Lost Bloggers

I must sort out my links and the time that I spend on blogs. I need to find some more time or at least cut the number that I have bookmarked.

I still have my favorites and you know who you are but I was surprised to realise that three of my links now fail :-(, Now Tartan I knew about but just have not got round to "removing" he got the hump when Wrexham went down :-), But the 2 bloggers that I started blogging with have now "gone" i.e. Wyndham was the first ever person to post on my blog and I think I am right in saying that I was the first to post on Slothblogs.

I was surfing around wishing happy Xmas when I noticed they have gone. Miss yer if you are still reading mine.

Reading back I just realised that in my very first post, I blogged back on the 30/5/05 that, I would get round to putting the legs on the BBQ back on correctly. Thats still on the list. The post that started it all here

HAPPY XMAS ALL

Back to front

Skye has started crawling and standing now and has taken quite a fancy to the TV. I have had our LCD TV on a stand for over 2 years and to create a bit more space (plus get her fingers off it) I am thinking of wall mounting in the corner on a swing arm.

I started to look at the way I could set it up etc. etc. when I suddenly realised that I could get some space back by actually turning the stand round. Yes for over 2 years I have had the stand the wrong way round, what a wally ! It should go in to the corner and for some reason I set it up from day one the wrong way round so have had the "corner" sticking out!

A job for the weekend I think.

Max is now 3 ! It was his birthday yesterday. I set this blog up a while ago to talk about the experiences of becoming a dad and have now gone through that another time. I count myself very lucky to have such great children that I love more then anything.

Stone Gods and Airbourne

Last night I went to the Astoria with a quite a few mates and saw Airbourne. It was my first time of seeing them live but after recommendations from said friends that had seen them live I got the album "Runnin' Wild" and was hooked. They are very AC/DC and also happen to be from Oz.

Loud is all I can say ! I don't know if I am getting old or not but it seemed to be one of the loudest concerts I have been to. It was brilliant. Hot, sweaty, got soaked in beer and stayed in the mosh pit all night. Couple of arsholes trying to punch people but all in all it was quite civilised.

The band was ace and before them was a band called Stone Gods and they to had the sound of very heavy rock and got the crowd going. Surprise of the night for me was after the concert, ears ringing, knee killing me (too much bouncing etc.) my mate said that they have been born out of the Darkness.

I'm off to rest that knee....

New Watch - Ollech & Weis

My new watch turned up today, it is an O&W diver model ID 3077.

It's rather lovely to be honest. I have been thinking about a new watch for a while and thought of a "name" watch second hand like Omega or Tag but after spending time looking into the actual movements, faces etc. I discovered this little Swiss company after going to a few websites and have bought a quality watch for less than a second hand "name"

This is the description:
25 Jewel Automatic wind Eta 2824-2, with quick set date and hack seconds.
43mm (Including Crown) All steel case with screw on back. Rotating ratchet bezel. Screw Down crown. Sapphire Crystal. 200m Water Resistant.
Black calendar dial.
Solid link steel bracelet with screwed links.

It was bought from Roy at this site: http://www.rltwatches.co.uk

He makes some quality watches himself so have a look.

Lets hope history does repeat itself

Fact.

When Robbie Keane left Wolves they got relegated.

When Robbie Keane left Coventry they got relegated.

When Robbie Keane left Leeds they got relegated.

When Robbie Keane left Tottenham?

Should of stayed Bostock.

AC/DC

Well I have pre ordered the album, got the t-shirt on the way BUT can I get a ticket for the concert..... Can I bollocks.

How can they sell out within 5 minutes of going on sale on Ticketmaster? It's a joke and then they turn up on eBay. Winds me up.

I'm still going to try and get a ticket.

Off to see a band called Airbourne in a few weeks time at the Astoria, they are actually a bit like AC/DC, will be one of the last times I see the place as the goverment have bought it to make way for a new station :-( Holds memories of some great concerts. The Foos at the Astoria will always be with me. What a great venue. Will be replaced by some plastic venue no doubt.

Smart Crossblade

What a mad car. Saw one on the road today with "biggles" driving. As he went past the school kids I think every one looked, pointed or waved. Not too many cars can get that reaction.

