Day One Hundred And Fifty One

Day one of our Center Parcs holiday. 

We had a lovely meal prepared by James followed by a relaxing evening in the hot tub! We figured out that we could move the tv outside to enable us to watch frankie boyle on dvd and it was ace!

Day One Hundred And Fifty

Evening reader

This blog post will be my last.  Until Friday.  Allow me to explain. We're going to Center Parcs at Sherwood Forest tomorrow until Friday.  I should be able to blog from my mobile device, but it is only a should. If I disappear off the face of the blogosphere, do not fret. Don't call the virtual police or owt mad like that. Instead - relax with a nice glass of red. I'm a particular fan of a 2005 aussie shiraz.

On to today's photo.  My children stayed for the weekend (except Abbey) and we had a lovely time.  Today, we had one of those conversations that starts off as a joke and spirals into the ridiculous.  It ticked Charlotte so much, she was literally rolling round on the floor, crying with laughter.  It was completely beautiful.

"Happy Charlotte"

Day One Hundred And Forty Nine

Hello reader

Had a lovely day today, despite the beautiful british summer weather.  We went to the other side.  Yep - we went to Yorkshire.

We visited Eureka - the national childrens museum in Halifax.  Man alive Halifax is a hilly town! Took just under an hour to drive there which isn't too bad at all.  The children absolutely loved it.  It is full of interactive things for them. They are encouraged to touch, push, prod, poke, pick up, and generally mess with everything there.  I have many photographs of a below standard quality.  Apologies in advance for both things.

 Retro stylie Sega Megadrive gaming this morning on the Wii emulator

Go to Eureka.  It's ace.

I spotted this in a side room.  It's a Commodore Amiga 5000.  In a rack with servers and stuff.  Mental.

Day One Hundred And Forty Eight

Evening reader.

Missed a good opportunity for a photo or two today.  Luke "helped" me clean the car today.  We both ended up soaked to the skin, which hampered the photo taking.  In the end, I dare not take one for fear of ruining the camera.  He was actually helping me at the start, to be fair.  Only when he discovered it was "ok" for him to put both arms fully in the bucket of water (whilst wearing long sleeved top AND coat) did the fun begin.  At least we have a shiny car now, anyway.

So - the drive to Rhyl (in the shiny car) and it was a dreadful drive.  Took almost two hours to get there (should be a 1hr 10) journey.  Most of it - looked like this....

Day One Hundred And Forty Seven

Hello there reader

I'll be brief this evening as I am hooked on the new Davina McCall gameshow on Channel 4 - The Million Pound Drop.  Proper riveting TV!  I've lost several million playing along online.

So. Well this evening Luke turned into Lucifer himself!  Deb was home quite late from work and I think Luke missed his mummy but was unable to express how much he "misted" her.  So instead he behaved like a very badly behaved child - which he generally isn't.  He was absolutely whacked, too, after a hard day at his childminders. I say hard, I mean busy.  Poor little fella.

This afternoon, the lovely folk at Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council paid a visit to our road to repair a piece of the footpath that didn't cope with "the big freeze" that we had about 6 months ago.

"Hole"

Today, I had a shave.  I generally don't shave every day, but yesterday, it really started to bug me. So I whipped it off.

"Fur"

Day One Hundred And Forty Six

Evening reader

I've received an early birthday present today, and I l-l-l-l-l-l-l-love it!!  It is.. this...

"Thank you, Wife"

I went to Wickes on Robin Park today for a device to spray paint onto my shed and fence. I must have waited about 20 mins only to be told that they didn't have any! Not mad happy.

I need to sort my shed out, though. It is a bit of a state...

"It's a shed"

Day One Hundred And Forty Five

Evening reader!

T W O  W E E K S  O F F ! !

I Can't say anything other than I'm very happy!  Had an arse of a night in work - I think I stayed on top of everything, though. I think.

So - today's photo is of a trip to Kipling Park in beautiful Worsley Mesnes, just across the road from us, in wonderful Wigan.

Luke chatted to some girls who were visiting the park at the same time.  I swear - I'm not going to have to give him flirting lessons when he's older. He puts me to shame!!  Go 'ed lad!

I didn't capture his flirting in a photo. Wasn't comfortable taking photographs of little girls in a park!  Instead, I got a photo of the slide.  It was destroyed by fire a few nights ago.  The park has been sealed off, I would assume, until a new slide can be sourced.

" Burn baby burn "

Day One Hundred And Forty Four

Howdy doody do to you, reader.

