Duh...

Been a busy week.

Had a very good practice with the band on Sunday, getting the set list together, and soon to get to work on some of our own stuff.

Monday was nice and quiet, nothing much to report.

The real "Duh" things have been in the last couple of days.  We have been part of a bit problem at the tax office - they decided that I earnt about double what I actually earnt, with all the related problems that is going to cause.  Think I got it sorted today, but we will have to wait for a letter to confirm this and wait for them to pay the money they owe us.

Then Mrs RC went shopping.  On going through the checkout she thought it was a bit more expensive than expected.  Before leaving the shop she checked the receipt.

Turns out that the 3 chickens for £10 that she bought were charged as £132!

WTF?!!!?

They are refunding the difference...

Got a wargame arranged for next week.  Met up with a friend at lunchtime for a beer.  He is having a tough time at the moment and needs to relax, so we are going to have a game of King Arthur vs the Saxon hordes type game.  He bought the armies for it months ago, so it is time to blood them.  I will try to take some pics of the battle as it unfolds.

Have a great weekend!  Not sure what I am up to, but given the tax man situation it is going to have to be cheap...

Friday!

My PC is thinking again, so I will take the opportunity to give a Friday update.

Spent a few hours typing up more of my scrawled zombie notes last night.  I must say that I am rather impressed with the quality of my writing, even if my hand writing leaves something to be desired...

Number One Son had 3 exams yesterday.  They were 3 one hour exams rolled together, so they could set their own pace.  He was pleased with how it all went.  He has more next week, which he thinks should be easier....

Tomorrow, we are meeting up with an old Canadian friend of mine. We have met a few times before.  This time we are meeting in Canterbury for a stroll through the city, a beer and some lunch and the obligatory Geekfest game of toy soldiers.  Our original plan had been to meet at the site of the Battle of Bosworth (Richard III, "My Kingdom for a horse" and all that) but in the end we went for a more friendly day.  Looking forward to it - I have known him for years and we have a lot in common.

Sunday sees another band practice (shunted from tonight).  We are getting the song list under control now.  Here is another one that I think we will be adding...


Monday is a national holiday, woo hoo!  Probably being lazy that day.

Have a great weekend!

Waiting....

for my PC to finish a calculation, so here I am!

Had a rather jolly weekend, celebrating our daughter's 18th birthday.  The weather was great on Saturday, so we went to a pub that is right on the beach and had a drink watching the waves and the people go by.  Whitstable is a great place to "people-watch", there are some real characters there.

It is still thinking...

Meanwhile, I have got back to painting my Scots, and will just need to buy a few new figures to complete the army.  It is going to be fab - it will probably lose most of its battles, but hey I am out for fun not victory, that is just an unexpected bonus....

Still going...

Meanwhile, I wrote a song the other day.  Might see if I can work on it with the band - nice and simple, it is called "Let Me Rock!"  A good foot stomper...

Jeez, still going.  Wonder if it has just crashed...

Started planning Number One Son's return for the summer.  He still has a couple of weeks of exams to go, then he wants a few days to tie things up at his end, then we can go and get him.  It will be great to have him back again.  I think I have missed him more this year than I did last year, but I suspect that is because he has become more independent and we have been Skyping him less often.  Not long now, though.  He comes back the day before Fathers Day!

Still going.  I think it has crashed - better crash out of it, I think...

Bye!

The Doughnuts

To follow on from yesterday, some details about the doughnuts.

I didn't take photos, but here is the website for the company we bought them from:

http://www.krispykreme.co.uk/

I have only had these once before, a few years ago when a student sports team was selling them to raise funds.  They were wonderful, very soft, not oily and glazed with delicious icing.

On Wednesday, we had noted that there was one of these places in tha mall, and Mrs RC had said that she felt I would have to pay a visit.  We were all flagging when we saw in, and headed in.  Coffees for the girls, Coke for me and doughnuts for me and our daughter.  Mrs RC is not a doughnut fan.

They had a massive range, from ones like I had bought from the students to ones covered in nuts, different types of icing and different fillings, such as jam and cream, peanut butter, etc.

I had a chocolate fudgecake one, our daughter (Cicely, let's give her her name for once) had one with peanut butter inside.

As we finished we noticed the 2 dozen (24) for £13 offer.  Seemed too good to miss, so I spent the rest of the afternoon looking like a total pig, carrying 2 boxes of doughnuts around.  The Mrs RC refused to carry them, and Cicely was not carrying anything, of course.

When we got home, we dived into the doughnuts - our younger son ruined his food plan for the day by eating too many.  There were a few left over, so I took 3 to work with me yesterday, which gave me nice sugar boosts during the day.

I was sort of sad to find that the rest had gone by the time I got home, but I think my body was relieved....

Still alive!

Against all the odds, I am still alive after yesterday's shopping trip.

We arrived just after 10am, debussed and headed into the huge mall.

As we had hoped, being mid week it was not very busy, we had no trouble getting around, finding vacant changing rooms or long waits to pay.

