Snow Chaos…

Yes it’s that time of year once again, a light sprinkling of snow and the whole of the UK comes to a standstill. It’s been snowing a couple of days and all sorts of bother taking place, schools shut etc etc. I’ve not been out in it at all, I’ve been incredibly busy this week and thought there’s no time but actually there’s no need as we’re skiing in a couple of weeks time..

It’s melting now and so there are flood warnings!!

Pushed Tash over and she couldn’t get up so she pretended to make snow angels…

Charlotte borrowed my hat to keep warm when cleaning out her rabbit…

Afternoon tea at the Ritz

Yes indeed…you read correctly. For Mum’s combined birthday and Xmas present we took her to the Ritz for afternoon tea. I must admit I wasn’t overly bothered about going when Tasha initially mentioned it but I thought that I should as it is my Mum!! And I’m really glad that I did go as well, it was a really good experience and we all enjoyed it immensely.

There was a bit of doubt to the day because of the snow we’ve been experiencing but the roads to London as expected were fine and we drove straight up there at 11.30am. I found somewhere to park just off Green Park and as we were early we went and looked around Fortnum & Mason’s, that was an experience in its own right! Like walking into Harrods, and the same price! But it was interesting to wander around and there was a sale point on so we got a couple of things for Xmas presents.

We then went to the Ritz and Mum and Tash took their time exploring the toilets and coming out with souvenir tissues…no I’m not joking.

The sitting was due to start at 1.30pm but we were ushered in around 1.20pm and took photos and all that and took in the surroundings. We were in the Palm restaurant which was cosy but absolutely lovely. Choice of loads of teas, I went for one which smelled of smoke and didn’t it just, stank the place out but I liked it! We were then bombarded with sandwiches (refilled all the time), scones (lovely) and tit bit cakes. Also had someone come round offer Lemon cake as well…we had everything! Quite surprisingly there was too much and we left some of it, including a really rick dark chocolate cake!

We then walked around a bit, there was no pressure or snobbery and it was really pleasant. Drove home and then had some coffee at Mum’s and she told Derek all about it.

I think that was a very successful present! I enjoyed it anyway and we’ll now start thinking of the next place to go to!

Consortium Training and away from home

Seems off being away from home for 2 nights but I am down in Trowbridge at The Old Manor House. It’s a lovely place and an absolute bargain at £60 per night compared with the same price for the Premier Inn…no comparison really!

I’m down here doing two days training for The Consortium Group and it’s going okay so far. Experienced the usual sort of problems linked with Offline SPIRIT earlier this morning when everything went pear-shaped following syncing over the weekend and the stress levels for myself and Andrew Adkins went through the roof! I managed to keep things on track and we got the sessions completed without too much disruption to the attendees

Mum’s 65th Birthday

So Mum was 65 today and we obviously celebrated and made something of it. Her work had got the date wrong so earlier in the week she’d been ‘surprised’ with them all congratulating her, but that was obviously a bit premature but it meant she had the same treatment a second time so I don’t think she was complaining! She had a good day and we met up with her in the evening and went 10 bin bowling.

That was fun but I am bloody useless at it now, Charlotte won and then Lewis came in second, way ahead of me and the rest in third!

After that we went to Frankie & Benny’s next door and it was absolutely rammed full! Mum had booked a table and this is when the fun started…

Mum had specifically booked a round table so that we could all fit on comfortably and be more enclosed, twice she’d spoken to reserve it, when we got there it wasn’t reserved and we couldn’t have it. She wasn’t impressed. So we were stationed at a new table and made do but I made my feelings known in a firm but polite manner, I think I was polite but I certainly let the girl know we were pissed off!

Cue much attention and fawning!

They kept coming over to see if we were okay and then gave a free bottle of wine which Mum and Tash got through quite comfortably! We had a great meal and a really good time, they brought out the cake and we were noisy and singing and even when other birthdays were done we were getting involved. Then the best surprise…there were 8 of us in total and the bill came to £150.00, but in view of the situation we’d experienced the girl took £60.00 off…bloody hell!!!! Couldn’t believe it. I’d hoped we’d get something when I’d complained such as a free dessert or something, but nothing along those lines, absolutely delighted and what a bargain. So we split the bill with Derek and got going out of there!

We all enjoyed ourselves and it was a good night. Mum is looking forward to her trip to the Ritz next week for afternoon tea now!

