Monday 30 April 2012

Day 121 all to me

I love my family. I love my kids, I love my girlfriend. I miss them when they aren't around. Tonight my girlfriend has taken the kids to her mams and stayed there the night. I miss them, I miss giving my girls a kiss goodnight. But you know what, at least I've got this all to myself tonight...

Sunday 29 April 2012

Day 120 Sit Ups


 Uh Oh look who is managing to sit up on her own accord now! Just 5 months old and now I'm sure the mayhem starts, we won't be able to leave anything anywhere as her and her big sister will be double teaming us and causing us endless mischief and mayhem, the fun starts here.....

Saturday 28 April 2012

Day 119 Artistic

I was given a gift today at work. One of my colleagues kindly drew me this, it was a lot better than what he had drawn someone else, trust me, he usually only draws penis'

Friday 27 April 2012

Day 118 Mummy and Baby

This is a great sight, mummy holding our youngest child and making her laugh and smile. Recently our youngest child had been getting very confident with her movements and sounds and had been exploring herself a lot more. So with mummy this cued alot more cute sounds and giggles coming from our baby girl...

Thursday 26 April 2012

The Great Gig Meme in The Sky....

A few weeks ago I was tagged in a meme, the meme was in Romanian Mum In London's blog which you can find here. The post itself was a guest post written by the retired musodad, which you can find here, who, like a band that had previously split up did a comeback tour as a one last hurrah *cough* money spinner *cough*

So I have taken a while to reply to the questions posted one reason is that I wanted to think about them, another and probably the most plausible reason is that I have been really lazy in my blog postings recently. So here goes:

1; First gig
Ahhh my first gig. I remember it was when I was 14, my sister bought me the ticket for my birthday. She came with me to the gig. I wish I could lie and say my first gig was someone undoubtedly cool and ever-lasting in music. The band I went to see first however has left us with some memorable tunes, I am not ashamed to say I've seen them, I'm glad I did, maybe just had preferred a different band for my first gig.

The band I first saw was Savage Garden. This was in Newcastle. Now they were a great show, the front man I remember was a Entertainer and they were really good live. Many people laugh when I say they were my first live band, but like say I'm not embarrassed to say they were, I still like there songs, they are catchy, and the gig was good, I remember getting quite a bit of stick from my school friends at the time for seeing them bit meh, who cares I survived it.




2: Worst gig
There's not too many bad gigs that spring to my mind. I've been lucky enough to see quite a few good bands. Theres a few bad acts I've seen as a result of being at a festival and just going along to see a band because no-one else has been on and I couldn't be bothered to go back to my tent as there's a band coming on next I want to see.

I'd say of this bunch last year I was at live at Leeds with my friends. I remember all the posters were dotted around town and had the full line up. Live at Leeds is kind if like a gig crawl, around the city there are different venues with different musicians on. One of the top acts their last year was James Blake. He was tipped to make it big last year by the radio and NME etc. so without ever hearing anything of his me and my mates went along to his 4pm show, by 4:15 we had left, I can honestly say that was one if the most depressing dull acts I'd ever seen. All his songs sounded the same and had all sounded like he was too depressed to do anything but cry. His singing didn't even sound human it sounded more like a whales mating call!



3: Best gig
This could only be one gig, without doubt it had to be when I saw Bruce Springsteen in Manchester in 2008. The gig was fantastic, the Boss is and always be one of my favourite musicians. He, in my eyes has never wrote a bad song that I've heard and his live shows certainly live up to his music. The E street band that accompany him are of course also of equally high measure and the fact the band and the Boss go on staff with no set list but the first couple of songs and the judge the mood and feel of the gig shows how good and In sync the band are with each other.

I'm delighted to say ill get to see them again this summer in Sunderland, and I'm sure it'll be an equally as good show, albeit quite sad as the big man Clarence Clemons Wont be there but I'm sure the Boss and the E-street band will do him justice. There's nothing like seeing a 60 year old man power slide across the stage on his knees to make you realise that he truly us a genius.

