Spent a relaxing afternoon down at Selsey Bill yesterday. Sea was dead calm. Skies were blue and the sun was warm. It probably would have been too hot if there hadn’t been just the gentlest breeze puffing away to keep us cool. Oh that and a wonderfully chilled pint of Scrumpy Jack Cider which was downed  while we sat on the terrace outside The Lifeboat Inn. There were a about a dozen of us being entertained by a fisherman who was preparing Smoothounds. He must have had 6 or 7 boxes, each containing at least 10 “hounds”. The results of a an early morning fishing trip. He told the onlookers that he had been on the go since 05:30 that morning. While we watched he de-finned and skinned the contents of a single box before sitting down to have a pint. And that was just before 15:00. That’s a long day. This pub serves many fish dishes caught from their own licensed fishing boat. It was a shame that we arrived too late for the lunchtime menu.

Rest assured that we will return to try their menu in the future.

Well here I am again. Actually I haven’t been away but work has kept me so busy with the run up to a new product announcement, well 2 actually, that I haven’t known if I was being bored, punched, drilled or reamed. The actual announcement is today and thankfully I managed, by the skin of my teeth, to get all my stuff done. I really am getting to old for all this excitement or is it stress. Can’t really tell these days. To cap it all I pulled an all nighter earlier in the week  to catch up on another project which has “issues”. I wasn’t even able to relax for my birthday which seems to have gone by in a blur.

Anyway, it’s all done and dusted so I can relax, I hope. And the icing on the cake is that I am on holiday for the next week…… Yay !!!

What have I got planned ? Nothing really, a trip to the Isle of Wight to see Osbourne House is the only set piece. We’ll give our English Heritage cards a bashing and hopefully I’ll be able to get in some photography too.

And as for the view from the conservatory. Well it was sunny and dry but in the last few minutes it has clouded over, the temperature has dropped, the wind has picked up and it has started to rain. Well that’s fine, get it out of your system. Need it be dry for tomorrow as we are off to Stansted House.

This weekend is their Garden Show. We try to go every year and believe it to be one of the best in the area. Will try to pick up a couple of low maintenance plants to put into pots. This is also an opportunity to browse the food tents or should I say graze as there are plenty of samples of cheeses, chutneys, ciders and quite often a nice hot pasty. For the ladeeze there is always a splash of Pimms to be found if the weather is warm.

I’ve just been watching Mrs Blackbird preparing a slug for her lunch, wiping it from side to side, rolling it over, and wiping it again and again to remove the slime before downing it in one juicy swallow…..Yuuummmy !!!

As an intermmittent attendee at gigs held at The Wedge I am proud that they are getting the recognition they deserve.

Everyone should go vote for them at NME
Wedgewood Rooms celebrates 20 years with national recognition – A Weekend With – The News.

Think very carefully before buying your next kettle. For the last couple of years we have been using a Prestige kettle to boil our water for tea/coffee etc. Then it made with the pretty blue flashing sparks from somewhere inside, near the switch. Needless to say we had to say goodbye to our nice Prestige kettle.

As we like our tea and don’t like it made with water that has been boiled in a saucepan we dashed up to the local shops to get a new one. Did I mention that it was Sunday, so choice was somewhat restricted. Having surveyed the limited options we arrived home with a new Russel Hobbs kettle. We couldn’t find anywhere local selling the same Prestige kettle.  Mind you, we thought we were buying a class piece of kit. After all aren’t Russell Hobbs supposed tobe that bit better than most of the other brands ?

I guess I should have read the Which reviews first. Out of 195 kettles there are some Russel Hobbs models that make it into the top 47. Just not the one we bought. However, their review of our particular model did in fact highlight some of the issues that we have found.

This thing is everything that the Prestige wasn’t.

1. It’s slow
   It seems to take a long time to boil where the Prestige was very fast even though the RH is more powerful.
2. Unstable
   The RH doesn’t seem very stable on its base. When the boil really gets going the RB is a real rock and roller, wobbling about on its base. The Prestige just sat still and got on with the job.
3. It is very easy to overfill
   The RH level markings are on the inside of the casing, on the same side as the handle. So with the lid open to enable you to put water in you have to be deformed to hold the kettle under a tap and see what level you have filled up to. With the prestige there was a level indicator clearly visible towards the centre of the opening.
4. Noisy
   The RH should come with a health warning. The noise level of this thing is awful. The door to the kitchen has to be closed when we make our mid evening brew otherwise we can’t hear the TV. Even with the door closed you can hear it rumbling and gurgling away as it builds to a crescendo. The only time the Prestige made any real noise was when it needed descaling.
5. It doesn’t switch off when lifted off its base
   So when you put it down again the power reconnects and carries on as if there was water inside. Presumably it would turn off when it began to overheat.

Would I recommend this kettle to anyone…….Hell No !!!

Its been a dull old couple of days here. Bone dry but not a drop of sunshine. A couple of things have gotten my dander up though.

The first is the appearance of a rat. Cheeky little sod was peering out from under our garden seat then reared up on its hind legs to get a better view before heading across the lawn. Planning to pilfer seed from the bird table. Well I wasn’t having any of that and rushed out with broom in hand. Needless to say he scarpered pretty quickly. Haven’t seen him since but I think I’ll be putting some traps down.

The second annoyance is the activities of the grey squirrels. Or perhaps just one as this is the first time I have seen them do this. At least one of the little sods has taken a liking to our Rose buds. We are getting quite a nice display, both Masquerade and Iceberg, well we were. The squirrel doesn’t seem to mind which variety so long as the bloom is still wrapped up in the bud or just beginning to open. Nips them off then sits on top of the fence with his trophy and proceeds to munch his way through before leaping off to get another. I guess there’s not much I can do about it, it is nature after all.

So who’s scared of Friday 13th ?

What can possibly go wrong. I thought I’d gotten away with things but then discovered I’d put my underwear on inside out. Not an issue unless you wear “Y” front style keks. Things can get a little complicated when you are desperate.

Then my wife comes up with one of those really hokey sayings. “You can’t take of your keks and turn them the right way unless you find your ten”. What the hell does that mean ? So I asked and she says I have to count to ten first then I can change ’em. To be quite honest I am sure she just made that up on the spot.

But it got me wondering, just how many folks were running scared today. Spooked by the date.