Addicted to Baby

I literally cannot stop taking pictures of Zachary!

Current favourites...


In the hospital before he got ill


Meeting Auntie Becky


Coming home from hospital




Cuddles with Daddy

And my current top favourite...pensive, thoughtful baby!

Up my sleeve!

Whilst flailing about for a towel to wipe Zachary's bottom (cotton wool just gets stuck) I failed to notice the stream of wee...which managed to go up the sleeve of my jumper!! At least there was no continuous flow of poo this time! And it doesn't seem to wash out! Its alien freaky poo!

It didn't help that all the towels seem to be in the wash cycle at the moment and he's running out of clothes! (Despite my addition to buying them whenever I can).

He had 5 changes the other day, 3 from weeing on himself whilst being changed, once while pooing on himself whilst being changed (happened in the middle of the night so was interesting to try to work out what was different about him when I picked him up in the morning) and the final most embarrassing reason for a change? Mummy dropping chocolate on him!

Dirty Boy!

The silence is shattered by a rumbling noise...

The force of nature is still in slumber...

A squelch follows, laughter erupts...

Zachary's nappy is full!

Stamina pt 1

I'm sure most parents out there already know this but Stamina is a trait well needed when starting the journey into parenthood.

Since we're now all safe and well I thought I'd just share with you the first few days of Zachary's life and the stamina I needed. I suppose I should be napping (like K & Z are at the moment) but now seems like a good opportunity to do this blog entry.

Wednesday 12.30am - K wakes up to go to the loo and then says..."Leigh, my waters have broken!" We were both remarkably calm thinking about it. Often waters don't break until contractions has started so this was kind of a surprise. We mopped up (helpfully K was perched on the edge of the bed when this happened so managed to miss the mattress protector entirely. We called the hospital and they advised us to go back to bed and come in again at 9am in the morning. Since K has me so well trained I was concerned about the kitchen being a mess so I spent 30 minutes doing the washing up before going back to bed.

Wednesday 2.30am - We both realise that we're just lying in bed awake too excited to sleep! I put on a CD of G&S overtures that allows us to think about something else and time passes.

Wednesday 4.00-5.00am - The CD has finished and I think I must have got some sleep in this hour as it passed by too quickly.

Wednesday 7.00am - Since I'm just lying there awake I get up. K tells me she's started to have contractions so we get ready to go to the hospital.

So far I've been awake since 7.00am Tuesday morning (24 hours) and got about 3 hours sleep.

Middle Name Meme

Spotted this over on Dogwood tales and thought I'd start off a new round of blogging with it.

Take your middle name and then reveal 5 facts based on the letters of it. Since my middle name is Bobby I've got a lot of B's to deal with! Here goes...

B - Boy/Bundle of Joy. We just brought home Zachary from the hospital and he really is the most gorgeous thing I have EVER seen in my life. He's 8 days old today.

O - Opera. Specifically the Light Operatic works of Gilbert & Sullivan. I have performed in a lot of them, met lifelong friends through a University G&S society and met K, the light of my life. Have started singing them to Zachary to help settle him down.

B - Boardgames. Always an eager boardgame fan as a youngster but my passion has been reignited via the new wave of modern boardgames. My obssession is helpfully fed via BoardGameGeek.

B - Batman (and superhero comics in general). Favourite Batman comics include The Long Halloween and Hush. I do like Superhero team up books so most of my collection is JLA, Avengers, The Authority but I am partial to a bit of Ms Marvel.

Y - Yogurt. Y is such a difficult letter to find something from so I plumped for Yogurt. We make our own and I love the fcat that it always comes out different!

Still no sign!

After a great weekend away we're now back to a holding pattern of waiting for baby to arrive!

The final bits of clothes have now been washed (including a "I love my Daddy" jumpsuit for when baby comes home). I'm really looking forward to it but there's nothing to be done but wait.

I must admit its going to be a little odd though as all the important people to tell about the birth have all said that they only want to know when it's all done with (i.e. when the baby has arrived). Hopefully the labour won't be too long otherwise I'm going to have no-one to tell other than K (who presumably will be aware what's going on!)

Managed to resist the urge to spend more money on board games today...it helps that we've already instigated the "Leigh pays for everything policy" and I can see what's left in my account to spend on frivolities. Its really good actually as some of the games I've bought over the last 2 months I have probably only played once! I'm not even going to mention the video games I haven't even put in their prospective video game consoles!

This might be quite good after all!

Men watch out!

As is tradition every four years, today sees an opportunity for unmarried women to take the bull by the horns and propose to their men (or women, um does this mean lesbians can only propose once every four years!!). I caught a snippet of the BBC Breakfast news and there was a emailer who was planning to propose to her boyfriend and was so confident that she had also planned a wedding and a reception for the same day! Just imagine if he says no...awkward! I remember when I proposed to K, that was scary enough without the worry that I'd organised a party that might need to be cancelled!

It's also the day where K has to try her hardest not to go into labour. While it might sound cool to have a birthday once every 4 years I don't think I'd like it so I'm hoping that we go another week yet. Especially as we have defied convention and are away visiting family in Norwich Saturday/Sunday...its that or another weekend in the house going slowly crazy.

Just one week to go and its occurred to me that a number of my reports exist solely in my head and I better get them down on paper if the team has any chance of uninterrupted service when I go on paternity leave!

Fire of Wrath!

Ah good times!

High Adventures in a World of Magic

BGG reminded me of an old game I used to play when I was much younger HeroQuest. Thanks to the joys of ebay and everyone's desire to sell off stuff to buy videogames I was able to pick up a cheap second hand copy!

Since there was only 2 of us K had to play as all the 4 heroes while I took on the role of the Evil Wizard! K picked some inspiring names for her characters (Dwarf - Niles, Elf - Bob, Wizard - Leigh, Barbarian - Brutus) and barely made it out of the practice dungeon (The Maze) alive. The next dungeon (The Rescue of Sir Ragnor) went a little better and next time we'll swap roles and K can be the evil one (a part she was born for).

I was ready to go back to reading or lolling on the sofa but K wanted to play some more games. And not being one to miss an opportunity I picked up Alhambra and San Juan. Alhambra is always good value and we had a good game (this time remembering all the Dirk rules) but much to K's shame she lost out to Dirk!

I managed to win at San Juan today, thanks to my Palace and I do like a game with an enforced time limit (in San Juan's case when 12 buildings have been built).

Also managed to get some gardening done (the front) and will try to do the back garden tomorrow (assuming the baby isn't here, K seems to be having Braxton Hicks quite regularly at the moment!)

Still no sign

With no sign of baby yet I feel like I'm starting to go a little stir crazy! Perhaps working from home has its downsides as I barely left the house this week. I think I need to start getting out more but with K struggling to walk anywhere if I go out it'll have to be on my own. I may start to walk in the mornings again I think. A brisk twenty minutes around the block before I start work will probably do me the world of good.

Fortunately I have managed to avoid succumbing to the f-EVE-r. I played it a few days in a row but my starting character was clearly not designed with what I like to do in mind and so I have no desire to continue without re-rolling my startup and the thought of doing that puts me off. In another place/time I sense that this game would have really appealed to me but with a baby on the way and my new work pattern I'm conscious of doing any activity that isolates me from other people.

Damn you Foster!

Its a quarter to midnight and instead of being tucked up in bed I'm updating my blog while I wait for a computer game to manufacture a perpetual motion device so that I can finish my quest early and get the bonus mining lasers!

Its all Alex's fault! An offhand comment on K's blog now means not only have I checked out, downloaded and created a trial account for Eve Online, I'm sat here thinking about how much quicker I'll be able to mine stuff with my new lasers! And even when I go to bed, I suspect that I won't sleep for thinking about it!

I suppose I have to do these things now as anytime soon sleep will be the only thing I want to do at night.

