Diary of a father
2017
December Previous « »Next month
Saturday 2nd
After a week of the grown ups fighting some nasty cold we don't make it to the Goodwill evening and plan a quiet weekend. It's nearly that magic time of year. Time the Advent calendar and online card are launched on the whole world - enjoy!
Friday 8th
After the wind comes the freezing cold but no snow - are we lucky?
Thursday 21 st
Well, "The Last Jedi" - we saw it and I cannot say it was the best but it was fine and had moments of wow and other moments of what? Meanwhile back in the real world I still have shopping to do. We have new decorations up and some old ones retired but Christmas fever is slowly growing. Done the works meal - food was xmas pub standard but my quiz seem to go down okay. Back at Karate I won a one leg push over competition, twice, but I was coughing through the whole session. Bizarrely I felt much better afterwards. E has the cough a lot worse.
Christmas
Great to have my dad with us. We had a lovely day and some great fun and games (Mario Kart, Trivial Pursuit, ...) and great food. Nice too see the in-laws over the break too.
November Previous « »Next month
Saturday 4th
We enjoyed a local fireworks display nicely split into two parts. A quieter one for the youngsters and then some really loud stuff a bit later. There was a lovely moon over the fields to gaze on as we waited. I get my left eye repaired again later this week so that will be nice.
Saturday 11th
We rearranged the little room so my desk has some more space. I have been watching some of the old Red Dwarf TV shows. a little bit of eighties comedy sci-fi. The early series are a bit rough, bit cheap and naff but the humour is there, they get better. Some classic episodes like Polymorph appear in series three and series seven is rather good.
Otherwise November only brings work, school and a return to decorating. Oh, and a new front door.
Waiting for the show to start
October Previous « »Next month
Sunday 8th
After one illness comes another stinking cold and my apples are ripening in abundance.
Sunday 15th
When I picked the last of the apples I thought there was about a dozen left. Sixty four apples later I thought I had them all. I could not eat all these before they rotted so the plan is to juice them.
Saturday 28th
David and I do some DIY together putting up some shelves and a mirror, fingers crossed they are still up. And the final juicing is done. I enjoy some of our sweet amber nectar - nice. Then I find another five apples in the lounge -uh. Still got a bit of a cough which is annoying.
September Previous « »Next month
School has started up yet again. And with it comes the dark evenings; initially wet and windy. I have to go straight back up north for my viva. That over it is all done and dusted, at last.
Sunday 17th
Sweaty - finally back at karate practice. I am trying to decide on the theme for the advent calendar; a few ideas but nothing good enough yet. This year the apple trees are very bountiful; lovely large and red apples. Of course the local nature has also shown an interest; I do not use chemicals.
Sunday 24th
I had wanted to do a charity walk but it will have to be next year.
Saturday 29th
So Claire was going to make a cake. E did. My eye test yesterday wasn't without incident - I need some laser work.
August Previous « »Next month
Monday 28th
Oh the joy of escaping water! Once cleared up and the washing machine filter cleaned I got to add some more paint to ceiling. Thus I have started into the backlog of DIY.
The run up to the final deadline for my dissertation pretty much takes over every, otherwise spare, hour. Worse is the terrible journeys up and down the motorways. And then the timetable for the viva is cramped, it will all be over soon. The travel does give a chance to see my family.
I did get some respite from my studies as a nephew got married and we joined the celebrators. We all, well most of us, had a good bop. All in all, a very pleasant do and we got to play some giant Jenga - nice.
Fun and Games - Giant Jenga!
July Previous « »Next month
Sunday 9th
This month means the local outdoor events start so we wander out to enjoy the first. As it is not too hot, unlike earlier in the week, we enjoy the day. I am always glad of working in an air conditioned office. It helps with the heat and the Hayfever. July is not one of my favourite months.
Saturday 15th
School holidays are nearly with us but not quite yet. It is the Country Show today and what a cock-a-doodle-doo! Unfortunately no other animals but plenty of stalls. We had an enjoyable wander around and I won a teddy bear that we donated back to the charity.
Parent and Child Red Tractors
June Previous « »Next month
Saturday 10th
We discovered a new cafe in town. Walls covered with old books and board games, good food and a nice view of the centre of town. It is nice when you find new good spots and good people. It was also nice to have a slow day, take time and just be.
Sunday 18th
It's a hot and sweaty training session this morning interrupted by many water breaks. For a change the noticable winds of many weeks have gone so no cooling breeze. The cricket final is quite entertaining and reminds me as a kid how it was winter football and summer cricket. I remember one summer my dad made some stumps by cutting up the limbs from an old rotary washing line. We were probably the only ones with metal wickets but better than none at all.
