Friday 30th July 2010

While cooking dinner this evening, Kat dyed my hair. It took a lot longer than intended and we were very late leaving for astronomy club. I had wanted it done for ages and especially before my birthday party so it had to be done! Looks good though.

We arrived at the hall in Woodchurch during the opening news, so we were still in time to listen to Dave and Tim telling everyone how easy it is to use the solar scope. So easy, even I can use it, but they weren't brave enough to say that in their presentation! It was soon time for the quiz. It was in the style of University Challenge with 2 teams of 4 up the front and we were the audience. The first few rounds were so specialised that even our resident experts on the panel were struggling and I'm sure none of the audience had a scooby either. I'd never heard of Messiers before, let alone know what constellations, etc they related to. Batting for Ashford there was Steve W, Dave, Steve J and the star of the team, Jonathan. He was amazing the way that he was working out some of the very technical questions and got the team into the lead at this stage. Then on the final rounds, astro-trivia, sci-fi and the astro-music, Steve, Steve and Dave took over from him. On this final round, they started out by playing a track from ELO. Dave and Steve's faces were a picture of happiness at the sound of this. (Today's pic, copied from Galex website, is Messier 83 (also known as the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, M83 or NGC 5236).

Thursday 29th July 2010 – Partylite Home Show

At lunch time, I went to Iceland to get some food for Saturday's BBQ. I had been checking on line and had an idea of what I wanted to get. They were recommending a deal on feeding 10 people for £20. I asked one of the guys filling a freezer if I would be able to do home delivery from the front of the store. Having queued for ages, I then found out that this had to be done at the till at the back of the store. I was sure that I have arranged for home delivery from the front tills before, and in the helpful member of staff's defence, he later said that it depends who's on the tills! This was delivered about 7pm.

This evening was one of my best home shows that I've had for a while. Emma and Nikki came along first, soon followed by Sammy and Heather. We were soon joined by Julie, and then Dellanie joined us too. Emma had been to a Partylite show before and loves it, but she hadn't had a “wax lesson” and didn't know about “hugging” pillar candles. I had only met Dellanie once before at a Pamper evening and she does Pampered Chef. We are planning to do a party swap later in the year.

Wednesday 28th July - Archaeology Club Walk

We met up at the square in Lenham about 7pm, after dragging Dave away from the pickled eggs in the chip shop, we drove in convoy to the woods where we were to explore. We had a quick look in the woods at the possible iron age bank. Maybe with a little imagination but I'm not convinced. Then, losing two of our members who were busy looking at other holes, we wandered up the path to do a bit of field walking. I think the intention was to go further on the walk but everyone seemed to be enjoying picking at the field. The best finds of the evening were a nicely shaped flint and some bullet shells.

We wandered back to the cars. Those that wanted to drove up to the next stop. We walked. It was a lovely evening and we didn't feel like we'd really walked yet. We went to a group of houses up the road where some of the members live on the site of an old manor house. It has it's own church which is what we had been invited to see. It was once a lovely little chapel. It was a ruin and the roof has been rebuilt. It is also very close to the site that was bombed during the war and many soldiers lost their lives. The church is used it for parties occasionally. Another member is keen on using his divining rods and was showing us where he thinks the original walls possibly were. Again I'm not convinced but I think there is something in it.

Sunday 25th July 2010

I got up today with the intention of having a clean up, but remembered that I hadn't uploaded the photos from Brighton Kite Festival yet. So I got on with that, while watching Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs. It would have taken a fraction of the time to do the photos if I could have uploaded them all in one go but I couldn't do more than a dozen without it all freezing up.

After lunch, we went for a walk to the Create Music Festival. I could have told Dave before we left that he wouldn't like it but I think he wanted something to moan about in his blog and we needed to get out and do something even if it was just a half hour walk.

When we got back, I got on with the house work and cooking dinner. I found some beef rib in the freezer. It was really tasty, served with potatoes and peas with peppers. Dave and I watched some Sponge Bob and then watched a documentary on Anacondas, currently on Anytime. It was amazing. The couple on the conservation project would walk bare foot through the water as it was easier to find them with their feet and a stick. If they wore shoes then there was more chance that they would get bitten as they would have hurt the beast before they noticed it was even there. It was also interesting to see one eating a turtle. Apparently they can even break down the shell in their stomach once swallowed.

