Mutterings for the Minority

Porthcawl and a potty

A major milestone was reached by DDWT Junior today - he did is very first wee wee on the toilet! Considering we’ve only been potty training him 8 days or so, it was a major achievement in terms of his development. For anyone who is or has gone through this process, I’m sure you’ll all agree that patience and timing (i.e. when to actually tackle the subject of potty training) are key to success or failure. Don’t get me wrong, we haven’t got it cracked yet, but we’re making great progress!!

Bouyed by the above events, we decided to do something different this afternoon (i.e. not Swans related!) and headed off to the McArthur Glen outlet village in Bridgend. Having been in the past, we were pleasantly surprised to see how much it had improved over the last year or so - with even more ‘high street’ shops now added to an already long list. A special mention must go to the Cadbury’s shop - and in particular the 400g bag of Cadbury’s ‘Mishapes’ for £2.99 - a must have for any chocoholic.

With the retail therapy out of the way we headed off to Porthcawl for a final treat - a routine which I remember well from my childhood - a walk along the promenade via the chippy. We opted to go to “Beales” chippy - no relation to Ian I’m sure, but you never know - with Mrs DDWT and myself opting for the steak & kidney pie with chips and DDWT Junior going for a jumbo sausage.

All swilt down with a nice cool can of coke and orange tango!

With the sun beginning to set, the view across the bay was amazing with the bright orange sun glistening across the waves. Thankfully I had my digital camera with me, so I took a few pics. Regular visitors to Porthcawl (and locals of course) will be very familiar with the locations - mainly taken from West Drive and the Esplanade.

8MB broadband

I’m feeling quite despondent as I write this, knowing that my week’s annual leave has now come to an end and it’s back to work on Monday. Why does the time always seem to fly by during the holidays, maybe it’s because we are enjoying ourselves so much - or at least that’s how I console myself anyway.

I was chuffed to learn that PlusNet had upgraded (for free) my broadband connection to 8MB today though, so surfing the information superhighway and downloading mp3’s, video’s et al is in even more super quick time (and what was I saying about time!). I’ve been with PlusNet for the best part of 3 years and I’ve always found the service reliable and most importantly affordable. I’ve got the full package ‘Broadband Premier‘ for £21.99 per month - which in a nutshell is an 8MB broadband with unlimited downloads and 250 MB webspace with some trimmings. If you looking for an ISP, check them out they’ve got lots of packages on offer.

DDWT Junior is also making steady, if rather somewhat messy progress, on the potty training front with him at least now sitting on the toilet (with the help of a toilet ‘ring’ and Mrs DDWT of course). It was difficult to keep a straight face tonight though as he erm, well lets just say ‘floated a log’ whilst having his bath - his reaction wouldn’t have been out of place in a Jaws movie (and I confess to humming THAT tune when it happened). We shouldn’t laugh I know, but it was so funny at the time and it was better than crying - bless him. We made sure we didn’t laugh in front of him though or otherwise it would have made the matter worse.

Talking of the little fella - well not so little anymore - he now weighs bob on 2st 9.5lbs.

West Midlands Safari Park

We headed off to West Midlands Safari Park today for the first time in years for the Mrs and I, but for DDWT Junior this was his first visit.

The good old Tesco vouchers came in handy once again and meant we didn’t have to pay a penny for entry on the day.

There was plenty to see and do with everything - which meant we had a full day at the safari park and I think we can safely say we’d go back again (if DDWT Junior has anything to do with it!).

It really is well worth a visit.

Hamstring

It’s been a hectic, painful and somewhat weird day today. What with moving offices in work, pulling a hamstring and being home alone (as DDWT Junior and Mrs DDWT have gone off visiting relatives in Aberaeron).

With our office move planned to start at 9:30am it all went belly up thanks to some administrative cockup, i.e. the removal men had been booked at different times and as a result they all turned up at different times. Shambolic.

So with time on my hands and needing to let off steam, coach and I took the opportunity to do our lunchtime run this morning instead! Our time of 23:13 for the 3 mile course was pleasing, the hamstring twinge/pull I felt with about half a mile to go wasn’t. I carried on more out of sheer frustration than anything, but it looks like I’ll be needing to rest it for a few days at least. Not a happy bunny. On a more positive note, at least the office move was underway by the time I returned!

Come 5pm with the move completed it was time to head off home - to an empty house. Daft as it sounds it was really eerie and whilst obviously it was nice to have some P&Q it wasn’t a feeling I’d like to get used too. Being the soppy bollocks that I am I was missing DDWT Junior and Mrs DDWT loads - and our early evening phonecall just made matters worse. Still they’ll be back tomorrow and normal service - and noise levels - shall be resumed.

I actually spent this evening messing around with ‘Drupal‘ an open source content management system (CMS). I’ve been trying a few of them out lately - Mambo, Joomla, to name a couple as a couple of my new clients what to use a CMS for their websites. I’m still leaning slightly towards Joomla as my preferred choice at the moment though.

Hailstones

Despite the somewhat indifferent, we (coach and I) headed off down to Verdi’s ice cream parlour - not for ice cream I hasten to add - but for our usual lunchtime bike ride.

It’s only a 9 mile roundtrip, which isn’t much I know, but we way we look at it is that it’s something and that’s a whole lot better than nothing. The other statistics for the ride - average speed of 13.7mph and a 43 minutes journey time - gave an indication of the weather conditions we encountered, i.e. strong winds and heavy hail showers!

