This is me, apparently....

Ahh, the ever-cynical and sarcastic speechwriter. Gutsy and not afraid to speak up or clash with authority, his dry wit is amusing. But under it all he's just a big teddy bear... and the world's biggest Yankees fan.


:: Which West Wing character are you? ::

What famous leader am I?

Not so pleased with this result! Eeek!

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

What movie am I?

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

A bit of time

It seems that I've actually got home at a decent time for once and have the energy to update my blog! Woo hoo!

My brother has finally taken the plunge and is joining the 21st Century! By this I mean he has finally bought himself a computer and I got him hooked up to Broadband last week! No doubt this will be an avenue for him to spend more money on video games and potentially get hooked on computer gambling! The upside is I'll be in more regular contact with him and he can find information about stuff more easily! It's odd that its taken him so long to be honest...it was him that led technology when we were living with my parents. he convinced them to get satellite TV (for the wrestling) and then get a computer...funny how things turn out.

Got stuck looking at origami paper websites today! www.origamipapers.co.uk looks quite good but I need to do a bit more browsing! The reason is I want to make some fancy models as cast gifts for the show we're doing next month.

I also ended up buying sushi rice from a web site yesterday too. I can't believe that I can't buy it at a supermarket! I personally blame Tesco as it seems the other supermarkets copy what Tesco sell. And if Tesco decide they can't sell it then its tough! Bastards! I eventually found a site called Japanese Kitchen which is sending me a parcel load of interesting Japanese foodstuffs! thats hould make my Sushi meal for frieds at the weekend much easier to make.

Gone video game crazy this month! I bought kath her own DS and we've both got copies on Nintendogs! I also got another couple of games as well. What with the central heating as well my accounts have taken a battering! Once all the cheques clear we'll have a clearer view of whats what!

Right better go and make the dinner before K gets home and the plumbers comes round to fix the leaky radiator!

Bye!

I'll show you mine

I'll show you mine
Originally uploaded by Leighbob.

Alex threw down the gauntlet so here is my response.....using the lovely Flickr to provide the commentary.

Lax

I have been so very lax wth my blog of recent months! My only explanation is an upsurge of decent video games to fill me timy and the fact that I rarely get home before 5:30 any more so the only thing I have time to do is check my mail and make dinner!

Its 10:15 on a saturday night and if I were a hip young thing I'd probably just be getting ready to go out and dance the night away. However I'm not hip or young so I am at my computer typing this. Just had half a bottle of red wine and the hangover is starting already! Not sure whats up with me at the moment but wine really doesn't agree with me!

I'm sat in a lovely warm house as we had the men in today to fit central heating! We had anticipated them for 3 days but in the end it took 1 and a half! Fantastic! No doubt I'll be complaining that its too hot and "think of the bills!" within a week, but I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

Ever since going credit positive I've turned into a skin flint! I think I'm a bit compulsive sometimes...get me on a bandwagon and boy am I on it! So money is going good and I seem to b losing weight! The best part is I'm not really doing anything other than not snacking and cutting out masses of chocolate.

Better go as I should go to bed so I can get up early and do house things (collect furniture from in storage and dispose of all the cardboard in the front garden). Ah mine is a full life!

Bath Abbey

DSCN1785
Originally uploaded by Leighbob.

Thought I'd just upload this picture as I'm feeling sorry for myself! Work has been a bugger this week and its like my holiday never happened!

Sometimes I just feel stuck in the middle of warring parents (old boss, new boss) trying to please everyone! And for some reason I feel the need to do extra time and not cme home til late...what's wrong with me?

Anyway another long day behind me and now Kath has deserted me and gone to orchestra...sigh!

What I'd like to be doing is vegging in front of the TV and watching Arrested Development DVDs but because Kath wants to watch them too I have to wait...

Also gone back to aerobics twice this week and boy do I ache....it must be doing me some good though!

Adventure Golf

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Originally uploaded by Leighbob.

A holiday for me and Kath is never quite complete without some sort of 'Crazy Golf'. This was taken at Adventure Golf in the lovely city of Bath where we have just spent part of our first camping trip! Check out the photos on Flikr and look for the further blog entries about it!

By some freak of nature (and the fact that I should be better at golf related escapades, what with being a golf-orphan and such) we scored the same! I suppose Kath's holiday resort childhood (raised in Gt. Yarmouth) would mean there was crazy golf on tap so to spak...perhaps we are an even match after all?!?

Is anyone out there?

Just checking as you'd probably given up on this blog by now...I know I had! Well its time to ring those changes and get back in the routine! A number of things have dragged my attention away form this blog and so I haven't updated for a while....I can only apologise and reassure you that there will be more regular updates forthcoming!

Tired...

...and stressed out but fortunately Kath has put on How Clean is your House? and forced me to leave the room!

This means I get to update my blog and moan about stuff at the same time. My meeting at BT Centre in London is off! Quite glad to be honest as it is 2 weeks since the last bomb attacks and 4 weeks since they all started.

Unfortunately it means my meeting is in Fleet instead....yay 3 hour journey in the morning and 3 hour journey home. Depending on whether I finish early or not will determine if I can make it to dancing which is a shame as its the first we'd have had since Bruce was injured in said 4 week ago bomb attacks....

In other news (and probably very boring for the readers of this blog) I feel like I should hurry up and change blog sites as there are pictures and videos I want be able to show on my blog without the rigamorole (spelling?) and having to find someone else to host them. The offers here sound fairly good and Alex is especially keen as he'll get a £35 referral payment!

I wish I had more time as I feel I'm getting drawn into the world of ARGs. We've just signed up to Perplex City by buying some puzzle cards and there seems to be a whole world out there about these ARGs. The only thing is when will I have the time to participate!

And best of all I've got a headache!

Still mulling it over.....

I think I probably will move my blog to Wordpress but first I've got to find somewhere to host it. Got a couple of leads but until I've got a bit of time on my hands I'm gonna wait.

Life is very busy at the moment, what with dancing, G&S and work in general. Plus the Summer months mean very little free time at the weekends. The weekend just gone was spent decorating sister in laws house and this upcoming weekend will be spent entertaining guests.

Oh the reason i posted was to show you this...brilliant!

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!

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!)

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.

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

DSCN1602
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!

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....

Anyone for a punt?

DSCN1560
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!