I've been in bed all day today. And - from what metcheck tells me - that's the end of the nice weather.  Well - I enjoyed what I saw of our Summer.  Never mind - we'll be knee deep in snow in no time.  Which reminds me - we never did buy a four wheel drive....

So - today's photo.  Being asleep all day reduces one's opportunities for taking photo's.  I saw this sunset on my way in to work this evening.  I took a small diversion to get the best view of it that I could.  Hope it looks ok...

"Iffy pic"

Day One Hundred And Forty Three

Evening reader.

Jeepers creepers it's been a warm'un today!!  Annoyingly, I am in work tonight, so I had to sleep through most of it.  The met office says London town was the hottest in the country at 28.1 pieces of hot.

The only plus side to being in work tonight is that I will be awake for the Lost finale simulcast from the US at 5am on Sky1.  I am overly excited about this.  Lost - lost me mid way through this season, but I have (thanks to my lovely wife) rediscovered it and it totally has me hooked.  I've just watched the last two episodes before the finale and cannot wait!!  (Deb - if you're reading this - I might be home a bit late as I think it finishes at 7:30).

So - after I'd slept in the oven that is called our bedroom I woke up to a lovely chicken and roast spuds meal.  Only got one snap this afternoon, of Luke who'd strapped himself into what I think might be his car. Once his seat belt was on, he couldn't get it off. Bless him.

I've just noticed that he put himself in the passenger seat. I wonder who he thought was going to drive?

Day One Hundred And Forty Two

Now then now then.

What a MAD hot day we've had, eh?  Manchester was officially the hottest place in the whooooole of the united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland with 26 degrees today.  I was stuck in a building just 25 miles from Manchester. No air conditioning. Who need it?  Just those who want to keep warm.  Fortunately, it was my primary objective to bake like a frigging chicken today.  Good job I achieved that.

My only respite was when my quite splendid wife and my child called Luke came to visit and we went for Lunch. We went to the beautiful village of Appley Bridge, which is where I used to live.  Luke went to the park and then we fed some ducks. There was an overly aggressive male duck and after a few minutes a load of teeny tiny ducks arrived and his defensive streak became clear. It was beautiful.. Enjoy...

 

Day One Hundred And Forty One

Evening reader.

Been in work today so not had opportunity for loads of pics.  I did manage to get a good one of something I did by accident....

"Tangerine Phallus"

 The one on the left I produced entirely by accident. I had no idea that it would turn out like that.  So on my next attempt, I made more of an effort. It was longer and straighter, on which I will not comment.

After work we went back to our old hometown of Westhoughton to celebrate the marriage of Rachel and Rick.  We didn't stop long as we had that Luke thingy with us but the time we spent there was lovely.  Deb had a grand old time catching up with all the old One Account staff whilst Luke and I played hide and seek outside, then danced inside.  Two more for you of Luke playing hide and seek...

Day One Hundred And Forty

Evening reader

Today, I've been messing in the front garden, raking and digging and putting soil down and sowing seeds.  Then my laptop broke. So I had to re-install an operating system. I did the usual flirting with ubuntu before going back to Windows.  After installing the excellent Picasa, it scanned all my photo's and performs a facial recognition excercise on them.  All very swanky.  Then - it suggested some faces that might be mine....

"Compare the... Adams"

Day One Hundred And Thirty Nine

Morning reader

Apologies for the post midnight entry again.

Today's photo will require clicking on to enlarge it.

That young man who lives here with us all the time was sat next to me today so I decided to try and capture a panoramic photograph of him and his surroundings.  It mostly worked out ok except for the two tv's that appear to be in the playroom...

"W..I..D..E"

Day One Hundred And Thirty Eight

Good morning reader

Almost four hours late with this post. Ah well. Soz about that!

Got a few for you on this post.  My Deb, that Luke and myself went to the Three Sisters Recreation Area in Bryn, near Ashton-in-Makerfield.  They have installed a new childrens park and it was absolutely beltin' !  Deb and Luke visited it yesterday so they had  a heads up on what to expect.  Luke loved it and was chatting away with children and adults that he'd never met before.  I know for a fact that he hasn't got this outgoing streak from myself or his mum.  My money is on his grandmother(!)

It was one of those times when I wished I had taken our "proper" camera out as there were so many occasions when I could "see" a photo but I'm pretty sure that the camera on my phone didn't do justice to the scenes.  Aaaanyway - here's what I captured (and one from Deb's phone, too).

