Scorchio!

Hello readers. Well isn't the weather lovely at the moment?

On Saturday I had 2 birthdays to attend to (well actually, technically, it was 3) Nicola and Julia had a very nice barbecue at their house. Myself, Lank and Daniel turned up at about 5:00, which was good because the food was nearly ready by then!

I bought Julia a matching set of earings and bangles and Nicola a studded leather watch which she liked. Whilst there Daniel mentioned that he was going with his sister and her fiance' to Drayton Manor Park the next day and wanted to know if I'd like to go with them. They would be catching the train from Birmingham at 8:00am......

.... What?

.... I said that it would be easier if I just drove and Dan said he would make sure I got some petrol money for the effort. I agreed to be at his house at 8:45am on Sunday.

After sorting out the details and eating a good deal of barbecued meat it was getting on for 10:00pm. It was also my friend Jo's 21st Birthday and she was having a shin-dig over at her house in Solihull. I took Jenny as my unofficial date (as branded by everyone at the barbecue)
And set off.

I had brought Jo a gold pendant with a "J" on it, a bottle of Jack Daniels and a bar optic (a bit like this one) to set the bottle in.

There wasn't quite as many people at her house as I'd have thought but it was still a very good party with some nice food. People had bought guitars, and I ended up as part of a jam session in the front room, playing "bass" on a normal guitar (actually it was a £1000 Rickenbacker, I was seriously impressed!) while Marcus was on the keyboard and some dude on an acoustic...

... We rocked...

... Well, they rocked, I swayed slightly....

... actually, I was shit...

I kept thinking to myself that I couldn't be too late because I was getting up to go to Drayton Manor in the morning. After all the fun and games I went back out side and thought to myself "Is it getting light?" I was mortified to find out it was 4:00am and decided I needed to get to sleep. Jenny opted to stay a bit longer and would catch a taxi back home. I shot off and got some kip (about 3-and-a-half hours!)

I got up (amazingly) at 8:00am on sunday morning. I had a quick shower and was round to Dan's for 8:45 as promised. We set off a little later and picked up Jodie and Jim. I shot down the M42 unhindered until I accidentally forgot to keep right and ended up trailing on to the M5...

... Doh!

... After some jiggery-pokerey with a junction and a weird little round-a-bout I got back on track and hadn't lost much time. We got to the park for just after 10:00am and found a good spot to park. Drayton Manor has changed a bit since I was last there. The entrance has moved and there are a few new rides. The newest roller Coaster is G-force and it is rather good.

We did all the main rides and then set about doing the littler ones. I managed to coax Dan in to coming on Apocalypse which I don't think he enjoyed very much but all in all it was a good day out. We were in the park until about 6:00pm and finished the day off with a round of crazy golf (which I won!)

I was home for just gone 7:00pm and so got changed and went to my Nan's for tea as usual. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Top Gear has returned to BBC2. The new series had about 3 episodes and was then taken off for the world cup. I hate it when they pull Top Gear off the TV and replace it with crap!

Yesterday at school was non-uniform day and activities day... Basically the kiddies put their names down for all sorts of stuff. I helped with the basketball, the interactive quiz, and the "Ultimate frizbee" (it's a real sport....... No, really, it is!) anyway, it was a good laugh and fun was had by all.

In the evening all the TA's had aranged to meet for a meal and a drink in the Swan. Me and Anne (who gave me a lift, bless her) got there for 7:00pm and I got our drinks in. We all had a carvery for £4.25 and spent the evening laughing about the school week (we always have a story or two to tell!) After our fill of alcohol we left and I was dropped back home by Anne. I decided to go straight to bed since I knew my head would probably hurt the next morning....

... I.e. Today... Which it did slightly. To make matters worse it was back in to the shirt-and-tie routine which is a killer in this heat. Today was "charity day" and all the kiddies had set up stalls to raise money. Alex and Josh held a Tekken 4 tournament on the PS2 which made a good sum of money. I won a Parker pen in the raffle and proved to the school how useless I am at penalty shoot-outs!

I came home exhausted and partially dehydrated I think. I am still feeling a bit queazy and might stay in later (although I wouldn't mind seeing Superman Returns... Hmm... Tricky one.)

Oh, while I think about it, I finished my Eeyore painting! I wanted to put the picture up last time I blogged but it was going funny with all the others I put on...

Here he is all nice and complete:


I like him, and I think he looks just right. I'm not going to make a habit of selling pictures that infringe Disney copyright (or anybody's copyright, for that matter!) but I am pleased at how happy Michelle was with it. The lines were a bit of a pain to get right and the heat slowed down the drying process quite a bit but I think it was worth it.
















Changing the topic entirely I have at last found out what it was Selena has been practicing.....



















Oh blimey! It's a Super-Saiyan-Selena. Looks like the pecking order has changed a bit round here. I wonder what will happen next?

Only time will tell...

TTFN readers!