2022

SeeSaw BuySaw

Bank Holiday Monday started like most of my perfect days, a leisurely walk with Billy but on me own, as Jamie and me had a lie in which meant Jamie had to leave with the children to watch The Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore at the Odeon Northwich starting at 10am. The weather was great again so for me pottering outdoors was on the cards and some wood cutting some mowing some weeding some washing and some tidying all the while wondering why I love doing this on me own yet couldn’t live on me own and all I could think was gratification. It’s very strange that I love my family and being with them but sometimes just pottering on me own fills me so much satisfaction but not as much if no-ones going to commend me on things I have managed to achieve…? Not sure what that makes me although it feels good to work hard and be appreciated. I feel I should just leave all this stuff and just go and do what Jamie and the kids are doing but I just would not find much pleasure in going to the cinema it just isn’t a thing I like to do, being with them either side of the cinema bring it on but that would have been driving to the cinema and then driving home from the cinema but going to the supermarket for essentials which I thought I would be time better spent pottering so that’s what I did.

Anyway my mitre saw should never be used to chop up logs but I am an idiot and instead of getting the chainsaw out I went for convenience and broke my saw, it was a cheap mitre saw that me mum bought me for a birthday one year and it’s been a good servant over the years and would have been for a few years more if I used it properly but alas today I got lazy and the black smoke from the motor spelled the end for my saw. Now funny story here I have wanted a new mitre saw for a long time but for the type I wanted it is a very expensive so I have made do with what I had but what I had was very difficult to be accurate with. The saw I was looking at was a Dewalt cordless mitre saw and would have cost about £400 which is why I didn’t just go out and buy one but I have watched so many YouTube videos on how useful the mitre saw can be if you have a good one and thought it was beyond me but I posted on Facebook that I’d broken my saw and my friends wife messaged me and said she was selling off Trev’s tools and he had a Dewalt 717XPS with Dewalt DE7023XJ stand would I like it for £350?

The message made me feel really sad this afternoon because Trev was a great mate and he was so happy with his new found cottage industry until cancer got hold of him and ultimately killed him way too soon and my immediate thought was that he should be using them tools not me buying them off Lesley his widow, but she said he would want you to have them and if I wanted it it’s mine. Now this particular saw is a little bit overkill for what I wanted retailing at £750 and up until that message waaaay out of my league and with a Dewalt stand that retails at £140 seemed like the perfect opportunity but it took a lot of thought firstly did I want to buy me mates stuff and secondly did I need this “beast” of a saw that is corded which was not quite what I was looking for? Jamie will tell you I went off into a world of dilemma. The price was right so it wasn’t that it was more that it was Trev’s and it took a lot to resolve that in me head. Jamie said “you won’t get a better deal than that” as I stood in the kitchen and I just thought you know what go and have a look at it and if it feels right, then buy it, so I got in the car and had look at it.

I saw the saw and thought I am going to buy it, I am sure Trev would smile if he thought I was having it…?

The Old
The New
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A day of rest

I had big plans for another day of pottering today but I think my body rejected it. I slept really poorly last night because my back ached and every time I moved in bed was a struggle, it was brought on by the bending down I did throughout yesterday, so today I started off slowly taking Billy for a walk then sitting by the new water feature with a brew while Jamie and the kids went off to the Easter Sunday service at church. I had every intention of cracking on with the many jobs I know need doing but I just sat there and did nothing with no motivation to get up at all. I did eventually get up and clean the kitchen and start preparing out roast lamb lunch but once the family came home and dinner was done and washed up and the kitchen cleaned again I sat on the couch and watched the film Buster while Jamie took a couple of hours nap.

It seemed such a waste of a day but the family walk playing football on the green was the best part of the day just because I knew the kids loved it especially Lincoln, afterwards back to the couch and a new show Mortimer & Whitehouse Gone Fishing which I was told about but never watched it because it was called Gone Fishing which sounded a bit boring but I have watched 2 and I am sat watching the 3rd of the first series and I love it.