Speedy Limbo

Its 11.30am on saturday and the weekend is stretching ahead with nothing more pressing to do that decide what to eat and put some stuff in the loft. The bed has been changed and I've been out and had my haircut (although not very well and I'm too British to say so to the hairdresser). K is sat by my side reading her book and I'm just frittering my time away on the interwebs.

My boardgame obsession is still going strong with new games arriving almost daily. My only justification is that once the baby is here I'll have a much reduced disposable income so I won't be able to spend it so I may as well do it now. My fixation has had an odd effect on K though as she now seems to be dreaming about games! It seems like my plan to corrupt her is working!

We are now 3 weeks away and time seems to be moving both very quickly and very slowly at the same time! I can scarcely believe its the weekend again but the baby seems to be taking forever to come out. I think we're both ready now....come on baby! we want to say hello!

June-bug

Went to see Juno at the cinema yesterday and it has made me more excited for the baby coming along! It was very funny and a touching story to boot! It has had an unfortunate side effect that I've started to make up little songs and nicknames based on our potential name choices!

Even before the film started K got very excited with the Doctor Who cinema trailer (I must admit it was pretty good!) preparing us for the new series in the next few months (Spring apparently but who knows when that is?). Even Donna looked quite good as she chatted to Bernard Cribbins (wasn't he in the Christmas episode?) about wanting to find the Doctor.

CAPLE GAME-A-THON

The dining room cleared, the floors vacuumed, the washing-up done and the cardboard taken to the tip and everything was ready for the first CAPLE GAME-A-THON!

We decided on 8 games (perhaps we should have picked an odd number) with 2 of them card games (taken from my new book Blazing Aces) and the rest an agreed mix. We settled on Alhambra, Boggle, Carcassonne, Dungeon Twister, Lost Cities and Ticket to Ride: Europe. Space was made on the table and we were ready for the off!



1st CAPLE GAME-A-THON, 03/02/08, L & K

Each game was written on a piece of paper and put in the exciting ‘Chalice of Destiny’ (green cereal bowl).

Round One – Card Game 1

We plumped for a new game from our book and settled on ‘Sitting Bull’. A poker based game where 2 players try to form poker hand combinations from a reduced 32 card deck with 7 cards removed. Players alternately play cards to form a 5 x 5 grid with one player scoring horizontal rows the other vertical columns.

Result – With 8 points (to K’s 6) I emerge victorious and take an early lead.

L: 1 K: 0

Round 2 – Boggle

After drawing another card game from the Chalice we agreed to put it back and pick another game. This time out came Boggle. Good for me as I’m quite good at it!
After 3 very close rounds including words such as Streets, Tenets & Tresses we had a winner!

We managed to get 35 words (between us) from this selection in 2 minutes. Can you do better?



Result – With 61 points after 3 rounds, K is the winner (to my measly 51 points). So much for my gaming prowess at Boggle.

L: 1 K: 1

Round 3 – Alhambra



Hooray! We both really enjoy this game and it's usually quite close so we got ready for a nail-biting one. It's a combination of getting sets and laying tiles in a pattern to build up your palace. It's great because you have to ensure that you get first place in some sets but try to get second place in others. Winning by coming first in a set is not enough if you've focussed on that exclusively.

After getting to almost the last tile in the bag with no second scoring card in sight we realised that we’d forgotten to remove a quarter of the currency cards! K was gutted as her Alhambra wall was big and it looked like a victory was guaranteed. We agreed to abandon the game and have a rematch.

Interlude
But first we popped out for lunch! Off to Nando’s, chicken wings for me, and halloumi/portabello mushroom pitta for K. Yummy!

Round 3 – Alhambra – Take two!

Determined not to make the same mistake again, we double-checked that the extra currency cards had been removed. They had and so we were good to go! The game proceeded much better this time and we got to the second scoring card with many more tiles still left in the bag! It was at this stage however that we realised we had forgotten to give Dirk his second set of tiles at the previous scoring round! D’oh! With so much at stake neither of us was prepared to leave the game as it was so we were forced to abandon the game for a second time!

Round 3 - Alhambra - Take Three!

To be honest I was crushed! After the first round I was beaten into 3rd place by Dirk (the shame!) (K11, D9, L4). The second scoring round saw me claw back some dignity and draw level with him (K43, L32, D32) and finally I edged ahead and beat him by 1 after the final scoring round (K132, L114, D113). Bear in mind that Dirk doesn't score for the length of his Alhambra wall (worth around 15-20 points) and you'll see how badly I was doing.

Result: K 132, L 114, Dirk 113

K started to take an early lead! L: 1 K: 2

Round 4 - Ticket to Ride: Europe

Another really enjoyable game but it can sometimes feel a bit like multiplayer solitaire with only 2 players (not a great deal of interaction, just focussing on your own routes). But a nice steal of Riga to Petrograd thwarted K's ambitions of having the longest route (and resulted in a station being played for the first time).



Despite this, a canny choice of destinations at the start of the game meant that K scored more bonus points and took the victory.

Result: K scored 108 (and getting Lisboa to Danzig really helped) and I only got 103 (my tactic of discarding my long route didn't help!)

It was starting to look like a whitewash!



Round 5 - Dungeon Twister

I was relieved when this one came round. We've only played this once before and I won so I was confident going into it. It's a fantasy based dungeon crawl but does not have any luck elements to it. Strategy and a clever guessing of what your opponent might do will win the game.

I secured an early lead with my wallwalker and goblin by getting them out of the dungeon with some treasure. I then cemented this by polishing off K's goblin for the final point and the win!



Result: My 5 points saw off K's 2 (but she was just glad to have scored some points!)

Finally regaining some dignity I started to draw level. L: 2 K: 3

Round 6 - Another card game

This time we played a game called 'Portland' where each player has a 52 card deck and has to win successive rounds with the highest poker hand. The twist being that each new card must be played on top of one of your existing 5 until you are happy with your hand. The winner of the round scores a point and all the cards are discarded and the next round begins. It becomes a question of whether to lose early rounds (worth less points) to preserve the cards in your deck for later rounds that are worth more points as the cards discarded i each round are removed from play in subsequent rounds!

After losing the first 3 rounds I managed to win the last 3 and take the victory!

L: 3 K: 3

Round 7 - Lost Cities (3 rounds)

Another fun one that has the benefit of being addictive and very quick! The trick here is to play enough of each set of cards to score points before the draw deck runs out. The tricky part being once you've played a number card you can only play higher ones afterwards and that you must play a card each turn. Added in is the ability to draw from either the deck or the 5 shared discard piles mean it's quite tense towards the end!


Not enough cards on the Stonehenge pile means I scored -4 points for this set!

Another trouncing by K with a combined score of 124 vs 36 for me after 3 rounds!

L: 3 K: 4

Round 8 - Carcassonne



After deciding to remove the River expansion we settled down to this great game that we haven't played as a 2 player in a while. Remembered how much fun it is (especially without the river) I didn't want it to end! And I had to win to force a draw otherwise the first GAME-A-THON would end in embarrassment for me!

Fortunately a clever placement of my farmers meant that come game end I had sufficient extra points to secure the win...phew!!

Final tally, me on 138 (those extra 32 farmer points really helped) and K on 116.


*drum roll* The final verdict of the 1st CAPLE GAME-A-THON....



A great result all round and a great way to spend a few hours!

Calm before the Storm

With nothing on at the cinema and nothing else taking our fancy and with no prior commitments the scene is set for the first (in hopefully a long line)....

CAPLE GAME-A-THON!!!

And who will emerge victorious? Only time (and this blog a bit later) will tell!

Snothing Here

While everyone else I know (OK only three people) is revelling in a winter wonderland at the moment I'm looking out at quite a bright morning with nary a snowflake in sight. Which is slightly depressing because it means we may not get snow until much later this year....and I don't want snow when the baby is due.

