Busy weekend here - hope things have calmed down a bit for our Crusaders!

Spent Saturday tidying and running errands with Melony and Sunday tearing into our front "garden", which somehow this year developed a severe case of brambles. I think I've managed to get all the big briars out and leave the ones with buds on - might as well get some actual fruit before I tear the bloody things up!

Spent 15 quid on a cheapo space-hopper and Swingball and discovered that Melony is pretty good at the latter. She got a ball on the head twice and the bat once (when she threw it up in the air!!!) but managed to return quite a lot of hits and is actually about as good as Mr M (who has the co-ordination of a platypus and can't hit a cow's arese with a banjo). Much hilarity ensued

A future tennis star!

Busy here too (not space-hopping, though, sadly) - it's that usual thing of getting loads done then loads more to be done arriving.

But I'm not too grumpy because next week's weather is shaping up brilliantly for our bat break. In fact it might be too hot!

Couldn't help but chuckle at that.


Hi Laura.

jra - should have see me laughing at the pair of them!
Got more exercise doing that hn taking my turn at the swingball!!!

Hi jra, bats you'll enjoy the holiday more knowing you have a clean desk
Handy, glad M doing well
Hope all other GOW's are well

Are any of you keen on roller coasters. They scare me.

Luther has just made me scream and frighten the cat

Who is Luther?

Luther is a telly cop!

Hope puss has recovered, snowy!

Roller-coasters - don't think anything on God's green earth would induce me to even try!
I suspect Melony is going to love them, but she has some big cousins who can take her on - I'm not doing it!

I'm sweltering today, and it's damp and cloudy. Yuk!

I was planning to record Luther, but forgot. Probably for the best.

Fairly damp and cloudy here too and I need hot, hot, hot - the boy is back for the summer and has 10 bin bags full of washing. I might have to rig up several washing lines!

Hang on to the washing until the weekend, BG - we're in for a heatwave allegedly.

I had thought about watching Luther but having seen lots of reactions to it am rather glad I didn't.

Happy Hump Day grumpers. Feels like Friday, shame it isn't

Best roller coaster in the world (not that I've tried that many, in fairness) is the RocknRoller Coaster at Universal Studios, Disneyland Paris. This is the best youtube video I could find of it but none of them do it justice

ETA: Found another one which gives a better idea of the speed involved. It's a brilliant ride, not scary, just enormous fun - they really got the balance right

Those scared me, just by watching them.

I can cope with trains though.

Trains at Speed UK (3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2A1pg1K4sQ

How I did this on the other hand, is another matter and I survived to tell the tale. One slip and it is game over.

Crib Goch, Snowdon. Initial scrambling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELdijJpGcyc

Crib Goch, Knife Edge, Pinnacles & Snowdon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqLb3I4I920

To be honest, it still scares me to this day and why did I even contemplate doing that.

I used to go rock climbing with my dad on family holidays, scared my mother to death but loved every minute. When I look back at the photos it's bad enough but we also took our kids there when they were small and I realised then why my mother had been so anxious Risk taking makes us feel human

Indeed.

On my bucket list, as I am fascinated by Japanese culture.

【フルHD】東海道・山陽新幹線 Tōkaidō&Sanyō Shinkansen のぞみ11号
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceqDG7t9O5c

A day to remember.

I was walking down to one of the local shops and a stone was thrown, landing at my feet.

So, I approached the people concerned (5 young Pakistani lads), who then proceeded to call me a racist, to which I replied, 'If I am a racist, why have I been living here for the last 15 years'. Then I left and had stones thrown at me again, one hitting me on my back.

Then later, the son of my plumber (who fixed the shower), turned up unannounced (no phone call or anything in advance), and was let into the house by a tenant. So, a conversation between closed doors went along the lines, 'You owe me £25 for the work done', to which I replied 'I haven't got the money, and the repair should have been done free of charge', especially as I had paid £300 for the job to have been done in the first place. He left then, but not before calling me a f*cking pr*ck. Nice one.

And yes, I will be changing my plumber. It's just unacceptable language to say to a customer, particularly as I wasn't rude to them or swore at them.

oh my goodness....how horrible

What a day jra! Some people really are little shits, aren't they. Are you going to tell plumber senior what happened? And is it worth having a very quiet word with the police about the stone throwing lads? You might not be the first or last person they've picked on.

I've resolved the plumber issue, and have offered to pay the £25 pounds, simply just to keep the peace. However, unless I get an apology from the son (unlikely it seems), they are not going to get any more business from me, which in the long term will cost them more than it will for myself.

As for the stone throwing incident. There were around about 10 of them today in the same area, accusing me of various things, being drunk one of them. Yes, I had had a drink on the first occasion, but was still polite to them and compos mentis, other than saying STFU when being hit by a stone. However, I think some of them took issue with the drink, because technically Pakistanis (or more precisely Muslims) are not supposed to drink, but I know this is not always the case, because I have two Pakistani (Muslim) tenants and both of them drink, plus some of their friends. In other words, all this seems to be a bit flexible. I'm not bothered either way, as long as they don't get aggresive or overly noisy, which is the case for all my tenants, regardless of ethnicity/religion/colour etc. etc.

In other news, I saw a couple of blue butterflies on the local downs, but couldn't get close enough to make an exact identification.

Young lads like that have far too much testosterone and not enough places to put it, frankly. Glad you weren't hurt, jra, but it's a sh1tty thing to have happening.

batty, I'm blaming you for this bloody weather!
I'm going to have to spend the next however long hiding inside all day and changing clothes every five minutes to avoid sweat-rings. Bah!

You can have a fortnight, then I start rain-dancing.
You've been warned!

Thanks handy and you're right. I wasn't injured, as I was walking away at the time and had my back turned to them. It's not acceptable behaviour in my book and these things should be resolved by discussion, i.e. in a non violent/aggressive way.

If this happens for a third time, I'll dial 999 and get these people sorted out.

Good thinking jra.

handy - I'm sorry! But I'm getting through loads of washing and I'm about to sit out and have some lunch, so I'm disgracefully pleased with myself.

woooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo


weekend

batty -you're forgiven, cos it's you *mmwah*

Weekend indeed!

Aww (((handy))) xxx

Another lovely morning here, and I've just one more piece of paperwork to do (a bit of a stinker) before I get into holiday mode. Eek.