New Years Eve - Snow

It's been a foggy New Years Eve today.

Got back a little early from work to find that it's been snowing all day, but only in a square mile or so around our house.

Samwise said that he'd wished for Snow at Christmas, so I guess that he's got his Christmas Wish. Slightly late, but close enough, and just for him, as the rest of the city appears to be frozen, but doesn't have snow!

Christmas Day (just)

No point in going down the pub after work, as I'm on the late shift/on-call, so I took the car in to work today. I was allowed to leave early at 15:30, but only after all but 3 of us had gone.

Got home to a mega-excited Frodo and Samwise. They are usually allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve (which usually turns out to be pyjamas). This year they went up to bed to find that Ben 10 and Dr Who bed covers had been magically put on their beds.

They both had real trouble going to sleep. They went to bed early around 7 pm. Samwise didn't get to sleep until about 9 pm and Frodo was still awake and trying to spot Santa at 10 pm. They were both fast asleep at 11pm.

Santa finished delivering his presents around midnight. (Check out the Norad Santa Tracker if you don't believe me) ). All wrapped and under the tree, with an extra surprise of a Nintendo Wii and a new TV set up in the playroom (they'll find that one last tomorrow).

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

It's Christmas time again. Lots of work places wind down for Christmas - my place as usual winds up!

Didn't get home until 7:30pm tonight, because somebody was panicking and demanded an unnecessary server reboot, even though we'd agreed earlier in the day not to do it.

Got back just in time to nip out with the boys to a neighbours Christmas Party. They host one every year, just before Christmas - how they manage to do this with everything else that's going on beats me. They lay everything on and ask for a donation to a charity, which I'm quite happy to do.

The boys had a good time, and I got to chat with a few of the neighbours. I also met a couple of mad old ladies, who I've passed before now in the street walking their dog. We found that we had a few things in common, and had quite a laugh.

It's now officially Christmas Eve. I've got one last stint in work - hopefully I'll be allowed to shoot off early. I'm on call Christmas day and Boxing day - I've been assured that call outs are very rare when the systems aren't in use - but there's always a chance that something unexpected might happen. Rumour has it that any Christmas day call outs will be allowed to be responded to the next day - but that has yet to be confirmed.

The Goose is defrosting in the kitchen, and we're almost ready for the main event. The boys have been told that there's only 2 more sleeps to go. So time to wish all of my blog readers - whoever you may be - a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Giant Christmas Greetings

I've just received an E-Christmas card from La Princess. Nice to see that she's not forgotten us (probably because I bought the T-shirt and poster from Artichoke).

Forgetful Santa

Grandma took Samwise and Frodo to see Father Christmas at a local grotto last weekend. Samwise had seen him earlier in the week on a School trip to a different place.

A couple of days later Samwise said to me - "You know what Dad, when I saw Santa again I had to remind him what I'd asked for the first time, because he'd forgotten!".

Magic!

Xmas Do's

The work Xmas party was on Friday. We were at the Crowne Plaza hotel again this year - the usual sort of corporate booze-up, meal and Dad-dancing session that these places put on at this time of year. We were mixed in with a few other companies who'd also booked some tables.

As some sort of team-building exercise the manager who'd booked the do had decided who was going to sit at which table - rather than it being a free for all. Managerial 'hosts' rotated tables between each course. This put a few people off, and there were a few last minute no-shows as a result. Personally I found that this arrangement worked OK, since our department has expanded rapidly over the last year - I got to chat to a few people that I've seen around, but wouldn't normally have spoken too.

I managed to get a taxi home, without too much trouble, as I dived out of the hotel just before the music stopped, beating the rush to get a cab.

Saturday was a "meet the Dad's" night out - a first time get together with some of the other Father's from Samwise' year at school. This was a good night out - a few pints out and a lot of natter - "which one is your child?", "what do you do?" and a mutual agreement on who is the hottest teacher at the school.

Church of the Bright Green Neon Rabbit

Took my own picture of this on the way back from work the other night. Not as good as this one of course. I thought I'd better get a snap, as the Liverpool Biennial public art event is due to finish at the end of November, so they might switch it off soon.

National Blog Posting Month 2008 - Blew It

The target was 30, and I did 17 posts in 30 days, - oh well, there's always next year...

