Summer Time....

 

Today is my last day at work for nearly a month!

 

YAY ME!!!!!!

 

I resisted the urge to split my holiday up and am having a nice big chunk of time off.  Love it!

 

I will still be blogging, though, as there will be plenty to talk about, including looking after more dogs while a friend goes on holiday!

 

Meanwhile, here is Frou Frou with one of her friends.

 

 

Yes, this cat lays on the grass and waits for our dogs to play.  Frou Frou loves it, Custard becomes very confused...

 

Hope you are having a great week!

The Scottish Army...

 

The cavalry - Norman mercenaries at the front, Scots of varying quality behind.

 

 

The Nobles, with their ponies behind and some skirmishers in front to soak up the arrows...

 

 

The main mass of spearmen.  FREEEDOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!

 

 

The Viking allies...

 

 

The Irish rabble...

 

 

Finally done!  A really mottley bunch that does not really hold up much promise of success, but I think it looks good and will be great fun to play.

 

Who is next?

 

Well I have a box full of Persians (think The 300 Spartans) that has been giving me bad looks for some time now...

A Happy Bee

Bees are not doing well these days - or so I hear.

 

This one seems to be doing fine, though!

 

Catching up...

So, wow, it has been over a week!

A lot has been going on, though, and it has been a combination of lack of time and lack of good blog material.

So, the basics?

Well, my daughter finished college and set about finding some work.  While doing this she signed up for Job Seaker's Allowance, which would give her a small amount of money to help get to interviews and stuff, and get her help with finding vacancies etc.

What we did not recon on was the Gestapo-style attitude of the people she would have to deal with.

To cut a long story short, she told them to stick their money and insane pressure and harassing and intimidating phone calls help, and I somehow managed to find her 2 weeks work at the Uni.  This will give her some money and mean that she is clear go come camping with us next month - something that the helpful Job Centre people were saying she could not possibly do...  [insert really really nasty name here]s.

So, then we come to Friday - band practice!  Starting to sound good on some of the songs now - I found a really good sound for my bass, which I set into the amp's memory for future use.  It was a case of "I think I will turn this knob up a bit more and see what happens.  WOW!"

As the practice came to an end a thunderstorm was rolling in.  It was truly spectacular but I totally failed to get any photos of it.  Everytime I got my camera ready it would be all "Hey, I have finished now, put the camera away, you will only get it rained on!"  So I put my camera away only for the storm to go all "Haha, fooled you!  Bang, flash, quad-fork lightning all over the sky!"

Just to show how close it all was, on the way home from the band, we passed within a couple of hundred yards of a house that got hit and burnt down by a lightning strike.  The people got out OK, luckily!

The whole weekend was punctuated with storms and bursts of intense rain - which is all good for the plants and the pond, which is still going well.  George and Toffee Penny are both thriving, and we are contemplating a couple more...

So it is now Monday, my daughter has just gone home and I am about to head off for my weekly game of Dungeons and Dragons.  We are in a tight spot which I suspect will only get tighter before the evening is over - wish us luck (in the form of lots of 20s on our dice, and lots of 1s on the referee's dice)!

Hope to catch up with you all soon!

A Bug's Life

I saw these little critters while out walking the dogs.  I think they are some sort of Cardinal Beetle.  There were lots of them, having a feeding frenzy on some thistles.  Some of them were also getting a bit amorous....

 

I wonder if they had been waiting for the rain to stop.  If so, I hope they got everything done, as it is raining again today....

Proud Parent Warning

I stark contrast to my last post, here is some good stuff.

My daughter got her college results today.  She passed her course on Animal Care and Management with a Distiction - the best you can get.

Number One Son also got the results of his 2nd year at Uni.  He got a 1st (highest category) in all of his modules, averaging 81.7%.  The pass mark is 45% and the mark needed for a 1st is 70%, so you can see just how amazing he is!

Looks like we have got a little party going on tonight...

And relaaaaaaaaaaaaaaax.............

OK, let's see if I can say this without pointing too many fingers.

There has been a bit of stress going on in the RC house of late.  Yes, I know I avoid stress where I can, but it literally came hunting for me.

You see, someone, somewhere, clicked a button on their computer screen.

Harmless enough.

What can a button do?

Apart from the button in The White House that can start Armageddon, of course.

But it wasn't THAT button, of course.

If it had been THAT button you would not need me to tell you it had been pressed.

No, this was just a small button on someone's computer screen.

On a page of information about me.

Now this time, it was not the one that said I was dead.  No, I can live with being dead, and managed that quite nicely for some time before the button was unclicked.

No, this button told the Taxman that somehow I was being paid a whole load of cash that I was not telling him about.

[Insert image of elephant poop and a huge fan]

It has taken 6 weeks to find out what moron clicked the button and get it sorted.  Meawhile there has been talk of the Taxman wanting more money from us and possible prosecution for fraud.

Great!

Thank you Mr/Mrs Botton-Clicking-Moron.  My life really needed that extra excitement!

Weekend

Saturday was supposed to be a barbecue day, so Number One Son and I headed off to town to find some meat, which we did very successfully after a hunt around.

Sadly, by the afternoon the weather had taken a turn, so we cooked indoors instead - using the normal cooker, of course, in case anyone wondered!  :-)

The meal was great anyway, with plenty left over for the next day.

Sunday was a nice lazy day, revolving around watching the Wimbledon Tennis men's finals.  Two great players facing off against each other - Mrs RC and I decided to cheer on the rival players - I chose Federer because he used to be in a TV ad for chocolate:



Yes, serious fandom going on here  :-)

Federer lost - maybe he would have won if those women hadn't stolen his balls.

Audrey 2

Over the last couple of days, the water lily has finally opened, so I tried to catch it at intervals:

 

 

That was fun!

Had a great band practice last night, best so far.  Clips of us playing could feature in the near future....

Fun and Games

This summer we will be looking after a friend's dogs while they are on holiday.

 

This is Stanley:

 

 

 

He is a big fan of Frou Frou:

 

 

Hope he doesn't wear his little legs out chasing her!

(Before anyone asks, they have both been "done"...)

 

 

This is Wally, who is a bit brainless and just runs around, seemingly at random:

 

 

And this is Peanut, who likes playing ball:

 

 

 

Custard joins in for a while, but then settles down to "Supervise":

 

We are getting everyone used to everyone else so the week will not be so much of a shock when it comes.....

 

 



 

Meanwhile, the water lilly gets closer to opening its first flower! 

Have a great weekend!


And, of course, I wish my American Rebel friends a great 4th of July!

Thursday....

Nothing much going on really - nothing exciting, nothing bad, just ticking over.  Which is nice, really!

 

Very quiet at work, so I have DVDs going to break up the silence while I work.

 

On the pond front, the water is now crystal clear, losing all its past murkiness in the depths.  The fish still try to hide under the water lillies, of course, which they do with surprising ease.

 

But I did catch George going for a cruise this morning...

 

 

Other than that, the weekend rolls closer - band practice is calling, and I think I have written another song!  It is very gloomy, but I know where it came from and I rather like it in a strange sort of way.  Better out than in, as they say!