Before I go any further I'm hoping a reader will be able to help with some grammar. In my first sentence I'm not sure whether that should have been 'is' or 'are'. If the bracketed bit wasn't there the 'is' is perfectly OK (I think) but the words in the brackets seem to invalidate it and would suggest that I should have used 'are' instead (because of the three people). Perhaps I should have changed those brackets to commas and had it as a clause? But even so the sentence should read correctly if the portion enclosed in commas wasn't there and so 'are' doesn't seem right either!

Perhaps if my school had split English into two subjects (Lang & Lit) instead of cramming it into one, I'd know the answer already? Hopefully one of you people can point me right!

Cooking the Books

Watching Five at the moment and Sherrie Hewson is ruining the programme at the moment...funny faces and 'accidentally' getting chocolate pudding on her nose! Just fuck off. Jeremy Edwards is trying to keep control of the whole affair but just seems to rush from workstation to workstation looking panicked! I don't know if its a repeat but they're making Christmas Puddings...

Stuck for something to do at the moment...K is at a work's do (last day before maternity leave tomorrow) and TV's a bit shit. Although Whose Line is it Anyway? is on back to back on Dave so I'll probably watch a bit of that.

Old skool gaming

You may have noticed the new widgety thing at the left side of my blog...this is a helpful tool from BoardGameGeek showing a random selection from my game collection. Not video games but BOARD games...I've gone all old school!

Spurred on by a marathon (well 4 in a row) games session with Em & Paul at Christmas (the excellent and very reasonable Carcassonne if you were wondering) my interest in board games has been reunited.

Despite toy shops (I'm looking at you Toys R Us) now focusing on electronic gadgets it would appear that the board game world is still going strong and I've been immersing myself in it once more (and rapidly filling up that space saved by shipping out all my old board games to my parents).

Current games on the bought and enjoying very much list are (in no particluar order)...Zooloretto, Lost Cities, Alhambra, Ingenious, Ticket to Ride Europe and others. Most of these work quite well as 2 player games (especially Lost Cities & Alhambra with the mysterious 'Dirk' sticking an oar in) but I'm itching to teach others and play totheir full potential...consider yourselves all warned! But bearig in mind that these games are all designed to be learnt in about 5 minutes (it took less time than that to teach my sister -in-law how to play TtR:E, so it must be easy!)

I may add a few to the collection in Feb but then its a case of no spending for the foreseeable future! With K having only maternity pay I'm going to have to stop buying crap! Ohh the responsibility!

Imminent Arrival

OK so we're 44 days to go and the house is being prepared in earnest. When I say earnest that it what I really mean! It has kinda stopped being a joyful occasion in my mind to an almost feeling of dread of the responsibility and how we'll cope with it all!

Last night's trip to Mothercare World was as eventful as previous trips. This time the pram car seat (for our bizarrely discontinued, then not discontinued 'travel system') wasn't working properly. We can tighten for a smaller baby but not loosen...this leaves a small problem in that our baby is probably going to be bigger than a barbie doll! (which is the only thing that will now fit in it as I played with the tighten function before realising the untighten function didn't work!) Fingers crossed we don't have the baby prior to 4th Feb when they come back into stock! We seemed to pick up a large selection of nappies and a huge playmat that caught our eye (stuff buying clothes and cotton wool, let's get the toys in!)

There's still a list of things to get and we seem to be relying on a vast truck of baby clothes as gifts as we are kind of short in that area...I suppose when we know what sex it is will help in that area. Other than that everything seems to be taken care of. K finishes work in a few days and I think it can't come soon enough to be honest. The tiredness has started to hit her a bit and most days she comes home looking a bit wan!

Work have also been great for me as well. My home working is all approved and I'm just waiting for for them to install my business line on Friday and for my new office chair and IT equipment to arrive. I've also been very prepared and put together a Paternity Leave plan making sure that the 'very important work that I does' will get done (they'll probably only need a chimp and a spreadsheet and they'll be sorted). I also get a quite generous 2 weeks paid leave to cover it off...I might be screaming to get back to work after a couple of days!

I suppose its all got a bit more 'real' as we visited the Pen's at the weekend to meet their new arrival (4 months old now). They seemed to know exactly what to do at all times and seemed very much more organised and grown up than I remember them being prior to A's arrival. They seemed unfazed by crying, poo and the fact he was on J's breast more than he was off it! (maybe that's just my hazy recollection!) I imagine that after a few months we'll probably look competent as well.

I was looking through some old pics and realised that I haven't been tracking teh bump very well. Here's a couple of pics to show the current progress.

This one was taken 7 weeks ago...



And this one 4 weeks ago (Christmas Day! And aren't I mean forcing my pregnant wife to do the washing up on Christmas Day?!?! To be fair I did remove the customary chains for the photo!)



Rest assured she is even bigger now and is set to enlarge before the month is out!

A pleasant diversion

Weird hand drawn thingy courtesy of 1up's 100 Free games 2008

Wokka-wokka-wokka

pacman cupcakes
Originally uploaded by hello naomi.

Portal Antics

For those of you that have played Portal this will be hilarious...

Objection!

The Final Countdown

Its early on a sunday morning so what am I doing? Yes thats right I'm on the computer! K is staying in bed for a bit I think...which is good news as I think she's really starting to feel the whole 'exhaustion of pregnancy' thing. She did go a bit of a funny colour in Morrison's yesterday so I've got to take extra special care of her at the moment.

We're now into the final 8 weeks of the pregnancy and things are moving on apace. Antenatal stuff starts happening soon and K gives up work in 3 weeks time. The pram arrives shortly as does the cot, but we have managed to get a moses basket and a small selection of clothes (we don't yet know the sex of the baby). We're hovering around a very small selection of names but I think it'll be a case of waiting to see what the baby looks like before we make any final decisions.

K's brain is definitely on the fritz too....a side effect of pregnancy I hope and not of things to come generally. A highlight example is when she was on the phone to a preacher and in a panicked voice said "I'll just go and find out what the readings are". She then put down the cordless phone and ran upstairs. A few minutes later (the cordless phone still sat downstairs with a patient preacher at the other end) I went upstairs to see what she was doing to find her desperately trying to get the printer to work to print something out. It was at this juncture that I gently pointed out that she could either pick up the phone sat next to the screen she was looking at, use the cordless that was in my hand and just read out the information from screen to printer without the pesky time consuming printing!

A quality greeting from my friends Emma & Paul!

Why?!?!?!

Does my brain work in such an odd way?!? IT's Christmas morning and by rights I should be asleep enjoying the fact I don't have to get up early, yet here I am awake, typing my blog for something to do.


I could not get my brain to switch off last night and it ended with some very odd dreams that for most of the night felt real and needed sorting out in my brain so I could go to sleep. I put most of the blame on The End of Mr. Y, a very good, if slightly strange book I'm reading at the moment!

Roll on the end of the day!

As that will be when my Christmas holidays start!

To be honest I don't intend on doing much work today but I need to keep my phone and laptop on in case of anything coming through (and the fact I'm someone else's contact on their out of office for today). And since I've got my office set up a little better now I can be doing my blog on a completely separate computer without leaving my desk where my laptop and docking station is set up! The problem is I have done everything I needed to do already!

I've been using the last couple of days to practice homeworking and its been quite enjoyable actually...although I need to make sure I leave the house at some point...I've not crossed the threshold for 3 days at least...

He's behind you!

Just got back from the Wolsey panto and had a great time! No celebs just fantastic fun and all the performers played their own instruments on stage! Brilliant!

Not bad

All in all not too bad a day so far. Just got up from a nap (to recover from my very early morning) and after a few minutes in the kitchen there's now a quite brown looking chilli bubbling away for a little later.

