View from the 30th Floor

These views are from the 30th floor of Beetham Tower West.
One of my workmates invited us to his flat earlier this week for some real home-cooked Indian food and a few beers.
He says you get used to it after a while, but I found the view spectacularly distracting.

Sheffield

My best friend from school, who I haven't seen for a number of years, contacted me via a networking site.

He's living with his family in Sheffield, and invited us to come and visit last weekend. We went across on Friday night. Frodo and Samwise always enjoy 'sleepovers'. They were a little unsure beforehand about having to play with girls - but were fine with this when they got there.

A weekend of good food, wine and catching up.

We took the children swimming at Ponds Forge Leisure Pool on Saturday afternoon. This has a wave machine, and a "Lazy River" i.e. a current that circles the pool, where you can grab a float and go round and round. Both of these were new experiences for Frodo and Samwise. Frodo who had been swimming in a real river on Tuesday, particularly enjoyed being carried away by the current.

Frodo and Samwise were introduced to Club Penguin. I had to give parental authorisation to two accounts that were created for them.

Some more old friends came over from Leeds and joined us on Saturday evening, so more food, wine and gossiping into the early hours.

We had a barbecue on Sunday, and finished off with chilling out to the third Pirates of the Caribbean film.

My younger Sister lives a few streets from where we were staying, so we popped over to her house for a cup of tea, before we headed back home across Snake Pass.

So a great Summer weekend that came out of the blue thanks to the interweb - we'd almost lost touch. It's been a good year for reunions.

Camping by the River

Or to be more accurate Llan Gwynant campsite, at the foot of Snowdon in Wales.

Took a couple of days off work, and met up with some old friends and their family yesterday. They were on their way to Scotland, travelling up from Cornwall, and were camping for a few days in Snowdonia. We'd arranged to meet up and spend a night camping with them. No need for our tent, as they have a 14 man tent, so plenty of room. We took some food, and the rest of our camping gear, so there was plenty of stools and chairs for everyone to sit on, and a table to sit round.

It was a brilliantly sunny day yesterday. Just right for a plunge into an icy cold mountain stream. Our pals had wet suits, but Frodo and I are made of stronger stuff. Samwise had more sense - put his toe into the water and asked where the warm parts of the river were?

Had a great time last night, drinking, reminiscing and swapping stories. Frodo spent his time collecting quartz from the lake shore and stream, whilst Samwise enjoyed making friends with the other children, and trying out one of their Isla Bikes.

The rain pelted down all night, and we woke up to find that the clouds had come down from the mountains. It stayed damp for most of today, with a dry spell for a few hours in the afternoon. There was still plenty to do round the campsite, and enthusiastic children braved the river again.

We'd like to have stayed longer, but I can't afford the time off work. So packed up and goodbyes to everyone at teatime today. Our friends should be travelling back from Scotland at the end of August, so we've invited them to break up their journey with a visit to our house around the Bank Holiday.

How Far Can Too Far Go?

Spoke too soon... Did a Dusk 'til Dawn and beyond shift last night / this morning. I was just tucking into a Chinese meal when the phone went at 9pm. Saw the sun setting on the Mersey as I arrived at work. Saw it rising again around 4am. Finally got out at 11:30 am after much sweat and nail-biting sorting out a major problem with the computer system. If I'm supposed to be learning on the job, then I guess that this is what's known as a "crash" course :)

Thinking of spending my hard earned overtime cash on a Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner, so at least some housework gets done when I'm not at home. Need to do a bit of research to find out how good they are.

Work Hokey Cokey (in, out, in out...)

Late shift/on-call at work this week.
It's only Wednesday, and already I feel like I've been in for a fortnight.

Monday - finished at 18:30, back in for 20:00, phone rang half way there to tell me planned job had been cancelled, but I still needed to go back in to re-enable a backup.

Tuesday - finished at 18:30, back in at 20:00, job took 2.5 hours. Home at 23:00. Just about to go back to bed at midnight when the phone rang, called in for 2 hours to fix a problem.

Phone rang tonight at 21:00. Luckily this time just for info.

Roll on next week, when I get a couple of days off. Couple of family meet-ups with some old friends planned.

At least the kids are being entertained whilst I'm at work. Frodo and Samwise are both attending a Summer activity camp at a local P.E. college - they appear to be enjoying it. When they're not doing this it's either a cinema trip, or playing De Blob on the Wii.