Thursday, July 28, 2005

Green eyed Monster

Ok I'm jealous! Alex's new blog looks fab and it has the features I want! I don't want 2 separate blogs I want a blog that allows me to categorise my posts so that someone can read only the bits interesting to them!

I've also decided to stop updating my food blog so I can merge it with this one. Then I need to talk to Alex and find out how I can host WordPress and what I need to do. Writing this blog started out as somethign it was hard to do but now I want it to look the best it can and meet my needs...Blogger is getting too difficult (changing the template is a pain in the arse!) I hope Alex doesn't mind but it seems like he leads and I follow at the moment! No doubt if I move blogs Kath will move as well...the question is dos Blogger annoy me enough to go through the hassle of changing it all? Hmmmm....

Using the Le Creuset for the first time, cooking a lovely soup. Fingers crossed it all works out OK!

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Hmmmm......

Had one of those days...managed to get nothing done at work that I wanted to do and the whole re-org mess is starting to get me down! I need a pep talk from someone that's for certain! Also slightly annoyed that I seem to be 3 birthday cards short (mentioning no names) this year.

Getting a bit fed up with my blog too. Have 2 of the damn things (the other is here) is startig to be a trial as there are streams of consciousness that I'm not sure where they should sit and really I don't write enough to justify two I don't think. So now my next challenge is to try and merge the buggers so I don't lose all my posts.

Also I'm getting annoyed by the darkness of my template! It just seems gloomy but try as I might I can't seem to change the buggering colour! I may have to save the bits of my template that I like (the links etc) and copy them into a new template. I'm thinking something light and airy like over at www.101cookbooks.com. I'll have to ponder.

Also I managed to cook something form one of my birthday books but I can't be bothered to upload the pictures...suffice it to say it was yummy and should probably be mentioned in my other blog (bugger!)

Monday, July 25, 2005

Smokin'

Just had a moderately successful first fire in the new Chiminea, although I do smell of smoke now. I think the next one needs smaller twigs (the log I used was a little ambitious) and better kindling (Scrunched up Whats On TV clearly didn't fit the bill). It's only saving grace (and the reason it stay lit at all) was the Ocote Mayan Firesticks I used. These are basically twigs with a high oil contan so they light easily and stay lit for longer.

Still my chim does need easing in so its probably best that my fire wasn't a roaring success! (sigh)

I'm not sure what possessed me to sor that out tonight...I've just got back form shopping and it was shit. Asda had barely anything in so I ended up going to Tesco as well. I hate it when that happens! I suppose I could have tucked into my new Gamecube game, Killer 7 (birthday presnt from my brother, thank you Jamie!) but the video was about to kick in to record Silent Witness and a complex arrangement of wires, boxes and scart connections means I can't play games and record at the same time! Silent Witness is getting the vide treatment as Kath is at a women only rehearsal for the show.

Sunday, July 24, 2005

Chim-chiminy, chim-chiminy, chim-chim chiminea


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Originally uploaded by Leighbob.
This was one of the many presnts I was lucky enought o receive on my birthday this year. Mum was a little concerned at how big it is (it barely fit in her car for the journey from Derby) and truth be told it is a little big for the garden. No matter, we'll all get very hot when I light it...hooray! Can't wait to give it a go nut unfortunately its pissing it down at the moment...89% humidity outside according to my new weather station (I was certainly spoilt this year!!)

Mad

Its been a hectic couple of days so I don't really know where to start....

My mum and nan finally arrived around 1pm on Friday so the birthday weekend could start proper. Prior to that Kath had been galivanting around getting stuff ready and even finding time to go to Debenhams and sort out our duvet problem. I think I mentioned it a few posts ago that we'd decided to order a goose feather duvet. I ordered the thing from Debenhams Direct and it had failed to materialise. The pillows arrived Ok (well as OK as they could be after being thrown over the back fence) but of the duvet there was no sign. I got a letter saying it was on its way but still no duvet. Eventually I got fed up and sent them an email, the next day I got the lovely "Thank you for your email" email and a message saying someone would deal with it in the next 5 days. Finally I get an email saying...

