Please say a prayer for my future mother-in-law. She has had 3 strokes since Christams and has lost the use of the left side of her body at the moment. The doctors are desperately trying to find what is causing these strokes although they treating her for them.

Well I've be quite quiet for a while now. Partly due to more bad luck hitting me in the face, such as your dining room ceiling having to be replaced due to flood from the flat above. I've only had to wait 3 months for the insurance company to get their act together. To finally start the repairs

In the positive column went on holiday to Yanky Land and I've been working on tyhe video. Here's a small bit of Universal Island of Adventure in Florida. Enjoy

PS It's takes a little while to load

My day started with a cold!

Then the head gasket going on my car on the way to Sheffield to watch the Sheffield soccer derby tomorrow with my girlfriend.

My girlfriend was picked up by her parents (her being a Sheffield girl) so that she could still see the match while I went back down south with my car in the recovery truck.

Received a text telling me my grand mother had died. Although I had only met her twice in my whole life it was and is still a shock. Leaving me feeling very strangely upset & yet not upset

So.... How was your day?

What were you thinking?

Every now and again we all have moments in our lives when we think what the? Or what were you thinking?

They can fall under various categories and the one I'm going to explore today is the one were if you had been somewhere else, someone else or just simply in a different universe it would have been a compliment. Unfortunately, none of the above applied so you were left with "what were you thinking?"

I'll give you two personal examples of what I am talking about.

1) Back in the 80's I went to visit a lesbian friend of mine at her new home. Needless to say she had many friends visiting her however at that precious moment I was the only male along with 5 or 6 other lesbians who were also visiting. Some of whom even in the short time I was there I could tell wanted to get in her knickers. However, my friend "bless her" introduced me in the following way "Hi everyone, (pause as she waits for every ones full attention), this is the only man I would every sleep with"….. Strangely, there was stunned silence as the tumble weed rolled through the room, followed by an Artic wind. I just stood there and grinned like a guy facing a firing squad. I understand my friend wanted to express how important I was to her but making me into a hate figure really was not the best way of going about it.

2) I was at a pub with a married couple who are friends of mine before we went onto a nightclub, his wife left us to go to the loo (or restroom for the Americans). He and I happily continued chatting away to each other when two girls tottered & I mean tottered over arm in arm. They looked up at me and one of them uttered the immortal phrase "My friend fancies you". My friend and I looked at each other & simultaneously burst out laugh.
I appreciate that was not the appropriate response but it was the most effective. They could not have been anymore than 14 or 15, they should have been in bed and they were more than half my age at the time. Oddly at 35 I do not expect to be chatted up as if I'm a pubescent student in a school playground. It really doesn't do it for me & more importantly is not a compliment

The Happy Couple


Well as previously stated it was the middle of my three sisters wedding on the 29th August and what an incredible day that Friday was. I drove my sister to her wedding & drove the couple to the various venues thereafter as well as doing the videoing. The ceremony was truly lovely, it was very intermit (only 20 guests) in a beautiful setting (a Swiss cottage in a wonderful garden). A lady from my sister's church who has a wonderful voice sung a song for them at the end of the ceremony. We then went to a marquee in the gardens & drank champagne (or at least some of us did as I don't drink). Photos were taken both there & at the Swiss cottage while we chatted & got to know each other. I spoke to a very nice lady in a wheelchair whose son went to school with Andy my sister's husband & was a life long family friend. We then went onto a picnic at a venue that has only been doing events for 8 months. Once again it was lovely, close, intermit & friendly. My sister & her husband said why they loved each other and going by their reactions they had keep what they were going to say secret from each other. It was very romantic & moving but reframed from being sickly. My dad gave a great speech from off the top of his head. The best man speech which was given by my eldest sister's husband was also very good. What shone through was the love & affection the couple had for each other & the people present had for them. I felt both honoured & privileged to be part of their day. In the evening there was a reception & disco and needless to say I became known as "the dancer". The DJ pointed me out and I got a huge round of applause. The day ended with me feeling happy & blessed to have been part of it



1. My mum
2. The youngest of my 3 sisters
3. My eldest niece, daughter of the bride
4. Me
5. The Bride
6. My dad
7. The eldest of my three sisters
8. My nephew who's mum is the eldest of my three sisters
9. My youngest niece who's mum is the eldest of my three sisters

WELL TODAY'S THE BIG DAY MY SISTER GETS MARRIED TO HER BELOVED

REASONS NOT TO GET DRESSED IN THE DARK

It's a rare talent to be able to be as stupid as I can be. On Friday I went for a meal with a friend from work & as he was talking to me as we walked to the pub, I looked down at my feet and saw ..........




