The Much Trailed Snowman.

P2092974
Originally uploaded by Mr. Dtb.

Riding a Plough.

They Got It

The house - my in-laws.

Didn't ask them for any ID though.

Glad that wasn't a wasted journey then!

Naughty, Naughty Greggy

So my Lovely Bro-in-Law is trying to buy a house (not that he doesn't own two already) - actually I guess what they are trying to do is build an extension with out the hassle of all the building bit. He's got the two centre cottages of a terrace (they only count as one in the above reckoning up BTW) and they're after the end one, in order to make an UberHouse. You can get the general idea if you look here. It's everything from the fairly obvious change in roof slates/ second long window from the right, heading left. A reasonable property I guess.

Anyway, it's going up by auction this is fairly hair-raising in itself. And requires, in order the bid be completed, that you provide a certain amount of photo id, utility statements etc. Bro-in-Law very sensibly put these in the boot of his car so as not to forget to bring them from Oxford (location of first house).

They then travelled in Sister-in-law's car. DOH.

This meant he had to drive to Oxford again - at about 8.00pm ish, yesterday. And then straight back again. Ouch. I being the gallant soul I am agreed to assist in the driving and genrally be company for him. Yep I'm nice. And modest too.

All was going swimmigly - we'd had quite a large and late luch, so decided to push off and get a service station burger along the way. Sweet.

So decide to stop around nine. All OK. Siddle up to BK's and order 2 veggie burgers (he's also kinda veggie). Nope says the greasy burger-wallah. Okay 2 Bean burgers then. Again nope. So we wander on, foraging for more appealing food stuffs - all the rest of the chow looks particularly grim, and we really fancy something hot and not a wilting sarnie so we decided to push on to the next service station. When we get there it has a Wimpy (a think Yeah to myself as I quite enjoy Wimpy in a retro kinda way). But it's shut. Also shut is the canteen type thing. So on we go. When we get to the next place ditto. Wimpy shut, canteen shut, little shop thing - Not even any veggie sarnies. Lucky for Greg they had some paninis in the coffee shop - or else I may have given up vegetarianisms early.

And taken up cannibalism instead.

It's Official!

Snap Preview Anywhwere

So. SPA have updated their code a little. Which'll be pleasing to the few peeps who gave me negative feedback about my use of this most excellent tool on my blog. It's now much more end user friendly - which is you guys.

You may have noted the funny little bubble icons scattered around the links. Well, the way it's currently set up, you need to hover over one of these icons in order to be able to view a preview of the site. Of course, these also means if you don't want to view a preview of the site just don't hover over the icon - get it.

It also has more last user preferences (top right corner of a preview bubble). You can alter the length of time it take for a bubble to pop-up, or switch of previews for this or any site.

And, of course, these preview boxes give you a search engine where ever you are (if the site is SPA enabled) - which is cool.

So if you've got any feedback just tell me. You (by which I actually mean one, by which I suppose I mean me in this instance) can eighty-six the little bubble icon, going back to SPA being link activated, or you can have it with the bubble but having it all (link and bubble) activate SPA - though I'm not really sure why you'd do this. You can also change the colours and over cool stuff. So tell me what you think I should do - and then I'll ignore you anyway.

Fresh Resolve

So As you may have noticed my new years resolution to blog daily has not exactly gone according to plan - and in fact the occasional post I wanted to do has slipped by; leaving my head at an astonishing rate of knots.

But, I think on the whole I've been better; and the quality of the posts hasn't been tooooo dire. NB. I decided on a new paragraph due tot he dizzying length of the previous sentance - better to have a proper break before forging on.

And I have a new resolution - well actually not a resolution more a lenten thing. I'm vegetarian. But only for lent, mind.

This announcement is by way of informing everyone who may possibly be cooking for me, don't say you weren't warned!

It's not that I'm relgious or anything. But I come form a Christian background and believe that a period of reflection and 'hardship' (in the loosest possible terms) is good for you.

So lent it is.

Not a lot happens to me

In the imortal words of the most excellent Stanley Bagshaw.

So I've not really got a whole lot to say. I intended to post a pic of the snowman yesterday - but I failed to upload it prior, and was at work all day yesterday. I might save it for the middle of july or soemthing equally timely now.

