There are 119 readable entries.
3 of those entries are on the main page
And 116 are archived entries.
There are 0 locked entries
And 336 comments in total
The total amount of Karma votes on this site is 108
Leaving an overall Karma of 4
Mark has made 118 entries
Fliss has made 0 entries
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Had a little laugh at Felicity's expense today, it was a very warm day..not necessarily sunny, just very warm and Fliss had been driving around with her large sunroof open.
About 15 minutes after pulling up at home the weather suddenly turned nasty and the heavens opened up with a vengeance, about 20 minutes after that as the rain died down Fliss decided she would pop out to Asda and went out to her car to be confronted with a soaking wet interior.
She sheepishly came back inside and told me what had happened and i had a good giggle before letting her take the MG 
Posted by Mark @ 08:55 PM GMT
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
The first words to utter from my mouth on the news that Micheal Owen will sign for Newcastle were something to the effect of 'Oh for fucks sake, your having a laugh aren't you!!!'(pardon my french)
Apparently the deal is all but done and unless Liverpool come in with a deal in the last hour before the transfer window closes tomorrow then Newcastle will get themselves one of the top strikers in Europe.
I can't tell you how annoyed i am that Rafa didn't do more to get him, all this crap about ' i need a centre back and a winger' rubbish is fine and good if you have a team of goalscoring forwards but our strikers are inconsistent to say the least, in Owen you have a 20 a season man who scares the defence just as much as Cisse with his speed but has a far better finishing ability and first touch.
I understand why we have the strikers we have, we have the speed in Cisse....but he don't like balls to his feet, he likes to run onto them which means through balls all the time instead of a passing game at the front...and he also strikes me as being a bit lazy at times when he's not got the ball. We've got Nando and Crouch so that Rafa can exploit long ball games, Crouch is injured and so yet to make an impact and Nando still hasn't fully settled (and i wonder whether he ever will) and youngsters Pongolle and Mellor..who have talent but not enough experience.
As they say, you don't win games with defenders, you win games with strikers...and i hope our inconsistent forwards can pull it together this season or the Super Cup will be the only silverware this year.
Posted by Mark @ 02:58 PM GMT
Friday, August 26, 2005
The past week has been a really busy one as far as fish tanks are concerned. As well as getting to grips with the new freshwater tanks at Victoria Hospital i have also had a few 'issues' with a marine tank thats in a local Chinese restaurant.
I only took the tank on a couple of months ago but the tank has been up and running for about 10/15 years and this has ultimately led to a few problems with it.
When i took it on the salinity levels (salt density) was very high, the ph was low (7.8) and there weren't very many fish in it, it's a main feature as you walk into the restaurant so this tank needs to look nice.
It also has a rather old style under gravel filtration system which i didn't mind doing the maintenance on but yesterday i had a phone call saying one of his new fish was looking very ill.
When i got to the restaurant a wrasse that was in the tank was looking rather skeletal, apparently it was still feeding but obviously it was losing weight..which i thought might be either intestinal parasites or worse a tumour.
Anyway, i sorted out a 7 day treatment course that they should add to the water and then left.
Today i get a phone call saying that nearly all the fish are dead..i race down to them thinking that i fucked up when calculating the water volume of the tank for treatment. When i get there sure enough all but 2 fish are dead and the 2 left (clown fish) are on their backs gasping.
Completely paranoid that i've messed up on the dosage calculations and that i have just killed this guys fish i stick my hands in the tank water to grab a fish for closer inspection.
It's at this time that i realise the the tank water is warm...i mean REALLY warm..it felt way into the 30's, i reach for the tank heater thats in the corner of the tank and as i inspect it i notice that its internals are badly damaged. The circuits are black with corrosion, the ceramic heating elements are in pieces and theres water inside the glass housing.
It turns out that its the original heater from about 10/15 years ago and that through complete neglect has got to the state it's in now..it's not 'new' damage, its' been corroding for years.
Anyway, the net result has been that last night at some point the heater has switched on to heat the water and not turned itself off again, causing the water to get warmer and warmer and the oxygen levels in the water to get lower and lower, thereby causing asphyxiation and death, it's just sods law that it's happened when i have done some work on the tank.