First Reading Book

Samwise brought his first ever reading book home from school today.

It's fairly basic, but he can read all the words in it already - I was really proud.
He read it to me first, and then to his Mum. He's going to read it to Grandma tomorrow.

Eddie Stobart Fan Club - How Much?

Speaking of Motorways - although a family of regular Eddie Stobart spotters, i.e. will shout "Eddie Stobart" whenever we see one of the company's lorries, and will attempt to identify which girls name is on the front of the cab, there is absolutely no way I will pay 12 quid a year just to get some more info from the Eddie Stobart Club Website!

Maybe we should switch to Norbert Dentressangle instead? :)

Motorway Messages

Sighted on the Motorway on the way back from Wolves on Sunday

1. A Tanker, with the words "Succumb to the Darkness" written in the dirt on it's rear.

2. A Mercedes with the registration plate of "B1G B0SS".

Weekend in Wolves

I was in Wolverhampton in the Wild West Midlands last weekend, meeting up with a bunch of old pals from college. After a suggestion in June, we finally got organised enough to meet up in November. Only one last minute no-show.

It was great catching up again with folk that I've not seen for a long time. We've all got a bit older, some of us may have got a bit wiser, but mostly not. Some have less hair than they used to, some have more (but in different places). Some have changed gender.

As always we pushed the boat out a bit, then depth charged, torpedoed and sunk it to the bottom of the sea!

Have been feeling the after effects for a couple of days now - unfortunately attendance at work is compulsory - unlike lectures, so recovery time is a lot longer than it used to be. Age doesn't help either. cha0tic is still not right

3 of us stayed in a small hotel on Goldthorn Hill. Quite a nice little place, and only 30 quid a night (plus a fiver for breakfast).

Friday night was a tour of old old haunts (i.e. pubs), taking in a folk duo, and some Pizza on the way round.

Saturday - Kippers for breakfast, and a second kip, then a stroll into town. Wandered around the town centre to see what's changed and what's not. Most of it surprisingly familiar, but smartened up a lot more, with only a few new buildings.

Resisted the "old haunts" until about 3pm, then started on the beer again. Met up with most of the crowd in the second pub. Then a cracking curry, involving wine and champagne, ending up in the last pub that we'd been to the night before, where we met up with some more faces that we hadn't expected to see.

Somehow the last 4 survivors ended up in the Club Night at the Civic rehydrating themselves on coca-cola and water. Lost one of the party (called him the next day to find that he was indeed OK and hadn't gone the way of Elvis and his last burger).

3 of us caught the kind of Taxi that you can only get in the West Midlands back to the hotel - i.e. one where the face at the wheel doesn't match the one displayed on the licence in the cab, and who doesn't have a clue where anywhere is. He overshot the road that leads to the hotel and had to double back.

Full English Breakfast next morning, plus tea and toast before heading home.

Photos below - some may even be in focus.

Pea and Ham Soup

Opened a tin of Baxters Pea and Ham Soup tonight. Had this with a couple of buttered wholemeal rolls. Who needs cookery books?

Macaroni Cheese

Last night's dish was a classic, but the sauce was quite rich as it involved using Craime Freche and Parmesan cheese (or rather a substitute), as well as Cheddar.

The kids tried it, but they weren't too impressed.

It was OK, but far too creamy-rich for my tastes. I've got the remainder in my lunch box today.

I might try it again another time, but stick to a simpler sauce.

Godzilla (Gojira)

There are some films that we can watch again, and again. We first saw Godzilla when it was released - we were on holiday in Las Vegas at the time. It's on Sky 1 at the moment, must be about the 30th time or so that we've seen it.

Don't know why - it's just one of those films that really works for us.

Here's a few others, in no particular order.

The Running Man Only in a re-run!
Total Recall
RoboCop
Strictly Ballroom
Reservoir Dogs
Pulp Fiction
From Dusk till Dawn
Gladiator
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (we watch this more than the other two).

There are more. Sometimes (in fact more often than not) the re-viewing is due to what's being put out on TV, rather than say choosing a DVD.

Christmas Shopping

Have done quite a bit of Christmas Shopping already - mostly from the comfort of my armchair. Chosen gifts are on their way to me in the post. Isn't the Internet great!

