Heart workout

Well today I rode the bike to work for the first time. It is in fact just over six miles to work if I go along the front. On the way there I had the wind against me all the way along the prom and it was a killer. It took me forty minutes to do the journey. On the way back, of course, I had the wind to help me. It only took thirty-three minutes, which is how long it takes me in the car of an afternoon. Also while my average HBM was 169 on the outward leg, coming home it was only 154. Needless to say my legs are jelly and there are a lot of sweaty clothes in the wash.

Katie has provided us with some drama today. It seems a couple of days ago that she thought we could do with some help tidying up. To this end she gathered the large pile of papers on the coffee table together and binned them. Now while the newspapers on the top were indeed out of date, the stack included; my insurance documents, packs from both Lorii’s and my solicitors and a cheque for over £560.00 from the insurance company. Needless to say we were not amused. Some frantic phone calls seem to have undone most of the damage. Good job I did not have my heart monitor on when that news came through. I think it would have broken it.

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.

Jacob revealed!

DSCF0044
Originally uploaded by Canon Fodder.

Just in case you were wondering what Jake looked like... Oh and yes he does hate this picture!

Jacob's Blog

Jacob's Blog My son Jacob has just started his own blog. He too has picked a Unreal graphic for his avatar. He is showing his age with the odd 'Not telling' comment and some stunning gramatical errors. But all told it's not a bad start.

Rampage

Well I got my first Rampage this morning. About time too. Once again in the Dome of Death, and it boosted my ranking for a very short while. Click here to see the proof.

So sue me!

Well the insurance people have given me a Daewoo Matiz, in yellow! The Mondeo has gone to be assessed and I suspect written off. Both Lorii and I have been appointed solicitors. Independent ones at that, I guess in case I’m found at fault and Lorii ends up suing me!

Our Sun: Burning Bush II

Sun
Originally uploaded by Canon Fodder.

The sun taken with an ultraviolet camera on a satellite stationed in a Lagrange point. If you notice there is a flare ejecting or exploding, whatever the technical term is, just to the right of centre. The radiation spewed or emitted, once again I struggle to describe something so powerful and enormous, went on to cause a fantastic display of 'Northern Lights.' Which you can see if you go here; www.flickr.com/photos/johncharlton/4974282/

Ford-Found On Roadside, Dead

Ford-Found On Roadside, Dead
Originally uploaded by Canon Fodder.

A totally crazy day today with many blogable moments so settle in for a good read. Lorii and I decided that we needed a new bed today, and we also needed to pop into town and buy a present for baby Ben now that he is home. So, with Katie out with her friends, I loaded the rest of the family in the car and set off for the furniture shop. As I approached the store, the junction it sits on does not allow traffic to turn right into the car park. So I drove past looking for somewhere to turn around. At the next set of traffic lights I went to turn right, into a car park for a car hire store where I could turn round. Now as I went to make this turn I could not see the oncoming road as there was a large white van facing me also looking to turn to his right. However as the lights turned to red as I sat in the middle of the junction I felt it was safe to proceed. Wrong! Just as I moved off a bus shot from behind the van, it had obviously been lurking in wait. I tried hard to stop, but the bus didn’t. Well it did, but only after it had taken half the bumper off the front of the car in exchange for some fetching green paint.

We stopped and exchanged details. The bus driver decided he did not want the bumper he had just ripped from my car so I put it in the boot. Everyone was asked if they were okay, and as everyone felt fine we went on our way. As we drove home Lorii said that her neck was starting to hurt. So when I got in I’m straight on to the insurance people. They are very helpful, which seems wrong somehow, I’m sure they’ll make up for it later. Anyhow they arrange for a garage to take the car in hand on Monday and for a hire firm to deliver a car on Monday too.

Next I call the police to report the accident, they take the details and tell me to take Lorii to the hospital. Great, both our hearts sink at the prospect of a Saturday afternoon spent kicking out heels in A&E. So we gather some good reading material and head for the door. Just then a lass called Sarah calls to ask if she can walk our dog for us, which is sweet but inconvenient. So we say no, we have been involved in a traffic accident and are on our way to hospital. She says, “Oh what happened?” We say, “We were hit buy a bus.” Her reply will live with me to the day I die, as the last thing I expected was, “Was it a No.7?”

So we get to hospital who broke every record for speedy service. The only comment the nurse made, as she confirmed Lorii had whiplash, was there would soon be the entire passenger manifest in off the bus, claiming whiplash too. So now I sit here typing this Lorii is off buying drugs, and I’m awaiting a visit by the law who will probably wait until there is something good on the telly before coming round. Ho hum.

Ham

ham
Originally uploaded by Canon Fodder.

Take one ham. Score the fat in a grid pattern and rub in plenty of whole grain mustard. Marinade in cider for a couple of days. Place in a hot oven, still in the marinade and covered in foil. Roast for one hour. Remove from oven; pour away marinade and coat with lashings of honey. Put back in the oven for another half an hour. Remove from oven and allow to stand for half an hour before carving in thin fine moist succulent slices. Yes Mum I am eating well!

Ben II

Ben
Originally uploaded by Canon Fodder.

As promised pictures of Ben. Turns out that the infection has passed and he is out of danger. They do not know what the infection was, (but his CPR should have been between1-6 went as high at one time as 22) but it was not Meningitis. After aggressive doses of antibiotics the mystery infection is now under control. He is under a double"blue" lamps to get his vitamin D up and the jaundice down, they are taking blood samples every four hours to check on his biliruben, unfortunately the anti c blood from Tracy (My Sister) crossed the placenta wall. It is having a bit of a battle in Ben's arteries with his blood - but he's doing fine and looks cute in his sunglasses.

Ben I

Well it seems baby Ben is not a well lad. Due to complications during the pregnancy he was born with a damaged immune system- or something, Mother is not to clear. Anyway, the mite has come down with an infection and has landed in an ICU at hospital. All we can do is wait and pray.

Lunar

I had a storming game of Unreal last night, The map was Lunar and my team won. But better than that, I was the best player on my team. The secret was we worked as a team, with me as leader! I like Lunar and if it is played properly it is easy to win. On a personel level I made a point of charging down the map and firing at the enemies node. It did not matter if I was killed without fragging one of them, as the point is to make the other team spawn back at their core. Once the opposition were on the back foot it was just a matter of advising my team mates, which were the best weapons to use. Three players scored higher than me. But I think that was only because of the abandon some of my side showed when charging down the bottleneck to the enemies’ core. It was a real blast and I’m still on a high from it now!

Silly Buggers

Laser Rat
Originally uploaded by Canon Fodder.

Have been playing silly buggers. Found a group on Flickr who draw lasers from their pets eyes. I've submited the effort on the right. How long before they chuck me out?

Uncle

I'm a fresh Uncle! My little sister, Tracy, has just given birth to her second child. A boy weighing in at  9lbs 91/2oz his name is Benjamin Martin. Well done sis.