The Perfect Day!?

As Saturday approached I realised it might just be the most perfect day for me.  It wasn't intentional, but as things panned out I ended up with a daily itinerary of morning - steam fair, afternoon - football, and evening - cinema to see TT3D!

We were up early to get to Stotfold Mill for the 10:30am opening.  The watermills annual event is always a 'must do' for us, largely so I can go see the Wall of Death!  This year we were joined by my Dad, Team Ferg and Claire and Sean with Jamie.  Everything steam powered is there for your enjoyment, from big fairground rides to small novelty engines.

We were one of the first through the gates and immediately hit the stand selling various seedlings.  I managed to walk away with 12 marigolds (not washing up gloves!), a courgette plant and an apache chilli plant for just over a fiver!  Bargain!  And straight after stumbled across the chap selling model cars.  I failed to find the corgi model of Bluebird, but Alfie came away happy!

After showing Alfie the birds of prey display we made our way towards the mill itself to show my Dad around.  The mill was restored a few years ago after being demolished by fire in the 90's, and some of the work that has gone on is simply amazing!

My annual trip to the coconut shy followed soon after.  12 balls for a pound!  Dan kicked things off by hurling balls at crockery, and then Dave and I got stuck into the totally tropical fruit!

And I came away with a lovely pair of coconuts!

With time ticking we parked up the buggies and all stepped inside the wooden cylinder that is the Wall of Death.

 

For anyone not familiar with the Wall of Death ... they ride around it!  Up and down, sidesaddle, no hands ... its the best entertainment you can get for £2 - fun for all the family!

We then made a line for the marquee to enjoy a bite to eat and a well deserved ale.  Time passed too quick and before we knew it was 1pm and time for Dad and I to head off to Villa.  Sounds like they all had fun in the afternoon though, and the little ones all enjoyed rides on fire engines ...

 

swinging chairs ...

 

and even mini-motos!

We arrived up at Villa Park in good time, it was just a shame we had to watch a dreary 1-1 draw against Wigan.

 

After a slow exit out of the car park we made it home just in time for a bite to eat, a quick dog walk, and then Tash and I ran straight out to head to Milton Keynes - leaving my Dad looking after Alfie, who at 8pm was still playing in his room some 2 hours after being put to bed!

The reason reason for our jaunt to MK was for our first 'date' since Alfie was born, and our first experience of 3D cinema!  The film in question?  The documentary about the Isle of Man TT, filmed last year when Ian Hutchison won all 5 races, and largely focusing on Guy Martin a rider who I have long been a fan of.

Tash and I spent our £30 (HOW MUCH?) and in return got a pair of tickets, pair of 3D goggles, small drink, packet of Randoms ... and of course some popcorn.

Before long it was time for us to enter the world of 21st century fashion - 3D time!

 

Although we look like we should have gone to Specsavers I have to say 3D cinema is bloody amazing!  Cars 2 is coming out this summer, and the trailer was the first item up and looked totally breathtaking!

Thankfully we were just as lucky with TT3D, and we thoroughly enjoyed our night out. 

But please tell me why, when the cinema is damn near empty and there is no-one else sat in our row, does some chap decide that the seat next to me is the perfect one for him to sit in??

Gravel Trap at Turn Eight!

With my trip to Ilford out of the way, and a sense of normality returning to my life I was determined to get the garden finished off.  Nettles were starting to take hold, and with Alfie and I spending more and more time outside I want the place to be safe (well, as safe as anything ever gets for me) and pleasant.

I got home late on Monday 2nd, and Tuesday was Tasha's day off.  This gave me the perfect chance to get things moving.  A trip to a few DIY centres saw me armed with a membrane to go down over the paths and a few bags of gravel to throw down on top.  The plan was to get the membrane down to keep the weeds at bay, and the gravel on top to sort out the main path and give me an idea of how much gravel I would actually need to do the whole garden.

As you can see, it all went down smoothly but it quickly became apparent the small bags of gravel would not be the way to go about things.

