I am an anti-panda ...

School trip to Walton-On-The Naze yesterday with Charlotte's class - a morning spent looking for fossils with the self-confessed 'Nazeman the fossil man' ... When walking to the meeting point with the class and the teacher, we were trying to decide what a fossil man would look like - the teacher said that she thought he had a beard ... And he did, as well as a liking for camo gear.

He had a trainee fossil lady with him, but she only had the camo jacket. It was decided amongst the adults that only when she's a fully qualifed fossil lady, is she allowed to wear the full camo gear. That said, the children really enjoyed themselves and spent 90 minutes walking along the beach looking for fossils and sharks teeth, as well as fossilised poo ... I now know how to tell the difference between a fossilised shell, and a 'modern' one, a skill I'm sure I'll put to good use in the future.We then walked along the sea-front in the blazing sunshine, eating ice creams, trying to avoid the other school parties (And the teachers trying to find their pupils who had nipped off for a crafty ciggie - we didn'thave that trouble with our 11 year olds) until we found a nice, totally unshaded spot to have lunch.

I paired up my group with my friend Nikki's, who over the past years I've been on numerous school trips with - we took a 'farewell' picture as yesterday was our last school trip together as our daughters are going to different schools in September. Nik got into the shell collecting far more than I, and wouldn't leave the beach until she had found a shark's tooth - in the end the trainee fossil lady took pity on her and made it her mission to find Nik one.

I organised a game of beach football, whilst doing my best not to injure myself 1 week before my holiday .. and then we set off to do a traffic survey in the town. One of my group had to count how many tractors and emergency vehicles passed us in 10 minutes - none. I did offer to call the Police for her, but we didn't think they'd get there in time ...

Then onto the pier where much to the disgust of the children, every ride was closed. The teacher was pleased as rides weren't covered on her risk assessment ...

After getting back to school, Mia wondered just where we had been as I was (And am still) bright red, apart from my eyes and two strips above my ears which are white from where my sunglasses were. I'm treating it as base-coat for next week in Cyprus ...

4 years at R.A.D.A*, for this ....

(*Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts) Spotted whilst walking to Liverpool Street yesterday afternoon. There's probably special bars and clubs for people into this sort of thing, and I'm guessing located around Liverpool Street ...

And the excitement in our house is currently being generated by these beauties being grown by my green-fingered daughters (They've only just forgiven me for putting slug killer on the sunflower so killing both it and the slugs ...):

Quiet day in the office, as the people I sit with are off on the company golf day - needless to say everyones hair is standing on end due to the static caused by polyester golf clothes, and we have a couple of people who use golf as an excuse to dress as pimps ...

And I'm very bored of the driver/clubs talk already - and for some reason they're not interested in the Tiger Woods game I have on my iPod.

"Do you want fries with that ...?"

Out and about over the weekend, and as it was lunchtime we swung by the drive-thru McDonalds. Now there is a preconception about those who work in McDonalds, implying that they're not quite all there and can't get a job elsewhere - unfortunately the feller who served us yesterday lived up to the preconception.

Charlotte doesn't like the onions, gerkin or mustard on her cheeseburger so I ordered a plain cheeseburger for her, but was asked if I wanted the cheese on that ... Surely if I didn't want the cheese on the plain cheeseburger, then it's a hamburger?

Other than that not a lot else. I washed the hall carpet yesteday, and got a perverse satisfaction when the black mark by the kitchen door went ... I also did a spot of weeding over the weekend, having realised the bush outside the study window wasn't actually a bush, but a weed of gigantic proportions! Our little vegetable patch is growing quite nicely, and we all got excited when we spotted some strawberries coming through.

Last week at work until holiday - I set up the weather setting on my iPod set to Ayia Napa, and give frequent updates to all concerned as to what it's like over there - Currently it's 91 degrees, which is 35 more than it is here. I did go swimming shorts shopping on Saturday, and had to take my chosen purchases back on Sunday as they were too big. The ones I have now fit nicely, but unfortunately my belly hangs over the waistband .. I'm of the opinion that I'd rather my belly hung over the top, than my shorts fall down whenever I launch myself out of the pool ... And I'm sure the other people in the pool will agree.

