Me and My Boy

Went up to Temple Newsam with our radio controlled boat, had it years but it was gathering dust. Anyway, you can see how much he enjoyed it.

Gruesome

This is what my dads neck looks like after his operation.



They clamped of the carotid artery and opened it up the clean it out. Apparently it doesn't hurt him at all! Click on the pic for more stapled neck detail!

My Dad

Has had a second stroke

fortunately only a minor one this time, he didn't even really realise at first thinking he'd slept on his arm funny.

He's now in hospital, undergoing tests, and there is some talk of surgery. A blockage in his caratoid artery they want to remove.

Oliver Cromwell in Crossgates!

Engine number 70013 Oliver Cromwell pulling the Scarborough Flyer.



And on the return journey later that day.





One of 55 of the "Britannia" class, Oliver Cromwell was built at Crewe Works, being completed on 30 May 1951. 70013 was initially allocated to Norwich depot (BR shed code 32A) on the Eastern Region of British Railways and employed on London to Norwich expresses. The locomotive is notable as one of the four steam locomotives which worked the last steam railtour on British Rail in 1968 before the introduction of a steam ban.

Castles in the Sand

Porthcawl, Monday we started to build a sandcastle, and got somewhat carried away


It began fairly small.


But we added detail and it grew.


J had started his own castle so this was detailed as well.


He was quite pleased when it was getting close to finished.


Then we linked the two castles with a retaining wall and another gateway.


Most of the build team (unfortunately B and S had had to leave before we were done)

We could have carried on for ages, there was much finishing work to be done, but home time beckoned.

Doctor Who Exhibition Cardiff

I must admit to being disapointed, there was plenty to see from the current shows, but nothing from before the "regeneration" of the series.

The whole place was smothered in "Do Not Touch" signs which meant very little up close and personal stuff.

The Vashta Nerada seem to be following us?



But at least we met K9





The gift shop had plenty to tempt us, but even J commented just how expensive it was.

Out on expedition, looking for the "moon ponds"

And I just love this photo of my two explorers

Tropical World, Leeds

Last weekend we took a trip to Tropical World as it was a rainy day and it's always worth a trip.

E had a butterfly land on her hand (we all had them land on us somewhere), J managed to almost completely avoid the camera, and between them and Grandad, we all had a great day out, I even managed to capture a lucky shot of a meerkat (I say lucky as even though I took several, this one was shot blind with the camera held over the glass wall, and it turned out great)


Proud Grandad? I think so.


Not many greenhouses have a waterfall this big in them!


Grandad got distracted by a parrot!


This fish will come up and try to "kiss" you through the glass if you put your face right up close.


Hold your hand out in the butterfly section and they will land on you, we all had at least one land on us, but I only caught E on camera.


J took this close up of the Leeds crest froma plaque near the meerkats


My "Lucky" meerkat picture

The Lilyest Hobo

So funny, a mashup of lily allen and the theme to an old TV program, "the littlest hobo"

Who remembers the program? what? no-one? am I the only old git in the house?

any way, the video



and a link in case youtube embedding fails.

New favourite singer/song writer

By chance I heard a song on the radio (Steve Wrights show on Radio 2) which I liked on the first listen.

However a search of the radio 2 play lists didn't turn it up, Steve had slipped it in and of course I had missed the introduction.

Searching the half heard lyrics on the Internet didn't help but luckily someone on mumszone knew what it was.

Check him out, Henry Priestman on MySpace

His MySpace features two of my favourites, "Don't you love me no more" and "He ain't good enough for you"

You can also go to Henry Priestman .com.

It's really my sort of music, and well worth a listen.

A wonderfully silly

Look at homeopathy, crystal healing and other woo "science"



I think I'd prefer proper doctors myself.

The link, in case embedding fails

Pay attention, the hospital signs are a giggle in themselves.

How to drive a Model T Ford

And people say nothing changes, it seems strange to me how the controls are so different, but they must have made sense to someone.

Not convinced with the safety aspect of taking your foot off a pedal to go faster, but I'm guessing safety wasn't a huge consideration.



link in case the embedded video doesn't work

compressed air cars

Not news to some, but I promised I would stick up links to the manufacturers

A compressed air car, somewhere on the site will be the PSI that the compressed air is stored at, probably in French as the English version of the site is not very consistent

oops, forgot the target text in the link

Mythbusters debunk the moon landing hoax

It's been done more effectively, but mythbusters just make it more fun

this link is to the torrent of the show

Torrent of Mythbusters Moon Landing Special

Opera users will be able to download it straight from their browser, otherwise you will need sme sort of torrent client.

Why is it

if you've upset someone, they wont tell you why?

I knew on thursday I'd upset someone, but it took until today to get an oppurtunity in private to find out why.

I'm still not sure what I've done wrong as I upset a friend of theirs, so I need to talk to that friend to sort things out. I will as I hate upsetting people, and when I know what I've done I will sort it out, apologise etc.

*sigh*

Don't sulk with me, I can take it, tell me!

The Hunt

For Gollum

A "Fan Flick" some 40 minutes long, I've seen the trailer and watched the first part of it. and it seems very good. Made with a budget of just £3000 and a cast of 160

There's an interview with the director on the Beeb here

BBC interview

And you can watch the full movie here

The Hunt for Gollum

Hope you enjoy it

It's the end of the world as we know it

And I feel fine

Server 5 (travian) has finished, my team won, I ended up with them more by good luck than good management I must admit.

The world wonder was impressive, can't believe the number of troops in the end, I grabbed a couple of screen shots.





I find it hard to believe I've been playing this game for almost a year, joined 1/5/08 and it finished yesterday!

Never again! it just gets to much!

unpleasant surprise today

A card arrived, red envelope, white heart on the front, my dad glanced at it and handed it over to me, my initial and surname.

When I looked at it I noticed it was to Mrs P rather than Mr P

My mum had my initial as well, but of course she's been dead 11 years.

Not absolutely sure what to think

silly adictive

sailing game

you can trade raid and do missions

http://www.freewebarcade.com/game/master-of-the-secret-sea/

I prefer the "free game" as opposed to the "story game"

but either way there's something strangley addictive to it, to the point of me having to print the map out and plot all the ports!

It's been found

Not in Temple Newsam as originally suspected

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7975434.stm

The UK's tallest tree

Not a redwood though? curious.