There are 119 readable entries.
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And 336 comments in total
The total amount of Karma votes on this site is 108
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Mark has made 118 entries
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Saturday, July 30, 2005
Yes were back off our little 1 week excursion to not so sunny north Wales and i have to say that i had a really nice time...a bit of sun, a lot of rain but totally relaxing.
While we were there we went along to Chris and Coti's (Chris is family on Fliss's side) belated wedding reception and it was a lovely day. They got married in Hungary where Coti is from and some of her family came over to this 'party' to meet the rest of Chris's family.
They also brought with them cooking pots and ingredients to make traditional Hungarian goulash for us, it was really nice and made a nice change from BBQ...which was also on offer and very nice.
Aaron thoroughly enjoyed himself and was on the boil for the entire day, only flaking out when it was finally time to leave and he was put in his car seat.
We had a visit from Fliss's sister Lucy and her fella Tony and a few visits from fliss's mum which was very nice and then the rest of the week just chillin in the caravan.
Still, it's all been brought down to earth with my first shift back at work and i can honestly say that it's getting worse....arse!!
Posted by Mark @ 09:39 PM GMT
Friday, July 22, 2005
Were off to 'sunny' north Wales for the week as of today, i will leave comments enabled and deal with any 'obnoxious' posts when i get back.
I leave you with this little prayer in parting....
Girls Prayer
Our marks, which art with spencer,
hallowed be thy foodhall,
thy Cartier watch thy Chanel bag,
in Hermes as it is in Harrods.
Give us each day our visa gold
and forgive us our overdraft,
as we forgive those who stop our mastercard.
Lead us not into dorothy perkins,
and deliver us from Top shop,
for thine is the Armani, the Gucci and the Versace,
for Gaultier and Eternity,
AMEX.
Posted by Mark @ 03:52 PM GMT
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
We had our new recycle bins today, a nice green one for garden foliage and bark etc (can't see us using that one much as our garden is concrete), a nice blue one bottles and cans and a big grey one for everything else..the bins are also going to be emptied on a fortnightly rotation basis and as your not allowed to overfill the bin or stack bin bags to the side of them i hope there's enough room for 2 weeks worth of nappies..let alone any of the other house hold waste. Still, as much as i whine about it all (laziness more than anything) i am all for recycling...in fact i think they've not gone far enough.
Got a VoIP Cyberphone today and i'm quite looking forward to linking up with Chris when he finally gets one. I did a test with their echo test contact so the phones working but as i don't know anyone with another Cyberphone it's a bit hard to test it, i tried phoning my house phone from it but i'm having a few teething problems and so have sent off an email to the tech support guys to make sure i'm doing it right. I'm looking forward to linking up with Chris and maybe some other guys (Neil?) and having a 3 way chat while playing our little online game (you can have a four way conference call going on).
Posted by Mark @ 09:07 PM GMT
Monday, July 18, 2005
With the impending (if you like to call 6 months impending) arrival of our new baby i thought i would have a little look at how much money it has cost to feed and dress little Aaron, not that i begrudge spending money on him, quite the opposite infact..i find myself spending small fortunes on him in the knowledge that as he gets older i'm probably going to spoil him even more and more.
For some strange reason i have been collecting all the spoons that you get in the powdered milk tins so i can give a fairly accurate indication as to what milk has cost in the last year, milks prices have fluctuated a bit over the year depending on where you buy them from but on average a tin of milk costs about £5.50 and what with nappies and clothing...basically the bare essentials for a growing lad i have a first year figure of about £650, this figure however doesn't account for 'extras' like jar food, biscuits/nibbles, juice and ready made carton milk.
To be honest the first child is always the expensive one as you have to go out and buy all the things you need and prams, car seats, cots and the like are not cheap by any account but once you have them then it becomes a little easier financially when you have another..in fact the only thing that we are likely to need sometime after no2 is born is another cot and possibly a twin pram for the both of them.
The last thing i want this post to sound like is a whine about the cost of children, Aaron has brought a lot of joy into mine and Felicity's life and thats something money just can't buy and i don't begrudge a single penny that we have spent on him, i just thought it would be interesting to have a little toatal for the year so far.
Posted by Mark @ 09:37 PM GMT
Friday, July 15, 2005
Felicity had a scan today (they start them now at 16 weeks apparently) to confirm conception dates and what not, we weren't going to get that excited about it...till we saw the scans with it's little heart beating and jumping around in the womb. We can confirm that despite some rumours that were doing the rounds in an attempt to scare the shit out of me that it is indeed one baby and not twins 
.
So if you click here you can view the rather nice and clear first ever pictures of the soon to be new addition to the family.
According to the nurse the size of the baby puts it at about 12 weeks....only another 24 weeks to go then.
Posted by Mark @ 08:27 PM GMT
Friday, July 8, 2005
Didn't think it would last long, the MG is back in the garage for some replacement HT leads.
I went to fill up the car yesterday, the car had been running fine before hand and i was happy, stuck a full tank of unleaded in the car and as i set of home via the video shop to drop of a rental DVD there seemed to be a fuelling problem that was getting steadily worse.
A couple of times when it was getting really bad i tried to boot it a bit to 'clear it out' but only managed to irritate the engine management light which flashed at me with some fury, in fact the car was getting so bad that on my way to the garage i thought it was going to stall a few times.
When i got to the garage i went in and explained it had been in their body shop for 3 months after a frontal smash and that after i had filled up i was having engine trouble, they had a look and about 5 minutes later came back and told me i had a large hole in one of the HT leads and it was throwing sparks all over the place..well, i thought, thats bloody typical, more so because they didn't have any in stock and had advised me to leave the car with them as driving it could damage the cat.