I want one !

Little shit !

I can not believe the story on the BBC site today.

Boy fed zoo reptiles to crocodile
Camera footage of the boy at the zoo in Australia
The boy was caught on security camera at the reptile centre

A seven-year-old boy has been filmed going on the rampage at a popular zoo in Australia, killing rare reptiles and feeding live ones to a crocodile.

Footage from the security cameras at Alice Springs Reptile Centre caught the child smiling as he killed a total of 13 animals.

During his 30-minute spree, he was seen hurling the animals over the security fence into the crocodile enclosure.

Zoo officials described the boy's actions as "unbelievable".

They are considering suing the parents as the boy is too young to be prosecuted.

'Difficult to replace'

The attack happened on Wednesday morning after the boy entered the zoo by jumping over the security fence and evading sensor alarms.

Over the next half hour, he bludgeoned some of the animals to death with stones and hurled others over the two fences surrounding the crocodile enclosure.

At one point, he tried scaling the outer enclosure himself to get to "Terry", the 11ft (3.3m) saltwater crocodile.

A turtle, four Western blue-tongued lizards, two bearded dragons, two thorny devil lizards and the zoo's 20-year-old goanna were among those killed.

Zoo director Rex Neindorf said many of the animals were rare or mature and would be difficult to replace.

"The fact a seven-year-old can wreak so much havoc in such a short time, it's unbelievable," he told Reuters news agency.

Mr Neindorf said the boy had "clammed up" when questioned by police.

As children under the age of 10 cannot be held accountable for their actions in the Northern Territory, the zoo would be seeking to take action against the parents.

"We'll be looking at suing the parents, who were supposedly in control of him at the time," he said.

We went there when we had our year travelling. This photo was taken there:


Gutted.

Back again

Been over the water in that Europe and ended up in the South of France. Had 2 great weeks there. Drove the car all the way, 2000 miles in all, Petrol was not cheap though although everything was expensive ! I couldnt believe how much it all cost out there.

Here is a tip though, make sure you lock the roof box before tearing up the motorway at 100mph or Kmh if your the French police reading ;-). Yep like a forgetful idiot I forgot to lock the box and it came open as I went pass a lorry. I looked in the mirror and saw the sleeping bags bouncing across the road. Pulled straight over and Faye legged it to collect the bits that flew out. We was so lucky that we never caused a major accident. Lost some items Faye saw pants in the road and some beach toys plus oil had "vanished" If it was England and on the roads here it would of because of how busy the roads but luckily in France the roads are clear so no harm was caused. Dont think it really sank in how lucky we was and also how damn right stupid I was for not locking it and also Faye for running across the motorway. Oh well, wont do that again.

Really rated Eurocamp and France was really good so will look at doing that again. The thing that saved us from falling out during the 2000 miles.... Tom Tom, what a great gadget.

AI

Simple one today:

I watched AI.... It made me cry :-0

Is it because I now have children? I don't normally cry at films !

Come on in Watson

from cpfc.co.uk

Went to football on Saturday, bit poor to be honest and the midfield never turned up.

For once a Daily Mail reporter summed it up here

This is the interesting bit and the exact thing I said before the game. Although I used the word Will rather then is and how,

Neil Warnock's stubbornness in refusing to use unsettled midfielder Ben Watson is backfiring on Crystal Palace. While Watson has refused to sign a new contract, Warnock is leaving him out.

But how Palace missed his pinpoint passing, clever free-kicks and long-range shots which got them out of many holes last season and into the play-offs in this goalless draw. Why not put him in the shop window and aid Palace, long on youth and short on experience?

Says it all really, Come on in the Ginger Zidane.

Mini Diggers for hire

Drove past our local hire shop and they had a sign for Mini Diggers to hire. I need to to sort my driveway so thought I would pop in.

Imagine my shock when I saw this out back.....

