Day Thirty One

It was recently reported that the BBC might be dropping the Met Office as their forecasters of choice because they didn't warn us about the ridiculous snowfall that we experienced early in the new year.

Doing a sterling job there boys and girls. Not even a mention that this was coming...

"White Wigan"

Day Thirty

Been in work all day today aside from a swift hospital visit to Manchester early doors.

Today's photo is my view of the Wigan vs Everton game that took place today. I was perfectly seated to take in all the action.

"God Bless Tiny Tim"

Gutted I had to turn down free tickets to today's game. Absolutely gutted.

Day Twenty Nine

I've been on a coach trip to Stoke today.

I was going to say it wasn't as exciting as it sounds, but it doesn't sound exciting at all.

It was a work thing and it was - as expected.  So - today's photo is of the inside of the coach I was on. Awesome.

"featuring John Jones as Blakey"

Day Twenty Eight

So - Twenty Eight Days Later and I'm still here. Ace.

Typically, I've spent most of today waiting round for the pest control people (coming to rid us of our mouse). They would not specify what time they'll be here - just sometime between 8:45 and 4pm.  Perfect that. Cheers.

Anyway - spent the day at home with Luke who continues to become more animated day by day over... everything!!  He heard a helicopter earlier so we had to rush outside to investigate.  No sign of the helicopter, but what we did see was a fairly rare British phenomenon. So I took a photo of it.

"Mr Blue Sky"

I seem to remember my childhood days being filled with days like these. Don't seem to see so much of them now.

Day Twenty Seven

Howdy Doody Do

Today sees me and Luke at home whilst Deb was out earning a living again.  We played in the morning, ate chicken for lunch, then went out so I could get a hair cut.  We don't think Luke needs one just yet, so we'll give him a few weeks grace before dragging him to hell (as he sees it, anyway).

Two pics today - one from our pre-haircut walk:-

"Puddle Splasher"

And the second photo is a post haircut shot of the barbers! Dads And Lads in Wigan. We like.  Don't be put off by the bars. Once inside, it's actually quite welcoming.

"Dad Or Lad? This is the place for you"

Day Twenty Six

Had a nice day so far and I'm sure it will continue that way!

Had a leisurely morning and then a trip down to our favourite shop - Costco.

It seems to be impossible to go there and spend very little money.  It's just SO difficult not to buy stuff.  Ah well.

Today's offering is:-

"Excessive"

Another bonus pic is of Luke.  He got this camera toy free with a magazine weeks ago, but he's never been able to look through the hole to see the Thomas The Tank Engine characters that are inside. But today - he saw them. And was pleased..

"At last"

Day Twenty Five

In 1959, Rodgers And Hammerstein wrote Climb Ev'ry Mountain.

I had my own mountain to climb today. And climb it I did.  Two hours solid.  I hate climbing mountains.

"Snowdon"

Day Twenty Four

Orrrrrrrite mate!

Spent most of today in bed. My lovely wife and son have gone to Bollington to visit her family there whilst I'm in work tonight.  The house is weirdly quiet. It never seems "right" when it's like this.

Today's photo is:-

"Empty"

Day Twenty Three

Evening all


My creative juices have almost dried up.  Times are hard.  Days are sleepy and nights are... worky.  There are only so many things I can take photo's of.  I had to sign a secrecy agreement when I took this job, so that limits me to what I can photograph in here.

Allow me to present to you...

 

"Stairway To... Hell"

Day Twenty Two

Been at work all day and not much has caught my blogging eye.

However, as I left, it was proper foggy or misty. I'm not sure what the difference is, but it was difficult to see things that were far away.

So today's photo, I took as I was leaving work. It's a crap photo, and I apologise for that. I'm no David Bailey.

"Pea Souper"

Day Twenty One

An early post today, but I'm not sure that the image I have captured can be surpassed. 

In work this morning, I was party to a conversation about a girl who claimed to have fat eyes.  This wasn't someone being nasty to her - she herself, said she had fat eyes.  Now - I have worked in the same office as this girl for several years, and I have never observed her eyes so closely as to comment.

Until now.

"Fat Eyes"

There is a trait is called an "Epicanthic Fold", which is gives the eyes an eastern asian characteristic.  Personally, I don't think Louise has this trait, and it is simply her chubby eyes which seem to give her the Epicanthic look.

Most of all, I'm amazed that I'd never noticed this in a work colleague!

Day Twenty

Zdravo to you, my avid viewers.

I have spent a day at home with Luke today whilst Deb went out earning money to keep the roof over our head.

Luke has done really well with his toilet training routing with about a 50/50 hit and miss rate. All but one of the misses were very near misses, too - so I'm very pleased.

Todays photo features Luke sat where he's spent most of today - on the potty, having a Geoff Hurst!

"A very clever boy"

Day Nineteen

Hello...... there

Had a lovely afternoon with my people today. Went up into Wigan and had a lovely lunch out at the Moon Under Water, did a bit of shopping and came home in time for Deb to watch City vs United!

Today's photo is of my purchases today. Two games I've wanted to own for ages, and now I have the PS3 - they are mind blowingly good in HD!

