...I can't believe there's a football match on at 10.30pm on a Sunday night!
As it's a friendly England will probably go with a weaker team than normal to try some newbies out, which is what firendlies are for. I'm pretty sure it should be a comfortable game against Trinidad and Tobago, probably even easier than Wednesday's 2-0 stroll against the USA.
David Beckham (he of the USA's Major Football League's LA Galaxy) is captaining England tonight, which is really weird because it's nearly 2 years ago since he gave up the captaincy and lost his place in the squad under Mclaren's dodgy management.
Sunday, 1 June 2008
Thursday, 29 May 2008
Less Florida
Oh poo.
It's been 4 weeks since we got back Florida and I can't really remember much of what I wanted to write about, so I guess I'll just move on.
Will we go back despite the airport problems? You betcha! Although not for at least 2 years (probably more like 4) and not until I'm assured that the biometric stuff has definitely been sorted!
It's been 4 weeks since we got back Florida and I can't really remember much of what I wanted to write about, so I guess I'll just move on.
Will we go back despite the airport problems? You betcha! Although not for at least 2 years (probably more like 4) and not until I'm assured that the biometric stuff has definitely been sorted!
Thursday, 22 May 2008
More Florida
Gee, it seems so long ago I can hardly remember it!
I'm also strapped for time, so I'll just jot down some highlights.
Favourite rides:- The Simpsons (Me), Spiderman (Luke)
Ride Surprises: - Simpsons ride terrifying Luke, Spiderman not terrifying Luke, Luke enjoying Indiana Jones stunt show, Ben not really getting upset at much at all.
Things we didn't get to do: Tower of Terror and Rocking Rollercoaster. Bummer! I love those rides but the parks were so busy.
Wierdest moment: -Feeding Ben (bottle of milk) whilst watching Shrek 4-D and the chair is jerking all over the place because it's 4-D!!!!
Best value:- Sizzlers breakfast buffet
Most frequented restaurant:- Sizzlers!
Coolest thing bought:- Stitch as the Emperor Star Tours action figure (for me)
How come: - No one wished us a nice day?!!!
More to follow...
I'm also strapped for time, so I'll just jot down some highlights.
Favourite rides:- The Simpsons (Me), Spiderman (Luke)
Ride Surprises: - Simpsons ride terrifying Luke, Spiderman not terrifying Luke, Luke enjoying Indiana Jones stunt show, Ben not really getting upset at much at all.
Things we didn't get to do: Tower of Terror and Rocking Rollercoaster. Bummer! I love those rides but the parks were so busy.
Wierdest moment: -Feeding Ben (bottle of milk) whilst watching Shrek 4-D and the chair is jerking all over the place because it's 4-D!!!!
Best value:- Sizzlers breakfast buffet
Most frequented restaurant:- Sizzlers!
Coolest thing bought:- Stitch as the Emperor Star Tours action figure (for me)
How come: - No one wished us a nice day?!!!
More to follow...
Thursday, 15 May 2008
Holiday bullets
Okay, I promised this nearly 2 weeks ago (cripes has it been that long?!) but better late than never, right?
The kids.
Ben was an absolute little star! He was only just 5 months old on the way out so we expected big problems, but on the plane (both ways) be pretty much slept most of the time and was a happy chappy the rest of the time. In fact, on the way back he fell asleep on take off, woke up half an hour or so before landing, had a bottle of milk and fell asleep again; not waking until we had got our cases!
Luke. Well, he was pretty good on the plane, and on the whole he was okay. But the excitement of it all must've got to him because at times he was a real little monster; tantrums (which he hardly ever has), impatience, insolence and more.
Landing at Orlando.
