I hauled my carcass into action. With "er indoors^TM" off to Folkestone to get her car doorsfixed, I went up to town with Martin. First of all to the cheapo shop(what in better days was once Woolworths). I like the cheaposhop - everything costs ninety-nine pence, so I stocked up withseveral requisites. And then on to the market stall for some fruitand veg. Only to find that the stall wasn't there today. That was anuisance: five apples and five carrots from the market stall are halfthe price that I pay in a supermarket.

And then another disaster- Martin gave me a jelly sweetie, and it took out half of a tooth. Ishall have to get that fixed in the week.

And then we went round toChris's for the afternoon. We'd volunteered to help out. Having solda pinball table (Chris has four pinball tables in his house)he needed a bit of help to move the thing. The table which had beensold was upstairs, and so we needed to disassemble it, lug the bitsdownstairs, reassemble it (to prove to the buyer that it worked),lug the sold table to the buyer's car, disassemble one of thedownstairs pinball tables, lug the bits upstairs and reassemble it.And then generally tidy up.

It all sounds fairly easyin theory - in principle it was (mostly). We soon found that agrandfather clock was seriously in the way, so we had a minor delaywhilst we disassembled the clock and moved the bits. Moving thepinball tables was easy enough - albeit a bit heavy. Reassembling thetable to be sold was easy enough - the wiring was labelled as to whatwire went into what plug, and buyer arrived on time and was happywith what he saw. Four of us wrestled the table into his car, andsent him on his way (back to Brighton). I did wonder how hewas going to unload the table when he got it home, but (to beblunt) that wasn't my problem.

Reassembling the tablewe'd taken upstairs wasn't so easy: the wiring wasn't labelled atall, and the instruction book only mentioned about half the cables.After an hour or so we gave up and spent an hour of so rebuilding thegrandfather clock. Or that is we spent five minutes rebuilding theclock, and an hour getting the thing level. And then Chris orderedpizza. Good move.

With the house tidied,the clans gathered and we had the now standard Saturday night filmnight. First of all we watched "Limitless" - a verywatch-able film following what happens when one takes a drug whichgives super-intelligence. I liked that one. The second film,"Inception" featured Leonardo DiCaprio as acharacter who had the ability to interact with people's dreams. Aninteresting concept, but the film had far too much which wasunexplained; not least of which was who were all the people goinground with Leonardo DiCaprio's character. But it's always good towatch a film with friends....

We came home leavingChris to finish off wiring up the pinball table. I wonder how he'sgetting on...

6 January 2012 (Friday) - Snuggie

2012-01-06T21:13:00.000Z

There was an amazingarticle on the local news today - a Kent woman is being prosecuted.Whilst eating her lunch she threw some of her sandwich to the birds.She's now being prosecuted for littering. She was on the telly loudlyboasting that she could be taken to the highest court in the land:she wouldn't pay any fines.

There was a time when Iwould have been equally defiant: these days if I were in in a similarposition I would keep my trap shut.

The same news told of BobHolness having died today. The news article mentioned that helived in Pinner: I always thought he lived locally: back in the dayhe used to accompany Santa to switch on the Christmas lights inAshford every year.

Did you know that he wasthe first person to ever play the part of James Bond? He did it on avery early radio broadcast.

As I was leaving workthis evening my mobile beeped: the Rear Admiral was asking aboutdates of kite festivals. I really need to organise myself on thatfront. The Kite festival at Teston isn't happening in June this year,and (in all honesty) I don't want to do the August one if "erindoors ^TM" isn't going to be there. Thekite festival in Brighton would seem to be back to it's traditionaldate, but in this new world order of austerity, I might not be ableto afford the weekend away. Which would be a shame.

I got home and then spenttwo hours ironing. Dull. I really should stop wearing shirts to work.A lot of my colleagues wear T-shirts and polo shirts. Perhaps Ishould do the same? Eventually "er indoors ^TM" came home with a pressie for me.

For some time I've beensaying that I'd like a Snuggie: they look so good on the adverts. "erindoors ^TM" had bought me a Snuggie. Imust admit that at first sight I was disappointed. The adverts led meto believe the things were a form of serious thermal insulation. Butwhat I had looked very thin and flimsy. But I gave it a go, and forall that it does look very thin and flimsy, it's surprisingly warm.I'm quite pleased with it....

5 January 2012 (Thursday) - A Rant

2012-01-05T21:36:00.004Z

"er indoors ^TM"was out tonight, and was going straight from work. So I was left homealone. And as I got home so my piss boiled. I left home this morninghaving cleared all of the washing up. And came home to find thekitchen again awash with dirty crockery.

The washing up bowl wasfull to overflowing. How can anyone generate so much washing up?Seven glasses in one day (!) I lost count of the cups. Doesevery sip have to come from a new bit of crockery? Do I really haveto hunt round the house to round up all that needs washing?

It took me fifteenminutes (that I begrudged) to clear other people's mess beforeI could start on cooking my own scoff.

Whilst I cooked andscoffed I got on with the washing - the lid now actually goes ontothe laundry basket. And with damp washing strewn over all theradiators I put the telly on. There was a documentary about SidJames. I always liked him. And then there was an episode of FamilyGuy and of South Park. Episodes that I couldn't watch since everyoneelse was recording rubbish onto the Sky-Plus box. So I watched whatwas being recorded. It was that or turn the telly off - and I wasn'tgoing to do that....

There was a time when Iliked having the house to myself. I don't these days.... I get toowound up....

4 January 2012 (Wednesday) - Aminals

2012-01-04T22:22:00.001Z

Today'snews made me snigger. It would seem that they are having astock-take at London Zoo. I would have thought that knowing how manyllamas or dingoes or sehlats or targs one has would have been rathercentral to the business of running a zoo, but what do I know?

Talking of animals, thisevening I came home to find a note had been put through the door toask me to look out for a missing cat. Apparently Petey is new to thearea, (having recently immigrated from America), is easilyconfused and has learning difficulties. Well, I've not seen any catsrecently, so I can't help.

