Bewildering

We went to Bewilderwood today. Luke loved it and I gotta say I enjoyed it alot too. Although I was a bit concerned when we were about 50ft up going across a wobbly rope bridge!

I'm gonna miss both my boys over the next couple of weeks; I'm going to Bournemouth on a course. Although I'm back next Saturday for the day it'll be like not being a home for 2 weeks. So, whilst D will be struggling to cope with the little monsters at least she'll be able to get a cuddle!

TCM site has been updated

I've had one of those rare chances to blog about Total Client Marketing.

See the update here

I think the addition of the google search is quite neat.

Sad

Some very sad news.

Scrabulous has finally been removed from Facebook.

Yes, Hasbro are right that it is sort of a copy of Scrabble (which they apparently have the rights to...) however, it's also provides people to play with friends far away (ain't that right, K!!) and has encouraged many people who don't play scrabble to enjoy the game too.
So, is this a case of Hasbro shooting themlseves in the foot? Yep, I think so.


Image found on Celsias.com -Hope you don't mind!

Nice Tooth See You!

At last - Ben cut his first tooth today.

Like all little boys he's fascinated by it and onstantly rubs his tongue over it -and does this to stop anyone getting a look at it.

It's early days because you only know it is there if you run your finger over it - it's pretty sharp already. In fact it's a good job he's on a bottle nowadays otherwise, well.......
Let's just say Mummy would be a it concerned if little sharp-tooth made this kind of look (below) at her!

Happy Pop

Today was a good day.

After several weeks of being sent out of the swimming pool during his weekly swimming lesson for not behaving, Luke finally went an entire session without being told off!

And before that he'd spent his first couple of hours at "Big Boys School" so he could meet his new teacher for next term. And I heard good reports back from that too!

He rang me up at work to tell me his news in his usual efficient manner.
Me: Hey Lukey. What've you got to tell me then?"
Luke (in really quiet voice): I've been good. Bye.
Mummy: He's gone.

Skool dayz

September seemed a long way away until today. Luke got bought his first pair of school trousers and seeing him wearing them made me realise it's not long until the little fella will be starting school.
He seems okay about going to school, but he's gonna miss his playschool and nursery friends because they're all going to a different school (we're out of catchment). After going to half a dozen or so different schools myself and having to make new friends I can sympathise with him but he's the sort who can make friends quick so he'll be fine.

Snot.....Funny

As hayfever is totally mucking me up at the moment I kinda feel the need to find some purpose in why the heck nature does this to us. These feelings remind me of this classic Calvin & Hobbes comic strip from 1992.



This was sourced from http://www.s-anand.net/calvin_92.html

Mark is listening to....

Emotion Lotion by "Top"

a fee weeks ago I was spending a bit of time listening to some cool retro tunes from "back in the day" - the early 1990's and wanted to reminisce about scouse band "Top" but for the life of me couldn't remember the name of their songs.

So, after a bit of searching on You Tube I found a this video, then managed to locate the album on Amazon. Sorted!

Chuffed

I just checked my TCM inbox (I don't do it as often as I should) and found I had a message from Christian from the Claytown Troupe a few months ago who was thanking me for a blog entry I did last year about his awesome band.

I totally love things like that. I remember years ago I got a letter from one of the guys from The Seers thanking me for buying one of their T-shirts. I still have the letter, tucked safely inside Peace Crazies

So, this give me an opportunity to revive the original Claytown Troupe blog entry
- click here to read

And here's the links to the Claytown Troupe Myspace and website.

Please check them out because they're great - Watch this gem I found on Youtube!


I'm totally looking forward to hearing some new material from the Troupe hopefully at some point this year.

Newsworthy

Things I liked in the news today

Prince Charles- money for old cloth

Dude, where's my plane?

Toaday's Special

Sunday night...

...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.

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!

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...

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....

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.