10 is the magic number

I set out to achieve double figures this month, but a couple of weeks of blog absenteeism almost jeopardised this modest ambition.

So, here I am, writing my 10th post in September purely so I can reach achieve this feat.

Is that cheating? Yes.

Do I care? No.

Will I match or even exceed 10 posts next month? Unlikely.

Normally I like food....

...but right at this moment it is not my friend.

On Friday night we drove up to Hull in order to see relatives and go to an afternoon barbecue at a friends' house.

I didn't feel at hungry as I normally do at these occasions (remember: food is my friend) but still enjoyed the occasion with a plate of well cooked (maybe even over-cooked) meats, and a couple of slices of cake.

D took the first stint driving home. . As we progressed my stomach felt bloated, and I felt nauseous. I tried to hold it in, but after less than an hour I desperately needed to stop for fresh air.  Unfortunately that wasn't all I needed to stop for! I only just made it to a tree before heaving. Not once, but three times. I just hope there weren't any CCTV cameras in Lincoln. Someone was watching - Luke. He decided that he now felt sick and the next time we stopped he tried to wretch!

The journey is normally fairly long (about 4.5hrs with a couple of pitstops) but this time it felt longer than ever. I felt rough for entire journey, needing to stop frequently, especially as another part of my body wanted to be in on the action!!!!

I've spent most of the day resting on the couch and still feel really rough, my stomach is bloated and, ahem, normal service has not resumed yet. My throat feels really rough too, probably from all that heaving.

And the working week starts tomorrow. Joy.

Pope off

Firstly, an apology to any of my friends reading this who are religious. You know I respect you and your society, and it is this respect I hope to receive in turn despite my atheism - I believe I do receive this from you. This post refers to a distinct lack of respect not only to my Country (England) but also to my belief (well, the lack of!) from someone with a white hat who should know better.

Those of you who know me will realise I keep opinions to myself, going on with the philosophy of letting others live their lives as they so choose. When I first heard that the Pope was coming to the UK I was not overly fussed. After all, he seems a harmless old bloke in a dress. It's not as if he's coming to incite hatred and violence like some other preachers.

However, once I learnt that his visit was to be paid for by UK tax payers my opinion changed. Why? Mainly because the Catholic Church is extremely wealthy and can easily afford to pay for this, but also because the UK's Head of State (Her Royal Maj, EII) is also Head of the Church of England - Protestant, not Catholic. The number of Catholics in the UK is around/less than 1m, out of a total population of 67m - pretty small (and the majority of them are Scottish, who don't pay much tax anyway!)

But, hey, what you do? I had no intention of voicing my complaints about this extra burden on the economy.

But the Pontiff and his cronies has pushed the button today. In a speech by the Pope he associated Atheism with Nazism, and his aide, Cardinal Walter Kasper, has said that "England today is a secularised, pluralistic country. When you land at Heathrow Airport, you sometimes think you'd landed in a Third World country" and his refers to "aggressive Neo-atheism" in England, claiming that we discriminate against Christians.

Let's look at some facts:-

• The Catholic Churches views are no longer relevant to the modern world. They are almost as medieval as Islam
• The Pope is:-
• Opposing the distribution of condoms and so increasing large families in poor countries and the spread of Aids
• Denying abortion to even the most vulnerable women
• Opposing equal rights for lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgender people
• Meddling in children's education - education is state responsibility, not the Church
• Failing to address the many cases of abuse of children by paedophile priests globally
• Trying to bribe people into Catholic faith by offering money (according to Reverend Ian Paisley)
• Pope Benedict was a member of the Hitler Youth, and has in the past quoted Nazi philosophers to back up his hardline views
• The Catholic church lecture people about the sanctity of vows (whether it's marriage or priests' vow of celibacy) but priests involved in sex scandals are regular tabloid events
• The Vatican has Mafia connections (search for books on the Vatican Mafia)
• The Catholic Church deny the rights of women in society. If they had their way women would still be chained to the kitchen sink - no wonder they won't allow women priests!
• It is a fact that the UK Government discriminate in favour of minority faiths and immigrants. Whilst Christians may feel some of this directed at them (crosses banned at school, whilst burqas, nijabs and ceremonial daggers are okay) Atheists also suffer in this and any other society. As a silent and peaceful majority, we have accepted this because of the non-secular history.
• The "discrimination" that Wally Kasper refers to was established under Tony Blairs' government. Blair is a devoted Christian and a Catholic convert!

