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.

I guess that's the end of 'Bring your pig to work day' then?

I was called into a meeting yesterday at work regarding the possibility of Swine Flu going pandemic ... Apparently face masks have been ordered for us all to wear, regardless of the fact that they don't actually work due to the germs being smaller than the holes in the mask .. Oh and once the mask gets wet or damp (Like when you breath on it a couple of times) that also nullifies the effect.

I've decided to wear this to work, and have warned my collegues in Dublin that I may sound a bit different on the phone and to ignore any statements where I say I'll be deleting them.

Along with the masks, it has been suggested that work invest in the following as well ...

Needless to say should Cyprus decide to close their borders in the next couple of weeks, so ruining my holiday at the end of May, I'll be taking this FAR more seriously.

6 years

For the past 6 weeks Bethany has been doing a countdown of days, and today she finally hit zero, for today is Bethany's 6th birthday.

Unlike her big sister, B (She's always been 'B') had a simple birth - a planned caesarian at 10:30am on April 29th, 2003. It meant I could take Charlotte to school before going across to the hospital for the operation. I had to gown up as I was to be allowed in the theatre whilst they pulled B out, but luckily for me Mia was knocked out which meant I couldn't be in theatre during the procedure. Instead I had a cup of coffee and listened very hard ... And listened ... I went and stood outside the theatre and listened even harder until I finally heard Bethany's first cry.

15 minutes later I was presented with a 7lb daughter in a fetching orange hat (We didn't know we were supposed to bring a hat in) who required her 1st feed. Bearing in mind it had been 4 years since the last time I had fed a baby, I did ok - I did even better when told by the midwife that Bethany needed a clean nappy, and changed it without gagging or the need of a clothes peg for my nose.

Bethany and Charlotte are very close, which considering there's a 5 year gap between them is nice. B idolises her big sister, and because of her is old beyond her years when it comes to gadgets (How many 5 year old do you know who can navigate a mobile phone, send a text, set SKY +, and browse YouTube for Power Ranger clips?).

B is a girly-girl, loves high-heel boots, the colour pink, party dresses, and for some reason Power Rangers Jungle Fury! B wants more than anything to keep a real lamb in her bedroom, and insists she'll house-train it - she's declared that she'll let it live in a field again when it gets older, and can't understand why we won't allow her to have one... She's just won a place in the mascot team for an Ipswich pre-season friendly in July, so has no developed a passion for playing football - every night for the past week we've been outside kicking a ball so she's prepared for running out on the Portman Road pitch. Not sure if the club will let her use her 'Fimbles' football though, as she doesn't like kicking the 'hard' footballs.

Happy birthday sweetheart!

"All we are saying ... is ...."

(As seen yesterday on the M25, somewhere near the M40 junction)

I'd love to know how the person who painted the above, did so ... (as well as why ...?) . Is there a frustrated pea salesman in Berkshire? Are they concerned that peas are getting bad press, and are worried about the renewed public interest in asparagus?

The problem with peas is they're so difficult to eat. Eating peas was traditionally regarded as a test of good table manners. Anyone who couldn't manage to get the peas on their fork, convex (the curved top) side up, and ended up using the concave side of the fork like a spoon, was looked down upon. To eat peas properly, prod a few peas onto the prongs of your fork, then scoop more peas onto the convex section, which will be kept in place by the pronged peas. Apparently it's not the done thing to balance them on your knife ...

B was invited to a school friend's 'Ben 10' themed birthday party yesterday. Having two daughters, I have no idea who or what 'Ben 10' is, so we all sat down to watch the cartoon network to find out. Apparently B went as Ben 10 after he's changed into a 4-armed thing ... That said the majority of girls went as Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, which prompted the Dad of the birthday boy to remark how he didn't remember them being in the show.

Still, there's never been, nor is there ever likely to be, a more beautiful 4-armed Ben 10.

Bye Super Jim, Hello Tractor Roy ...

I'm back at work having been well and truely knocked out by the common cold ... Most wuss-like I know, but I'm a man so what do you expect?

Ipswich played Norwich (Our rivals) on Sunday and won 3-2; however this wasn't enough to keep Ipswich manager Jim Magilton in his job. 18 months ago Jim was given £12million to get the club challenging for play-offs - we haven't look likely play off contenders for the majority of the season and now at the tail-end of the season can finish no higher than 9th (play-off positions being 3 - 6) so Jim is out the door.