"Boss"

Day Eighteen

Life seems to pass by with amazing speed of late. 

Children grow up so quickly and I seem to be growing old so quickly.

Today's photo is evidence of how quickly my son is growing up.  I walked into his playroom this morning to find him sat controlling  what was on TV by using the remote control to flick through episodes of Peppa Pig using a function that I didn't know existed.  He's obviously read the manual.

" Peeeeepa Pig {grunt grunt} "

Day Seventeen

I almost forgot to post an entry for today!  It has been a busy old day, although I don't know what with.  Took the children back to Welsh Wales, zoomed home for tea, then a quick drive into Skem to work. 

So, with sincere apologies, today's photo is of my workplace. This is where I spend FAR too much time.

"Brian, Mark and Fatty"

Day Sixteen

Howdy Doody Do

Good day today. Just about every trace of the snow has gone and we actually have a garden again! Amazing.

We took our family out to Taybarns to eat mid afternoon. If you've never been to a Taybarns - go.  They're ace. You pay £5.95 and eat all you want. Today's photo is of Robert, Matthew and Charlotte tucking in!

" mmmmm - Meat!! "

Day Fifteen

Croeso to you.

Todays photo is one of something that I don't see that often.  I went to Rhyl to collect my children this afternoon, well - 3/4 of them, anyway. The eldest self certified herself.

The photo I have for you today is of a big chalk dragon.  Not the kind you find at a nursery school, this is a big ole thing...

"Oooh. Is lovely isn't it?"

Day Fourteen

Today saw the arrival of the much anticipated PS3.  Today also saw the return of Luke, half way through his day with his childminder.  I won't go into the reasons for his shortened stint - get in touch if you really want to know.

When Luke was home, and happy again, I fired up the PS3 and got him set up with Eye Pet.  Despite it sounding like the response a geordie would give if a female had asked a question, It was absolutely glorious to watch him interacting with a thing that isn't really there.

"

"Luke's Eye Pet.  He's called it - David"

Day Thirteen

Greetings

Got two for you today.  Just so Deb doesn't get on my case again - the first photo was taken late yesterday, so it didn't make yesterday's blog.

It highlights my uncanny ability to mess up the most simple of tasks.  I want to be good at DIY, I really really do. But I'm not.  It's OK, though, because I will never ever face up to being crap at it. I'll plod on and do things like this for the rest of my life.

"Despair"

I absolutely promise you that I did this, and walked away from it, happy.  It was hours later, when Deb got in from work that she spotted it.  I'm such a dick.

Photo two is one of the things that's made me happy today.  It's a Mazuma Mobile envelope stuffed with three old phones that I'm giving to them in return for (hopefully) £78.

"Mazuma Is Slang For Money, Apparantly"

Day Twelve

I ventured down to Screwfix in Warrington this morning (about a 15 minute drive) to pick up some new screwdriver and drill bits as I have a few jobs to do around the house.

My plans for "nipping" there and back were scuppered when I discovered that Warrington is still suffering quite a lot with icey side-roads.  Furthermore, on the way back, I had JUST entered the slip road for the M6 when a HATO car in front of me effected a rolling road block, eventually stopping all the traffic.  It has a sign in it's read window which read "Don't Pass".  When they stopped the traffic, they got out and spoke to each driver, advising us that a hole had developed across all three carriageways at Haydock and needed fixing pronto!

Todays photo is that HATO car when it made us all stop.

"Bastards"

Day Eleven

Heeeeeyyyyyyyy

Finished work for 6 days this morning so I'm happy!

I celebrated by building this Guangzhou-esque tower in Luke's bedroom!

"Wigan Tower"

Day Ten

Been a struggle today, finding something to put on here.  I've been in bed most of the day so not have much opportunity.

I've just been on the phone to my youngest daughter, Charlotte.  I love chatting to her, but I'm not a natural communicator on the telephone.  I don't know what to say half the time. Aaaaanyway.  Today's photo is 3 1/2 years old but I have only just "found" it again today and it is apt - so - have this:-

"Ginger - And Beautiful"

Day Nine

Ay Up.

Another slippy slidey one today.  Went for a trip to Costco this morning to stock up before we get snowed in tomorrow - which I am REALLY looking forward to!  Costco made a good effort clearing their car park and employed a scoop to do the job. Unfortunately, I missed getting a photo of the scoop, but I did capture an image of his labour.

When we got home it was time for my afternoon nap before going to work for the next few nights.  I slept in my youngest daughters bed.   Which looks like this.  Nice, eh?

Day Eight

Howdy

A fairly uneventful day for me today.  Did a bit of car-skating on the way to and from work.  In work, I drew attention to a woman who looks like one of the ugliest men you'll ever meet (who also works where I do).  My colleagues encouraged me to tell the woman that she bears a striking similarity to this bloke, but I thought better of it.  My sensible side must be prominent at the moment because I'm thinking that getting a sneaky photo of her and putting it on here might not be THE best idea.  Although I am tempted.

On with today's photo.

