Go-Kart

I'm driving a Peugot 107 courtesy car, whilst the paint damage caused by some dickhead with an envious streak and a key is being repaired on our VW Touran. I've had a couple of small cars in my time, but this one's a real roller-skate. Feeling every bump in the road as it rattles along.

Christmas Aftermath

Rest of family arrived on Boxing Day, so I put together a follow up meal - roasted a few more vegetables in goose fat and served up the remainder of the meat. The roast spuds really turned out well this time. Christmas pudding & brandy sauce, or chocolate cake and cream for afters, then coffee and an exchange of presents.
Spent a cosy evening together, serving up Christmas drinks and nibbling on snacks.

Bacon butties for breakfast this morning and then goodbyes to those who had stayed overnight.

Having a lazy day today, just watched Spy Kids 2 on TV. Now generally chilling out and spending a little time at the virtual/online January Sales.

Christmas Day

The Christmas meal was a success - the Roast Goose was excellent, even if I do say so myself. Half of it left (along with a cooked ham) to go round the rest of the family who are visiting tomorrow. Now relaxing with a glass of Whisky and chocolates.
Boys are very happy with their main presents - Nintendo DSi XL's. Can expect them both to be suffering from repetitive strain syndrome soon :) The plastic insects that I bought for a quid in the bargain shop have gone down a storm too!

Dr Who Christmas Special

This one should have "Jumped the Shark" for me, but I did quite enjoy it. I also have a new found interest in Opera singing ;-)

Merry Christmas Everyone! - Here comes Santa.

A very Merry Christmas, to all of my Friends, Followers and Lurkers. Hope you all have a Super Smashing Christmas Holiday.
Santa is on his way. NORAD have spotted him leaving the North Pole, and are tracking his progress using the latest technology.
You can follow him too here
http://www.noradsanta.org/en/index.html
He's left Russia as I type, then onto the Bikini Islands and has now reached Fiji.

Pan Pipes

There's nothing like a good bit of traditional Christmas music - certainly nothing like it on Lord Street this afternoon, when I walked past a Peruvian/Aztec pan pipe band playing what sounded to me like a Scottish or Irish folk song?!

Sleeping Beauty - Liverpool Everyman Panto 2010

The Everyman Pantomime Sleeping Beauty turned up trumps again this afternoon. We'd managed to get good seats for a Matinee performance (having booked earlier in the year), which of course meant that we got a soaking when the water squirters came out!

As always it's a Rock 'n Roll Panto, so lots covers of rock songs throughout, including Aerosmith (Don't want to miss a thing), Golden Earring (Radar Love), Queen (I want it all) and inevitably Journey (Don't Stop Believing).

A great fun production, and a good time was had by all. The usual classic panto gags, a few new ones, a few local jokes and a cheeky dig at Pamela Anderson, who is performing at the Empire down the road. A guest appearance from Dr Who (or somebody who looked a bit like him). A victim was selected from the front row for the Dame to flirt with, and then get up on stage later. Our family favourite was the 'slow motion' fight scenes, and the boys loved all of the popping up and disappearing through trapdoors that went on.

Ice creams in the interval - I was told to leg it as soon as Sleeping Beauty passed out, and got there first in the queue.

I'd phoned the box office this morning with a request, so after "the audience participation bit" the boys names were read out in a greeting from the stage - just to give them a surprise.

A great Christmas treat, that's become a family tradition for us. Not sure where we're going to go next year, whilst the theatre's being remodelled/refurbished, as I don't think that the other panto's can top this one?

Lights Out

Went out to finish off the Christmas food shopping tonight and spotted a car parked on our street with it's headlights on. 2 hours later when I came back it's lights were still on - that battery wasn't going to last long in subzero temperatures. I didn't recognise it as being one of the neighbours cars, so I tried the flat over the road - not theirs either.
The next door neighbour reckoned the car probably belonged to somebody at one of the restaurants we live near to. I tried the Indian restaurant first - only 4 couples dining in there, so a quick word with the owner and he checked around the customers - didn't belong to anyone in there.
The Thai restaurant next door immediately recognised my description of the car - it belonged to the Chef - so good deed done.
We've got a table booked in the Thai restaurant in a couple of weeks time - the manager of the restaurant said that he'd look out for us.

