Hello....is there anybody still there

KNOCK...KNOCK TESTING ... 1...2...3

Is there anybody there? 

6 years ago I used to do this a lot. I kind of got seduced by other stuff (Facebook mainly) and lost the habit. However, I think I might try this again, I remember it being quite therapeutic :) 

So here I am still retired, now the wrong side of 40, with older children and 1 more (Little Monkey) to add to the mix. Still living in Weston-super-Mare. If anyone still reads this please leave a short comment to say hi .... Please?

Life has stabilised somewhat here. Still having to cope with Psoriatic Arthritis, Psoriasis, Depression, Type 1 Diabetes...but now with the added fun of Fibromyalgia thrown into the mix. Typing is large amounts of text is difficult now so this blog has been mostly dictated. What's happened in the last 6 years...lots. 

Major health scare in 2009, resulting in 5 weeks in hospital and 2 major operations to cut out major infections followed by 12 months of recovery. Then onto a new drug for my Arthritis called Infliximab, which has been amazing. The progress of my Arthritis has slowed (still pretty bad though) and my Psoriasis is more bearable.

For about 3 years I was a volunteer at North Somerset Citizen's Advice Bureau helping other's with there own particular problems, from Debt and Social Benefit applications to Consumer advice; amazingly fulfilling work, but I had to quit a couple of months back as my own Medical issues were making it impossible to cope with all the writing required :(. 

Some of you may remember I was into Medieval Reenactment, still am, only that's had to be scaled back as well. Can't really camp any more as sleeping in a damp tent really knackers my joints, let alone the fact I can no longer even put up a tent; we've sold our authentic tents. We do still take part in one day events when the weather allows and the distance isnt too great. We are now members of Teulu'r Tywysogion (The Prince's Retinue) and still involved with The Company of Chivalry. This is us at an event at Neath Abbey a few weeks ago.



Aginoth Junior (not so junior any more) is missing from the photo; he's as tall as me now ( 14 in a week's time) and has decided that he doesn't like reenactment; probably because it would mean being surgically separated from Minecraft).

Aginoth Junior now attends North Hill House School in Frome as a weekly boarder.  We had a long drawn out fight with our local Education Authority to get him into this school; which is run by Priory Group.  His Autism is becoming more manageable as he get's older, he still has the social abilities of a 4 year old, but he is intellectually able to rationalise behaviours into rule to follow now even if behaviours will never become instinctive.  He is academically very able; just taken his options at school for year 10 and will be studying Maths, English, Physics, Chemistry, ICT, Resistant Materials, and Art (Art was a real surprise choice!)

LMB is about to start secondary School (Year 7) and got into our first choice school in Weston. She has taken up Rugby Union (plays for Weston Hornettes) and has joined Sea Cadets.

LMD has become a musician, she plays piano, cornet (with Weston Brass) and also sings.  She has medical issues of her own, which cause an ongoing battle with continence. We're really proud of how she copes.

I've taken up playing E♭ Bass (also with Weston Brass) Been playing for almost 2 years now, hoping to be good enough to be able to play Christmas carols in public with teh main band this winter.

Much much more has happened, and if I can keep this up I'll share soon

Well that'll do for now, I wil endeavour to be back soon

Agi.

Dear God

Dear God,

Thank you for doing so much for us mere mortals on Earth, and for the Bible that allows us to understand God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your book, and I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. (After all, all things in the bible should be taken and followed as the literal law)

I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the specific
laws and how to follow them.

a) When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing
odour for the Lord (Lev. 1:9). The problem is my neighbours. They
claim the odour is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

b) I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus
21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

c) I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is
in her period of menstrual uncleanliness (Lev. 15:19-24). The problem is,
how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offence.

d) Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and
female, provided they are purchased from neighbouring nations.
A friend of mine claims that this applies to The Welsh, but not
Scots. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Scots?

e) I have a neighbour who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2
clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill
him myself?

f) A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an
abomination (Lev. 11:10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I
don't agree. Can you settle this?

g) Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a
defect in my sight. I have to admit that I used to wear glasses, and have had laser surgery. Does my vision have to be naturally 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

h) Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair
around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden
by Lev.19:27. How should they die?

i) I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me
unclean, but may I still play Rugby if I wear gloves?

j) My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two
different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments
made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend).
He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that
we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone
them? (Lev.24:10-16) Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private
family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws?
(Lev. 20:14)

How safe is your data?

A coupleof months ago my Laptop Hard Drive made a horrible grinding noise and died. Never mind I though I make a Daily Backup to another drive on my network. Spent a few hours installing a new Hard Drive to the laptop, then tried to restore the backup data...

My Network Hard Drive Failed halfway thru the back up, anothe phyical failure. Tried software method sof recovery to no avail....35 Gb of data down the pan...

I lost 10 years of Photographs, every picture I had of my children growing up, our honeymoon, our wedding, thousands of pictures of us at reenactments...about 15Gb
I lost 10Gb (7000 mp3 music tracks
numerous videos
all my documents and other data (about 5Gb)

Just goes to show that one back up is not sufficient, I now do two btw.

I now back up daily to a portable toughened Hard Drive, and I also back up to an online data Store. I use BT Digital Vault, where I have about 35Gb Stored out of a maximum of 50Gb, it costs £4.99 a month.

It cost me £404 pounds to have the original Laptop Hard Drive recovered from a physical failure so £4.99 is nothing in comparison.

The online storage is backed up by BT Daily to a seperate server, plus my computer now uploads any changed file to the back up every 20 minutes.

How safe is your data?

Monster Trailer

So finally retired :o)


We've been promising ourselves for a couple of years to get a decent sized trailer for reenactment and yesterday we got one.


