Life is precious

Well we have had a fairly relaxing weekend. I must say it is strange to have nice weather on a bank holiday, but that does not mean I’m complaining.

The weather has not been great all weekend. Yesterday we had really strong winds. So strong in fact that two lads won themselves Darwin awards, which is tragic for those so young. The lads, both sixteen, thought it would be a good idea to play with their dog on the promenade while huge waves thundered into the sea wall. If a ball was miss thrown I do not know, but the dog jumped the wall, and that is where this tale should end. For all the locals are aware that the death toll for people going over the wall at that very spot stood at 8 and that the last 3 were policemen trying to save a dog. But sanity was out to lunch and first one boy went over to try and rescue the dog, followed by the other lad to rescue the first. Now all 3 of them are dead and the death toll stands at 10.

My daughter and I had the unlucky privilege of witnessing the emergency services attempts to rescue the lads. Some brave soul put his life on the line and was winched below a helicopter into ferocious seas. Large crowds watched from the shore as man was winched back up and the helicopter moved inland. I was not aware then but whatever was plucked from the sea was already dead. Later my son and I went out for a bike ride. As we rode down the front we were confronted with the sight of numerous police scouring the sea with binoculars. While the off shore lifeboat searched further out to sea. Only then was I aware that somebody had lost his or her life. This morning I took both the kids and the dog for a walk on the beach. Attached to the gate to the sands were bunches of flowers, some bearing pictures of the lads when they were small. I made my kids look. Gave them the lecture. Then proceeded to enjoy a lovely walk on the open sands, where only the day before two children had died.

Never mind Chelsea...

liverpool
Originally uploaded by the BBC.

Winners of the Champions League and now owners of the trophy. What a night!

Cycling

Okay, well as I am staring forty down the barrel of a gun, my waist line keeps getting larger and my stamina is decreasing, I thought I’d do something about it. To this end I got my bicycle out of the shed this weekend and got it road worthy.

Yesterday I took it out for a very short spin; Just down to Gyn Square and back, to let my cycling muscles know that I planed a come back.

Today I went a little further. Down onto the Prom and along as far as Rigby Road. A round trip of 4.7 miles, which I averaged at 10.1mph. This was enough to make me sweat and leave my legs feeling a little wobbly.

The plan is to build up slowly until I’m fit enough to ride the bike to work each day. In theory though I’m already there as work is only about five miles or so.

Dominating

Dominating
Originally uploaded by the AWSOM entity that isCanon Fodder.

Not only a rampage but DOMINATING! Yahoo!

Typical!

Unreal stats down and I had my first Dominating! My only hope is that once fixed they will be back dated. Ho hum. :(

Catching up

Well I haven’t made an entry for a while, mostly because I’ve been real busy. Lorii has had a really bad cold; bordering on flu. So I have been kept busy doing the single parent bit on top of all the ‘looking after Lorii’ stuff too.

So, to catch up: The little yellow thing called Matiz has been returned to the hire people. I have bought a red, diesel, Vauxhall Astra estate. I performed this deed at an auction, which was pretty scary. But the car seems sound and I got it for a snip at £550. The Mondeo was written off to the value of £750.

Jacob had a proper fight at school. His glasses got destroyed. But since he has not been involved in any more, I guess the school population has learnt the lesson; ‘You don’t pick on Jacob, unless you want a pounding.’ Apparently it took two dinner ladies to pull the berzerking Jacob off the lad foolish enough to try and steal his art book.

Katie has been on her first ‘camp’ with the Air Cadets. It turns out that along with being an incredibly smart kid, she is a crack shot as well. So don’t get my daughter mad. She can put a bullet in your eye at four hundred meters and talk her way out of the murder wrap!

Lorii’s sister Mel has departed for Australia. Before leaving she got hypnotised so she would not be scared of the spiders. This, it seems to me, is an idea that is contrary to survival in a country where the spiders can kill you. If it has worked or not I have not heard. However unfortunately Mel is freaking out at the large, and numerous, cockroaches! They were not covered by the hypnotherapy.

Baby Ben is home. That is his picture at the top of this entry, with his sister and grandma. Apparently after his shaky start he now weighs 12lb 6oz. That is a gain of nearly 3lbs in four weeks.

Annoyingly the stats page for Unreal has been down for a while so any claims of Rampages etcetera will not be verifiable.

Australia

Lorii’s little sister Mel is going to live in Australia for a couple of years. She leaves early Tuesday so we had the first of a couple of family evenings last night. Being the only driver in a chaotic family means I’m usually almost tea total, so I have morphed into the worlds cheapest date. Three bottles of Bud saw me tipsy, and five and a bit saw me turning in early feeling sloshed. Pathetic! To think I once used to put pint after pint of real ale down and then laugh at the drunken antics of my friends.
Lots of pictures were taken on Mel’s new digital camera, so I can confidently promise pictures later.