Houston we have a problem

As you can see I've been having a bit of trouble with the blog so I've switched templates please bear with me and we will resume normal opperations shortly - in the meantime please do not ajust your set.

Last Speech Day

Well at least I won’t have to do that again, for the last 11 years I have had to endure school speech days/sports days/prize giving’s in pouring rain/gale force winds/blazing sunshine/ sub zero temperatures all extremes and even possibly all at the same time. Then there’s the dreaded picnic out of the back of the car, or rather sitting in it to keep out of the cold and then the excruciating tour of the students art and craft projects – no more!
On Saturday Dom finally left school and hopefully the only ceremony I will have to attend in about four years time will be his graduation. (if he sticks it that far), I hated speech days especially when I was at school, probably because I never won anything. Anyway it’s something I won’t have to endure again – until there’s Grandchildren!
On the upside we had an excellent Captains day at the golf club, we didn’t win but our fourball walked off with nearly all the raffle prizes, unfortunately I had to endure yet another round of prize giving but at least it was in the comfort of the bar.

Hols part 2

I managed to get through several books during my break. The first I picked up at the airport was the well documented,in these blogs, BELLE DE JOUR which I thoroughly enjoyed, but I recommend that you do not read this on the beach, for obvious reasons, unless you want to spend the entire time laying on you front. The book is pretty much a coy of the blog being a daily journal though padded out with more detail. Worth a read. The second book I read was excellent and is a must read if you like a Tom Clancy style story - PANDEMIC by James Barrington This will keep you guessing to the end and is a book you can not put down.
Don't bother with All Fun and Games Until Somebody Loses an Eye as it is a load of crap, but I can recommend FATAL VOYAGE by Cathy Reichs as a cracking good read.

Another new pleasure I discovered whilst laying on our beach was that of Thai Massage (which is altogether different from a Swedish Massage). There are a number of oriental girls offering sunbathers a massage this year along with the sunglasses and watch sellers. I managed to resist for a few days, well until I'd finished Belle de Jour actually, when I succumbed to an upper body option for 10 euros. (it's ok Bin had one too)The experience is not unlike have your back massaged with a Black and Decker orbital sander, (not that I've ever tried this but I would imagine that it is similar) The girl could actually imitate a human vibrator,which is not altogether unpleasant, however when working on the lower back, ones shorts are pulled down from the waist downwards exposing 90% of ones buttocks to the entire population of the beach which is fine if you are all over tanned but alas I'm not - I was unable to determin the expression of the lady on the sun lounger next to me as she had extremly large and dark sun glasses but I got my own back when she had one. Incidentally you need to remain face down for sometime after - for the same reasons as mentioned earlier.

Happy hols part 1

Well, back to the grind after a very pleasant break in Spain, although got off to a bad start – missed plane. One would think living just 45 mins (on a good day) from Heathrow, allowing for traffic we left at 7.15 for a 9.00 am check in, however we hadn’t allowed for an overturned lorry blocking the M4 at J10, The motorway was at a standstill and it eventually took us 4 hours to get to the airport, 20 mins after our flight had departed, Unfortunately there is only one flight out to Alicante per day so that was it. Fortunately a friend of ours works for the airline we were traveling with so a phone call to her found her stuck in the same traffic jam a couple of miles behind us. She made some calls to the airline and got us booked on the next days flight – at no extra cost so we collected our tickets and booked an hotel at Heathrow.
However this left us with the problem of what to do for the rest of the day. Answer – hit the bar, have lunch and spend the rest of the day shopping in terminal 1.
We then took a taxi to the hotel which was only 5 mins from terminal 1, unbelievably a turban headed black cab driver was unable to speak English and was unfamiliar with the hotel location – this one expects in a foreign Country but not at home especially as the Taxi driver was no doubt an inhabitant of Hounslow.
We checked in the next morning to find that we had been upgraded to Business Class and were escorted directly through to the first class lounge. The experience more than made up for the lost day, and it was only unfortunate in that it was only a 2 hour flight. – why does this never happen long haul? It did cross my mind to ask the pilot to fly around for a while longer but I suspect that the other passengers might not share my enthusiasm.
We shared the BC section with an American rock band who were starting a Europen tour in Spain, however I don’t know who they were as I didn’t like to ask for fear of being embarrassed for not recognising them. I once met Queen‘s bassist John Deacon at a studio and not recognizing him asked if he played in a band having mistaken him for one of the session musicians, he blunt answer was ‘Yes – ever heard of Queen?’
Thanks a million to SC for working miracles and even the lift home from Heathrow on our return. (She was on our flight)
More later……….

Away

Off to Spain for a couple of weeks R&R so no postings for a while - keep safe and enjoy what ever you will be doing - bye!

Blame Jack for this

Ok this ones from Grocer Jack it's as pass on, but I don’t know anyone with blogs that Jack hasn’t already passed it onto. In his words It's just a list of 5 things varied things, ....unfortunately I only have time to do the music section

Favourite songs (in no order)
Ride a white Swan – T rex. This was the song that inspired me to play the guitar.

Wicked Game – Chris Issak This is mine and Bin’s song and goes back to a long weekend break in Devon several years ago.

Killer Queen – Queen, one of the best driving/feel good songs only to be rivaled by Golden Earring’s Radar Love.

Gimme Shelter and Country Honk – The Rolling Stones from Let it Bleed album – the best tracks for driving around Somerfield’s car park with all the windows wound down and the volume cranked up.

Free Bird and Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd – good sing along songs

Best Songs ever (no particular order)

Layla - Clapton
Stairway to Heaven – Led Zeppelin
Bohemian Rhapsody -Queen
Black Magic Woman - Santana Version
Dark Side of the Moon – all tracks – Pink Floyd
Wish you were here – Pink Floyd
Brown Sugar - Stones
White Room – Cream

Plus many more to numerous to list

Tip of the Day

I discovered an earth shattering phenomenem whilst in the bathroom this morning and as a result I would like to pass on to you some advice that if heeded to could save you serious discomfort:

Do not bend down to pick up a bottle top with a mouth full of Listerene as it causes the Listerne to go up the back of your throat and exit through your nose. Now I have never done this with sulphuric acid but I would imagine that the resulting sensation would be similar.

By the way you may have noticed that I have removed the background music from this site. I don't know about you but it was annoying the hell out of me. however if I find a midi version of the crazy frog.................

Plea for Help

I have just realised whilst looking at the Dr Who preview site RELATIVE DIMENSIONS that I will be on holiday when episode 12 Bad Wolf is broadcast on June 12th, Now this is the first of a 2 parter in which the Daleks return big time.
Please has anyone got a dvd recorder that they could record this episode for me. We no longer have a video player so it has to be on DVD, and thhen I need to receive it before Saturday 18th June which is when we return in time for the second part.- I am hoping Grocer Jack will be able to help me out here as he's bound to have a DVD recorder.