I'm planning on taking the boys for a trip into town in December, so that we can see the Christmas lights, Carol singers, brass bands etc without the hassle of having to do some serious shopping too.

Ministry of Food - Pancakes

Needed something quick for the kids tonight, so we all had pancakes.

The recipe said to use self raising flour (what - unheard of? surely it's plain flour? No that's what the recipe says so here goes...). Cup of flour, cup of milk and 1 egg to make the batter. Then used a ladle to measure out two or three small dollops into the frying pan. Cooked for a minute or two, turning over with a fish slice, since the thickness means the uncooked side stays runny - so too tricky to toss.

Result - small round, thick tasty pancakes. We had lemon juice and golden syrup on ours. The kids seemed to prefer these pancakes to the big thin ones that I made on Shrove Tuesday.

Ministry of Food

Last week I picked up Jamie Oliver's new Ministry of Food Book at a booksale for tenner, rather than the list price of 25 quid.

Understandably Novelist Supermum has made me remove the paper sleeve, leaving a rather forties/fifties plain style hard cover underneath, rather than having to put up with the photo of the chubby smirking mockney.

I've decided to get into this learn to cook decent food lark, being particularly impressed with the recipes for busy people.

The book opens with a list of basic ingredients that you should have to hand in your cupboards and freezer, the sort of things that keep for months (herbs, spices, oils, flour, vinegar, syrups, tinned stuff etc) and suggests that you should just go out and buy the lot so that you know that you're likely to have these things to hand when you need them.

I thought that I'd go along with this theory, and went out to buy everything off the list. I came back from Tesco's on Saturday with all but three items. The only problem being that since I'd spent about 3 hours down the shops I'd ran out of time to spend cooking a decent meal, since the kids had to be quickly fed and put to bed.
(so much for cookery for busy people - thanks Jamie!).

To be fair, we had a decent Sunday Roast Chicken today. I made the gravy using a vegetable trivet, which I've never done before, and the result was delicious.

It was also great following the different recipes, and at the points where they say, "season with", "thicken with", "for extra flavour add" etc just reaching into the cupboard and retrieving the appropriate ingredient, rather than thinking "what can I use instead?".

It's only Rock n' Roll

There were still a few star spotters outside the Malmaison hotel at 2 o'clock today, although the numbers had dwindled.

I suggested that we could bait them by shouting "Look it's Duffy!" and running past wearing a blonde wig - but we were fresh out of theatrical props in the office.

Speaking of celebrity impressions, I've remembered an incident from a long time ago...

I went to see the Rolling Stones at St James' park in Newcastle in 1982. They were giving out pink circular foam pads for the audience to use as comfy seats (needless to say most of them got thrown about).

Before the gig was due to start, one joker managed to get onto the stage, folded a pink foam disc in two, stuck it in his mouth and pranced across the stage doing a Mick Jagger impression - priceless! Even the Security were chuckling as they removed him from the stage area.

Star Spotting

There's been a small crowd of star spotters, and more than a few photographers hanging around outside the Malmaison hotel today. The reason is of course the MTV Europe Music Awards, which are being hosted at the Liverpool Echo Arena tonight.

Some of entertainers are staying at the hotel. I watched a yellow Rolls Royce going back and forth this afternoon.

I came across this photo of Leona Lewis leaving the hotel today. See that slightly out of focus red brick building in the background? I'm inside it. So that's me and Leona photographed together :)

Flowers in the Sky

Bonfire Night, or should I say "Organised Fireworks Display Night" - does anybody have a bonfire any more? I haven't seen a single Guy Fawkes go up in flames for years.

Frodo was poorly, so just Samwise and myself went to see the firework display at Sefton Park.
It was the first time for Samwise, although he's seen a few individual fireworks before, he's never seen 20 minutes worth of arial bombardment, so he was suitably impressed.

"They're like Flowers in the Sky Daddy" he said.

Is it Tuesday already?

Well that's messed up 1 post a day already. Maybe that's why the NaBloPoMo exercise is called "30 posts in a 30 days". Perhaps I can still achieve that.

Appreciation

Did a 14.5 hour shift at work on Sunday starting at 1am.

Were my efforts appreciated? They should have been, but were lost in a "witch-hunt" over a couple of separate incidents, none of which were of my making, but I got caught up in them, so nobody said thank-you.

