Already been a year...

It was our anniversary weekend last weekend.  An eventful time was had, and not necessarily for all the right reasons.  We booked into a hotel in Bath, very conveniently situated within 5 minutes walk from the train station which is always a bonus.  The staff were friendly and polite, however not the same can be said about some of the hotel residents.  Unfortunately a stag party of five had booked into the same hotel, the same weekend and on the same floor, in a couple of rooms opposite.  I sound like I'm "old before my time", but the noise was deafening both nights we were there.  Shouting, screaming, general loutish behaviour - "right thugs" or "yobs" as my parents would describe.  My normally calm, mild manner was replaced with an outburst having been subjected to this level of noise for quite some time.  The anger churning up inside me was too much to bear, so out came this tirade of colourful language (again, something my parents would say), and a sort of round-about apology came back.  On refection, I should have just phoned down to reception and asked them to sort out the noise.


Down for breakfast the following morning, Jo and I quickly scuttled off down stairs to avoid an embarrassing meeting in the corridor.  Only to be greeted by several buckets in the lounge area collecting water from above.  It transpired one of the "stag drunks" had managed to break the toilet cistern, and water gushed freely down into the hotel room below and eventually into the lounge area on the ground floor.  In causing all this destruction, he ended up in A&E bleeding hideously.  So in conclusion, a bit of a blight on our romantic weekend away.  Here are some photos taken while wandering the streets of Bath.  Couldn't resist some poses!......

Back to earth with a bang this week with car problems once again.
The heat shield over the exhaust has been rattling for weeks and I finally got it replaced. £61 later down my local garage.  I have a special relationship with them, I think I spend more time with them than I do my wife.  They welcome me with open arms and £ signs in their eyes.  "Mr Clarke, nice to see you....again.  What can we do for you this time?"  My overall aim is to keep my rust bucket on the road for about another four or five months before replacing it with NEW in March/April time 2011.  I've never bought NEW before, and so many people keep offering their opinions, some unwelcome ones, but I want to hold on to my new car for many years, so depreciation - doesn't worry me.  Keep saving then Rog.  My wife would sometimes like to see me open my wallet.  I wonder where I get that from?

Been a "sturdy" week

For those who know me, you would have heard me waffle a lot on the latest developments with my wife.  She's 4 months pregnant and now "showing".  Earlier this week while walking the dog, (see cute picky from previous post), I got chatting with one of my wife's friends, and she commented on how she is "blooming" and "glowing".  Curious expressions which only get used to describe someone pregnant.  The other day in a spontaneous moment of romance, the wife threw her arms around me and said "You're quite sturdy now aren't you"......It was one of those "....and then the room fell silent" moments. I still don't know if I should take that as a compliment. Think the dictionary definition of sturdy should inflate my ego though. 

Pregnancy (or otherwise) can cause embarrassment though.  I recall an awkward moment my wife's dentist had recently.  Obviously, most of the time, the dentist would only see his patients for the annual check-ups, so body changes can occur!   Conversation went something like "Oh, you're looking radiant....any day now!"......long pause and face like thunder....."I'm not pregnant" came the reply....Oooops.

Not a good week for a friend of mine.  Driving to Liverpool up the M5, he got pulled over by the police, and read his "rights", and to be told he's been driving without car insurance since April.  Nowadays, special technology in their cars allow them to be able to find out all your personal details just by scanning the number plate. At car renewal time, said friend arranged another 12 months on the internet, and was given some reference number by the company, only for them to deny issuing this number.  Transpires that he wasn't astute enough to realise he hadn't been charged the annual premium on his Visa.  Five months passed by and had forgotton about it, only to be reminded by the police at side of the M5 in Warwickshire.  Ooops.  What's more disturbing, he's an accountant.  If he can't sort out his own finances, who can?  He's waiting to see if he'll be charged or let off due to an honest mistake on his part.  £800 later, he got his car back....how's your week been?

Pint and a half

The weekend involved beer with a friend in the sunshine and puting the "world to rights". How come we seem to be able to competently solve the major issues of the world over a pint?  Recently "That Mitchell and Webb look" did an amusing sketch on this in their latest series.  Something to do with important decision making over a pint an a half.  More than this, and the brain becomes addled and fuzzy, and given the position of power, you destroy the world with hasty choices.  

This week my patience levels have been tested to the extreme with the comings and goings of our next-door neighbours.  Probably a sweeping statement, but whenever there's rented property nearby, you know the place is never going to be looked after properly.  The current tenants decided at 12.30am on Tuesday that they would load their belongings into the back of a van.  Banging, crashing and scraping of heavy items from one end of the van to the other, ensued for 2hrs.  So instead of waking at 2.20am for my regular early start, I was woken abruptly from 12.30am and seething with rage until I left for work.  We now have new tennants, but the old ones still keep coming back.  Who has a key?  Everybody it would seem.  Do you have a key?  I'm onto the landlord later to have a Victor Meldew rant.....Oh and I've just noticed the new tennants have not one but FOUR cats.  I'm sure they'll soon be dumping their load in our garden!

Walking the dog a lot this week has seen me attempt to reverse the onset of "fat watch". The pasties afterwards haven't helped though.  Back to decision making:  Chatting to other dog walkers when you're with your dog is another way of achieving best results.  Maybe politicians should adopt this approach, "walk the dog followed by a pint an a half".  Must surely be better than sitting in a stuffy House of Commons dithering.  

Just cos I like it, here's a picture of my walking companion again....