I've never known a catwhich is easily confused and has learning difficulties: I can't helpbut wonder if this is perhaps a feature of American cats. Perhapssome of my loyal readers might be able to elucidate on the matter.

After a really good bitof scoff we watched "Treasure Island": we recordedit onto the Sky-Plus box at the weekend and so watching it later wewere able to save about a third of the original broadcast time thatwas used up by the adverts. I realise that the advertising goes along way to pay for the TV programs, but I shell out quite a bit frommy own pocket as well. I wouldn't mind the adverts quite so much ifthey didn't automatically increase the volume during the advertbreaks...

3 January 2012 (Tuesday) - Rabbids

2012-01-03T21:59:00.003Z

Over the Christmas breakwe were given a Wii. We got the thing wired in a while ago, but onlygot round to finally sparking it up in anger last night. For noreason that I can fathom, the thing has an internet connection.Presumably so that the in-built BBC i-Player can work. However thatidea merely raises the question of why a Wii has an i-Player.

With the thing sparkedup, "er indoors ^TM" had a go at"Rabbids". I've watched my nephew playing these -they are a sort of psychotic rabbit. We had a rather frustrating halfan hour watching rabbids getting electrocuted. For no adequatelyexplored reason the rabbids would not go the way that they were beingdirected. I say "directed": left to their owndevices, rabbids seem to go in a westerly direction. Franticthrashing of the hand-held controllers seem to make them moreinclined to take up a random trajectory. Try as we might we could notfind the pattern of random thrashing that would send them where wefelt they should go. Personally I was rather convinced that allowingthe rabbid to carry a toilet roll along with it was a bad move, butwhat do I know?

In retrospect I can'thelp but feel that having a controller each (rather than sharingone) would have been useful. And that we could have done withhaving a five year old to have shown us what to do with the game. Isuppose that having had all else fail, reading the instructions mighthave been a good idea.

Instead we made avideo-Facebook-skype call to the Hose-Beast, and he watched usplaying rabbids on our Wii whilst we watched him playing lego HarryPotter on his Wii. Sometimes I worry that that the amazing technologythat we have at our fingertips is being used in perhaps a slightlyfrivolous way....

2 January 2012 (Monday) - Folkestone Warren

2012-01-02T19:56:00.000Z

The plan for today was togo for a walk along the warren. About an hour or so before we weredue to set off I found out that not everyone had received the messageabout these plans. This is something which worries me from time totime: ensuring everyone is kept in the loop isn't easy. Facebookmessages, email, text messages - somehow or other, no matter whatform of communication you try, there's always people who never getthe message. Sometimes it's me, and I understand that it's not goodto feel left out. What was actually an honest oversight can hurt.

I wish I knew aneffective form of communication.

And then, havingcollected Fudge, we set off to Folkestone Warren for a walk. Eight ofus wandered along the beach to the hut, and then wandered back again.It's probably only three years since the first time I ever visitedFolkestone Warren, but in that time it's become one of my favouriteplaces to be. It's a wonderful place for a stroll - today the tidewas out: further out than I've ever seen it. And the rocks wererather slippery with "er indoors ^TM"winding up on her bum. Fudge seemed to like the walk; he managed togo through every puddle he could find. As always, there are photosof the outing on-line.

Since we were in thearea, we then went round to the Admiralty to visit; only to find noone home. We knocked and rang to no avail, only to get a phone callwhen we were half way up the motorway to say they'd been in thegarden. Didn't I whinge about failures of communication? Oh well -next time.

And then I remindedmyself why we don't have dogs any more. We'd agreed to look afterFudge until late afternoon. On the way home it was suggested that wewent out for lunch. I was quite keen on the idea until we realisedthat we had a dog with us. There are very few places to eat thatallow dogs in. So we went home. Between getting home and droppingFudge off, we had the dog for three hours. And in that time he didnot stop once. He was running round the room, up the walls, over thefurniture, he was everywhere. It was fun to begin with, but thenovelty very soon wore off. Much as I like having grand-dogs, I likehanding them back far more.

There are those of myloyal readers who might take umbrage with me for sounding soanti-dog. I apologize for my sentiment: dogs are fine *if* you are adog person. But over the years I have found out from experience that(try as I might) I'm not actually a dog person. Does that makeme a bad person? I hope not.

In between Fudge bouncingall over the place I attempted to watch some telly. "Carry OnGirls" was on: it was probably rather risqué when it wasmade; nowadays it's either lame or classic, depending on yourpersonal perspective. I spent most of the film trying to decidewhether the seaside scenes had been filmed in Eastbourne or HerneBay. I then looked it up on the Internet only to find that it wasfilmed in Brighton. Oh well: I knew I recognised it from somewhere.

And then the Watchchannel was having a Pride-and-Prejudice-a-thon. I watched a fewepisodes of that as Fudge went berserk and then we had a text to sayto take Fudge home. Much as having had a dog for a day was anexperience, it's not one I'd like to repeat for a while.

We dropped Fudge back tothe Fudgery. Whilst there Lacey showed us her new guppies, and thenwe came home again. We'd had a lovely walk in the sunshine earlier:as the night had fallen it had become quite cold. So we didn't muckabout: and went back home as quickly as we could. Rather thancarrying on with the antics of Mr Darcy we decided to get moreprogrammes watched and taken off of the Sky-Plus box. It's all verywell recording stuff: we need to watch it too. We watched last week'sepisode of "Charlie's Angels". I'm still undecidedabout this show. Even the most all-action program needs some reasonfor the gun battles and the fast cars and the explosions.

We then watched a fewmore episodes of "Come Dine With Me": for a show Ionly discovered a few weeks ago, I've got quite seriously into thisprogram. Tonight's episodes were filmed (relatively) locallyin Margate. And then an episode of Ab-Fab: not my favourite show, butentertaining enough.

There's talk of sparkingup the Wii later.....

1 January 2012 (Sunday) - Films

2012-01-02T00:43:00.004Z

Following getting homerather late last night, my phone seemed to be having a catch-upsession. I was receiving text messages wishing me a happy new yearwell into the small hours.