Mini Diggers

Credit to Flickr user jojobear99 for the photo,

Mamm,Mamma,MAX

I dont think I have any chance of getting Skye Lilly to say Dada as her first words. Faye and Max just say MamaMamaMax to her all the time. Only found out this morning when I was saying Dada to Skye when Max went "NO we say mammamammamax to Skye"

I was going to lock Max up but found this picture of him from last week while he was went a great show (and Free!) called Jump Up, it's run by Nick Jr so he met all his fav stars, Peppa Pig, Dora, Diego etc. I couldn't go though as I had to cook lunch for my family. Somehow I managed to arrange my family coming for lunch on the same day.
Max Locked up on Thomas

Pete's Game

Saw this and looked interesting.

WARNING TAKES A WHILE TO COPY AND PASTE

1. type your answer to each question below into Flickr Search
2. using only the first page of results, pick an image
3. copy and paste each URL into fd’s mosaic maker
4. blog it!

1. Q&A: What is your first name? James - Cool car
2. What is your favorite food? Faggots :-0 bit of a risky search, this made me smile
3. What high school did you go to? I changed this to secondary, Ash Manor - how did a dog make the first page
4. What is your favorite color? blue - Drop
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Drew Barrymore - Grrrr
6. What is your favorite drink? lager - mmmm beer
7. Dream vacation? Austrailia - Upside down
8. Favorite dessert? banoffee pie - You know you want it
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? alive - bit weird
10. What do you love most in life? Family and Palace - of course it is just family but I wanted a more interesting search .... strange
11. One word to describe you? Procrastinator - took a spell checker.., Laptop
12. Your flickr name? james1972 - all about me, my Fave shot

Yep that a while !!

I Like it though:

Bow for Prince Max

Max last year

Max told us today that he was Prince Max and we had to bow down when we spoke to him.

We went to Cassiobury Park in Watford for a picnic and had a great time there, never realised we had such a good park close to us. Max went on the mini train, bouncy castle, had a paddle in the paddling pools and had a great walk. Shattered is how we all feel !

Pre-season is almost over

Well, I fancied a break from this blogging malarkey but I guess I best get back to it.

What have I been up since the last post, well I have seen the Foo Fighters and Terrorvision, had a few beers and thats about it so not really anything to blog about.

Still a bit upset about Bostock but hey I have said all along that Moses is going to be the star. I do hope that Bostock does OK as that will help Palace get more money. I'm not as bitter and dare I say twisted as lot of other Palace fans who actually wish him harm and do be a failure.

Skye is doing really well and is pretty much sitting on her own already. Max is now interacting with her all the time and seems to be the only one to make her giggle.

Skye 5 months

Bostock's dad says it's not about the money!

Thanks for nothing

John Bostock's move to Tottenham Hotspur from Crystal Palace has nothing to do with money - according to his dad.

Michael Brown believes the Eagles' 16-year-old wonderkid is signing for Spurs because that is where he can develop best.

Chelsea and Barcelona had been chasing Bostock and Brown insists he could have gone to either club if the family wanted the cash.

"If John was leaving Crystal Palace for money, he would’ve gone to the biggest and richest club in the world, which he could have done," Brown told the South London Press.

"You can name a big club in England rumoured to be interested in him and it’s a fact. There was great interest from Barcelona but from a family point of view it was never an option because John wasn’t going to leave London.

"But John turned down the richest club in the world and he chose instead to go to the club where he believes he will develop best.

"He’s had a fantastic time at Palace. He’s been at the club since the age of seven and has got a lot of great memories. He’s got to thank everybody there for what’s happened because if it wasn’t for Palace he wouldn’t be where he is today."

Errr Yeah thanks Bostock family for repaying that 7 years by walking out when when we was about to help you help us.

Watch out John Terry...

Damn it

In a good game of footy, apart from the Chelsea players giving it big and moaning at the ref way too much, Man United won on penalty's in a game that drained the players BUT they get paid enough and will no doubt be having the full treatment today.

Men Rule - I'm Gay

Windass - Local boy done good, not gay that I know of...

Nope I have not suddenly realised that I like men. I saw it on the back of a car and it made me laugh. Whereas you normally see, Clean me I'm dirty OR the old classic Also available in White. A VW Passett had MEN RULE I'M GAY scrawled across the back.

Less said about football the better.... Well apart from good luck to Hull though as I have lots of mates from up there north.