I had an appointment at, well - I'm not sure what it is.  I was going to say hospital, but it's not.  And it's not a doctors surgery.  It's one of these new-fangled NHS places that is huge and has all sorts of things going on in it.  I have what I believe to be an umbilical hernia and I went to get it checked out.  I was initially examined by a female doctor who was all of about fourteen years old.  After she'd stroked my stomach for a while, she went away and returned with an Asian consultant.  He told me that he wants to give me an ultrasound to get a better idea of what has gone wrong!  An ultrasound?!  I'm not bloody pregnant.

So - the only thing I could think of capturing was this - the waiting room.  I have never before walked in to a hospital or doctors or whatever this building is, and seen the waiting room like this:-

"No witty caption for this photo"

Day Seven

Greetings my frozen friends.

I went to work today for the first time since "The Big Freeze Of 2010".  Cold - it was.  Photo one today is evidence (albeit a bit shaky as I was driving at the time) of just how cold it was.  I'd been up for an hour and a friggin half at the time the photo was taken. No need. I know I'm naughty for taking a photo whilst driving. I will try to avoid it happening again. Sorry.

"It stands for WIgan & St Helens, don't you know?"

Photo two is a proud Daddy photo.  I have a Bob The Builder game for the Wii, and Luke (who is in the region of 2.5 years old) LOVES the part of the game where you have to pick up the recycling and put it in the correct bin.  This photo captured him concentrating.....

"Can Wii Fix It?"

Day Six

Today has seen the peak of my laziness during 2010.  I haven't been outside (other than to empty the bin), and I still have my pyjama's on!  Luke and I have watched Peppa Pig a good few dozen times. We've done Peppa Pig jigsaws - again, a good few dozen times. We've played table football loads, and we've built a smashing track for Thomas and his compatriots to traverse.

So - today's photograph was... "created" last night - in the dark - so nobody could see me.

"Shit Snow Angel"

 It is piss poor, and I apologise for that.  Fingers crossed that tomorrow brings better photo opportunities.

Day Five

If every day provides so much visual stimulation as today, this'll be easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Overnight it snowed like I haven't seen for many many years.  Where I live currently has about 3-4 inches in the shallow parts and 6+ inches elsewhere.  We all got wrapped up and went for a trek!  So, I have got a fair few photo's for you today. Not sure I can be arsed with the fancy shmancy captions for photo's.  I'll not commit to it henceforth, but the odd one might creep in.

"Pearson's Flash"

 

"Footpath To The Canal"

 

"ACE Snowman and ACE Wife"

 

"Three Inches" (well, it is cold)

 

"Dog Piss"

If the adverse weather continues, I shall continue to capture a great many photographs and shall bore you with them to my hearts content. 

Day Four

So - here we are again!

Two photo's for you today. Only because I couldn't choose between them!

They are both from our first ever visit to Haigh Hall, in Wigan. I have lived no more than 20 minutes from this place for the last 31 years, yet, as far as I know - I've never been before! It really is a beautiful place and I can't recommend it enough. It's hard to believe it's in Wigan!

" Beltin' "

Photo two was taken seconds after the first. It features my lovely wife and moody son. Moody as in moods - not as in stolen!!  They were both absolutely freezing cold.  Luke has definitely inherited Debbie's inability to keep warm during cold times!

"Brass Monkeys"

Day Three

Now then.

Already I'm feeling that I am struggling to keep this going, but keep it going I will !!

Today's photo is of my lovely son, Luke.  We took our Christmas decorations down today, and he had the honour of removing the star from the top of the tree.

"All good things must come to an end"

Day Two

As I was in work last night, I've been asleep for most of today, so it's been a bit of struggle to a) think about what I want to photograph, and b) find the time to actually do it! So - enter Luke.

Luke got a Vtech children's digital camera for Christmas and all he does is walk round taking photographs of everything. He's taken over 500 photo's since getting it!

I've just uploaded the latest 315 off his camera and one of them caught my eye so I thought I'd use it on here!

Here we can see Thomas The Tank Engine characters Molly, Freddie and James. Luke had wanted the Molly engine for SO long. He badgered his grandma daily for it. So, todays photo is...

"The best things come to those who wait"

1st January - Welcome!

Welcome to my blog.

This is the place where I shall be attempting to fulfil my New Years resolution.  Well, one of them at least!

I have read about people who've done this, and seen the results presented in many different ways such as photo walls, mash-ups, and time lapse video's.  I shall be presenting it in blog format.  For the first day, I have two photo's for you.  I'm not going to be strict with the One a day thing - some days there might be two - who knows, maybe even three!

So here we are with the first of today's two photo's.

When my children came to stay on Boxing Day, it snowed loads.  They were so excited that they made a snowman called "Abraham".  He was adorned with a carrot for a nose, pebbles for eyes, a Macclesfield Town hat, and an Everton scarf! The caption, based on the text on the Everton scarf is..

"He lived a blue - and he melted a blue"

The second photo was taken just before I made my way in to work.

I've often marvelled at a full moon, and tonight is the best capture of that marvel that I've ever made.  I know it's not perfect, but I love this photo.  If you look towards the top left of the photo, you can see the trace of light left by the helicopter that happened to be passing.

"Marvellous Moonlight"