They had me in...

...stitches.

Ho Ho.

I am now the proud owner of 16 stitches in my neck!

For a week anyway :)

If in doubt...

...ask the pilchards! This is something Rosie made me, and they always help me when I am feeling conflicted, down or doubtful. I ponder a question in their general direction and then choose a scroll...last night they sorted me right out (which, in itself, is fucking ironic).

Fear them! They are spookily good at sorting out your head, or indeed your life...

There's no point wanting something you just can't have, they suggested. Too right.

So. After a night of the strangest dreams Flo and I decided today would be a good day to go to the zoo. We were (of course) right.

Waiting for the Zoo Train....

"I like this structure...but...what are they doing over there, dad?"

Alright?

Flo wanted them to bite her hand for some reason...

Walk into the light my child!

We had a picnic on the grass and Flo treated about 50 people to an impromptu rendition of The Lion King ballet (toddler-style, slight return) once the music came over the P.A.

The monkey has just taken a swipe at the glass where a child was eating an apple...

And I forgot to post this the yesterday. Despite the seriousness of the expression she was very proud of the "bed with blanket and a guy in it"....not so sure about the wigwam thing though.

Peace.

Mould

I must get round to scanning the photo of the mushroom Buckle, Chuckle and I found growing behind the "shower" "curtain" (NB. quote marks ;) in the Ambra Vale house...it was awesome. Man, there are some stories to be told about that place, and not all of them are to do with flooding, garden-vomiting, exploding lighters, "rotting orange peel is a good deodoriser" or me going walkabout at 4 in the morning after a skinfull.


There's some serious logistics issues coming up next month; somehow I have to co-ordinate: surgery, Rose away, work, Romania, cat feeding, Derby, Slovakia, stitches out, cat feeding, Rose away with kids, Austria, Rose away with kids, agh...aggh.agh.....ah. [calendar malfunction]

In other news...nothing.

I am no critic...

Right, I might be a bit biased about this. Personally, I don't think so...seriously, they're genius!!!!

I am stunned. Seen 'em live....love 'em...EP? great...this, this, this is wonderful!!

1 - Apple Crack : Classic Babel sound...Country/Folk/Blues with a joyously crisp feel.
2 -Never Had The Heart : ZOMFG. I have no words....5 stars!
3 - End Of The Line : A rest...Such a beautiful song...ephemeral backing to
4 - Hand Me Down : In my opinion, this song's lyrics can only be truly appreciated by a parent. The electric guitar is sublime; pure Gram Parsons....wonderful!
5 - Police Car : I started crying after the second line and laughed, wept, and enjoyed myself for the whole 4 minutes...
6 - Cellophane, Jam or the Line : Why does the intro remind me of something from he 80's TV?......I'm joking of course, the songwriting/orchestration on this is fucking stellar
7 - Make Your Bed : Finally! The best song in the world...you HAVE to see this live!!
8 - Repeat to Fade : Twangy. Funking with a slide guitar is always a good idea IMHO. For some reason I find this a bit of a dark one. Gorgeous strings and harmonies again.
9 - Seachange : Atmospheric...love the whistles....and the xylophone...has one of my fave build ups...where the hell did all that clapping come from?
10 - Trinity Thugs : I think I heard him say: "Dirty little bastard cunt"...regardless. The best song on the album (unless i said that already...in which case it's still the best)
11 - Piece Of Me : I thought it was PJ Harvey, and then it softly kicked me in the face....you wrongfoot me again Babel....you fucking wonderful bastards!!! sounds like AC/DC learnt about Led Zep but got stoned with Dylan and The Merry Pranksters out in the mojare!
12 - Rubbernecking : I would go gay for this...seriously.
13 - Hard to Love You : Is this the same chords/progression as song 1? Regardless...I thought this was suddenly Gram Parsons....it is a wonderful "goodbye" song...wicked fucking solo!

Super Magic Hairy Aminal

Super Girl!

Taken with the HTC Magic (aka G2)....Sssshhh, it's a secret ;-)

No that is not a typo in the post title, that's how Flo & Es say it....also one of Flo's favourite bands...SFA FTW.

