Been keeping busy

I have had a busy couple of weeks so have not been on here, where to start, I guess with the move!!!! I have been offered a one bed flat and it looks like i will be moving on 2nd December.  It's in need of some work so going to spend a couple of days painting and then get some carpet laid and beds sofa etc but when it is all finished it should be great and I can't wait to get in:-)

Oh and I got an iPad mini, wow what an awesome device, so easy to use and powerful well it's an apple so I guess that's no great surprise but I am so happy with it.  

Kids have moved as well into a nice house and they seem to be impressed with it, not sure about the trip to school though?

Ok we'll it's half one in the morning and I can't sleep for some reason which is super annoying but I will try again 

Night world x

Bit of a long week, oh and the competition is coming to an end

Well, this has been a long week, I have not stopped and today i am having a bit of a chill watching Life of Pi of NOW TV, before my offer period ends, I wont be continuing with the service as it is overpriced for what you get.  Life of Pi is a good film however but not as good as the book, I remember reading that years ago and was so impressed so I had real hopes for the film, and it is good but not great!

The competition I am running end tomorrow so good luck to everyone and reading through all the jokes that have been submitted has kept me entertained, my favourite being "a Roman walks into a bar and sticks two finger up at the barman and says 5 bears please"

Ok well that will do for today

Mike

Back after my broadband failure

Well my broadband has been down for days, but finally back up and running, hopefully it will last for a while!!!

So I had Faye down for a few days and we had a great time starting with a trip to Chessington on Saturday, as it is nearly Halloween they were staying open till 7pm, which made it a really good day, with nearly 10 hours of fun!!! Faye loved the Vampire ride in the dark (as did I) and then we travelled back home to watch X Factor :-( but she fell asleep straight away so I got to turn it over :-)

Sunday we made a day of visiting some of the sights of London so we started with a trip to the London Eye, always popular and we then did the 4D experience that goes with it, amazing views of London. We followed this with the London Aquarium which I always find rather uninteresting, you can only look at so many fish tanks! but as it is all included it the Merlin Annual Pass I don't mind, if I had paid to go in I would be very unhappy, in fact even just queuing the 20 mins to get a ticket would have wound me up!!! still free and no queue so I did not mind.  Next was a trip up to the top of the Monument, 311 steps to the top, I always try to put them off but they love doing it, I really don't it's not the hight that bothers me, but it's a tight spiral staircase all the way up and the steps are not that big, so it's just very unplesant and people going the opposite direction make it even worse! still we got a certificate for doing it. We followed that up with a trip to Westfield and then went to the O2 to watch Cloudy in the sky with Meatballs 2, Faye loved it, it's a good film and works well from the first film as well.

Monday we went to the Guildhall Art Gallery and looked at the Victoriana the Art of Revival Exhibition, a very impressive exhibition and Faye was impressed with the whole thing.  I think the Guildhall Art Gallery is one of those missed bits of London, so few people go there but it is amazing.

Faye then got to stay at my parents for a couple of days while I went back to work, and now she should be home with her brothers and sister.

Well a great fun weekend and one I wont forget!!!!!

Kobo Mini

Today's quote of the blog is: There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it will be a butterfly.

Well on Friday I decided to get myself a Kobo Mini at only £39.99 it seemed to be a bargain, and to be honest it is! it is so easy to use and fits in my jeans pocket, so it can go anywhere I go. Items today always seem to come very stylishly packed and this is no different

,
and once out of the box

I have since downloaded my first book which was The Circle by Dave Eggers, I hear a review on Raido 4 and thought it sounded interesting, and it was, a great read, really brining home the risk of the digital age, all very believable and easy to support the basis of the ideas which lead to a very different world, where everyone should no everything, "PRIVACY IS THEFT" what a great line.  This is a book I would recommend to everyone. 100 points!

OK so that's the book but how was it reading it on a Kobo Mini, well it was super easy, you can set the font size to what you feel comfortable and then just go I was not sure about the screen size as I chose the mini so it is only 5" but actually it caused no problem at all, I found it all flowed very easily with page turning so simple that I can't see me buying a real book any time soon!

So my rating for the Kobo itself it (in keeping with the Circle) 100 points.

Have a great week to everyone and I am off to some training at lunchtime then to work so will catch up again soon.

Mike

Quote of the blog today is, PRAY - To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy.