We got to kip shortlyafter 3am, so I had a bit of a lie-in this morning; finally gettingout of my pit at mid day. A bit of brekkie over Facebook, and "MyBoy ^TM" and his entourage came to visit.They too hadn’t been out of their pits very long on account of "MyBoy ^TM" having got "gazeboed"last night. It was rumoured that he'd got though a double-figuredamount of pints of lager last night. I must admit that I'm seriouslyconsidering giving up the beer altogether: spending large amounts ofcash just to make myself feel ill is becoming a seriouslyunattractive proposition these days. Perhaps I'm getting old?

Before they left, wespent a few moments looking at photos from yesterday's wedding beforethey set off on their way, and I then spent a few moments muckingabout making video calls over Facebook to Folkestone; for no otherreason than because I could.

And then the rainstarted. It would have been good to have done something today, butthe rain put me off going out. On Friday I;d checked the weatherforecast: back then the weekend was supposed to be dry: it rainedyesterday whilst we were at the wedding. It rained this afternoonwhen we could have gone out and done something. The forecast fortomorrow is still dry though. Let's hope so.

So whilst waiting for dryweather we spent the afternoon slobbing in front of the tellywatching episodes of "Come Dine With Me"; finallygetting dressed sometime in the mid-afternoon. There was a minor bitof excitement as "er indoors ^TM" destroyed the kitchen window blind, but it was excitement that soonpassed. Which was probably for the best.

Not having had a filmnight with friends for a few weeks, this evening we went round toChris's to watch some films. And much as I enjoyed meeting up withfriends, I must admit that I was disappointed by the films. "Super-8"was difficult to describe because it wasn't a film: it was two halvesof different films. Having started making a film about a gang of kidsmaking a zombie film, it was clear that the film wasn't working sohalf way through the whole "kids-zombie-film" ideawas dropped, and the film then became one about an alien invasion.And (in all honesty) that didn't work either.

The second film, "Cowboysand Aliens" was, as the title suggested, about cowboys andaliens. It was watch-able enough I suppose: certainly better than"Super-8". But both films lacked plausible aliens.After all, if alien creatures are going to have sufficientintelligence to develop technology to travel interstellar distances(something which is decades, if not centuries beyond ourtechnology), then said alien creatures will not act like wildanimals.

But for all that thefilms were naff, it's always good to spend an evening with friends.I've missed our film nights. I do hope that we start doing them moreoften....

31 December 2011 (Saturday) - A Wedding

2012-01-01T12:56:00.001Z

With no reason to be upearly we had a bit of a lie-in, and then I got out my shears and gavemy head the once-over before having a bit of brekkie. I noticed theroom was dark, so I opened the curtains. Or that is I tried to openthe curtains: I couldn't get to the window because of all the clutterin the way. Much of which was other people's clutter. Amongst theclutter there is a tent which has been under my window for a coupleof years now. It's not my tent: we seem to have brought it home fromone of our camping trips, and someone or other seems to be contentthat I'm looking after it. If anyone thinks I'm looking after theirtent could they please reclaim it as it is seriously in my way.

I had the Saturdaymorning weigh-in. What with the holidays I've put on three poundsthis week. I suppose that's only to be expected, but I must admitthat I was rather disappointed about it.

We then turned on thetelly and spent a few hours watching episodes of "Come DineWith Me" which we'd recorded onto the Sky-Plus box over thelast few weeks and months. If you've never seen the program, it'swell worth giving a go: the show takes four or five random people allof which (over the course of a week) have to put on a dinnerparty for the others. Some of the people are decent bods, others arecomplete planks, others are utterly arrogant. Sometimes they all geton really well, sometimes it's arguments all the way. I suspect thatlike most reality TV it's all rather staged, but it passes the timewhilst we play on-line scrabble.

With time passed wecollected "My Boy ^TM" and hisentourage (minus Fudge) and set off to Westfield for mysister-in-law's wedding. I say "wedding" - theactual wedding was during the morning: we were going to a blessing ofthe wedding in the local church. It seemed somewhat odd to me that awedding be done in a registry office, and then blessed in church. Whynot just have it done in the church in the first place? (But whatdo I know?)

The service was somewhat"Typical Church of England" in that it was ratherunique. When you go to a Catholic or a Methodist or a Baptist church,generally you know what you are going to get. With the C of E thesedays you seem to get anything from several hours of hypocrisy in subzero temperatures through to false bonhomie happy clappy, andeverything in between. I can;t help but feel that the C of E needs tochoose which area of the religion market it is aiming for, and stoptrying to cover all of the bases.

But the service passedoff rather well, I thought. There was a dodgy five minutes when thevicar seemed to imply that she was unaware that both protagonists hadbeen married before, but I think that we got away with it, and afterhalf an hour we set off to the bunfight.

The wedding reception wasat the rather posh Leeford Place, and after half an hour of minglingwe sat down for dinner. In a novel break with tradition speeches weremade before we ate, and were well received. The food was good - Ishouldn't have gone for a second helping of the curry; it didn't sitwell and gave me gyp for the rest of the evening.

And then torment - adisco. I hate, loathe and despise discos. They are far too loud,noisy and intrusive. But everyone else seems to like them (so whatdo I know?). The assorted children and teenagers seemed to likethe disco, and after meeting one of my loyal readers (hello Dickie- good to meet you!) midnight came oh-so-quickly. Auld Lang Synewas swiftly followed by fireworks. And then I realised that I amgetting old when I found myself grumbling about how tiresome drunkteenagers are. I stopped myself whinging, put on a smile, andconsoled myself with the thought of the copious amounts of vom saidchildren would be generating on their journeys home. (That wouldbe nice for someone...)

And talking of journeyshome, we then made ours. I wasn't entirely sure of the quickest wayhome, but I was sure that it wasn't the way my sat-nav would have mebelieve. So "er indoors ^TM" activated her sat-nav which generated different (but equallyimplausible) instructions. But having found Broad Oak I knew theway home from there, even if sat-nav did keep trying to send us manymiles out of our way to Rye.