Come on you Eagles

Been a while again...
First off my thoughts are with the people of Burma, for those that do not know my mother is Burmese and although we dont have family, as such, in the country it is still heart breaking to see the Junta refuse help. Faye and I travelled round Burma during our year out and it is a great place with the nicest people you could meet.

Footy News
Well after not receiving my ticket for Saturdays game against Bristol City there was bit of a mad panic to pick up my tickets pre match although saying that I just walked up to the window that had my Surname detailed, not sure why 100's queued up behind A-E unless they are are all in that range, personally I guess they love the English way of queuing.

Is bit of a story behind my ticket though as I laughed at my Dad because Faye had said that my ticket had arrived so after laughing at him getting stressed I go home for a BBQ (Details to follow) and sat down to a nice beer and some food when he calls to say he is ringing the PO sorting office up at 6am to see if the ticket was there before box office at 7.45 to get the ticket ready for a pick up, I grab my tickets saying they are in my hand when it occurred to me to check and they had only sent my guest tickets and not my season ticket one. Oh how he laughed...

Dont know why they could not just "credit" the season ticket as it is a smart card.

We played quite poor on Saturday after a good game last week when we beat Burnley 5-0 but I still think we will do it tonight.

Bostock is meant to be off but I will post more on my views of that later in the week.

BBQ News
What a nightmare, first off I never cleaned the BBQ properly so it was a mess and the gas was empty so tearing round to many gas places I discover there is a huge shortage for 5KG patio gas so I could not get one BUT then had a result as the boy in the petrol station sold me a 13KG one and took the 5KG in exchange saved some dosh there as I should of paid for an upgrade as well as the gas.

Kids Club
Max is getting so grown up and last night he went to bed with no nappy on. He has been dry throughout the night for a while but last night was his first with no nappy.

Skye is trying to pull herself up all the time now and is very cute. Still not easy to make her smile like Max was but it is more rewarding when she does.

I will post a picture up very soon but I'm at work for this post.

Sure there was lots of other things to blog about so will try harder to get some time, enjoy the sun.

Wii Fit and Mario Kart

Wii Fit

We pre-ordered the Wii Fit a while ago from Tesco Direct and it turned up on Monday. Since then I have spent a bit on it BUT Faye has been on it loads. It's quite good from the quick go I had but Faye is unlocking all sorts of games and is loving it !

I also picked up Mario Kart for the Wii on Monday from Comet, after trying over the weekend to get the game my friend emailed and said that Comet have them in stock ! Didnt even realise that we would, that will teach me not to check the company I work for ! The game itself is a classic made better and I'm looking forward to playing him online tomorrow. Just wish I could get Faye off the Wii so I can practice.

Both are great games and I give them a Simmo thumbs up rather then the finger.

Wish I didnt say that !

Today has been a good day, although Palace can not get automatic promotion we had a very good win at Watford today and many of the other results also went our well. Nice to see that Charlton are not going to make the play offs this year and 3 points "should" be enough for us. Lets hope Wolves lose on Tuesday V Cardiff. Ref was really poor today and the guy next to me said he was ref for the FA Cup final :-0

Who would of thought it when Warnock took over and couldn't get a win !

Before the game we went into town, picture this, we went to a shop in Berkhamsted and the young shop assistants are chatting to Max as Faye paid for a few items and amazed at his talking skills for such a young boy when he starts touching the china items so I say "Max what do we say... looky looky NO Touchy touchy" in a slight Thai accent and he starts saying it. The girls did laugh it has to be said. As I walked up the road thinking about it I suddenly turn to Faye and said that I might of sounded a bit like a perv. She agreed....... Wish I didn't say that !

Catfish

Photo is of us all last Sunday.

OK Since I posted back in September that the catfish had babies and seemed to love the Bioube. Well the tank is "infested" with them now :-0 We have 17 and they seem to be having babies every month. We are going to have to split them all up now as they keep breading and the tank is just too small for them.

Cool to have so many but bad for the tank and poor old Coppell has no space.