Had to drive 250 miles to Clacton and back to get it but even with the fuel cost it was a good price at a litle under £2000.





An Ifor Williams BV85 for those who care, about £4000 new....scary huh?

anyway our beast of a car towed it with now appreciable effort and no additional fuel consumption, not bad for a trailer that weighs 700kg empty !!!

now comes the less fun part of moving all our reenactment kit into the back of it....

Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.

Ripped Wholesale from a friends post on http://www.psoriasis-help.org.uk So good I thought I'd share. With my Retirement day looming I thought it was appropriate...even at 37 :o)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Recently, I was diagnosed with AA.A.D.D. -
Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.
This is how it manifests:

I decide to water my garden.

As I turn on the hose in the driveway,
I look over at my car and decide it needs washing.

As I start toward the garage,
I notice mail on the porch table that
I brought up from the mail box earlier.

I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay my car keys on the table,
put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table,
and notice that the can is full.

So, I decide to put the bills back
on the table and take out the garbage first.

But then I think,
since I'm going to be near the mailbox
when I take out the garbage anyway,
I may as well pay the bills first.

I take my cheque book off the table,
and see that there is only one cheque left.

My extra cheques are in my desk in the study,
so I go inside the house to my desk where
I find the can of Coke I'd been drinking.

I'm going to look for my cheques,
but first I need to push the Coke aside
so that I don't accidentally knock it over.

The Coke is getting warm,
and I decide to put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold..

As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke,
a vase of flowers on the counter
catches my eye--they need water.

I put the Coke on the counter and
discover my reading glasses that
I've been searching for all morning.

I decide I better put them back on my desk,
but first I'm going to water the flowers.

I set the glasses back down on the counter,
fill a container with water and suddenly spot the TV remote.
Someone left it on the kitchen table.

I realise that tonight when we go to watch TV,
I'll be looking for the remote,
but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table,
so I decide to put it back in the lounge where it belongs,
but first I'll water the flowers.

I pour some water in the flowers,
but quite a bit of it spills on the floor.

So, I set the remote back on the table,
get some towels and wipe up the spill.

Then, I head down the hall trying to
remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day:

the car isn't washed

the bills aren't paid

there is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter

the flowers don't have enough water,

there is still only 1 cheque in my cheque book,

I can't find the remote,

I can't find my glasses,

and I don't remember what I did with the car keys.

Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today,
I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all bloody day,
and I'm really tired.

I realise this is a serious problem,
and I'll try to get some help for it,
but first I'll check my e-mail....

Do me a favor.
Forward this message to everyone you know,
because I don't remember who the hell I've sent it to.

Don't laugh -- if this isn't you yet, your day is coming

please give generously...to something

A Long time ago....

5478 days ago me and Mrs A started going out together

that's 15 years !!!

coincidently it's the same day as the Queen and Prince Philip's Wedding Aniversary, although that has no relevance at all as I am not a Royalist :o)

No longer Trapped in the Body of a Civil Servant

I have just signed off of the Official Secrets Act...doesn't mean much except now I am no longer allowed access to any of my, soon to be previous, employers properties or documents, and I agree not to profit from any knowledge gained whilst employed by them; yeah right, I know jack-shit about anything important, and endeavoured to always keep it like that.

It also means that as of 30th November 2007 I can no longer be sacked for blogging, as I was threatened with a cople of years back, which led to the hasty deletion of my previous blog "Trapped in the Body of a Civil Servant...Help!!!"

....hastily looks over shoulder for thought police...

Went to Craziequeens Birthday Bowling Bash last weekend, and risked bowling...wrists heavily strapped and using child weight balls I just about managed 2 games, but boy did it hurt towards the end, arthritis sucks, but had a good time and took a few pictures of the Birthday Girl being Drunk for you all...




Captions welcome :)

Harvest Assembly - Video

So as promised yesterday here's the video of the Assembly...

Part 1


Part 2

Harvest

Today was the last day of Term 1 for the kids at school, so that meant it was Harvest Assembly day. Up until about the 1950's children at this time of year would be excused school to go to help bring in the harvest from the fields.

Thanks have been given for successful harvests since pre-Roman times in Britain. The celebrations in modern times usually include singing hymns, praying and decorating churches with baskets of fruit and food in the festival known as Harvest Festival or Harvest Home or Harvest Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving.

In British churches, chapels, and schools people bring in food from the garden, the allotment or farm, although nowadays people tend to buy a few extra cans of fod or dried produce at the supermarket and supply that. The food is then distributed among the poor and senior citizens of the local community, or used to raise funds for the church, or charity. In the case of Aginoth Junior's School the produce collectd is being donated to teh local Meals on Wheels service that provides food for the eldery and infirm in the community who are unable to cook for themselves.

In the USA and Canada, the festival is set on a certain day and has become a National Holiday known as Thanksgiving (now you know it's origins :o) ). In North America it has become a national secular holiday with religious origins, but in Britain it remains a Church festival giving thanks to God for the harvest.

The modern British tradition of celebrating Harvest Festival in churches began in 1843, when the Reverend Robert Hawker invited parishioners to a special thanksgiving service at his church at Morwenstow in Cornwall. Victorian hymns such as "We plough the fields and scatter", "Come ye thankful people, come" and "All things bright and beautiful" helped popularise his idea of harvest festival and spread the annual custom of decorating churches with home-grown produce for the Harvest Festival service.

Anyway...

Me or Mrs.A always make sure one of us goes to the shcool functions and special assemblies, even thogh we are not at all religious, we like to show suport for the school and to Agi Junior...as we should :o)

I recorded it and i'm trying to get it uploaded so you can see it :) .... I can sense your excitement :o)


That was this morning.


