Year: 2008

TBB – lol, you can only see a small portion of my “garden” … The bit to the lower left is my neighbour’s, the bit behind belongs to the people that run the Chinese takeaway.

Dianne – dunno how long that chair’s been there, I don’t remember not seeing it and I’ve lived here for 6 years !

Is that his chair or can anyone sit and enjoy?

They can smell you before they see or hear you.

Looks like you have put in a lot of work on your garden. 🙂

Wordless Wednesday is Chronos the Cat … Who also provides evidence that cats have a sixth sense for when they’re being watched. He was quite happily asleep until I quietly opened my upstairs window to take this shot.

Definitely has an appreciation for comfort does Chronos.

Crossing my fingers – it’s been lit for a day now 🙂

Ugh, broken boilers suck. I had that issue with my ex back when I lived in the UK. Our landlord was a cheapskate and refused to get someone qualified to fix it. Instead he got his buddy to do it.

Such a shame it cost him double the price to get it replaced after his buddy screwed it up completely. NOT.

Bit of a nasty surprise the other day – I found out why I’d been developing cold tootsies … Broken boiler again. Last time, it needed the thermocouple (widget wot tells it the temperature inside) replacing because it had totally burned away. This time, I can get it lit and it’ll work for a little while and then the pilot light will go out again. I just heard it fire up, which is a good sign, it means the boiler has been alive for the 90 minutes that I’ve been home for. I think it may be last week’s replaced gas meter that’s done it, as the boiler’s been fine through the winter.

Hoping it stays lit, as we have snow forecast in the UK this coming weekend, although that’s the East side of the country and not the side I live on. Still, it’ll be cheaper on gas if I have to run without a boiler for a bit although I prefer my showers to be hot instead of icicle temperature.

I now have Hornblower on, I missed this the first time around. It has a good reputation but it’s only now that I’ve had the chance to watch it from the start. David Weber’s Honor Harrington books are supposedly follow on from the Hornblower tradition, so let’s see if the Horatio Hornblower tradition is better than the Honor Harrington one 🙂

I love your answer to #3; that’s one of the reasons I love them, too!

Thanks for playing 🙂

Writing this short entry in honour of James Anderson, who’s definitely been in the wars in this game. England’s young bowler turned his ankle after the end of play two days ago and left the ground on crutches.

However, a little thing like a badly twisted ankle hasn’t stopped him putting it on the line for his country and team. He’s been, to borrow a phrase from the commentators, rattling with painkillers for today and yesterday. Lots of pain there from that ankle, although to his credit you wouldn’t know it from watching him bowl. He also drew the short straw yesterday, having to do the real hard work of bowling into the wind. Not just a little breeze this wind, the commentators were calling it a gale.

Since kicking off this entry, Jimmy’s got the breakthrough in a prickly little 9th wicket partnership and Monty’s got the last wicket to win the game. I think Ryan Sidebottom will probably get Man Of The Match but I’d like it to go to Jimmy Anderson for going beyond the call of duty, firstly with playing through pain with the ankle but also for demolishing New Zealand’s top order on the second day of this game.

That ankle injury is making me remember one of my many injuries … I was running on to the field at the start of a game and just happened to put my foot in a rabbit hole. Oops. Ouch too. Adrenaline and youthful foolishness let me ignore the sprain through the game and I think (can’t remember if I was batter or bowler for that game) I also got my 10 overs allocation in. But after a night’s sleep to let it stiffen up, I could barely walk for a week and nearly missed the next game.

Hopefully Jimmy Anderson will make next week’s NZ vs England game, he’s a very good bowler and England are a better side with him in it. Bit daft maybe but he’s got a certain amount of natural luck (aka does the right things without realising how) which gives him a knack of making things happen.

PS Man of the Match went to Tim Ambrose, the fella I was hoping would get a 100 a few days ago. He managed it, plus did ok as keeper (missed 1 catch, 1 stumping and keepers like keepers to be perfect)

“However, I haven’t quite got to the stage where my mind is adding a whimpering “ouch” to the ball when it’s kicked 80 metres.”

LOL! That totally made my night before I go to bed 😀