"Due to high demand, we are now out of stock of the following items. Please accept our apologies. Unfortunately we do not expect to be able to obtain any more stock. We hope this isn't too inconvenient for you."

This was after they had accepted my order and after they had sent me a confirmation letter advising me it was on its way!! I was annoyed but not as annoyed as Kath who was ready to complain to the chairman of Debenhams himself!

Fortunately the shop had them in stock and apologised for the rubbishness of Debenhams Direct so now we have a feather duvet, much thinner than I expected but very warm!! Which is just as well as the weather seems to have taken a turn for the worse!

Friday, July 22, 2005

Camp

I've gone camping mad! I can't stop thinking about tents and campsites and equipment and all the rest of it!

Hopefully today (birthday -1) we'll go and buy the tent of our dreams. All the stuff I've read has instructed me not to buy a tent until I've sat in it and seen it erected. So once my Mum and Nan arrive we'll be off tent shopping!

Picking one has been tough but I think I've identified the one we want. As far as i can tell its about middle price point for a 4 man tent. there are some very exclusive looking ones here. The point is with these is that they almost put themselves up! At £300 though I think we'll give that a miss. Fingers crossed the one I think I want will be nice in reality and not just look good in pictures....

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Anyone for a punt?


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Originally uploaded by Leighbob.
Lovely day in Cambridge yesterday that had unexpected consequences!

We met up with Chris and Emma in Cambridge as they were on a weekend away in their new caravan. Not really my cup of tea, but sitting outside in the lovely campsite in the sun and Kath and I have sorted out our September holiday!

We've joined the Caravanning and camping Club, and we're off to buy a tent! We've been threatening going camping for years now but never got a round to it...now we have some spare cash and a week off so it'll be cheaper to go camping! Just got to get all the kit for it now....and go on practice stay at a local campsite.

Lovely!

Book Crossing

I'd heard of this a while back but actually got introduced to it by a friend last night. The idea is simple, mark books you have read and realease them into the wild. Then track their journey across the globe and see where they end up!

Fantastic idea as we have a load of books that we're proably never going to read again that someone else might like the chance too!

So....

Commit random acts of literacy! Read & Release at
http://www.bookcrossing.com/friend/Leighbob

Also a quote worth knowing....

A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on you are enriched threefold.
Henry Miller
The Books In My Life (1969)

Lots of stuff

I can't believe its been a week since I last blogged! Been very busy at work and its been too hot to do naything too tasing in the evenings. I have been keeping my eye out for things to blog so I suppose I better get down to it!

The first thing I should mention is ICE. This is a scheme set up by some chaps from the East Anglian Ambulance Trust which has come to mass media attention due to the bombings in London last week. Essentially its all about the fact that people don't carry next of kin details but do carry mobiles. And often the emergency services need to contact someone in an emergency to get medical history, and other details. So what you do is you prefix the name of someone in your phone book with the initials ICE (In Case of Emergency) and the emergency servcies will have a much easier job of things...their website is here for more details.

Despite the fact that Johnny Depp looks a little strange as Willy Wonka the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film looks pretty good. Tim Burton has apparently ignored the previous film and actually based this one on the book! This means we get to see the full darkness of it and its more about Charlie than Willy Wonka (the previous film was renamed Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and gave more emphasis to Gene Wilder who I don't really like as he only seems to be able to play himself, and by that I mean he plays the same way in everything I've seen him in!!)

Apparently Roald Dahl was not best pleased with the original film....

My birthday rapidly approaches and I've been surprised by the number of parcels that Kath has had delivered...slightly unfortunate that I've been the one to open the door and be handed a parcel from the postman with a really obviously named company stamped on the box! Oh well I'm sure I'll still be surprised! My mum and ana are coming to stay over so Kathryn is desparately cleaning the house...I need to do some gaden stuff otherwise my nan will be out with the secateurs! I should be getting a Chiminea from my parents but mum is concerned that its a little large...I must say that is a worry as my garden is tiny and it might be a case of we won't be able to sit in it when the Chiminea is lit as the heat is too much! We'll have to wait and see! Apparently though I'm going to have to cure it by building little fires in it for a while...full instructions here, thankfully!