Mum's 65th VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Jack’s logic…

- "Dad, I can't do this Math's homework!"
- "We don't say can't in this household Jack"
- "Dad, I cannot do this Math's homework!"

Sponsorship for the lads

Managed to get some sponsorship from a local IT company and the lads look good in it following a convincing win against Greater Leys…

Anfield Trip

One of Jack’s Christmas presents was a trip to see a Premier team play so I bought tickets from Wayne to go and see Liverpool against Sunderland. So Jack and I went up and Mike Ford and Alice had Liam’s tickets so we went up together. I offered to drive and met Fordy at his house and got a bit stressed as we ended up leaving Bicester an hour later than planned because of his work.

The journey up there was fine though and we did it comfortably within about 3 hours.

Parked nearby to Everton and then walked across Stanley Park to the ground. It was good being involved and seeing it all set up and getting the match day experience and Jack was loving it. We got into the ground and were based in The Kop so that was good.

Before the match they did loads of flags being dragged over everyone and of course sang ‘You’ll never walk alone’ and it was a good atmosphere. Once the match got going it was enjoyable but sadly Martin O’Neill had brought his team along to defend and play on the break so it wasn’t very competitive and it was no surprise when Liverpool scored. Once that happen Sunderland had no answer and funnily enough had an excellent chance but it would have been a travesty and they deservedly got thumped 3-0.

Luis Suarez played and he was excellent to watch, he really was the best player on the park. He gets a lot of bad press because he’s a cheat and dives etc but when he concentrates on the game it’s good.

We left 5 mins early and got back to the car before the traffic got bad and stopped on the M6 for some food, I let Jack have a treat of £6 chicken bucket and then got home and into bed by about 1.00am

All in all a really good evening but I must admit I’d not want to do that regularly…I don’t really like football (or supporters) it has to be said.

View from our seats…

Christmas Jumpers…

…nothing more to add surely?!?!? Surprisingly, everyone was jealous of our fashion sense…

Tasha’s idea, and a good one it was too. Actually, it was her idea of the kids to have them but mine to make the whole family have one.

Current favourite track..

My music tastes change all the time I appreciate but currently I can’t get enough of Swedish House Mafia…which is a shame because they’ve split up!! Anyway they’re astoundingly good and perhaps I am too old to be listening to them but this track is on my playlist all the time ratcheted up to full volume!!!

Mind you, there is also Miami to Ibiza and One…but this is great…

Greyhound by Swedish House Mafia

A new heir to the throne..

So it was announced, early I suspect, that Kate and William are expecting their first baby. I say early, I think she’s only something like 13 weeks gone but went into hospital with acute morning sickness, apparently a strain of morning sickness implies she might be expecting twins! So you can well imagine the fuss the press are making, but it’s nice and they’re taking it in their stride. However…

Some Aussie DJs phoned the hospital pretending to be the Queen and Prince Charles and were actually put through to the ward and spoke to one of the nurses and she gave out various details thinking it was genuinely them! I don’t think the details were particularly sensitive, I haven’t listened to the recording but that was that and a pretty harmless practical joke was played out…not so harmless though…

Two days after the prank call (and I must stress there was no uproar or disciplinary action that we’re aware of) the nurse who took the call was found dead, an apparent suicide.

Can you imagine how fucked up that is???

As you can imagine, Twitter went into meltdown, journalists and all sorts got into a lather lambasting the DJs and they’ve gone into hiding. It’s calmed down a bit now, this is being written a couple of days later but I can’t help feel for all concerned.

The DJs were just simply carrying out nothing more harmful than an April Fools joke, but the person it was played on was clearly more fragile than they could possibly have expected and it backfired in a devastatingly tragic manner. I can’t see how anything can come of this in terms of punishing the DJs, it will be interesting to see what action if any does occur.

All very sad in what should be a truly celebratory time for the Windsors!

Xmas Present arrives early

Our TV has been on the way out for God knows how long, you basically can’t read the text at any time, so Tash and I decided to get a new one and went for it without telling the kids. It was only about £300 so decent one and decent 42 inch size. Tash took some convincing on that score but I won for once!

Had a bit of concern about the website buying this from but they kept saying it was on its way.

What was odd though is that2 days after placing the order the existing telly refused to work any more, just wouldn’t turn on, it was like it knew! So we were without TV for a week which was actually quite nice!

