SPLATIFIED

Well it turned up, 2 hours late but it got here, lovely. It's a cooker I know but I think I love it.

Come on! I'm waiting for my new cooker to arrive, it should have been here 4 minutes ago, still no sign. What to do while I wait? Look for a recipe to cook on it while I wait I suppose, what to cook though? I want to give it a proper christening, maybe a nice steak? More likely I shall just break it in with a decent bacon and mushroom sandwich, not exciting I know, but it is 10 in the morning, steak might be a bit much this early.

Things have gone a bit flat on here for me now, I was just starting to get into it, and then sort of forgot all about it. I, however have been more successful at keeping up to date with this one than any others I have tried, so that's a plus.
Going through a bit of a funny patch at the moment in life generally, money is tight, being a postman here in the uk is getting a tad strange, in case you don't know we are going through a period of industrial action at the moment, which is causing problems in the small office I work in, there are those who are for the strikes and those against, and it's causing friction amongst people who have, in some cases, been life long friends. It's all a bit silly in my opinion, whatever your personal opinion, it really shouldn't reflect into your friendships quite as much as it is in some cases.
Still, I'm staying out of it as best I can, All I'm really interested in is keeping my job and getting paid:)
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Why is it, when ever I have a day off work, I feel like rubbish? Not Ill, just bleurghhh.
When I used to work in a factory and had weekends off, guaranteed on a saturday I would wake up with a fuzzy head and general yuckiness, no alcohol involved the night before by the way, and now I have a different job and get Tuesdays off, same again, it's a travesty.
Nevermind. Had some great news yesterday, my cousin from Australia is coming over for a flying visit at the weekend, stopping by on his way to America for 'work', jammy git! Still, it will be lovely to see him even though his visit is coinciding with my daughters 14th birthday sleepover party, which will make for a rather packed but fun weekend.
Anyway, here's a couple more photos from a few weeks ago when I visited the suffolk coast, a palce called Walberswick which is just the other side of the river from Southwold.

Okay, as promised some pics of my now finished Conservatory. :)

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Blimey, it's been a long time since I posted on here, sorry :) I sort of got a bit lax in the blogging dept.
I shall try to rectify that as much as possible, everything though has been great over the last couple of months, conservatory is finished and furnished, pictures to follow shortly. I've sort of been fully transferred to my local village post office, which is great, still have to go back to a 'townwalk' occassionally, but maybe once every couple of months for a week or so, so I can handle that no problem. Anyhoo, back soon.

It's been a while I know, but here is an update finally, Yesterday we had the various parts of the conservatory delivered,
Doesn't look much laid out on the lawn, but here it is in an upright position :)


3 more days, and it should all be done.


Last week I had the most wonderful week with the wife, doing all the things that we hadn't done for years. To explain a bit better, my daughter went to Devon with the mother in law so the wife (Rachel) and myself had the whole week to ourselves, it was like being young again, we went to the coast, London, Norwich, the coast again and other things, we got to stay out late without having to worry about what time it was, it was fantastic :)
London, as usual was ace, we went straight to Notting hill, and trawled down Portobello road,

looking in all the cool shops round there, then we walked right through Kensington gardens and Hyde park,
down through Picadilly, stopping in Fortnum and Masons to spend an extortionate amount of money on a pot of jam and some sugar :)
Sushi was taken from a great little sushi place we know, then a leisurely stroll through Covent garden down Neal street, stopping at the Neals yard dairy to get some great cheese for later, then home.

It's moving at very good pace, insulation and concrete are down, and most of the outside wall has been built, should be the last day tomorrow for the builder, then there'll be a short break to allow the concrete to go off properly and then after that, the good bit, the glass and the roof. Very excited :)

Well, the time is finally here, my conservatory is finally under way :) This is the obligatory 'before' shot, when everything was calm and peaceful:)
The building itself is going in between the gas meter on the left and the tap on the right next to the kitchen window, all the black shiplap on the first floor will be changed to white upvc, it's going to extend as far as the patio does in this picture, so as you can see it's quite large but we thought, what's the point of having a small one, we might as well go as large as we can afford :)
The next picture shows my contribution to the whole build from a physical point rather that financial, the removal of the patio stones and the clearing of the area.
Some of the removed stones, managed to get most of them up whole, some had 2 inches of concrete still stuck to them.
That was sunday, this is monday afternoon, the buliders arrived about 7:45 and got stuck straight in, good lads. footings done and everything laid out ready for today, tuesday.
As I write Martin (the builder) is laying the bricks down ready for the concrete floor to go in tomorrow, can't wait:)

Heres a pic of one of my cats, Elvis, having an explore of the wonderful new toilet:)
And just to cap it all off, A building Playlist :)

