I have wholeheartedly enjoyed my kids for the last 24 hours. My daughter from my first marriage has graced us with her presence and my eldest daughter had a friend over for the night...this combination of being outnumbered 5 to 1 by the female of the species would normally spell disaster and have me running for the nearest doorway out of the house and then driving for the furthest point of the country for a couple of days until the visit was over but not today.

THE KIDS GOT ALONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No squabbling, butching, fighting or falling out. At no time have I had to step in with a gruff voice dishing out punishments! In fact everyone pitched in to get the household chores done and I then spent a happy couple of hours fixing the clutch on the mini which now drives!!

Then we all went to the allotment and everyone pitched in netting up the raised beds and mowing the pathways!! Again no fighting!!!

My eldest has now gone to her friends for the night and the other two girls are spending the night together in the den!

I am doing a carboot sale in the morning and they are coming to help...they offered!!! No winging about getting up early...I am sure I have pased into some strange parrelell universe or I may still be in bed dreaming.

I have had offer after offer of tea, in fact I have not put the kettle on myself at all today! Its not my birthday (I checked), its not our wedding anniversary (I double checked) and it sure is not Christmas!!

I hope this is a turning point of the kids growing up a bit. It may just have been a good day and if that is so I have enjoyed it immensley!!

The heat breaks!

I awoke this morning all tucked up in the comfort of my bed to the sound of rain falling heavily onto the windows and leaves outside. It is a wonderfull noise and feeling to awake to after over a week of very high temperatures. This reminded me of those fantastic storms that happen in Spain after the long hot summer and all you want to do is run outside and stand in it soaking up the freshness it creates clearing away all that heat and dust!

The surge of plantlife coming into growth again and the general kick start of life from insects to mammals that have lain in a semi dormant stage for the long hot months. This was the feeling I had this morning :) A new start of a new day in which you can move around for more than 5 minutes without wanting to sit down for a siesta!

Its now pleasently warm and im off to my allotment to pull some weeds out! These of course love the rain and warmth more than any other life form :)

Slowly Melting.

Well its been the busiest couple of weeks of the year so far and we have enjoyed temps in the high twenties and early thirties!! I now know what a baked potato must feel like :)

The best news by far over the past couple of weeks is that our friends that have had IVF tyreatment are now pregnant!!! Ok ok we all know its very early days and the test was taken as soon as humanly possible but this is a fantastic step forward in the right direction for them after months and months of preperation with major weight loss and gallons of hormone injections with many highs and lows.
So we are praying and hoping beyound all hope that the next nine months will go smoothly for them as I cannot possibly think of anyone who would be better parents than these two.

Now to us....we had a break away again which was pleasant but the big holiday is now only 3 weeks away and we are really looking forward to it! A week of relaxing with no dog or work :) I have ordered a mobile internet thingy that we can use whilst away as I am not paying the £3 pounds an hour the campsite would like for me to hire a laptop!!! I mean how bloody stupid not to set up there wifi with a voucher system so people can use their own laptops!! I am sure they may make alot of money that way. Still who am I to tell them how to run their business.

The allotment is now in full swing and we are happily harvesting new potatos, onions, iceburg lettuce, strawberrys, peas and boy oh boy do I love it!! The other veg is coming along in leaps and bounds but there is alot of watering to do in this hot weather. The tomatoes are all growing nicely along with the cucmbers so more salad to come :)
With work I havnt spent as mich time there as I should have done but with a day off tomorrow a full day there is ahead along with lots of weeding to do as well as netting up to keep the bloody pigeons at bay!

My little mini is slowly on the mend but with every repair two more problems seem to appear! Still it will get there in time but that is running closer to the mini 50th in August that I really want to drive it too. Tonight I will fit the new clutch slave cylinder and thats one step closer eh!!

The kids seem to be testing the boundries again of how far they can be pushed along with my patience. Im not the first parent to be going through this im sure but it drives me around the twist!! First my son plays up so much at school he nearly gets kicked out and then my girls are thinking they are 21 instead of 12. Sometimes I dont think im much good at this parent thing until I speak to others with tribes the same age and they feel like it to.

So all in all lots of work and not alot of play but hey such is the way of things but it makes a dull write :) I have thought of a few observations I wanted to jot down but am far too hot and sticky to recall what they were at the moment so I will leave that for another day :)

And we are home :)

After the fun of being bored on Weds I had the realisation that life really is for living so on Saturday we packed our bags and shot off to the coast again for a weekend break. Yes we are spoilt but it costs very little as we stay at my parents static.

It never ceases to amaze how kids dont get bored of sand and water. The beach seems to represent a blank canvas where you can create anything you imagination desires. It matters not that the sea is cold enough to make the fish shiver as long as you are armed with a swimsuit and a towel. A bucket and spade can create a kingdom and bring forth its doom much quicker. A day can disappear in the blink of an eye but feel like an age in passing.

Its so nice to take a break from the rat race to reset the mind. But that is it for another month now as we will be having a whole week there at the end of July so we need to save the pennies for then.