Off to Watford tomorrow for the footy, really looking forward to a quick journey rather then 1 1/2 hours each way. Might have to have a beer or two and I can enjoy getting to see the whole game. For some reason though the box office have sent me a concession ticket rather then an adult one. I have printed the confirmation off just in case the bloke on the door gets "Funny"

My car also failed the MOT so I have been ringing round the breakers to get a new seat belt, the baby car seat has started to tear the belt ! Audi want £150 for the belt plus they wont let me fit it so would be at least 1 hour's work at £110 the robbing bastards. I managed to get one and should get it soon but have to fit it. £45 delivered. Sorted. Do have a problem though as car is getting brakes done (also failed MOT on those) on Monday and the belt might not come until Monday so my timing on the re-test might be a bit... well screwed.

Watford FC

One Size who has thankfully left us

I had to smile as I saw the bbc pages updating last night and Watford went down 3-0 at home to Barnsley. They blew the chance to go top, we seem to be in a league where no one wants to actually go up!

We are playing them next week and seeing as they are now, by default, my "local" side I will be there in the away end.

Should we beat Scunthorpe on Saturday we will send them down and the game against Watford will have even more meaning as I can not see them (Watford) beating WBA on Saturday. What a tight league we have this year !

RIP Charlton Heston

Shame to hear about the great man, Planet of the Apes, Ben Hur and of course Wayne's World 2.



He will be missed.

WHAT !

Max has started saying WHAT at every moment he can now and we know we shouldn't so we are trying hard not to laugh because he does it just to wind us up ! He knows it gets us so he keeps saying it even though he has heard us.

It's our own fault for laughing so much the first time he said it. Even worse I know but every time he says it I keep thinking of Pulp Fiction.

Just say WHAT one more time.......... It is on youtube and here is the link you have to get through to about 04.40 before you get to the scene but it's such a class film enjoy the first 4 mins !

Coffee

Francis Francis

I have bought a new Francis Francis coffee machine and it is great. I have been using it with lots of different coffees and have managed to get a good crema almost every time. Went down to Whittards and bought this really special coffee called Blue Mountain Jamaica and it is 5 times more expensive then all the other coffees and it is good. Not sure it is really worth £11 for 125grams when the other coffee is about £2 but it is less "harsh" and really suits a Latte.

There is quite a lot to making a coffee when you start reading the internet for the best way to make coffee. Now to find out what stretching the milk means and if you should or shouldn't use flavoured syrups.

Here is a picture of Max with Skye.

Moses

borrowed from Jesuswalk.com

All hail a new king is born at Selhurst and his name is Victor Moses. A while ago I blogged about Bostock making his debut for Palace and said something along the lines of yeah he is good but it's Moses you need to watch out for....

Today I finally got my first "live" viewing of the young prodigy. I was taken back just how good he looked and how good he is going to be, he glides with the ball and does some stuff where he is away from the ball but the ball is under total control, it is a strange thing to see that this young 17 year old just shift his body and the ball seems to be gone but then it is back again under his feet. Incredible.

The only part of his game I dont like and I'm sure Warnock will beat it out of him is that he goes down like he has been shot. I'm sure it is hard for a 17 year old to keep getting hit by tackles but he does seem to go down a tad easy but then he still needs to toughen up. His game is missing a bit of speed and determination but he is young and the good times are coming.

Yes I finally got to my first game since New years day and it was great to be back :-) I got some stick from the gents around me but not too much. The only problem I had was that I drove so that I could leave a bit earlier to give a hand with bathtime and I would not of been able to get back fast enough on the trains. It took 1 1/2 hours there and the same back with clear traffic so a bit quicker then the trains but as I say it was clear on the roads. From Berko I ended up going right round the M25 and up A3 to miss the traffic going through London and it seemed OK. Was strange going that way as it was the way I used to drive (up A3) until I moved to London. Things dont 'alf change and it seemed like a different route. The TomTom kept trying to send me different ways but I stuck with the route that I learnt as a lad and sometimes I wonder why I took the TomTom but the speed camera warnings were good. Next time though I will try the way it says once I leave the A3 at Raynes Park.

Oh and I missed the winning goal by Prince Harry AKA Watson as I left at 4.25 and he scored as I turned the radio on in the car :-( Still 2-1 to the Palace so happy.

They call me James......