Having dropped off thefamily, we eventually got home shortly after 2am, and then spent awhile mucking about on the computer.

I must admit I quitemissed our traditional New Year celebration, (we usually do aSpanish New Year), but as family events go, tonight was rathergood There'sphotos of what happened here.. Must do the family thing moreoften...

30 December 2011 (Friday) - Great Expectations

2011-12-30T22:34:00.002Z

Having played cards lastnight I was rather late to bed. I dropped off immediately, but waswoken by "er indoors ^TM" cominghome an hour or so later, and that was it for the night for mysleeping. When I go to kip I drop off right away, but once woken Ihave serious trouble getting back to sleep. Exactly the same thinghappened the night before when "My Boy ^TM"came home quietly.

Over the last two nightsI don't think I got more than five hours sleep, and bearing in mindthat the ongoing sinusitis has me more bunged up than a bunged upthing, I wasn't feeling in tip-top condition today.

So this evening I didsomething which was quite out of character: I sent my apologies tothe astronomy club. To be honest I wasn't overly fussed about theplanned activity for the club tonight: the film society was going toplay the film of Apollo 13 and charge us four quid each for theprivilege. Much as I would like to have met up with everyone tonight,I wasn't really feeling up to it.

So instead I stayed homeand did the ironing. Whilst ironing we watched the BBC's latestadaptation of "Great Expectations"; quitewatch-able, even if I had no idea what was going on for most of thetime. That Miss Haversham was as mad as trousers....

29 December 2011 (Thursday) - This and That

2011-12-29T23:37:00.003Z

I was woken by the frontdoor slamming rather noisily at 3.10am. So I went downstairs in casethe worst had happened. Needless to say it was only the first fruitof my loin coming home quietly. He looked rather smart - he'd been toa casino (in Margate) to lose forty quid. I tried to hint thathe could lose forty quid more constructively by giving it to me, butfor all that my lad might be a bit daft, he ain't stupid.

Mind you, I wish he'dcome home even more quietly: once I'm woken I have terrible troublegetting back to sleep again, and having exchanged insults with himand having had a quick tiddle, I then lay in bed until 9.30am.

Yesterday I mentionedthat I was in a sulk at work. I was doubly sulking today. Havingthought that I was on an early start, I found out yesterday (atalmost the last minute) that I'd been reassigned to the lateshift. I don't mind the late start because I go to work in daylight,but the later lunch break (2pm at the earliest) is too latefor comfort, and the last few hours of the day do seem to drag.

I really don't like theway we have a seemingly random shift allocation. I would far ratherdo a week of late shifts rather than have an odd late midweek afterwhich I do not get home before 9pm, and know I have to be out of bedat 6am the next morning.

And being on a suddenlate shift really stuffed my plans for the evening. I'd been invitedto a game of poker, and I missed the first half hour. Mind you,despite turning up late, I still managed to win. I did the victorydance to celebrate....

28 December 2011 (Wednesday) - Stuff

2011-12-28T21:50:00.005Z

Ideally I would like tohave visited my mother today: she'd been taken into hospital onBoxing Day following a fall (she's home now and all is well),and today was her birthday. But (seemingly unlike the rest of theworld) I was back to work today. So I contented myself with aphone call. It seems as though I always go back to work on Mum'sbirthday.

Work didn't go welltoday. Well to be honest, work went much the same as ever, but Ispent most of the day in a bit of a sulk purely because pretty mucheveryone else was still on holiday (or so it seemed).

Tonight was arky-ologeeclub. We didn't go. My sinusitis was giving me gyp, and realisticallyI've very little interest in the arky-ologee club. Some of the talksare interesting enough, but the core business of the club (scrubblingabout in holes in the dirt) leaves me yawning. Next month is whenwe will be expected to renew our membership: I don't think I willrenew.

Meanwhile there has beena celebrity death. "Cheetah" - star of many "Tarzan"films died today aged eighty Fond of Christian music and fingerpainting, when irritated "Cheetah" was not averse toflinging dung about. Or so early news reports claimed. Laterreports claimed that the monkey who died today not only wasn'tthe film star monkey, but was nowhere near eighty years old.

Apparently if the monkeythat died was the real McCoy, then he would have been the oldestmonkey ever. The news reports seem to imply that somehow the publichave been duped into accepting an imposter monkey. I can't see whatanyone stands to gain with substituting one monkey for another.

27 December 2011 (Tuesday) - Telly Christmas

2011-12-27T22:32:00.001Z

A rather restless night -up for the loo several times during the night. I blame yesterday'sover-indulgence. We finally got up at 10am, and after a lightbreakfast we waved goodbye to those who'd stayed over for the night.

The original plan for theday had us going out and doing something, but unfortunately forreasons of economy that wasn't possible, so we stayed in.

So, after a flying visitfrom Fudge and his entourage, we had a catch-up session with whatwe'd missed seeing on the telly over the last few days: Sky-Plus is awonderful thing.

First of all we watched"Charlie's Angels". An entertaining enough programwhich really would benefit from the addition of a plot. Today's showfeatured our heroines being locked up in a Cuban jail. And havingbeen locked up for quite some time, our heroines all still hadimmaculate make-up.

Then we watched theChristmas "Doctor Who", which started off as anepisode of "Things Exploding" and carried on in muchthe same vein until about twenty minutes after I'd (quite frankly)lost interest in the show. And just as the show started getting to beworth watching, it turned silly again. If I'd been watching it on myown, there's no denying I would have missed the best bits because Iwould have turned it off after the first fifteen minutes.

Much as I've always liked "Doctor Who", over the last few years the programseems to be becoming far more comic and slapstick that ever it usedto be. The Doctor never used to be a comedian. In all honesty, thesedays I find myself watching the program out of a sense of feeling Iought to watch it rather than because I actually enjoy the show anymore.

Over a lunch of coldmeat, pickles and home-brewed stout we then watched the Christmasepisode of "Downton Abbey". In retrospect I couldhave done with reading up on what had happened during the last seasonas there was a lot of continuity from the last episodes that Icouldn't remember, but the program was well worth watching.