I spent the bulk of today buried in more paper, this time sorting out my claim on my Life insurance under the critical illness clause we thankfully activated when we took out the policy...it covers me for being declared permanently disabled and unable to work by my employers medical advisor...which they have and I have a certificate to prove it. Now I just have to persuade our insurers. It feels a little odd claiming on your own life insurance I must say...

A quick break for lunch then put up LMB's new Dora the Explorer Nightlight (a birthday pressie from Nanny A). Then I spent an hour fiddling with my laptop and playing on the various forms I frequent.

Collected the kids from school(s) at just after 3pm, armed with Lollipops I took them to their favourite playground to enjoy the afternoon surprisingly warm Autimn sunshine, they happily burnt off some energy for an hour. A quick trip into town to post my Insurance claim ended up in a new Milkshake bar across the road from the Post Office...Shake King...over 150 flavours of Milkshake on offer, the kids we're suddenly awestruck....Want to see some of the list? remember you can mix and match....

Aero Mint
After Eights
Amaretti
Apple Pie
Bakewell Tart
Banana
Battenburg
Black Jacks
Blackberry Pie
Blackcurrant Jam
Blueberry Muffin
Blueberry Nutrigrain
Boost
Bounty (Dark Chocolate)
Bounty (Milk Chocolate)
Bourbon Biscuits
Bournville Chocolate
Cadburys Caramel
Cadburys Creme Egg
Cadburys Fruit & Nut
Caramac
Carrot Cake
Cherry
Chocolate & Peanut Butter
Chocolate Chip Cookie
Chocolate Fudge Brownie
Chocolate Mini Roll
Chocolate Muffin
Chocolate Pop Tart
Coco Pops
Coconut Ice
Coffee
Cola Bottles
Crunchie
Crunchy Nut Cornflakes
Curly Wurly
Custard
Custard Creams
Dairy Milk
Devon Fudge
Digestives (Milk Chocolate)
Digestives (Plain Chocolate)
Dime Bar
Dolly Mixtures
Double Decker
Farleys Rusk
Ferrero Rocher
Fig Rolls
Fresh Cakes (Daily Specials)
Frosties
Fruit Cocktail
Fruit Salad Chews
Frys Orange Cream
Frys Peppermint Cream
Frys Turkish Delight
Fudge
Fuse
Galaxy
Galaxy Caramel
Ginger Nuts
Green & Blacks
Haribo
Hersheys Cookies n Creme
Hob Nobs (Milk Chocolate)
Hob Nobs (Plain Chocolate)
Jaffa Cakes
Jam Doughnut
Jam Tart
Jamaican Ginger Cake
Jammie Dodgers
Jammie Wagon Wheel
Jelly Babies
Jelly Beans
Jelly Tots
Kinder Bueno
Kit Kat Chunky
Lemon Curd
Lindt Chocolate
Lion Bar
Liquorice Allsorts
Love Hearts
Malt Loaf
Malted Milk Biscuits
Maltesers
Mandarin
Maple Syrup
Marmalade
Marmite
Mars
Marshmallow
Milky Bar
Milky Way
Minstrels
Munchies
Nutella
Oreo Cookies
Parma Violets
Peach
Peanut Butter
Peanut M&M`s
Penguin
Penny Mix-up
Picnic
Pineapple
Quality Street
Raspberry Jam
Reeces Peanut Butter Cups
Refreshers
Revels
Rolos
Roses
Sherbet Fountain
Shortbread
Skittles
Smarties
Snickers
Snowball
Soft Toffee
Special K
Special K Bar
Strawberry Jam
Strawberry Laces
Strawberry Nutrigrain
Strawberry Pop Tart
Syrup Sponge
Terrys Milk Chocolate Orange
Terrys Plain Chocolate Orange
Tic Tacs (Lime & Orange)
Tic Tacs (Mint)
Toblerone
Toffee Crisp
Toffee Popcorn
Treacle
Treacle Tart
Trebor Extra Strong Mints
Twix
Walnut Whip
Weetabix
Werthers
White Crunch

We settled for a couple of Wispa milkshakes to share which were on offer (and not on the main list)...I now have 3 contented children who think Daddy is great...and probably a bit of a soft touch ... OK yes I know I am :o), but all this is helping me destress after a year of faffing around with work and suchlike.

Future plans

Today I have mostly been gathering up paperwork from various sources.

I am planning to go to University next year to study BA(hons) Archaeology and Medieval History, that's if Cardiff University will have me. This means I have rafts of paperwork to sort out for financing the course, tuition fees, maintenance Grants, Benefits, Disability assistance grants....oh and I have to apply to the University as well (thankfully this is done online) through UCAS the University course central application system. Application for the course has to be in by JAnuary 15th 2008, and the initial application for finance has to be in by April 2008. Those dates are not actually as far away as at first glance, so I'm trying to get ahead of the deadlines now.

So what is this course I want to do? straight from the university website... (Full Info CLICK HERE)

The Bachelor of Arts Archeology and Medieval History degree is a three year course which provides a level of training, skill and knowledge that is respected within professional archaeology and which serves students well when applying for postgraduate study, for employment in archaeology and the heritage sector, and for employment outside of the discipline.

Over three years, students take 360 credits of modules and are able to balance the core requirements in both subjects (e.g., excavation) with a tremendous range of period and regional options (e.g., Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain, Egypt, Medieval Archaeology).

In the first year of the BA Archaeology and Medieval History degree, students study three subjects: a general introduction to the human past (Archaeology Part I A); a general introduction to the study of History; and any other subject offered by the university (e.g., Ancient History, Sociology, Italian) which is timetable compatible. Thus, in their first year, BA Archaeology and Medieval History students take the following modules.