Max and Skye Lilly

My name is James and they all now call me James, Max has started copying everything we say and now calls me James rather then daddy not all the time but quite a bit, See yer James he shouts as I go to work although I do get a daddy on the phone calls and when I get home. It's amazing really how good his speech is. It is so good he has even stared to copy me taking the "mickey" for example, the other day someone who was round asked for a cup of tea so in my best cockney accent I said
"Cup of rosie lee coming up" and lo and behold the boy said it as well with the accent. Brilliant really. Not sure I like it when he hears Faye call me honey and he copies that, it does make me laugh though.

His other favorite word is NO and that gets used a bit more then we would like.

Max and Skye are both doing really well, Skye seems a bit like me....... She is quite grumpy and frowns a lot :-) She is really cute and beautiful with it. Her sleeping is not bad although we have moved her to her own room, bit sooner then most but she is noisy and I snore so it is best for all.

All is OK and we are enjoying being a bigger family. As mentioned it does seem easier the 2nd time round.

I love the fact that we had a little girl and my mate said that we now have a Gentlemens family of a Boy and Girl. Not heard that saying but I like it.

I have been sipping Honey Dew by Fullers this week and if you like a beer I really recommend it. I get it from Waitrose and not bad value at £1.85 or something.

Take care and I will post some pictures over the weekend,

Back to the guitar

My Gibson SG
Recently I have been getting nearly all my blogging fixes from the Croydon Chronicles written by the very funny Istvanski , whilst on his site I got listening to a youtube video of a couple of quite talented girls (although I did think the older one was a boy for a while) playing guitar and singing. I then surfed round youtube at guitar videos and it got me thinking wouldn't it be good to play guitar and then I thought.... You know what I am meant to be able to play a couple of chords and spent a shed load of money a few years ago on a SG so I dusted it off, still needs a good clean !, tuned it up by plugging it into a tuner as I'm tone deaf and banged out a couple of chords and I mean only a few. Think it was Em, D, C, C that I used in my little "play". Still not plugged in the amp though ! I might run it through my laptop later as the amp is in the bedroom and there is a baby Skye in there so cant get it.

I also went out and bought Total Guitar in my new found eagerness to learn the guitar and will have a read through that and see if there is anything easy I can try. They do have Feeders Forget about tomorrow tabbed and Feeder are a real favorite of mine so I might have a look at that.

Skye one week on

Skye Lilly at one week

Well here we are over a week into having Skye with us and all is good !

Faye is feeding her lots and lots as she always wants feeding, Faye is a bit shattered by all the feeding but all in all we are coping loads better then with Max.

Skye's weight is already back to her birth weight and that is a great sign.

So why is it all so much easier this time? Well I think there are a few reasons:
1) Fayes labour was a lot shorter.
2) We have had more time to establish our lives with her.
3) We have a bigger house.
4) Been there and done it !!

1 - Rather then starting at lunchtime on the 29th and Max arriving just before midnight on the 30th involving a couple of trips to the hospital and lots of stress and no sleep, Faye had a twinge in the morning and 4pm felt strong contractions and when we arrived at the hospital, about 17.30, she was already 9cm dilated ! Skye Lilly arrived into the world at 20.20.

2 - rather then having everyone round straight away we have basically set our own times and not had anyone round until we was ready for people.

3 - a 2 up and 2 down full of people is no fun whereas a 3 bed house with lounge and diner has enough space for everyone.

4 - Yeah a strange one but simple things like dressing her is quicker, with Max we was both so worried about hurting him we would hardly bend his arms and it would take ages to get ready whereas with Skye we just get on with it and it is done really quick.

She had her first bath today and even that was quite easy :-) I sat there with the new camcorder so was a breeze for me :-)

We have decided that she will be Skye Lilly and no middle name but known as Skye for day to day. Thanks everyone.

On the camcorder front I bought the JVC GZ-MG175 and it is a HDD model and well after a bit more research it is not as Mac friendly as I hoped as the USB is not seen by iMovie HD but is by iMovie 08. iMovie 08 is slated and a reason why I have not bothered with iLife08. To get round it I had to use mpeg streamclip with a Quicktime add in then save as DV format BUT have since worked out that I can just connect the DV cable / firewire from my older DV camcorder to the dock and play it and to see the clip in iMovie and import it. I'm still playing and getting there with it now so will hopefully have something to show you soon. It seems as though JVC sorted it by adding a DV output to the dock on my model.