Even if the nobs did windup laughing and the servants wound up in the chokey. But such islife.

A slice of "erindoors ^TM"s' home-made Christmas cake,and then we did some catching up with "Terra Nova":somehow we'd managed to get three episodes behind. I do like thatseries; and with believable characters you can forgive it theoccasional plot hole. (Like meteors going upwards).

We've now seen all ofseason one of that show - I hope they make a second season - howeveritsays on Wikipedia that no decision about a second season will bemade just yet.

And being Tuesday thetribes gathered and we watched "A Christmas Carol":the Disney version from two years ago. Normally I'm not a fan ofthings Disney, but this film was quite enjoyable. For all that wedon't have a single blu-ray disk, the blu-ray player comes in usefulfrom time to time...

26 December 2011 (Monday) - Boxing Day

2011-12-27T11:46:00.002Z

This morning was spent ina flurry of activity: with the fruits of our loin coming for dinnerwe needed to get the living room tidy. Or if not tidy, at least undercontrol. A couple of hours effort reclaimed the room, and soon afterthe family gathered. My grand-dogs were pleased to see each other (asonly boy dogs can be), but they soon lost interest in podgeringeach other.

Seven of us sat down todinner: something new - a four bird roast. I quite liked it, but Ithink we made far too much. But then we usually do. Dinner was washeddown with my latest home brew which was quite a nice drop of stout(even if I do say so myself).

Feeling quite stuffed wethen sat down for a few hands of cards, a few games of "Downfall",and some sitting in front of the telly. "Oliver Twist","The Borrowers", "Michael McIntyre","Ab Fab"... I dozed through the lot, periodicallywaking and nodding off again. I think where I went wrong was havingsome of the evening buffet: I was still stuffed from yesterday andstill I ate far too much.

I finally gave up andwent to bed about 1am.

25 December 2011 (Sunday) - Christmas Day

2011-12-25T22:55:00.003Z

Waking up on Christmasmorning without the kids being home is odd. The house felt verylonely this morning. Perhaps I'm getting soppy in my old age.

"er indoors ^TM"eventually emerged from her pit, and as a special Christmas brekkiewe had croissants and coffee. I suppose that there are those whowould wonder what's special about croissants and coffee - all I cansay is that I like them.

"My Boy ^TM"then arrived, and we had a pressie opening session. I got quite adecent haul of goodies, and then we set off to my brother's house forthe day. We arrived shortly before mid day and had a crafty pint. Andthen another crafty pint, and a third as well before going to visitElaine and Roy. Visiting was thirsty work, so we took up the offer of another pint.

And then back to mybrother's house where ten of us sat down for Christmas dinner. Fartoo much Christmas dinner. Oh it was good - but the diet certainlywent out the window today. And after having reached the point ofbeing able to eat no more we wandered up the road to the garage toget some cigars: after all it was Christmas.

From that point it allbecame rather vague. There were games on the Nintendo Wii. There wasmore food scoffed. There was Christmas pudding. There was a craftyhour's sleep. We had a really good time, but all too soon it was timeto come home. Amazingly I stayed awake for the drive home, and seeingthat the Sky box was recording Downton Abbey, we watched some telly.I'd been looking forward to the new series of Ab Fab. I wasdisappointed: it was rubbish.

And I then tried to stayawake whilst Michael McIntyre's Christmas special was on the telly. Ididn't quite succeed.

24 December 2011 (Saturday) - Christmas Eve

2011-12-25T09:03:00.000Z

It is something of afamily tradition that on Christmas Eve, "er indoors ^TM"goes visiting various relatives and drops off pressies along the way.Usually I'm working on Christmas Eve, so I don't normally get to goalong. This year with Christmas Eve being a Saturday I got to goalong. As did the rest of the tribe; chauffeured by the Rear Admiral.

The first port of callwas my mummy's house where we exchanged insults over a cup of coffee,then moved on to my mother-in-law for a glass of Bailey's. Very nice.

And then to thebrother-in-law's house where his nearest and dearest were allwatching him play "Grand Theft Auto" or some suchgame. Whatever it was, it looked interesting.

We then popped next doorto the chip shop for some sustenance, then after getting some petrolwe drove out to Westfield to see my sister-in-law. My niece wasn'tfeeling well, so whilst everyone "familied" in thekitchen, me and her watched "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"in the living room. An excellent film.

Pausing only briefly fora flying visit to my father-in-law, we got back home with half anhour to spare before our lift arrived. And then the Bat took us toFolkestone where the clans gathered. There was a minor panic when werealised we'd forgotten the dice, but that was nothing that a quickphone call couldn't put right.

Usually we meet up forNew Year's Eve, but this year was different, and twenty of usscoffed, watched films, played the parcel game, and had a wonderfulevening.

I eventually got to bedshortly after 1.30am. Absolutely worn out. I'd had a brilliant dayjust meeting up with family and friends. For all that I've beengetting rather self-absorbed lately I am very much aware of thewonderful people in my life.

In another plane ofreality Santa has arrived. He's having trouble telling the differencebetween who's been good and bad. But when one has just come up thechimney, one is hardly in any position to take the moral high ground.

And here's a thought -it's not actually Christmas yet, but creme eggs have been spotted inthe shops already....

23 December 2011 (Friday) - More Star Trek

2011-12-23T21:19:00.002Z

Much as I like my job,the shift pattern sometimes leaves something to be desired. OnWednesday I was on a late start: yesterday back on normal hours, andthen another late today. On Wednesday I whinged about not being ableto have a lie-in. Today was different, and I didn't get out of my pituntil nearly ten o'clock.

A bit of brekkie, andoff to work. Normally when I'm on the late shift the roads arerelatively quiet as I leave Ashford. Today the roads were heaving:everyone was driving to town. Both in Ashford and in Canterbury.Presumably last minute shopping before the long Xmas weekend.

Work was dull: I couldprobably have come home three hours earlier than I did (for allthat was going on). A shame it was pouring hard as I walkedacross the car park, but you can't have everything. And so homewhere, after a smashing bit of scoff, we watched "Star Trek -The Search for Spock". Or that is I watched Star Trek. "erindoors ^TM" wrapped Christmas pressies.