C'est la vie. I'll take my reward in cash.

Quantum of Solace

I'm in work right now exporting and importing database files, so I thought I'd do my 2nd Blog Post this month.

I thoroughly enjoyed Daniel Craig's second outing as James Bond at the new Liverpool 1 Odeon cinema earlier tonight.

I'll be lazy and refer you to Impworks Review (who was with us tonight).

This new Bond is a really nasty piece of work... and so he should be - he is an assassin, after all.

National Blog Posting Month 2008

It's that time of year again. Here we go again, let's see if I can manage 30 posts in 30 days for NaBloPoMo...

Hallowe'en last night. Did the traditional carving of a pumpkin lantern, bobbing for apples and disconnecting the doorbell to avoid the "Trick or Treaters".

Heard this rant on Radio 4 last night - "When I was a boy we didn't go knocking on doors, begging for sweets. No we used to create a straw effigy and go out on the streets begging for money instead." :)

Dropped the boys off at their Grandma's this morning and went off to do some early Christmas shopping. Not doing too badly considering it's only the beginning of November - only a few more to get.

Going to see the new James Bond film "Quantum of Solace" tonight. Hope it's as good as the last one.

There's a panic on at work, and we're trying to recover a failed system - so I've got to go in at 04:00 on Sunday morning to help nurse the recovery along. At least I'll get a good view of the Church of the Bright Green Neon Rabbit on my way past at that time in the morning.

Slimline Salad Dressing?

Last weekend I finally got round to dusting down the hi-fi amp and speakers that I bought 24 years ago and connected them up to the brand new CD player that I bought last year, but had packed away until I could get covers to prevent small fingers from damaging the speakers.

I couldn't really get a satisfactory metal grille solution, so the reason that I connected everything up last weekend was that I'd decided that I could trust the kids.
They've never really touched the surround sound system in the front room.

One of the speakers has a cloth cover. The cloth cover had come off the other speaker.

To my dismay this morning I discovered that Frodo had poked in the centre dome of the woofer. I knew it was him, as he ran a mile when I discovered it. After a good telling off I established that he'd pushed it, thinking it was a button (he was trying to figure out how to turn the music on).
Luckily he hadn't touched the tweeter.

I got him to help me fix it tonight - he helped me turn a few screws whilst I took the speaker out to examine it from all sides.

Googling for a solution suggested the following options.

i) Suck the dome back into shape with a hoover.
ii) Pierce the dome with a pin and hook it back into shape.
iii) Use a piece of sticky tape to pull the dome back into shape - start with say masking tape and work your way through sellotape, parcel tape, gaffer tape etc until you find something just sticky enough.

I decided that option i) could work, but a Dyson might just rip the dome right off.
Option ii) would leave a small hole, that might degrade the sound.

Therefore I went for option iii).
Masking tape, and sellotape were no good, but a piece of parcel tape did the trick. Hooray!

The speaker is now working as well as before (warm bass sound with plenty of middle and crisp clear high's), and has a taught cloth cover protecting it from further mishaps.

For those that don't understand, the title of this post refers to the Not the Nine O'Clock News Gramophone Sketch :-

Food Poisoning?

Fish chips and mushy peas from the local chippy on Friday night. Mmmm!

Fishcake for Novelist Supermum and Sausages for Frodo and Samwise. Samwise had some mushy peas too.

Samwise had a tummy ache in the middle of the night - but was OK otherwise.
I woke up at 3am and threw up. I then threw up again in the morning.

Spent all day Saturday not being able to eat much, sleeping on the couch and rehydrating myself with blackcurrant juice. Felt like I had the aches, headache and shivers of flu, but without the sneezing. Of course I was accused of having "Man Flu" :)

Novelist Supermum and Frodo were OK.

After sleeping all day, I slept all night too. Got up about 10:30 this morning and felt fine again.
Samwise was a little sick on Saturday night, but was fine again today.

So it looks like the mushy peas were the culprit.
Never had a problem with that chippy before, but I think it will be a while before I visit it again.

Narnia at the Anglican Cathedral

I took these photo's at Narnia event for children, held at the Anglican Cathedral last month.

A question for cha0tic - is this any better than the "Pirate Bishops" in the previous post?