One last essay to finish for uni and then just the project. The finishing line is getting closer. E had an old friend down yesterday. We started the day doing some gardening before it got too hot. Friday evening me and the kids watched the 1985 classic 'Brazil'. I enjoyed it but not sure they followed it well enough to get the jokes and it helps if you know the 1984 story.
June 21 st
The heat brings on a certain lethargy and restless sleep. I try getting up really early to work on my project so I can avoid the temperatures peaking into the 30s. I am reading 'Gut' at the moment; a present from my daughter and it is a most interesting read.
May Previous « »Next month
Spring?
Early May brings day time temperatures reaching into the 20s; up to 21oC to be precise. The early morning however reaches down to the zero mark and frosts and windscreen scrapping. We combine efforts to finish off the redecoration of Claire's room.
Saturday 13th
We have real workers in to fix the fence posts and lay our slabs properly. This follows a couple of weekends where we actually got outside and did some gardening for a change. The joys of spring.
Late May
One last week of study that ended miserably with a flat battery - in the car. Nice to see brother and dad, and then back home to a little weekend of celebration with my family.
April Previous « »Next month
Spring...
Finally a sense of the warm sun on your back at least on the way home because its still near freezing in the early morning.
Sunday 2nd
We have walked in three directions so far. Last time we found a little Switzerland, a small enclave of chalets flying Swiss flags and not looking out of place against the English hillsides.
The walks are still continuing and continue confirming my view that walking shows you so much more than you see driving the same streets. I love the way old railway lines are still very obvious once you get up close, long straight lines now mostly turned into footpaths not quite as wide as nature takes over. Claire and myself did a ten miler in the sun which was punctuated by an afternoon tea mostly along an ex-railway line.
We have across a totem pole, a variety of unusual bridges amongst other delights.
Saturday 29th
Barnet is the venue for my last and only second new ground of the season. I travelled over to the nephews before we all journeyed down to The Hive. Ignoring the scoreline the Grimsby fans enjoyed their challenge to the inflatables ban by going Mexican, the hats, ponchos and a Mariachi band! Great fun and a great demonstration of the joys of being a fan. It's part of life.
La la la Bamba.
March Previous « »Next month
Bang?
Feeling flush with success with the radiator I look into the matter of the deceased cooker. Thanks to some educational videos I manage to remove the door then extract the cooker. I find a socket and plug. Low and behold there is a blown fuse in the plug. So I change the fuse and everything works. The question you should all be asking is why did the fuse blow? I find the lamp inside the oven has blow rather spectacularly.
Saturday 16th
Royal Albert Hall part two - this time the Classical Spectacular. Beforehand we visited the exhibition of Harry Potter artwork; posters, props and art type stuff. It was okay and the detail was impressive. Then food at Jamie's. A decent concert; dancers, fireworks and balloons - all in all a nice day maybe not quite as good as the space spectacular but the first is always special.
Monday 18th
Sunday evening walks around the locality is becoming a new tradition. I learn something new each time and see places a new. First time out we hit the golden hour. Second time it is more black clouds but it doesn't quite rain. We did find more hills.
Jamie's Diner!
February Previous « »Next month
The month starts with a realisation our bedroom radiator isn't not providing any heat. It takes me a few days of investigation but eventually I put the problem down to a broken thermostatic value and even better, a fix is pretty easy. I do some proper DIY! Okay I got some help from the odd video.
Otherwise the month is a blur of work, coursework and project effort. Then it ends with the cooker quite literally going bang as we cook the evening meal - nice!
January 2016« »Next month
We welcome in the new year with a film, a picnic and a midnight dance to accompany the fireworks - okay you guessed it was just me (dad) dancing around the room.
This year offers many new challenges but with them come the chance for triumph too. I start the year busy doing coursework. Karate training has moved venue as we joined by a glut of newbies. And I reconnect with Tubular Bells - this time version III and the original. My first concert was to see Mike Oldfield at Lancaster University. Me and a friend had to walk home 10 miles due to lack of public transport (how times have changed!).
I finished the jigsaw from last Christmas between studying but have not started the micro one yet. More coursework to do and get going on my project! No peace for the wicked?
Mid January brings snow but just for a few hours and a stinking cold. I am not alone, I hear of folk still coughing weeks later. Mine is not gone yet but as long as you are getting better this isn't a worry say the NHS - jolly good.
2017 fireworks!
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