Max needs to lay off stuff.

Max, who is almost 16 months, got some medicine today. On the bottle it says he has to stay away from alcohol and driving. He is a bit upset about no alcohol and not driving but it is for the best.

Bath

Had a bath today, yes it's my birthday.

Toad the size of a dog

No not a Peter and Jordan story but in Oz they have found a huge Toad up in Darwin.

Story from the sun here

When we was traveling we went to a cane toad race night and had a good laugh, no damage done to the toads !

I do have to say though the Aussies fucking hate Cane toads as they have killed loats of Oz wildlife. The toad happen to be poisonous to most animals but a few are doing well and just eat the legs !!!

The toad, if I remember right, was only introduced to eat a sugar cane beatle in the 1930's but it never ate them and loved living in Oz so much it met a wife and had kids that had kids that had kids etc. etc.

Secret discovered.......

Damn those BBC News articles, they have now printed a secret location that we have been to and I was hoping to keep it that way as it is hard enough to park round there anyway !!

The place is Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum, Tring, Hertfordshire, dont tell anyone !!!

It's really good and costs you nowt.

BBC site article here

Their website is here

Have a good weekend.

Edward Scissorhands meets Kit

Nearly walked out in front of a car yesterday. It was one if those hybrid cars by Toyota, a Prius, and I really think that they are great cars and very good for the environmental BUT you can not hear them !!! They are quieter the Kit from Knight Rider in hush mode. Personally I think that they should have some sort of noise so that a child does run out in front of it.

Here's a tip to Dads out there, Your child's hair should be cut by a pro ! For some reason I thought I could trim the fringe but I was a bit worried about his eyes so went a bit higher then maybe I should of and then he moved oops end result is a boy that has a dumb and dumber fringe. Doesn't look too bad when you brush it over to the side. Looked like Faye was going to cry tears of happiness. She has now taking the scissors away from me and to be honest I'm a little scared of sleeping tonight :-)

Here he is looking very happy before the event.


Not so happy now :-) I think it is alright actually. Just waiting for the phone call from his Grandma when she looks here !




I thought all the trendy "kids" had really short fringes at the moment !

Old man

I mentioned before about turning into my dad, well this weekend I was driving my dad style A4 auto estate when it hit me again......I was driving to pick up a 2nd hand roof box ... At least I never had driving gloves on. I did mention to Faye that I quite fancy changing my car to a manual because it doesnt feel "right" and started to look into a S4 Avant but they are about 2K more then mine and about the same age so I do not think that I can afford it (see below !!).

I also moaned about todays music, the "drippy" nature of the youth and found grey hair in my sideburns although I like to think of it as Silver because that is cooler. The Neil Young song Old Man is really starting to be my song.

Need a new freezer now !! our fridge / freezer has now gone bang, well not bang more of a really annoying loud buzzing noise that vibrates through the walls to directly where we sleep. It only seems to affect me though as Faye just sleeps through it. It has been in the garage since we moved and to be honest I think that has killed it. Now we need to see if we want a chest or tall freezer. Quite like the idea of a tall one. Just glad I have got a bonus coming this week ! not that there is anything left of it. Need to sort the fencing out (think I will have to get a man to sort that) , lay some slabs to create an additional parking space and also need to look into a new kitchen.

To be honest I think the fence will be my bonus. Any one know a rough price for about 20 meters of fence 6 foot high to be supplied and installed?

Look out for the blog when I approach the neighbour about a 6 foot fence because he currently has a 3 foot one up thinks that he owns that part of the fencing and it will also, unfortunately, lose him some light. We have a raised garden so the actual garden is about 2 foot higher then the bottom of the house and we can both see right in to each others house :-0 Should be fun.

Also what is the best slabs to use to park a car on and how deep should I lay hardcore?

Stinging Soup

Had bit of a role reversal yesterday, Faye sanded down the stairs, lounge windows and then painted it all while I took Max for a stroll round the roads, we then went shopping and off to the park. When we got back I made nettle soup. Had a great day, I hate decorating !

Nettle soup, yep, heard Chris Evans talking bout it on Friday radio 2 and thought MMMmmm I could do that so on Saturday morning we collected the nettles. Like a fool I forgot the gloves !

Best time to pick nettles is now and until the end of April while they are young. Try to just take the tops off so that they continue to grow.

To make it I used a Veg Stock, potato grated, 4 small carrots grated, an onion, 2 sticks of celery, some butter, Garlic, Ginger, some spinich and of course a small bag of nettles.

First of all I washed the nettles and took them off the tough stalks, I then fried the garlic, celery, onion and ginger up a bit in the butter. Chucked in the carrot and potato and some stock while I boiled or the fancy word might be blanched the nettles for 2 mins in a little water. I then added this to the pain and bolied, once bolied I simmered for approx 10 mins and added some salt / pepper and a handful of spinach to help with the colour. Left to cool and liquidised it. Heated it up and served with a spoon of creme fraiche and some grated nutmug. Bloody good it was !!
The Nettles


The ingredients


The green soup


We are lucky to have Ashridge woods near us and here is a shot of Faye, Max and Jasper the dog from Sunday.

Went to the footy on Saturday and have to say i was shocked that some fans actually booed Ben Watson for taking the penalty. Fuck knows who else was meant to take it and I'm glad he rammed it down the throats of those morons by scoring. Well done Ben !!!

Skimmed

According to the fraud people my card has been skimmed. luckily nothing has gone from our bank account. Very strange as the card that was skimmed never goes into cash point so it must be one of the following places:
B&Q Watford
Toys R Us Bedford (interchange retail park I think it is called)
Matalan Bedford
Mothercare Bedford

Thats all the of the places I have used the card but I would of noticed if they reswiped the card and was watching me put my PIN in. I work in the retail industry so do keep an eye on it.

The only other debit that has been made is for Pipex who have finally billed me for my broadband. Realised the other month that i have not paid a penny for my broadband since July last year ! My card has now been cancelled so I will have to change my details or Pipex wont get anything next month !

We have got a dishwasher now. Got a good deal from Comet on a Smeg (Saved £100) and when I went on line to check out the Smeg site it turned out that there was a free 5 year parts and labour warrenty on it !! Result so I have sent my receipt off to them and hopefully will get that. It is plumbed into the hot water :-0 had to use a 'Y' adapter to split the pipe but Faye told me today that the washing machine has started to leak after I plumbed it all back in. Job for the weekend.

Not too happy with the quality of the glasses but will check that we are loading it correctly etc.

Max had his MMR jab today but I have not seen him because I have been down in Clevedon for work. Never cried, Max not me, when he had his jab.

He needs a haircut so I might try and give him one over the weekend.
Here is a couple of pictures of him, the first one is a bit of a cheeky sneer and the 2nd one is him having a rest after some walking in the woods.




What you all got planned for the weekend then? We are finally going out on Saturday !! Got a babysitter and off with some friends to the Thai and have some beers. Footy and food for me Saturday. We are out with Matt and Michelle (Plus another couple Gary and Eve if your interested) and they are off travelling round the world soon check out their blog. It's new and is being updated ! I will add a link soon. Actually thinking of having a change of format soon and redoing all my links etc.

Got to be gutted....

In a nustshell "the worlds most desirable car (in my eyes) the Bugatti Veyron has been crashed"
See Here

Oh well at least no one hurt and after all it's only a car :-0

Have plumbed in a dishwasher tonight but can not test the thing because we dont have dirty plates and no dishwasher salt !!! I got a few free samples with it but no salt unless I dont need any with a Finish 3 in 1 tablet. Maybe I will be able to test I have no leaks tomorrow night.