Day 927 (10/07/2012)

More bad weather.

Thomas was playing football this evening so put on an old West Ham shirt on.

It's possible that he got it for his 11th birthday as it has "Smith" & 11 on the back. He defiantly wore it when we went to see West Ham play Middlesbrough in October 2005.

He has grown loads since then but amazingly it still fits, lucky sod. My stuff seems to shrink every few months.

Day 926 (09/07/2012)

Busy but still had time for the gym.

Thought the weather was a bit hit & miss.

But it would appear from Thomas's photo it was mostly miss, with him taking a photo of a whirlwind over Taunton whilst at the cricket.

Day 924 & 925 (07 & 08/07/2012)

Up incredibly early to get to London but there were a few problems with the train, including no free trolley in first class at the weekends and no fruit cake in the buffet car.

Oh yes and my train was cancelled due to flooding but luckily I was early enough to catch the one before.


The talks in London seemed to go down well.

Got to Paddington in time for a Yo Sushi.

Then a nice early & quick train home.

Two comments from taxi drives today.

I got in a taxi at Paddington to get to the venue only to be asked by the taxi driver "You here for Gay Pride". I'm happy with my own sexuality so don't mind if people think I'm gay but I was dressed smartly to give a presentation, everyone else who I assume was going to Gay Pride was in fancy dresses, with dresses and skimpy underwear appearing to be quite popular.

On the way back the next taxi driver started talking about Muslims Suicide Bombers. It wasn't that a long a journey and I can't think how we got onto the subject but we did. The driver said "These bloody Muslim suicide bombers have got it all wrong, you don't want 70 virgins, talking about Justin Beiber and all that shit, you want 5 slags, they would keep you happy, not 70 f*****g virgins". I think this guy may have hit on something and I think he should be booked for Question Time.

Day 923 (06/07/2012)

The weather is awful again, with lots of rain but hopeful we will avoid the worse of it as they are talking about a months worth of rain in a day.

I went to the gym again today, so three times this week. It was quite reassuring as there was a guy twice my size in the gym and I was going much faster than him on the tread mill (I can't really call it a running machine as I don't actually run, I'm only thinking of my joints, honestly) but was slightly upset when I saw he was on the tread mill for about an hour compared to my 10 minutes.

Mind you I didn't just do 10 minutes on the tread mill, there was also the bike & the cross trainer, then the weights and a little bit of swimming but I think an hour on the tread mill would not only be knackering but boring as hell.

I just can't get into work at the moment, I have lots on but just can't motivate myself.

Off to London tomorrow to do a couple of presentation, but have to get up far too early on a Saturday but at least I got my ticket early enough to warrant going first class.

Day 922 (05/07/2012)

Busy in my office all day. I was going to go to the gym but got bogged down with stuff but will definitely go tomorrow.

I'm in London on Saturday giving a couple of presentations at The Centre For Investigative Journalism Summer School which hopefully will be fun. I have done the presentations already and I am sure the weekend should be interesting although I am only doing the Saturday. Lots of the other speakers are quite well known and then there's me. 


I would rather they didn't use a photo of me but they took one at a previous event and they wanted to use one, so I gave in rather then sending them one of me from around 1986, which in my own mind is how I look. I am often surprised at the old fat man starring back at me from the mirror. 

Day 921 (04/07/2012)

Quick catch up on things as fairly busy.

Picked up Kelly's car, looking good, for now.

Thomas back in the newspaper.

Then out for dinner with Gary & Elaine at Wagamama's, very nice.

Day 920 (03/07/2012)

We both went to the gym again today but whilst I sort of tolerate rather than enjoy the exercise I do like the routine that it gives you and means I at least get a break from my work but am always so hungry afterwards.

Sort of busy with stuff at the moment, I never get to finish and go down stairs to be with my wife until around 11pm but at least I was in a jacuzzi with her earlier.

Day 919 (02/07/2012)

This morning I had a question about VAT so tried to answer it myself.

To be honest I was no clearer really, that's why I have an accountant.

Back to the gym today, with my wife. It was quite nice getting back in to the routine and we even went in the steam room & jacuzzi but I don't think that helped our fitness much.

Came home exhausted, so had some more water melon. I hope really hope water melon is good for you, if not I'm having a can of cold larger next time.

Day 917 & 918 (30/06 & 01/07/2012)

The weekend is here and I thought I would spend some time tidying the garden as the grass had got so long with the rain & sun when we were away. I managed to cut it and brush up the clippings before the rain came down but I didn't do half of what I wanted. Typical after I had a shower and sat back down in front of my computer and the sun came back out.

Update - Sunday 19:30 - Just had a very nice roast lamb dinner no pictures just for a change.

Yesterday I was watching a couple of programmes about The Who on the i-player and during an Electric Proms session at The Round House in Camden I had to think if I had ever seen The Who as there was a man in the audience who looked so much like me, even wearing a shirt like the ones I wear, that it even had me thinking twice.