Atheists are not uncivilised, we are not lacking in morals and we are certainly not violent. As an Atheist I live my life by high moral standards, letting others get on with their lives, hoping they too will keep to accepted world morals. After all, morals are not the sole preserve of religion, and going on the reputation of the Catholic Church, they don't seem to have any morals at all!

Finally, Remember, the majority of wars have been caused by religion - who's the violent aggressive now, Pope?

So, Benedict, Walter and your cronies - you can take a bloody long walk of a very short pier, for Christ's sake!

 There. I said it. Rant over. I encourage people to join this website. http://www.protest-the-pope.org.uk/

Non-dairy creamer cannon

One of my favourite explosions on Mythbusters.



Sounds a bit wierd without Robin Banks doing the voiceover.

I'm reliably informed

...that this song will be played a lot when we next visit Eurodisney.

Local stuff - Norwich Castle

Remember a long time ago I said I'd start sticking the occasional piece in here about Norwich and the surrounding area?

Well, I did a couple of articles and then I forgot about it, until now.

So, I figured I'd prattle on about Norwich Castle. Afterall, it is pretty much the centre piece of the City.

Norwich castle was built in 1067 at the request of William the Conqueror originally as a motte and bailey(mound) with a wooden keep, which was replaced by the current stone keep at the around 1120. The old structure was more about defending an important City such as Norwich (which was the 2nd largest City in England at the time), but the stone castle was originally  a royal palace and later it was used a prison. It has been a museum for the past 126 years.

Birthday treat

Poor little Ben is suffering with the chicken pox- it's keping him awake (which in turn is kee[ing us awake...)

On the bright side, he has a birthday treat to look forward to as I'm taking the family to Disneyland Paris just before his birthday. I've timed it so that we should catch the start of the Christmas festivities. Yey!

I do feel a bit guilty about doing Florida and Paris in the same year (and if we count the Lake District then that's three holidays) but they're only young once and I really want to see their reactions to Disney at Christmas!

Last time we went we caught the winter ice show, which was great (see below) so we know what they're capable of!

Poor ickle fella

Aw, my little Ben has got chicken pox, poor ickle fella!

He was supposed to start at playschool on Monday, now he'll probably have to miss the whole week, and I'll have to work from home a couple of days to look after him.

Everytime we check him he has more spots and none of them are scabbing over yet. Here's a yucky picture to give an idea what his back might look very like soon! I can't take his picture right now because he's asleep.

picture source: http://www.midizone.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/chicken-pox.jpg

Mediaeval me

Last bank holiday monday (30th August) we went to Pensthorpe.
If you've seen Springwatch on BBC you'll probably know about Pensthorpe. For those of you who haven't heard about it, Pensthorpe is a nature reserve "set in 500 acres of beautiful countryside with meadows, woodland and lakes." Basically there are lots of waterfowl, and other birds, plus other animals such as red squirrels.

This weekend there was also a "mediaeval spectacular" with people dressed in ye olde garb, knights on horseback, archery, crossbow shooting etc.

I did try my hand at using a simple crossbow (pretty  successfully too). I did fancy having a go at archery (I've done it once before and really enjoyed it) but they only had a kiddies version, so I opted against it.

I also got roped into trying on a knight's helmet - here's a couple of pictures.

They encouraged Sir Chatalot (aka Luke) to wallop me over the head with a sword, demanding more pocket money!

Oh, and here's a bonus picture I found whilst uploading these. It's me again at Pensthorpe showing off my archery skills a few months ago.

Overall, it was a good day at Pensthorpe. the only bad things was the pesky wasps!

Sods Law - part 2

Yep. As predicted on Tuesday, Wednesday (yesterday) was warm and sunny, so packing the pool away was presumptious. A point brought home by the joyful noises of my neighbours' kids as they frolicked in their pool.