Shocking. I've been there 4 time before, and I know what an absolute pain it can be to get through security but this was the worst ever. After a big cue we finally got to see the Security chap, who looked at me really oddly. He spent ages analysing me and my passport, telling me to scan my finger numerous times, calling some other chap over, mumbling away to himself and then staring some more. Finally he figured out that the last time I visited his colleagues had made an almighty cockup; They had got my biometric record incorrect and had somehow got my Dad's picture and fingerprint on my record and vice versa. Luckily my parents were travelling with us so he could see the error, otherwise I'd probably be in Guantanemo Bay by now! However, having figured out what the problem was Dad and I were marched off to a security room (leaving my Wife and Mum with two tired kiddies to fetch the suitcases) made to wait about 15 minutes while another security chap had another look at our records, finally confirming what his colleague had suggested was the problem. Unforutnately he could not do anything about it. All he could do was send a message to George Bush (probably) asking him if he could get Condolesa Rice to fix the records but there was no guarantee that anything would get done (i.e. it would be left as it is and I'll forever have problems entering the US of A). Sorry for my sarcasm -this really pees me off just thinking about it. Funnily enoug we weren't the only ones. There was an elderly couple where he was her and she was him apparently - I'm not kidding!
Anyway, we finally got released, our wives had the cases and we were on the move...to another security scan! And bye bye cases. They were taken away and sent to another collection conveyor belt so we could collect them upstairs. Haven't they heard of lifts?!! After this we had fun with our holiday reps (who could not be bothered to help us identify a course of actiuon to make sure the biometrics would be sorted), and even less fun with Dollar (who wanted to charge us more for the car we were supposed to have in our package - unfortunately I didn't have the brochure with me so could not prove my point. We accepted the inferior car and it wa okay, but ever so slightly less roomy than the one I ordered. And how long were we at the airport? over 4 hours before we managed to get in our car and on our way to the hotel! 5 minutes later I took a wrong turn, which took another 20+ minutes to rectify. I'm so glad the kids had been good so far!
More to follow....
The kids.
Ben was an absolute little star! He was only just 5 months old on the way out so we expected big problems, but on the plane (both ways) be pretty much slept most of the time and was a happy chappy the rest of the time. In fact, on the way back he fell asleep on take off, woke up half an hour or so before landing, had a bottle of milk and fell asleep again; not waking until we had got our cases!
Luke. Well, he was pretty good on the plane, and on the whole he was okay. But the excitement of it all must've got to him because at times he was a real little monster; tantrums (which he hardly ever has), impatience, insolence and more.
Landing at Orlando.
Shocking. I've been there 4 time before, and I know what an absolute pain it can be to get through security but this was the worst ever. After a big cue we finally got to see the Security chap, who looked at me really oddly. He spent ages analysing me and my passport, telling me to scan my finger numerous times, calling some other chap over, mumbling away to himself and then staring some more. Finally he figured out that the last time I visited his colleagues had made an almighty cockup; They had got my biometric record incorrect and had somehow got my Dad's picture and fingerprint on my record and vice versa. Luckily my parents were travelling with us so he could see the error, otherwise I'd probably be in Guantanemo Bay by now! However, having figured out what the problem was Dad and I were marched off to a security room (leaving my Wife and Mum with two tired kiddies to fetch the suitcases) made to wait about 15 minutes while another security chap had another look at our records, finally confirming what his colleague had suggested was the problem. Unforutnately he could not do anything about it. All he could do was send a message to George Bush (probably) asking him if he could get Condolesa Rice to fix the records but there was no guarantee that anything would get done (i.e. it would be left as it is and I'll forever have problems entering the US of A). Sorry for my sarcasm -this really pees me off just thinking about it. Funnily enoug we weren't the only ones. There was an elderly couple where he was her and she was him apparently - I'm not kidding!
Anyway, we finally got released, our wives had the cases and we were on the move...to another security scan! And bye bye cases. They were taken away and sent to another collection conveyor belt so we could collect them upstairs. Haven't they heard of lifts?!! After this we had fun with our holiday reps (who could not be bothered to help us identify a course of actiuon to make sure the biometrics would be sorted), and even less fun with Dollar (who wanted to charge us more for the car we were supposed to have in our package - unfortunately I didn't have the brochure with me so could not prove my point. We accepted the inferior car and it wa okay, but ever so slightly less roomy than the one I ordered. And how long were we at the airport? over 4 hours before we managed to get in our car and on our way to the hotel! 5 minutes later I took a wrong turn, which took another 20+ minutes to rectify. I'm so glad the kids had been good so far!