The Simmonds' PART 2

Max has been really really good with Skye and as you can see from the following shot he loves Baby Skye very much.



What do you think we should do with Skye's name, Skye Lilly as a first name OR Skye and Lilly as a second name?

Thanks for the messages,
James, Faye, Max and Skye Lilly

Just off to collect...

Image "borrowed" from www.krittercards.com

A camcorder and a BABY GIRL, hooray Faye gave birth last night to a daughter and we have names her Skye Lilly. She was born without any complications at 20.20 last night and weighed in at 7lb 15 and a bit. She is shorter then Max so a bit chubbier. As births go she was a lot easier then Max and Faye did really really well and had no pain relief.

The camcorder has also arrived so I will collect that just before I collect the "girls"

I will post up a photo a bit later.
James

Still Waiting...

Well today is the day that our 2nd baby is due. Faye has gone out for a walk with Max and her mum to try and hurry things along while I popped out to the greatest electrical shop there is... Comet, Yeah I work for them but they do have some great deals and the layout of the shop in Hemel is so much better then the Currys on the same site. I went in Currys and it was terrible for a new refitted shop.

We have puchased a new camcorder because the one we have, a Sony DCR TRV20E, a great camcorder and the spec is still really good but it is a bit "Large" nowadays.

We have had to wait for the price to drop on the smaller ones to get a mega pixel camcorder for the sort of price we wanted to pay. They have always been over £300 but Comet have the JVC GZ-MG175EK at a great price of £249.99 can not argue with that and once I added my discount (I get a couple of 20% voucher once a year) I ended up paying £199. Collect it Wednesday although it might be in on Monday so I will have to wait before using.

Hopefully will be filming the new baby for you all to see.........

Unicorn

Image "borrowed" off a google search....

Well it's only a week and a bit to go now so starting to get a bit nervy when the phone rings and I see 'home' or 'Faye Mobile', we do have a good system though where Faye calls and hangs up if it is just a chat and then I can call her back when I'm free. This works great until it keeps ringing and the reason is she forgot to hang up !


Max's speech is just getting better and better at the moment, I called home and spoke to him yesterday. He normally just says "How are you" "bye bye" and "love you" plus a few other words in there when coached on what he has been doing BUT yesterday we had a proper conversation where he told me everything he had been up to and that he was playing football and blowing his whistle when I called ! Amazing.

Faye saw a picture of a unicorn today and Max called it a Rhino Horse. Pretty clever we thought.

Snoring Ring, Sleep Knight

The ring has gone back to boots, never worked very well to be honest. Didnt think it would but anything is worth trying.

Warnock's red and blue army are still marching and it's now unbeaten in 15 matches !

Max has started playing footy on a Saturday morning now with Little Kickers and hopefully he will get signed up :-) Faye and I need to retire as this working stuff is no good, saying that though, a guy at work's son was signed by Chelsea and he was happy for a bit but then was released after just a year. It turns out that almost the whole of the team that he played in was signed and then released. What the clubs do is sign up almost the whole of a good team that are winning everything and out of, say, 200 boys about 5 get kept whilst the other 195 get released with their hearts broken. As it turns out though the guy at works son is now signed up by Reading so we will see.... and his age is 12 !

The baby is due in just 2 weeks today :-0

Balachaung

Balachaung

What the hell is that I hear you say well... For those that dont know me or might know me but not know the following (Hope that makes sense !) I am half Burmese, the good half my Mum would say and you must of guessed that to be a Palace Fan then my Dad and Grandad must of "made" me. Same as we will do to Max. Balachaung is a Burmese condiment that goes very well with Rice and can be dry or wet, I used to get it from Mum who got it from a place in South London (Just up the road from the Palace) but the person that makes it died. Now whilst I am sad about someone dying I never knew them and it does mean that I can not get any Balachaung anymore so I did a few searches on the web last night and managed to get a recipe and have recreated it this afternoon after going to a Chinese supermarket for some bits. Turned out all right even if I say so myself so I will be getting my mum to taste and see if it compares.