Another odd thing was on Friday the BT Engineer was round and upgraded us to BT Infinity, and the the delivery of a picture frame took place and as the engineer left I made some toast and said to myself, “All I need now to make the weekend is the TV to be delivered”

Almost immediately, within about 5 seconds, the doorbell went and I ‘knew’ who it was, sure enough a huge great TV was being delivered – how spooky is that?!?!?

So even though I should have been working I quickly put it together and got it working…it’s gorgeous!! I didn’t waste too much time on it and when Tash went out in the evening I sorted it out so that it connects to all the external devices and I’ve finally got surround sound working for all the devices as well, I am a very happy bunny…Tash not so…

Piss-taking banter…

Nothing more to say other than check out this link for the banter one of the lads has started on the Oxford City message board…

OCFC Veteran Lookalikes

Terrible news…

I had a text from one of the lads on Sunday saying, “Isn’t that awful about Andy Parsons?”. Assuming he’d died I asked what happened, I wasn’t prepared for the reply… “He’s stabbed his wife to death!”

Un…be..lieve…able!!!

All sorts of accusations and rumours are flying around as you might expect but he’s been charged with murder and more will happen next Monday. I’ve known him since being a player at Thame but not really had any more contact with him. Although we were due to play him yesterday as the vets team were against Thame in the cup but it was postponed because of this tragic event.

Nikkie has been keeping us informed as people have visited Andy and the stories are contrasting. I won’t type anything now because it’s not appropriate. As you can imagine it was all over Facebook and made front page of the Oxford and Daily Mail (Link)

It’s obviously a tragic story and there are two young children involved and the wife was incredibly attractive, but then so’s he…it’s simply astonishing this sort of thing can happen but then it’s happening all the time all over the world, it’s the law of averages that it’s going to happen close by but you don’t expect to know the person involved.

Awful

Training in London…x2

I’ve had the pleasure of visiting London twice this week already and had quite a tour of the place actually. On Monday I was at Electric Word which is near the Barbican and when that finished I crossed the Thames and saw a potential new customer, Encyclopaedia Britannica, which was right by Tower Bridge. I finished there at about 5.00pm so I took the opportunity to go by the Thames and get some decent photos.

The offices overlooking the Thames and Tower Bridge are stunning, would be great to work in those, although I’d be day dreaming out the windows all the time…

I was there today as well but this time only to Collins who are based in Hammersmith so none of the scenery but the chance to be part of the hustle and bustle which coming home wasn’t so great because I had to stand for much of the way because of over-crowding. You pay £25.00 for a ticket and stand…not impressed!

London is a cool place much of the time.

		General London VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Lewis and University Offers…

There is general excitement in the house at the minute...Lewis is getting his replies from the Universities that he's applied to. It's been a bit nerve-wracking because Katherine, has received three refusals and she's done better in her exams than he did.

However, he's had two replies and both have provided him with conditional offers, Loughborough (Which he really wants) and Plymouth. Really pleased for him, they are stretching requirements that's for certain but this must have given him the push he now needs to really knuckle down and push on to get the grades he needs. He will only have himself to blame if he fails to get these right now.

I need to help him more with his PE work and will get stuff sorted with him more regularly from now on.

Wow, could be losing my little boy this time next year!!!

How scary is that?

Jack back from Germany, Father Xmas, Night out and lazy Sunday…

Jack had a great time in Germany. Spent a fortune but made friends and came home with plenty of stories. The only problem was picking him up! Got the phone call that they were going to be back at the school at 3.30am. I went and got him but was knackered the rest of the day!

Lazy weekend though in the end. We went to Blenheim Palace in the afternoon so that Jack could see Father Christmas and wandered around the place. Pouring with rain so we didn't venture into the gardens but had a lovely coffee instead!

Tash and I then went out in the evening with Vicki and Geoff and also Loretta and James from the Red Lion. Went to a Oriental restaurant in Hythe Bridge Street called SoJo and it was fantastic. Great food. We had a good laugh, had a lot to drink and ended up at Geoff and Vicki's where we stayed until at 2.30am. Can't remember getting home to be honest as we were playing spoof for some very strong alcohol, I lost one of the games as well

The next day Tash went out with Zoe to London and stayed over the night at some nice spa hotel where they were pampered. I instead was too heavy-headed to move and sat watching TV all day...not a very productive day to be fair...but it was nice to do absolutely nothing. There was no football because everywhere in Oxford it's flooded.