I liked Jim. He was always very approachable and wore his heart on his sleeve - and I wish him all the best where-ever he ends up in football.

Ipswich didn't hang around though and 24 hours after sacking Jim, hired Roy Keane to be our new manager. I can't wait for next season, as the appointment of RK promises so much.

In other news ...

Mia had a bloke knock on the door yesterday offering to buy our 10 year old Peugeot. Apparently he wanted it for banger racing, but didn't want to put anything on the transfer documents to that effect "Just put sold for scrap" which rang a few alarm bells ... We told him to leave a number and I'd call him back in the evening. Whilst I was out walking the dog last night he knocked again - Mia ignored the knocking as it was just her and the girls in the house, although he was pretty persistant .. 20 minutes after I got back he tried again, so I told him we wouldn't be taking him up on his offer, much to his disgust. I was struck by how much he looked like Ollie Hardy (From Laurel and Hardy) even down to the little mustache .. He must know, surely?

The silicon chip inside my head is set to overload ...

I have a cold.

And a sore throat.

And a splitting headache.

And a terrible nights sleep (I was in bed by 9, got woken at 9:30pm by the phone and again at 10:15pm by someone sending me a text) which wasn't helped by having to be up at 4:30am.

So ... I'm going to get what I need to do out of the way at work, and take a 1/2 day ..

I was going to write a big blog on the Ipswich v Norwich derby match at the weekend, but frankly can't be arsed. Still - I have discovered that the sore throat makes me sound like David Bowie if I sing, so I've sung myself a rendition of 'Life on Mars' purely because I can.

All together now ... "It's a God awful small affair ..."

In my office it's the late 90's ...

If you're a regular reader of my blog, then you've probably figured that I'm not really a morning person ... I don't mind getting up early, I can handle that with no trouble, but I am very 'grumpy' (For the want of a better word) until around 10am - because of this I often have my headphones on in the office to drown out the incessesant ramblings of the annoying woman in the office or the slurping and coughing fits of the person opposite me when he has his breakfast cereal ...

So today ... Adam Ant is being asked on iTunes "Don't drink, don't smoke, what do you do?" - the answer to that questions is "Adam throws starter motors through windows of pubs before being committed by his best mate". Bit hard to fit into a lyric though. Needless to say annoying woman is in full flow, and today is singing the praises of SKY + to the nearing retirement bloke (US friends, SKY + is like Tivo). Nearing retirement bloke has just got SKY + and thinks that this invention of Murdoch is a new thing ... I'm going to show him my mobile phone next week, that'll really blow his mind. I believe he still throws sticks at those 'big metal birds in the sky', and this morning complained about nearly being knocked down by one of those motorised horse-less carriages ...

I'm getting rid of my SKY + as to be honest I don't get my monies worth out of my monthly fee to SKY. I begrudge paying SKY as to me they've ruined football (Get out of the Championship and you get £60 million, get relegated to the Championship and they give you £12million ... Which results in the same teams going up and down, unless they have a rich benefactor. Unfortunately in the case of Ipswich, having a rich benefactor hasn't made a blind bit of difference.

Now I have a sod-off large TV on the wall over my fireplace, which is HD ready. To get HD programs SKY want another £10 a month off me, so taking my monthly package cost upto nearly £50 a month .. £600 a year ... So, I'm getting me one of these:

A HD freeview box with the Freeview equivilent of SKY + - and the best bit is (Other than it will have paid for itself after 6 months compared to what I would be paying SKY) is it will use the SKY supplied satellite dish to receive the signal. Sweet.

Dad was in hospital for 5 days last week for minor surgery, eventually being released on Easter Saturday - this meant the Easter Egg hunt he did for the girls was postponed to yesterday evening. Now Dad is obviously bored as he went to town with it this year. The girls had to find 12 bags of eggs, 2 Easter eggs, and 2 Easter related making things - all of which were hidden round the house. The girls soon found everything bar 2 bags, it then took the girls, me, and my Dad an hour to find the remaining 2 bags (Dad having forgotten where they were!).

Bethany had a pack to make an Easter bonnet, which kept her quiet for an hour, which was nice.