So how is my day going? went to the dentist this morning, and it was better than expected, the antibiotics I got on Saturday seem to have made a big difference, apparently I only need a couple of fillings replaced and some cleaning up around the gums, but i was expecting extractions!

Off to collect my weekends work this afternoon, as I am going to be delivering letters Saturday, should be a good bit of exercise and I will be getting paid for it!

Have been going through some of my photos and thought I would share this one with you, it's part of Hampstead Heath which is an amazing place, and this area is one of the more hidden parts but so very beautiful.

Some new bits and a review

Hi all,

Well I thought it might be a good time to look at the blog and see what I could do to improve it, I have decided to include a Quote of the Blog for each post! today I have "Do what you do because you should, not just because you can".

And I am going to run another competition for people so just check out the rafflecopter widget below and enter I have added a remembrance day entry option as it closes on 11th November and I want to show some support.

Comment below with your favourite joke and you will get extra entries as I thought it would be good to see who can come up with a great joke, my favourite is:

I went on a date with a model the other day, well I say a date, it was just dinner and a movie.
Then the plane landed.

I thought I would also start commenting on my recent service I have received at various shops, today I am going to talk about Amazon as that is who I have decided to use for the competition.

Amazon review: I have been using Amazon for a few years now and have some really good experiences and a few not quite so good, first the good points, Price, simply put they are cheap compared to most other sites and the high street, so I often look in the high street then check on my phone to see how much Amazon can sell it to me, and almost always end up buying from Amazon instead! Choice, again Amazon are great for this, the selection of items you can get there now is amazing, they seem to sell pretty much everything certainly not just books and DVD's any more.  Now for the so-so points, Delivery, is 3-5 days on average, which is not bad but they used to be better, and they now seem to be slower just to sell you paid for delivery options and Amazon Prime is just too expensive to justify.
Finally the Bad points, well as with all on-line sales, it's very easy to not really understand what you are going to get, pictures can be very deceptive, I have purchase items in the past such as ornaments and when they have arrived that are much smaller than expected, now in fairness Amazon did include the size in the description and I did not look, but it is an issue with on-line purchasing. Maybe they should include a photo that compares items size in relation to a fixed size item.

Overall I would give Amazon 8.5 out of 10 as price and range are great points to be good on.

OK now for the comp.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for coming to the Blog.

Mike

Win competitions at ThePrizeFinder.com

Toothache :-(

Well it's been a long week, had to go to the hospital on Saturday due to terrible toothache, and have been put on Antibiotics, still it's been getting better during the week, and I'm back at the Dentist on Friday so hopefully it will be getting sorted then!

Took the Kids swimming on Saturday as well, which was good, the kids so love swimming! and really looking forward to my weekend with Faye next week, we are going to go to Chessington and Cinema and other stuff then to my parents on the Monday as it will be half term!!!!

Well since then I have been at work including a 18 hour day yesterday but just this evening to go and then I have 4 days off, which will be good, although I will be delivering some paperwork around town.

That should do for today, off to work soon so have a good day.

Mike

Busy day

Well it's been a long week, mostly just work, but also I have been getting back into the gym which has been really making me feel better.  On the downside I have toothache :-(

Last day before payday as well so looking forward to having some extra cash, and my prize draw finishes tomorrow so we get to pick a winner!!!!

What else has been going on, well Faye is been poorly again, and apparently may be Lactose Intolerant, but at least it might be an answer, so that's good, she's back at school now though.

Mike

New Lotto

Yay!

I woke this morning to an email from the Lotto and so I logged in and in the new lotto I got 3 numbers and won £25! I like the new lotto now.  But what to spend all this new found money on, petrol:-( .

Well how has the rest of the week been? So Thursday I went to the CALM AGM, very informative and good to know how things are with them, so a good use of my time, then spent Friday at home other than popping out for a walk, as I am making sure I do at least a 1 hour walk if I do not go to the gym, and Saturday was Gym in the morning followed by work, I did make myself a lovely casserole for my dinner as well mmmm!

Today is not going to be very interesting as it's mainly work.

Oh and don't forget to enter the competition as it's only got a few days left so good luck!

Mike

Update

Faye was feeling poorly again yesterday, thats two Mondays in a row, I'm starting to suspect it's something about school, but I'll give her the benefit if the doubt for now! As for me I went for a bit of a bike ride, round central London, good bit of exercise and gets the mind focused as it is so dangerous, I also stopped off at Covent Garden and looked round the antiques market, some good stuff but I did not buy.