Son of Adam and a Beaver, or Cylon and a Werepig? :)

Family Fun on the Ferry

Ferry up and down the Mersey today. Who wants to cross it and go to the Wirral anyway? :) Free trip (we applied for a ticket after seeing a flier sent by Frodo and Samwise school) with activities for children organised by "Adult Education Services".

QE2 II

People are getting a little excited at work, because the QE2 is heading into the Mersey on it's final voyage, before going off to become a hotel in Dubai.

I managed to see it go past the Baycam Web Camera at 11:05 - it's just showing the sea now.

It's just passed the entrance to the Mersey. Should be docked outside work around 12:30

Didn't bring my camera with me this time, but then I did get a few snaps of it last year

There's a bit more commercialism going on this time. Last year it was a just a few programs being sold. This year, as the crowd is gathering, I can see coffee stalls, hot dog stands, carriage rides etc.

No Stabilisers

Had one of those classic Father-Son moments in the park today.

Frodo's been riding his bike on one stabiliser for a while now. The result is that he's riding it leaning out to one side to provide counter-balance.

Went up to the park with him and took the stabiliser off.

Ran with him a few times, holding onto the handlebar and shouting "pedal, pedal, pedal" before letting go. Keeled over a couple of times at first, then he started to get it.

At first about 6 turns of the pedals before he either wobbled out of control, came off or put his foot down.

After an hour or so he'd increased this to about 20. Showed off his new found skill to Mum up and down the path outside the house a few times, before he came in.

I'm dead proud of him - quite an achievement given that he has difficulties with balance and coordination. He's going to tell his physio teacher tomorrow.

Tooth Fairy - 4

Frodo's other front tooth was hanging on by a very strong gum-thread on Thursday night.
I got him to wobble it a lot until finally, as I was examining how he was doing, it pinged out and landed on his bed.

Popped it in an envelope with a note to the Tooth Fairy to come and get it.

This time she left a small Lightning McQueen car under his pillow.



Samwise has been observing this activity closely. We found out at a children's party on Saturday that he's been giving some small white nuts to the kids in his school class to try and "trick the tooth fairy" with. So far she hasn't been fooled :)

Tooth Fairy - 3

Frodo lost his third tooth on Saturday. One of his front teeth this time. Looks like the other one will be soon to follow.

The Tooth Fairy that visits our house tends to deliver small toys, rather than money, in exchange for children's milk teeth. Last time she left a small "bumblebee" transformer.

This time she left a tiny Optimus Prime.

Giant Spider Sighted in Liverpool 3

We all went out again to see the spider leave Liverpool.
Here's the last still pics that I took. Had to switch to the video camera, as the snap camera is useless outside after dark.

We knew that had returned to it's nest on the Concourse tower, and would probably move as dusk approached. We got there at 18:30 and stood on a traffic island between St John's shopping centre car park and St George's hall and waited.

Spotted a couple of friends who live on the Wirral waiting nearby, so we shouted them over and had a chat. The Penny Farthing pub was blasting out music. Every now and again the DJ played the spiderman theme from the 60's cartoon.

Around 19:30 the French chaps in the fancy fencing jackets - I've since learned that they are called "Les Manipulateurs" - abseiled down from the top of the building, and strapped themselves onto La Princesse, as the spider is known.

The monster then slowly descended, as musicians mounted on cherry-pickers arrived and played. Gradually the creature was lowered to the ground, then it slowly turned and began to move along William-Brown street.

We watched it go, with the musicians leading the way, at which point darkness had fallen, so I switched to my video camera. We decided to dodge around the back of St George's Hall and meet up with the creature on the other side. We lost our friends, but I think that they opted to follow the spider in the other direction, as they hadn't seen it yet.

We stood at the back of a line of people and watched the musicians go past, then saw the spider coming. This time a number of "Les Manipulateurs" were leaping onto it's legs and allowing themselves to be carried up into the air, and back down again.

The spider became interested in the people sitting on the walls of the hall for a bit, then came right past us.
There was enough of a gap at the back of the crowd to walk along, so we found ourselves once again walking with the spider. I walked along with a small boy on my shoulders and holding up the video camera, whilst keeping pace with the arachnid, which was putting on a spectacle as it hissed and sprayed the crowd.

