ODAAT - one day at a time

RIP Michael Jackson

Fraser or Yolanda?

New baby coming!

13 weeks and two days old today! (well, if you count age from conception).

Will it be Fraser Jack or Yolanda Jane?

Find out here on December 29th 2009! (or thereabouts)

In the meantime, here are some pics of our gorgeous back flipping new baby...

Uh oh

Uh oh (wav)

My Wordle

Click the picture to see a word cloud taken from this blog.

I found this whilst searching for visual poetry for my class. The bigger the word, the more often it appears in my blog (apparently).

Go to wordle.net to make your own.

Our Holiday

So I thought I would update a proper post instead of fannying about on Facebook. I am updating from my (newish) Nokia which is pretty awesome and will get a post in its own right some day soon. While I think about it, I will also be posting up the recordings of what I have been learning to play/sing on the guitar recently- hopefully 5 or 6 songs- Norwegian Wood, We're Going To Be Friends, Hotel Yorba, Hurt, Deborah and possibly Octopus's Garden.

I did record some a while back but the guitar was too dominant so I need to go back to the recording studio (my minidisc in the dining room). I have also decided to finish my guitar lessons for the time being- they are £26 a time and I reckon I am confident enough to go it alone now. I set myself the task of learning a T Rex song (the afore mentioned Deborah) by the end of the holiday and I am well on the way.

So back to the holiday itself. We have had an awesome time. It was close to being marred early on by my bad stomach. I was off work all week previously with diarrhoea and it really took its toll. Fortunately I picked up again at the beginning of the holidays and definitely in time to eat chocolate over Easter.

Since we have been up here in North Wales we have (in on particular order) been to Newborough Warren three times. The first was with Oma and Taid and then recently just the three of us (and two dogs). The weather has been outstanding the last two days, especially today when it was wall to wall blue skies and warm enough to lounge around the beach in shorts and T Shirt until about 4.30.

The scenery at Newborough Warren really is second to none- surpassed, in our experience, only by Fraser Island in Oz. It has the unique combination of a huge sandy beach with sand dunes followed by pine forest on one side, and the calm, blue, Irish Sea on the other. The icing on the cake though is the mountains of Snowdonia on the other side of the channel. Awesome. Words, and even photos, do not come close to describing how stunning this place is on a good day.

North Wales has plenty of stunning scenery to choose from however. On other days we went to Aber Falls, Lake Geirionydd which then leads over the ridge to Lake Crafnant and also a morning at Bodnant Garden. Bodnant is a National Trust place with a good couple of acres of colour, exotic plants (many seemed Oriental to me) and a myriad of water falls and ponds. Considering we got in for free, it was a pretty exceptional place.

Sian is coming tomorrow- Li Li's 8 year old cousin. They both have buckets of energy and adore each other, so chaos will ensue and they will entertain each other (and hopefully wear each other out) rather well.

I quick word about the video. Apart from the obvious fun of sliding down a sand dune, it also shows Li Li signing for more (one hand tapping the other, or in many cases missing altogether and ending up somewhere near her elbow.) She has also got really good at hearing planes flying over head and pointing to the sky each time. I always try to point them out to her where possible. The only thing it doesn't show is her lifting her palms up and saying "gone" (or atleast the intonation, if not the word itself). She has also started "saying" There it is! When something subsequently returns.

She's so clever.

So here's the story...

Tired of constantly being broke & stuck in an unhappy marriage, a young husband decided to solve both problems by taking out a large insurance policy on his wife with himself as the beneficiary, and then arranging to have her killed.

A 'friend of a friend' put him in touch with a nefarious dark-side underworld figure who went by the name of 'Artie.'

Artie then explained to the husband that his going price for snuffing out a spouse was £5,000.

The husband said he was willing to pay that amount, but that he wouldn't have any cash on hand until he could collect his wife's insurance money.

Artie insisted on being paid at least something up front, so the man opened his wallet, displaying the single pound note that rested inside. Artie sighed, rolled his eyes, & reluctantly agreed to accept the pound as down payment for the dirty deed.

A few days later, Artie followed the man's wife to the local Asda store. There, he surprised her in the produce department & proceeded to strangle her with his gloved hands & as the poor unsuspecting woman drew her last breath & slumped to the floor......

The manager of the produce department stumbled unexpectedly onto the murder scene. Unwilling to leave any living witnesses behind, ol' Artie had no choice but to strangle the produce manager as well.

However, unknown to Artie, the entire proceedings were captured by the hidden security cameras & observed by the store's security guard, who immediately called the police. Artie was caught & arrested before he could even leave the store.

Under intense questioning at the police station, Artie revealed the whole sordid plan, including his unusual financial arrangements with the hapless husband who was also quickly arrested..

The next day in the newspaper, the headline declared ....

'ARTIE CHOKES 2 for £1.00 AT ASDA!'

Biker Chick

Top Five Cover Versions

In no particular order:

1. Jeff Buckley - Grace
2. 6ix Toys - Voodoo People
3. Hayseed Dixie - TNT
4. Rodrigo y Gabriella - One
5. White Stripes - Jolene

***UPDATE***
6. Alma Colgan - Eight Days a Week

What is love?

What Love means to a 4-8 year old ....


The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined See what you think:


'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore.
So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.'
Rebecca- age 8


'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.'
Billy - age 4


'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.'
Karl - age 5


'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.'
Chrissy - age 6


'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.'
Terri - age 4


'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.'
Danny - age 7


'Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss'
Emily - age 8


'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.'
Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)


'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,'
Nikka - age 6 (we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)


'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.'
Noelle - age 7


'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.'
Tommy - age 6


'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared.. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.
He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore.'
Cindy - age 8


'My mommy loves me more than anybody You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.'
Clare - age 6


'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.'
Elaine-age 5


'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.'
Chris - age 7


'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.'
Mary Ann - age 4


'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.'
Lauren - age 4


'When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.' (what an image)
Karen - age 7


'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross.'
Mark - age 6


'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.'
Jessica - age 8



And the final one

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,

'Nothing, I just helped him cry'

Thanks to Rich for giving me this. The big softie.

Album Cover

Okay so I haven't quite got round to posting up my EP yet - hopefully this weekend. I just have one more intro to practice on the guitar first.

In the meantime, here is the album cover for said EP thanks to the game which is described here.

Have a go yourself - it's fun. If you do, post a link to the album cover in the comments so we can all* see.

*When I say "all", I am talking about all two of my other readers who happen to stumble upon this interweb backwater.