A friend of mine has just got back from Australia and sent me some photos, Incredibly jealous now, it's only been a year since we got back last time but it feels like a lifetime away now. It's funny how the simplest things can jog a memory, like a crow for instance, in Oz they sound very different to over here apart from the first 'note', and if the sun is shining and I hear a crow I am instantly back in Australia.
It may sound gushy but I really love Oz, I suppose it's because every memory I have of the place has been a holiday memory, if I lived and worked there I may feel differently about it, I'd be happy to give it a try anyway :)
One of the things I love most about it is it's so vast and I love driving, so, to get anywhere you have to drive, and one of my favourite drives is to a place called the pinnacles, part of the nambung national park
The drive from my cousins place takes about 4 hours and it's all bush and open roads all the way up, fantastic for an open road bloke like me :) Once there, it's really quite surreal, The heat has a kind of buzz about it, it's quiet, almost unbelievably quiet, and it's like being on a different planet, I love it and have been twice. Nearby is a small town called cervantes where we always go to get fish and chips and have a walk along the beach.

That's me done till Saturday, that's why I love my job, a day off in the week is ace, nice early finish today all day off tomorrow then an easy day Saturday and another day off :) 2 more weeks after that then a fortnight off, lovely. No major plans for my hols, daughter is going down to Devon with her grandmother so me and the missus are going to have a few days out doing the sort of things that she would only get bored doing anyway. Maybe a day or 2 in London and then some days out around the coast doing the 'boring' stuff, lol.
This is my daughter showing me her tamamprolining :sic: skills :) she's having lessons at school on wednesday evenings and it's doing wonders for her confidence :) Probably one of the best things we've bought her recently, she's on it nearly every day, and all the local kids come round, it's great.
Time for another playlist anyway, this time something a bit punky if you fancy chucking yourself about a bit.

Have just been looking at some new furniture to go in the as yet unbuilt conservatory, I may be getting ahead of myself here, having said that, we now have a date for the construction to begin, 18th may. I can't believe how excited I'm getting over a conservatory, it must be an age thing. we've picked out a lovely table and chairs and a sideboard too, it's going to be fabulous darling!
On a different note my daughter made an apple crumble at school today and it looks lovely, going to try some after dinner. I think she takes after me in the culinary skills department, I'm a keen cook myself and cook all the meals at home, tonights dinner shall be roasted salmon with a vegetable rice concoction.
The weather is just getting better and better here, another glorious day, sunny all day with a temperature of 21c, just about perfect I reckon, well, for sitting in the garden anyway, may need a bit warmer for beach weather I reckon.

One of the things I have enjoyed over the last few years is traveling to Australia. I have the majority of my family over there and so far have been 4 times, I have 2 cousins and an Aunt and Uncle who live in Perth and I have a half sister and her children who live in Brisbane. I love it so much I now consider it to be my second home and somewhere that I will one day go to live in, be that in the next few years or when I retire.
Until my cousin went there to live I had never given Oz a second thought, the only thing I knew about it really was gleaned from neighbours and the sullivans.
That first trip over was the start of a love affair, the country, the weather, the people, all were fantastic and I can think of no other place that I would really miss if I could never go again. The other thing with traveling to Oz is the ability to fit other countries in on your way either too, or back from it. So far we've only stopped at Singapore for 3 days last time we went, which was last march but the plan is now to try and do a different country everytime we fly, Hong Kong is next on the list, we've been through it on our way to Oz once but never stayed so that's a must do.

Whilst in Oz we've been to Brisbane and Sydney, sydney being my favourite city so far, It's fantastic and if you ever have the opportunity I fully recommend it, Nothing can prepare you for the excitement of seeing the harbour bridge and opera house for the very first time. It really was a magical experience and one that I long to repeat, I could have spent all day travelling around on the ferries alone, but the Gardens and beaches were incredible also, the food is excellent, nothing beats sitting in the front terrace of a restaurant on the rocks in the harbour looking at the opera house as the sun sets, fantastic.There is so much to talk about that I am going to tell more of my adventures in future posts, so, bye for now :)

So, today I had one of the most frightening days I've ever had as a postie, I had just delivered a parcel to a house and jumped on my bike, rode of to the next house, straight into a swarm of bees, not just some bees, hundreds of thousands of them, and that is no exaggeration. I quite literally dropped my bike and ran. I have never seen so many bees in one place, the whole street was, well, swarming. I don't like bees, I love honey but hate the little buggers that make it. Fortunately I didn't get stung, which is just as well because if I had I don't think I'd have made it out, I believe that once you get a bee angry him and all his little mates have a go, and quite frankly, there were so many I'd have been exceedingly lucky to get away with just a few stings.

Anyway, attack of the killer bees aside, another fairly ordinary day :) I still have a cold and it's not getting any better, but y'know, we muddle on bravely, I'm such a trooper :)
Playlist for today.