Down towards the Queensway tunnel the crowd got a lot thicker. We managed to squeeze our way into a spot beside the roundabout where the final action took place. We had to alternately pick up Frodo and Samwise for short periods, to make sure that they got a view of the action.

We really felt the heat of the flames that frightened the creature into leaving, and were doused by the water cannons. There was a fusillade of fireworks, and then it began to snow. The spider squatted down, curled up and began to disappear into the tunnel.

Frodo and Samwise were waving goodbye frantically. Samwise was sobbing, and tears were rolling down down his cheeks because he "didn't want the spider to go". He kept on waving and crying as I held him up, right to the end - people were nudging each other around us and going "aahhh!" when they saw him.

Finally around 22:00 it was all over, the spider's snow was still falling, and the music still playing as we headed back to the bus station. Feeling a little guilty for letting the boys stay up so late, but really glad that we'd managed to go out as a family four times to see this marvellous creation, since it's unlikely to come here again.

I'll have to get the video off-tape and post some here sometime.
There's loads of good pictures on the La Machine website. I'm off to buy the poster and the T-shirt.

Giant Spider Sighted in Liverpool 2

I was on the early shift this morning. The spider had moved in the night and had settled down to "sleep" on the concourse outside the Echo Arena.
Got there at about 07:15 and took a few photos. There was just myself and a camera crew there. As I was leaving a man turned up dragging along a small boy wearing a coat over his pyjamas.






Took the boys back later at 18:00. We waited for about an hour in the pouring rain. Then some musicians appeared, pushing through the crowd and climbing into elevated platforms. They tuned up for a bit, then their platforms rose higher and they struck up a rhythmic tune.

Three scientists/operators/riders clad in what looked like white fencing jackets climbed into seats on top of the spider and the machine-beast began to wake...

Numerous eyes lit up. The legs opened and rose with a hiss to reveal a ring of scientists/operators/riders riding underneath the spider. The mandibles opened and steam/foam sprayed out. Jets of liquid squirted out of the abdomen.

One small girl freaked and ran off shrieking - her mother ran to catch her and calm her down.

The creature/mechanoid rose, turned and began to stride away.



We found ourselves following the spider, walking alongside the spider, climbing up steps to get level with it, going down another set of steps and ended up in front of it as it approached.

Everyone was grinning, laughing, staring and running along with delight. The musicians cacaphonic medley continued whilst the beasts limbs waved close above people's heads, bumped lamposts, stepped on walls and brushed the tops of trees.

We legged along just in front of the spider, pausing now and again to take many photos.







We realised that the rain had stopped when the spider began to move. It came back every now and again, but wasn't as bad as earlier. We watched the monster do a circuit of Salthouse Dock, walking out along The Strand, and then back in through the main gates that lead to the Albert Dock.
It's legs hovered just above the heads of the crowd. People were reaching out and touching the base of the feet.




Finally the spider was hoisted into the air and swung out over the waters of the dock. It dipped it's toes into the water and then was showered by a number of water cannons. It disappeared in a mist of spray for a short while, then, after returning the water cannon salute with a burst of spray from it's abdomen it swung back onto the land, and headed off for the Cunard Building.



By this time it was 21:00, so we called it a day and carried 2 tired, wet, happy boys onto a bus home. I think that we were really lucky to be in the right spot at the right time when it woke up for it's first major outing.

It's off for a walk around the city tomorrow. We're going to miss this, but hoping to see some more on Sunday, when the spider leaves the city.

New Swing Bridge

Liverpool get's a new swing bridge - however it's one time only.

This is the return leg of it's one and only swing. They're raising the footbridge at Princes dock to allow canal boats to pass underneath so that the Leeds-Liverpool canal extension can now take boats all the way to the Pier Head. It was swung out to a temporary resting point a few weeks ago. They've built supports to raise the bridge, and now they're swinging it back.

I've always liked this bridge, with it's whale-bone look, so I'm glad they're keeping it. I think that it cost a lot to build in the first place, which is why they're conducting this feat of engineering, rather than demolishing it and making a new one.

They just started to swing the bridge back in place at 15:00 today, as I was leaving work to go and pick up Frodo from school. I persuaded one of the builders/engineers to let me leg it across the temporary footway, moments before the bridge started swinging, otherwise I'd have been really late if I had to walk the long way round. (Hope he didn't notice me pausing to take the photo's).

