... must go faster... must go faster...

Labels: zzzzzzzoooooooooooooooooommmmm

[sigh] "Wake me up at 9, please." I said. "I want to get down to the Sunday market early." I said. "I have a lot to do."
Ken forgot. And also forgot the clocks went forward. I woke up naturally at 10.30-was-really-9.30...
And just as we were ready to charge out of the door, Raptor had an 'accident' - all over the outside of the catflap and the step. By the time that was cleaned up and the patio area hosed down it was gone 11, and today's schedule way off.
However, the market trip was successful: Kai chose a sturdy pair of brown trainers ("They won't show the mud!"), I found this rather nice cushion cover (brown satin: the flowers are filled with sequins and the outlines and leaves picked out in golden thread embroidery. Though it looks better in RL than here!), and picked up some cheap grapefruit for me.
Then Kai wanted to go out cycling (to break in his new trainers) so he and Ken went out to Wyevale (to pick me up a pot for the oriental salad greens mix, and some 8 foot long bamboo poles so I can make sunshades for the greenhouse for the summer) while I fixed netting over the two veg beds (to keep the cats off) and watered/tended/tidied in the greenhouse. We now have galia melon seeds sprouting, and mint, and the second lot of Brussel's sprouts are appearing. Everything is doing wonderfully out there so far.
Dinner was a bit of a kerfluffle too (roast with all trimmings), so I have spent most of today on my feet. It was nice to sit down with a couple of eps of Torchwood season 1 after dinner, at Kai's request.
Off to the loom...

Labels: gardening, greenhouse, shopping, Torchwood

[growl]... bloody haddock changed direction a-bloody-gain...

Labels: BST/GMT, haddock

The wind it do blow...
It made the greenhouse glass creak. That was mildly alarming.
But I have made a .php passworded file to connect to the VM dbase. And made the dbase itself. Now I just need to get them talking to each other.
... I know I did other things. Can't remember what. Brain gone.

Note to self: try updating earlier - you won't be too tired to remember what you've done...

Labels: busyness, client sites

More client stuff: potting on spinach/toms/the second lot of courgettes, planting out garlic, and getting the Romanescu broccoli on the go in the greenhouse: enjoying the garlic bread Kai made at school: nap: ready to get some of my own work done tonight - today in a sentence...

Labels: busyness

Hecticity abounds...
Spent much of the day wrestling with the IAVMT MYSql dbase. That was fun. Not finished yet, but at least I've done the data-entry. It would be good to have it usable by next week.
Made the quickest of all possible chilli con carne, which we all ate with tortillas, then Kai and I bombed out to John Cabot for parents' evening. Which went extremely well. We first tried to find his form tutor, who wasn't where she said she'd be, so I asked Kai to ask one of the other teachers. As it happened his Geography teacher was handy... Nearly crushed my hand! Big guy, towered over me, and boomed out into a hall crowded with teachers, kids and parents that Kai was an absolute delight to teach, bright, knowledgeable, enthusiastic and very well-behaved. But no, sorry, he didn't know where the form tutor was...
That kind of set the tone for the whole event. No-one had a bad word to say about the sprog except his Product Design teacher, and that was only that when he sits with a certain other sprog he gets sucked into talking rather than working. Kai himself said he's aware of it and tries not to sit with said sprog, but it's difficult - whereupon said teacher said she would move the whole class around a little so he could sit with someone else (and she'd break up a table of other sprogs who also all sit together and chat rather than focus, so it wouldn't look too obvious). Result!
His music teacher says he's the only one in his year to play keyboard with both hands, and is already well above the standard they're expected to reach by the beginning of year 9. She really wants him to continue on to BTEC/GCSE, and Kai is perfectly happy to comply - he loves his music. So we're now on the hunt for a better keyboard for him - and a very cheap/freecycled guitar, as he wants to try different instruments. And Ken said we'll see about a bassoon too, so he can sellotape it to his forehead and make like a jazz dalek...
And I could not believe his artwork. Makes mine look like scribbles.
The problem, I think, is going to be deciding which subjects he wants to concentrate on most, since at the moment he seems to be good at everything!
Except PE. I saw the PE teacher that gives him grief, from a distance. Think Nappa. This guy could be his live action double.
However, Kai's form tutor tells us that as of next year, the sprogs are going to be sorted into ability bands in PE, so he'll be with kids of his own level and hopefully tastes. And there's talk of offering mountain-biking as one of the options. Fingers crossed.
Anyway... He thinks, for next year, he's going to opt for Product Design for the tech GCSE, and for the other GCSE either Media Studies (with Astronomy as his reserve), or Astronomy (with Media Studies as his reserve. Astronomy... [sigh] Why didn't they offer astronomy when I was at school?) - the object being that the kids will all have two GCSEs before they even start studying seriously for their others - and they'll have had the experience of researching their subject, turning in graded coursework, and sitting real exams, before all the real pressure starts.
So we're proud, so proud of him! All that hard work is proving well worth it.