I think it sounds good, within that I can take modules to concentrate on my main period of interest, that being 1200 - 1500, and also specialising on the rise of the English Gentry of that period and relations between England and her closest European neighbours; this is balanced with focus on archaeological methods for exploring the medieval period.

I'll keep you up to date with my application i'm sure.

No diagnosis today

Look… A blog three days running.

This morning, me and Mrs. A have been to see the paediatrician who aginoth junior has been seeing with regard to social interaction problems. We had kind of hoped that there was an outside chance of some sort of diagnosis. Unfortunately there's still a long way to go, it turned out the appointment was just go through the report by Dr. S that was to inform the educational psychologist at his school, and will then lead to further tests, then to a case conference between the school Dr.S and the educational psychologist and then hopefully a diagnosis. phew!

I seem to be getting to grips with the speech recognition thingy, instructions did say that it would learn the sound of my voice and would eventually make less mistakes..which I suppose it has.

Home alone

All by myself at home today, I had planned to do stuff around the house but my wrists and fingers are quite painful today, and I have very little grip. I able to type atm thanks to a large dose of Diclofenac, Tylex and Tramadol. Unfortunately the Tramadol leaves me very dozy and sleepy, I took it 3 hours ago and have just awoken from a non-consentual nap. On the bright side I missed most of the offerings on Daytime TV :) just kidding usually I tune into Radio Bristol during the day, I like talk and discussion based radio and it fits the bill.

Glad to say my back sic pay has appeared in my bank account so we have been able to pay off a coupl eof looming bills, and LMD can go to nursery.

Flicking through the TV channels yesterday I discovered a new Channel....called "Dave", odd I thought, but taking a look at the lineup, it appears someone has actually produced a channel that is actually for me...lol...who am I kidding I'm not that insane...actually it used to be UK Gold 2, but they changed the name due to the strange logic thateveryone knows a bloke called Dave, well those of you who read this blog do for sure (there are still a few of you).

Update: having been told off by Mrs. Aginoth for typing when my hands were hurting I have turned on the speech recognition software on my laptop. This update paragraph has been produced by me speaking to the computer. It's only taken eight attempts for it to actually get it right. With any luck it will learn as we go along; quite frankly it couldn't be any more cumbersome than it already is... We live in hope.

New Blog Title...New Start

It's been all go in the Aginoth Household this last week or so.

Firstly, and at long long last I have won my seemingly endless battle with my employer to be retired on medical grounds. I have in my possession now the Certificate signed by the Ministry of Defence Medical Advisor that I am permanently unable to work for the MoD due to Psoriatic Arthropy (Arthitis).

Offically my last day of employment will probably be 30th November 2007, but I am still torteceive confirmation. So I have today been filling in the forms to claim on my Life Insurance which with great presence of forthought on our part includes critical illness cover for permanent disability certified by an employers medical advisor. With my pension lump sum that means we should hopefully be able to pay of a very large chunk of our mortgage before too much longer, and clear all of our other debts. This will leave us clear to move house early next year to somewhere a bit easer for me to get around now my joints are getting worse (our current house is 3 stories high and I rarely go to the top floor now).

Second. Mrs.A won a car !!! OK so it's a quadricycle really, a REVA G-wiz, and totally impractical for any real use where we live due to Somerset being Mainly Rural and populated by Cows and Sheep. So it's getting deliverd to my mother in law's house in London where it will allow the commuter we sell it to to travel for free into the congestion zone, and be able to park for free in Westminster (I hear Boris Johnson has one!)
Small isn't it?

More details on it here if you are interested. She won it on a webite called My Offers! which is full of competitions every month.

Third. I should finally receive some pay this month, I have been off sick since March, but have not actually been paid any Sick Pay since the end of June, despite my employer agreeing to pay me as if I was receiving my pension already, as you might imagine after nearly 4 months finances are a little stretched to say the least. I am watching my Bank account avidly for the money.

Fourth. Life changing time, I have started my application to study BA Archaeology and Medieval History at Cardiff University from September 2008. I have to do something with all this spare time I have now I am retired, and as I will be receiving my pension we can afford for me to go back to University, this time to study something I'm interested in for myself and not for work.

Fifth. I know I have been neglecting my blog over recent months and I will try to do better ... honest... no I will... probably :o)

PS did you notice The name of the blog changed :o)

Reclaiming the Colonies

To the citizens of the United States of America, in the light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today.

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories.

Except Utah, which she does not fancy.

Your new Prime Minister (The Right Honourable Gordon Brown MP, for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a Minister for America without the need for further elections.

The House of Representatives and the Senate will be disbanded.

A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up "aluminium." Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.

The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour'; skipping the letter 'U' is nothing more than laziness on your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters.

You will end your love affair with the letter 'Z' (pronounced 'zed' not 'zee') and the suffix "ize" will be replaced by the suffix "ise."

You will learn that the suffix 'burgh' is pronounced 'burra' e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to re-spell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if you can't cope with correct pronunciation.

Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up “vocabulary." Using the same thirty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "uhh", "like", and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.

Look up "interspersed."

There will be no more 'bleeps' in the Jerry Springer show. If you're not old enough to cope with bad language then you shouldn't have chat shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary, then you won't have to use bad language as often.

2. There is no such thing as "US English." We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of "-ize."

3. You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn't that hard. English accents are not limited to cockney, upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier).

You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents --- Scottish dramas such as "Taggart" will no longer be broadcast with subtitles.

While we're talking about regions, you must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is "Devon." If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become "shires" e.g. Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire.

4. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters.