Meanwhile the forces oflaw and order have got a dog. Someone has given it a bone. The luckything.....

22 December 2011 (Thursday) - More Stuff

2011-12-22T20:47:00.001Z

Every year as we comeinto December the mornings are darker. It happens every year - butfor some reason this year I'm finding it especially depressing. Ireally don't like leaving home in the dark. Coming home in the dark'snot so bad, but leaving home in the dark is not good.

Thank heavens today isthe shortest day, and so from here on in the days start gettinglonger again.

And so to work where Idid my bit and came home again. I discovered a scar along the lengthof my forearm this evening - it's got quite a serious scab on it too.I wonder when that happened. And how.

And after a decent bit oftea which I had to cook for myself (home alone again...) Iwatched "The Wrath of Khan" on the Film4 channel. Aclassic film - is it really twenty nine years since that film wasmade?

I then mucked about withmy laptop's settings. I'm hoping that the blog is a tad more readabletoday - for the last week I've been transmitting from my lap-topusing Internet Explorer 9. But IE9 takes forever to boot up, and hasissues in blog entry preparation, cutting and pasting. So I'vedownloaded FireFox as I've been running that on my desk topsuccessfully for ages.

And as I mucked about Ihad a visit: "My Boy ^TM" and hisgood lady popped in to say hello. I quite like having visitors: Idon't like being alone these days.

Meanwhile in anotherplane of reality, in a lame attempt to keep up with the opposition, the forces of law and order have obtained a snow-mobile. All theyhave to do now is find a rozzer who's able to drive the thing... orwould rather drive it than drink tea or muck about with histhunderstick.

21 December 2011 (Wednesday) - Stuff

2011-12-21T22:15:00.003Z

We had a late night lastnight, but being on a late start meant I could have a bit of alie-in. Or so I thought. The dustmen were rather noisy with the binsthis morning, and next door’s dogs sounded as though they were infull demolition mode as they crashed about.
A nuisance – I wasn’tfeeling in tip-top condition and a lie-in would have done me somegood.

Over brekkie I heard anoise at the door - a visit from the most recent fruit of my loin andSid had come to visit too. That’s always good. I gave them instructionsnot to leave me a house full of washing up, and wasted the morningplaying Mah-Jong before going to work.

Work was good - we hadthe Xmas buffet. In the past I've always taken crisps and peanuts:but at Canterbury people seem to make the food they bring in. Ishall have to up my game plan for next time. We also had the "secretsanta" draw. I got a decent haul of bottled ales. Very nice!

And then home to find thehouse empty and that washing up had been generated for me, but hadn'tbeen done for me. So I left it in the sink and sulked. Either magicalpixies will do it overnight, or I'll do it in the morning.

Yesterdaythe forces of villainy were contending with a snowmobile with astorage capacity that wasn’t up to transporting lots of ill-gottengains. Today Harry Ramp would seem to have a trailer full of illicitBrasso that he is having difficulty in pushing.
Perhaps the two of themmight come to some sort of arrangement? Or perhaps Harry Ramp mightjust end up having his trailer nicked?

20 December 2011 (Tuesday) - Feeling Poorly

2011-12-20T23:18:00.001Z

The plan for today was ameeting for the morning, and then would take the afternoon off. Themeeting went west, so I spent the day at home. To be honest I wasn'tfeeling 100%: my sinusitis was playing up quite seriously today. Icurled up on the sofa; pulled a blanket over myself, put "Survivors:Season 2" on the DVD player, and sulked for six hours.

I don't cope with illnessvery well.

And being Tuesday we wentround to Chris's house. Rather than the usual TV, tonight we watcheda film: "The Amazing Mr Blunden". I can rememberwatching this in the cinema when it first came out nearly forty yearsago. I could remember it being a good film, and i wasn'tdisappointed. It has to be said that the ending was rather weak, butthat can be said of a lot of films form the early 70s.

I was amazed to find thatthe film had been directed by Lionel Jeffries - he played the Grandadin "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" - I had no idea that hewas a director.

Meanwhile our newestfriend has realised that preparation is everything: it's all verywell blowing a safe (oo-er!) provided one has the wherewithalto make a quick get-away. Clearly a snowmobile lacks the boot spacethat a blinged police car might have.

It's amazing howupsetting a failed get-away can be - that crowbar is certainly not ata very rakish angle....

19 December 2011 (Monday) - Bit Nippy

2011-12-19T20:19:00.001Z

It didn't feel too coldwhen I emerged from my pit at 5.45 am this morning. Mind you Ithought the day wasn't getting off to a good start when the"Discovery Shed" wasn't showing fishing programmesat 6.30am. And then off to work. And that *was* cold. Once I'dgot through the ice on my car and got into the thing I saw from thethermometer that the temperature was minus five. That's chilly.

Pausing only briefly toskid on the ice in Wincheap I got to work relatively uneventfully,and did my bit. Coming home was equally dull: there was a dubious fewseconds when I found myself on course to be heading north up the M2,but that was nothing that a swift lane change couldn't put right.Mind you, since when has it been possible to head north up the M2from Wincheap?

Once home tea gotscoffed,and with "er indoors ^TM"gone bowling, I activated my laptop and transmitted to the world fromthe sofa whilst watching "Rock and Chips" on the telly. Forso many years I've taken myself up to the back room and mucked abouton a "proper" computer. I quite like sitting infront of the telly with my laptop. I just need to get used to thekeyboard...

Meanwhile, whilst theforces of law and order muck about with blinged cars, our newprotagonist has jemmied open the safe and is about to make off withhis ill-gotten gains.

Or has put his tool touse, and is about to spend his wad; depending on your personalperpective...

18 December 2011 (Sunday) - Dull Sunday

2011-12-18T19:38:00.002Z

We had a late night last night – we didn’tget in till midnight and then spent a couple of hours watching telly andplaying computer games. So I wasn’t very impressed to be woken by the phoneringing at silly o’clock this morning. And even less impressed to find that thecaller not only hung up before I could get to the phone, and that they’dwithheld their number.

