Tattoo Rapido Healio - Day Three

Children demanded me on my feet more than I would have liked but I kept popping arnica and ibuprofen and by the end of the day my foot was feeling quite definitely comfortable.

With not a lot going on, here's a few pics of the little non sleepers!

Tattoo Rapido Healio - Day Two

Alfie was at school.  Esme fell asleep.  I kept popping ibuprofen and arnica, got my leg up, and enjoyed a Paris-Dakar documentary on the iplayer with a honey mustard bacon baguette.

Still swollen though, still weeping when I use my foot, but early signs of healing are there.  Definitely much less painful to use already.  I'm optimistic of being able to board the plane in relative comfort. 

Picked Alfie up from school and he's on the healing couch with me too.  Head on collision with another trike!

The only other thing I did was buy more Bepanthen.  Kinda getting through that stuff!

Tattoo Rapido Healio - Day One

Yesterday was the start of me trying to rest up as much as I can so the swelling in my foot can reduce and hopefully the healing process will be nicely advanced and I'll be able to walk onto a plane - as opposed to hobble - next Monday for our flight to Gib.

So as I sat on the sofa with my foot in the air, being fed plastic muffins by Alfie, I finished reading the book I'd started on my phone recently.

The Rats by James Herbert.  Bloody good, and it was only at the end I realised its the start of a trilogy - so I'm off to read Lair next!

Tattoo Time

I made the journey to Evil From The Needle in Camden to collect a bit  more artwork today.

Another chick was added to my clown for Esme and my pig with a snorkel was inked onto my foot.  I can promise I won't be going far this week, and anywhere I do go will be done stumbling!

The Barbers Chair & The Duc's Wheel In The Air

Collected the new pin for the Ducati's paddock stand yesterday and got to try it out today.  £7 to have my engineer friend make it for me and I now get to feel like a proper racer with the rear wheel hanging in the air!

Also serviced the Skoda, a much overdue oil change!  She's racking up the miles nicely still, will be hitting 200k mark before long!

And with a trip to Gib looming I introduced the summer look.  We've called it a mo-quiff.  Alfie also had his hair cut and loved being in a chair next to me.  He kept lifting himself up so he could see me in the mirror with his chest all puffed out at what a big boy he was!

I Was Hoping Not To See This Again This Winter

8 degrees two days ago, won't be above 2 for the rest of the week!

The Sun Has Got His Hat On

Forgot to blog yesterday.  Must have been 'cos of all the fun!

A glorious sunny day of 8 degrees, and a freezing forecast for the rest of the week, meant we spent the whole afternoon hooning about on Alfie's bike and playing at the park.

En route I commented 'its a sunny day hey Alfie?' To which he replied 'no, moon day'.  Check the photo, you can see what he was thinking!

I also learnt Essie loves swings as much as Alfie does.

And after Alfie went tearing off after another family on a bike ride he returned to me shouting "Keith, Keith, I want pedals, I want pedals'.  Looks like he might 'outgrow' his balance bike before I even have chance to raise the seat!

Pretty Pictures

In recent weeks Instagram has tried its damn hardest to consume my life.  I signed up to apply a few filters to photos for the blog and next thing I know I'm losing serious time to it.

It has that same horrid effect that wikipedia can have, in that once you start looking you effectively board some techy based research train and the destination is completely unknown.

As a result I've found a load of tattoo artists who I'd never heard of before, many who have really opened my eyes and inspired me with some phenomenal work.

One such chap is Javier Rodriguez.  He has a real unique traditional old school style which I love.  It turned out he was working the Brighton convention on the weekend but as much as we tried to juggle time and money we couldn't line things up to get down there.  I WILL be collecting a tattoo from him in the future though.

With tattoo stuff consuming a large part of my mind recently I've quite fancied doing a bit of drawing.  Nothing serious,  cos quite honestly I am shit, just for a bit of fun.  Years ago Tash bought me a book to teach you how to draw but checking all the usual places unearthed nothing.  Until on Saturday, when I stumbled across it in the barn just a few hours after we had been to the book shop and asked them to order it in!

Right, I'm off to sharpen my pencils!

Alfie's Self Inflicted Solitary

Overtired child runs into a changing room, slides the bolt across, and then complains he can't get out.

You should have seen the faces of the staff!!