The 2 fish that were still alive made remarkable recovery when i took them out of the tank and placed them in a bucket with some of the tank water...as the water in the bucket began to cool they started to recover. They are now in isolation with the hope that they make a full recovery with no lasting side effects. It's a hard way to learn a lesson but fish tank electricals have a relatively short life...they work very hard at maintaining the right water parameters and heaters should be replaced after about 5 years.
Anyway, i have talked him into gutting his setup and going for a modern external power filter and obviously a new heater to boot...and i'm also trying to get a discount deal on some fish from my local shop so that once the new filter has matured we can start getting some new fish in.
Posted by Mark @ 09:25 PM GMT
Saturday, August 20, 2005
Had my renewal notice through the door and when i read what they were expecting me to pay i nearly choked on my cornflakes.
My policy had shot up by nearly £400 and my no claims bonus had disappeared. I assumed this was because of the accidents to the car but as they were non-fault accidents and both party's had admitted liability i was a bit pissed off at what i thought was a blatant attempt to rip me off.
Anyway, having phoned them it turns out that both claims are still 'open' as they haven't received the money from either party yet.
Considering that the accident involving the police car going into my car was mid January and they still haven't got off their arses about paying back the money they owe is rather two faced as you can be damn sure that if you owed them money they would be sending you nasty letters after a week...the attitude of 'we are the law and we do what we like'!!
Consequently the upshot of this is that until the insurance company get their money back i am treated as an 'at fault' motorist and lose my no claims bonus until such time that the outstanding claims can be closed and my policy re-evaluated and i get reimbursed the difference.
Three words spring to mind........'a', 'barrel' and 'over'.
Posted by Mark @ 07:26 PM GMT
Friday, August 19, 2005
Well we had a lovely anniversary and the hotel we stayed in was really nice.
For those that may be remotely interested we stayed at the De Vere Cardon Park Hotel in Chester for the night.
I don't want to witter on about how nice it was in case i run the risk of sounding like an affluent snob, suffice to say it's a four star hotel and although not cheap to stay there and use the facilities it is affordable to a degree...it's as expensive as you want it to be!!
Anyway, if you follow the link you can have a little look see yourself to see what i mean.
I would just like to say a very big thank you to Fliss's mum and granddad for looking after Aaron and Baileys for the night, it was very much appreciated.
As for the England v Denmark game..........complete toss, on the basis of our performance in that match we will be lucky to qualify for the World Cup let alone win it.
Also thanks to Emma and Nik for inviting us to Ashleigh's 1st birthday party today, it was very nice and Aaron really enjoyed himself (by the time we got home he was out like a light).
Posted by Mark @ 07:36 PM GMT
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Thought it worth mentioning to those that didn't know..or had forgotten that it's mine and Felicity's 4 year wedding anniversary today.
Apparently it's our 'Silk' anniversary, which is great for Fliss as i will by some nice silky underwear as a present but it's a bit harder for Fliss as i not likely to wear anything thats silk.
Anyway, we are off to Chester today to pass Aaron over to granny Jackson for the night and we will be staying in a chester 'retreat' for 24 hours.
Posted by Mark @ 08:42 AM GMT
Friday, August 5, 2005
You would think that what with all the terrorism going on in the world today the EU would have better things to do than dream up potty new laws to further spoil the quality of life we already 'try' to enjoy.
The next new law (directive) to be passed is to force barmaids to stop wearing low cut tops, apparently it's a health hazard as they run the risk of getting skin cancer when they go outside to serve and collect glass.
The cleavage barmaid has been a tradition in Britain for 100's of years and then along comes some pointless moron who insists that they have the right to tell us what we can and can't wear...hell, telling our women to cover up in case the slightest bit of sun causes a mass epidemic of skin cancer is just short of telling them to cover up 'just in case' they offend the large community of Muslim men we have in this country.
So, once again we have a meddling corrupt nanny state dictating to our less corrupt meddling nanny state how we should live our lives..well, no thank you...i'm more than happy with my jugs, pounds and ounces and my bent bananas.
Image copyright The Sun
Posted by Mark @ 08:19 PM GMT
[Archives]