More to follow....
Sunday, 4 May 2008
Back with a Boing!
Yep, I'm back from a 2 week vacation in Florida, and "back with a boing" too. Well, I should say "back with a Boing Boing" really as my beloved West Bromwich Albion won the Championship (the 2nd tier of England's Football leagues) today! Yay!
Already I've been on You tube to find some videos to celebrate this glorious occasion.
The Throstles with the Trophy!
Here's some pictures of the season set to some dodgy music.
Players celebrate with a slide towards the fans.
Pictures with more music!
And finally, someone's filmed the television, includes 1st goal today.
Although I've actually been back for 3 days I've been too I've been too tired to post. It's already gone 11pm tonight so I'll fill in some of the holiday details on another post some point this week, including all the highlights and low points.
Already I've been on You tube to find some videos to celebrate this glorious occasion.
The Throstles with the Trophy!
Here's some pictures of the season set to some dodgy music.
Players celebrate with a slide towards the fans.
Pictures with more music!
And finally, someone's filmed the television, includes 1st goal today.
Although I've actually been back for 3 days I've been too I've been too tired to post. It's already gone 11pm tonight so I'll fill in some of the holiday details on another post some point this week, including all the highlights and low points.
Friday, 11 April 2008
BareNaked Ladies!
Ok that got your attention.
Whenever I put Luke to bed I sing some nursery rhymes (grand Old Duke of York, Twinkle Twinkle, Baa Baa Black Sheep etc). Now, I don't know why, but when he was really really young (we're talking weeks or months I guess (I can't remember) I started singing "Brian Wilson" by the Barenaked Ladies.
It's one of my favourite songs, and about the only one I just about know all the words to. Although any cats and dogs passing by didn't appreciate it, Luke seemed to. Not many nights go by nowadays when he demands I sing "Brian."
I guess I'm writing about one of those great parental moments because nowadays he sings the song too, without any prompting. Okay, there's a whole bunch of words missing/wrong, but as a parent it makes me chuffed to bits to make him recognise a tune and appreciate it, and even to try to understand the words.
Here's the original BNL video.
Oh, and one of Brian Wilson too!
Whenever I put Luke to bed I sing some nursery rhymes (grand Old Duke of York, Twinkle Twinkle, Baa Baa Black Sheep etc). Now, I don't know why, but when he was really really young (we're talking weeks or months I guess (I can't remember) I started singing "Brian Wilson" by the Barenaked Ladies.
It's one of my favourite songs, and about the only one I just about know all the words to. Although any cats and dogs passing by didn't appreciate it, Luke seemed to. Not many nights go by nowadays when he demands I sing "Brian."
I guess I'm writing about one of those great parental moments because nowadays he sings the song too, without any prompting. Okay, there's a whole bunch of words missing/wrong, but as a parent it makes me chuffed to bits to make him recognise a tune and appreciate it, and even to try to understand the words.
Here's the original BNL video.
Oh, and one of Brian Wilson too!
Sunday, 6 April 2008
I'm glad the weekend is over
Seriously.
Not because I'm eager to get back to work (though I love my job etc etc...)- it's just been a really cruddy weekend.
First up was the disappointment of Albion being robbed of the FA final place.
This was swifly followed by a really miserable journey down the M11 to Gatwick. A 3 hour journey took 6 hours and we're non-the-wiser as to why. For some reason the traffic snarled up and it took an hour to crawl forward to the next junction, where we wanted to get off to go and get some food. However, everyone was being forced off here by the traffic cops.
Having stopped for some food we drove back to the M11 to find it was still closed, so we were diverted way out of our way for an hour to the next junction (with no chance for stopping because of the sheer volume of traffic being sent down these B-roads.) So, we now have 2 screaming kids in the car - joy. When we get back to the M11 the next $odding junction is blocked by a traffic cop even though we can see traffic on the M11 over his shoulder! So we (and several thousand over motorists) are diverted back into the countryside for another hour (by which point someone has a smelly nappy and is screaming like nobody's business) until we finally reach the M25. I've never been so pleased to reach the Orbital.
