Sunday 29 April 2012

Friday 27 April 2012

The weekend approaches

Now that seemed like a very long week to me.  Not sure what it was, but I guess it is the drop in stress levels?

OK, so what does the weekend have in store?  Well, you can never really predict, but I am hoping for at least some of the following:

Time to sit and watch a movie - I bought Cowboys vs Aliens this morning.  Just add Pepsi and popcorn.

Make a video about the 8-string bass.  I am absolutely loving it, should have bought one years ago...

Serious food shopping.  We haven't been for weeks.  I want to raid the new butchers again too.  They do some great stuff and the prices are just as great.  You just have to be prepared to join the queue that goes out into the street.  I have my eye on their t-bone...

Oh, and I want to play a game of toy soldiers too!  And get some stuff to make new scenery ...

Hm.  Somewhere in there I also need to start revising for my final exam too!  Going to be tough fitting all this in!

Have a great weekend! See you next week!

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Drought

Since the beginning of the month, the south of England has officially had a drought.

We are not allowed to water our gardens, wash cars, etc.

The running joke now, of course, is that this must be the wettest drought on record.

We have had plenty of rain since the beginning of the month, and the rest of this week is no exception:


We have had so much rain that brooks and bournes (part-time streams) are running in torrents.

But we still can't water our gardens...

Not that we need to...

Monday 23 April 2012

So.....

Time for an update I think!

Some sadness in the Bunny Kingdom.  We just lost 3 of our babies in as many days.  Two seem to have been due to weak hearts, they just stopped doing anything and died.  The third one somehow got a broken leg, which will remain a total mystery to us.  He was fine in the morning, then later on in the day he was dragging one of his back legs.  The remaining 3 babies seem to be fine, so fingers crossed for Bun, Possum and Pebbles.

Still with the rabbits, we saw a strange thing the other morning.  One of the local cats (who seem to have given up trying to kill the rabbits now) was sitting with his side pressed right up against the wire.   Possum was on the other side of the wire, GROOMING THE CAT!  WTF???

Anyway, as you know, the dissertation is in and I have me new guitar.  The guitar is beautiful and I will post a video soon.  I was telling a friend about it and he said that there is a bar in town which as a musical "open mic" night each week and encouraged me to compose something wonderful and play it there.  Interesting thought, I already have an idea that will be amazing if I have the talent to make it work.

So...

Life can start to return to normal...

I have all sorts of things to do this summer - music, wargames, camping (we just bought a new tent to replace the faithful old teepee), etc.  Who knows, maybe I will get to writing my Ultimate Action Story!

Friday 20 April 2012

Celebration!





In sort:

Dissertation is done and dusted.

Got the call just before lunch - the new 8-string bass is in!  Sadly I had to test it out on the 1000watt amp in the shop...

 I think that a large part of the city was impressed...

More soon...

Thursday 19 April 2012

Nearly there!

One more run through of trhe dissertation, final print off tomorrow!

Monday 16 April 2012

Busy times

Still chipping away at the dissertation - 1 week to go! Have booked a couple of days holiday to finally put it to bed.

Waiting for the new guitar to arrive - any day now.  Can't wait!  I only realised the other day that I have wanted an 8 string bass for 33 years!  Better late than never!

Back again soon - can't focus on blogging at the moment, the fog of maps keeps getting in the way!

Thursday 12 April 2012

I did it...

I have ordered my new 8-string bass guitar.

Which did I go for?

Well I started by phoning the company that I saw in the web.  They have a shop that I can get to in a day trip, and they have one in stock.

But the guy said that the guitar is in their warehouse which is 40 miles from the shop.

Can I go to the shop and try the guitar?

No, the guitar is in the warehouse.

Any chance of arranging to move the guitar from the warehouse to the shop?

No, it is too far away.

Hm, I would have liked to play the guitar before buying it.

I understand that.

You really don't know if you like a guitar until you try it.

Yes that is true.  We do take returns in 7 days.  You pay the cost of returning it, of course.

Hm.  I'll think about it.

I hung up.

My distrust of internet shopping returned.  This guy really didn't seem to give a crap.  If someone is shipping me something like this I really want him to at least pretend to care.

At lunchtime I went to the local guitar shop and got chatting.

Nice guys, who are friendly even when I just pop in to be nosey.

I mentioned the guitar.  They can get me the one that I tried in London, only this will be brand new and won't have been kicking around a shop for who knows how long.

The guy offered me a good deal.  Not as cheap as the web prices, but as others said in comments to my last post, it is often good to pay extra for peace of mind.

My beast is on its way, and I can't wait.

Tuesday 10 April 2012

Internet Shopping

Now I have started I am having real issues.

Remember a few weeks ago I bought that new monster amplifier at a bargain price?

Well now I am having problems with the new guitar.

I have been looking at two - a cheaper one (the one I tried in London) and a more expensive one.

My local shop has given me a price on the cheaper one.

Then I looked online and found that I can get the more expensive one for £200 less than the shop can sell me the cheaper one.

That is a big difference.

A better instrument for a lot less cash.

The expensive one is now the cheap one!

It has a nicer finish - you can see the woodgrain through the translucent black paint.

It has an extra knob, allowing extra tone control.  I like that.

Hard to resist.

Gah - the damn Internet! 

Full of temptation!

Can I resist?

Should I resist?

Monday 9 April 2012

Rabbit Molesting

The morning started with surfing then net for rabbit p0rn.  And we found plenty, both photos and video.  Yes, there are videos on YouTube that show you have to decide what sex your rabbit is!

A few minutes of this and we were pretty clear on what we were looking for.

But the bunnies didn't want to play - they seemed to sense that something different was in the air and they did their best to hide from us.  In the end I was on all fours in their run, reaching under the houses, grabbing them and dragging them out.

That was the difficult bit in the end - we are 99% certain that we now know what they all are and will double check when we do the final separation.  We have 2 girls (Snowball and Splodge) and 4 boys (The Shadow, Possum, Bun and Pebble).  Maybe it could have been nice to have a 3/3 split, but at least do one will be on their own.

Other than that, the weekend has been terribly dull.  I have been trying to fight off a cough and cold and it is cold and wet outside - a typical Easter Weekend, I guess!

Hope you have all had a good one!

Wednesday 4 April 2012

Easter Weekend!

I have a long Easter Weekend and it is about to start any time now!

Woo hoo!

Not that it will be Dissertation Free, of course.  I am spending at least a couple of hours each day on it...

But the Big Event this weekend will be -

sexing the baby rabbits!

Having lost faith in the vet (who told us we had to boys...) we are having a go ourselves.  Mrs RC has found a guide on the internet and we are going to study it and then try our new skills.  The plan is for each of us to look at each of the rabbits and then compare what we think.  Starting off looking at the adults should help - we already know what sex they are, afterall!

And now, as the dissertation nears completion, my thoughts can't help flitting to the new guitar that I have promised myself...


It is the one that I played before Christmas, on the day I met Agg79 in London.  It's a real beast and no mistake...  There was an interesting section on the website that I took the pic from - "People who looked at this product also looked at:  Ear Plugs"!

More soon - I will let you all know how the sexing works out...

Monday 2 April 2012

Monday

All go here in sunny Canterbury.

All spare time is going on finishing the dissertation - had one of "those moments" last night when I had a sudden fear that the whole thing had turned to a pile of poop, but no - just interesting quirks in my data.  Just looking for the end now - it has been going on far too long for me - wish I had been able to follow my original plan and get it sorted by Christmas, but hey was that really ever going to happen?

So here is the song that has been rattling in my brain for the last few days: