After a couple of cans one of my friends had a piss and then went home.

Later when I went to the toilet I found my toilet roll like this:

Below are some photos of my future home.  It’s set in its own park along with four cottages and a farm.

I haven’t worked out a detailed financial plan yet but when things are a little clearer in my mind I will post here ¬_¬

From the front

From the side

Its own pond

I went Alton Towers with a few friends. The most entertaining part was rummaging around the old ruins.

The photo below was taken in the chappel. I asked my friend how much he’d want to run from one end of the chappel to the other making a quiet screaming noise. He said he’d do it for a tenner, and I believed him, so I left it at that.

Then we got high up and peered down below through a window, and took it in turns to shout “boggies” at passers by below.

I used to have TomTom ONE. I’ve now upgraded to TomTom 520. It was from ASDA including a carry case and a 28 day money back guarantee if you don’t like it. It has a wider screen than my old ONE, and also has voice recognition and bluetooth for hands free calls and playing MP3s. I’m hoping the bluetooth handsfree works well because it’s one of the reasons I spent the extra rather than just getting another TomTom ONE.

For an extra £20-£30 I could have got the 520T which has lifetime traffic updates for free, but in the past I’ve never needed the traffic update services.

Unfortunately text messages can’t be received/sent via the 520 using my Samsung phone, but I’m under the impression this is a limitation of the phone rather than the sat nav since the options are there but greyed out.

I hope I’ve made a good decision, and if it’s anything like my old TomTom is will be very good value for money!

I found a circular, green stain on my bedroom carpet today. It looked like ink or paint and was slightly crusty but also looked like it could not be removed.

First of all I tried Vanish which is usually very good, but it didn’t touch it. Then I tried CarPlan upholstery cleaner which has a little plastic brush on the end. I don’t normally like scrubbing carpet, but after spraying it with the upholstery cleaner and rubbing away with the brush thingy, the stain eventually went away. Now my carpet is back to perfection.

After cleaning. Perfect!

Tools of the trade

A random photo from my car of a sheep in the road

Last night me and a friend decided to head into town to a place called Soar Point for a few drinks. One thing led to another and we moved onto two or three other pubs.  They all asked if we had our “yellow cards” which is apparently some kind of student thing that entitles you to cheap drinks.  Not being a student I have never heard of such a thing.

At one place we asked the barman for somewhere good to go and he told us about a club that charges £1 entry and £1 per drink on a Monday. So off we headed off to the said club, but when we got there they said, “Sorry, student night only!” (apparently “everyone” knows it’s student night on a Monday).  So we were quite aggrieved but went down the road where someone was selling tickets for £3 to get into another club.  So we each bought a ticket and headed to the other place.

The tickets said “queue jump” on them, yet we still had to join a “short” queue.  Anyway, everyone was asked for their student cards, including us, and we were turned away (we’re not students).  However the guy who sold us the tickets said nothing about the fact that we needed to be students, so basically we had been ripped off for £6 since there was no offer for a refund at the door.

On the way back into town my mate flagged down a passing police car, the occupants being sympathetic but unhelpful, commenting it was only £6 and we should let sleeping dogs lie.  So anyway we went back and found the ticket guy ourselves, and with a little gentle persuasion we got our money back :)  We then headed to the casino where they’re willing to rob you whether you’re a student or not.

But it made me wonder what would happen if someone set up a white person only night or a straight person only night at a club?  In fact we came up with an ingenious idea of hiring out a big club on a Monday night (student night remember), selling tickets for £3 and then asking everyone at the door if we could see their student cards - at which point we’d announce it was “full-time employment night only.”

So to sum up, we started the night at Soar Point, and the night itself ended up a sore point.  I’ll never look at students the same again.

It’s grass cutting day today, so I decided to clean up all the dog shite on my lawns.  Fortunately the sun had been out so they were all nice and hard, but this got me thinking about how the climate can affect the task at hand.

For example, on a wet day when the turds are fresh, you generally end up spreading them all over the lawn (if you use a spade like me).  On the other hand, a cold frosty morning has a similar effect to blazing sunshine and enables you to clean them up without too much mess.

The other option is to put your hand inside a plastic bag and pick them up.  Generally this is less messy than smearing them everywhere with a spade. Personally I only like to do this when the turds are fresh - there’s something that just feels so very wrong about a lump of dog shit when it’s cold. Of course there’s things that I enjoy holding a whole lot more than dog feaces, but it’s not like you’re touching it with your bare hands (unless you’re unlucky and your hand happens to be positioned over one of the little air-holes that Tesco make in their carrier bags).

I’m not even opposed to owners who let their dogs crap in the street and leave it, because it generally rots away or gets eaten by other dogs. And I can’t remember the last time I stepped in a dog turd because unlike many people I walk around with my eyes open.

Finally, the biggest problem is bagging all the shit up.  I tend to pile it all on the patio first, pat it all into a big cube and then attempt to shovel it into a bin liner.  Usually though the wind is blowing the bin bag all over the shop and little bits of shit fall off the spade (they always tend to fall around the neck of the bag which you have to touch with your hands to tie it up).  I’d love to find a solution that makes this easier.

I don’t really have a general interest in this subject, in the same way I don’t enjoy ironing or washing up, but if I can devise quicker and easier ways of doing things it’s worth considering.

So today I was driving down the road, and I saw this little kid running around in the middle of the street screaming his head off, with a look of terror in his eyes.  But the really strange this is, he was being chased by another little kid on crutches.

Today I went to the Billing Aquadrome in Northampton to an American car show.

The turnout wasn’t too great because the weather was so cold, but there were some impressive cars there.  Here’s a few photos.

The above car was so low to the ground it was actually touching the grass - you can see this more closely in the picture below.  Now I worry about stone chippings and stuff on my car, but driving this would give me sleepless nights.

Above is a Ford Mustang.  Not sure why the Fords in England have to be so mundane.

Some weird little Hot Rod above.

Believe it or not, the above car (registered in the early 60’s) has an Internet connection.  There’s a small screen and keyboard built into the dash, and a larger flat-screen monitor and keyboard in the boot. 

The Dodge Viper above belongs to a friend of mine and has nothing less than an 8.2 litre engine. And I thought my petrol worries were bad.