And so having been dragged out of my pit, Iwas up and about. So I had brekky and started playing on-line scrabble. I say “on-line scrabble”: the game isn’tactually scrabble because (as Iunderstand it) copyright laws prevent the use of the name. But the game isas close to scrabble as makes very little difference.

Normally I’d do something with a weekend day;but it was cold. So we sat in front of the telly and watched all sorts ofprograms that had been recorded onto the Sky Plus box whilst playing on-linescrabble and Mah-Jong. Rather a waste of a day, but when it’s cold it seems asgood a way of wasting the day as any.

As the afternoon wore on, I had a video callfrom the Rear Admiral. It would seem that video calling now works. That’s nice.

Meanwhile, whilst the usual suspects muckabout with the blinged car, a new protagonist arises. He has a crowbar, andfrom his demeanour he doesn’t look like he would be afraid to use it…

17 December 2011 (Saturday) - An Evening Out

2011-12-18T10:20:00.001Z

The weekly weigh –in: three more pounds lost.The weight is coming off nicely. If only I didn’t feel hungry all the time.

I wandered up town to get some makings oflunch for the week - carrots and apples from the market are good quality andare very cheap. Ant the walk is god exercise too. Strangely the town wasn'tespecially busy: not that I'm complaining.

And then home again. "er indoors ^TM"'s laptop was playing up, and "Daddies Little Angel ^TM"needed taking back to Folkestone, so whilst the girls set off to the coast Iironed my shirts, and then spent the afternoon watching the telly: a "Compoand Clegg show" marathon followed by "Dad's Army - the Movie".

And finding myself telly-ed out, we wentround for dinner with friends for the evening. Smashing food; smashing company.And after a truly wonderful chicken in white wine sauce followed by home-madecake we played the Logo game: a new one on me, but great fun. We really must doit again.

We eventually got home about midnight andthen sat up playing silly games on the computer till really late.. I think thatI might have overdone my calorie allowance for the day, but the occasionaloverindulgence doesn't hurt too much....

Overnight the “Old-Bill-Mobile” has becomesomewhat blinged. Which is more than can be said for the mad axe murderer.

16 December 2011 (Friday) - Snow...

2011-12-16T21:51:00.002Z

I could not believe my eyes when I read the newsthis morning. Apparently experts have found that it is vital for thefunctioning of a true democracy that a sizeable proportion of the electorateshould have no idea of what's going on.

It would seem that a sizeable proportion ofpeople with no grasp of the issues of the day can have a steadying influence onthose who actually know what's happening. After all, heaven forbid thatdemocratic decisions should ever be made with any knowledge of the issues orreason being employed.

Mind you, does anyone truly understand what'sgoing on in the world? I certainly don't.

And so to the doctor’s. My appointment wasfor 9.10am – I got in shortly after 9.30am. I didn’t complain – the place wasbusy, and enough other people were complaining already.

When I saw the hospital doctor about mysinusitis (two weeks ago) he said tosee my G.P. in a week or so, and so I did. They said to keep taking themedicine. Whilst there we had a chat about my general health (I knew him when he was only a corporal!).My cholesterol isn’t *that* highaccording to today’s doc, and we’ve agreed to check it again in a few months.My blood pressure is also down – now at 120/80, which is the best it’s beensince the early 1990s. We put the improvements down to the recent weight loss.So I suppose this diet is a good thing: even if I do feel hungry most of thetime.

And then to work – through the snow. Only afew flurries, but I don’t like snow if I have to travel. I still have memoriesof a journey to Whitstable. We drove there in under an hour, the snow fell, andit took five hours to get home again. There was a dubious few minutes on theway as I saw the snow was laying on some of the fields, but fortunately thesnow turned to rain. Let’s hope it stays as rain.

Meanwhile overnight the mad axe murderer’scar has transformed itself into a vehicle of the forces of law and order.

The mad axe murderer is rather dubious aboutdriving round in a police car: it may be a tad conspicuous. As if being a madaxe murderer isn’t conspicuous enough already.

15 December 2011 (Thursday) - Go Compare

2011-12-15T22:20:00.002Z

Having a late start this morning gave me sometime to fiddle about before work. Amongst my morning haul of emails was thenews that I was being followed on Twitter. I have several followers on Twitter– I don’t know why as I rarely (if ever)tweet. Most followers I pick up these days seem to be porn-mongers. I didwonder if it was possible to remove them from my followers list – I thoughtthat anyone who looks at my followers is probably going to get entirely thewrong idea about me. But when I looked at the list, I only see thenon-porn-mongers. I wonder what’s going on there. (Not that I’m complaining)

The phone rang this morning. Someone who’sspoken English was rather poor immediately demanded that I turned on mycomputer and told him all the remote access passwords. Apparently my PC had avirus and had targeted his laptops. If this bloke could have access to my PC hecould solve the problem. I asked him if he honestly thought that I would handover access to any random stranger who phoned me. He said that most people did;which rather showed that he made a habit of this scam, and I hung up. I can’thelp but feel that if this was a genuine call he would have phoned me back.

A couple of days ago I mentioned about myhouse contents and buildings insurance. Today I had a look on Go Compare – andmanaged to get a much cheaper quote. Had the building society not cancelled thepolicy without telling me I could have got it even cheaper. But such is life.

I suspect that everyone will now tell me thatthey could recommend a cheaper insurer. To those people I would say “please don’t”.

Meanwhile our friend the mad axe murderer hasgot a new car. I say “got a new car” –the new car was today’s offering from the advent calendar, and he’s taken it. Afterall, who’s going to argue with an axe murderer?

14 December 2011 (Wednesday) - Dull

2011-12-14T18:36:00.002Z

Some days in my life are exciting and quiteeventful. The news of the day might wind me up, or I might have had anencounter with a member of the Great Unwashed that made me chuckle. But todayvery little along those lines happened. Today was rather dull. Which was ashame.

But then, isn’t it a traditional Chinese cursethat you would wish that your enemy lived in interesting times?

