Failed miserably to write my 750 words yesterday and I hold my oldest (not eldest) friend entirely responsible for that. I have some catching up to do. Clearly he led me astray with alcohol and food and general chat of people we know, places we've seen and the goings on of the world itself. We set the world to rights and it was loads of fun.
So A&L&LittleA showed up mid afternoon Saturday, and we spread out in the garden and enjoyed the sunshine. A really beautiful day on Saturday meant that as well as consuming the odd beverage or two a full on bar-b-q (using the newly reconditioned BBQ) was the perfect way to watch the sun go down. LittleA has really become a great little character (she's 14 months now) and gurgle's away, points, says the odd intelligent word (like cat-cat or some such) and has an interest in absolutely everything for at least 35 seconds before being dis-squrriel-tracted.
Daughter arrived with S (and later C and Son's "friend" S2). S had made fresh kebabs with Daughter which went down well and we spoofed for who would be first in the tub fully clothed. All very silly but entertaining stuff. By the time the wee small hours arrived we'd migrated back in doors to a game of Buzz and a bit of Singstar before we were all fully worn out and had to sleep. There's only so much Lady GaGa as sung by the youths and mangled by the adults that you can take.
Early start Sunday morning because as anyone with kids will you tell you they set the agenda from the moment they awake, although this is perfectly normal in our house where we're normally early birds. So by 9 o'clock we were all up and had feasted on a proper english cooked breakfast. The five of us (A&L&LittleA, Mrs G and I) took a stroll into the city and around the newly refurbished docks (Oh what a floor that is) ending up appropriately in Robert Raikes' House for a spot of lunch.
It's appropriate because it was a Sunday and Mr Raikes was the founder of the Sunday School movement. In fact he was the founder of schooling in general (as Sunday Schools came before the state school system) and they where first held on a Sunday because the rest of the time, the kids were all at work (up chimneys, in factories etc etc. - Oh for the good old days) Today his house is a pub, and a very beautiful one it is too. Can't say that the food and drink really lives up to the surroundings which is a great shame, but it's still perfectly edible and quaffable. A greatly enjoyed weekend that we don't do often enough. Luckily there are bank holidays on the near horizon and L has her special birthday coming up - so a weekend in Wiltshire with more buffoonery and catching up with more of the west country gang isn't far away.
This morning I have a disaster on my hands though. A and I finished off the "Old Brown Java" on Sunday morning which means I've had to revert to the Lavazza, which while good is not the same. So at some point this week I have to have a trip to Whittards to pickup both more OBJ and either some Italian Expresso, Monsoon Malabar or Cafe Francais. Life without coffee would be like life without oxygen probably.
I also seem to be having some very odd goings on with my broadband connection this morning. It's up and down like a pair of whore's draws and I'm damned if I can figure out why. My router is particularly old and has been 100% reliable so I'm doubting that's the problem. Of more concern may be network activity caused by some rouge piece of software. Now I have a fairly solid set of tools on the Mac that allow me to see exactly what it's up to and nothing appears out of place there, so my suspicions point towards the slightly more volatile Windows systems that sit on my LAN. The work box only does work and nothing else (at least as far as is humanly possible) so I doubt that's picked anything up, but it's not impossible. I think a full scan is in order and we all know how tedious that is.....
So A&L&LittleA showed up mid afternoon Saturday, and we spread out in the garden and enjoyed the sunshine. A really beautiful day on Saturday meant that as well as consuming the odd beverage or two a full on bar-b-q (using the newly reconditioned BBQ) was the perfect way to watch the sun go down. LittleA has really become a great little character (she's 14 months now) and gurgle's away, points, says the odd intelligent word (like cat-cat or some such) and has an interest in absolutely everything for at least 35 seconds before being dis-squrriel-tracted.
Daughter arrived with S (and later C and Son's "friend" S2). S had made fresh kebabs with Daughter which went down well and we spoofed for who would be first in the tub fully clothed. All very silly but entertaining stuff. By the time the wee small hours arrived we'd migrated back in doors to a game of Buzz and a bit of Singstar before we were all fully worn out and had to sleep. There's only so much Lady GaGa as sung by the youths and mangled by the adults that you can take.
Early start Sunday morning because as anyone with kids will you tell you they set the agenda from the moment they awake, although this is perfectly normal in our house where we're normally early birds. So by 9 o'clock we were all up and had feasted on a proper english cooked breakfast. The five of us (A&L&LittleA, Mrs G and I) took a stroll into the city and around the newly refurbished docks (Oh what a floor that is) ending up appropriately in Robert Raikes' House for a spot of lunch.
Oh what a floor that is...
It's appropriate because it was a Sunday and Mr Raikes was the founder of the Sunday School movement. In fact he was the founder of schooling in general (as Sunday Schools came before the state school system) and they where first held on a Sunday because the rest of the time, the kids were all at work (up chimneys, in factories etc etc. - Oh for the good old days) Today his house is a pub, and a very beautiful one it is too. Can't say that the food and drink really lives up to the surroundings which is a great shame, but it's still perfectly edible and quaffable. A greatly enjoyed weekend that we don't do often enough. Luckily there are bank holidays on the near horizon and L has her special birthday coming up - so a weekend in Wiltshire with more buffoonery and catching up with more of the west country gang isn't far away.
This morning I have a disaster on my hands though. A and I finished off the "Old Brown Java" on Sunday morning which means I've had to revert to the Lavazza, which while good is not the same. So at some point this week I have to have a trip to Whittards to pickup both more OBJ and either some Italian Expresso, Monsoon Malabar or Cafe Francais. Life without coffee would be like life without oxygen probably.
I also seem to be having some very odd goings on with my broadband connection this morning. It's up and down like a pair of whore's draws and I'm damned if I can figure out why. My router is particularly old and has been 100% reliable so I'm doubting that's the problem. Of more concern may be network activity caused by some rouge piece of software. Now I have a fairly solid set of tools on the Mac that allow me to see exactly what it's up to and nothing appears out of place there, so my suspicions point towards the slightly more volatile Windows systems that sit on my LAN. The work box only does work and nothing else (at least as far as is humanly possible) so I doubt that's picked anything up, but it's not impossible. I think a full scan is in order and we all know how tedious that is.....
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