Some of my Tweets regarding the Gove Boat

Michael Gove today proposed spunking £60+ million away on a new yacht for Queenie's jubilee, a magnificient present for a rich women from a grovelling, lickspittle shite.

• Mr Gove, if we can get rid of useless teachers, will the same rules apply right up the chain of command? #fortheloveofgodjustgo
• Still can't believe Michael Gove wants to spunk £60m+ on a boat. Perhaps we can loan HRH one of the aircraft-less aircraft carriers.
• If Michael Gove really wants to buy the Queen a big, pointless boat, can pay for it out of his departmental budget. #TheGoveBoat 
• Alternatively, every department in Govenment has to cough up £5m. That'll make him uber-popular round the cabinet table. #TheGoveBoat
• Austerity (n): to cut benefits from the disabled & poor in order to pay for a large boat for a rich old woman. #TheGoveBoat #ued
• In any case it seems Cameron plans to give Queenie a big gift. He's busily clawing money from cancer patients & disabled kids to pay for it.
  
  
  2 others (retweeted):
  • Tim Doble @BetterThanToday Mother is losing her job as a consequence of libraries being shut down. Meanwhile, Michael Gove wants to spend £60m on a yacht. #thegoveboat
  •  Matthew Doye @MatthewDoye  To pay for Gove's proposed yacht would take 1,167,315 weeks of higher rate mobility DLA from disabled people #TheGoveBoat #wrb

Sandstrom oven

We bought a Sandstrom combi microwave/oven from Curry's in September (for £100). The only design flaw is that of the interface between the rotator and the turntable as the 'pegs' aren't deep enough but it is useable.

Or at least it was.

On Sunday 08/01/12 Lou warmed the oven up to 200ºc & put her pheasant in. We were watching the football when there was a huge bang. When she investigated Lou found out the the glass (?) tuntable platter has broken into 4 pieces.

When she contacted Curry's stating that this had happened, she was told that we can have a replacement (should think so too!) but we'd have to bring the whole oven back, rather than just the plate.

We are quite annoyed about this as it means either taking 2 taxi's (£15 - £20) or trying to take it on the bus (still around £10).

As this is less than 4 months old we are NOT happy.

La Redoute naked man

French fashion chain La Redoute has been left red-faced after it forgot to airbrush a naked bather from a promotional photograph for its children's clothes. Since then he's appeared all over the place!

Random thoughts from last night

1. What does it say about our country when we can spend £10bn (+) on two weeks of sport but can't afford to help pensioners keep warm?
2. All Liverpool's defeat by City really proved is that Man City's multi-millionaires are miles better than our multi-millionaires.

Bank holiday drink in the Tivoli

We popped into the Tivoli on the 2nd of January. As we sat there, 2 guys went past paddling surfboards.

Back to work :¬(

Tuesday brings a return to work. The printroom was pretty cold as I went round plugging stuff back in. This was after battling high winds to get to work (Ceri tweeted that she wasn't in Kansas anymore, which summed it up quite well).

Nothing in the inbox so I downloaded & edited photos from NYE etc tinyurl.com/7o7dxzj

At around 11am there was one of the most vicious rainstorms I have ever seen - howling wind & horizontal rain. By lunchtime the storm had passed and there was blue skies.

Sales & Yikes!

Having had a tip-off from Mooley that LA Senza were having a big sale we  went over. After rooting through the 38GG & 36F stuff (not to mention the size 18 pants) Lou got a bodice/corset thing & a red bra for £10. Result!

Passed info & showed stuff to Dick & Alissia - they plan to go on Tuesday.

Jarad came into the pub on crutches. Apparently he'd swung out of the van on Wednesday and landed on a stone. Despite being in a lot of pain they made him work. He assumed he'd bruised it. He finally went to A&E to find out that he'd actually split his heel bone! 6 - 8 weeks on crutches.

Christmas Week Pt 5

NYE: Spent the morning trying to find more bits for the pirate outfit. Got a big belt and some elasticated pants (which I cut off @ the knee). Went to the Isaac @ 12 and watched the hysterical defeat of ManU by the mighty Blackburrn.


We popped in later to show Dick & Alissia our outfits.
Lou: stripy shirt, purple jacket, black coat, blue boots & 5 o'clock shadow (eye shadow) & hat.
Ian: white evening shirt, military jacket, cut off keks, stripey socks.


When we got to the party Hayley gave us an envelope with the 1st clue in a treasure hunt. This had about 8 rounds and took about 2 hours to do. We didn't win but it was fun. Lou had pulled pork (not much veggie food) while we were working out some of the answers.