In other news - can you help me with this crossword clue - "lazy postie"

?

Blow Up Ladies,

So I was following this van in the car the yesterday and the title of the company is Blow Up Lady Balloons. As I was following it I could only see the back of the van. Which meant that I could really only read the name. The info about what they do being printed too small to read even if you are really tail-gating.

needless to say I was some what bemused as to what this company might offer product wise. And, well, I could only really think of one thing - but I didn't think you'd really want a hugely decaled van tipping up at your door to deliver them. These kinds of services are generally a little more discreet, if you know what I mean.

Anyway I was a little disappointed when I went to their web-site. I think I had the punctuation in the wrong place. Y'know - Blow-up lady-balloons. That kinda thing. Although actually Blow-Up-Lady balloons sounds worse.

Errrm

Well, Not a great deal to say. Not done much,, or thought much really. Not that springs to mind anyway. I guess I'm still feeling a little post-viral form this hideous cold I've been having. It's certainly managed to screw around with my sleep pattern completely. I keep feeling either wide awake or dead on my feet at all and any hour of the day or night.

Super.

In other news - built a rather nice snowman with the boys. Pic to follow.

Actually, I did it on the day I couldn't be arsed to write (due to said cold) so it turned out like an okay day after all. Still not arsed to write it up mind.

Practice What You Preach - Yeah Right.

IMAG0026
Originally uploaded by anarchkit.

As the little blurb of AK's says (you'll have to go to Flickr to see it). Annoying.

Other ways in which the police get right up my noses - Police Camera Action type shows on the telly where the traffic cops bleat on about upholding the rules of the road, while their 'colleagues' are busy turning the wrong way whilst not indicating, double parking, stopping on a dime for no reason.

In general acting like they own the road in their little hair-drier-powered cars.

SUPRISE!

SUPRISE!
Originally uploaded by Mr. Dtb.

Don't feel like writing so you get an extra picture.

Still Crappy

Hey,

Went to Castle Hill yesterday as the weather was so clement and the kids need a run out. Took a few okay shots. There's a couple on flicker, I guess you can see them in the slider at the bottom. Now I feel crap though. Still, walked down through the wood and took some pic's of tracks in the snow (it's snowed here - not loads but enough to feel it has actually snowed) as that was one of Small's activities for the day (tracking that is). Everyone staying at the bottom of the wood for tea. I came home to have a rest and some 'me time'.

Sorry don't really feel scintillating. I'll catch you all later.

Also, for the attention of my tallest-smallest brother Pancea

My Abode

My Abode
Originally uploaded by Mr. Dtb.

Well, I've made various references to it so he is a shot - my house (at the mo').

Itchy Dose

Today I are be msotly having a cold.

So blogging curtailed (mostly due to hearing about me lump around various parts of the house is less than interesting (and why would that stop you I hear you shout; yeah yeah)).

Slacker

As you may have noticed I haven't posted for a few days. For this I apologise. The main reason it's been so long is that I have been away the weekend at a mates 40th (the scotch egg eating geezer as it happens). My plan was to email posts in from my phone - but as I forgot the charger, and the battery died almost the instant I arrived, that proved a little tricky. Sharp eyed amongst you will have spotted this doesn't actually hold up to scrutiny as the last post was sometime before the weekend - but I offer no further excuses.

Anyway - to the party. It was cool, it was a vaguely Lord of the Rings themed event. With people dressed in fancy dressed inspired by the film. This was optional - I optioned out. It was prob' about a 40 60 split dressed up to not, so I didn't feel the only boring twat.

The films were playing away in the front room all day - the party started at 12.00 (they were the extended edition so about 4 hrs long each), and there was food, drink and general chat in the kitchen/dining room (one large open plan type area). This was cool, people kinda swapped in and out of watching the film. Some watched the film all (or at least most) of the time. Some didn't watch the film at all. Actually the people not watching the film tended to barrack a bit about how anti-social the other group were - but I think that just shows an unwillingness to engage with the spirit of the thing.

In any case I did relatively well at catching the one or two bits of the films I particularly enjoy, and also got to catch up with some people I hadn't seen for a while - so all that was cool.

In other news or bucket of rust we call a car passed it's MOT (Yeah). Eventually (Boo). It's less rusty now though.