Had pancakes and crispy bacon for breakfast before popping out to the tip (successful), but failing to find a printer (I only want wireless, I don't need a scanner/copier built in!). Finally managed to get a Christmas tree and back home tidied decorated and hoovered in record time.

Christmas cards all written and we've now watched number 2 of our bumper Hitchcock boxset (we've seen Topaz & Shadow of a Doubt so far)

I can hear K watching Ghostbusters in the other room and once we've eaten we'll be off to see the panto!

Gaming Update

Xbox just had its autumn update and with it came Xbox Originals, stuff that you can download that you might have missed the first time around.

Downloaded Fahrenheit and Pyschonauts and enjoying them both so far. F is a moody mystery thriller so far that starts off with your character clearly under some kind of other control killing a man in a diner bathroom. From there you need to decide whether to mop up the blood, hide the body, escape the diner etc. The action has just shifted to the lead cop and I have been questioning witnesses. Great stuff!

Pyschonauts is a game that I've heard about but not really known what it was about. Simply it is a platformer/collectathon but it seems like there's real effort been put into the story and characters. Its set in a kind of American summer camp setting and so far quite enjoyable...but after playing Super Mario Galaxy (105 stars) the controls don't feel nearly as tight or responsive! Although I suspect that's pretty much going to be the case for everything other than SMG now!

Looking forward to what Christmas has in store gaming wise! I suspect I have Orange Box & Mass Effect coming. I think I may also be getting Link's Crossbow training as well as Pit & Rummikub! Gamerariffic!

So near yet so far

I sit here at 6.50am on a saturday morning wondering what on earth I'm doing out of bed at this hour, let alone updating my blog!

Not sure if its a coincidence but its exactly 6 months gone and 3 months to go. Now we're at this mark I'm allowing myself to get more excited about the whole thing but its still a bt of a rollercoaster to be honest. I imagine having conversations with this new person (sometimes a boy, sometimes a girl) and then I have to remind myself that there is still 3 months to go and they aren't here yet. I don't want to be pessimistic but I know if something goes wrong I will be crushed. A bond has already formed to this person who seems to enjoy annoying K as much as I do! Its hard to put these feelings into words but to be honest March 8th can not come soon enough as far as I'm concerned.

We do still have Christmas to get out of the way first. Due to significant website ordering of presents and the fact that our recycling is collected fortnightly the house is more or less full of cardboard! A trip to the tip is in order today, if only to make room for the tree which we need to put up. Fortunately we have the first of our (very) staggered Christmas's tomorrow (K's dad) so we should be able to start to divest ourselves of presents and make room for the packing that I need to do. In prep for the baby I'll be starting to work from home and currently the conditions for that are less than ideal. The camping equipment, spare bed, and exercise bike are being shipped off to mum's for storage until we move (sometime next year in all likelihood). I still ned to order a van for that...must remember to do that this week!

Luckily work is a little quiet at the moment. A 5 week period means the next set of reporting isn't due until Christmas week and we'll all be off anyway. It does mean January is shaping up to be a nightmare though with back to back reporting for 4 weeks. It should be just the thing to distract though, the baby will be so close and January is very long in money terms as BT are good and pay us early for Christmas. Great in theory but forces you to scrimp throughout January. Speaking of pay it has finally all come together...I've been promoted, got my pay rise as well as my new benefits (health cover, free line rental etc). To be honest I was hoping that it would reinvigorate me and increase my enthusiasm for work but it hasn't really! I think I need to focus on home though so I shouldn't be too worried about work.

In other news I'm typing this blog entry on our new iMac! We needed to replace the old PC before the baby came along and after playing with a mac at the Apple store in Florida I couldn't resist! I personally don't know how they fit it all into the monitor but I know that I absolutely love this keyboard! The only problem is I know need to get a new printer (usb) to connect to this beast. To be honest I quite fancy the look of a wifi one so I can be a bit inventive with the layout of the office. Its going to be weird with my work PC and home PC (oops Mac) next to each other but I can pretend I'm an evil genius with multiple computer screens!

62 stars and counting!

The music for Super Mario Galaxy is awesome! (The game is pretty decent too!)

Interval Madness

Ignoring the fact that the view is upside, just enjoy the music and footwork!

Too much goodness

Its a good thing I've got a decent stock of games in otherwise this wouldn't make it under the christmas tree!

Massive Update pt. 2

Ok so you know about the holiday...I better talk about videogames. For those of you that don't realise this time of the year is a nightmare for videogamers, not because there aren't any new games out but because there are too bloody many to choose from! Pre-holiday releases designed to soak up Christmas present money is all well and good but for those of us lucky enough to have multiple platforms to play on its a pain!

I finished Metroid Prime 3: Corruption at the weekend and my golly was it an enjoyable romp! A fitting end to the trilogy but perhaps a little too easy? I may have to play through it again on a harder setting! I just need to find someone else with it so I can share my friend vouchers!




After MP3 I back engrossed in Oblivion which seems never ending (although I have now started the main quest)



I feel I may have to pause briefly in that to appreciate Endless Ocean this week and Super Mario Galaxy next week. I guess its lucky that Zack & Wiki has been pushed back to next year and that Mass Effect is on my Christmas list or I may have found myself too tempted to buy them all!

Massive Update pt.1

While the dogs away the cat will play...well in my case while K is away L will eat bacon sandwiches, play video games and update his blog! I didn't quite realise how long it had been so hopefully my 3 readers haven't given up all hope of updates never to return and will find this update informative and entertaining (or a complete waste of time, I'm happy with that too!)

I have a big list of things that I need to cover but I'll start chronologically for pt 1 at least and then go from there...

So, Florida! We had a superb time on holiday and could have done with a little more time to be honest, although my confusion with the dates didn't help! Not sure how I expected a Thursday flight in the US to return to the UK before it had taken off. Needless to say this caused all sorts of shenanigans with visitors back home and my car being nowhere to be seen at the airport.

Aside from that debacle the trip itself was brill! The automatic car took a little getting used to but it has convinced me that a Prius wouldn't be an altogether awful idea for my next car at home (it too has an automatic gearbox).

I picked the least obvious 'tourist' car to make us less of a target!



Highlights of the trip for me were Magic Kingdom and Key West but most of it was great. Miami was a little disappointing but I think that was mainly because it just wasn't as friendly as the other places we stayed and the less said about the frankly bizarre hotel the better!



The weather was good too and the exchange rate meant that we were able to spend and not worry too much...although it did mean I came home with 4 DS games that I'm not sure when I'm going to get around to playing, but I'll talk about rampant video game playing in another update!

All in all I can heartily recommend Florida! And now to find that bacon sandwich!

Zelda & Link

Friday Night Lights

I've left Pregatron downstairs watching X-Weighted that she recorded off Sky 3 yesterday. From what I saw its your usual massive heffer goes through emotional journey and comes out thinner and happier(?) the other side. I decided to use this opportunity to update my woefully neglected blog. Neglected for a few reasons.....

* Too knackered to blog. A really poor excuse but work has been such a drain recently. The good news is I finally found out officially today that I will be recommended for promotion! This is good as it means that finally the people that need to believe this do and that there's now nothing more I can do to influence it. However the Career Council now has to decide if they can afford to give me the pay rise and uplift of benefits (including a car they can never take away from me) and whether the skill I'll be promoting into has a sustained need within the business unit. Yes it is a bit bollocks but I enjoy my job and team and wouldn't be able to get the promotion except by leaving the division otherwise. The presentation I had to give was on Wednesday in Fleet and left me completely drained, then I had to go to London yesterday for a workshop and then present on an All Hands Community Knowledge call this afternoon (and obviously fit my day job around all of this as well!)

* Facebook. Joined that and spend a lot of time fiddled when I would have been updating my blog. Also I want to state at this point that Emma Watson & Paul Booth must play a lot of Scrabble to be so good at it!