Today I am off to the gym (in about 20 mins) and that is about it, back to work tomorrow at 6am for Overtime and then I have the CALM AGM on Thursday as well as a customer forum to attend in the afternoon.

Oh I also attended the start of the Lord Mayors Cycle Challenge on Sunday, it was a good event in aid of a good charity, so congratulations to all those who participated. 

Day out!

Well yesterday was supposed to be a fun day out with the kids, so I got down there at about 10:30, and we set off for Thorpe Park, Faye did not really want to go, but the other two have been asking for so long I thought it would be fun and hopefully Faye would enjoy it once she was there.

Well to start with we set off down the M20 without any trouble but then I saw signs saying the M25 had long delays, and they were right, at junction 8 there had been a nasty looking accident, hopefully no one was seriously hurt, the effect on us was a one and a half hour journey took nearly 5 hours and we did not get to Thorpe Park until 3:20 so we only had 3 hours there.

We then queued to go on Storm Surge, which looked like a fun ride, and after 40 minutes we were about 5 mins from the front of the queue when the ride was stopped and we were told it would not be working for some time and we should not wait! grr this day was getting worse!!! well the kids were getting hungry so we went to Pizza Hut and had some food.

Me and George then went on DETONATOR, which is a fun ride and had a short queue so that was good, Faye and Erin wanted to try Storm Force again so we went back and it was open, so we went on it this time we managed to get on and it was a good ride, but by the time we had queued and been on the ride it had now passed 6pm, so the park was closing, all in all a long day for 2 rides :-(

I've promised George I will take him again by himself as he enjoys the bigger rides, Faye and Erin both seem to prefer Chessington!

Waiting for storm surge at thorpe park

Good news or Bad news - I can't decide!

Well it has been one of those days today, I was supposed to go to the gym today, but I got up late and had some other stuff to do first, so I missed the opportunity this morning and then I got tied up trying to fix my car this afternoon (unsuccessfully I might add), so that was a bit of a downer, will definitely go tomorrow morning.

Had some post, Road Tax not exactly exciting but keeping the car legal is always good I suppose and the "other" bit of post this is the one I can't decide if it's good news or bad news, as I have received my result of my entry in the ballot for the Virgin London Marathon 2014, and I did not get in, so I was disappointed, but then I thought, well now i don't need to train as hard and running is not exactly my strong point, so maybe it's a good thing? I think I am going to train up for it slowly and go for 2015 now, I would love to achieve it so I am not going to give up, but I think I would have found it hard for this year!

Other than that I had a coffee with a good friend who I don't see all that often and it's always good to catch up, she seems very happy which is great! now I am going to chill out with a drink, some dinner and a bit of TV.

M

Day off

Have a day off today, which I have made the most of so far by only just getting up, lovely! still cant stay in bed much past midday so am now up and about, thinking what I should do with the rest of the day?  Some food first I think, and then I might go for a walk, it's looking like it nice out, so may go off to Regents Park and enjoy what left we have of the sun before it disappears for the rest of the year!

I should also get some paperwork done as well, but not really in the mood, maybe when I get home I will be more motivated?

M

Just home from work

Well, it's been a slow weekend, and have spent most of today cleaning, not the most exciting thing to do but it has to be done sometimes I guess!  So I'm trying to decide if I should get myself a console, I keep looking at the Xbox and PS3, but then I think I should wait and get the new versions when they come out in November? I guess I will wait for now and see what happens in November, maybe if I can get a PS3 cheap then I might go for that, as I am not going to spend £400 on the new model!!!

It's 1.30am so I think probably time for bed so this will have to be it for now, have to get up in the morning and go to the gym so NIGHT!

Weekly update

It's been a busy week, so have not got on here so a few days to tell you about!
Firstly going back to last Sunday and cinema with the kids, Despicable Me 2, well I was not impressed, I thought it was very poor and not at all funny, but apparently the kids did not agree, they loved it and I guess that's what really matters! then we went swimming which they always enjoy and we had a great time!

Monday was part of my big drive to get back into fitness so it was off to the Gym in the morning for a good workout, felt great afterwards and really feel that I am getting back into the swing of it all, decided to follow this up with a walk into central London, so I went out in the afternoon and walked down to Oxford Circus and then down to the River and back, took about 90 mins in total and was very pleasant.