 

The massive bags you can buy are about 1 tonne in weight.  Its £175 from Focus, £60 from Wickes, but just £41 from a place I found online via ebay.  Instead of waiting till next month - which was my original plan - I jumped right in and placed an order!

I spent the next few days getting the rest of the membrane down, waiting for my Friday delivery.

Friday arrived, and by 8am so had my gravel!

 

I dragged the wheelbarrow into operation, and Alfie and I spent a while getting some of the gravel down on the paths.  Its fantastic having him wanting to get involved and help with everything I do.

Its hard work moving a tonne of gravel though, and he soon got tired.  We stopped for some food and he then went down for a well deserved nap.  While he recharged his batteries I got to work finishing everything off.

 

We are a touch short on gravel though, and so we'll need another bag next month to get it all completed.

 

But I'm sure you'll agree that the garden now looks like a very welcoming place!

And Yet Another Picnic!

The first weekend of May saw Rach and Ryan in England (visiting from Down Under) and we managed to catch up with them for a picnic in Hyde Park with Team Ferg.

Once again the sun had his hat on, and we all enjoyed a lovely time together... especially as Ryan brought beer that he wanted drinking!  After enjoying paninis, salad and mini sausages the girls disappeared to the cafe for a catchup (read; the girls disappeared to the bar to talk sh!t, drink wine, and moan about us men).

Dave, Ryan and I were left with Dan, Joe and Alfie.  Before long Dave and I went for a walk to take the kids over to the big wheel and other rides situated in Hyde Park.  This left Ryan chilling out on a picnic blanket enjoying the sun.

What we came back to was an entirely different scenario though!  Ryan had decided to take a seat on a park bench and keep an eye on our belongings from afar.  Maybe this is acceptable in Australia, but what Dave and I returned to see was an Antipodean laid back on a park bench, can of Fosters in hand, shouting at anyone that went within 20 yards of our kit.  I do feel sorry for those who had to endure him for the 24 hours of their flight home!

In fairness, it wasn't quite that bad, but Dave and I sure saw the funny side of it!  It was a perfect day out, and we cannot wait till Christmas when they fly back to visit once more!

A Royal Wedding

So William and Kate got hitched, the country went wild(?), and so we decided to visit next door for a swift half in the afternoon.

Highlight of the day?  Not Kates dress, not Wills cruising in the old mans Aston, and not even Pippa Middletons rear end ... it was Alfie on a big boy swing for the first time!

Big Bird ....

....small eggs!

When I visited the chicken coop the other week I was welcomed with three eggs!  This is the first time since we got our new magpie chook.  Considering she's bloody massive I must be honest in that I was expecting a little more from her.  You can guess which one was from her can't you!

She'd better up her game or she'll start to look like mighty fine pie filling!

Easter 2011

I love the four days of Eater and this year the forecast was H.O.T.  This was good news as we had plans! Good Friday = Wheels Day, Saturday = James & Michelle's wedding, Sunday = chop off the bus roof, and Monday = a family trip out to Santa Pod.

We were up and out early on Friday to head down to Aldershot for Wheels Day.  We've been heading down to this show for years, and it was lovely to have gorgeous sunshine ... just as I remember it when I first cruised down to the event with Larry when it was held at Brooklands.  Not only is it a fantastic day out, it's also the perfect opportunity to start spreading word about the Gathering.  We took a picnic, had brilliant day, and I even came away with a new (to me) land speed record book.  Suncream at the ready, the temps were up close to 30 degrees and it was a welcome relief to bump into our friends Steve and Kim and chill with them in the shade their camper provided.  They have a young daughter, Lily, which also gave Alfie the perfect chance to practice his kiss-chase technique.

 

We went straight from Aldershot down to Ammie and Tom's in Theale, near Reading.  We had a lovely evening there, and were treated to one of the nicest curry's I've ever had - all cooked in house to a secret recipe by them both.

