greatbigshowoff

So, our roofer was going to start at the beginning May. He said so at the end of April.

I finally got hold of him on the phone today. He'll be starting at the middle of June at the latest.

I guess we'll be waiting until until the Autumn before it stops leaking.

I walked the 8 miles at midnight last night and it was fun! I had been planning to do it with the aid of an ipod, but instead I walked it with a friend from work whose partner had dropped out. The weather was pleasant and dry and I only have one small almost blister.

It looked a bit like a giant hen night as most of the participants had decided that flashing pink bunny ears went well with pyjamas!

The funniest part of the night was when they released hundreds of white doves to mark the start. White doves which had obviously been boxed up for a couple of hours and felt the need to empty their bowels just as the crowd standing underneath them went awwwh. This very quickly changed to screams as everyone scattered!.

If anyone's forgotten to sponsor me, you can do so at http://www.justgiving.com/rachelthomas101

On Friday 1st May, I am doing an 8 mile sponsored walk around Cardiff to raise money for Ty Hafan, the Children's Hospice.

Now that doesn't sound very taxing, so we'd better add in the other bits - it's a midnight walk and I've got to do it in my pyjamas. More interesting?

I think the greatest challenge for me may be staying awake, but given my capacity to sleepwalk, that might not be too much of a challenge I guess. I wonder if I can sleepwalk the whole distance?

Anyway, if you would like to sponsor me, you can do so at
http://www.justgiving.com/rachelthomas101

Thanks very much to anyone who does so.

With the help of Weight Watchers, I've got to a pound below my goal weigh. I lost 2.5lb this week. 10 months and 23lb after starting, I'm thinner and happier. And have new clothes. (I know happiness isn't weight dependent, but it helps)

And now have easter eggs to eat. Nummy

Ian and I went to the recording of Mark Steel's in Town last night, which was recorded in, and all about Merthyr (which he confused me by pronouncing as "Murder" for most of the evening).

It was rather interesting, especially about the civil unrest which started in Merthyr, including the great crowd shout of "Cheese with our bread." It was made more interesting by the bizarre heckler who almost started the beer-battered-chip riots.

It will be broadcast at 6.30 on Wednesday 15th April on radio 4, or can be found afterwards at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00jd6rf

Ladies;

Ty Hafan, the children's hospice in Cardiff is organising a sleepwalk to raise funds.

The 8 mile long walk takes place around Cardiff, starting at 11pm on Friday 1st May. Dress code is pyjamas. Entry is ladies only I'm afraid guys, although you can volunteer to marshal, line the route to support or just drink in a surrounding pub I guess. Or sponsor those taking part of course.

I'm entering. Anyone interested in joining me? It'll be more fun if a bunch of us do it. (hmm, this could apply to many things!)

Details and entry forms can be found at
http://www.tyhafan.org/get-involved/our-events/may-09/midnight-sleep-walk

Love Rachel

We've received a letter addressed to someone who doesn't live at our house. Now the odd thing is that it's no one we've ever heard of.

What worries me is that the envelope says on it "Discounted insurance rates for postal workers"

Could a royal mail employee be collecting mail before it actually gets delivered to our house? How do we check?

Any thoughts?

Some of you may have seen it already, but Ian and I have written (or possibly created, given that there are no actual words in the book) a book. Check out "My Worst Words."

The concept is pretty easy. Give the book to your children; get them to say what they see. Entertainment for everyone and impressive for the grandparents!

You can see it at http://shop.crookedhouse.org/
(and buy copies of the book, T shirts and mugs there too)

It also has it's own Facebook group. http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Worst-Words/53672362402?ref=mf

Reviews and suggestions welcome.

Enjoy.

Due to illnesses beyond our control; 1 appendix no long in Ian and one cat with fractured hip, we won't be going to London this weekend.

Consequently we have 3 tickets for Avenue Q going spare. They are best price tickets from Last minute dot com, so should be good, although I can't say exactly where you'd be sitting. They are for 8.30 show on Saturday 28th Feb.

Avenue Q is the amazing 30 something muppet musical. It's closing early march, so this may be your last chance to see it.

Anyone interested?

Ian is improving. He's eating now, and keeping it down so far, and feeling less painful.

He won't be out until Monday though.

So if he can stand the lack of sleep induced by hospitals, he'll be ok.

Score Appendix 1:Ian 3

So far he has lost an appendix and gained
A stylish scar
A morphine drip
A pair a fishnet pants.

He's feeling much better. He has a mobile
And a laptop, so send him a text or an email

Still npo though

Today woman's hour described the economy as being "in a bit of a pickle."

How terribly BBC.

Demons 7.20 Saturday night, ITV

Seems to be their attempt at a Dr Who/Torchwood/Buffy thing. There are dubiously rendered alien/demon things and a bad guy with dodgy latex prosthetics. There are Scooby gang type members with dubious powers. There are gadgets. There seems to be no need for every character to have sex with every other character.

I think it's ok.

Although I prefer my Phillip Glenisters northern.

He's currently playing some sort of gum shoe detective. It's not bad. Just a little jarring.

Worth catching I think, in the hope that it grows on you.

I can't say it better that Neil Gaiman did

"...I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind."

A cautionary tale...

Back in early October, we bought tickets for Eddie Izzard this Saturday in London, thinking it would be a nice pre Christmas treat. Assuming that like ticketline, the tickets would turn up a day or two before, it was only yesterday that I started getting worried.

When I went to the company's website, I saw this message

"paperticket.co.uk

On 16 October, the Metropolitan Police Service's Computer Crime Unit requested the dehosting of the www.paperticket.co.uk website under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

People who have bought tickets from this site are encouraged to call Consumer Direct for advice on 08454 04 05 06."

The company has done a flit. There are no tickets and as it's not in receivership no one to contact to get you money back. And since the amount was only £95 (sounds silly to say only £95) we are not protected by buying them by credit card as it only guarantees purchases over £100. Made worse by the fact that somebody (possibly this site) has stolen my credit card details, so I can't check my statements on line as my account is frozen.

When I asked the consumer direct man for advice to stop it happening in the future, all he could say was use a reputable website and a credit card. Both of which I thought I'd done. He also suggested only using a website linked from the venue.

Guess I'll be more careful next time. Make sure you are too.

Audi car weighs approximately 1600kg

Tyre PSI is 32 or 2.4 bar. I think volume of tyres is approx 0.05 cubic metres each

If you empty two tyres into air-tight bags, is the lift enough to float the car from under a lake?

I think not but my physics appears to be failing.

(There may be a reason for this question)

My i-phone has gone off to be repaired. I have a temporary phone, with the same number, but have temporarily lost all my contacts.

So and leave a message, please leave me your number. If you send me a text, please tell me who you are!

I'm not prepared to give up sleep, but waiting up for the result, but I'm still hoping it's a good one.

Pub Meet Monday.

I know you're all off out this weekend, but I'm not.

I'm planning to be in the Three Elms after the gym on Monday.

Anyone for joining me?

The are building rope bridges for red squirrels in Scotland,so they can get across roads. I can't find a picture for you, but apparently they consist of 2 thick hemp ropes, with string linked between them.

This is good. I had an interesting mental image of two squirrels reaching the centre of what I had imagined as a single slung piece of rope and both refusing to turn round.

They also talked about squirrels being "squished." On Radio 4. It made me laugh.