Labels: John Cabot, Kai

Got to sleep about 1am - and woke up at 6.30am, which was probably just as well as Ken's radio-alarm had packed up and Kai forgot to set his...
Bit tired now though.
Shopped early (picked up new radio-alarm), got photos for driving licence renewal (decided I'd better, finally. Need some sort of photo id and a passport now costs £72, as opposed to £10 for a licence. And no, you can't see them. They're 'orrible) and got shot of a load more business stuff on my return. Our last bit of amazon order arrived - IT Crowd season 2 and Lifeforce, an old fave - and the film must have been remastered for DVD as it's astonishingly crisp and clear (watching it now to check it's OK before ditching our old, ex-rental video of it). And I'm currently having another stab at the CalCol font. It's all go...
Found via Romyra's Lj (if you take the birthdate quizz, it's one of the others offered - "What's my darkest secret?" - which I did out of... something...) and posted because to my amazement it's true: Apparently I'm also going to take over Haiti with just a pair of pruning shears, I was bigfoot in a previous life, if I was some sort of medication it would make your hair turn blue, and the celebrity I'm most like is Marlon Brando. Not sure about that last one...
Back to the loom.

Labels: busyness, films, The IT Crowd

It's all a bit slow today.
Shopping, business bits, starting on the CalCol font. And that's about it for now...

Labels: busyness

Kai came down all doomful and distressed just after midnight (as I was finishing up planning to have an early night since I had to be awake early): he didn't know why, just that he felt meeply and couldn't sleep. I let him curl up on the sofa under my ginormous cardi (yes, I have one for times when I feel cold and just want to curl up and watch TV. Which admittedly doesn't happen often. Laid sideways it covers me from toes to shoulders: it swamped Kai. But it's very comforting) and watch a Boosh ep (Charlie) and a couple of IT Crowds while he sipped a hot chocolate Horlicks. By 1.30 he felt a bit better and kept yawning, so trundled off back to bed. It's really just hormonal, but it's hard when you don't know how to deal with it. Distraction's probably best at the moment, until he's a little older.
Got up ridiculously early. And this morning was the APAG Easter Egg Hunt down at the park. I've taken several dozen photos, which I still have to check through, resize and post on the new site. Ought to do that tonight I suppose.
After that Kai and I went shopping - principally for new trainers for him (couldn't get any. Rather, couldn't get any at a price I was prepared to pay. NOT forking out £25 for a pair when they're going to get a) caked with mud and other less salubrious materials and b) hell kicked out of them! We'll try the market next Sunday) and a pair of TV tables - the sort you eat TV dinners from, I mean - that I'd seen in The Range for £7.99 each some time back.
[growl] All sold out and they don't think they'll be getting any more in. Should have got the blasted things when I saw them - except I was completely laden down and wouldn't have been able to carry them at the time.
So on the whole only a moderately successful day. And I gave in to temptation and had a nap this afternoon - which was a little stupid as now I'm not tired and I have a very early start tomorrow morning.
Not fond of Mondays.

Later edit: THIS cheered me up, however...