After the gig also was coupled with a great night out, and isn't that the point of the gig. Not just the show itself but the stories you have of the night out afterwards. Me and my mate jack were staying in Manchester. I drove, I bought the tickets, all he had to do was sort the hotel, which he did, for £20 each in the city centre which I thought bargain! What he didn't tell me until we got there that it was a certain sexual preference hotel of which we were not! No difference, a bed is a bed after all. A night of many drinks around Manchester followed of which most stories I can not place on this blog :O



4: Last gig
Feeder in Sheffield. This was the 16th time I had seen this great band. They are my favourite band. I went to see them with my OH for the first time and my trusty side kick Disco Dave for the 16th time. Now many people say if you've seen them that many times you could act their show. True I always know what song they finish on but they do release new music and play them their gigs. They also regularly play songs they haven't done got years from their back catalogue.

In Sheffield it had coincided with the day of their new album being released. I had already feverishly listened to the whole album a few times and do was well acquainted with many of the new songs. They played a large majority of these, at the dismay to a few people behind me. I understand that some 'fans' may be annoyed at this but I see it from the bands point of view that they want people to hear their new music. They still played all their favourites but blended then in between new songs.

Now obviously I am going to be biased as I love all their songs and do they could've played their entire first album or their new album and I would still love every second of it. The gig itself was great and I've already got my ticket to gig number 17 bring it on.



6: Dream gig
This is a tough one as the rule of the original post stipulated it must not be the stereotypical answers of a band like the Beatles or Jimi Hendrix as these were obviously not around in my lifetime, but instead a band or musician I could've easily seen but didn't.

I guess for this dream gig I'd have to say it would be Tom Jones. Now I know very well that he's still alive and still active in the music industry and maybe one day I will get to see him. I think the man is a legend in the music industry and the reason why I chose him is simply that I've been privileged alot musically in my life that I've seen many of my favourite acts and artists live, quite a few time. There's many smaller bands that I like that I have never seen but these have never been dream gigs to me, they are simply would've been nice to see.

Similarly it would be great to see Bon Jovi or Robbie Williams live, but as they often tour the UK I am often confident that this will undoubtedly happen. However with Tom Jones I am less confident, I think what would make it a dream gig would be to see him live in somewhere like Las Vegas. I'd love to see a big act live in America, I've been to sporting events there and everything just seems to happen on a larger scale, and I'm sure Sir Tom wouldn't disappoint.


But now who to tag? The whole point of a meme is to tag people in it. Or should I just break the golden rule and not? Surely I can;t do that can I ? Well I think not tagging anyone would be disrespectful to Musodad who started this post and also Romanian Mum who kindly borrowed her blog for tis to happen.

So I will tag a few people. First my OH @ourpeagreenpod she probably won't do it because she hates memes, but its worth a try isn't it?

Next I'm going to have to tag @firsttimedaddy , purly beacuse we have had a few football related discussion on twitter and now I'd like to see his music tastes.

After this I am going to invite @saskadad , one of my new followers, I;m intrigued to hear his musical tastes. As well as @thejdaddy .

That is all for now, but if you want to join in please do so and comment me the link.

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Day 117 Who's this bear ?

TV has a lot if cute clothes. And naturally as a proud Daddy I'm bound to say she looks cute and is undoubtedly the cutest Baby I have ever seen (I can't even count myself as I've never seen myself as a Baby) but today as we were going out we put her in this her bear outfit....

It even has little paws in the bottom of her feet. She was so happy wearing it, and it was such good timing when I put her in it as I had just finished eating my bowl of porridge which we all know from the famous fairy tale bears love to eat...

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Day 116 Ghostly goings on

The fun you can have with a tea towel. Here is eldest occupying herself by pretending to be a ghost....

Here impression of a Ghost is even scarier !

Day114 Happy Feeder Day

No not Feeder as in the fetish you sickos ;) I mean feeder as in the band. My all time favourite band, not only is today the day of their new album Generation Freakshow, bug it is also the day I go see them live for the 16th time. This was the first time my OH went with me...

But if course my trusty sidekick Disco Dave was also in toll....

Feeders new album is again of a high standard and I plan to blog about it more later this week in a music inspired post. The gig itself saw Feeder play a lot of their new songs which I'm mine with, like this song, the title track Generation Freakshow....



It was difficult to see the band as my view was often hampered by those annoyingly inconsiderate tall people...


But in the end I did get my way and got a view of the band....

Yet I was, as always able to fully enjoy the show. The band were great as always, and as ever with Disco Dave emotions ran high...