We got our heads down early as we had alarms set for about 5am.  A quick shower and we were out the door on our way to Bath by 6.  When I found out James & Michelle wanted to get married at 8:30am I must be honest in that I muttered a few choice words in their direction ... but with temperatures once more pushing top twenties it now seemed like a godsend!  I was a first class idiot and left my camera in the car, and as such have no photos of their memorable day.  They got married within the Roman Baths - well, not actually IN the Roman Baths - and it was a beautiful background to a wonderful morning.  Its lovely seeing two friends doing something so special, and Alfie was extremely happy at being able to wander around a giant puddle for a few hours pointing at pigeons.  After the service came the reception - which was breakfast! - and by the time we vacated for photographs the sun was high in the sky.  We hit the road by early afternoon, and managed to be home before dinner.

With a little time before his evening routine kicked in we tried to make up for the fact he wasn't allowed to jump in the Roman Baths.  A bucket, a hose, and a rubber duck ... what more could a 18 month old want, right!?!

 

 

And, as always, he couldn't leave Harry alone.

He does seem to think that a hose can suck up water.  And then miraculously deposit water where he wants it to.  The mind control powers of this one must be strong!

But if he's still wearing his pants like this in 16 years time then I'm really gonna have to have words with him!

 

Monday soon rolled round, and Bill rocked up nice and early for us to chop the roof off the bus.  The full day is documented in my Retro Rides Build Thread but we had a very productive day and by 6pm (when Bill had to leave) we had the roof swinging in the breeze!

 

Feeling content with life I proposed a family day out to Santa Pod for Monday.  For me this was a win-win situation.  A family day out = bonus points with SheWhoMustBeObeyed and it also means we all get a day out watching fast cars.  Easter at Santa Pod is always the Easter Thunderball event.  More often than not its engulfed in damp weather, but for this year the weather held and we were greeted with another gorgeous day.

Having left Alfie's new pair of shades at Ammie's on Friday we treated Alfie to his first baseball cap to shade his poor little eyes from the burning sun.

 

First up we headed straight for the pits to catch up with our good friends Rob and Polly.  You can guarantee they're gonna be there as if one of them isn't racing you can be sure Rob will be sat around waiting for the first excuse to stick his head inside a stricken competitors engine bay.

On our way round we passed the awesome Evil Knievil roadshow.

It was great to natter with Rob and Polly, but after a while Alfie got restless and there's only so much mischief and meandering you can let a youngster get away with in a pit area ... and so we made our way round to the opposite side of the track to sit on the bank and see some of the action.

We took in a few races pit side as we took a slow wander round.

With the weather being so fantastic the bank was packed!

Amongst the highlights was this crazy electric powered Beetle.  It uses two forklift truck motors ... and runs 9's!

But as we all know, motorsport can be somewhat hypnotic and after a lovely picnic it wasn't long until Alfie was fighting the desire to fall asleep to the backdrop of rumbling V8's.

 

Whilst he slept we sat back and enjoyed the racing ... but thankfully he was back with us for the grand finale!  The Top Fuel Shootout final - 8000bhp dragster vs 8000bhp funny car.  If has hadn't been awake already, the noise of these two monsters would soon have had him back with us ... and so it was time to cover your ears!

 

Wanting to see the race, photograph the race, and not burst an eardrum I focused the camera on a set point.  With my left index finger in my right ear, my left ear squashed against my shoulder I got ready to fire off the camera and hopefully get a few decent shots during the 5 seconds it would take for these monsters to roar down the quarter mile.  Thankfully, I got lucky ... with flames roaring from all exhaust pipes!

 

The perfect way to finish off an amazing four days !!

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow.

It nearly happened last year, and it has happened this year.

Out on the boat the other week I finally lost my patience.  The combination of sweltering in the heat and  simultaneously chewing hair in just a light offshore breeze meant action needed to be taken.

So from this.

 

To this.

 

I now have cold ears.