* Bioshock. Almost the sole reason for buying my Xbox Elite and its really good! Not sure how far through it I am but I can't stop thinking about "Would you kindly....". Can't wait to see what else it holds!

The name change explained

Hopefully it's obvious and hopefully anyone I should have told already will have received an email or a phone call but we are expecting a baby! Went for the first scan today and confirmed that the baby (or is it still a fetus at this stage?) is 13 weeks and 3 days old!

That and the fact that I seem to be reading a lot of comic books at the moment inspired me to change the name of my blog! I've been wanting to post for a while but obviously needed to wait until we'd had the first scan. I'll hopefully be a bit better in updating posts and filling in other news (like the fact I bought an Xbox 360 Elite!)

The sun is shining....

And I can smell chicken cooking for lunch. Just got back from town where I managed to give myself 3 ice-cream headaches in a row with one of Starbucks Pomegranate & Peach frappe things...tasty but painful!

The week has flown by thsi week helped along by the fact that work wasn't too dreadful...despite being no further along with my role review...have the exciting task of doing 2 jobs week after next wehn T is on leave but with things so quiet (holidays) at the moment it shouldn't be too bad.

The wedding was great and all the pictures can be found here.

The friday was pretty relaxed actually...met up with some of R soon to be in-laws as well as the best man and his family (although the best man had had an accident the night before and was sporting a sling!)

Had a good get together meal at the Castle in Caistor on the Friday night...met more of Ralph's family and cuaght up with K's aunts.


The day itself was very sunny and pictures by the Waterways were great...


We the danced th night away and rose fairly early to a terrific breakfast at the Imperial. The rest of the morning was spent on the beach!

Calm before the storm!

It's Thursday night and I have a little free time before the whirlwind that is to be the Sangster Brown nuptials on Saturday. K is already over there attending the rehearsal and stuff (she is the MATRON of honour after all) but I'm here relaxing at home before I join them tomorrow. The weather seems to be promising good things and hopefully it'll all go off very well. Looking forward to seeing K in her dress and hoping to take some good pics.

In this bit of time I have I thought I'd share some of the top photos from the birthday bash...

The Food!


The Glasses


Hitting the punch early...


Me and the happy couple to be!


The cake


Dad and his "smokeless" fuel


The cleanup crew

Wa-hey!

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

I don't have a Chemistry degree honest!

Free Online Dating

Time to grow up?

Ok so I'm 30 now...isn't this when I'm supposed to shape up and grow up? I don't feel like I want to if thats ok with everyone.

The party went very well...photos will be on Flickr once I manage to upload them all (300 meg!). Highlights included the indestructible Pinata, the cake and food, the fantastic party glasses my dad had arranged, the presents, the fact we were all dry while it tipped it down and of course the people!

K did me proud and I couldn't have had a better day! The only problem now is that the house is full of sweets and leftover cake, champagne and too many books to even think about reading!

I'll post some more about it with pictures later.

Ooops!

I appear to have been very lax on the blogging front recently...almost a month since I last blogged!

I can only say that I've had a lot going on and video games have kept me occupied in the 'Leigh Time' that would usually be used for blogging.

Those games being Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition & Paper Mario on the VC.

Also work has been a bit of a drain recently and I didn't want to vocalise it all on my blog...it would have been a bunch of whining basically. Hopefully there'll be some developments in the next couple of weeks that'll help things become clearer.

K and I have also been talking seriously about our future plans and the upshot is we've started to think about moving house (groan!).

To stave off all the heavy stuff, preparations have been in full swing for my 30th Birthday party on Saturday! (Hmmm...I'll have to think of a new blog name!) We travel to Derby tomorrow to help with the set up, but I need to put the finishing touches to my iPod playlist for the party! Richard sent through a load of tunes to K so I've just got to sort those out and start to gather all the things we'll need for the next few days at my mum's.

I know there is going to be cake, I know there is going to be a whole lamb roasting on a spit and I know about the bubble machine. What I don't know is what K has been cackling about every time she receives mail or a letter from one of our friends/family...hmm I have my suspicions!

In other news we're going to Florida for 11 days in October! A jaunt around Disney, then a couple days in Miami & Key West...hopefully every tourist isn't murdered in some bizarre and scientifically interesting way as depicted on CSI: Miami. I don't so much mind being found dead in a pool of blood but I do worry about K having to put up with some ginger haired, sunglasses wearing Lt. spouting comforting one-liners before gazing off into the sunset.

We've also finished all the flowers for my sister-in-laws wedding! 85 hand folded lilies, nestling in 85 hand-folded day lilies along with 15 orange shrimp. They better like them!

Reverse Blog

Ok the...just finished doing the washing up after enjoying a lovely dinner of pasta with chorizo, onions, peppers & marsala. K away living the high life (shooting things and attending posh meals) so I was forced to do the washing up!

Tai Chi was fun before that although I tend to ache afterwards. We learned how to do 3 'splits' in a row which forms the next part of the form. Very relaxing!

Spent most of today at work marvelling at my new 17in flat screen monitor. The site where I work is suffering a power crisis so they were forced to replace all the CRT monitors with LCD. Amazed at how much easily it is to manipulate bugger large spreadsheets when I can see much more of them at once!

Also had a chat with the person who is going to help me sort out my business case for my role review.

Had quite a good Neverwinter Nights game last night despite dying 3 times! Also caught the last minute of Saturday's Doctor Who. Contemplated buying an Xbox 360 with my bonus (despite already having bought a digital camera) but decided that there simply wasn't enough software I want at this point to warrant a purchase...maybe after Christmas.

Watched Saturday's Doctor Who while stuffing pretzels that K bought me from Norwich...a fleeting chance to chat before she went off to Manchester for the High Life. Told her that I had decided not to enroll on my Open University Digital Photography course as I realised that for a 10 week 10 credit module I would be expected to do 6-8 hours a week work on it! Stuff that....I'm gonna get a book!

Played a lot of Okami while K was in Norwich getting her bridesmaid dress fitted.

We watched Hot Fuzz Saturday night with Becks & Ralph after a day of shopping, eating very large ice-creams and playing card & board games. I must have been feeling off as I failed to win a single thing! Also got my hair cut.

Got up very early Saturday morning to contemplate my role review and write some thoughts into my working record so that I could enjoy the weekend without thinking about it too much.

Watched Hot Fuzz (*raspberry noise and the V sign* "Jog On!") on Friday night with K after realising that Earl doesn't start for a few weeks.

Friday afternoon got a late call from my manager telling me that my role review had been unsuccessful at this time and needs more detailed evidence. Feel surprising fine about it.

Waiting for the phone to ring....

...it doesn't ring!

I want to know about my role review...when will it ring!

6 down....94 to go!

Yum

No its not a bottle of piss but my elderflower cordial...and very tasty it is too!

Made after I was inspired by Alex and is just delicious! I only wish that I could have made it a few hours sooner so I could send a bottle off with my mum to reach my dad for Father's day! Especially after she brought me one of his cabbages!

Diane's Dead!

Another Thursday, another night in avoiding things I'd planned to do! Tonight was set aside to make a tart and do some tidying up. My mum is visiting us for the weekend and the house is a bit of a tip! I can't even be bothered to do the washing up!

Watched the end of Masterchef which means I can have a lie in tomorrow if I fancy it (while BB is on K and I have been recording and then watching Masterchef over breakfast), especially as I'm working from home.

Then got sucked into EastEnders which is very easy to lose 30 minutes watching. Then Holby City came on! I'd forgotten it's on on Thursdays at the moment (until pointless police show spin off, HolbyBlue ends its run) so I was forced to watch that for an hour. Not that it takes much forcing to be honest! Yes its very soapy but I really enjoy it. I don't know if its the overacting or the comedy moments or the good story lines at the moment but it is currently unmissable! I'll probably watch it again with K when she catches up with it. It was Diane's swan song tonight and was only slightly disappointing when she died off camera. To be honest though Paul Bradley doesn't have much luck with news over the phone. I remember in years ago in EastEnders, when his wife Debbie went the same way!