Labels: APAG, Kai, shopping, The IT Crowd

Bit of an odd day. K&K decided to go for a walk over in the Knowle direction, and ended up being gone for four hours, which was a little extreme. I got on with some Heart, accompanied by Darkplace and Nathan Barley, and only remembered I hadn't defrosted the cheescake (Tesco's 'light' raspberry: half the fat of a normal cheesecake and really extremely nice) an hour before they arrived back.
<- This is my attempt to slice it so it thawed faster, but I have sod all strength in my hands now so had to wait til Ken got home to cut it up.
Was a nice dinner though - roasted a half leg of lamb, roast spuds and mixed veg, including probably the last (tiny) sprouts of the season. Very tasty.
After watching the Boosh special last night there didn't seem to be much point in not letting Kai watch Boosh Live, so we did this evening. He found it very funny.
On a side note, I was both pleased and infuriated to note that it was obvious, from the special, that Messrs Barratt and Fielding are not at all happy at bloody Sugar Puffs ripping off their crimping for the latest Honey Monster ad. Pleased because I couldn't imagine them selling out, certainly not to something so dire, and infuriated at the sheer fucking nerve of the company to plagiarise so appallingly. I'd boycott them, but we never eat their vile products anyway...
Back to the loom.

Labels: adventures, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, Haadri, The Mighty Boosh

A useful sort of day. K&K mended my headphones. I did a little more client site updating, along with planting carrot and onion seeds into the veg bed. We have a couple of marrows now sprouting in the greenhouse. One of my favourite vegetables, marrow. Though quite where I'm going to put them I'm not sure. If we have the sort of endlessly wet weather we had last year, I'll lose them if I just plant them out. [sigh] I need a coldframe...
But I'm really pleased! This -> is one of Wendy's mum's native wild orchids (the ones that appeared naturally in her garden and of which Wendy gave me a couple last year. That's an awkward sentence if ever I wrote one...) It's survived! I am delighted - I wasn't sure if either of them had. I shall now tend it carefully and take photos if it flowers (fingers crossed).
There's a Boosh special on at 9pm. Kai's staying up with us to watch it.

Labels: client sites, garden, orchids, The Mighty Boosh

Oh, if only...
So, today... Much of it spent in client site stuff (it's spring, everyone seems to be fancying a change of scenery...). Frodo came round to head off biking with Kai for an hour in the afternoon. I potted on the Brussel's sprouts and got some more seeds on the go in the greenhouse: planning to actually get some in the ground as soon as the cold snap's over.
Then after dinner Kai and I watched the last three Dr Who eps - Utopia, The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords. Bloody fantastic: I'd forgotten some of the details. Well, a lot of the details, actually. Positively awe-inspiring.
And then, of course, there was the next Torchwood, which for some reason they've moved from Wednesday to Friday. Though actually, this week, that works really well, since what appears to be the last ep of Season 2 is on BBC3 in a quarter of an hour, and since it's Sat tomorrow Ken and I are going to treat ourselves and watch it instead of waiting for next Friday. Three eps in one week - wheeeeee!
That being said, last Wednesday's was disappointing, to us, and I think probably to anyone who knows Sapphire and Steel, as it was very much a recycling of S&S ap 3, Man Without a Face (although that story was much more chilling than the Torchwood version. Though From Out of the Rain did reinforce how useful Owen is at the moment). Adrift however - that was wonderful.
I've found this series much more moving than the first. I don't want it to end.

Edit, 23.15: No, not the last one, the penultimate ep. I liked it. I enjoy a nice bit o' backstory. Wish it could have been longer though.

Labels: bike, client sites, Dr Who, Torchwood

Equinoctial Greetings!

There's a pic of the FSM on the wall behind Moss' desk. And I can't help but wonder if Roy's aversion to anything goatish is a veiled reference to the infamous goatse site...

Labels: British comedy, The IT Crowd

The amazon order arrived today - The IT Crowd and AD/BC the Rock Opera (which Ken has hidden away for Yule. We'll see how long that lasts, shall we?)
SO of course we watched IT tonight. All of it. All of us. It's hysterical! Rather more accessible and mainstream than our other new acquisitions. Unfortunately I went a little mad last night on Youtube and watched The Return of the Golden Child from series two, which stars the delicious Matt Berry (it's the voice. You know me and voices. And hands. And eyes. And mouth, in this particular instance...) as Douglas and which had me spluttering loudly with hilarity at two-thirty am. We have to have series two. I'll order it tomorrow.
The rest of the day saw more bread 'n' butter stuff: client site updates, one review written ('ooray! Only four more to do then I can start on the new pile...) and finishing a little fic for the (other) Zone, devising the background tile, code/uploading (details over on the Updates Blog).
And some gardening, of course.
Still haven't started the database, and I absolutely must. Hopefully tomorrow.
Oh, and I somehow volunteered to take the photos for the website for APAG's sprog easter egg hunt down at the park on Monday. Forecast is for a sunny day: please keep fingers crossed!