Snow Photos

Took the sledge out to the park first thing this morning - absolutely knackered myself dragging 2 boys up to the park on it, having said that the exertion didn't half warm me up. Lost my car keys when pushing the boys down the slope, but a fellow tobogganist found them for me.
Samwise was feeling the cold (i.e. snivelling and bawling), so we headed home. Picked up a camera when I took Frodo out for his riding lesson, and took a few photos on the way, and via the park on the way back. The statue is the figure of winter herself, at four seasons gate (one of these days I'll take a shot of the other three statues at the appropriate time of year).

Snow Report

We have about 2 or 3 inches of snow, thick soggy snow. Started snowing at about 19:30 tonight and stopped around 22:00.
Novelist Supermum was out at a Christmas do in a Restaurant on Allerton Road - a 10 minute walk away, so I went out to meet her when it finished and then walk back home.
Absolute chaos - snow missiles hurtling around everywhere and lots of drunk people slipping over in the middle of the road.

Certified

Passed an Oracle Certification exam yesterday morning, which means I'm now an Oracle Certified Associate Database Administrator :)
Got to put the theory into practice when I was called back in about 15 minutes after leaving work last night :(

Trampoline Club

Frodo got his Grade 3 and Grade 4 certificates at the Trampoline Club today.
I had a go too, and managed a seat drop, tuck jump, pike and half twist - no certificate for me though, just some aching limbs :)

Productive Day

Day off work today. Xmas Shopping just about all complete in one morning. Attended Samwise's school Nativity play in the afternoon. Also managed to restart our central heating boiler, which has been out of action for for three very, very cold days, with no chance of getting anyone out to fix it until Monday - we've been huddled in the front room wrapped up in blankets and duvet's with a couple of emergency portable radiators and fan heaters. Feeling warm again now.

Liverpool Santa Dash 2010

Ho! Ho! Ho! It's that time of year again for a bit of Christmas fun. 8000 Santa's running through the streets of Liverpool on a wintry Sunday morning. Gangs of Santa's roaming around town for the rest of the day, long after the run was over.
Our gang of Santas all finished the run, collected a medal, then straight to a Santa bar (at least that's what it seemed like) for a pint of Rosey Nosey.

UFO - O2 Academy Liverpool 5th Dec 2010

Back from tonight's UFO gig and still buzzing after a superb performance by one of THE definitive heavy rock bands.

Arrived at 8pm to find the support band Voodo Six cranking up. They were a bit 'metaltastic' (cha0tic would probably describe them as a "noisy waste of electricity"), but I thought they were worth a listen, as they were pretty good at what they were doing.

The gig was being played in the smaller of the 2 venues in the building, which gave it a great atmosphere. I was having a laugh with a few people round about me, and talking about favourite songs that we wanted to hear.

We weren't disappointed. UFO took to the stage and gave us 2 hours of solid rock!

Songs from the new album were performed before the band settled into a run of the best stuff from the Phenomenon, Obsession and Lights Out albums.

Vinnie Moore adds his own style of melodic/shred guitar, and does a fine job of it too, without detracting from the original numbers.

Barry Sparks was filling in for Pete Way (who is currently ill), and is a superb bass player in his own right. Thundering riffs in all the right places.

Phil Mogg seemed to be amazed that there were a couple of 14 year olds in the crowd - he asked them if they're Dad had brought them, reminisced about his first gigs, and kept reminding himself to mind his language. Andy Parker gave the lads his drumsticks as a souvenir at the end.

They performed the best rendition of "Love To Love" that I've heard to date. Encores were "Rock Bottom" and what seemed like half an hour later (if you know the song you'll know why) the inevitable "Doctor Doctor". It was also great to hear "Only You Can Rock Me" performed properly i.e. not be me and my mates :)