Tuesday was a similar plan, so off to the Gym again and feel the benefits of working hard, buzzing when I come out and have a few things I need to do, so I get on with it all, including popping down to the housing office with some paperwork, apparently I am eligible for the 1 bed flat list rather than the Studio list that I am currently on so that the kids will be able to stay, so hoping that I will be able to get a flat in the next 12 months! here's hoping.

Wednesday and it's day three of the Gym, really is starting to feel good now, and after the gym, I needed to go out to do some shopping before work, so I decided to walk again, always makes me feel better when I walk rather than get a bus or drive, and then back to work in the evening (Overtime!!!)

Thursday, grr, think the gym has taken it out of me as I have woken up with a cold!!! not a happy man!, so I chilled out in bed till 1pm, then got up and went to work, I HATE having a cold at work! still thankfully as it was cold and wet out it was a nice quiet day and got home about 1am and went to bed for a broken nights sleep

Friday, still feeling bad, LEMSIP to the rescue! another long day at work so it is Lemsip and Stepsils to get me through by about 10pm I am starting to feel a bit better and hoping that it will be gone by the morning fingers crossed!

Today, Well I have woken up feeling allot better, so I am writing this with tissues by my side but not actually using them, always good, I am about to go to the gym but it is only going to be a light workout today just to keep my mussels used to it, will go again tomorrow if I feel better and do a proper workout.

Bought some artwork this week as well, feel very cultured!! it was a piece called black heart by an artist named Dianne Bowell which I bought from artfinder,com a very good site and I love the painting, it turned up yesterday I think this could be the start of my art collecting career, they have some great pieces from very low prices the one I have purchased was a total of less than £15 delivered, it's about 16cm by 14cm and I am a happy customer, worth a look if you fancy it, they have pieces to suit every budget!
see: www.artfinder.com or Dianne direct on www.dianneartist.co.uk

making plans for today and Sunday

Right I have a day off today so time to get things sorted, starting off with breakfast and then I'm off to the gym.  As for later I need to do some shopping so will be gong off to westfield.

Sunday I have the kids which will be great I've promised hem we can go and watch dispicable me 2 in the morning and then maybe swimming although id rather find something else I'm not a fan of swimming!!!

Well time to get ready for the gym now

Today`s brief blog

A good workout at the gym this afternoon, I need to get back into the swing of it as I have been slacking lately, still two days in a row and I feel a lot better for it.
Will have to be a short update today as I'm off to work soon.
M

a Rafflecopter giveaway
To start my blog I thought I would run a quick giveaway so good luck! Let me know what you think of the blog:-)


Win competitions at ThePrizeFinder.com

A bit about me

I have 3 awesome kids Faye Erin and George and this blog is about me and them, so I should start with me I live in London which is great, I have so much on my doorstep that I always can find something to do or somewhere to go. My favourite places in London are Waterloo and the south bank, Oxford Street and Hampstead Heath!
I have a great job but this blog is not really about work so I will skip that.
Faye - well what can I say she is 11 and started secondary school the other day I'm so proud of her, she has grown up so fast.
Erin - a proper middle child, she pretends to be an angel and tricks the others into being naughty! But she is cute and funny.
George - the baby and such a star, he is 8 and hates me saying he's the baby!!! But he always will be to me, he is doing really well at school and making me laugh when I speak to him.

The 3 of them live in Kent with their mum who brings them up very well, and I go down to see them about once a week.

merlin

Well I thought I would start by talking about my Merlin annual pass which I have had since march.  I have taken the kids to chessington, legoland and alton towers this year as well as the sealife centre in central London so it has been good value for money.
The Sealife centre I found disappointing, as did the kids soi I don't think we will be going again any time soon.
Legoland is a great theme park but the kids are getting to old for it now but even still we had a good day.
Chessington is by far the favourite and we have been several time, however we did have a bit of a nightmare in June when Erin, George and me went on Ramases Revenge which then got atuck in mid air and we had to rescued by the fire brigade after over 3 hours!  I was very unhappy with the level of customer service and ended up writing in to explain how poor it all was.  However they are clearly much better when they have some time to think and they arranged for me and the kids to meet a sealion when we next visited and it made their day!
Finally we have also been to Alton Towers which is ok but it was only 7 days after being stuck in the ride at Chessington and the kids were not in the mood.
So all in all I think the passes are good value as long as you are going to use them, we have been a total of 8 times so far and I am sure we will go some more yet.