Tuesday 24 April 2012

Day 115 goodbye old friend

Tonight we say goodbye to an old friend. Our old sofa. In fact it's garden furniture. This was my girlfriends from her flat, then when we moved in together it served as our sofa until we got another one.

Since then it was relegated to our dining room and has been getting used for laundry purposes. Until now, we have just sold it in e-bay for the princely sum of 99p.

So goodbye old friend you've served us well...

Sunday 22 April 2012

Day 113 skippy

Here is eldest trying to use a scarf as a skipping rope, unfortunately she couldn't quite grasp it and as it swooped round it would stop at her feet, step over it and swoop over her head again. Eventually she gave up and used it as a belt....

Saturday 21 April 2012

Day 112 A visit

Today mummy went off to Blogcamp in Birmingham. Leaving me with the girls. So I enlisted to help of Nana and my nephew CJ, along with his mam. So we took the kids to Winkies, a local play area for children.

Both ER and CJ enjoyed being able to run around,play and be crazy and loud. Meanwhile TV got lots of attention by her Nana and her auntie.
CJ decided to part take on what has become mine and ERs weekly funny face competition....

And of course ER had to have hers taken....

Meanwhile TV was getting plenty of hugs and attention by Nana...

I'm guessing it won't be too long before she's up and playing with her sister and cousin. Meanwhile ER's trusty sidekick Rabbit guarded her shoes by wearing them whilst also getting ready 8 months ahead of time for Christmas by wearing a Santa coat...

After playing at Winkies for a good 3 hours we headed home so we could wave Nana and CJ off. A lively day spent with great family, we hope mummy had a nice relaxing day at her blogfest.

Thursday 19 April 2012

Day 110 High 5

It's national high five day. If there's no-one around you high 5 the screen !

Day 111 ducky

TV (youngest child) has just been bought a pair of rather fashionable socks/shoes. They have on the front of them a duck. I just hope her first words aren't quack quack. One day she'll look back on these and say, "wow how much of a stylish baby was I ?"


Wednesday 18 April 2012

Day 109 Jenga

Wow Jenga. What a game. Me and the OH decided the other night to dust it off and have a game. Of course I won 3-1, but don't mention that to her she's a sore loser.

As we played it reminded me that in my old house before we moved in together we had Jenga on the shelf above the TV. In the 2 years I lived there that and all the books and the copy of the yellow pages 1998 never moved!

Tuesday 17 April 2012

Day 108 Calpol

Baby girl has been to the doctors today to get some jabs. These are her third lot a her last now for a few months. She was being a bit agitated and grumpy so we decided it may well be a good time to give her some Calpol for the first time to sleep properly, this was her reaction....

Monday 16 April 2012

Growing up

I can't believe that she's 4 and a half months. This was her first picture....

And now look at her....

She is no longer a wrinkly little baby but now looks, sounds and functions like a human being. She has started developing her own personality. Deciding what she likes and what she doesn't. She laughs and cries, and this, for now and the next year or so is her main form of communication.



At the moment she's a very happy child, often smiling and pleasing herself with her nonsensical mumblings. These amuse both me and her mummy wondering if she actually knows what's she's trying to say. I've spent time trying to get her to roll over into her front, something she hasn't quite done yet ....

But she is getting very close to....

Until she decides to give up....

Yet I don't want to wish anytime away as I already find she's growing up too fast and I cherish each day I come in from work and she realises I've just came in and greets me with a smile, in my mind she's thinking, "it's daddy, daddy's here! I've missed you daddy, " she'll always be my baby girl....

Easter at Nanas

The past few days we have spent at the girls Nanas for Easter, this was time well spent. She hadn't seen the girls for around 6 weeks and since then had been on holiday. This means however the girls got spoilt....

They obviously got plenty of Easter eggs that thankfully after a few days she forgot how many and so the sugar highs have been reduced. Even youngest child TV who is only 4 months old got an Easter egg, but alas I guess I will have to eat it for her on account she has no teeth, yet.

Whilst at Nanas house we obviously got to spend some quality time with family and allow the children to play with there cousin. The nicest thing was getting to catch up with my old school friends many if whom were also back up for the weekend. Now some of these I see regularly and some not do regularly.

Within my group of friends there's only really one who has kids. Another friend of mine I hadn't seen for around 5 years has recently had a child. Whilst a few of my other friends were there who hadn't any desire to have any kids anytime soon.