Obviously i wont be paying for this work as it's most definitely from the smash 3 months ago and was missed on the original inspections..hopefully i should get the car back today.
Another reason why this whole new car 'issue' was a pain in the arse was that we were going to give the MG a little run down to Chester to see Fliss's mum and help her set up her new spangley computer.
Still, we went down in Fliss's little go-kart Saxo and i spent the whole journey to and from Chester asleep on the back seat...and i hope Liz is enjoying her new PC 
.
This whole thing with bombs going off in London is indeed very sad and my deepest sympathies to all those family's involved...but is their any need to have hour after hour of news bulletins about it, it's the same old information regurgitated each and very time, yes i know a bomb went off, yes i know it's a travesty but hour after hour of news bulletins and 'hour long specials' doesn't help anyone, you just end up with so called experts being wheeled out to give their six pence on who, why, how, when, etc.....
I strongly suspect that their was a bombing 'cell' in every competing city of the 2012 Olympics bid and the city that won would a nice high profile bomb set off...maximum exposure.
Posted by Mark @ 10:07 AM GMT
Wednesday, July 6, 2005
Taken from the BBC website
The 2012 Olympic Games will be held in London, the International Olympic Committee announced on Wednesday.
London won a two-way fight with Paris by 54 votes to 50 at the IOC meeting in Singapore, after bids from Moscow, New York and Madrid were eliminated.
Paris had been favourites throughout the campaign but London's hopes were raised after an impressive presentation by Lord Coe, the bid chairman.
IOC president Jacques Rogge made the dramatic announcement at 1249 BST.
It will be the first time the Olympics has been held in Britain since 1948.
Coe said:"This is just the most fantastic opportunity to do everything we ever dreamed of in British sport."
The dramatic news delighted flag-waving supporters who had gathered in London's Trafalgar Square.
Everyone was all together and we never lost our confidence
said bid leader Lord Coe on London's Olympic bid victory
But raindrops began falling on disappointed Parisians outside the Hotel de Ville in the French capital shortly after the result.
Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Jacques Chirac, you arrogant pompous twat!!
And it looks like Gerrard is staying at Liverpool FC for the foreseeable future....bout bloody time
Posted by Mark @ 01:36 PM GMT
Tuesday, July 5, 2005
After over 3 months of waiting i have finally got the MG back and i can't be happier, there are a few snags that need to be rectified but on the whole i'm very happy with the finish.
I have to say driving it was a bit nerve wracking, after three months in courtesy cars the MG just felt so different from anything i have driven that i was really quite nervous..still, after driving around for about an hour taking in that lovely V6 and the adoring gaze of pedestrians it felt second nature.
My next little job now is to, weather permitting, give the car a good clean inside as it's rather dusty.
Thought i would finish off this post with some cost figures......the total bill for repairs to the car stands at about 7k, the total cost of the courtesy car for the 3 months is about 4.5k...thats 11.5k for the second accident. Add to that the cost of the first accident right at the start of the month of about 6k plus the courtesy car hire which i don't know the figure but can make a rough estimate of about 1.2k and we have an estimated grand total of £23,000 spent on the car in the last 6 months...glad i'm not paying the bill
Posted by Mark @ 07:55 PM GMT
Monday, July 4, 2005
It seems the unthinkable is about to happen, one of the greatest midfield players in the world and our captain Steven Gerrard is on his way out of Liverpool FC after contract talks broke down. To be honest i have been expecting this for awhile, it is widely known that Rafael Benitez needs to add much needed depth to the squad but needs a lot more money than he has presently available and with the success of the Champions League 2005 and the exposure that Gerrard has received he is unlikely to be worth any more than he is now and if they can get 30/35 million for him then that will buy 3 or 4 really good players.
I know Gerrard is the heart of the team but how long can Liverpool survive relying on the one player to always bail them out, maybe it's time to break the teams reliability on one person and build a team that can actually play together effectively and consistently.
You can only make assumptions about whats going on with what you read in the press but i don't think Gerrard is completely innocent in all this...it's been reported that he was upset that Liverpool sorted out Hamann and Smicer's contracts yet left his till after the holidays but Gerrard still has 2 years of his contract to run where as Hamann's and Smicers were up for renewal and NEEDED a decision, i'm of the honest opinion that Gerrard has had Liverpool over a barrel as far as his future at the club is concerned and has played this whole situation to his benefit, although i'm not saying that Liverpool are exactly clean on the whole process.
I suppose his future will be well and truly confirmed with the up coming TNS match, if he plays then it means he's staying, if he don't play then it means he's not cup tied and available for transfer.
Posted by Mark @ 01:58 PM GMT
Friday, July 1, 2005
I'm getting the MG back. The garage phoned today to say the car will be ready for collection Monday evening, i had popped in earlier in the week for an update and they had told me the car will be ready soon but i told them i didn't want it back till the 1st July at the very earliest for taxing reasons so Monday is just great for me...will feel very weird after being without it for 3 months. My biggest problem now is that when i take the courtesy car back..i will have to either pay for the panel that someone keyed out of my insurance or my pocket, i think preference would be pocket as if it comes out of the insurance then it will almost certainly affect my no claims bonus of 3 years. I think i shall be dusting of the credit card.
My little mini-business 'on the side' seems to have taken a step forward from the one main tank i was maintaining to about four tanks..with the possibly of another two to follow, individually these extra tanks don't represent a lot of money..certainly not as much as i get from my main one but collectively all four tanks add seriously extra poundage to my pathetic part time Asda wage....i know which job i would rather be doing full time.
Posted by Mark @ 09:01 PM GMT
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