Labels: British comedy, client sites, short stories

My garden is full of bees...
Huge bumblies, as long as my thumb. (Though I have stupidly small hands, so that's not really saying much.) Well over an inch long, probably getting on for two inches. The bees, that is, not my thumb. (Which is two inches long, just.) They love the flowering currant - finally got the name, ribes sanguineum - but don't seem to be too fond of the magnolia stellata, which is now in bloom. (That reminds me, ought to crumble up some more chalk to go around it - I'll get Kai to do that this weekend, he loves hitting things with hammers.) I'm now keeping an eye out: the goat willow has just started flowering, and the honeybees seem to love it.
[grin] and right now (1.41 pm) Argent is at the top of the garden, glaring at the two maggles sitting out of his reach in the elder tree and glaring right back at him. It's a squint-off, folks!
I gather Argent lost, since he stalked in five minutes later and made his displeasure known by perching on the edge of the litter tray and peeing all over the floor. Well, all over the newspaper that we leave down given Raptor's current inability to aim straight. Elderly semi-incontinent cats, what joy...
Spent an hour trying to coordinate buses/meeting times for Kai's Parents' Evening, next Thursday. We didn't go last year, as we didn't feel the need to, he seemed mostly fine and his reports were great, but this year the school is holding half hour presentations on GCSE options: Kai has to start working towards two of them next year, so it's rather important that we attend to see what the procedure/choices are. There are times when I miss having a car. Not that I like driving through Bristol - I always hated it - but for evening events and heavy shopping it would be useful. Eh well. Maybe one day. Then again, I'd probably need a whole new slew of lessons: it's been seventeen years since i was behind the wheel.
Back to the rockface...

Labels: bugs, cats, garden, John Cabot, Kai

[blink] Where'd the weekend go?
But tonight Kai and I managed to find the easter eggs on Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, and spent an enjoyable thirty-eight minutes listening to the entire soundtrack.
And the greenhouse is looking great - now have mint and sunflowers sprouting in addition to everything else...

Labels: British comedy, busyness, client sites, greenhouse

Not much has happened today...
Idea shamelessly pinched from DRB. They caused some bemusement when found... ->
(Ken fancied a fried brunch - sausage, egg and fried bread. Tasty, if hardly healthy.)
This had Kai and I near-pissing ourselves - sheer genius.
Watched the end of Torchwood 1 - which Kai loved. And Ken and I finished watching Nathan Barley - a definite WTF? ending... (And Dan's hair! Oh nooooooo...)
And finally, a quote from the always scary FSTDT:

[On the Shroud of Turin] From what I watched on the tv show and what the Bible say, Jesus was raped in it for 3 days and then He rose from the dead.

A prime example of why correct spelling is important...