If you get a chance you really should try to get hold of their new album...and while you're at it get "Crooked Timber" by Babel!! They rock!

Frustration

Fucking killer is frustration. Or maybe that sentence should read "frustration is a fucking killer". Wow (thanks wikipedia)....as I suspected frustration is an emotion. Obvious now I think of it....

Which is frustrating.

And though a wonderful word to roll off the tongue (go on, try it: fffffffrrrrrruuuuusssssttttrrraaaaaaaaaattttttiiing!) it's definitely not up there with my top 3 emotions. Happiness is, apparently, not an emotion....fuck you wikipedia!

As we all know "Love is a mental illness with no known cure". Or maybe an emotion...maybe both. Fuck it, it's all so frustrating.

Quite frustrating right now is the fact that I forgot where I was going with this post...

Oh yeh, it was this: I have this huge (and in my mind) awesome cock. post about why open source really matters; how it fosters creativity, produces a better product in the long-run and is "economically" viable....but I always feel like I'm repeating better written things by better informed people.

Maybe I will get round to finishing it one day.

Frustrating isn't it, life?

On the upside, M&D got themselves a blog. If you want to follow the birth of a wildflower meadow, conservatory building, and vegtables you could maybe pay them a visit. They don't swear (in public).

Oh and I got a new phone...

Copacetic

Doesn't mean what I thought it might. I was hoping it was something to do with being good at coping....not that I am. But, in fact it means "completely satisfactory" (which sounds boring).

So as not to bore you with the boring words I was going to write, I'll bore some holes into your brains via the medium of dance....

Or maybe just post some pictures...

Carnival Of Sorts

ZOMG, that title came to me from nowhere and makes me feel all content and slightly highbrow and whatnot....then I wrote the word "whatnot" and remembered I like watching American Chopper! And felt all lowbrow and shit....

And whatnot...I'll be here all week. Feel free to drop by! Boxcars...This was supposed to be about something else...oooohhh Ctrl-V!!

[interlude]

People are like plates; they often have patterns and can be more delicate than they look. Sometimes they break. You can wash them....If they're of the same ilk they stack nicely.

There are two children finally asleep upstairs. We tried stacking like plates, but in the end they each needed their own cupboard to sleep in.

Esmae now gets to sleep diagonally across my bed and Flo gets a cat on the end of hers.

I get the sofa.

Does this sound like complaining? It shouldn't...I love this kind of shit! Especially when I know I'm back at work next week and my trip to Slovakia is postponed (almost) a month :)

Here are some pictures for you...

Semi-nude toddler wrestling! SNTW09....The THUNDERCLASH!!

The pre-match build-up was fuelled by cabbage soup & cider!!!

Or apple juice.

I was too busy herding or identifying shrimp vs dragonfly larvae to take pictures in the park. I think we invented a game though: "What am I pointing at?"
[extralude]

Sometimes plates break...but with some sideplates to copy from....I dunno I went off into some Antiques Roadshow comparison between having wonderful children, a not-quite complete dinner service...THEY MADE ME SMOKE IT!!!!

Someone once told someone I was "a brick". Well, a brick is no good without decent mortar. And I know a good wall when I see one!

[overture]

Now, to make a "duvet of cushions"....away!

I've had my fill of cock!

By which I mean Easter. Have you ever had a 3.5 year old obsessed with chocolate? Or anything sugary? Or chocolate eggs in any form? Holy fucking mary mother of god.....see, I am an atheist!

Fuck me! I've never witnessed anything like it....here, see for yourselves the shit we've been up to since THE CHOCOLATE was delivered...sorry, I just had to go sort out a toddler-shit....chocolate. Yum!

I was going to save this photo for the teenage years, but given that half-way through this post (and thus >1 hour into bedtime) I have just been 'forced' to let Flo sleep in my bed....hopefully....you get to see it now. It shall be reprised!

"But dad I really want to wee in the garden!!"

She asked my why I was colouring in a giant willy. I had not rational answer, so I drew one for her to colour in...It took a while to get over the "this is a huge fat willy daddy" comments...my own fault.


In other news, Granny Jan & Grandad spotted some hops growing wild while we were on our walk today. They forgot them, but if the cuttings grow I shall pass some on (and use the rest in a "beer").

these are not hops....