Odd thing was I had another pair of shoes just like the one I was wearing at home but the other way round

............ Sometimes it is so hard to believe I am 43 years old

Hi everyone,

I've been away from the site for a while, unfortunately, suffering from stress but I'm now back at work, also back doing volunteer work & back visiting this site

First & formost I had such a great day yesterday I just had to share it.

I was to be presented with a gift for 5 years of volunteer duty at my local hospital. I invited my mum as my guest for the day. (I suppose I should say at this point that my mum is back in the country to attend my (middle) sister's wedding) The kick off time was 2pm and despite running later than I wanted I knew I still had time to collect my mum from sisters and get to the Presentation Day at the hospital on time. Anyway, I decided rather than use "real" polish on my shoes I'd use that liquid immediate show shine stuff. Oh! Such a BIG, BIG, BIG mistake as the whole of the top came off spilling a stream of black liquid all over my beige bedroom carpet. Several buckets of water and carpet cleaner later I just had to leave as I was really cutting it fine now. Got to my sister's and my mum was not ready, I only had to wait 10 minutes but that was it we were going to be late aaah!!

Got to the hospital and the event was being held in a marquee in one of the car parks. Bless her! I was having to slow my walking pace to almost reverse so that my mum could keep up with me. Old folk you've got to love them lol. We entered a somewhat posh marquee, only to be ignored by the lady standing there. She turned to my somewhat surprised mum and asked "Are you here to collect an award?" Both my mum & I explained that it was I who was there to collect an award, to which I was informed that I was in row D on the left. My mum could seat at any of the seats from J backwards. I started my walk of shame down the middle of the marquee suddenly realising that I was passing row "Y". The hospital CEO had started his speak and I thought although this was happening I still could be seated without much fuse. Until about halfway down I realised I wasn't walking on tarmac anymore but a wooden board that sounded like I was banging on the front of an
empty wardrobe. Got to row D looked to the left and could not see a spare seat so I looked to the left and saw a couple. It was not until I made my apologies to the people seating down in the row and was about to plonk my arse on a seat that I discovered that each seat had a name on it. Gravity took over and I plonked my arse down anyway and it was not until the awards started to be given out that I realised the error of my ways. It was like a military operation with each person being sat in the location to receive their award. So yours truly had to get up and move out of the way of those people getting their retirement award. This was then repeated when the 5 year awards were being given out. I had to get up walk up the side of the marquee come back down the centre, tap the lady who was sending each person up to collect their award and explain I was next on the list not the person she was asking if they were me . Just as well they had printed a programme & I had one.

I was asked by said lady "What was I doing there?" This is rather than being sat in the right seat followed by "Make sure you sit back on the left!" - Well that told me!

Awards were given to the staff that had done 25 years service, those retiring, to the Midwife/Nurse of the year, to the employee of the year, to newly qualified nurses & midwives, also to those who had acquired various qualifications. The volunteer awards were for 20, 10 & 5 years service.

There was strawberry tea for all after the awards & speeches. An hour and half after that my mum & I was attending a school musical being held at my ex girlfriend's daughter's school. It was called The Keymaster and I'd not heard of it before, however, it was brilliant. It was truly enjoyable which everyone showed by the huge amount of applauds they gave to those 8 - 12year olds at the end of the show. My ex's daughter was very good and it was nice to tell her so after the show had finished.

So as I said at the beginning I had a brilliant day

Oh I should have said the award I received was a very nice pen inscribed with my name

BRITISH SUMMER TIME