Labels: British comedy, busyness, FSTDT, Torchwood

Today has been a day of swan management - or as I often prefer to call it, fiddlefarting about like a de-winged bluebottle. Although - no, actually, fiddlefarting isn't quite the right term. It's more like trying to run a marathon on the moon - exhilarating and fun at the time but takes you about a year to finish. Unless you cheat and use a jet pack/IID/personal wormhole. But you'd never stoop so low now, would you. Because I know you're an honourable sentient. Aren't you. It's not a question, but you can consider it one if you like. [Hint, the correct answer is an affirmative...] Where was I? Oh yes.
IOW I was busy.
(Where's this urge to use abbrev. come from? Oh yes, this evening's goggleboxing. More on that in a mo.)
So here I was, trying to reply to a couple of tricky emails, revise the new APAG site, chat to Lutra, and tell Ken what was needed for his Arno's Park History segment onsite (all at the same time of course) when the doorbell screamed. I just knew it was the amazon order, so beat K&K to the door...
[verybiggrin] Kai immediately begged to put Garth Marenghi's Darkplace on again, which we did - and I had a brainwave (which will be posted over at the HaadriBlog once I've finished here). So while I carried on at my desk, and he continued creating his animations (his latest thing: he has a group of sort-of-super-heroes he's making little films about), it played in the background. Twice. With us watching favourite bits...
Then I made the mistake of idly checking amazon again. (Query, can one idly check such a site?) And found this... Ken said buy it and put it away for next Yule (yes, well, we know how well that idea works...) But in order to get the free p&p, I had to make it up to £15 - so we now have The IT Crowd series 1 on order (Kai is ecstatic). That's me starving next week!
My latest LoveFilm rental is War of the Worlds Live, which Wendy has seen (twice, I believe) and heartily recommended. Kai loved the music when he first heard it (and still plays the CD, GoodTwin, though perhaps not as often as he did at first), so I thought it was a good idea.
It's definitely a phenomenal show, but I think would work far better live than on the screen. We enjoyed it, but several of the tracks, which would have been perfect had we been in the audience, were just a tad too long for a TV viewing. Kai and I would still love to see it live though, if we ever got the chance. (Not sure about Ken...)
And THEN, after Kai went up to bed, we watched the first three eps of Nathan Barley...
Ye gods.
Well, Ken sat there with his 'not sure whether to be shocked, amused, appalled or traumatised' expression all through the first ep - which changed to a smile by halfway through the second. Me? I loved it. I freely admit I was all prepared to love it though, going by the reviews and the people in it. But it exceeded my expectations, being both a great deal more subtle than I hoped, and a lot more complex than I would have believed. Though there's no way Kai's watching it til he's at least 16!
Now I get to play - if I can decide which of the umpteen things I have on the go to tackle first. And beat back the guilt at not writing the backlogged reviews. So I have the third item from today's amazon delivery blasting through the headphones - The Broadsword and the Beast. Yes, I like Jethro Tull: you know by now my tastes are eclectic, to put it mildly. Ah, you should have heard me bombing down the A35 with the windows wide open, belting out Too Old To Rock 'n' Roll (Too Young To Die) back when I still had a car. Sight - and sound - to chill the blood, it were. Especially for the people in the cars coming the other way...
Laters!

Labels: British comedy, busyness, client sites, musekicks

Our Mighty Boosh tickets arrived this morning...
So, what else has happened?
Shopping done (and I found a big pig and a half lamb leg on special!). Phase two of the newly designed APAG site done. Tarragon, kiwi and dragonfruit seedlings potted on, and sunflower seeds started. Oh, and 20 Uses for a Greenhouse number 5 - as a bird hide. I stood in there this afternoon, out of the rain, and watched the bluetits a yard away searching out insects in the fake currant bush, while our resident blackbird pair hunted worms under the spirea, all of a foot distant. Terrific!
Watched Random Shoes (which I remember not liking first time round. Second time it's really, really sad and poignant) and Out of Time, which I enjoyed as much as ever.
Going to try to tackle the database tomorrow. And I really must get those reviews written - I'm lagging well behind.
Later...

Labels: client sites, gardening, The Mighty Boosh, Torchwood

So off K&K trotted in the morning, though not quite as early as planned, to bus first to Wells and then onwards, via Taunton, to Bishop's Lydeard and the West Somerset Railway (even though it wasn't running today). Unfortunately they left it too late to start, and would have had to return before they even got there. And the TARDIS still isn't finished. So they went to Yeovil instead. Not that there's much there, but Kai thoroughly enjoyed riding on the buses.
But Kai will never touch a Starbucks ever again. They went in for a coffee while waiting for a bus and it was vile. Could have told them that!
I got the initial design for the new APAG site done (waiting on feedback now), potted on the courgettes and got the pepper seeds on the go, tidied the greenhouse a bit more, and even managed a little housework. This evening was taken up with old Torchwood (They Keep Killing Suzie), new Torchwood (which we loved and which I think Kai might like too), and then I found The IT Crowd series 1 ep 1 was on. As it happened Kai was still awake, so he came down to watch it with me. It had us both in stitches - wonderfully daft.
Ken picked up another pack of venison sausages from Wells market: posh sossij and mash tomorrow!

