Green-ish Fingers..?

Thought I'd share this image of my Green Pepper plant. It's doing quite nicely but I suspect it was planted too late into the season for them to get much bigger. I wonder what they taste like? Only one way to tell I guess..?

I also have an Aloe Vera plant growing away in a pot. I was warned to keep it in a container rather than plant in the garden, unless I never want to get rid of the thing. Apparently an Aloe Vera is for life, not just for Christmas LOL... Anyway it was a bargain purchase from a well known auction style site. Now all I have to do is decide whether it might need to come inside for winter...







Also yesterday, the Royals dragged themselves to 17th place in the Championship with an away win.

Barnsley 1 - 3 Reading

Slow News Days?*

*Or What Has This World Come To?

I really can't believe the current state of the News being broadcast by the BBC.

Yesterday every radio and TV news bulletin had an item on the forthcoming series of Strictly Come Dancing (also known as Dancing With The Stars in some parts) and which (minor or fading) celebrities had signed up to appear. All this on the back of weeks of "news" regarding the sidelining of one of the regular judges in favour of a younger model.







She used to be in Eastenders a long time ago, dontchaknow.










Now today's news is that rival broadcaster Channel 4 have at long last decided to axe Big Brother due to low ratings. It's taken them this long to realise no one was watching this drivel?

Either way this is far less than I expect from the News department of an organisation such as the BBC. Have we really become a celebrity obsessed nation? If I want celebrity driven news, I'll go watch the "entertainment news" programmes both the BBC and their rivals carry or look on-line; I don't want news about real events that can affect real lives trivialised by being associated with reality TV dross.

End of rant.

Sporting Ups And Downs

This past week's football results weren't too great for Reading FC:

Tuesday 18/08, Swansea 0 - 0 Reading
Saturday 22/08, Reading 1 - 3 Sheffield United

Must. Try. Harder.


On a better sporting note, at least the England Cricket team managed today to win the Ashes back from the colonial visitors. Note to readers in the US: I don't "get" Cricket either so please don't ask LOL.

Mini Quiz

Any ideas what exactly these are? Seen at my local Uni today, all suggestions gratefully received.

More Like Winter In August

Dad and I travelled south and went to pay our respects yesterday, it's been a full year since Mum died. It was one of her favourite places and where she wanted her ashes to be placed. Here's a brief film clip I made yesterday- if you listen carefully you can just about hear the sea above the wind noise. You wouldn't have known this was summer unless I told you, would you?



Opening theme from "Tubular Bells" by Mike Oldfield. No financial gain is made from this Blog. No infringement of copyright intended.

Also by chance we got to see a Vulcan Bomber flying, just like this one:











These date back to immediately after the second war, through the cold war and carried Britain's nuclear deterrent against the Soviet threat. At the height of the distrust the crews where kept on constant alert and could be in the air, on their way to target within 4 minutes. They were also put to great effect (using conventional bombs) in the Falklands war in the 80's and also in the first Gulf conflict. What a plane and so noisy! For information on the restoration of the Vulcan, visit here.

Newcastle Brown

Newly relegated Newcastle, the Magpies, gave the Royals a lesson or two in playing "the beautiful game."

Newcastle 3 - 0 Reading

Lid And Pot

Have just uploaded some new images of my latest work, collected from college today. For those interested it's a Stoneware piece with Fiord Blue and Burgundy Red glazes. The images may be found here.










Oh yeah, this happens to be Blog posting number 400. Well done me.

New Footy Season

Reading 0 - 0 Notts Forest

Special Day

Apart from being a Friday (yea!) today is one of those special dates, at least in the British calendar convention: 07 08 09. Just wish I could remember what they called that LOL.

Anyway, happy Friday everyone.


Update:

OK so I didn't quite get it right (according to the radio): Apparently we need to be on the look out for an exact time as well...

12:34:56 07/08/09.

Still no mention what this is called though...

Blood

Little Lad's blood test results are in and there would appear to be an abnormality of some sort. His mum was a little vague but let's just say the Doctor is concerned enough to call for repeat tests in a couple of weeks to see if the results remain consistent. Perhaps it's linked to his "growing pains" or maybe a coincidence, we'll see.

Innovation Or Laziness?

You know, kids today have it easy.

When I was growing up (do I sound really old saying that?), if I wanted an interesting or different sandwich I would have to gather all the ingredients and put it together myself. I'm not talking about the joys of ready to eat sarnies from Pret a Manger, that's something else all together, I'm refering to the home-made type that have a bit of zing to them, like for example cheddar cheese and Marmite sarnies.

What do those lucky blighters have now, when they're not listening to their newfangled I-Pods or playing on their Wii's? Have a look and see what loveliness I found in my local Tesco supermarket. They don't know they're born!


Cheddar cheese and Marmite, all handily wrapped in a Marmite coloured wax coat to keep it fresh mmmm.






I'll look forward to sampling this later- assuming the "correct" amount of Yeast Extract has been used, otherwise I'll be getting the old trusty jar out to add a good dollop or two more LOL.