Had quite a good day at work although the spectre of my role review is still hanging over me. Apparently there should be some feedback in the offing next week but whether that will be good or bad who knows? I am stuck in a dilemma and I really shouldn't write about it as it will start me thinking about it agian. If it comes back and is a 'no' should I take on even more work/responsibility to try again in six months? Or should I just say "Fuck it" and reduce my workload to the level I'm paid for and then start looking for another job?

In other news I was all ready to make Elderflower cordial but a confluence of circumstances has meant I either had the flowers and no citric acid or the acid and dried husks of slowly rotted flowers. Must try to track some down tomorrow so I can make some for Dad for Mum to take back with her on Sunday. I keep seeing trees by the side of the road but I'm not sure I'm fantastically keen on exhaust fumey blossoms for my drinks.

Going to seed.....

DSC_0006
Originally uploaded by Leighbob.

I need to pull up my remaining radishes, quick smart! All that lovely juicy goodness in the root is busy turning itself into flowers! Stop it!

Meanie

Testing out the new camera's continuous shooting mode I managed to catch K just as she was about to give me a couple of 2 fingered salutes! The cheek of it!

Feel the quality!

Well more like see the quality!

My last post had a nice picture on it...taken with my new camera! Early Happy Birthday to me!

Finally plumped for the Nikon in the end. Was supposed to be paying for it with my bonus (which comes in end of month's pay package) but when I've made my decision there's usually no point waiting! Fortunately my savings are fairly healthy at the mo so used some of those.

Really pleased with and managed to get quite a few shots in teh last couple of days. Mixture of quiet good and just plain average. My next step is to actually learn when all the settings mean! I don't really understand ISO, Shutter speed and aperture! But it does make a fantastic noise when you take a picture! Especially on continuous!

Who wins?...You Decide!

DSC_0005
Originally uploaded by Leighbob.

K and I were having a competition to see who could grow the largest sunflower. I think we'll call it a tie!

Grrrr

I'm supposed to be watching the Apprentice right now but K is on the phone to her mother! Thank goodness for pausing live TV!

My predictions are....

Simon & Kristina for the final. Lets see if I'm right!

Loose End

K is at some some of training conference and I'm at a loose end! I've even spent the last 30 minutes watching old title credits for Home & Away and Neighbours on TouTube...that's 30 minutes I'll never get back.

There's lots of things I should be doing but for some reason I can't settle on one...

* Cook something with apples. We have a glut of too soft to enjoy eating apples and I need a recipe to use them up but it can't be a cake! I might just turn them into apple sauce and freeze for another day. Apple Jam apparently is not good and we don't have the space to strain and make apple jelly.

* Tidy up. There's the last remnants of camping stuff ready to be sorted and put away. K is much better at this sort of thing than I am.

* Think of things to cook avocados in. The new veg box arrived today and contained avocados (as well as cabbage, squash and bean sprouts...at least there were no potatoes!)

* Practice first 2 stages of the Tai Chi form we learned yesterday. It was our first class and despite wearing inappropriate clothing (ideally arms and legs should be covered and loose enough to really move) it went really well. The 90 minutes literally flew by! Not too achey today and looking forward to next week's class. Hopefully this'll help with work stress and get us a bit fitter. I have to watch out for my bunchy shoulders and big toe and K has to watch her turned out feet.

* Decide on an Xbox 360 or Digital SLR camera as a 30th birthday present to myself. Its not for another month but a quick decision will mean that family and friends have something that they can contribute towards in the way of accessories! An Xbox would be great but I can barely play everything I have now, although Mass Effect & Bioshock may be too great a temptation. They are being made by the people who made my all time favourite games of Baldur's Gate & System Shock 2. On the other hand with the camera I can develop a new hobby, learn a new skill and maybe do the OU course I was looking at. Should I decide on a camera I then have the task of deciding between the Canon 400D (more AF points, wider selection of lenses) or the Nikon D40x (better kit lenses, uses SD cards instead of CF, better grip, I used to have a Nikon). Or I could just save my money!

Right I think I'm going to go and play some video games!

Back & Brown!

Just got back from camping and was really glad we took a risk and went despite the weather forecasts.

The first evening was great and we managed to get set up in record time and had a great barbeque and fire....





The following day was spent eating a lot (I think I put on about 4 pounds in 3 days!) and drifting down river getting tanned for 3 hours...fantastic!



Then the mist descended and we had a quiet night (especially after my disaster with the charcoal)



The next morning a mercy dash to Morrisons ended in disaster with a splashing incident of some cyclists and an argument with a log by the side of the road...



Luckily the weather really cheered up and we managed to get lost in a fantastic maze at Priory Maze at Beeston Regis.



A quick trip over to Blakeney Point....



And a giant penis at Sheringham!



Finally back to the site (which was very basic, toilets you really don't want to use and the pervading smell of chicken shit, it was a working chicken farm after all!) to pack up and head off for a quick pub meal and then home!

Catch Up

Finally finished Hotel Dusk!

More of a interactive novel than a game and fortunately the story is really, really good. Some twists that you could see coming but some that were genuine surprises. Highly recommended!

At last I'll have time to focus on Pokemon!

Google

Oh my god...how do they keep coming up with this stuff...

Rain, rain go away

It's still raining!

We're supposed to be camping on Thursday. Chris & Emma will be in their caravan but we'll be in the tent. I think we're going to review it as we go through the week but if its like this I'm pretty sure we'll not be going anywhere!

Job Satisfaction?

We went to visit R&R in Norwich yesterday and had lunch with K's Aunty Pat as well as Gerry & Chrissie.

Quite a good time was had by all I think and we even enjoyed some of the fruits of my labour in the form of home grown radishes. It was a little awkward though when we were talking about jobs and I could muster up absolutely no enthusiasm for my job at all! There was a time when I actually did enjoy it but mainly I feel ground down by it at the moment. Obviously the ideal situation would be a job you love and get a good wage for it but thats where I come unstuck. The security and quality of live that my job affords me makes me want to supress my indifference to it and focus on the good bits of my life outside of work, but thats quite difficult too. I think its going to be even more difficult if I get my promotion...but then again it may re-invigorate to focus on what benefits I can bring to the role. It certainly has done that in the past.

Is it better to have a job you're indifferent to and get paid really well or a job you love but have to struggle to feed yourself?

Bank Holiday Blues

Its 8.30am on Bank Holiday Monday and I'm blogging...my life is thrill a minute. Its also raining and has been for the last 24 hours at least. I can foresee a lot of sitting around, playing video games and watching DVDs today. Although after a cider sauce debacle on Saturday I may need to pop out and buy a new lidded saute pan.

I've actually got a fair amount of blogging to catch up on as I haven't really been in the mood over the last week...where to start?

Video game round up...

Managed to get hold of a copy of Marvel Ultimate Alliance for £15 from Game last week (half price offer plus points from previous shops) and so far we're really enjoying it. The gesture recognition system seems a little wonky but my biggest problem is having a clue about who we should have in the team! Obviously a nice bonus is if you can assemble a recognisable team (for the bonuses) but so far it appears that Iceman, Spiderman, Mr & Mrs Fantastic haven't ever teamed up in the comics! K is playing as Spiderman and I'm controlling Iceman. We're just working our way around some of th others to see what they are like. I'm pretty sure Mr Fantastic has secured a long term place if only for his Propeller Arms! Its good that there is a selection of lesser known heroes in there to chose from, Spider Woman for starters but its also got Luke Cage & Ms Marvel...now if only there was Jessica Jones!