I also have this wednesday off as Charlotte's class are off to Walton for the day, I'm police-checked due to my PTA role, so am going along as an adult helper. I gave Bethany the choice of me going on her class trip, or taking off the non-pupil day 2 days later and us all go to the Tower of London. Tower of London won.

Right, now to cram 3 weeks work into 4 days ... I better get a coffee.

...

As I can't think of anything worth writing about, there will be no blog post today ... Instead, here's a picture of some lovely puppies.

At last, I can look my daughter in the eye ....

Back in April, Charlotte spent her birthday money on an 8gb iPod Touch (Or 'Touchpod' as it's known in our house due to Bethany's mispronouncing). It was a bit of a sore point for me, as I'd been iPod-less for awhile after my 4 year old original iPod finally died.

But ... April is bonus month at work and as I have a 4 hour flight coming up plus daily train journies, I decided to spend some of my hard-earned cash on Touchpod for myself - unfortunately for me, Mia didn't share my enthusiasm which meant I was in a bad mood on Saturday.

Now Mia likes a bargain, in fact I'd go so far as to say Mia LOVES a bargain. If we have to make a major pruchase, then I leave the haggling (She prefers the term 'negotiating') to her. It was due to her that we gor £4000 off our car, and my parents got their camcorder for effectively 1/2 price .. Yesterday lunchtime, Mia called me at work to say the O2 shop was selling out their 1st generation Touchpod's for between £90 - £125 depending on hard-drive size, and if I promised to shut up about it then I could have one. I didn't need telling twice.

4 O2 shops later, I finally found a store with 2 in stock - Mia was on the phone to me at the time and decided that for the price it would be stupid for her not to have one as well! So now, we are a 3 Touchpod family ...

Back at work, I found the hack to upgrade the software for free, sent it home for Mia to download and then set about filling up the Touchpod. I did have to take a long hard look at the 21gb of music I have stored on my work PC, as my Touchpod only holds 16gb worth of music - do I really need to have 3gb of Beatles out-takes? And how often do I listen to the 2nd album by Ash? And all of the Stereophonics albums? It's at times like these (Which reminds me, I pared back on the Foo Fighters as well), I like 'Best of' albums.

I know a song that gets on everybodies nerves ...

07:40am, and the annoying woman in the office is loudly telling the rest of the office about the terrible Indian meal she had on Friday evening. Apparently the chicken was pink and not due to the tandoori colouring, and the waiter was Italian if you can believe that, Italian! I ask you ...

Obviously all the waiters in Pizza Hut are 100% Italian from the lower east of New York...

So Itunes is on, and Green Day are having a 21st century breakdown in a rock opera manner.

Anyway, first click on this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCARADb9asE

Apologies for ruining your day by getting the tune stuck in your head - most of my Sunday was spent with it running through my head (And I went to school with the daughter of one of the 'singers' of that song), as I went to see the new Star Trek movie last night.

I don't often go and see 'my' films, in fact in the past 5 years I think I've been to see a film I wanted to see twice (The last Batman movie, and Star Trek). One thing about the cinema though, why do they think for a 2 hour movie you need to have a drink in a cup the size of a bucket? And I've made a mental note for the next time I go not to say quite so keenly that I'd like some jalepenos on my nachos ...

The feeling sick due to eating half my body weight in jalepenos, and drinking the majority of a vat of Coke Zero didn't spoil the whole Star Trek experience though - good film, even if the projectionist didn't have it quite lined up to the screen. Everyone raves about how close to the original Spock is, but I personally thought McCoy was better - but then what do I know? I only go to the cinema twice in 5 years ...

Great expectations ...

I went to see Rob Brydon's stand-up show last night, and came away feeling disappointed. I think the weight of expectation outweighed anything Rob would do, as I was really looking forward to seeing him so set the bar a bit too high ...