Giant Spider Sighted in Liverpool

We've been looking forward to this one for a while. Picked Frodo from his first day back at school, then collected Samwise and Novelist Supermum and told the boys that we were going into town. Parked up and I asked them if they thought that we would see any giant spiders.

They just thought that Daddy was fibbing again. Then they saw this...



It's all part of the latest, and probably one of the best, Capital of Culture Events.
It's being staged by La Machine and Artichoke, who put on The Sultan's Elephant in London a couple of years ago.

There's more on BBC News - but their photos aren't as good as ours :P

The plot over the next few days is that scientists will experiment on the creature, which will then wake up and move around the city. It will then finish in a spectacular finale on Sunday night. Looks to us like the creature is going to exit via the old Mersey Tunnel.

Unfortunately we're commited to a family event on Saturday, so we'll miss what's going on that day, but we're hoping to see as much as we can with 2 excitable, and possibly very tired boys on Friday and Sunday.

Klimt at the Tate

Went to the Gustav Klimt exhibition at the Tate today.

Enjoyed the exhibition - although at times we felt that it should have been titled "Klimt and a bunch of other stuff by his best mates".

Although I'm familiar with some of his work, I didn't know much about the artist.

He appeared to live most of his life wearing a large, comfy blue smock. We could see that he had several of these, as the designs on the shoulders varied. There was even one on display at the exhibition.

There were a few photos of him in a suit - he looked extremely uncomfortable - probably couldn't wait to get the smock back on.

Pedal to the Metal

Resolution: - I must get back to blogging more often and not let life, the universe and everything hinder leisure activities. (Also I must make time for leisure activities other than falling asleep and snoring zzzZZZZ!)

Stuck in work most of this weekend doing various jobs. Not so bad yesterday as the weather was dismal. Typically I'm on a deadline to finish putting together the boys Stockade Playhouse and I'd planned to do some more work on it yesterday morning when the heavens opened! Today the weather has improved and I've been stuck here for the best part of the day waiting for hardware techies to do their stuff so I can stop and start system services.

The title of this post refers to the latest problem that we had with our vehicle, which is a about a month off being 1 year old. I'd loaded up 4 rather heavy rubble sacks to take to the tip, and had gone about quarter of a mile when an Engine Problem warning light lit up and "Go Straight to the Garage!" appeared on the on-board computer.

Hoping it might be something to do with the weight being pulled, I got to the tip, unloaded, started up again and the fault cleared. It came back again about a mile or so later. Car still going but in "limp home" mode.

Arrived at work and switched off. Later that evening I headed for home and found that I still had the fault, so I parked up and called the RAC, to check it before I did any more damage. The RAC man came and thrashed the accelerator for a bit. His diagnostic kit showed the fault had cleared. He advised me to take it to VW to be checked.

Got the car booked in a couple of days later, which steadily began to get worse - back to limp home mode on starting, with an exhaust problem warning lighting up alongside the first one.

Got the car back on Friday night. It turned out to be a problem with the accelerator pedal. They've fitted a shiny new one and the problem has gone. Apparently accelerator pedals no longer pull on a cable. Mine pushes on a potentiometer (variable resistor) that drives some electronics to tell the car how fast to go. The electronics had failed.

Oh well. At least they found and fixed the fault quickly this time.

Ouch! and Ouch! again.

A couple of weeks ago we woke up to find that our car had been vandalised, along with about 30 or so cars in the immediate area. Some idiot(s) had gone around in the late/early hours scoring a number deep scratches into every vehicle in the neigbourhood.

Yesterday I put our car in for repair. I was given a courtesy car which I had to reverse out of a tight car park. Unfortunately one of the managers of the repair shop had parked his long Silver Mercedes in one of the courtesy car parking bays. This being far too big for the bay resulted in a chicane to negotiate, and with me reversing a car I'm not used to I totally misjudged it and clipped the rear wing on my courtesy car, and his Merc.

Quote from the manager of the repair shop - "Let's just see which one you've hit. Oh No! It's mine!".

Ouch! Sorted it out with the insurance, so the excess payment is now twice what it was going to be. Ouch again!

Artist at Work

I love this picture. It's an artist friend of mine at work in his "studio". If ever a photo summed up what his work is all about, then this is the one.



More about him and his work here