This blog seems to be going fairly well so I figure it's time to give a little background about myself.
I live in Norfolk, have done now since I was about 2, I was born in Sunderland but the whole family moved south about '71. For the most I love it round here, it's not exactly excitement city but after the initial teenage years where all you want to do is party and chase girls I've settled down into a lovely quiet country family life.
2 cars, both VW's, 3 cats and 1 daughter, not necessarily in that order :) For a job I'm a postman, mostly in the village where I live, occasionally in the town about 7 miles away from here, I much prefer the village walk I do as opposed to the town one, it's quieter and less stressful for a start.
I used to live in the town but moved to the village about 18 months ago and I can honestly say as far as I'm concerned it's one of the best things I ever done.
within 2 weeks of moving here this was the view from my window :)
So, I think that'll do for now, there's much more to tell, but not enough time tonight so I'll leave you with today's playlist which is not one of my own, but one that I have borrowed from someone else :) Enjoy!

Well, another beautiful day in good old blighty, it really makes you glad to be alive on a day like today. Village life is good, in fact, it's brilliant. Huge amount of excitement today when there was a gas leak in one of the local pubs, 2 fire engines turned up. It was like something of the tv, or so you'd have thought judging by the amount of excitement it created, so in tribute, today's playlist.

No playlist today, I've been up the hospital all day with my daughter so that she can have a blood transfusion, it's a regular occurrence, she has Diamond blackfan anaemia so she has to go through this about once a month.
Anyway, it's been a lovely day again, weather wise, but not much else has occured, here's a little piccy I took last week when the wife and I went for a walk in the local woods.

Cor! What a lovely day, the sun is shining, birds are singing, it's a wonderful day. Better than yesterday by far, it wasn't 'orrible or owt, just very cold where I was, up on the north norfolk coast.
Still, had a nice day and all but I wish it was like it is today then it would have been glorious, anyway, because it's so nice I thought a nice cheery laid back playlist for today, a little bit of reggae/ska.
Days like today make me glad to have the job I have, being a postman on days like this really is excellent, especially in a small village where it's quiet as well. I've been doing this job for nearly a year now and I can honestly say it's the best thing I've ever done, I used to work in a chicken factory and my God, it was the most tedious godawful job anyone could have, how I stuck it out for as long as I did I'll never know, I'm so glad to have got out of there.
Life is good, really good at the moment, we've just ordered a lovely conservatory for our house and all going well it should be in in about 4-6 weeks, I can't wait, it's massive and it's going to be so nice to be able to sit out in it in the evenings watching the world go by. Time for a nice cup of tea I think, more later :)

Had a great day out yesterday in London, took a break from the norm and did a couple of different things, normally we do the shopping thing and trawl around covent garden and neal street and the like, but for a change yesterday we went to the Tate modern and then the V+A museum, neither of which I'd done before.
The Tate was a complete shock to the system, never really taken in any modern art before but I thoroughly enjoyed it, can't say I totally understood what most of it was about, but I still came away with a feeling that I had in some way become slightly more cultured than before. The V+A was awesome, we didn't even get around half of it so there's scope there to go back real soon and see the rest of it, some incredible exhibits in there.
Anyway, My last day off today, back to work tomorrow, for one day anyway, then it's the 'weekend'. So, some good mood songs, a shortish playlist today, a few tracks to keep the mood up:)
Ciao.

I have a keen interest in photography, however my actual skill level is probably less than good. What I consider a good photo probably leaves a lot to be desired, so with that in mind anything I post on here is open to criticism, but please, be gentle.
The first shot I'm putting up here is one that I consider to be pretty well near my best shot so far and the funny thing about it is the original leaves a lot to be desired, I just happened to be bored and started messing about with it and was very pleasantly surprised with the end result.

I have discovered Spotify. What a revelation,











every day it gets better and better, for anybody not in the know it's a completely free, (unless you choose to pay) music player, with just about any tune by any band you can think of, there are exceptions of course but more and more tunes are being added all the time.
The aspect of this whole thing that gets me all excited is the ability to share playlists
,, think about it, bored, want something different to listen to, go to one of the many different spotify list sites click on a list and et voila, new music, maybe something you've never heard of before or an old favourite you forgot about.

Anyway, that's enough harping on about that, The aim of this blog is to put up some of my playlists of music that I enjoy,and maybe give a little bit of background as to why I've chosen those songs or the relevance of the list as a whole, they may be lists I've created, or I may well share other peoples lists, whatever. If anybody has a list they'd like to share then feel free to add it, the more the merrier. So, without much further ado, here be one.

Superstylin' , created by me, the first playlist I created, so a historical moment here folks, no particular reason for the tunes on this one, they were just the first tracks I found as I was stumbling my way around.