Ginger DJ Rob

I'll be so glad when the Burnt Flesh Fest party is over to be honest. Next year might be different with everything in place but the hard slog to prepare the house and garden along with the stress of the plumber and added work pressures I would be just happy to have a week in bed. The weekend before last I made the impulse hire of a vibrator, ground compactor that is to flatten the mudded area into a patio and path. Without any warming up I did my back in again (Christ, I'm sounding like a moaning old git) just lifting it into the car. If it hadn't been for James and Emma, the weekend would have been written off and more. Thanks to them we created the foundations and lifted the hulk of 58kgs of pure awkwardness in through the house. The patio and path took another two sessions to finish it off. We laid the patio stones and slabs straight after work mid-week and finished under torch-light running out of materials. The second session was Saturday with the path created with de...

My current workload both professional and personal has meant very little blogging. The entry below has also caused time away from anything fun. A few weeks ago the plumber, who caused one of the most stressful moments of my life tried to bill me with work for three times as much as quoted. I was slightly surprised he had the nerve to be honest. This over-the-top bill and the fact he could have killed my tenants, according to Transco was naturally refused with a deftly written letter. The reply came back with an irate response. With the prospect of getting a solicitor involved I was actually glad to hear the opinion from the other, saintly plumber who came in to save the situation. Apparently, he's got such a bad reputation that the majority of Norfolk tradesman and Transco are driven round the U-bend and wish his stop-cock cut off. Since then I've done a few things. Reported the plumber to the Trading Standards, though they haven't done much, contacted CORGI, who pointed me...

Friday evenings and the M25 can only mean one thing and that's exactly what happened. After a depressing average speed of 5mph for about 20 miles we got to Kerry's brother's place near Bicester about 8:45pm. Lucky the pizzas were ordered in time so we were blown away by Neil's enormous new HD-TV and Netgear media centre. Whether it was the hardwork of the week or the quadruple shots of vodka, I was wiped out by 11:30pm and stumbled into bed. Although the weekend was about seeing Neil and Nikki before their Australian new life, I'd organised a Spy Games experience (through Lastminute.com) for Kerry which was an hour's drive near Hemel Hempstead. I'd booked this back in August before I knew Kerry was organising her work's Xmas bash to the same experience so I knew she'd be up for it. After cocking up the directions we arrived at the Scout's camp and was slightly shocked at how many people were taking part. Instead of the estimated handful of peopl...

I don't think I've ever been affected by any national or international news directly but after getting home last night from work every news programme and station was watched in disbelief. This BBC news story will tell you all my and Kerry's worries as the Credit Crunch finally gets us. Under the advice of the Money Saving Expert, I deposited £40k of my mum's inheritance into the Icesave account. Kerry had been saving monthly with them and had been left this morning hanging on the bank's helpline. Checking today's news has at least eased some of the stress away but experts say it will be months until I see that money and without any interest. Fu*kers!

After the stress of the shed it was good to be rewarded with a decent night out thanks to Kerry's success at work. She'd been awarded £100 to spend on a meal out and that's nearly what we spent. Oki-nami in Brighton is relatively new Japanese restaurant but had previously been in Hove. Its also part owned by Mr. Cook of Fatboy fame. Started off with some Shochu cocktails, of which I'd say Kerry's plum flavoured one beat my passion fruit and melon one, and to eat some Maki and Nigiri sushi filled with shiitake mushrooms, sesame seeds and king prawn. Quite adventurous for me but I avoided the prawn. A nice touch in case the conversation runs dry was that the chopsticks were wrapped in origami paper with folding instructions. I made a jumping frog. Second course was some Japanese tapas or otsumame taking in some Nikku gyoza (dumplings filled with pork & vegetable), Hotate yaki (Pan-fried fresh scallops in garlic butter) and Yasai ten. (vegetable tempura) which we...

I did my husband duty of watching the Sex and the City film on Friday night. I can handle the normal 30 minutes format of the TV programme which can be quite funny but 148 minutes of fluffed up nothingness made me reach for the laptop. Even Kerry commented that it made women look like brand junkies with too many product placements. Our Burnt Flesh Festival party preparations are going well overspending on the Halloween decoration. The house will get a proper haunted make-over ready for the big night. Even Sasha, our cat has got into the spirit of the party with his own costume (I can't believe how well he posed for the camera). The home improvement plan also took its toll over the weekend as we had two major jobs to do: 1) erect the new shed and 2) remove the plaster from the fireplace. The weather was a complete contrast to last week starting with patchy rain but with the shed parts taking up most of the dining room we took the risk. We painted two sides with a wood stain then put...