Sunday, July 10, 2005

Check out my new blog

I've started a new blog which covers all aspects of my interest in food and cooking. It can be found here and hopefully I'll be able to keep a log of what I've been cooking, and what exciting food I've been buying as well!

Enjoy!

Green Fingers


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Originally uploaded by Leighbob.
Kath mentioned on her blog that I had got my enthusiasm back for gardening and she's right! A poorly time piece of weather that caused my Acer to sprout and then get killed by frost had dampened my spirits but a bit of spare cash and a visit to the garden centre has got me excited again!

Spent a few hours sorting stuff out and its looking pretty top notch again. A nice new parsol means that I can spend time in it without frying in the sun (my garden is very sheltered and gets very hot). I'm even trying to grow tomatoes!

The Acer has been moved to the back door but I get the impression we're going to have to wait til next spring to see if it comes back to life again...I hope so I really like that plant. A buddlieh (spelling?) has taken its place (as seen in the photo next to the bench) so hopefully we'll be getting butterflies as well!

Saturday, July 09, 2005

Lovely and Talented


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Originally uploaded by Leighbob.
A picture of my lovely and talented wife....

Not so Fantastic

It seems that Fantastic Four has had a bit of a mauling by the critics in America. Its a shame as the trailer had managed to turn it around for me...I wasn't impressed but the trailer makes it look really good. Thats the skill of trailer makers I guess!

London

I had decided to forego writing a blog entry about London and what has happened there over the past few days but watching TV last night has changed my mind.

We had just finiched watching yet more Family Guy when we switched onto the Channel 4 news. There in a bed in a London hospital talking to the Queen about his ordeal was someone who looked and sounded like our dance teacher! Thanks to the marvel of the internet (how did we manage before?) we discovered (via the local newspaper website) that 2 Ipswich dancers had been on one of the trains with one of the bombs but had miraculously escaped serious injury. It just brought it all very close to home....

I'm not sure what the bombers hope to achieve as it seems that terrorist activity just strengthens resolve and bands together groups of people through adversity. It still isn't clear however who did all this so we'll have to wait and see how it all unfolds.

Time to get tictactical

If you would appear my constant badgering has failed as a tactic to get Kath to update her blog. I need to think up another tactic....

Perhaps if I say I really, really enjoy reading them as I think anything my wife writes is hilarious will do the trick? It also happens to be true but perhaps I just haven't said it enough? I'll have to wait and see if it has the desired effect.

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Only me....

Just a couple of things today as I need to be quick...the missus and I are going to a play tonight so we need to leave sharpish when she gets home from work if we're to fit in a bit of dinner first.

I noticed this site that has you try and guess the next words in news stories, pretty interesting but I was crap at the hard setting...must try easy setting at some point.

Also the BBC website has its own magazine/blog type thing and the editors column is usually very interesting...it can be found here.

Also I want to do another plug for Google Earth. It is amazing! I discovered today that I can see my sister in laws house in its glory and that in selected US cities you can make all the buildings 3D and fly around! Although I notice that the White House is jarringly low resolution when compared with the rest of Washington DC. Perhaps there's a law against photographing the White House from space with spy satellites...dunno...

Alex texted me today as he was watching an old episode of House of Elliott on the telly. My abiding memory of that show was the cheesy, jolly theme tune and how inappropriately it was used! Usually each episode would end with something very dramatic and then the 20s styled brassy tune would kick in...so you end up with something like..."Its worse than that Miss Evie...I'm pregnant" ya ta ta ta ta ta ta-dah, ya ta da ta da ta dah. Brilliant!

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Peel me like an orange!