Also picked up a copy of Mario Strikers charged Football and found myself really enjoying online matches! They are certainly very tense! I just need to find some friends who have it now. (369467 799525)

Yawn....

So...this is my only day for a lie in and I'm up at 7.30am writing my blog! What is wrong with me?!?

Um...I think its the sun (that has finally come out after days of cold rain) streaming through my bedroom window and the fact that my brain woke up and my body didn't. I'm at the age where I've got too many other things to do to lie in bed with my brain buzzing.

I'm now sat listening to the IGN Wii-k in Review podcast.

The problem is I can't really type and listen at the same time...so its now8.30am and I haven't yet finished this post!

I was going to write about Eurovision but I've decided against it...my views are pretty much represented here and here.

Fantastic!

Can't...stop...playing

I think the only way to go now is to power my way through until the end and hope the urge doesn't take me to play through as a different character...I am of course talking about Puzzle Quest! How glad am I that this isn't never ending!

Browsed the Penny Arcade index earlier and here's their take on Puzzle Quest.

First Impressions

An Excerpt From The Book Of Deeds

In related news I finished God of War yesterday and snapped and ordered Picross DS, Eledees & Mario Strikers Charged. Fortunately they will arrive at sensible intervals but I now have approximately 3 days to finish Puzzle Quest & Hotel Dusk before the first one lands...oooops!

He shoots...he scores!

I have a dilemma...I have a pile of video games unplayed, a garden to look after and a soon to start Tai chi class at the Buddhist centre (must get K to listen to the message on the phone from them)...where do I find the time to fit anything else in?

The problem is that in 4 weeks the Wii makes its debut (in Europe at least, ahead of the US) online and its quite tempting to get involved. Mario Strikers Charged is going to be leading the way and from what I've seen so far looks pretty good.

Now I've just got to find some friends that have the game too!

Added to that my imports of Pokemon DS are soon to arrive and Picross DS looks intriguing also

Yummy

We've just got back from what is now the top of our "most expensive meals ever" list and I felt compelled to blog about our experience.

The previous list topper was the cheap sounding Roy's at the Marriott Financial Center in New York (not sure if it survived 9/11) when we got engaged. A great meal for a great day.

Today's venture was to the 2 Michelin starred Midsummer House in Cambridge. K had eaten here before when some business contact took her out to lunch and she raved about it then. Much talk of foams, jellies and exciting pastry ensued. We were planning to go last week when we were on holiday but I'm glad that we waited until we were both feeling much better.

The place is sat just by the river and we had a bit of a job getting there as the directions provided were a little ropey but we arrived in plenty of time (despite going round a one way system 3 times) and sat out by the river watching the rowers while using up our precious lunch conversation topics! Even got a sight of some boobs as one of the rowers changed into her wet suit.

We were the first to arrive and were quite close to where the staff gathered in an alcove watching the room making sure everybody was alright so it was a little intimidating at first. Fortunately a few more people arrived and the general hubbub disguised whatever comments we were making ("aren't all the staff thin?", "we didn't need to dress as smartly as we did" etc).

After some deliberation we went with the tasting menu which is designed to demonstrate the variety of dishes and is something the whole table has to partake in. It's essentially lots of micro courses. We avoided the wine as we had to drive back but K did have what is possibly the best G&T I've ever tasted. The menu had a few things on it that I was wary of but it also threw up some surprises.

Before any of the courses arrived we were offered bread (mine was white and tasted of toffee with the sweet crust) which was duly taken (K managed to scarf all hers but I was a little more restrained!)

Dish 1. Not on the menu but we started with Pink Grapefruit & Champagne foam. This was served into a glass via a soda syphon at the table and was delicious. K loved the tiny, tiny spoons!

Dish 2. Again not on the menu, Pea Veloute with tiger prawns was next. This was very foamy, served in a deep glass, warm with a bread stick stuck in the top. Thick pea puree at the bottom getting foamier towards the top with some tiger prawns hidden in it, it was absolutely top notch.

Dish 3. The first dish actually on the menu! "Sauteed Scallop, Bay Leaf, Pigs Trotter" Was a little wary of the trotter but it was served in a little breaded cube sat on the best onions I have eaten and a really sweet sticky balsamic vinegar. Oh and then there was a delightful scallop cooked in a bay leaf...it was great!

Dish 4. "Parsley Risotto, Snail, Yeast, Jabugo ham". Now I was worried about this one , especially for K but I needn't have. It was served on a marble slab and had a sake sized cup full of risotto (with some sort of foam) and the snail was sat at the end of a plastic pipette full of sauce. You had to place the snail on your tongue and then squeeze the pipette to get the full experience and it was bloody lovely! The snail was like a cooked mushroom in texture and the flavours of garlic were wonderful! The risotto was delicious as well.

Dish 5. "Cannelloni of Red Pepper, Jamaican Jelly" Another marble slab affair with a very thin canelloni on a stick and some sauce with cubes of jelly in it. The sauce was nice as was the cannelloni but the filling left me feeling a little queasy, very, very rich. I think it was the foie gras in it that was turning me off.

Dish 6. "Comté Soup, Foie Gras, Roasted Grapes". Foie Gas was the other thing on the menu that I had concerns about. I don't much like the idea of it but I thought I would give it a go anyway. To me it was the worst dish of the meal. Everything but the foie gras was delicious. But the FG itself? Very very rich with no real taste I could identify. We both left most of it and am glad that I didn't like it. We were little concerned that the chef would come and throw us out when he saw our plates (we'd heard much swearing and shouting at junior chefs from the kitchen up to this point!)

It was at this point that I saw a couple of familiar ladies walk in and I realised that across the way was my old general manager and the current President of Strategy & Development for Global Services! Fortunately she spotted me and came over and said hello so didn't have to keep avoiding her gaze!

Dish 7. "English Asparagus, Spring Truffle" Another first for us (truffle) and K's favourite dish so far. Different types of asparagus (dice, puree and stalks) altogether in a crisp shell wtih some truffle flakes.

Dish 8. "Red Mullet, Coconut and Lime" This was awesome! Mint & lime jelly, lime sauce, pureed artichoke, fantastic fish, cubed coconut and the surprise mint & lime ice-cream in the middle of it made for a fantastic main course!

Dish 9. "Cassoulet of Pork Belly and Carrot". After some discussion of what a cassoulet was (a little cast iron casserole dish with beans and a pork cheek in it) we were served with my favourite dish so far. Belly pork with a red foam, pureed carrot and roasted cloves of garlic with the aforementioned cassoulet on the side. The cheek sounded daunting but was just some very tender pork meat. Couldn't fault this dish!

Dish 10. "Apple Test Tube" We skipped the optional Artisanal Cheeses and went straight onto the desserts. Before the test tube arrived we had been supplied with 2 sets of cutlery and a straw! Displaying my 'white-trashiness' I giggled in delight at the straw and couldn't wait for the test tube to arrive. The tubes arrived in a rack and were in three layers, Apple Puree on the bottom, Apple Granita for the middle layer and then some other kind of apple thing on top. A dinky fork helped with the top 2 layers and the the waiter informed us to use the straw for the bottom and the maitre'd chimed in that we should try and make some noise. K kindly obliged!

Dish 11. "Mango, Passion Fruit and Lychee" Mango & passion fruit delice, lychee ice cream, toasted pine nuts, freeze dried mango, and honey make a fantastic dessert! I don't really need to say any more!

Dish 12. "Moroccan Cous Cous". A bed of caramelised cous cous, yellow pepper sorbet, an apple, cinnamon and raisin ice cream, some odd cucumber stuff and a caramalised cherry tomato! K's tom vanished pretty quick and her blunt description that it was just cherry tomato in sugar sent me sightly hysterical but her description was spot on. Slightly odd to taste but nice nonetheless! But the ice-cream was fabulous...truly delicious.