Why am I so content right now…?

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Pottering in the sun

Lawns mowed & strimmed

Two loads of washing

Patio door secured

Water feature created

Path weeded

Shopping done

Billy walked twice

Today began slowly with a 8:15 am start but only because Lincoln had his mate Kyle over for a sleepover and were noisy waking me up to find Mommy had already been up and fed the boys breakfast. After walking Billy I nipped to the DIY shop to get some ironmongery to secure the broken patio door.

Not pretty but effective?

Gardening next strimming the front and back lawns which always makes the garden look really neat I also sprayed as many weeds on the front yard as I could. It warmed up mid afternoon after being sunny but cool upto then so it was nice to have finished the gardening and all the washing was on the line so I set about creating Jamie’s water feature the kids and me had bought Mommy for her birthday.

This was the job I’d looked forward to doing and spent the next 3 hours using all me Dewalt tools I have collected up to now. I love creating things and it is so much easier when you have the right tools for the job.

Its days like this I live for just pottering around I can get so much done and it never feels like hard work. Reagan had been to a mates house for a sleepover too so it was nice to get the four of us together late afternoon and spend time I the garden finishing off the day with an ice cream and tea together. Lincoln ended up misjudging the garden wall while carrying his ice cream and ends up scrawping his legs arms and hands a traumatic end for his day coupled with extreme tiredness he slept for an hour or so with Savlon on his wounds while Reagan Mommy and me took Billy for an evening walk to finish our day!

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Quarry Bank egg hunt 2022

Mommy had a egg hunt number 1 on her list of Good Friday activities and it was a lovely day for a wander around a National Trust so after a full English we spent the afternoon messing about at Quarry Bank Mill.

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Bank Holiday’s here

Finishing work tonight meant 4 days off and I am looking g forward to some relaxing family time and of course pottering, if the weather is good it should be a perfect break, away from work. Reagan and Lincoln are looking forward to Easter having been off school now for two already with an egg to start with tomorrow and chocolate eggs but apart from that much of the same for their last few days of holiday. Lincoln does have a mate coming over for a sleepover tomorrow night which should be interesting keeping two ten year old quiet….?

Jamie is desperate to have time off and having planned lots over the weekend is realising the kids will be fine if she decides just to chill more than run around doing activities which I hope she does because mommy burning out is not helpful to us and definitely not good for Jamie.

Hopefully we will get something from the next four days and mommy and me get some rest too

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It’s a funny old game

After last weeks “incident” we were away this week to one of the contenders for the league title so we knew it was going to be a lot tougher to get anything from tonights game but the difference this evening was the lads who play for 8 farmers are a decent bunch and we always have a good night. We arrived late because Warmingham Lane was closed and got under way straight away and although DR played well he made one too many mistakes and paid for it. Although both LF and PL both made similar mistakes their opponents failed to capitalise and we went 2 – 1 up. I played EJ next thinking if we could nick this frame it would be a real blow against them but even though he played well he was out played and it was 2 – 2. Mike next on watched their guy break off and the white went off the table Mike only needed one of the two visits he was awarded and was very quickly shaking the guys hand 2 – 3

SH played really well and was unlucky not to take the frame and was in a good position when a very good if somewhat fortunate pot by their player turned the frame on its head 3 – 3 and they were out of players so it was down to myself and then PJ to try and get the last two frames for at least a draw or an unlikely win I went first and though unorthodox I played very well and cleared the table when given the chance and was congratulate by everyone of my team because it was good point but there was still a frame left to play and PJ will admit this season has not been his best but he needed to play well now and forget about the past. He broke off and potted 6 balls but just strayed out of position on the seventh and when he forced the pot to try and get position on the black and achieved neither. Their guy played well but kept giving PJ another chance and when he finally left PJ a fine cut in to the corner from distance he stroked it home for a great victory.

I forgot about last week very quickly and tonight is why I have loved to play pool for over 30 years winning feels really good, but you also have to know how to loose to make winning feel good.