British sit-coms such as "Men Behaving Badly" or "Red Dwarf" will not be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy American audience who can't cope with the humour of occasional political incorrectness. Popular British films such as the Italian Job and the Wicker Man should never be remade.

5. You should relearn your original national anthem, "God Save The Queen", but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through.

6. You should stop playing American "football." There are other types of football such as Rugby, Aussie Rules & Gaelic football. However proper football - which will no longer be known as soccer, is the best known, most loved and most popular. What you refer to as American "football" is not a very good game.

The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays "American" football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football.

Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American "football", but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies).

We are hoping to get together at least a US Rugby sevens side by 2008.

You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the 'World Series' for a game which is not played outside of North America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls' game called "rounders," which is baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs.

7. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because we don't believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

8. The 4th of July is no longer a public holiday. The 2nd of November will be a new national holiday, but only in Britain. It will be called "Indecisive Day."

9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap, and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean.

All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts. You will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call 'French fries' are not real chips. Fries aren't even French, they are Belgian though 97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called "crisps." Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat.

Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.

11. As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself.

12. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling "beer" is not actually beer at all, it is lager . From November 1st only proper British Bitter will be referred to as "beer," and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as "Lager." The substances formerly known as "American Beer" will henceforth be referred to as "Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine," with the exception of the product of the American Budweiser company whose product will be referred to as "Weak Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine." This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in the Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion.

13. From the 10th of November the UK will harmonise petrol (or "gasoline," as you will be permitted to keep calling it until the 1st of April) prices with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices (roughly $6/US gallon -- get used to it).

14. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.

15. Please tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us crazy.

16. Tax collectors from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776).

Thank you for your co-operation.

New gardening toy

So there I was facing a large pile of branches having recently decided to clear the jungle like growth at the end of my garden, pear tree and all.

The pile of wood and plants dwarfing my poor meager incinerator...oh the horror of all that work breaking it down into small bundles to burn.

Branwave !!! I'll go buy a Garden Shredder.

So off to the DiY stores I go, PDA in hand to garner reviews of the powerful machinery I am looking at. I looked round several stores, but baulked at the £150 plus price tags of the shredders that would have the power (2000W and over) and the feed capacity (thick branches) that I needed.

Eventually I entered The Wickes Store in Weston-super-Mare. Bank Holiday sale in fll swing, I still easily found a member of staff who was able to help me out, and pointed me to this piece of machinery, the Wickes 2500W Garden Impact Shredder.

I was struck by the price £67.99, less than have the price of com[arable models from other manufacturers, so of course I was wary of the build quality. The shop assistant assured me that the model was as robust as those more expensive models, and the price was a reflection of the fact Wickes still considers itself a supplier to tradesmen rather than the public.

Well it had all the features I was after:

40 mm cutting capacity (branch diameter)
2500W Motor (nice and powerful)
Wheels for easy moving
Safety Cut-out on Electricity supply
Safety interlocks on hopper lid

It was a little Heavy at 19Kg but on wheels not to much of a problem, and this actually reassured me as to it's robustness.

So I get it home and assemble it, 2 screws, 2 bolts and a couple of plastic widgets later it's built and ready to go.

I notice the clear warning signs in the manual and on the unit of the sound level it produces...103DbA, so it's in with the earplugs before using it, as well as Rigger gloves and safety glasses.

103DbA is about as loud as a very loud Nightclub btw.

I immediately set to work and test the unit with a branch that should be on the limit of what it can shred...a 40mm Pear tree branch. I feed the branch throught he top of the hopper (a window limits the size of branches that can be inserted). The 4 foot length of brach is pulled through with a very loud grrrrrrrrrrrr, and exits into the included collection bag as thousands of 5mm chips....bloody good.

and so after a couple of hours I have reduced a very large pile of branches and undergrowth to a bag of chips, which is duly put in my compost bin.

Guess I'd better go cut the grass next....

Back and busy

Hi all,

Yes I am sporadically blogging again , for the first time in months. Been very depressed, still am really, but felt the urge to blog again.

Still waiting to hear about medical retirement from work, haven't been to work since the end of March though.

Felt quite good joint wise today so I have been hard at work shifting rubbish and dead wood in the back gsrden.

TRY THIS ...
Been playing with a review site

http://www.dooyoo.co.uk

best thing about it is they pay you in dooyoomiles for reviews of anything (and I mean anything) plus you get extra dooyoo miles everytime you get a review rated as useful by another user.

DooYooMiles????

Well they can be cashed in for Amazon Vouchers or Cash, or given to charity.

I have written 7 reviews in 24 hours and currently have almost 3000 dooyoo miles, that’s nearly £3 in vouchers (you can cash them in when you get to 10000)

Unlike many pay for users sites this one actually l;ooks like it is worth using, I reckon I could easily get £20 - £40 in amazon vouchers in a mnth without a lot of effort.

Btw my user name is Aginoth as usual….be sure to rate my reviews if you come on and add me to your circle of friends.

Haven Holiday Hell

Woe is me.

My family and I (3 adults and 3 under 7 children) have just returned from a weeks "holiday" at a Haven Holiday's Site.

The Tale....

We were booked into Apartment 2 at Weymouth Bay Haven Holiday Park on 18th August 2007.

I am disabled (walk with a stick due to arthritis) and my mother has recently come out of hospital after a bout of Pneumonia and suffers from Obstructive Pulminary Disorder. Haven were told of my Disability and inability to walk long distances when we booked.

We booked in at 1330, having paid for Gold Standard Accommodation, and all seemed well, until the map came out to show us where our accomodation was. Now remember we have 2 disabled persons in our party and they had been informed of my mobility problems...the Apartments are about as far as it is possible to get from the central facilities area, I measured it on our car odometer at over half a mile...this is a BIG Site.