Tash came back on Monday and had a good time, although noticed that we'd done nothing all day...ah well!

		Blenheim Palace VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Just don’t mention the war…

Was up very early again this morning. Couldn’t sleep because of the worry about two items at work so was awake at around 2.20am which wasn’t ideal because I knew that I’d set my alarm for 4.45am anyway!

Why was I up so early? Simply, Jack is doing German at school and his class went off to the German fair and were meeting at school at 5.10am.We was up and about at the right time and I took him down there, a few familiar faces, Mark & Danny, but he’s big mates with Stefan at the minute and was on his coach so he was with him and didn’t even wave goodbye to me…charming!

Tim Selwood retired this year but he was asked to go along with them as well so that means that he’s been involved with all my kids and also me! Some achievement!

Anyway, the house is a lot quieter without Jack around already.

Had a good day of work in the end, shattered though so early night for me.

Christmas Lights in London

Travelled up to London today and had a great day out. Sue and Brendan came up on the coach and we met them in Primark at Marble Arch. Got to London around 11.30am and got the usual parking place on Bayswater Road, Lewis and Katherine went off on their own and we started shopping. Primark was packed and then Jack insisted that we went to Harrods. I wasn’t so keen because of getting a parking space and losing the one we had but he got what he wanted!

Wandered around for a bit in there and it’s such a fantastic place, it’s hard not to be over-awed by it, if only we had some money to spend! Had a coffee and something to eat outside and made our way back to Marble Arch and in fact got a parking place even closer this time!!

Walked up Oxford Street and by this time the lights were up and looking very impressive. Went to a couple of shops but didn’t find anything and then met up with everyone again in St Christopher Place just off Oxford Street and went to the Pizza Express we’d booked. Had a decent meal in there and then went back to the car and made our way home.

Got home in an hour! All in all a lovely day and had a really good time.

 

		Christmas Lights & Shopping in London Nov 2012 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Brighton Graffiti

Went down to see a customer in Brighton today and I do love the place! I park in a bit of a run down area and walk through the narrow streets where there is an array of fantastic shops and also graffiti on the sides of so many houses. I’d love to spend more time down there exploring the place and will have to organise it one day. Below are some of the examples and there is loads more all over the place..

Brighton Graffiti VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Bloody Long weekend

I need a rest! Friday I went out with work into Oxford as Jason had organised a tour of the Inspector Morse frequented pubs. There was about 8 of us, although I got there late because of kids football and picking up Jack from a party he went to where he was go-karting and he’d had a fantastic time, but when I arrived at the pub the lads were all steaming!

We didn’t go too far and just stayed in the Eagle and Child, went down to the Randolph and made a schoolboy error of 8 absinthes for over £90, God knows what Darren was thinking of…we then went to what used to be Poo Na Na and that was a laugh. Sadly it was underground so my phone was out of service and that didn’t go down too well with Tash and it was a late finish…1.30am in the end and I was quite drunk by then. But then they’d been insisting that I have double shot chasers with each pint so no bloody wonder!

Headache all of Saturday, but I was fine. Pottered around all day and Tash went out with her mum to get her Christmas present which is a sewing machine this year…

In the evening we went to Risinghurst for the fireworks and the crowd that we have become now is huge, we all met at Paul and Pauline’s and then went to the park and the fireworks were really impressive once again. The kids had sparklers and all that again which they loved and then it was back to Holdy’s and the boys were on the beer! I drove last night and Tash made full use of the fact and got absolutely steaming drunk!

I was a bit worried about today and what sort of state she’d be in but somehow she’s okay – not fair is it, she should be in bed throwing up the number of cocktails she’s had!!

Had Jack’s football this morning and played against Chalgrove Cavaliers and it wasn’t pretty, yet another week where the lads let themselves down, very disappointing and we lost 4-2.

The day today was lovely, cold but so bright in sunshine and we took the opportunity to go to Shotover and gave mum a shout and she came as well, she was a bit fed up because they should have been in Portsmouth but the car broke down on the way there so they were back home instead. We took Brendan with us and went to the sandpit as usual and it was a lovely afternoon. Showed him building dams which was fun and is always a nice memory for me from my childhood.

So very busy indeed, need an early night needed!

 

		Shotover November 2012 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL