My Blog Posts

Today we are mainly trying to decide what to pack (and ship) and what to throw (or give) away. On the list today was our steam steriliser. Yours at Boots the Chemists for a mere 36 of your English pounds. According to Yahoo! Finance that translates into 92 and a bit Australian dollars. Yet when I check online, its a stonking 135 dollars. That is what I call a foreign exchange mark-up.

As part of our pilgrimage to Spa Francorchamps we had to take cross channel ferries to and from the continent. On the way there it was quite quiet because we were on the 2am sailing and the only facilities open were the bars. The way back was a little different and the 1pm Monday afternoon ferry was absolutely packed. We queued at the “food counter” for about half an hour and this is what we ended up with. Lard burgers. They tasted bloody nice though.

We went to the Belgium Grand Prix at Spa Francorchamps. It rained. Rather a lot actually. My shoes took about two weeks to dry out afterwards. On the good news front, we were in a stand overlooking the fabulous Eau Rouge, possibly the finest corner in the whole of Formula 1. This picture was taken during practice on the Saturday.

Alexander has decided that he wants to be the coolest baby on the block. There’s nothing wrong with a boy having ambitions, and he has certainly started well. Here he is sporting his mother’s sunglasses, just to see if that “I’m so bright I’ve got to wear shades” look is the one for him. I think he pulls it off with aplomb, don’t you? Welcome to my new “daily photo” section. Please enjoy.

The number of chores left to do prior to departure is shrinking by the day. Today I got the nice people at Southern Motors to service the car and put it through it’s MOT test. Service with a smile and zero problems with the car. Not bad for a ten year old Italian car with over 106,000 miles on the clock.

Well, SWMBO has finished work (for ever, if you ask her) and I face a demotion. No longer sole (and primary) carer to JFGP I now must move down the hierarchy to secondary nappy changer and chauffeur. The demotion does come with benefits though, I’m now only on the early shift every other day - oh the joy of the lie ins - and may even be allowed out in the evenings occasionally. Reports of my attendance at drinking events may increase during the next month, but then we are on the paraffin budgie and back to a land down under. Where, sadly, I’ve got to go back to work. Isn’t life cruel.

After three days at the Belgian Grand Prix last weekend I shall be continuing the sporting odyssey this weekend. Tomorrow we are off to the Zurich Premiership double header at Twickenham. But first, I’m off the Oval for England v India. I’ve missed the first fifteen overs so I’d better get a shift on.

No. 1 in an occsasional series. Yesterday she sent me the following message; “Fada dad a.dad daddy is” Answers on a postcard to the usual address.

I’m just back from attending what seemed to be a three day meeting of the Michael Schumacher apprecation society in Belgium. I managed to take a couple of snaps and can feel a photo essay coming on. All I’ve got to do is dry out everything I own and I’ll be off and running.

This weekend I’m off to the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa Francorchamps with the 70’s throwback, my brother and nifty Nigel. I thought I would check out the forecast to see how much factor 30 sunscreen I should pack. I wish I hadn’t bothered now as, according to the BBC it’s going to be cold, grey and possibly wet. Bugger.

I’ve mentioned their notebooks before, in fact they are probably still on my wish list, but Moleskine have just released their Diary for 2005. Even though I am a full time carer, and therefore skint, I ordered one as soon as I found out they were released. Don’t worry dear, I ordered one for you too. If you prefer paper to these new fangled gadgets then I can’t recommend the Moleskine highly enough.

I could disappear somewhere very painful here, so bear with me folks. I’ve collected all of the JFGP related photographs that I’ve posted to this blog in the last year or so and put them on their own web page. This will make it easier for SWMBO to find pictures of her son when stranded in luxury hotels in foreign climes.

If you are reading this post in Internet Explorer then click on the lovely logo to the left. It will take you to site explaining why this is such a bad idea. It explains what your alternatives are and how they will help to stop you getting overrun with pop-up windows and assorted other bad things. Internet Explorer is so very last century folks. Or you could just go straight to the Firefox home page and download it direct. Whilst you are there, and if you still use Outlook Express to read your email (Dad), you should get yourself a copy of Thunderbird. It’s a state of the art email application that will help you to rid yourself of those nasty spam emails.

Commiserations to the nice people at Team New Zealand, your skipper for the next Americas Cup only managed unlucky thirteenth in the Finn regatta at the Olympics. The goods news, though, is that they have signed up the bloke who won, one Ben Ainslie, who just happens to be a Pom. I know one native of Canterbury province who will be be spilling his Sauvignon Blanc over that piece of news - eh. On a similar note, congratulations to the mighty England cricket team on yet another crushing test victory. This is doubly good news for me. My ex-colleague Mr De Freitas rang me a month ago to offer me a ticket to the fourth day’s play of this the last test of the year. Sadly I had to decline as SWMBO is far too busy being pampered for me to get a day off. How lucky do I feel now though, as the cricket finished today and if I had got the ticket I would be left with a very empty day tomorrow. Instead I’ve got the delights of hoovering the carpets and washing the kitchen floor to look forward to.

Once more I find myself riveted to the television viewing a major sporting event. I have to say that I am rather enamoured of the coverage provided by the BBC. I’ve mainly been watching the sailing, at least when JFGP will let me take a break from building towers of bricks and cups for him knock over. Only one thing could make it better, the work of Messrs Slaven and Nelson - The Dream. Although I really don’t miss the Seven coverage as it is chock full of adverts and the commentary practically redefines the word parochial. Still, I’m sure there will be a DVD on sale (or for rent) when we return down under.

Last night I treated my beloved to a celebration meal. We went to Fifteen, just off the City Road and very fine it was too. Sadly they didn’t accept washing up duties in payment (or fridge defrosting for that matter) so today the hunt for a new job starts in earnest. Step one is to update my cv. If you are reading this in Sydney and want to pay me lots of money for being marvellous, drop me an email. I’m available from mid October

Two things. My beloved gave me a copy of Eats, Shoots & Leaves as an anniversary present, so I shall be tracking down rogue apostrophes and shooting them on sight. You have been warned. Secondly, when did medal become a verb? I have repeatedly heard on the Olympics telecast phrases such as “they medalled at the world and europeans” and (for the British swimmers) “that was a dissapointing race he/she medalled at the worlds last year.” People, the correct phrase is “won a medal”. Media muppets.

It was two years ago today that I pledged to love, honour and obey SWMBO. Happy anniversary darling, and may the rest of our years together be as good as the last two. Just to show my dedication, I’m now off to defrost the fridge.

The new Finn Brothers album, Everyone Is Here is out on the 23rd of August. I’m first in the queue for a copy. I have a feeling in my water that it’s going to be rather good.

I’m surprised that the nice people at The Daily Mail Watch didn’t pick up on an absolute corker in today’s Fascist on Sunday. On Page 44 there is an “article” suggesting that the scientist Francis Crick was off his guord on acid when he discovered the structure of DNA. Whilst the story was quite preposterous what made this piece stand out for me was the picture of the bare breasted lady in 1970’s garb with the caption “LSD was popular amongst hippies”.