Not overly impressed by this we thought we'd make the best of it, after all there was disabled parking by reception, so resigned ourselves to having to drive accross the camp several times a day.

So we go to our accomodation. From the outside the apartment looks excellent, and large, then we open the front door (security provided by abysmal 3 lever mortice lock). That was when we encountered the beginings of our woes.

The first thing we noted was all the windows we're open; odd we thought as it was persistently raining outside and it was only about 14 Centigrade, hardly balmy. We closed them...well you would, and thought not a lot more of it...except there was the occasional waft of a "damp building" smell. The other thing we found was the beds had all been moved away from the walls, again we didn't really register what that meant. We unpacked, grabbed some dinner from the local Chip shop and settled the kids into bed that evening, not wanting to venture out into the foul weather.

Next Morning we awoke to a deeply pervasive musty smell of damp and mould, and my Mother awoke unable to breathe without constant use of her inhalers, thankfully it had stpped raining so we set up a table and chair outside for her whilst we investigated. What we found was abysmal.

- The Walls of the 2 twin rooms were deeply damp to a height of about 4 feet above the floor.
- The beds and bedding were soaked from where we had pushed them back against the walls.
- The was mould growth in small patches in virtually every corner of the apartment and around all the windows (we missed this upon arrival due to the poor light)

These 3 points in themselves made the accommodation unfit for habitation, and had seriously affected my mothers health overnight.

So we did a full survey of the property....I should add at this point I am a NEBOSH Qualified Health and Safety Officer and my wife is in the Legal profession.

This is what we found.

- Dead insects everywhere, sqashed on walls, desicated around the edge of the carpets etc.
- Mould everywhere (all around the bathroom/toilet, all corners, windows)
- Cobwebs and dust everywhere

The apartment had obviously not been cleaned properly in months (desicated insects...yuk)

And there's more the aparment was substandard against building regulations.
- the Toilet opened directly onto the Kitchen (building regs require a 2 door seperation for hygiene)
- the extractor fan vent from the toilet exhausted into the kitchen (against building regs) instead of to the outside of the building.

So I took photographs of all the defects and health risks and we went to the Weymouth Bay reception.

We went to reception at 9am, and refused the accomodation as it was not fit for purpose. We were expecting a bit of an argument, as it is high season, and they obviously would not be able to offer an alternative apartment as they were al occupied. We barely had to say what the problem was before they were agreeing with us that it was not acceptable .

This was quite odd; we got the feeling that they knew that it was uninhabitable before they even put us there! We gave them until lunch time to sort it out. Went back to the apartment, packed everything up again. Tried to explain to the kids what was going on.

Went back reception at 11.30. They offered us a standard class two bed caravan. We refused. They then offered a Gold 3 bed caravan on the next door site (Seaview) until Tuesday. We refused. We suggested they give us a full refund (£969) and we'd find somewhere else, and that we expected whatever happened to be sorted out by midday. We had already lost a day of our holiday.

The Supervisor on reception wen tto talk to the maanger...faced with a demanded full cash refund they decided the 3 bed caravan on the Seaview Camp was actually available all week.

So off we went, and spent the rest of the week in a caravan as opposed to an apartment, not ideal considering my mobility issues, and the fact my wife doesn't like caravans, especially considering our young children... my kids are not just like a herd of elephants but more of the full safari at 6am, and there is no escaping that in a caravan, whereas a cottage offers rooms to be sent to, and doors to be shut on.

Needless to say a long letter of complaint asking for compensation will be heading it's way to Haven this week.

And so onto the a review of the rest of the camp...

Staff - other than the lifeguards there were a total of 11 entertainment and Customer care/ Reception Staff...between 2 sites of in excess of 500 caravans, and maybe 2000 guests.

Swimming pools - Indoor pools on both sites were filthy, and over chlorinated to a level where my eyes were burning after a couple of minutes in the water. The Outdoor pools wer ecleaner, but only because they were hardly used, having had no sun on them in weeks to raise them to a usable temperature.

Onsite Shop - Well stocked, OK prices, totally incmpetent staff who were unable to answer the simplest questions, nor apparently were they trained to used the tills effectively.

Childrens Soft Play - Planted smack bang in the middle of the Amusement Arcades of both sites, very noisy, and deliberately placed to encourage spending in the arcades. The arcades themselves were very loud.

Entertainement venues - Overpriced Drinks from bars which were understaffed (£3.70 for a pint of Cider!!!), constant force feeding of camp mascot merchandise, Very loud (illegally so I felt). Mediocre entertainment, no adult bingo on Seaview Site.

Site Layout - Only stay at Weymouth Bay if you like long dull walks through caravan parks. Only Stay at Seaview if you like Steep Hills. Neither site is at all Suitable for disabled holiday makers

Epilogue: Unsurprisingly, come Tuesday, the cottage was occupied again - I expect they told whoever was suposed to be coming into the caravan we were now in that they had been given an upgrade!

It took until Thursday for my mother's Breathing to fully recover ruining her holiday.

Conclusion: We're looking at butlins next year, and will never stay at a Haven Site Again..ever !!!!

Off to Italy again

Lo All

Well we're off to Italy next week again to reenact the Battle of Casorate at Morimondo near Milan.

Here's a video of the 2005 event.



Looking forward to a Weekend of fun and temperatures up around 28 Centigrade (82 Fahrenheit)

Here's somephoto's I took at last years event


CLICK HERE FOR SLIDESHOW FROM ITALY REENACTMENT

And there is more on the Italian trip 2006 at Mrs.Aginoth's Blog Here and here

I aint dead....

