Law Society Sevens

Now, I am not a fan of rugby as many of you know, but MeWife needed a rest this weekend and the LawSoc Sevens promised much, with a bouncy castle and face painting, plus lots of nosh and soft drinks. What could go wrong with a father taking his two tots to such an event? Even the sun was shining for once.

Well, as it turns out, quite a lot. Firstly, the demographic breakdown of those attending seemed to include a very large number of ladies in what might be termed 'provocative' outfits. Now that fact on its own might not have been too much of a give away as to their intentions on a warm day were it not for the six pounds of make-up that most had got stuck to their faces. Am I being cynical to think that a number of them may have been on the pull? Not exactly much of a family day out when your eldest has to queue for the loo surrounded by several sauced up rejects from Cinderella Rockerfellers yakking about how lush Troy Spong was. And the bouncy castle deflated mid-bounce. A metaphor for the day if ever there was one.

Anyway, my day continued to go from strength to strength when the sat-nav went on strike for 2 hours on the way home. Was giving some people a lift home, got in, and the dvd carrying the map data had managed to pop itself out of the cradle just enough not to work but not enough to eject itself properly. Bumpy car parks and sat nav dvds clearly don't get on. However, I now know how Han Solo felt in The Empire Strikes Back:

"Oh yeah, watch THIS.." (switches on sat nav/ attempts to jump to hyperspace [delete as applicable])

(clunk, clunk clunk)

"Watch WHAT?"

Could I find the key code to eject it? Could I buffalo. Did it HAVE an eject button for the dvd? Did it buffalo. Every other instruction book was in the glove box of course, but, security-conscious as ever, I had left the instructions for the sat nav at home. So, the solution? jamming another disc into the slot to push the dvd back into place. Note to car manufacurers: why do you give us so many bits of paper to lose in the name of 'security'?

And then came the sound every parent dreads in a traffic jam:

"I need a wee...."




I am sticking to the park next time.

Blu-Ray Bob

Obviously it was only a matter of time before I decided to test out the Blu-ray player within my PS3 and I can now safely say that the era of fuzzy home recording is quite dead (unless I'm putting stuff onto my Archos for the commute). Results so far are pretty cool. I have acquired the five Harry Potter films for test purposes (see what I did there?), and the results so far are a bit odd. I find myself not watching the films for the story or acting (although I have seen each one about 8 million times now for no obviously good reason), but more for sizing up the production values and Uncle Vernon's tie selections. I am not sure the idea of Blu-ray was to draw patterns on people's coffee jars to my attention but as hobbies go, I'll take it.

The first days of school

Yes, the fateful day has been and gone already. On September 8th 2008, my eldest daughter started school. I would like to say that there were tears of joy in my eyes as we (yes, I was there as well) left her sat with her new school chums, and that we were genuinely touched by her lack of tears and stalwart attitude. Sadly however, this moving moment never came to pass as a rugby scrum of about 15 parents jammed the door to the classroom taking 4000 digital camera shots through the wire-glass window. Oh well.

Truth to tell, any sentimental value in the moment is also diminished by the fact that these days you have to buy your kids the entire 1979 Action Man outfit catalogue before they start. Scuba diving gear is a real swine to locate, but the jungle warfare kit was quite easy to find.

I may exaggerate, but not by much.

Bobster goes mobile

As i write this I am using a mobile broadband modem to access the internet whilst stood waiting for my train at London Bridge and listening to "I'm not scared" by Ladytron. It is 8.15pm and quite mild, though a little breezy and I am tired.

It's been a busy few weeks so not much posting I'm afraid. We're having an extension put on the house and trying to get that sorted out is no mean feat when you also have a holiday in the middle of the process, your eldest is starting school and your builder drops out 10 days before arriving on site. Not exactly how I saw spending my summer but there you go.

By the way, some people reading this might cast their mind back to what they were doing 10 years ago tomorrow as well..! Strange how time flies.

Anyway, more mobile blogging anon. See ya.