After many minutes of ' I can't do it, you try!' he did actually manage to let himself out too!

Sling Shots

Taken yesterday.  May the sunny days hang around now!

Valentines Day

In our own wonderful non-comformist and non-consumerist way  Valentines Day was lovely.  I cooked Tash a meal she'd been asking for for ages and she bought me Oreos! 

Me and the kids took a pitstop when collecting Tash from work today and did a spot of train spotting. 

On the note of Alfie's school days, and collecting Tash from work, we had the funniest trip home on Tuesday.  In the low light of 5pm Alfie chose to do a spot of bin spotting.  Looking out for, and calling out to, the black and the orange bins. Except the orange bins were brown.  But he would not be corrected.  The conversation/debate/arguement between him and Tash had me in stitches!   He'd had a good day at school though and collected another certificate for his good behaviour.

NZ - This Is Why

I'm sure there are many who wonder why we want to up sticks and disappear to the other end of the world. 

I'm sticking this here just to remind myself of the sort of thing we're chasing, buts its an ideal example of what we want from NZ for those of you who might wonder why.  Tash found it a week or so ago and I haven't been able to get it out of my head since! 

It won't happen the moment we step off the plane, but it's what we'll be working towards.  Ideally we'll build our house - ideally around a straw bale design - and have sufficient land to live off of.  Who knows if we can be entirely self sufficient, but at worst I'd like for us not to rely on a full time job to pay the bills.  With a good plot of land there is always the possibility of running a B&B alongside the house too.  We'll have an outbuilding to visiting guests anyway, it might make sense to make it pay when it isn't being occupied by friends or family.

Full details of the property are here if you want to read more or see the other 17 photos.  It's as beautiful inside as it as out!

Hammered The Hammers

Today was all about football.  Quite simply it was a must win game for Villa.  Against a West Ham side with a very poor away form I probably should have felt more confident that I did but it was a game that I could see go either way.

In short we won 2-1, a chance of premier league survival still alive, and I celebrated greater than if we'd beaten Bradford the other week in the League Cup.  Today meant THAT much. 

The Five o Choc Shadow

Got rid of Alfie's remaining sweets from Christmas that he keeps trying to steal in the mornings.  Marshmallows disappeared in a Rocky Road with popping candy on top!

It's fair to say Essie's a fan!!

Give Blood - Save Lives

I did this evening.  Another 'first' ticked off, and something I'm determined to do more regularly. 

Its a good thing to do.  And you even get a custard cream for your efforts,  and who the hell doesn't like custard creams!?!

Alfie - Clearly Not Sweet Enough

Early morning adventures have highlighted that Alfie has something of a sweet tooth.  And dragging his fingertips through spilt caster sugar granules illustrates just how bad he loves the sweet stuff!

Fast Food!

One of the nice things about blogging (nearly) every day should be that in years to come the kids can look back on their childhood and really see what they got up to. 

And so Alfie, when you come to read this in years to come, I would like you to know that having already put you to bed tonight I later found you sat cross legged on the bed in the spare room playing with my model Ferrari F40  with an open bag on chinchilla food next to you that you were happily grazing from!

You're also getting bloody quick on that balance bike of yours!

Make Some Noise - ARENACROSS!!

Last night we went to the Arenacross at the NEC with Claire and Jody.  Massive thanks to those guys for the tickets, and to my Dad for doing a late night babysitting!

Twas awesome.  I was super impressed with how close we were to the action, and it was a real evening of non-stop action.  With so many riders on a tight track there was racing all over the track.  I love the photo of Tash and Claire, clearly Tash was following a different rider to the rest of the entire stand!

As well as the pro riders, the younger feeder classes were also racing.  Its incredible what such young kids can do!  

The freestyle stuff was equally impressive, and included a 15 year old Spanish kid pulling massive backflips and other tricks.  It went to his head a touch though as when he tried to ride off with the 'Monster' brolly dolly he dropped it!

 

 

I Want To Ride My Bicy... Motorbike!

The recent milder weather has had me itching to get out on the Ducati... and reminded me my winter jobs list hasn't yet been touched.

With that in mind I had a little time out in the barn this evening to measure up what I need to have the paddock stand pin machined down to for it to become usable.  I also removed the aftermarket Ducati Corse stickers from the fairing.  

Cannot wait to turn that ignition key again!