That said the support act was really good, but then he had the benefit of being unknown which meant no expectations ..

I did look at Rob Bryson's twitter page this morning, and he's thanking people for their opinions of last nights show which got me thinking ... These days information is accessible at all times. Want to know the Norwich score on Sunday whilst watching the Ipswich match, then log onto WAP via your mobile (And don't listen to the North Stand when they start singing how Norwich are losing 5-1 ...). I can check my e-mails pretty much anywhere, and keep upto date with the latest goings on in the world via the BBC WAP site. Facebook and Twitter can be updated on the go, as can this blog, information is everywhere.

Sometimes though there is too much information - according to some newspapers we might as well cancel the milk AS WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE from Swine Flu .. No we're not. The press have latched onto a story, and as soon as an A-lister goes into rehab or gets caught in a compromising situation then swine flu will all be forgotten.

As opposed to when our parents and grandparents were our age - I'm reading a biography of comedian Peter Cook, whose father was employed by the foreign office and sent to Nigeria. PC's father would receive The Times newspaper 6 months after publication, and would remark after reading the cricket scores "Good Lord! Surrey are 78 for 6!" and then have to wait numerous months to get the 2nd innings score ...

I'm down with the kids ...

For the past 6 weeks I've been on a diet (And in a constant state of hunger) and have successfully lost 3/4 stone (Not sure what that is in pounds, so you'll have to trust me when I say it's good.), so on Saturday when I put on a pair of 3/4 length shorts I had a problem ...

The shorts wouldn't stay up - we went to the local market Saturday morning, and I was holding all the shopping whilst trying to also hold my shorts up and not end up looking like a rapper or rapper wannabee .. I've done some research on the whole 'wearing jeans so low half your arse is visible' thing, and apparently Michael Jordan is to blame as he wore long shorts when playing basketball, his contempories all wearing short shorts ... Not sure how this ties in with wearing jeans very low, but it was on the internet so it must be true.

Also the US prison system has a lot to answer for as their prison clothes are poorly fitted, and as belts are a suicide risk, low-riding jeans are the order of the day - as rappers like to show they're from the streets (Whilst driving their Humvees to their 180 room mansions with the 120" TV screens) , they wear their designer jeans in tribute to their brothers in the pen (Or something), so keeping it real.

I did almost ask the white, middle-class student I saw getting off the train last week, wearing jeans that where the waist band was almost down to his knees, how exactly you size them? Do you get your waist size (I'm down two sizes now incidentally!) or so you get your knee size? Questions .. Questions ... Questions ...

I'm a backslider me ...

Growing up in the Salvation Army, you learnt a lot of strange expressions not often used anywhere else - for example if someone in the SA died they were 'promoted to glory', whereas someone who didn't follow the Army rules they had promised to follow was a 'backslider' ...

I'm a backslider with regards to the SA and it's teachings, but more to the point where Facebook is concerned, I'm a new backslider for I have signed up once more. I'm being restrictive on my friends, and have also discovered some new ones who have signed up since I quit ... But I have to admit I'm wondering if I've made the right decision in signing up once more - guess I'll just need to be careful and monitor my actions and time on it.

Anyway ... It was a bank holiday weekend this weekend, and on Saturday Mia and I decided that diets are for wusses and that we really fancied some chocolate cake - off to the local garden centre we went where Bethany worked her way through a slice of cake the size of her head.


Sunday was football day. Ipswich took on Coventry for a meaningless end of season match, but it was Roy Keane's first home match in charge - we finished with a 2-1 win and a sense of expectation for next season. Charlotte and I were going to get autographs after the match and pester the players for stuff for the upcoming school auction, but instead got talking to the reserve keeper ... Charlotte got the promise of a match shirt out of him, and then set her sights on Shumi ('The Macedonian Steven Gerrard') and got his still damp match-shirt off him! Another item for the auction, though I have taken a shine to it ...

Today we trekked over to Lakeside Shopping Centre to stock up on holiday wear (I needed shorts ...), and then I took Jackson for a run over the playing fields with the girls. Spring is definately here.