The pub also had a photo booth so we did one set each and 1 together. Linkhttp://www.picture-pod.com/portnye11.html


Tweets: 

• @LouieTwist has finally surfaced. Hangover not too bad apparently.#neverdrinkingin2011again
• @ 11.50 last night she was pished @ 00.10 she was in the "I love you mate' stage, Had to support her home @ 00.35.

At lunchtime we went over to ther pub and watched a truly dire game between West Brom & Everton, followed by ManCity blowing the chance to go 3 points clear. Well played Sunderland.

Christmas Week Pt 4

Bank Holiday Monday: We went over to Ann's place for drinks & nibbles/ While she's still unpacking the place looks more like a proper home now. She liked her pot & I liked her fire-effect heater that she'd got for the blocked fireplace. I also liked the bottle of Metaxa she'd bought as a present - very appreciated!

Tuesday: Didn't do much. Went over to Isaac to watch Spurs play. The boys were doing a bet on 1st scorer.

Tweet: Joy & disappointment in pub as Spurs score: joy that they did & disappointment that nobody had picked him in 1st to score competition.

Tweet 2: They're now discussing a roll-over for the next scorer. A lot are switching from Norwich to Spurs players.

Tweet 3: Jamie is very happy: he had Bale to score next goal.#bigpot#thisroundisonyouson

Wednesday: Went into town to look round the sales. Dind't see anything I liked in the shops but did see an enormous boat going through Chesterton crossroads. Wouldn't say no to that.

Thursday: Can't remember doing much. In the evening found out that we'd won 2 tickets to the NYE party at the Portland Arms. Result!

Friday: Went looking for pirate gear for party. Also picked up a pair of boots in Primark for £10 (£15 less than I was going to pay in late OCtober/eraly November). Result!

Lou got a pirate hat which suited her.

Christmas Week Pt 3

Boxing day: We went over to Granchester for the new year barrel rolling. We got a decent spot 1/2 way down the course. Until the CEN photographer plonked his kit right in front of us. Met Amina there (with her current chap). We watched a couple of the races before retiring to the Green Man. They had a beer marquee out the back of the (very packed) pub. They had heaters on (1 hot air & 3 gas fires) do it was quite warm. In fact I had to take coat & jumper off as was so warm. It got even warmer as more people came in.

Oddly, there were 2 ladybirds wandering around. A sign of global warming?

Jolly Snoutsman was decent but Lou's Fellowship Porter was bloody disgusting.

We had a nice walk back and went to the Isaac for a few and then went home for remains of Xmas meal.

Christmas day: After staying up till 2am watching track Santa, we had a quiet start to the day. We got up & had bubbly around 09.30. After opening the presents (Lou liked her pony) we called the rellies. Also called Lynda & Pete in Shetlands. They had been up since 6 to watch fire-barrel rolling (barrel filled with tar & kindling). It seems like it was an excuse to drink. They'd had a fried breakfast and were doing the same thing on Boxing day. Lynda thought I'd bought Lou a real pony and wondered if we were going to keep it in the garden.

We went over to the First & Last for a pint. Watched a bloke lose his brand new helicopter toy on the roof of the hairdressers. We did plan to go to the County & see Joey but we bumped into Henry & went to the Baron for a pint with him.* After 3 or 4 pints, wer ran away as, had we stayed, we wouldn't have been eating.

Lou said the guineafowl was tasty. My lentil roast didn't quite set (forgot to get eggs) but was tasty.

* Interestingly the Baron of Beef were doing food and a lot of people (tourists?) were having sunday roasts.

Christmas week Pt 1

Monday: Went to the Post Office in Cowley Road as 2 presents had gone there. It took 70 minutes of queuing to get the boxes. That's another hour of my life I wont get back. On the plus side a steam train did go past.
Tuesday: Shopping for Lou's presents. Managed to get a few bit's for her.
Wednesday: Went to a formal dinner @ Queens College (arranged by Meg). Sherry on arrival then into the dining hall. Grace and then beetroot & goats cheese/Vege nut roast/merengue-toppped mince pie/port/coffee.Very nice and very Christmassy.
Thursday: Drinks & mince pies @ 4CMR.
Friday: met Lou & Hazel for a coffee & a snack.
Saturday: Stayed in while Lou went out to do Xmas shopping. Didn't have any brandy in Aldi so we went to Sainsbury's, getting a bottle of Verve Cliquot for Jamie for his MIL (as he'd forgotten).