I have never seen The Who live and this isn't me (in the bottom left) but throughout the concert the camera showed him a few times and he is either my long lost twin ware my doppelganger.

Day 916 (29/06/2012)

Another week without going to the gym but I have been really busy with work since I got back and my sun-burn was still hurting.

I think I must have lost weight this week as I seem to have lost a lot of skin in the last couple of days, its like being back in the 1970's with a sun-burn and peeling skin.

I have put my wife's photo's on my computer now, so thought I would add a couple of hers on here, as I wasn't in any of the others because I took them.

She took over 800 photo's in a week, so its a good job we didn't go for longer. And yes nearly all of them were taken at meal times.

Day 915 (28/06/2012)

We had our house valued today, not that we are selling it but we are having to change our mortgage around and had to have someone come round and check our house out.

We were quite concerned that the mess (there is a lot of it) and a few bits that need decorating or renewing might effect things but the the man was only here for about 15minutes and he didn't even open some of the doors, just counted the rooms and measured the outside of the house.

Hopefully everything will go through OK and then I will be in debt until the next millenium.

I am currently playing online scrabble with my aunty and after getting totally spanked by her in the first game I was able, for the first time ever, to have a word where I used all of my letter / tiles.

Obviously I won but I think I should retire now as I doubt I will win that many more games. 

Day 914 (27/06/2012)

Very busy at the moment, seem to have lots of work in and busy arranging some more courses for later in the year.

I spent the whole afternoon meeting the really nice people from Sound & Fury who wanted my input about a play they are writing. I hate to think how my character will appear, I hope not to bad as whilst telling them about horrible things I may have done over the years I did keep reminding them that I am a nice person, who just gets involved with things.

I managed to bring Richard Herring into the conversation a couple of times and was impressed when one of the guys said he was at University with Richard Herring.

My sun burnt belly is still painful but I will try to go to the gym on Friday.

Day 913 (26/06/2012)

Home, still with a very painful sun burnt belly : -(  catching up with my blog and my post.

No pictures of my dinner for the next few days.

Will probably go to the gym on Wednesday as not been for a little while but have been walking loads and sweating like in a sauna so my holiday was a bit like a day at the gym.

Day 912 (25/06/2012)

We spent a relaxing day at the hotel, having lunch, with fantastic fresh melon fruit juice and less healthy burgers.
  

We read our books and played scrabble (we know how to live) and then our week was finished so quickly and we had to go home.

Day 911 (24/06/2012)

After a painful night in bed with a red swollen & badly burnt belly we spent another day by the pool but this time I covered up and will never try for a sun tan again.

We stayed at the hotel for a our evening meal, which was very nice and once again mostly fish based but not as nice as the Italian earlier in the week.

Day 910 (23/06/2012)

We spent the day lazing by the pool in the heat which was very lovely.

I tried to do a panoramic photo of the view from my sunbed.

We then spent the evening on The Vagrant, a yacht once owned by The Beatles.

They did a very interesting Beatles cocktail.

The food was not great but by staying here we were ideally placed to see a fireworks display over the harbour which went on for 25minutes solid and was very good.

It was only when we got back to the hotel room did I realise how sun burnt I was, it was so painful.

Day 909 (22/06/2012)

We went for a wander around Jardim Botanio, which we took to be the Botanical Gardens, which was nice but very hot. Luckily we were walking through them going down hill, the other way around would have been terrible.

We found another lovely restaurant back in Fuchal.

Day 908 (21/06/2012)

Back on the bus (the tickets are for two days) and we went to the nearby fishing village of Camara De Lobos.

It was baking hot and we were in need of refreshment.

After a hard days exploring when we got back to Fuchal we were in need of a sit down, a drink and a large paella.

Luckily we found just the place.

Day 907 (20/06/2012)

We had another walk into town and caught the red double decker tourist bus for a trip around Funchal.

It rained a bit, well quite a bit. On the bus we had to put our feet up as the water got quite deep on the way downhill, when it all flowed towards the front.

Luckily we got off and took shelter under an umbrella at a restaurant at lunch time.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the Madeira wine place for a tasting sensing.

Madeira wine is easy to describe in two words, Benylin & Disgusting.

In the evening we went to a nearby Italian restaurant and had some of the best food we have ever eaten. I had a sea food lasagna and my wife went for a sea food & squid ink risotto.
   

Day 906 (19/06/2012)

The morning was warm and we went for a walk into Funchal, the capital, but it rained a bit on the way so we found a place selling toasted sandwiches to hide from the rain with a late breakfast. Funchal is very nice and has quite a nice street art scene.

  

The sun came out and we needed to re-hydrate with a jug of Sangria before more walking.

That evening we tried another restaurant near the hotel the food was OK but they got no tip as the service wasn't great (felt slightly ignored). 

We noticed an interesting difference between the UK and Madeira with the sachets on the table. No malt vinegar & HP but olive oil & white wine vinegar.