Dish 13. We followed this with the bitterest espresso I've ever had (which I put a tad too much sugar into) and K was convinced that it was only the a la carte menu that got the pastries and chocs. She was wrong! Out came the pastries (think deep fried triangles of puff pastry dusted with caster sugar with pineapple and toffee dipping sauces. To finish off we got to select 2 chocolates each from the handmade selection. I had eucalyptus and caramel and K had banana and greek yoghurt!

We finally paid the bill and made our way back to the car!

Now usually K and I can be in an out of a restaurant for a 3 course meal in under 45 minutes...this took us 3 hours and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute! The setting was perfect and the staff were a delight, explaining the dishes, never patronising, pouring more drinks and remaining discrete at all times, you couldn't really ask for more! I think it was telling that besides the foie gras we literally ate everything put in front of us...truly a great meal!

The cost means that you can't go every week (or even every quarter!) but we're already planning our next trip! Now I must go and lie down...nicely full without being stuffed and the only thought of food will be some coco pops much, much later!

Bugger

My plants finally arrived yesterday and are now all safely planted in the ground. Although one of my strawberry plants has died already and my tomatoes look none too healthy! Also I was quite disappointed with the girth of my leeks (and thats not a phrase you hear often enough if you ask me). I was expecting something a little more substantial that the chive like plants that arrived. No matter I'm sure(?) it'll all be fine and they'll turn into something fantastic!

Got a free evening today as K is away at a work do and then going straight to orchestra. I suppose I can fill my time with a bit of God of War which started off stunningly with a battle against the hydra but has gone a little humdrum without the big set pieces. Although to be fair my judgement may be clouded by the fact the game pissed me off a little when after I'd reloaded for the umpteenth time it offered to switch to easy mode so I could progress!

In other video game news K and I are addicted to Puzzle Quest on the DS...it's like crack cocaine! K has taken to playing it in bed and before she goes to work in the morning...most unlike her! It's a shame we only have one copy! Download the demo (at link above) and you'll see!

Although I am supposed to be playing Hotel Dusk at the mo!

Why isn't it called Northern Lights?

Typical!

No sooner than you get a bit of time off your body decides its time to catch a cold! Nothing too bad but a lot of nose blowing and some coughing, missed blood donating though, didn't want to feel any grottier (and there's nothing quite like giving blood to make you feel all funny!)

Good news is that the spare room is mostly sorted out now. Everything put back and it feels much more spacious! I'll post some photos when I have the energy to take some!

Hopefully my plants will arrive tomorrow (they've shipped according to the website) so that'll give me something to do. Still can't get twitter to work...emailed support again to see what they suggest.

K is making plans for my birthday already! Today she bought a bubble machine and I learned she's considering getting a Mr. Whippy machine as well! I can't wait!

Might try this again with a better photo!

1 down, 8 to go

Had a good start to the holiday yesterday, mainly spent it basking in the sun...



I did do some useful stuff though like finishing off tidying the garden and putting together my raised bed...just got to wait for my plants to arrive now. Also does anyone know what this plant is? I think they might be tulips as they keep coming back year after year but they do seem a little small to me?

Treasure Island Z

This looks good too...Pirates & Puzzles...looks like I'll be needed K's help to work stuff out!

Lots of cheesy goodness

Despite already owning this on Gamecube, if the price is right I may just get it again. Warning Cheese factor is quite high in the Japanese commercial.

Easter Weekend

Spent a lot of time in the garden over the weekend and to be honest it still looks like a mess! I need to get everything sorted so that when my mini plants arrive I can put them straight into my new raised bed. Luckily we're off next week so there should be ample opportunity to get it sorted.



I decided to replant my mint pot and when we came to unpot it this is what came out!! No soil just roots! Hanna over at This Garden is Illegal posts about the dangers of mint...heed her words!

Also managed to finish Canis Canem Edit. Enjoyable overall but I think I may be too good for some games! This was fairly easy and a nice big cross indicated whatever it was I had to do next! This is OK if its tricky but when my objective was to find a way into the Girl's Dorm for example, a big yellow cross on the map showing me the secret ladder to the roof is a bit of a giveaway!

We also did a couple of caches around the lovely Southwold...the lighthouse is shown below!

Experi - MENTAL

As you've probably spotted I'm trying to get down with the hip and groovy kids by embracing their pointless social 'net technology. Always the follower I noticed Alex had started to use Twitter and I was intrigued. It appears to be some kind of technology for stalking but it does mean I can add new content to my blog from my phone and from anywhere. Unfortunately as you can see my last update was 4 days ago...for some reason it won't accept input from my mobile. I'm eagerly awaiting a response from tech support.

Alex also appears to have added me to his Facebook list...not sure what facebook is but I'll probably get around to checking it out later.

Things you shouldn't really buy off the internet...

Aside from comedy video game T-shirts I've never bought any items of clothes off the internet. I think there are some things that you should try before you buy and clothes and shoes is one of them. So why have I just bought a pair of experimental flip flops from the net? Um, dunno!?

I first saw these in an article on a BA flight to Brussels last July and they just appealed to me...and what with the hot weather we've got at the moment and my penchant for spending money it was kind of inevitable. I'll let you know if they are the ultimate in comfort and bloody painful (which I think they just might be!)

Yawn.....

For some reason I'm up and blogging...its 7.20 am on Saturday morning and I should still be in bed. But sometimes when your body is saying "Hmm, warm & cosy, please don't move" but your mind is awash with thoughts and plans for the day then you just have to get up.

Now that I am up I can't really think of what I should be doing with my time...it's a little too early to start the Big Day of Gardening and I'm kinda hoping that my raised bed kit arrives today. Visited the Suffolk garden show yesterday and suprisingly came back with garden ornaments, a jigsaw and expensive olive oil but no plants. Am going to revisit the garden centre later with a big list.

I feel a little out of kilter as well because its Easter weekend and only Saturday but my Friday went a lot like a normal Saturday goes so I'm sat here thinking its Sunday, its all very confusing. We've actually got a pretty much free weekend actually (my parents WERE coming and we WERE going to Yarmouth but both have fallen through), so we're probably going to end up spending a bundle!

And I'm quite peckish but with K off swimming in a little while (if she ever gets up) and the promise of meeting up for breakfast in town a little later I should probably manage until then.

She's up!

We did have a very pleasant visitation from the Palmers (the Nottingham Palmers, not to be confused with the Stokesby Palmers , who don't actually exists yet until Colleen remarries in October to a man called Chris Plamer, ach, my head hurts) to kick off the weekend (they stopped by on Thursday night prior to traveling home from their holiday). Not seen them in ages and it was great to catch up with classic Palmer mayhem (Emma being attacked by one of her 6 year olds and Chris dealing with mad employment tribunals, always good value!) Chris also fuelled my desire for an iMac (check out their multiple Apple vs Mac ads featuring Mitchell & Webb!)...a world of cool and simplicity await me...although not until Leopard is finally released and I can still boot into XP should the need arise!

Food & Video Games = ?

Game Cakes!

Phew!

Another long day doing manly things (sawing and hammering) and the gate is nearly finished, just got creasoting and attaching a latch to do. The whole grisly process can be seen in picture detail over on Flickr.



This means I can do the nice planting jobs over the Easter holiday, we bought some new tubs and cloches and far too many seeds! Hopefully we'll get a bountiful supply of veg and some nice flowers too!



Spent part of yesterday making soup for our 'dinner party' at Yarmouth to celebrate Colleen's and Beck's birthdays. We made the starter and then we had Colleen's salmon and Beck's banoffee pie for dessert. A tip though, its best not to get 3 people with not previous banoffee experience trying to make banoffee pie while the the experience ed one is rooting under the stairs looking for stuff...it just doesn't work!

Also watched the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who...one word, brilliant!