The standoff!

I stole the trampoline!

The Easterist

Eggs, I said. Eggs!

And chocolate....and sugar.

And some more sugar please!

Oh and an egg...not a hurty thunb.


Personally, I prefer Tangfastics! But here's a short example of "The Hunt"...

...thanks to Ian for organising that, 'twas awesome! Baboo hosted marvellously (of course) and there was only the expected amount of crying/arguing given the amount of chocolate around (thanks also there to Kathlene)...

Eggs!

This also happened:


You want some stones Mosh?"


"Well, you can't have any!"

I also saw the extremely rare Esmae-Parrot-Peacock-Bird!

Me and my sofa...

There are 2 children upstairs pretending to go to sleep...I can hear the rattling and the rustling.

Heh.

I decided that being just about the only person in my team at work was not enough responsibility this week and so offered to have the double-child experience this evening....to be honest, I'm testing my GTD abilities, plus they're a fucking hoot most of the time.

I'm not joking about the GTD thing either. I've long been a list-maker but not so much a do-er of those things on "the list". But with some application, not applications, it's amazing what you can get through...now all I need to do is get some hard-wearing gloss to paint the stairs after deciding to GTF* rid of the carpet on the stairs (I had been at the pub ;)

Playing nicely....

"Fuck you, dad! I will not enjoy this bath!!!"

How d'yas like them apples?


Right then, GTA Chinatown Wars!


*Get The Fuck (tm)

Standing In The Way Of Control

At one point today (towards the end, I hasten to add) I resorted to this:

"OK, this competition is 'The Whoever Stops Whining First Is The Winner Contest'".

Esmae, stopped whining immediately and so she (rightly) declared herself the winner...this caused Flo to whine at an increased level. Will I ever learn?

Earlier, Flo and I had an argument during breakfast that led to both of us storming our the room! We were like two teenage girls arguing over make-up...except this was whether she'd eat the Cheerios she'd asked for or whether I would supplement them with a yoghurt "right now"....my position is: she has porridge/cheerios, I have a coffee, then she has a yoghurt (or fruit).

We have, however, had a wonderful day and they should be well and truly tuckered out...especially as each of them has had 4 separate "stomach aches" at some point...yeah, right! Because apparently, "only ice-cream" (or sweets, or some other mildly illicit substance) would fix a "stomach ache".

The Monkeys (and Ian)...

What have you been touching?

Any minute now they want me to sniff their fingers...errr....

It's OK....we found some wild garlic....and dog shit. But they only picked the garlic.

Then ran....


Oh, and I saw my 1st hot air balloon of the year the other day...and pear blossom....also bees (which is good).

Mac Mini OS X 10.4 Dropping Wifi [updated]

OK, so this has been bothering me for a few weeks now, but the front room mac mini has been incredibly flaky with wifi lately. Like, proper flaky...maybe up 1 minute, 1 hour, 1 day and then drop for no reason whatsoever, refuse to reconnect....but then sometime later mysteriously connects.

It seems that the solution is to delete the AirPort preferences file in /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration (com.apple.airport.preferences.plist) and let it be regenerated.

Shall try that tonight...fingers crossed.

[UPDATE: This does not work]

This happens to you too, right?

So. I was meeting a mate in a bar I rarely frequent last night. Just for a quick pint on the way home from work. As my steaming cold pint of Staropramen was placed in front of me I casually asked if they had wifi. "Oh yes," the barman replied, "let me write down the password for you."

He came back with a piece of paper with the place's phone number (the password) and asked if I knew anything about computers....

"I look like I do, don't I?", I replied. "Errr, a bit", he said.

Anyway, it transpired that because they'd previously had the network open and it had been severely hogged by neighbouring students, they'd stuck a simple password on and subsequently anyone in the bar could connect, but not the mac mini behind the bar they used to play music.

Sigh. "Hang on, then". 10 minutes later and it was sorted. Channel 6, WEP, non-broadcast SSID....ideal bar parameters if you ask me.

Also, 2 free pints...

FYI: Bar Humbug, Whiteladies Rd, Bristol = "humbug", "12345" :)