Labels: adventures, British comedy, gardening, Torchwood

Morning - housework. Oh joy. That being said, I really should try to schedule in a decent spring-cleaning session: the place looks dingy in the sunshine. It's probably because the windows need cleaning. Kai will need to clear his bedroom floor before I can get in there though...
Afternoon - meeting (here) with the APAG PR person: they want a newly designed and greatly expanded website. Not a problem.
And Kai's birthday presents arrived, a nifty matt black and silver 1gig mp3 player, FB 13 and the Frequency DVD. He's wonderfully happy with all: I've copied all his favourite Boosh tracks and Demon Days onto it.
Evening - Kai watched Frequency while I started on the APAG site design. He really enjoyed it - terrific film. Then all three of us settled down to watch the next Torchwood - Greeks Bearing Gifts. It was better the second time 'round.
I think K&K are going out tomorrow, either to Bath or to ride on buses. I plan to finish the site design and have a stab at the MYSql database I'm supposed to be creating for IAVMT (though I'm still waiting to hear what searchable fields they want, so not sure how much I can actually get done... Eh well.)
Going to try for an early night.

Labels: APAG, films, Torchwood, website

Wonderful...
We all thoroughly enjoyed our Torchwood tonight - Small Worlds and Countrycide (which I still find incredibly chilling). Once we've watched all the eps, I think I'll have to pick up the end of the last Dr Who series to complete the story, however. Oh woes. What a hardship...

Labels: Torchwood, weather

Kai's Birthday.
He seems to have enjoyed it - a quiet day doing exactly what he wanted, which was mostly watching DVDs. We picked up Ice Age - he already has Ice Age 2 - and Back to the Future pt 2 - he already has pt 1 - as presents: he thoroughly enjoyed them. Unfortunately our main presents to him haven't yet arrived, despite them being in stock and me ordering them two and half weeks ago. Bloody amazon, no idea what they're playing at at the moment but their postal service is appalling. But at least it means he has something to look forward to.
And this evening we watched the first four eps of Torchwood series 1. Yes, it was supposed to be for Ken's birthday in June, but there you go... Kai loved it. And tonight I let him stay up with me to watch The IT Crowd (series 2 ep 4), which was very funny. I can see that going on the 'must buy' list too...
I spent some time on the garden, sorting out the two new slug-pubs and starting the galia melon seeds in the greenhouse. I left the tomato seedlings out there last night (in the mini-cloches) and they were fine, which is great as it frees up room on the kitchen window shelf.
Oh, and we had another Thompson and Morgan £5 gift voucher in the post, too, so I've ordered seeds for next year (the Maximus Brussel's sprouts I couldn't get this year, all-year-round caulis and a cold-tolerant Czech Republic tomato variety, and because I was ordering seeds I could also claim two other packets for free, so we also have mangetout and... bugger. Forgotten. Brain still AWOL, dammit. Another packet of something we wouldn't normally try, anyway. It'll cone back to me. Main thing is, all we had to do was pay the postage and an additional 37p. Not bad!
The wind is beginning to pick up out there. I'm hoping the forecast storms don't hit this area too badly. (Any area, in fact, though we know that won't happen.)

Labels: birthdays, British comedy, gardening, Kai, Torchwood

Found Garth Marenghi's Darkplace and Nathan Barley on amazon uk at a ridiculously low price (70% off? Why?), so have ordered them. Looking forward to the latter after reading the reviews!
Ken commented that he enjoyed Darkplace - not as much as Boosh, which we can watch again and again without it losing its appeal - and thinks that Wendy would really like it. And thinking about it, he's right! Fancy watching next time you visit?

Labels: British comedy, friends

Kai isn't looking forward to his birthday. He doesn't want to be a teenager. He wants the celebration to be low-key, so that's what we're doing...
We walked to the BookBarn on the Bath Rd today - only to find it closed down February last year. [sigh] Eh well, the exercise was useful, and the sun glorious today.
I now have courgettes and spinach sprouting, and the cumbles were perfectly fine in the greenhouse overnight, so fingers crossed they'll be successful this year.
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace arrived from LoveFilm this morning, so of course we had to watch it this evening. It's a little uneven, but with enough laughs to make it worthwhile getting (Kai loved it, although despite my warning him there'd be bits he wouldn't understand, he kept asking questions all the way through - which isn't bad, exactly, but it didn't 'alf interrupt the flow.) And of course, it has the delectable Mr Barratt, although with only something like two minutes screen time I was left a little disappointed. Still, Matt Berry (he of the cuddly-teddy-bearness and amazing voice) only had a little more than that, relatively speaking, in Boosh, so I suppose it all evens out... why the hell am I typing this? Anyone who knows the series' will know that already, and anyone who doesn't won't understand... Then again, I could say that about just about everything, and if I ever actually paid attention to myself I'd never write anything... Nah, never happen. They won't shut me up. Never. I swear that even when I'm dead, I'm going to come back and possess some poor sod and force them to write my books for me [insert evil/mad scientist laugh here].
... back to the loom.