In fact the hailstone showers were so bad, they were literally pinging my bell and riding directly into the hail shower (at speed) felt as though I was being continually ‘pricked’ by needles - on my face. Not pleasant!

Mother’s Day

As today was Mother’s Day, I decided to don an apron and make a nice homely Sunday roast for Mrs. DDWT - whom will tell you I’m sure that I make a pretty darn good roast dinner.

Just to make things a wee bit different, I did lamb for a change as we very rarely steer away from beef, chicken or pork.  I’m glad to say that the verdict was a massive thumbs up!

In the afternoon it was time to visit my Mam and do the usual Mother’s Day honours and have a nice supper with them as well.

I suppose in retrospect, whilst typing all this stuff in I realise how much ‘junk’ I’ve eaten today is going to affect my weight - especially after weighing first thing this morning (16st 10lbs)!

No wooden spoon

Despite our usual jaunt to the shops - standard practice for most households on a Saturday I’m sure - I spent a considerable amount of time in front of the TV, which is rather unusual for me it must be said.

With Wales taking on the old enemy England in our final Six Nations match of the season and at the same time trying to avoid the wooden spoon, I decided to watch the game more in anticipation than expectation. Much to my surprise (but pleasure) Wales turned in a great performance - by this season’s standards - and won 27-18. The house of DDWT was so excited we even managed to get DDWT Junior into the spirit of things - which resulted in “C’mon Whales” for the rest of the evening! As an ex-semi professional rugby player myself, it was a good day and to beat England made it all the more sweeter.

After the excitement of the early evening had subsided a little, we settled down to watch the play-off for the UK’s Eurovision song contest entry. Bemused, mortified, dumbfounded were just some of the words I would use to describe the crap I witnessed - huh music my arse!

Despite Lee Trundle’s missus - Liz McClarnon - being involved in the play-off, I still couldn’t bring myself to call it “music”. But hey we are talking about Eurovision aren’t we, so what should I expect other than a load of crap EU propaganda pop. Even the stalwart of eurovision Terry Wogan made a complete cock-up when announcing the winner (or not as the case maybe be). ‘Scooch‘ were the eventual winners (after the confusion) - need I say more with a name like that? So Terry, I think you were right the first time mate!

36 Today

Yes indeed, today is a big big day as it’s my 36th birthday! I know it sounds daft but I don’t like being 36, not because I’m a year older - as believe it or not that doesn’t bother me - it’s because I don’t like the number 36. I felt the same when I was 34, but hey I’m not going to wish my life away - I enjoy it far too much for that *smile*

The guys and gals in work made a nice fuss as well with lots of cards - as can be seen above - and a special mention must go to Lance who bought me 4 cans of Magners. Lance you’re a top banana matey. As is the case whenever it’s anyones birthday in work - the birthday boy/girl gets to buy the cakes, so I did a quick de-tour into Tesco’s this morning to stock on on a variety of lovely cakes (oh and a banana for me as I NEVER eat cakes in work).

For whatever reason, I decided that today would be the day that I start using Labels on my blog for categorising stuff. Maybe it was because I felt that at 36 I should be more organised (snigger) or maybe (and more likely) it’s because I get fed up doing the code for the Technorati tags every darn post. Hmm, it must be the latter!

Despite it being my birthday, I simply couldn’t let the day go by without doing some exercise, so I headed off for a 14 mile spin down to Gowerton and back on my trusty old moutain bike. It also made me feel less guilty about the prospect of stuffing my face with buffet food at the family party this evening as well!

The party was more for DDWT Junior’s benefit than mine (honest guv) but having said that we all had a great time. My birthday cake was picked by his knibs and it came as no surprise really when I saw it was a “dinowar”. It was very nice though - as sponge cakes go - and no doubt he’ll return the favour and select again when it’s Mrs DDWT’s birthday.

So all in all I’ve had a good day and the Swans related pressies that I had were pukka as well. Maybe being 36 ain’t so bad after all.

Trafalgar bridge is falling down

Another lovely sunny day here in Swansea meant that my lunchtime run was most enjoyable. Well what I mean to say is that the conditions were enjoyable, even if the pain I felt going round wasn’t! There’s not much gas in my tank at the moment, but at least by being in bed that wee bit earlier last night meant I didn’t quite feel as zonked today.

Razor and I had to change our running route once again - due to work still being done on Trafalgar Bridge - and our little detour ensured that we broke the 30 minutes barrier, albeit by just 19 seconds.

For those of you with young children - whom happen to have a fascination with dinosaurs like DDWT Junior - let me present the perfect fashion accessory, as found by Mrs DDWT in George at Asda (Morfa Swansea branch).

These plush £6 slippers - known as ‘Leftie’ and ‘Rightie’ - are a must have for any dinosaur loving nipper and an extremely useful bargaining tool for any child whom refuses to wear shoes/slippers/booties or whatever item of footwear.

Training Session #26

With it being a Monday and still feeling zonked after the weekend, my enthusiasm levels weren’t exactly high today and this was reflected in my rather grumpy/irritable mood.

Thankfully the lunchtime ride on the bike seemed to help my mood - but certainly didn’t help my body as I feel ever more tired now! Nevermind, at least it’s another 10.8 miles onto the total and another session under my belt. And yes Limeslade was the destination once again!

Considering we’re into March and 70 days into the new year (thanks to Easy Calculation.com for that) my training to day percentage is a paltry 37.14% - not that good really is it. I must remember to check what I did last year, as I’m sure this year’s effort is down on last year’s.