Nothing to say?

I didn't blog last week, partially because I've been busy, mostly because I felt I hadn't got anything to say. However, looking back, there's been loads going on, so I'll do a quick update.

It was Jacob's third birthday on the 21st. He had a lovely day, even though we didn't do much. Doug and I scored massive brownie points by buying him a watch; it was only meant to be a bit of something that he could open as his big present (the climbing frame) had been operational since the Saturday before and was a bit difficult to wrap. Courtesy of the Great British Weather, the watch has been used much more than the climbing frame.


My pinky ponk card was read out on CBeebies, and Jacob was absolutely made up that his face was on the television. We used a picture of him pulling his grumpy face and I think he then associated that with birthdays as he pulled the same face during his playgroup's rendition of Happy Birthday to You later in the day.


The actual birthday party was on Saturday - luckily, the only completely fine day of the entire bank holiday weekend. We did a bbq, plus buns and biscuits (which I'm always surprised get eaten, but it is v gratifying to watch) and Jacob picked his own birthday cake, a pink pig (surprisingly nice, the icing wasn't too thick).



Everyone had a nice time, and the climbing frame was a big hit with all the kids (and the adults too, I think they've now got climbing frame envy).


Doug's parents came up for the weekend, so they arrived for the party and stayed until mid-afternoon on the Monday. Sunday was a complete wash-out, but lulled by the BBC's promises of fine weather for the entire afternoon we headed off to Harlow Carr, the RHS's northern garden.



We did have some fine weather, but it was while we were having an absolutely delicious lunch in the Betty's Tea Room just outside the gardens. It chucked it down for the rest of our visit, and made me realise that I need a slightly better waterproof than the cheapy kagoul I own at the moment.

Sam and Jacob had a fine time, just wandering round. Sam especially had a great time trotting around, but I had quite a lot of difficulty getting him to follow everyone else; consequently, he and I had a much more complete visit to the gardens, seeing more than the rest of the party :-)



I'm now faced with a rather wet-looking half term. Doug will be away in London on Wednesday and Thursday, which makes life more difficult and me generally a bit grumpy about his absence. I will be shattered by the time he gets home on Thursday, and if its been wet and we've been stuck in the house the entire time, my mood will be less than pleasant (just ask Doug what I was like after being stuck inside for 2 days on holiday in Crete).

Anyway, its looking like it might be fine this morning, so I shall get my finger out and see about taking the kids to the park. If I get there by ten, I'll beat the rush; that's the problem with half term - all the things that you think about doing to entertain your kids will be rammed. Oh joy.

The Garden

We're having the garden remodelled. Gone will be our predecessor's fruit bushes, water features, concrete path and slate-covered ornamental areas, instead there will be a play area covered in bark chippings and a lot more grass.

This is what it looked like at the beginning of the week (actually, what it looked like in February, because I forgot to take a photo before they started):-


This is what it looked like at the end of the first day's work:-



This is what at looked like at the end of day two. Bit tidier (the skip turned up on this day), but still waiting for the turf:-



And this is what it looks like with the turf down:-


As you can see, the bark chippings are ready to be spread out at the end of the garden, and I'll post a shot of the marvellous climbing frame that Doug is going to build there over the weekend once its completed (sometime in July, probably!).

You lazy f****rs

Unlike my husband and most of his friends, I don't view Microsoft products as something to be consigned to the ninth circle of hell (or whichever circle Dante would have stuck windows-based software applications). I find most of the MS Office apps v usable, especially Word and Excel.

However, I have to say that I am a Firefox user - when using the Internet, I'd rather use this than the buggy and unsafe IE. I'm sure that I'll be a victim of credit card fraud at some time, I would just like to keep that day in the future for as long as possible by not using IE.

Anyway, the reason for today's rant is people who make websites solely for IE. Yes, I know that the vast majority of pc users use IE, as opposed to Firefox, Opera etc, but I find it lazy in the extreme to assume that *everyone* uses it.

I've lost count of the number of websites that don't work properly in Firefox - today's example being Delia Online. I'm just going to whip up a plate of flapjacks for Number 1 son, but I've had to view it in IE instead, because in Firefox you get a blank white column through the left part of the recipes.

When I worked for Interactive Operations at the BBC, our webmasters routinely tested new BBC web pages against all the major browsers, as well as retrospective versions. Good practice indeed.

So come on you lazy fuggers, start testing your code against other sites than blinking IE and stop discriminating against those people who don't automatically trust the MS offering.

Right, time for flapjacks.

Oh Well, its been fun

Chelsea were knocked out of the Champions League last night by Liverpool.

I didn't see any of the game (courtesy of a rather croupy, hacky cough that kept Sam awake), and fell asleep listening to extra time on the radio, but much as I hate giving the bin dippers any more fodder for their "Kings of Europe" delusions, I'm not too upset at being knocked out.

This is largely a damage limitation exercise; I've asked myself which would be worse, being knocked out in the semis by Liverpool or being beaten in the Final by ManU, bearing in mind that this would follow losing the Premiership title to them *and* being beaten in the FA Cup final by them, all in the space of ten days.

And with that in mind, I can put last night's defeat aside and look forward to Liverpool being given a mighty whomping by either Man U or AC Milan in the Final. Well, I can hope.