Labels: adventures, British comedy, greenhouse, The Mighty Boosh

Ken had an optician's appointment today.
(Photo taken without flash.)
The optician gave him some drops to enlarge his pupils so she could check the small haemorrhage they found last time... WHAT? Honestly, I wish he'd tell me these things! Everything is OK now, apparently, but the drops have taken hours to wear off (the appointment was at 1pm, it's now 9.15 and they still aren't quite back to normal). He's felt headachy and like he had flu all afternoon - not fun...
Kai's been watching time travel DVDs all day, which has been a little distracting, but I've potted on the cucumbers, recycled the old, torn mini-greenhouse cover and shunted the second bag of compost up to the potting table. The first lot of Brussel's sprouts seedlings are coming up, and some of the courgette seeds have sprouted. I think there are even a couple of mint plants showing as well. I luvs me greenhouse, I does!
Ken hasn't been able to do much today - can't see the computer screen clearly yet - so we're taking a little time off to watch Boosh Live again, with a glass or two of wine. Shall get back to the loom afterwards...

Labels: gardening, greenhouse, The Mighty Boosh

Well that was fun...
A while back I proposed taking Kai to Wells, so he could see where Hot Fuzz was filmed - so today we headed off at just gone 9am, off up Talbot Hill to the Wells Rd to catch a bus. We arrived in plenty of time, but the sun was so bright (and my astigmatism a pain at the moment) that I had to have Kai read the bus numbers as they approached. And I misheard what he said, and didn't realise until after it had sailed past that that was the bus we needed. [sigh]
But buses to Wells are every 30 minutes, so we went to check the charity shops, and popped into the DVD/Games exchange - where we found Flatliners (an old favourite: played it tonight to check it was OK and Kai just loved it) for £1.99, and Back to the Future part 1 (it's time-travel: of course Kai loves it!) for £4.99, so it was probably just as well we missed the first bus!
Caught the next one without problem and arrived in Wells an hour later after a really lovely ride: brilliant sunshine and a relatively quiet road. It was market day, which was great fun, loads of stalls with local produce, could have spent a fortune if I'd had one! I was strongly tempted by the pheasant burgers, but at £1.99 a pack of either one big or two small burgers - couldn't quite see - thought I'd give them a miss this time. But I did pick up some posh sossij (venison, sage and onion - £3.80 but the stall had tasters and they were irresistible!) for our sausage and mash junk food dinner tomorrow.
We followed the moat around the Bishop's Palace - this little door was open and the glimpse of the inside was quite lovely - and sat watching the ducks while Kai stuffed his face with the 'special' hotdog he'd pleaded for (three sausages - venison I think - in a whopping great bap!) for his lunch. I must remember next time and not bother taking lunch rolls for him...
A quick walk around the cathedral later and we decided to go a bit further: no point in buying SouthWest FirstDay tickets if you don't get good value from them! We decided a jaunt to Bridgwater would be nice, so leapt on the bus...
It was a country bus. I knew it was going via Glastonbury and Street: what I hadn't realised was that it also went completely round the houses (literally) through the viallges of Ashcott, Catcott, Edington, Cossington, Woolavington and Puriton as well. An hour and 27 miles to go 12. Ye gods my back was aching by the time we got to Bridgwater!
And there wasn't a more direct route back to Wells, either, so we got off, walked around for ten minutes, then got back on the bus. And just outside of Glastonbury the police had blocked off the roundabout and weren't letting any traffic through on the Wells Rd (no idea what had happened, there was nothing on the local news this evening) so we had to go back through Glastonbury, round the side of the Tor and out on the Shepton Mallet Rd. Oh joy!
We finally reached Wells bus station half an hour later than anticipated - and that was lucky too, since the police had also blocked the roundabout there! - but did finally manage to get the Bristol bus. Didn't arrive back until 6.30, though - a long day. Just as well I cooked the chili yesterday!
But it was a fun, if tiring, day. And tonight's Torchwood was quite beautiful I thought.
Think I'll take it easy tonight...