This one is for the ladies in the house ...

In the office, Joy Division on iTunes drowning out the person opposite me who is unable to eat cereal without slurping at high volume. He'll have a choking fit in a minute as he's slurped a bit too much milk ...

Gents toilets (Or "Bathrooms" or "Restrooms" if you're one of our colonial cousins - The trouble I had at Sans Franscisco airport the 1st time I went to the US, trying to find a toilet ...). There is a certain etiquette involved when using a communal gents toilet, of which I will try and explain:

Exhibit A

The urinals at work, for the purpose of this blog they shall be identified from left-to-right as A, B, and C. Toilet etiquette dictates that you should stand as far away as possible from any co-workers when using the facilities, and the following rules apply:

Should you enter the gents toilet and see the above scene, which urinal should you use? The answer is A, as this is closest to the door.

Should urinal A already be in use, which urinal should you use? The answer of course is C, as although this is furthest from the door, it is also furthest from the currently in-use urinal.

Should both urinals A and C be in use, what should you do? The answer is either check your reflection in the mirror, wash your hands, or leave. On no account should you use urinal B; this will be seen as slightly weird by your co-workers.

Then there's the whole 'what to do when standing at the urinal' issue. Simply put, you engage, hold in one hand, and either stare at the wall directly in front of you or if you've had a tough night before, at the urinal itself to ensure your aim is correct. Due to the increased chances of your aim without a guiding hand suddenly turning into an out of control firehose, standing at the urinal with hands in pockets, and tackle out flowing freely is frowned upon On no account should you look at any other occupants in either of the other urinal areas, this will be most disconcerting to the other members present and will be thought of as very weird.

What a waste of a 101st post ...

Thrills Galore ....

As it was vaguely sunny on Sunday (Which for a UK Bank Holiday weekend is unheard of, so you make the most of it) we all went to Clacton for the afternoon. Clacton is your typical English seaside town, full of theme pubs, tacky shops for tourists, ice cream sellers, limited parking, people you cross the road to avoid, and a pier ...

The girls love the pier and its rides, (Though I did notice how all the prices have shot up in the space of a couple of weeks. Recession? What recession?) but Bethany appears to have shrunk in the past couple of weeks as the rides she was on in February she is now too small for.

Charlotte went on the Waltzer (She's in the blue blur in the photo at the top of the blog), and Bethany had to make do with a kiddie roller-coaster.

Charlotte then went on 'The Whiplash' with her Uncle Matt, whilst I took B on the dodgems. Over the years I've noticed two sorts of dodgem cars; either they have a steering wheel in the centre of the dashboard, or it's positioned car like in front of one of the seats. These dodgems had a central wheel, which meant Bethany could steer, and steer she did. Initially she took a liking to the side walls as she kept driving towards to them only to veer away at the last minute, but she soon got the hang of driving around and dodging - well I say that, she did have a mission though ... As soon as we started, a somewhat overweight boy rammed his car into ours and with a sarcastic 'sorry' drove off. I thought Bethany had ignored him as she was excited about driving, but I was wrong! She soon spotted that the boy was stuck in a corner where he'd crashes into another car, so aimed our car at his and rammed him straight in the side! With a cheery 'Sorry!' she had reversed and was off again!

Once off the pier we walked back to the car via the beach, taking the opportunity to throw stones into the sea and watching a small rescue boat go off and rescue someone.

So other than the dive that is Clacton and iPod Touch filling (Or 'Charlotte's Touch Pod' as Bethany calls it), what else happened over the bank holiday weekend?

Saturday was spent looking at a Westfield sports car with my father-in-law and brother-in-law, (We've talked him out of that one as it was tight fitting for me let alone him, and the father-in-law couldn't reach the gear stick!) and then watching Ipswich lose in the afternoon. The Ipswich manager looked a very forlorn figure walking off at the end of the match, especially after having 18,000 singing how they want him out.

Yesterday was Mia's birthday, and coupled with Easter this meant the diet was blown for the weekend. Last night Mia and I had a chinese take-away, and I also ate an entire 'Dairy Milk' easter egg - I've not looked at the scales, but this week will mainly consist of soup and apples for my meals.