Meanwhile in another plane of reality astrange looking table has been found. It’s either got a magnifying glass or asaucepan on it. The assembled throng aren’t sure.

Mind you, when you consider that the assembledthrong’s strong points are consumption of metal cleaners, homicide and anunholy fixation with aerials, perhaps it’s not surprising that they don’t havea clue what is going on.

(And inthat respect they are in good company…)

13 December 2011 (Tuesday) - Higgs Bosons

2011-12-13T22:06:00.002Z

The rain was noisy last night. Torrential,and coming against the window with such force that the noise kept me awake mostof the night. So it was hardly surprising that I wasn’t on top form today.

Work was dull, and then I came home again. Isee that very little of note has happened in today’s news: the most excitingdevelopment is the possible discovery ofthe Higgs Boson.For those of my loyal readers who have no idea what the Higgs Boson is, I haveno idea either; other than that the Large Hadron Collider was built (at a cost of a squillion quid) todiscover it.

Presumably now the Higgs Boson has beendiscovered, the Large Hadron Collider is somewhat surplus to requirements. Iwonder if they will try to flog it on eBay?

I came home to find a letter from thebuilding society to say that when we paid off the mortgage they cancelled thehouse contents and building insurance. So I had to sort out new cover. Thatcost a fortune that I frankly haven’t got.

Being Tuesday the tribes gathered. This timeat Chip’s house, where we watched some more Doctor Who. Good stuff…

Meanwhile the forces of law and order havegot reinforcements. However this reinforcement would seem to have joined the ‘bulespurely because of his love of amateur radio. He’s quite pleased with his “rubber duck”, and boasts of his “thunderstick”.

12 December 2011 (Monday) - Kindle

2011-12-12T18:50:00.003Z

I’ve been spending a little time latelyfilling up my Kindle. If you know where to look, there are loads of free bookson the internet. And legally free too. I downloaded about thirty or so to begetting on with. I’ve been told that free books equate with books thatpublishers don’t want. I’ve also got first-hand experience of books thatpublishers don’t’ want. And just because a book is published (and costs a fortune) in no way makes ita good book.

The only trouble with the free books is thatnot all of them are in a format that goes well on the Kindle – whilst Kindlescan read pdf files, they don’t actually look very good on the Kindle screen.Mobi is better. (There you are – you’velearned something!)

And that’s the news for today – something ofa dull one, as my days go…

Meanwhile the forces of law and order havehad an extension done, and are having a cuppa to celebrate. Harry Ramp wouldlike a cuppa too. We suspect that the forces of law and order do not drink thesame metal cleaning products that Harry does, though…

11 December 2011 (Sunday) - Cold

2011-12-11T17:33:00.001Z

An odd day,really. We didn't get up especiallyearly, and when we did, the day was spent pootling. After a bit of brekky Ichecked my emails. For some reason I seem to be getting a lot less spam thanrecently. I iwonder what that's all about? I then did another painting. I'dbeen given some ideas featuring Kentish scenes, and so I had a go.

I think that scenes featuring mountainsand/or water probably come out better (for me), but I came up with a view froma wood looking across fields to a misty forest on the horizon. I'm not overlypleased with the result, but then I rarely ever am. I can't help but feel thatthere's not a lot going on in the painting. But that's not necessarily a badthing.

Whilst I painted, ‘er indoors ^TM made the Christmas cake. The smellswere good. Something else which smelt good was my fried egg sandwich that I hadfor lunch. And after lunch we watched telly. It would have been good to havegone out and done something, but it was so cold. The thermometer in the livingroom said it was seventeen degrees: it felt more like minus ten million (!) Sowe stayed in and had a Star-Trek-a-thon. Four episodes of the Spoke and Jimshow. Can't be bad(!)

Whilst the telly was on I got out the sewingbox and effected repairs to the hole in my trousers, and then did somethingI've taken to doing lately - I mucked about on my laptop. For some reason Istruggle to get on with the keyboard on my laptop; the keys are ever soslightly bigger than the keys on my desktop PC, and it seems to be taking alittle while to get used to.

Meanwhile Harry Ramp has decided to squeal onthe mad axe murderer. The mad axe murderer is feeling the cold, and is warminghis axe on the fire. The forces of law and order are feeling the cold, and wishHarry Ramp would go away so they can close the door: it's letting the cold in.

The mad axe murderer wishes the forces offlaw and order would go away so he can show Harry Ramp that no one likes asquealer...

10 December 2011 (Saturday) - Not Much, Really

2011-12-11T00:43:00.001Z

I was really late to bed last night, but was woken by “My Boy ^TM ” quietly coming down the stairs at 6.20am this morning. He managed to come down the stairs “quietly” several times this morning, but I never once heard him going back up.

This morning was my weekly weigh in: I only lost one pound this week. A bit disheartening, but then I didn’t do much exercise last week, and I had rather epic pig-outs on Sunday and Thursday, so I shouldn’t really be surprised.

We then wandered up to the town for a mooch round the shops: we didn’t stay long. It wasn’t especially busy, but no one seemed to be capable of walking in a straight line. Everyone was meandering all over the place. My nerves couldn’t be doing with that, so we came home and watched the St. Trinians film. I then got my paints out and did a landscape. It didn’t’ turn out quite as I might have hoped, but then, paintings rarely ever do. And the photo certainly doesn’t do it justice. I need to figure out a way of getting decent photos of my paintings.

The original plan for the evening had us going to Folkestone to see the lunar eclipse. But it transpired that the eclipse wasn’t visible from the UK. And because we’d planned to see the eclipse, we’d not got tickets to the kite club party. So after a super bit of tea we went round to Chris’s for the Saturday night film-a-thon. Tonight we had a triple bill – the Madagascar Christmas special, Love Actually, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. All good films. And then we came home through the frost.

And talking of frost, it’s a cold day in lego-land too. When it’s cold, most people don’t go fishing, but mad axe murderers are made of sterner stuff. And they set light to lego to keep warm.

He’s managed to catch a fish. Which is more than some of our loyal readers ever do….