Day One Hundred And Thirty Seven

Evening reader

Had an unexpected day in work today (I should be there right now).  Not many opportunities for photo's. I did try and get a photo of a car that skidded round the corner outside work but I wasn't quick enough.  No major drama anyway.  This evening Luke and I spent some lovely quality time together doing jigsaws. Loads of them.  I loved it. I think he did, too.

"Jigger"

Day One Hundred And Thirty Six

Evening reader.

What a day. Not so many words this evening, just a photo of some quality time I spent with the Luke this evening. So simple and it makes him so happy. One sheet of A4, and some stickers = a very happy boy.

Also, a bonus pic from yesterday before the party.

Day One Hundred And Thirty Five

Hello reader.

Bit of a catch up post as I didn't do one yesterday. We travelled all the way to next door for Phil's 50th birthday party.  Here are a selection of photo's from said event....

 "Luke and his friend"

 "Beer. Lots of it"

"Luke with Domino and Natalie"

Day One Hundred And Thirty Four

Evening viewer

Had a lovely day with that boy today whilst Deb has been putting some looong hours in at work.

He accompanied me for my annual hair cut. I didn't dare attempt to get his cut today.  I wasn't psychologically ready for it!

After that, we went to Costco with Phil to collect his birthday cake. Beltin' it is, too.

Luke and I played with his amazing Thomas train set.  It's mechanical and I could watch it go round and round for hours.

"Ace Thomas Train Set"

Day One Hundred And Thirty Three

Ay up

That Luke hasn't been to well over the last 24 hours.  He went to sleep as usual last night but woke as we went to bed. He was burning up and so I slept with him in Roberts room.  He spun round like a windmill for hours on end then decided at 2:30 that he was going downstairs, so we had a good long.. "debate" about that.  I talked him out of it - eventually.

So - his visit to Helen's was cancelled and we slept until 8:15.  Luke then drank a cup of juice, ate a bowl of cereal, and at 9am fell back asleep.  Until 11:30 !! 

"Sleepy Sick Boy"

This afternoon, we went to The Co-operative (they're good with food don't you know?), and I treated Luke to a magazine of his choosing because he was coping so well with being ill.  He chose a CBeebies magazine full of stickers.  I put some on his face. He wasn't pleased.

"Sorry Luke"

Day One Hundred And Thirty Two

Evening blog reader

Had a day to myself today. I was given a list of chores to perform, which I duly did.  I then took myself off swimming!  The local pool has been re-vamped and re-furbished, so I thought I'd go for a toot.  Very nice it was too. It has a mixed sex communal changing village. How exotic.  Nothing to get excited about, though.  It's a lot like Center Parcs in that it's a load of cubicles that people of either sex can use. On the down side, it was proper busy.  I wasn't able to swim a length uninterrupted due to a great many pensioners bobbing up and down doing the breast stroke whilst moaning to each other how busy it was.  They want to frig off and ride round on buses for free if you ask me!

So after my swim, I went to Sainsburys for some inspiration for our evening meal.  Whilst there, I noticed a lovely 26" tv that they had reduced. We've kind of been looking sort of, for a TV for our bedroom (since we donated the last one to Luke's bedroom). I was happy with that set at £220 but then I noticed a Samsung 26" with a larger reduction!  Our neighbour works for Sainsbury's so she's getting it for us tomorrow (with some discount on the already reduced price! How marvellous?)

This might be THE dullest photo I've taken so far, but I'll be happy when I see what it represents tomorrow....

"Laffin' "

Day One Hundred And Thirty One

Hello peoples

So - what a day - Gordo is a gonner and Cammo is an inner.  All very exciting stuff.

Just the one photo for you today, but it's a belter!  Luke discovered that these bath "stickers" would stick to his belly.  I took it to the next level....

I know I said one photo, but here is the second.  The turf I layed seems to have survive the onslaught of the past weekend and is still intact.  Grow turf, grow!!

Day One Hundred And Thirty

Evening reader

Just the one photo for you today.  I should have been asleep today, due to being in work last night and again tonight, but for reasons not known, my body allowed me 2 and a half hours sleep.  It is now 23:23 and I'm at the stage where I feel light headed and drunk.  I will probably go for a small sleep shortly to see me through the night.

Aaaanyway - enough of my ramblings - today's photo was taken outside the Post Office in Hawkley. I was posting Abbeys English book back to her that she'd left at ours at the weekend.  I took the pic and almost deleted it, but the more I look at it, the more I like it.  It's weird. It is of Luke, who was sat in the car and it's through a closed window.  There are all sorts of reflections - have a look - tell me what you think....