Be Excellent To Each Other

A bulldog licking piss off a nettle.

Fantastic way to start a new page. 10/10

Big car passed MOT! Also, I no longer have to worry about it being stolen as MrsA paid £40 to a man at the door to engrave the registration on the windows.

Our Son started to walk today! He will 18 months on the 23rd and my wife was starting to read and believe crap on the internet about him maybe having problems.

He can do maybe 4 steps maximum but is so proud of himself, as are his parents

My thoughts have always been that he was fine, he is a bit lazy as I carry him around a lot so he has not really had the need to walk.

He has a big bruise on his head already as during one attempt he hit a door frame, his stupid father was too busy excitedly filming him on an IPhone to see what was coming

Yay!!! You'll have trouble stopping him running around everywhere soon enough!

Help them to walk and talk then it's all "sit down and shut up!"

All good stuff.

After not having a pay rise as such for about 5 years today I got one of 20% plus the promise of another 12% minimum annual bonus. Well pleased with that. Might come in handy repairing the bike.

Happy new year all!

Result. I had a review at work today and the lack of a raise for three years came up. They are making all the right noises, so we shall see what happens in a month or so.

Excellent!

Superb.

I will probably get nothing this year, but for the first time in eight years, so can't really complain too much.

Sweet! You've waited a long time, so very pleased they came through in the end

Went to London today to meet my brother and cousins for lunch

Really pleased that for once I had the will power to do what I told my wife I'd do and leave at 4.30 for a train home. Got to bath my son before he went to bed.

Normally, these things end with up me staying on my cousins floor and casinos and drinking until 3am. Then I would limp back for 1pm Sunday, now I can take my son swimming tomorrow morning instead.

I have a loan with Tesco that finishes next year.

Had a letter from them yesterday that said they are obliged by regulations to send me a loan statement each year, according to them they sent the 2011 one to me 5 weeks late so have sent me £104 to compensate for this outrageous breach of trust that I never had any idea or cared about

Pretty sure that they didn't send me a statement at all a couple of years ago so maybe more money to come!

A friend of mine got something like £800 back from the people she bought her car off for the same reason. Jammy git.

Interesting. I had a Tesco loan in 2011. Don't know how they'd trace me though, if I'm in that settlement.

I've had a Tesco loan for a while and I don't think they've ever sent me an annual statement either.

This weekend my son has just gone fully walking! Since Xmas he has been doing the odd bit, but crawling was still the way he got around most of the time.

He likes to come in my PC room and my wife takes him out as he wants to look at diggers on YouTube all day. Now as soon as she takes him back in the living room he walks straight back to the PC and shuts the door so she can't come in

Also starting to say "dig dig" all the time when he plays we his cars, so I bought a remote control digger on Amazon for me, I mean him

Everyone tells me to treasure this part of his development as he thinks I'm the best thing ever and before I know where the time as gone he will be embarrassed to be seen with me!

Yeah, we're at a similar stage with our little girl, she's been walking around since Christmas. Learning to walk seems to kick start their development in all sorts of ways. Every day she seems noticeably smarter than the day before. It's frightening how quick she's suddenly started picking up on things.

We also got her sleeping through the night by reading Ferber's book and following the advice in there. It was staggering how well it worked and with hardly any upset. Previously she was crying every night at bedtime until we calmed her down and she fell asleep only to wake a few times through the night, each time having to be gradually lulled back to sleep, utterly exhausting. But within a few days she was sleeping through the night and now after the usual bath and story routine we take her to her room, ask her if she wants another story or just to go to bed and she usually points at her bed, gives a kiss and then we put her down where she hugs a toy and goes straight to sleep until morning. I can't overstate what a relief this has come as, I was such a frazzled piece of shit with losing sleep all the time.

My son was a nightmare at sleeping through the night until about 6 months ago, trapped wind would wake him 3-4 times a night. I was so frustrating as he was so good at actually going to bed and always has been. Now he goes through the night all the time from around 7-8ish, there is always the odd curve ball like Sunday morning when we woke at 6am and just wanted to be up. I don't care about that as I get to spend time with him and make his breakfast.

His bedtimes are a bit of a riot as he runs off when trying to get him dressed after his bath, I tend to chase his and he loves it giggle etc. My wife was concerned that excitement before bed would cause issues but it never does, he just knows that when his sleeping bag is on and teddy comes out its time for bed

Such a relief when they do sleep through, there was a time when I was very worried I was going to put the car off the road driving to work as I was up at 3am with him trying to break his will on wanting a feed from my wife, it went on 7 days a week for 3 weeks!




Seen this with my Iphone, he takes it out of my pocket and gives to me to unlock, then he swipes it to the page where the YouTube icon is. Until a week ago he wasn't able to launch the app, now he can do that and picks through the kids videos he wants to watch, he also knows that the home button takes him back if he launches the wrong app. I think its brilliant but my wife not a fan of him on the phone, he doesn't get a lot of it really and given the school he is going to uses IPads in the reception class I think its important he gets some exposure.

And now I'm a black belt! Yay for management courses that use cod-Japanese to make process analysis hip.

Wife and son gone to Dublin, miss them both, especially the constant consumption of my time from my son on weekends.

On the Yay side took Friday off and got 3 1000 litre bags of bark chippings spread all over the flower beds, then spent the rest of that day and today in the garden doing loads of jobs. Also had a number of people round to look at jobs like leaks and stuff.

So real sense of achievement there, been so long since I had the time to loose myself in my garden for a day.

Large steak on the go now and Sci-fi TV binge tonight followed by another 7 hours of work in the garden tomorrow.

Odd silence in the house though and miss the noise and activity of a 20 month old child

We finally handed over the keys to the rental agency yesterday. There were still some jobs to do, but it's good enough for viewings now.

Oooh. I am going to officially be a Company Director from 1st March and I go on to Profit Related Pay as well.

6 months of hell at the beginning has finally paid off.

Congrats!

Giz a job.

Also, well done!

You southerners wouldn't last five minutes in The North.

You're in Midlands!

Nice one! I hope you have lots of profit!

Not according to Londoners.

I'm still laughing at how hilarious that image is. :/

Seems pretty accurate.

The north does appear to start a bit too far north.

yeah, bedfordhire is totes in the north.

Can't believe you posted such a homophobic image. Check your privilege!

Not everyone who shops at Waitrose is gay, Andrew. Please stop.

Someone really hates Hull.

You appear to have typed "Everyone" incorrectly. Try again.

Joans wanted to go to Hull for something, I can't remember what though.

To laugh?

Potential local-ish football venue. Might only happen if we get the cup next year though.

Hull isn't local to anywhere!

Even Yorkshire likes to pretend it doesn't exist.

"Hull and Liverpool are the shit that weighs down the M62, making sure the good stuff in tbe middle doesn't move" said a comedian I saw, immediately getting the Leeds crowd on his side by using Rules 1 and 2.

He didn't talk about fight club?

Thar old film? I was trying to find an article I read about "how a good wrestler talks to the crowd " and I think Rule one was "say something good about where you are" and rule 2 was "then say something bad about the local rivals" So i'd say "It's great to be in Cornwall, where cream teas are done proper, rather than those shitty ones in Devon". But I cannot find it. It was on a blog Curio has linked to I think.

Probably lies then.

I'm going to go and live by the beach in a tropical paradise for a bit.

Flying to Cambodia early tomorrow. One way ticket, not got any plan for coming back. It's hot all the time there, the cost of living is super cheap, and all I need to do my job is an internet connection. Instead of just about getting by OK in the UK, I'll (hopefully) be able to live like a king.