I heard a sentence I thought I was a good 10 years off hearing from eldest daughter when she said, "Im watching the football, cos that boy smiled at me" uh oh was my first though it's started already, teenage crushes on boys when she's only 4!!!!

The weekend speant at Nanas though ultimately allowed me and my OH some greatly recieved adult time. Nana looking after the girls, whilst we go for a curry and then plenty if alcoholic refreshments, lovely indeed and I end up walking in the pubs store cupboard instead out of the door which was there the last time I visited this pub, I swear!

Now the weekend is over there's only 1 thing left to do, and that's eat the kids Easter eggs, of course we are doing this to ensure they don't eat too much and be unhealthy, of course.

Day 107 Car Booty

We went to a car boot sale yesterday. Part to see if we could get any bargains, part to scope out the competition as we are going to sell our, er, hidden treasures (not junk). We didn't find anything for ourselves but of course eldest found a lovely cuddly toy to add to her growing collection

Sunday 15 April 2012

Day 106 You'll Never Walk Alone

Today is a sad day for many people. Today marks the 23rd anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. Obviously from previous posts I am a Liverpool fan, but today isn't about what team you support, it's not even about if you like football of not. It's about the fact that 96 sons, brothers, fathers, sisters, daughters went to watch a game of football and never returned. And after 23 years their families have never had Justice for their deaths.

Those 96 will never be forgotten, that is what today is about, remembering them. You'll Never Walk Alone.


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Saturday 14 April 2012

Day 105 what is it?

At Christmas time one of my best friends bought youngest child a present. To this day we aren't sure what it is. She has it, she's quite find of it, it sings her a nice little nursery rhyme but for the love of me and my girlfriend we have no idea if it's a giraffe, a donkey, a cow or is it just a mythical harmless made up creature. I air on the side that it's a giraffe, yet I've never seen any pictures if a grey giraffe.

Anyone care to guess?

Thursday 12 April 2012

Day 104 oooo la dee da

How posh does she look drinking her tea with her little finger pointed out

Day 103 Foody

Today saw a trip to the swimming pool. After which we got some food at a well known Italian restaurant chain. Eldest was being quite cute enjoying playing with her free colours and stickers....

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Day 102 Perfect every time

Today at work I was required to learn how to make Coffee. Now many of you will think big deal so what I can make coffee! But the thing is I've never made Coffee in my life. I'm not a coffee drinker. I once tried Coffee trying to be all sophisticated and burnt my mouth resulting me in taking an instant disliking to it, chucking it away and swearing my undying aligance to either Tea (specifically Yorkshire Tea) or Newcastle Brown Ale , (not together obviously)

Yet today at work I was required to learn how to make latte's americanos, mocha's and cappuccino's. I was like a rabbit in headlights with all the fancy lingo, Massimo, etc but once I started doing it it came quite easy. Practise makes perfect I'm sure and all the lingo will come, but I was told that for my first effort it was quite good, apparently it tasted good, (I tried it and it tasted like all coffee to me, which I say tastes like cigarettes) and apparently I'm a natural at the chocolate sprinkles. Maybe I'm wasting my life on the gym floor?


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Tuesday 10 April 2012

Day 101 too true

I saw this today posted by a friend and thought this is just too true. I felt I had to have this as my pic of the day. After all we all are undoubtedly struggling in some form or another. Money is tight for the large share of us and it doesn't seem to be getting any easier. Rent is either going up, taxes increasing, petrol costs not rising but soaring. I obviously speak from experience, being working class with a family to feed I don't envisage the time being too far away when I sleep in my car at work to reduce my costs. I mean think about it, how often are you hearing of a rise in costs for basic everyday living things, yet also hear that people aren't getting payrises? How does that work? Increase cost of living but don't increase what you get paid!

But if the politicians had to live like us for not just 1 week, but for 1 month I bet things would change quick as they struggle.

Monday 9 April 2012

Day 100 funny faces

Wow I've made it to day 100, this is truly monstrous, is that the word? Sure why not! Now I tried to think of something fitting to mark this landmark, but honestly I struggled. I even struggle for a picture today, until eldest child started pulling some funny faces, this was caption time.

I can't believe we are nearly a third through the year! I promise that for the halfway point I'll do something a bit more landmarky.