Stranded At Sea

A few weeks ago (w/e of 16th April) we made the trip down to Essex.  The plan was for me to get some work done on Eb, and for Bill and I to get out fishing. 

After a few beers on Friday night we devised a friendly wager, based on first fish caught and biggest fish caught.

We finally laid our head down for about 4 hours kip.  Surprisingly such little sleep was no problem, and we were fresh out of bed ready to head to Brightlingsea at 4am.

Since Bill bought Reel Grumpy last year we've long wanted to do proper session fishing with a real early start and it felt good to be out and about so early.  Its the sort of thing we did virtually every weekend when we were 18, and I guess that to us that's part of what fishing is all about.

Having reached Brightlingsea, we were out in the tender before 6am.  We weren't the only ones looking for  good days fishing!

The tide was pretty much at its lowest point, and negotiating our way out of the mooring gave us a few heart in mouth moments ... as you can see, the depthfinder was telling us there wasn't much water below us!

 

 

We found ourselves a suitable location to drop the lobster pot, and then made our way out to where we were hoping to get lucky.  Getting ready to cast out was a joy ... this was my first time to use my new reel!  It was my birthday present from Bill - thanks dude!

 

After getting everything set up, we got the kettle on.  You know when coffee granules get damp .... well that's all we had!  Its fair to say we enjoyed the most disgusting coffee known to man.  Bait was squid and/or herring.  With everything ready to go we got our baits out in the water.

 

The tide, the weather and slowly the fish all started to come to us.  I had a dogfish, and Bill started with a small Whiting followed by a few Dogfish.

 

 

 

As the fishing tailed off we raised anchor in search of a lucky spot.  By now the sun was out, and it was a gorgeous day!  We though there was no better place to be.  All changed within moments though.  With time ticking, and the tide disappearing, we decided to head back.  We'd had fun and it would still give us an evening with the womenfolk.  As we made our way to shore the buoy marking the lobster pot came into view - there was always a chance of lobster for tea!  But then Reel Grumpy stuttered ... and seconds later died. 

This wasn't the end of the world, Bill had joked on many a time that he had never refilled it, and we knew there was more diesel on board.  We checked the tank which was low, and so topped her up.  Turns out that the spare diesel was ancient and we had no idea if it would be good or not.  Bill hit the ignition button, the engine turned over ... but didn't even attempt to fire.  Within moments we had the engine cover up.

We then spent HOURS trying to prime the fuel system to get it going.  We even read the bloody manual!  We thought we knew what we were doing ... but were armed with just a 10mm socket and some needle nose pliers!  The photo above shows bill drawing a bottle of water up through a bucket to create the suction to pull the diesel through.  This is a tried and tested technique ... didn't work on Reel Grumpy though.

Eventually we had to admit defeat,and rang Bill's did to register our need for our "one free rescue".  We sat back, had a smoke, and figured we might as well through a bait in the sea!  After an hour or so Bill's Dad arrived, and with tools too!  Whilst I tried to get the fuel system primed Bill went to collect the lobster pot that had been taunting us of its location for the past hour or so.  This is how close we were.

 

This was the contents of the lobster pot.  Missing lobsters, but it did contain a cool little hermit crab!

Although still missing the 8mm we so desperately needed we played around for another hour or so but with no joy.  As well as the questionable diesel, we now guessed the batteries were getting too low to fire her up too. 

And so we tied the two boats together, and took a tow back to port.  Lesson learnt - NEVER run out of gas!

As we came into harbour the tide was once more DEAD LOW!  Having stopped for a natter with the locals it was determined we had no chance of getting back onto our mooring.  But after the mornings efforts Bill and I felt confident.  We went for it and thankfully got back OK.  Gary moored up, and were supposed to collect him.

With Reel Grumpy safely back on her spot, we jumped in the tender and fired up the two stroke outboard to go and collect Gary.  It just wasn't our day though, and halfway back the outboard coughed and stuttered into silence.  At least the tender has oars on board, and so our day ended like so.