When we finally arrive at our hotel we find that there's no cot in our room, and when I complain I'm told that all the rooms are too small to have a bed, sofa bed (for Luke) and cot (for Ben). How naff is that?!!!
So, Ben slept with Mummy, and I had to sleep on the sofa bed with Luke. This was not a bed, it was a few planks of wood strapped loosely together with a thin piece of sponge on top. Even a couple of pints at London's extortionate prices couldn't send me to sleep.
In the morning I'm grumpy. The last thing I want to do is go and sit in church while someone old enough to be my Grandma's grandad preaches, before waking up my nephew, Callum, causing him to scream when bottled water is poured on his head! Sorry everyone,no offence intended - but I'm not religious, so I kinda opted out of this stuff!
Now I like snow, however, 4 inches of the stuff in the space of 2hours made for a pretty treacherous drive to the church (in deepest darkest knowhereland) while all I can think about is wanting to get home safely. So when the Missus decides we should go on to the reception afterwards I'm getting peed off again, and by this point have consigned this to being the worse weekend ever.
Anyway, to round things off we managed to escape after an hour at the reception and was still snowing heavily. By the time we got to Dartford the snow had cleared but we had another big delay trying to get in the Dartford tunnel. So, the journey back was about 4hours. And no snow at all at home!
With hotels, petrol, food, gifts etc, it was a pretty expensive 2 hours (i.e. the time spent in the same rooms as [but no interaction with] afore mentioned nephew.)
Not because I'm eager to get back to work (though I love my job etc etc...)- it's just been a really cruddy weekend.
First up was the disappointment of Albion being robbed of the FA final place.
This was swifly followed by a really miserable journey down the M11 to Gatwick. A 3 hour journey took 6 hours and we're non-the-wiser as to why. For some reason the traffic snarled up and it took an hour to crawl forward to the next junction, where we wanted to get off to go and get some food. However, everyone was being forced off here by the traffic cops.
Having stopped for some food we drove back to the M11 to find it was still closed, so we were diverted way out of our way for an hour to the next junction (with no chance for stopping because of the sheer volume of traffic being sent down these B-roads.) So, we now have 2 screaming kids in the car - joy. When we get back to the M11 the next $odding junction is blocked by a traffic cop even though we can see traffic on the M11 over his shoulder! So we (and several thousand over motorists) are diverted back into the countryside for another hour (by which point someone has a smelly nappy and is screaming like nobody's business) until we finally reach the M25. I've never been so pleased to reach the Orbital.
When we finally arrive at our hotel we find that there's no cot in our room, and when I complain I'm told that all the rooms are too small to have a bed, sofa bed (for Luke) and cot (for Ben). How naff is that?!!!
So, Ben slept with Mummy, and I had to sleep on the sofa bed with Luke. This was not a bed, it was a few planks of wood strapped loosely together with a thin piece of sponge on top. Even a couple of pints at London's extortionate prices couldn't send me to sleep.
In the morning I'm grumpy. The last thing I want to do is go and sit in church while someone old enough to be my Grandma's grandad preaches, before waking up my nephew, Callum, causing him to scream when bottled water is poured on his head! Sorry everyone,no offence intended - but I'm not religious, so I kinda opted out of this stuff!
Now I like snow, however, 4 inches of the stuff in the space of 2hours made for a pretty treacherous drive to the church (in deepest darkest knowhereland) while all I can think about is wanting to get home safely. So when the Missus decides we should go on to the reception afterwards I'm getting peed off again, and by this point have consigned this to being the worse weekend ever.
Anyway, to round things off we managed to escape after an hour at the reception and was still snowing heavily. By the time we got to Dartford the snow had cleared but we had another big delay trying to get in the Dartford tunnel. So, the journey back was about 4hours. And no snow at all at home!
With hotels, petrol, food, gifts etc, it was a pretty expensive 2 hours (i.e. the time spent in the same rooms as [but no interaction with] afore mentioned nephew.)
