Deaf but very happy!

Been up to Silverstone the past couple of days with my friend Pete from work to see the British Grand Prix qualifying yesterday, and the race today.

It really was one hell of an experience - but then for GBP 260.00 you'd be disappointed if it wasn't. The weather was great for both days, and we had a great vantage point just at the start of the pit straight to see the race from, although on the Saturday you can sit wherever you want, so we took the opportunity to roam a bit and try out different stands around the track - think we agreed that the best position was on the main pit straight - but at almost GBP 400.00 a ticket it's probably more than I'd be willing to pay.

Can't believe i finally got around to seeing a Grand Prix - so many years now I've been religiously watching every race on TV and it's a bit surreal seeing the cars in the flesh - but what you don't get on TV is the immense noise they make - it is absolutely deafening.

Unfortunately I don't really have the right camera for high speed action, but here are a few snaps.

Patio and Grass

It's the beginning of July, the middle of summer, and we finally, well almost have a complete patio and grass - whether we'll get to enjoy it or not is another thing as the weather has been absolutely atrocious and is kind of why the patio took so long, but on the other hand it's been fantastic for the grass which has shot up just in the week we've had it.

Here's some pics

Scary Stuff!!!

Just spent a few days over in Venice with Lorri - it was a fantastic short break with excellent weather and a thoroughly interesting place to be.

There was however a bit more reason for going to Venice than just wanting to see the place - I also wanted to propose to Lorri which I did. She accepted so it looks like we're looking at getting married sometime in September/October next year.

Chuffed to bits that she said yes - thought for a long time that marriage really wasn't for me, but about a couple of months ago I started thinking about it, and the more I thought the more I felt it was definitely what I wanted to do - I'm very lucky to have found someone as lovely as Lorri.

Enjoy the pix

First Easter at our house

Had the family and Ray round for Easter Sunday - unfortunately Jess and Dan couldn't make it as they are off to Canada today, and it was also a bit sad with my Grandad not being there - or maybe he was depending on what you believe.

Things went more or less to plan, Lorri made the most fantastic Sunday lunch and the only real problem we had is that we don't really have all the neccessary plates and knives and stuff so we had to frantically washup knives and plates and stuff between servings. Also think that we're going to have to think about getting a bigger table as I think we would struggle to fit Jess and Dan in anyway if they had been able to come, but that'll have to wait as we're just concentrating on getting the garden sorted out.

We should have a new fence up within the next few weeks, and then we're looking to get a builder in to lay a concrete base over the existing patio so that we can get a nice new 'flat' one put down.

We should also have the path taken up within a few weeks, and the silly patio at the back. The plan then is to simply grass the whole garden for the moment, and use the back patio stones to make a path and finish off with a Leylandii hedge at the back to give us a bit of privacy - and that will probably be it for this year.

I'll maybe put some plans on here for people to look over when I've done them.

Some new pictures of the house

Haven't added any recent pictures of our progress with the house so here's what it looks like now.

Also included a picture of the Tortoise table that Lorri and myself built.

Still a long way to go with things, although we're especially proud of the garden - hours of design and hard work to get it lookto this good! Just need a 1:18 scale model of a JCB and 4 or 5 guys standing around doing nothing and it will be complete.

A Tortoise joke

I mentioned to Bob, a guy I work with that we had a couple of Tortoises and he told me this Tortoise joke that has had me chuckling for days!

A Tortoise gets attacked and beaten up by a gang of Snails.
Next day whilst receiving treatment at the vets for his injuries he is visited by a police officer.
Police Officer: "so can you tell me what happenned then?"
Tortoise:"Don't know - it all happenned so quickly!"

2 Healthy Tortoises

We finally have a healthy Tortoise - well in fact 2 of them. As I've said, I was a bit un-happy about having just one on its own, and I think Lorri felt the same so it seemed like a good idea to get a pair.

We've named them Angus and Layla - and this also infers the fact that we hope we have a Male and a Female, but as they are only 9 months old it is almost impossible to tell, so we just had to make a guess based on the length of their tails and the shape of their shells underneath their bodies - we'll probably find out in just under 2 years whether we're right or not as it's usually from 2 years onwards that you can tell.

They've certainly showed up just how ill Lola was - they both sleep a fair amount, but also have periods where they almost run around the vivarium whereas Lola really did nothing but sleep and just look ill.

It was a real shame we couldn't have treated her ourselves, but hopefully she'll get that back at the pet shop and will be sold fit and healthy to a new home.