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Being

We sat on the sofa tonight watching Masterchef and I just thought how fantastic it is that I get to do this simple enjoyable relaxing thing every night with my best friend in the world. We sat there shooting the shit, taking the piss and just having a laugh being us. Jamie said out loud that she loved being here with me and I thought the same.

The kids were having a movie night in Reagan’s room and they are happy and so easy now being able to look after themselves although absolutely need the both of us in many ways they are ok being on their own or together without us.

It’s great being me!

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Lawless video

The schools are all on half term and this is the second week off so boredom is setting in, and a gang of lads have been filmed outside the empty Jacks building vandalising the public toilets there and it has been posted on the Middlewich Community Page on Facebook. That means the children can be identified and the parents have felt it necessary to front up and that is very hard to do because it is embarrassing and all the people who have never ever done anything wrong in their lives are sitting there with their keyboards judging them.

One of the boys is in Lincolns class and although not seen taking part in the actual vandalism he is guilty by association in the eyes of the MCG members and it made me think how I’d be feeling tonight if Lincoln had even been on the periphery, in the background he would be as guilty as these boys. I had to say something to him about how difficult it will be to walk away from situations like that but it is th right thing to do, because I would feel so disappointed if he didn’t and it does not bare thinking about what would happen if I ever found out he was directly involved…?

I would love to reach out to the mum of the lad but I won’t because that’s not what I do but I would say he’s not a bad lad he’s made a mistake, but he must be made to learn from it. These words would feel hypocritical coming from me because I know I did similar things growing up and this is the same reason I have not commented on the post either. Back when I was young there was no cameras let alone vidoe cameras but now everyone is on camera all the time so if you do anything right or wrong it’s likely going to be on camera so kids will only have themselves to blame if the do wrong and get caught!

Tonight some may benefit from taking a look at – John 8:7, “Let him that is without sin, let him cast the first stone”

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10th April

It’s been my birthday for the last 52 years and I don’t ask for much, I was hoping for a lazy day and Sunday lunch at the Kinderton with a couple of Billy walks at either end of the day and that is exactly what I got. My family is important to me, more than gifts, and it was lovely to walk to Norman’s Wood with Reagan & Lincoln while Mommy went to church, it was a sunny morning, although it was cold. We got home and got ready to go to lunch at the Kinderton and when Mommy got home her exhaust was hanging off her car so I was going to have to drive my car which in all my previous years would be unheard of on my birthday but its been 148 days since I last drank and I didn’t even think about drinking today so it didn’t matter if I drove or not.

Showing off the only gift I actually asked for I stood in the garden with my Dewalt tools clipped to my belt haha all I asked for was the clips not the tools the clips and thats what I recieved and I love them!

At the Kinderton we all had the carvery and washed them down with coke, for desert, Lincoln an me had sticky toffee pudding and the ladies had biscoffee cheesecake which was all just what we all needed, great food and a good time together!

I had promised to call on Nannie so once we finished thats where we went and spent an hour with her before going home and “getting our sweats on” to sit on the couch and watch TV I was asleep within a few minutes and slept for a good hour before we went to take Billy for his evening walk. A lovely hot bath followed by more TV on the couch was exactly what day I would have chosen and exactly what I got.

We wished Grandma a Happy Birthday and sang to her tonight too, which I loved and really hope we can celebrate a birthday together on the same continent one day!

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Bathroom prep

The bathroom wall now prepped, I called Dale who is going to plaster it and mentioned the ceiling and could he plaster over the aertex and he said yes no problem but that will need PVAing before plastering so yet again I found myself in the bathroom covered in dust. I spent all morning sanding the paint off it and the high spots smooth and then cleaned up before taking Lincoln to gymnastics after that I applied two coats of PVA to the ceiling and a second coat on the wall, it took me all afternoon to complete and then clean the bathroom so that it’s useable until it’s plastered.

Only dust started!
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