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Showing off The Boy is tired but happy to have been missing school this afternoon to perform in the 2007 Regional Music for Youth festival. All the performances were slick and really quite enjoyable, not a hint of bad school nativity with reluctant performers. Impressive. Shame it looks like none of the pictures came out too good. I used different settings to even out the odds (no flash - useless at that sort of distance anyway) and went snap happy - again to even the odds- still, pretty much either too noisy and/or too dark. Some are even extra special... dark, noisy and blurry. One of these days I'll have to learn to use the darn thing. I am not blaming my tool honest, just my ability to understand how to make it take the pictures the way I want them to look. |
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2.3.07 21:20 |
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I am a sore loser and an even worse winner. The scene is thus. The Boy, My Favourite Canuck and I are slouched on bean bags playing the one PS2/computer game I don't suck marbles through straws at (Tetris). MFC: Ah, ah, I beat you. Strops: Maybe I let you win for all you know. MFC: You! Let anyone win? Mwahhhhhhhh. Strops (looking at The Boy for moral support): I am not *that* competitive am I? The Boy (rolling his eyes): You won't even let *me* win. MFC: Mwaaaaaaahhhhhhh. Strops: I'm going to wipe the floor with you for that you know. |
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5.3.07 20:22 |
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Shaggy Blog Stories: a collaborative blog-stunt for Comic Relief. Troubled-diva Mike his aiming to assemble and publish a book in 7 days in order to sell it to raise funds for the charity. |
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9.3.07 21:44 |
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West Country Boy In view of my track record at organising week-ends away you'd think MFC would have passed when I suggested driving down to Plymouth for the week-end. He didn't.  No disasters this time. We drove down the long way and now that MFC is more familiar with my total obliviousness of how cold other people may be he came prepared and did not freeze to death (much) while patiently waiting for me to finish stretching my legs and taking in a bit of fresh air on Chesil Beach. The first room meant easy access to beer and the best chips in Dartmoor Lack of visibility on the moors meant that opting for the rather navigationally unchallenging Little and Great Mis Tor was probably not an unwise decision and the lack of view was made up by the chance discovery of a letter box (the ancestor of geocaching) Next MFC indulged me and let me revisit some old haunts. Obviously the fact that one of them means beer (warning before you follow the link the rather silly "real Ale" theme tune is likely to make you giggle) and the other means rather excellent burger in an outstanding Plymouth institution had nothing to do with his indulgence, no siiire. Despite fears to the contrary the room for the second night had not suffered the touch of Basil Faulty. Service came with a smile and the only drawback to the large breakfast was that however appealing crab sanwiches on offer in Polperro sounded we were still too full to indulge.  The weather was kind enough to hold the hail and showers till we started to head back home. The only disappointment of the trip was that the Highwayman Inn was closed so I did not get a chance to get MFC to test out the rather bizzare effects of the scrumpy they served when I last went there. Mind you getting my navigator intoxicated enough that he saw Datmoor poneys were there aren't any would probably not have qualified as one of the world's most brilliant ideas so it's probably best that he'll have to take my word for it when I say the place is weird and the brew is even weirder. |
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19.3.07 17:11 |
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Shaggy blog stories - part 2 I got a bit distracted and I forgot to say that Troubled Diva Mike made it . He has compiled some bloggie goodness that the people at lulu.com have published. With the addition of Mike 's Gift Aid allowance , Comic Relief will receive £4.442 for every copy sold, i.e. 49.6% of the cover price. If you want to go and check it out while I'm busy making up boxes all you have to do is follow this link (I've been lent a tape gun for the evening and I'm not afraid to use it or more to the point procrastination is not much of an option as I have to give it back in the morning and I'll be left with darn useless pieces of corrugated cardboard without the help of the sticky brown stuff)
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21.3.07 18:42 |
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Mother's day explained See these? Nice aren't they? Enough to make any mummy heart melt? Don't be under the misguided impression that these are expressions of love expressed by offspring towards the person who (tries) to nurture them. The skilfully decorated cupcake and handcrafted card (minus a message "because I didn't have time to finish it" ) are no such thing. What they are is an offering to appease the cruel and at times unpredictable divnities who rule little boy's lives through fear and unspoken threat.
The following exchange proves it: Stroppycow: Did you enjoy the presentation about building sites safety then? The Boy: It was very good. Stroppycow: Would you ever go and play on a building site? The Boy *shakes his head and rolls his eyes in a "don't be stoopid Mummy" sort of a way*: Of course not. If the other dangers didn't get me you'd kill me when you find out (notice he knows it's a WHEN rather than an IF). And if I got killed by the other dangers then you'd relive me just so you can find an even more painful way for me to die. Amen, my work is done. |
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22.3.07 18:21 |
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Did you record this one for training purposes? I spent most of last night arranging utility bills to be transferred to my name when I move. I'll pass on the evilness of having to hold to a mix of instrumental slightly musaked versions of Coldplay's clocks and Tears for Fear's everybody wants to rule the world. I'll pass on the length of the wait while I am paying the bill for the call. I'll pass on that because the call centre people I spoke to were rather lovely and helpful and it was fairly stress free. I felt like I had achieved something. The feeling changed when early afternoon I got call from one of the providers wanting to confirm my details were correct. As if by some evil curse, the lovely woman I had spoken to last night had been replaced by the spiritual child of Cruella De Vil and Hyacinth Bucket , a spiritual child who would have been brought up in the Midlands. What the lady in question failed to grasp was *I* am the (potential almost signed up but not quite yet) customer. She really ought to be nice to me because I have not yet signed on the dotted line and the way the conversation goes *will* influence my choice to sign or not. The person from the same company I spoke to last night knew that, she was pleasant, helpful and professional and was happy to slow down, repeat, answer questions, nothing was too much trouble. That put my brain in "if there ever is a problem the people I'll be dealing with will at least be pleasant, I like that" and I was ready to sign. The person who called me today did not even ask if it was a convenient time to talk only if it was the best number to call me on. The choice extracts from the conversation "have you never moved before?" (with an exasperated sigh), for the record I have, numerous times; "have you never dealt with a utility company?" (still with an exasperated sigh), for the record, yes I have but somehow I never encountered this obtuseness before and my favourite "you sound like you don't understand anything". It was tempting to say "are you calling me stoopid you f-ing moron?" and point out that I pay bills for a living so I do understand a thing or two about utilities and their invoicing thank you very much. Instead my answer was "and *you* sound very patronising so I am going to put the phone down be sure I'll be shopping around before I decide to sign with you now because I'm not so sure I want to switch anymore, goodbye"
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27.3.07 19:04 |
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