Call me Marvin

Just been signed off work for a month by my GP, for depression;also had my prozac dose doubled.

So kind of looks like I have a few weeks of pretending to be retired whislt waiting to be retired...I live in hope.

Did I tell you about the pain in the diodes in my left hand side?


Anyway....the vegetables we planted in the garden have finally shown signs of life, after 12 days we have a single sprout...purple broccolli. Hardly gonna feed us for a while but at least it means we have planted it all correctly, or at least we will find out if more sprout or not :)

So at lest I have time to get some stuff sorted out for the impending re-enactment season.

How to take on your bank and win !!! + Retirement update

You may recall that back at the start of February I decided to ask my bank back for all the charges it had levied on our acount for the last 6 years.

Last week when I hadn't heard from them in several weeks I began court procedings against them for the money.

Surprise surprise on the very day they were served the summons from the county court they have written to me and offered me over £2000, a little less than I asked for but we are going to settle. That'll cover the mortgage for a couple of months.

They of course say they do not accept the have done anything wrong or broken the law as that would require them to carry out a comprehesive review of their charging practices, and that the payment is a good will gesture...that's a bloody huge lump of goodwill (sic).

Anyway the whole process has taken about 8 weeks and I would recommend anyone in the UK who has been charges anything in the last 6 years by their banks to visit MONEY SAVING EXPERT and you'll find templstes of all the letters and the proces alid out in simple steps...you have nothing to lose.

Previous posts....
Give me My Money
Give me my Money Part 2

Now to get on with getting retired. I was denied medical retirement last week, however, I have right of appeal and grounds to do so. They agree that I am unfit for work and no adjustments would make it possible for me to give regular and effective service, but as my Family Doctor's report didn't specifically state that my Arthritis is permanent and going to effect me significantly for the next 23 years of my working life they couldn't retire me.

So anyway it turns out they addressed the request for a report on me to my GP's Medical Practice and not my GP himself, so the practice wrote the report based directly on my medical file, just diagnjostic facts and dates with no personal input from the Doctor who actually knows anything about my day to day issues. I asked my GP to write me a personal medical report in light of this and he has, stating the permanent aspect f my arthritis and so now I am awaitung the results of the appeal.

Stress Relief

Picture yourself near a stream. Birds are softly chirping in the crisp cool mountain air.

Nothing can bother you here.

No one knows this secret place.

You are in total seclusion from that place called "the world."

The soothing sound of a gentle waterfall fills the air with a cascade of serenity.

The water is clear and you can easily make out the face of the person whose head you're holding under the water.

Look. It's the person who caused you all this stress. What a pleasant surprise.

You let them up... just for a quick breath... then ploop!... back under they go...

You allow yourself as many deep breaths as you want.

There now... feeling better?

When they refuse to sit on the naughty Step....

Not one of my kids I hasten to add...

STRIKE !!!

I'm off work to day

My Union and I are on strike over a below inflation payrise that has been imposed upon us.

Initial reports say that 1000 staff failed to report for work today at my place of work.

I was supposed to be manning a picket line, but my Doctor told me I wasn't physically able to stand int eh cold and wet for 3 hours so told me not too. So I stayed at home, got the tyres changed on my car an fletched a few arrows.

Full Stry from my unions web pages...http://www.prospect.org.uk

Thousands join strike by MOD professionals
28/02/2007

Thousands of specialists, engineers and managers from the Ministry of Defence took strike action today in protest at a below inflation 2.5 per cent pay offer for 2006-07.

Their union Prospect estimates that at least 80 per cent of Prospect members stayed away from work in their campaign against the government's programme of pay restraint, job cuts and privatisation in MOD.

Civilian staff picketed at least 120 MOD sites across the UK including naval bases, RAF stations, maintenance workshops, training establishments, telecoms facilities, stores depots and other establishments. Six thousand specialists in Prospect are affected by the dispute, which is over a pay offer overdue from August 2006.

By agreement with Defence Secretary Des Browne, 65 staff in key safety and operational roles were exempted from the action, so as not to jeopardise essential functions.

Main centres of action today were at:

Defence Procurement Agency HQ, Abbey Wood, Bristol – excellent response from procurement specialists supervising commercial contracts. All three gates were picketed and almost 1,000 staff stayed away from work. Nearby DPA site at Foxhill, Bath, hit as 200 technical services staff working on equipment testing and measurement stayed at home.

Faslane/Coulport Naval Base, Clyde – big turn-out from members forced management to put Coulport on a 'silent hours' routine, effectively weekend working hours. Maintenance work on Trident nuclear submarines disrupted testing work not carried out. Local reps expressed concern that MOD had not asked the Nuclear Accident Response Organisation at Faslane to be exempt from the action.

Devonport Naval Base, Plymouth – all site entrances heavily picketed and logistics support closed down. No ship movements in or out of the base could take place as all Admiralty pilots were on strike. Work by contractors and industrial grades was slowed down as supervisors were on strike. In common with most other MOD sites, military commanders agreed not to put service personnel into civilian work.

Portsmouth Naval Base – 300 engineering and logistics staff took strike action in and around Portsmouth, including the Defence Storage and Distribution Agency's munitions depot in Gosport. Pickets present at HMS Sultan training centre and the Marchwood Sea Mounting Centre, Southampton, the UK's only military port facility for moving army equipment on to ships.

Bicester -RAF Cosford. Home of the Defence College of Aeronautical Engineering, this ground to a standstill when only one civilian reported for work. Courses were cancelled and the training programme will have to be extended.