Labels: adventures, films

Quick update:
Enjoyed Another Flip for Dominick (though the end was a bit of a cop-out). Discovered LoveFilm carry Nathan Barley, The IT Crowd series 1 and Garth Merenghi's Darkplace, all of which I missed previously, so now have those listed to rent. (I caught an ep of the second series of The IT Crowd on Sunday night - well, Monday morning really - and rather liked it...)
... and I know there were at least three other things I meant to write here, but I foolishly stopped along the way to read some fic and now I can't remember what they were. Bugger.
I'll edit later if I reremember.

(Ten minutes later) Oh yes... well, one of them anyway. The new orchid is scented! Lifted it for a little orchid care this afternoon (still battling scale insect) and the wonderful fragrance of vanilla drifted up. Just beautiful. I'm really pleased: I'd hoped it was a scented variety.

(Several hours later) Ah - and Celtic Symbols reached number 17 in amazon.com's Celtic Bestsellers list today. You never know, I might actually get some royalties for that one!

Labels: Celtic Symbols, films, orchids

Monday shopping - oh joy. But Kai came with me to help carry, so it was better than normal.
It's cold. All my seedlings are wrapped up in little white blankets until tomorrow...

Labels: greenhouse, shopping

Happy Mothers' Day to all UK mums!
It's not often my birthday and Mothers' Day fall so close together. (Is it? My brain is still AWOL and my memory about as useful as a faulty colander...) I was treated to breakfast in bed (scrambled eggs and sautéed shitake mushrooms on toast and a glass of blueberry juice - my favourites) and read a little of Eroica 11 while it was being made. Lovely way to start the day!
I have some Belgian truffles for later too...
I'm not working today - well, only to prepare the veg for dinner (big pig roast with all the trimmings): the MYSql database I have to construct will wait 'til tomorrow, I'm sure, and the emails I need to answer ditto. I have done a little gardening though: started marrows and courgettes off in the greenhouse, and given some thought to how to organise everything, since the cucumbers will need planting on soon. I suppose I ought to start leaving them out overnight first, in a few days when I feel more confident we won't have frost. Though the environmental fleece I picked up last year did a grand job of protecting the seedlings a couple of weeks ago: I can always resort to that overnight if I'm worried.
Ken has a meeting this evening: Kai and I will Boosh.

Labels: gardening, greenhouse, mumness, The Mighty Boosh

Just beautiful. I still don't know which cambria it is!
Today was hectic in the garden - beautiful sunshine, if a rather chilly wind. I weeded both the veg beds, then Kai came out and helped me edge the new veg bed with the same sort of plastic stuff I used on the old one. We pruned the bay tree a little, then I transplanted radish seedlings into one of the troughs in the greenhouse, and emptied out the first of the bags of organic peat-free compost into a variety of planters and pots, in preparation for the (hopefully) warmer weather this month. It's all looking a lot tidier in the garden now.

Kai's term report is very good again. Interestingly he has more 'excellent's and 'outstanding's in Art, English, Geography and Music than in the Science and Maths side, this time. We're very pleased, of course!
Kai and I watched the Mighty Boosh special feature Making of Boosh 3 this evening. Thoroughly enjoyed it - wonderfully daft...
Time to be getting on with something creative, I think. Back to the loom...

Labels: gardening, orchids, The Mighty Boosh

A little update...
I don't often check my sitemeter report these day (haddock! haddock! my... um... not my kingdom, as I don't have one. Except for my garden, and strictly speaking that's not altogether mine to give. And you're not getting my greenhouse! I could probably spare a custom aromatherapy mix... where was I? Oh yes...) but I'm rather glad I did tonight. There were several hits from the Aeclectic Tarot site, and, curious, I hopped over to look.
It's a lovely site - and to my delight a number of the members have tried and really like Celtic Messages. (Emma, if you're reading this, they love your illos!) I can't comment without registering - which I have done, but it takes about 24 hours for acceptance - so if anyone from the forum visits here in the meantime: yes, I am that same Joules Taylor, and thank you for your very flattering comments! I am very happy that you find the pack both attractive and useful, and hope you get much pleasure from using it in the future.

Labels: Celtic Messages