The picture above is taken on the built in isight so not great quality.
The receipe I based mine on is here in full but I used the following:

100g dried shrimp
10 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
1 cup crisp-fried sliced shallots
1/2 cup peanut oil
1/2 cup sesame oil
1 Tbs ground dried chillies
2 teaspoons salt
2 cm/1 in square of dried shrimp paste
1/2 cup vinegar (I used Rice)
"chunk" of ginger blended in the processor or grated will do.

Put the dried shrimp into a food processor and process, I gave them a good "cutting" down.
Fried the fresh garlic,until golden and drained on a kitchen towel. It then starts to crisp up. Dont over do them as they will go black and horrible. I tested a couple before placing them all in. I used a wok and wire drainer.

Pour off 1 cup of oil.

Reheat remaining oil and fry the dried prawn for 5 minutes, stirring constantly, goes a bit frothy but keep stiring. Add the Ginger, Add chillies mixed with the vinegar, salt and shrimp paste. Fry until crisp, stirring constantly. Allow to cool completely before mixing in the fried onion and garlic, stirring to distribute evenly.

I then gave it another blitz in the processor to cut it down a bit more.

It stunk the kitchen out but was worth it.

Silent Knight, Not great to be honest it just does not seem to work so will take it back this week after 2 nights.

Palace - Come on, Now in the playoffs. Thats it for me though for a month or so :-( so I will be sending my season ticket to my brother. Have already bought my ticket for next year though :-)

Not so Silent Knight 2 and 3

BOSTOCK

It does not seem to be working at the moment, the benefit of doubt is that I am having bad sinus pains so that might a problem BUT I'm not sure if this snoring ring is working or indeed will work. It does say to stick at it for a bit so I will.

Wanted to go to the Watford V Palace FA Cup game today but Watford have only given Palace 2500 tickets and they sold out last week. Would of been good to see some of our prospects playing. I might be able to get in the home end but we will see if I fancy it later, Have done it a couple of times before and it is no real fun watching in the home end. Although being in the home end in Germany when England won 1-5 was very good !

I am only about 15-20 mins from Watford on the train rather then my usual 2 hours to Palace so would be a nice trip.

Have also bought my season ticket for next year so don't really have the money for todays game anyway.

Good luck Palace.

Istvanski the ring thing was bought from Boots for more money then it is worth, £30, would of been cheaper then all the potions that i am currently trying though.

Silent Knight Night 1

Well... Faye who most of you know is due next month is not sleeping great, we guess it is natures way of preparing you for the sleepless nights ! was up quite early, 5am, and said that I did not snore even while on my back and that is unheard of !

I did some google searches last night and could not find anyone that had "honestly" tried the ring but lots of people knocking it so we will see in a few days. I'm a bit s unsure of it all and it might be a fluke that it worked so i will try again tonight and let you know.

Snoring

I snore and have done for quite a while, I have tried everything and last night used a nasal spray, breath right strip and snoreeze throat strip and still snored. I have been to see a private doctor you said that an operation to tighten the throat would cost £3500 be painful and still not guaranteed to work, he put it down to allergies.

Tonight I am going to try a Silent Knight ring. It is a small silver ring that goes on your little finger and according to the website, and I quote,

Silent Knight Ring uses acupressure - tried and tested over the past 3,500 years!

The raised part on the inside of Silent Knight Ring acts, when correctly positioned, on one of the meridian lines in the little finger of the snorer. It uses age-old principle of Accupressure, specifically the principle of Tuina (pronounced 'twee nah') which is a form of Oriental bodywork used in China. It's a combination of massage, acupressure, and other forms of body manipulation.

You might have heard of Reflexology, where pressure is applied to the hands, feet, and even ears to treat a variety of conditions. Tuina is a form of reflexology that has a history pre-dating ANY conventional western medicine by thousands of years.

To make Silent Knight Ring work for you all you have to do is put it on about an hour before you go to bed, correctly position the Accupressure Stimulator (full instructions are included) and give the ring one gentle squeeze to apply pressure - that's it! Tuina and Silent Knight Ring are working together for you to cut out your problem snoring completely!

have a good night's sleep at last! Order your own Silent Knight Ring NOW

will let you know how it goes.....