It was the sheer size of the place that got Mrs RC and me.  (Our daughter had been there before and knew which shops she really wanted to see.)  It is like a huge triangle with 2 floors. We shopped until 1 o'clock, stopped for lunch (I had a burrito that was nice but not as exciting as I felt it should have been) then carried on for a bit more.  At this stage I pointed out that so far we had only been trawling one side of the triangle....

In the end we probably did about half of it.  Not that this was a problem.  Our daughter had a great day, bought a ton of wonderful stuff, which she proceded to parade for us when we got back.  We are all a bit shell shocked this morning, but we did have a great day.

While wandering around I saw a couple of signs that tickled me.

IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED

TRY DOING IT THE WAY YOU WIFE TOLD YOU TO DO IT

Yes.

The other one - well let's say I was tempted to buy it and send it to a certain blog friend of mine:

IF YOU CAN'T BE NICE

PLEASE LEAVE

Not subtle, is it?

Hope your week is going well!

Back again soon!

What's the story?

Things have been ticking along in the Rock Chef universe.

Let's see...

Finally had another band practice, which went really well.  I took the opportunity to suggest a few new songs, most of which went down well.  We are rolling things back to the late 60s and early 70s, as I had hoped.  Room for plenty of ad lib stuff, snappy drumming, fancy guitar work and cool bass playing.  That would be me doing the cool bass playing, of course.

There was a bit of messing around regarding the wargames tournament that I was due to take part in in September.  It  now clashes with a bigger tournament being held in the midlands, so the organisers cancelled, assuming that most of us would rather go to the big event.  After a flurries of emails, only 2 players actually wanted to go to the big show, so the London event is back on again.  Must find time to finish painting McBeth's army now - getting there slowly - the Scottish spearmen are done, the Gallwegian nutters are all ready for action, the Norman knights are chomping at the bit, the light cavalry are ready to desert my Irish army for the event.  Just need to finish painting the Vikings and then do a few cavalry and a bunch of Scottish nobles with big axes...

It will be our daughter's 18th birthday on Saturday, so I am taking tomorrow off work so we can go on a shopping expedition to one of the biggest malls in Britain.  We thought that mid week would be more peaceful than Saturday.  Mrs RC and I have never been there before.  Our daughter has been a few times with friends, so we will be following her around acting as pack mules.  Should be a good day.

Number One Son is gearing up for his exams, so has shut off his Skype link.  We can only communicate by text and email now until it is all over.  I hope he gets the results he wants, he is such a hard worker and has a great brain. 

Hm, better not leave out Younger Son!  He is doing well too, going to the gym 4-5 times a week, he is now "cutting", ie dropping some weight so that you can see how much his muscles have improved.  He is looking very good, I must say, looking more like a Marine than a 15 year old school kid!  He is enjoying life a lot right now.

OK, better go!

I will try to post again soon - such a slouch...

Catching up

Well the long weekend was a busy one.

The Sunday was my mum's birthday, so we had shopping to do on the Saturday. However, we also had a sad duty to perform.

Aubrey, the wild cat that lives near to Humphrey, my mum's pony, had been hit by a car and killed.  Poor Aubrey.

We had to bury him in my mum's garden, planting a small tree on top and adding a cross that Mrs RC had made for him.  He will not be forgotten.

By the time we headed to the shops, I was more than a little muddy, but hey ho, they either want my money or they don't!

Sunday was a nice day, we had my mum at our house for most of the day, did a bit of a barbeque, had a visit from my younger brother and his family.  All good, and my mum was able to relax knowing that poor Aubrey had been sorted out.

Monday was a day of rest, but involving a lot of Dutch Blitz.  I was introduced to this card game on Lundy, bought a set and we have been playing ever since.  Mrs RC and our daughter are particularly hooked, and we play for hours most evenings at the moment.

Having finished reading Game of Thrones, I have returned to writing my zombie book, as promised.  Just finished a great scene.  Let's just say that Elvis has finally left the building...

Run, Cat, Run!

Well who says that persistence does not pay off in the end?

It happened yesterday morning.

I was leaving for work, Mrs RC was there to say goodbye,Custard was there with a toy in his mouth and Frou Frou was on patrol, watching the cat that was on the shed roof.

Then something distracted Frou Frou for a couple of minutes - I think she was looking in the pond - but during this time, the cat slid down off the shed and started to settle down for a poop in one of our flower pots.

Mrs RC watched it as it went, commenting as it came down.

Frou must have sensed that something was up, and went back into Guard mode, spotted her nemesis and charged.

All hell broke loose as the cat tried to find an escape route, with a raging terrier snapping at her tail.

It finally found a gap next to the inner gate that it could get through but Frou couldn't.

Frou Frou was so proud of herself, and took to strutting around all puffed up with her tail so high I thought it might snap off!

Haven't seen the cat since - wonder if this episode will stop them coming over and keeping the other cats away?  We will see...