RAF St Mawgan, Cornwall- At the support centre for the RAF search and rescue helicopter force, five members exempted from the action because their work is safety critical asked to donate a day's pay to charity because they had to go to work.

MOD Main Building, Whitehall – Pickets were out in force outside MOD headquarters and the Old War Office opposite. More than 100 specialists stayed away from work and leafletted the other 4,000 staff as they started their day. Maintenance of IT and communications networks halted after the night shift stopped work at midnight.

Prospect National Secretary Steve Jary said: “It takes a lot to persuade men and women who have dedicated their entire working lives to supporting the armed forces to take this kind of action. Nationwide there has been a magnificent response. Members have made their point in their thousands and the response from the military and other civilian staff to our protest has been very sympathetic.

“MOD cannot say it has been business as usual and we call upon the department to reopen negotiations over pay as soon as possible. MOD's current policies are driving its most skilled staff out of the department and will do lasting damage to Britain's operational capability if it does not listen.”

I'm not really surprised...

You Are 72% Cynical

You're a full blown cynic... and probably even skeptical of these results. You have your optimistic moments, but most likely you keep them to yourself.

How Cynical Are You?

Waiting for the season to start

Spent the weekend travelling to Bracknell in Northamptonshire to collect a new Medieval Pavilion and some other reenactment kit we'd bought off of some peeps giving up the hobby....odd thing to do...lol

Then Spent Sunday sat in front of a roaring wood fire cutting material for new clothes for the children (Aginoth Junior specifically)

Spent this lunchtime searching through piccies of lastseasons events and thought i'd share this one of Sunset over our camp at Morimondo Abbey, just outside Milan,Italy from May Last Year. Click to enlarge

Give me my Money Part 2

Remember this post...Aginoth's Ramblings: Give me my Money...

My attempt to get my bank to refund the last 6 years bank charges because they break contract law in that they are punative charges...

Well today is day 7 after my bank received my initial letter, and I have had a reply

Here it is scanned and doctored to protect confidentiality click on it to read


Anyway the gist of it is I have got them to agree to send me my last 6 years statement and then they will consider paying me as a goodwill gesture...lol. Well actually I think that's a good start, so now i just have to plough through 6 years of statements and then tell them exactly what i am claiming from them.

Could this be a painless claim....possibly....shock.

Anyway anyone else interestedin getting there bank chargfes back for the last 6 years see here...Money Saving Expert and here on the bbc.

New Element Discovered

A major research institution has recently announced the discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science.

The new element has been named *Governmentium*. Governmentium (Gv) has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A minute amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second to take over four days to complete.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 4 years; it does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganisation in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganisation will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming iso-dopes.

This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as Critical Morass.

When catalysed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium - an element which radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

The Dark Sucker Theory...

For years, it has been believed that electric bulbs emit light, but recent information has proved otherwise. Electric bulbs don't emit light; they suck dark. Thus, we call these bulbs Dark Suckers.

The Dark Sucker Theory and the existence of dark suckers prove that dark has mass and is heavier than light.

First, the basis of the Dark Sucker Theory is that electric bulbs suck dark. For example, take the Dark Sucker in the room you are in. There is much less dark right next to it than there is elsewhere. The larger the Dark Sucker, the greater its capacity to to suck dark. Dark Suckers in the parking lot have a much greater capacity to suck dark than the ones in this room.

So with all things, Dark Suckers don't last forever. Once they are full of dark, they can no longer suck. This is proven by the dark spot on a full Dark Sucker.

A candle is a primitive Dark Sucker. A new candle has a white wick. You can see that after the first use, the wick turns black, representing all the dark that has been sucked into it. If you put a pencil next to the wick of an operating candle, it will turn black. This is because it got in the way of the dark flowing into the candle. One of the disadvantages of these primitive Dark Suckers is their limited range.

There are also portable Dark Suckers. In these, the bulbs can't handle all the dark by themselves and must be aided by a Dark Storage Unit. When the Dark Storage Unit is full, it must be either emptied or replaced before the portable Dark Sucker can operate again.

Dark has mass. When dark goes into a Dark Sucker, friction from the mass generates heat. Thus, it is not wise to touch an operating Dark Sucker. Candles present a special problem as the mass must travel into a solid wick instead of through clear glass. This generates a great amount of heat and therefore it's not wise to touch an operating candle.

Also, dark is heavier than light. If you were to swim just below the surface of the lake, you would see a lot of light. If you were to slowly swim deeper and deeper, you would notice it getting darker and darker. When you get really deep, you would be in total darkness. This is because the heavier dark sinks to the bottom of the lake and the lighter light floats at the top. The is why it is called light.

Finally, we must prove that dark is faster than light. If you were to stand in a lit room in front of a closed, dark closet, and slowly opened the closet door, you would see the light slowly enter the closet. But since dark is so fast, you would not be able to see the dark leave the closet.

Next time you see an electric bulb, remember that it is a Dark Sucker.

Days at home

It was LMD's Birthday a coule of days ago, so we are due to be invaded by a hoard of 2 year olds this weekend for her party. When asked what she wanted for her birthday she replied....Cake....Chocook Cake...so I'll be repeating my construction of a Chocolate Swiss Roll Catapillar tomorrow.

Over my infections I think, still quite tired, and my joints are improved, so i've been able to do a bit more about the house, dinner is cooking in the oven (Spaghetti Bolognaise), kitchen cleaned....got to do the lounge yet, but enthusiasm is waning now.

Not back to work until Tuesday...which is noce, hoping to have news on my medical retirment from personnel waiting for me....we live in hope.

Think i'll treat myself to an hour or so of playing on the Wii....

UpDate: OK so I found some enthusiasm and did the tidying up ....:o)