Saturday, 5 April 2008
Travesty
I hate it when the better team lose.
It's even worse when the result was settled by substandard refereeing. At 50+ minutes Albion were totally and utterly dominating crooked Harry's Portsmouth when Milan Baros (a player who should have been sent off earlier for repeat offending) handled the ball in the box in the move that resulted in the only goal of the game.
Referee Mr Webb and his linemen are supposed to be refereeing at the Euro championships in a few months time but this incident will surely change EUFA's mind.
So, two Wembley fixtures in 11 months and two 1-0 losses despite being considerably superior to the opposition.
I'm gonna be peeed off all weekend.
It's even worse when the result was settled by substandard refereeing. At 50+ minutes Albion were totally and utterly dominating crooked Harry's Portsmouth when Milan Baros (a player who should have been sent off earlier for repeat offending) handled the ball in the box in the move that resulted in the only goal of the game.
Referee Mr Webb and his linemen are supposed to be refereeing at the Euro championships in a few months time but this incident will surely change EUFA's mind.
So, two Wembley fixtures in 11 months and two 1-0 losses despite being considerably superior to the opposition.
I'm gonna be peeed off all weekend.
Friday, 4 April 2008
Chuff Daddy
Yesterday Luke swam 4 lengths of the swimming pool (100metres) -okay no continuous but not bad for a 4 year old.
Apparently his tutor repeatedly threw a toy in front of him to encourage a straighter swim! AWE, HE'S MY PUPPY!
Also he raised a few quid for Macmillan's Nurses too, do that was nice.
As I type I have Ben asleep in my arm - Typing with one hand is a bitch and my arm (underneath Ben)is dead! Oh great - he's started snoring!
Apparently his tutor repeatedly threw a toy in front of him to encourage a straighter swim! AWE, HE'S MY PUPPY!
Also he raised a few quid for Macmillan's Nurses too, do that was nice.
As I type I have Ben asleep in my arm - Typing with one hand is a bitch and my arm (underneath Ben)is dead! Oh great - he's started snoring!
Flying Penguins
This video was aired on the BBC earlier this week....
Can you guess which day it was shown?!
Can you guess which day it was shown?!
Wednesday, 26 March 2008
Still alive!
Yeah, I'm still here! I've been a bit busy lately so websites, blogs, social networking etc have suffered big time, so I thought I'd better post a quick message to confirm my continued existence.
Friday, 14 March 2008
Woolite....it's a safetergent!
When I was getting dressed for work this morning I pulled out a blue t-shirt (Friday is dress down day -yay!) and as I went to put it on Luke pointed at it and said (ever so seriously) "Daddy, for all you dark clothes you need new Woolite to stop your clothes fading."
He's an advertiser's dream!!!!
If only TV could pass subliminal messages that improve kids behaviour!
He's an advertiser's dream!!!!
If only TV could pass subliminal messages that improve kids behaviour!
Tuesday, 11 March 2008
This in NOT one of my kids....
...I found it on YouTube, and there's loads of great clips of kids absolutely laughing their socks off for no reason.
Boing Boing...Bagiies going to Wembley!
Yay! Mega-congrats to my Football team West Bromwich Albion for reaching the FA Cup Semi-Final for the first time since 1982 (and hopefully can go on to win it for the first time since 1968!)
Saturday, 1 March 2008
A few days ago....
Ben seemed to be choking, or stuggling with something in throat.
Then we found out......as the sonic boom rushed outwards and I wasn deafened by the loudest baby burp I'd ever heard!
The poor little fella didn't know whether to laugh or cry; mainly because Daddy and Mummy were in hysterics.
After a second big burp he grinned. Several more aftershocks followed, not as loud, but still funny.
Then we found out......as the sonic boom rushed outwards and I wasn deafened by the loudest baby burp I'd ever heard!
The poor little fella didn't know whether to laugh or cry; mainly because Daddy and Mummy were in hysterics.
After a second big burp he grinned. Several more aftershocks followed, not as loud, but still funny.
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