At bowling tonight, my first game was 174 but the next two games were not so good at 120 something.

Saturday 24th July 2010

I had quite a lazy morning. The boys had gone fishing and Kat stayed at home with me. I dropped her off at the outlet, and was on the way towards town when I realised that I didn't have any mobile phones with me. It's amazing how lost you feel without them. I raced around Lidl's and Farm Foods. I drove back passed the outlet and and didn't see her so I went home to find my mobile and unload the shopping quickly. Apparently she had been waiting on the steps and had seen me earlier.

We both then went to the Star to spend some time with Lisa and her friends at their charity music day. We got home later than intended. The boys were already back from fishing. Martin soon arrived, and we had a quick run around Asda before going to Chris's. We watched “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” and “DOA”. The first film was OK seeing as it was billed as a thriller. There was one disturbing scene in it but the story was good. I was intended to read the book before but probably won't now. I had downloaded it on my old mobile but I think I lost it when I upgraded my phone. “DOA” is a fun action film that I had seen before.

Thursday 22nd July 2010 - Stories from work & Powerbase meeting

Stories from work today:
Firstly, a warning for the girls. Glynis's husband was driving through the shared space area in Ashford yesterday and there was a crowd of people waiting to cross, with quite an attractive girl at the front. As the car in front of him went past, he reached his hand out and dragged it across her breast. To say she was shocked was an understatement. I hope her friends were quick enough to get his number plate.

The other story was of a little boy in the bath with his Mummy. He said, “Mummy, don't move”. At first she was concerned that he'd seen a spider. Then he said, “Don't move, or it will go off”! Apparently he had seen the string from her Tampax and thought she was sitting on a party popper!! Bless!

I went to a meeting this evening at the location of the recently vacated Powerbase building. A new business tried to continue there but this wasn't working for them. So they have now decided to develop the site into “one or two bedroom cottages”, as the letter said. Actually it is proposed that there will be 8 properties on the site. Two flats at the front, with 3 two bedroom houses behind and 3 bungalow style one bedroom places at the rear of the site. They have tried to keep in line with existing building plots, but may consider adjusting the angle of the rear properties to face outwards. Apparently there are also old fuel tanks underneath the land that will need to be removed. The proposed plans on the site are in keeping with the bay window Victorian design of the other houses here and they do look quite smart. My main concern that I raised was the parking. The owner has said that he is happy for us to use the forecourt and the space at the rear, if available, for the time prior to the development starting. After that, the new home owners will not have allotted parking and it will be a first come first served basis. As there is no garden space at all, these new places will not be aimed to be sold to families, single people and couples. I also mentioned that they consider that there could be a problem with drainage and water pressure into these places. Our houses are over 100 years old and it is likely the current pipes won't cope with the extra volume. Although keen to move on the project, as it is wasted now sitting empty, they don't envisage seeing the building work starting for maybe a couple of years by the time that they have got through the red tape. They might have a further invitation for the locals when they have moved on further with this. I think it will be good for us in the long run. Better to have good looking houses than run down businesses when it comes to our house prices!

Tuesday 20th July 2010 - BBQ for Chris's birthday

At lunch time, I was going to go to Tesco to get food for the BBQ this evening. When I heard that Christine and Glynis were going, I tagged along with them. A quick whizz round the shop for burgers, sausages, etc and back to the car as quick as possible.

I had hoped to leave near to 5o'clock but I broke franking machine again. It doesn't like me. We often fall out. I think I'm too rough with it when it's get jammed.

Once home, the boys had already set light to the coals. Much too early in my opinion as we were using the special bags that are supposed to be ready in 20 minutes, but I was told not to interfere. On with preparing skewers of meat and tomatotes, and chopping onions. There were 9 to feed plus Matt. I asked him to bring along his own food which he was quite happy to do! We had sausages and beefburgers, pork skewers and meatball skewers. The meatball skewers did work in the end but some of them didn't survive cooking. Followed by chocolate swiss roll and strawberries. A good evening had by all, especially Chris who's birthday celebration it was. Today's picture is Dave having a snooze in his new chair after eating loads. Well, it's not like he did any cooking!