And today it's back to work. Still 4 day week which makes it just about bearable .. But, 6 weeks tomorrow and we're off on holiday, which is nice - just got to lose that extra 1/2 stone between now and then.

Through gritted teeth ...

I spent the majority of December ripping DVD's so my Father-in-law could watch them on his newly acquired iPod Touch. Of course I loved doing it, especially as my own iPod had packed up at the end of November .. And today? Charlotte spent her birthday/Christmas money and bought an iPod Touch, so I have spent the majority of the day ripping DVD's for her so she can watch them on her Touch, along with the 4 DVD's my Father-In-Law brought up with him this weekend for me to do ... Roll on July when my phone contract expires and I can get myself an iPhone, but until then I will be firmly gritting my teeth whilst filling up the iPod's of other people.

Oh .. And at one point today, my Father-In-Law, brother-in-law, and daughter were all on their on respective Touchs, playing ... I left the room! Jealousy doesn't become me ...

(And apologies for the quality of the photo, the lighting was terrible)

When do lambs grow up?

Charlotte had 8 of her mates round last night for a belated birthday celebration (It mainly consisted of watching 'Mamma Mia' and being incredibly noisy ...), so Bethany and I escaped for a walk with Jackson.

As it's spring, the field next to the train station is full of sheep and their new-born lambs - Bethany loves lambs. She wants one for her birthday, and she plans to keep it in her bedroom and will put back in the field when it's big and grown up. She also wants a rabbit and a hamster, and won't be getting any of them!

Whilst we stood and watched the lambs, I was surprised to see them playing. It definately looked like they were playing chase, which lead Bethany to ask when do lambs grow up and stop playing games? And I have no idea ... We know that 1 human year is the equivilent to 7 years for a dog, but what is it for sheep? Answers on a comment please ...

B did tell Mia about the lambs earlier this week (We've been up most nights to watch them), and Mia told her how she likes a nice bit of roast lamb. But, according to Bethany you don't get roast lamb from the lambs you see in the fields, oh no ... apparently it comes from 'turkey lambs', which are turkeys that taste like lamb. B is of the opinion that anything that looks like a turkey in real life is certainly not good enough to eat, and that those 'gamboling' lambs (Her new word) are way too nice to eat. So there ...

"Conjugate the verb 'to go' ..."

It's Monday morning, and the annoying woman in the office is in full flow how everything is 'crazy' and she knows she's not perfect ... So iTunes is back on, and Ben Folds is telling me how he 'busted his arse of the front of the stage' at Hiroshima. (And the person opposite me has got cereal which means he'll be slurping, followed by a coughing fit - up goes iTunes an extra notch)

Went for a walk on Friday afternoon, and noticed whilst walking past the side of the Bank of England, that the lovable protesters had scrawled all along the wall in chalk ... It did remind me of the scene from 'Life of Brian' where Brian has to write 'Romans go home' on a wall as an initiation, but after writing 'Romanes Eunt Domus'? (Which as we all know actually says 'People called Romanes they go the house'?) ends up with a latin lesson from a Roman centurion culminating in Brian having to write out the correct phrase 100 times ...

Could I find a piece of chalk anywhere? No ...

As blogged about on Saturday, I spent the weekend at various churches either setting up a sound and lighting rig, playing bass, rejecting the musical advances of the church musical director or being bored out of my skull ... Yesterday we were at Mistley Church, and I can safely so that no matter how warm outside, churches are freezing ... Still, I've done my bit and I now need to learn to say 'No' whenever I'm asked to help put a stage together - unless I really do want to lose my entire weekend.

Yesterday was also mine and Mia's 12th wedding anniversary, which means we have been married for 1/3 of our lives! 12th anniversary present is traditionally silk or linen, but I couldn't find anything relevant (I do try ... The year 'copper' was the traditional gift, I got Mia sunbed sessions so she could turn copper ...) so I got her some of these:

FitFlop Billow's. Apparently they're called the billow as when walking them it's like walking on a cloud, and they're designed to tone your legs ... Personally I think they look like the type of boots old ladies wear, especially when the top is rolled over - but Mia likes them and that's all that matters.

I threw out hints for the Ipswich home shirt, with 'Partridge 12' printed on the back - didn't get it, so have missed my photo opportunity chance of holding the shirt in the style of a footballer who has just joined a club.