The mini is running and im hoping to have it all set and mot'ed for the next break.

Right off to do some work then :(

I sit here listening to the Kerrang music channel wondering what to do with my evening? There will be a few limitations as im skint, got to get up early to go to work and ive hit that place where no motovation exists. You know the one its where you want to do something but spend so much time thinking about that even if you were to come up with a great idea you couldnt be arsed to get up and do it!

So far I have come up with putting the xbox on but its in another room, popping over to see my little brother but its 20 miles away, eating everything in the goodie cuboard but thats in the kitchen, making a brew again in the kitchen, having a cig but I have to go outside, talk to the wife......far tooo much effort LOL. I have scoured Ebay for all the things I do not need or cannot afford to the extent I cannot find anything I want. Good god im wasting the evening!!!

Now I could put it to a vote but by the time thats done it will be tomorrow!! LOL I am sure I will figure it out.

Bugger all of any interest has happend this week. Im begging to think that my life is really really dull!! I had a happy few hours at the plot today and taken a great harvest of Beetroot, onions and Radish from it. Oh there was a lettuce as well and that made a great salad this evening. Im looking forward to getting some new potatos off of it over the next couple of weeks.

Apart from that alll is much of a muchness. The dogs barking, the teenagers sulking and the young one is obsessed with NCIS on FX channel. Oh I have just been told by everyone else in the house that my taste in music is rubbish! Its certainly not and I shall remind the teenagers in a week or two about that when they switch their allegence to whatever the next fad is...more than likely the music I enjoy as thats the only one that hasnt been done yet!!

My New toy :)

I have just bought myself a mini. Now after a few years away from the mini scene I decided to get another one instead of a bike. This is not just any old mini...oh no its an RSP S which is a John Cooper conversion and only 90 were converted to the "S" of which this is number 9.

There is a bit of engine work to do and a new battery box to be welded in but nothing I have not done before :)

Heres a couple of pics:-

SOOOOO Much has been done!!!

So here I sit pondering where the best place to start is for what has been occuring over the last 10 days or so!

Are you sitting comfortably???? Then we shall begin :)

Last weekend the weather was like the middle of summer not the end of May. We had many days of mid twenties temperatures so in good old British fashion we packed up the car and headed off to the coast. We are lucky enough to have parents that own a static caravan in Trimmingham just north of Cromer thats on a great site overlooking the sea. Mum & Dad said they would have our dog so we were set for a few days of sunshine and seaside:)

We got there in the early evening after setting off when wifey finished work at 3pm. Chips by the sea for supper and then unpacked in the caravan. We spent a lovely evening with the girls at the site "club" and had a great nights sleep that only the sea air can give you.

As you know im an early riser and as we only had a short time there I awoke the family in a gentle fashion, walking around the caravan singing "GOOD MORNING GOOD MORNING" at the top of my voice. Well it was 7.45 and I had been up 2 hours by then! Soooooo by 9am we were in Cromer having a full english and drinking tea. There really is something special about the start of a new day. All the potential and time of a long sunny day ahead made better by the rolling sea in the view from our window.

So the day was spent in first the arcades then a happy couple of hours crabbing off of Cromer peir. No there were many people doing the same and they all had two or three crabs in thier buckets so how hard could it be? I went to the peir shop with my youngest to buy all of the relevant bits for fishing and we trotted off to the end of the peir. With expectant eyes my daughter helped bait the net and put the stones in for weight. Into the sea the whole contraption went. After an hour the kids got bored and trotted off with the wife to have a look around so I had a nice quiet hour looking along the coast and out to sea from my position on the pier. Of course we caught diddly squat so no fresh crab for tea LOL. Still it was a pleasent way to spend a bit of time.

We headed back for a late tea and it was then that my Mum called to say our dog had come into season and was pestering her male yorky so with a heavy heart we had to head home. Still we had a great 24 hours and will be going back again asap.

So obviously I now have a sulking dog that cannot be taken out and is blaming us for her condition. This will be the last season she has as she will be spade in 3 months time.

Next.............

Hmmn ok then I have been searching for a new motorbike but that is proving fruitless. I had found myself looking more and more at classics and I have now bought a John Cooper RSP R classic mini. It doesnt need a great deal of work to get it back on the road and I am hoping to before the big mini 50th celebrations in August. We hope to be cruising around the shows in the mini asap.

Work is still so so slow. There are so many people out of work there are those who will go out and work all day for £20-£30 a day so how the hell can you compete with that?

With a heavy heart I have made the decision that its time to look for full time employment. I have applied for a few jobs but im sure the market place is a real employers heaven at the moment for the top choice of candidates. Oh well if its meant to be....

We had a late frost on the allotment June 3rd which killed my cucumbers and the top half of all of my potato plants. I was gutted :( But the spuds seem to be making a comeback so although the harvest will not be as high as we hoped for at least there will be a harvest.

Thats it really for now so I will write again soon.