The aftermath of the sunburn a few weekends ago is finally coming home to roost! My entire leg seems to be peeling off and I seem to leave a trail of flaky skin wherever I go! I can't resist a good scratch and that usually means a nice sprinkling of skin is left in my wake!

In other news Alex has posted his pictures of the wedding and you can check them out here. It really was a fab day and I hope R&R are having a great honeymoon as I type this. the wedding ended up costing me more than expected however as the hotel's luxurious feather duvet and pillows meant that I spent the remainder of my bonus money on a new feather duvet and pillows for home. Bye bye artificial filling, hello goose down!

In other news I finally managed to download Google Earth and its amazing! If you've got broadband I would heartily reccomend you download it and see for yourself. Kath reckons its like being on CSI, you can zoom in to virtually anywhere on the planet and see cars and buildings. Admittedly the US coverage is better but even so its an eye opener. Check it out!

We've just discovered Family Guy and its great! They've even got a blog! Although annoyingly their website won't open in Firefox!! Why don't people test it in something other than IE! Damn you Microsoft!

Finally (as I want to have a quick session on Puzzle Pirates) go check out the wife's blog! Its here. Post comments to encourage her to write more...I think its hilarious, she's not so sure!

I am not a number

Take the MIT Weblog Survey

Monday, July 04, 2005

Nuptials


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Originally uploaded by Leighbob.
Well it was the wedding of the year and a great time was had by all!

It was a roaring success from start to finish despite running a bit late. There's probably loads I could write about it but I think I'll wait a bit. I'm in a rush to go and make dinner but I did want to upload my photos...go to Flckr to see them in all their glory!

Friday, July 01, 2005

Weird Weather


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Originally uploaded by Leighbob.
It seems I forgot to mention the bizarre hail storm that pelted the car on Wednesday! Felt like the car was being shot at (although I can only assume this as I've never been shot at, in a car or otherwise) and the accompanying rain flooded the bottom of my road.

Bizarrely the hail managed to last for 2 hours despite the temperature being around 18 degrees.

The other thing that happened that night was running over a dog on the way to Asda. Well I exaggerate, a dog ran into the side of the car when we were doing 30 mph up Norwich Road. I assume it was OK, Kath said it was just after she told me to put my foot down and not look back!

Data Overload!

For once I've got loads I want to put in my blog but I've just had no time! And even as I write this I am acutely aware of the time as I've got loads to do today. The thing is if I don't blog now I won't for a few days. The Pinhorn-Sunley nuptials are tomorrow and thats why I'm busy. In about 3 hours the first house guests will arrive and the house is a mess and I haven't done any baking!

Kath's at work and she's usually really good at getting me to stop flapping (this usually involves her telling me to sit down while she sorts stuff out but it gets the job done). Anyway deep breaths, get this blog done and we'll be fine!

Something that looks really interesting but I am having problems accessing is Google Earth. Its basically a collection of all the Earth satellite photos joined together in one big map! I need to keep visting the site to see when the beta re-opens.

City of Heroes has kind of petered out. The game shines when you can team up with people online and fight the forces of evil but my infrequent playing schedule has meant potential team mates have levelled way past me and I need to keep finding new ones...which has proved difficult. I think unless it improves soon I'll cancel my subscription and move onto something else. Speaking of which I've spotted a new MMORPG which looks promising...with a name like Yohoho! PuzzlePirates you can't go wrong! You're supposed to subscribe to it and pay a monthly fee but so far I can't see what extra I will get. It's this type of game that would be dangerous to let Kath near as its made up of all the types on online puzzles she likes...if you do go online for a trial and spot a pirate called Bobbyblade on the Cobalt ocean say hello! I chose that name after the Pirate name generator (unrelated to puzzlepirates I might add) came up with Barney the Pink! I think not.

The last thing I wanted to touch on (the wedding singing rehearsal woes can wait until after the wedding methinks) was this site and some amazing 3d drawings drawn on pavements around the world. Truly astonishing! Although he does seem to have a penchant for Diana...strange man!