Saturday, 29 September 2012

Have you heard of the Scotch Bonnet?

It's a chilli. Well, I hadn't when I put three of them in Holly's birthday dinner. 

Looks good, completely inedible

Turns out they are quite hot.  Wikipedia says 'Most Scotch Bonnets have a heat rating of 100,000–350,000 Scoville Units.  For comparison, most jalapeño peppers have a heat rating of 2,500 to 8,000 on the Scoville scale.'

Then I rubbed my left eye.

Using only my right eye, I drained all the liquid and replaced the coconut milk - it was just about edible. Just.

I don't think she enjoyed it.

Confirmed.

After a hiccuping fit (where I hiccuped while hiccuping) I actually finished mine.

I am now very scared of going for a crap tomorrow.

Happy birthday, my love.

I also, finally and properly, moved into the house.  Tomorrow we shift the rest of Holly's stuff over, starting with her 36,000 pairs of shoes.


Monday, 3 September 2012

Soon, the beast cometh

Not yet, but soon...

(circa two weeks of house works left until phase one is complete)


Friday, 24 August 2012

Hard work

I can quite honestly say I have been working my ass off recently.  I am too tired to blog much so checkout the pics below.

Now for running around after Duke of Edinburgh groups in The Lakes District, although the running my be figurative only as I fear I have developed Iliotibial Band Syndrome!

Getting there slowly...

...and almost done.

The workshop...

...becomes the kitchen

Meet Rango.

Wednesday, 1 August 2012

Nick the decorator


First it was the run, then house hunting and preparing for the Games, and now my excuse for not going climbing is that the Olympics have finally begun and we have finally got the house. 

I was lucky enough to get to see the final dress rehearsal of the opening ceremony as Mum was a drummer in it.  I say lucky, but given that I haven’t got a single ticket for the Games perhaps that is the wrong word.  I then went to see the actual ceremony in Hyde Park (which was, I am surprised to say, a bit too quiet to do it justice).  I thought it was bloody brilliant – perfectly pitched to big-up the country and London without appearing obnoxious or trying to directly compete with Beijing, and just as quirky as us Brits really up.  Thumbs up to Danny.  The only downside was having to listen to the poor confused Spanish Glaswegian reggae singer that is Paulo Nuttini in Hyde Park.

Holly and Gran, who climbed up the stadium with ease

A full stadium for a mere rehearsal

Boyle's vision

Other than watching the Games (just saw the end of Sir Bradley of Wiggins kicking some serious ass), I have been in the house, making a bigger mess of the walls.  Its bloody hard work and the satin finish on the paint on wallpaper, under wallpaper, renders the steamer useless so its just a question of slicing it all off.  We have had a few quotes for plastering, ranging from £270 to £650 – what do you go with? £270 does sound too cheap too me.  We are aiming to have the ground floor sorted before we move in, in a few weeks.  Holly says I need to chill out, but its my current obsession so no chance of that – I have five days solid to work on it over the next week, by which point all walls that need stripping will have been done, and hopefully all the plastering done too.  Then painting begins, and then we move in!

I made a mess

Holly spent a whole day cleaning the oven

...and I broke the house.

Who would have thought this blog would have turned into such a domestic borefest?


Wednesday, 18 July 2012

Time flies...

...when you are a fat lump.



My recent blogging has been a reflection of my general training attitude – slack.  The house buying and Olympics preparation have been sucking up most of my time, and fostered an attitude of extreme laziness. 

Still, the house is on track and hopefully we’ll be in within a couple of weeks – then the Beastmaker will be promptly erected in an opportune training location (in view of the TV) while I spend my free time cleaning and decorating and not using it anyway.  But a beast, I shall become.

Work is crazy busy.  We are running a 24hr desk to handle emergency road and street works that happen during the Games, and thank the Good Lord of Highways that we started with two weeks run-in time cos we are having the odd teething problem, but its getting better each day.  I even had my first inadventent site visit a couple of nights ago - we saw a contractor dealing with what looked like a water mains leak but Thames Water didn't know anything about it.  On my cycle home I bumped into one of the contractor's vans and asked them - turns out they were replacing telecoms cables but to do so, they have to pump the water out of flooded man-holes.  Who knew? So no leak at all.

I am working evening shifts so can just about get a decent bouldering session in before I start – so I have been three times so far, the most sustained effort in months.  I am not climbing well, but its better than my pull up performance – I managed five yesterday.  I’ll get strong fast though, as long as I keep gaining momentum.

Oh, and I watched the Wimbledon final and cheered for Fed.  He is class, and that is why I am naming the dog after him.