I'm Brian May Me!!!

Made it home for the delivery by the skin of my teeth. He arrived at the very start of the 3:47-4:47 time slot. I am so glad the pupil in catch up was away, and that I ran home after parking the car!

 Unpacked the accessories first.. bargain of the year was the cable and gig bag for £0.02...yep, 2 whole pence!!! Very glad I got them now rather than waiting and saving.. need a strap to play it comfortably, and feel so much more assured leaving it on a proper stand rather than propped somewhere.

Ooooh I'm so excited!!!

Wow!

Blimey, I actually own a Les Paul. Faint!

 My new guitar is awesome and I love it. It is just beautiful and gorgeous. My playing is not yet beautiful, but hopefully hard work will get me to the point where I deserve a guitar this lovely.

So glad I got the gig bag and stand etc too... but I'm now laughably over-run with cables!! Oh, and hopefully the old amp will continue working... especially with the xbox with no lag.

Thank you God for me somehow finding enough money after I had fallen in love with this guitar, and for getting me home just in time.

Thank you Dad (and Nan) for Christmas and Birthday money, and thank you Bex for all the work ironing and babysitting.

Right... enough blogging... more playing!!!

Caching with Company

Went to Dibley church.. amazed I didn't get chucked out for giggling! Nearly cheered during the sermon, which was about baptism as a life event. He mentioned marriage... and civil partnership!!! He then went on to forget the blessing at the end of the service, forcing him to stop the organist mid hymn, having made her start it even though she knew he hadn't done the blessing. Bless the Church of England!

Anyway.. went straight off to Castle Hill Park near Anstey with Becky and Sarah and their friend Sue and a small annoying yapper type dog. Was way more fun than caching alone. And easier. If only I had either brought my lovely Nikon, or had charged the Lumix that I did take. It didn't even last one photo, so all these are off the iPhone.

There was a robin that followed us. I had got a much better picture earlier during our picnic lunch when I borrowed Becky's camera. It is in the tree somewhere. Honest.

The last cache in the series of 8. We couldn't get the bonus as we hadn't managed to find 2 of the caches. Disappointing. Left the cool geocoin I found in Norfolk in this one.

Whilst the Linnet Birds got in the hot tub when they got home, I had to force myself to put all the Christmas decorations away (in preparation for tomorrow's guitar arrival, and after a short nap!). Did reward myself when it was all done...

The wisdom of Pooh

Describes me so well it's going on my gravestone...

Productive Saturday... fast 10k, read the Pooh book in the bath, cleaned the flat, cleaned the balcony, popped to town for useful things, put netting over the balcony to stop the bloomin pigeons coming back, babysitting and ironing at Bex, which earned enough for all my accessories I got with the guitar. Top banana!

Brass Monkey Run

Up early and packed early and off back to Loughborough. Bless Pops for also getting up early and cleaning and checking the car. Had to get back and unpacked in time to join Colin and Tony to get over to the Victoria Bikers Pub in Coalville. Failed. Their church service finished early, so they left without me. Not a problem now that I have a power supply for the GPS. Quite glad I missed them in the end.. meant I had time for a cereal dinner and to get kitted up without a mad rush.

Gladis being checked out!

The layby on the A6 just before Hathern. Lucky I made it this far. I ended up leading a group after we got stopped by a policeman directing traffic past an ambulance in Woodhouse. By the time I got to the traffic lights in Quorn there was not a bike to be seen so I had to ask the bloke stood on the corner 'which way did all the bikes go?!'

Cool helmet!!!

According to the Echo there was a bloke dressed as spidey and one as Batman. But I missed them. I didn't miss the soup though. And I didn't miss my 'ride photo'. I just refused to pay 12 quid for it!

Hello little bubby

Saturday.. popped over to Jon's even though he was out watching Norwich beat Peterborough in the League Cup (and getting very drunk we found out later). Playing with Jay Jay is just brilliant. I did teach him the word sneaky though.. he got me to make his mini scalectrix even though his Daddy had told him he couldn't play it yet. I didn't know they didn't have the right batteries!! He has his train set up in his room. Needs more track!

Jenson is so well behaved, I didn't even get a cuddle though.. must have been too busy playing with J. He does look funny though..

LOL!!!

Saturday night was Chalkie's birthday party at Fatso's. He fought back when everyone had a go at him for having had an iPad for a week and a half, and it still being in the box! Hopefully now he has his birthday present (iPad guide with lots of pictures) that will change. I have to let it go!

Not quite completing the set.. but Darth Tater was one of the few he didn't have. 

 Today's caption competition....

Oh no we didn't!!!

Oh yes we did!!!!  The panto was great fun again.. Pops came too this time (using his Senior Friend discount, lol) and we did more shouting than the kids. Pops made a friend, the little boy sat next to him who took a while to get used to Pops' sense of humour! Biggest boo was when they mentioned Ipswich Town. Biggest cheer from Ma was for the genie.. an ex gladiator not wearing a lot. The magazine scene (which..closer... nuts) and the short shirt scenes were hilarious. Great night out.

Earlier in the day we'd gone to Anglia Square to see if PMT could fix my guitar. However, the technician wasn't there, and the guy said it was likely to cost more (and a lengthy wait) to fix than to buy a new guitar. So, after hitting QD and Greggs! (it's like the Norfolk Shelthorpe in Anglia Square hehe) we went to the city to persuade Ma to buy a coat in the sales (having looked in every shop at least 3 times) and to look in the new music shop in St Stephens. Fell in love with an Epiphone Les Paul. Secondhand. Gorgeous. They told me it was a £900 guitar, on sale for £500. So tempted. Dad tried to persuade me. Probably would have... but just quickly googled it on my phone. Quickly realised it was rip off of the century!!! So... have fallen in love with a Les Paul Ultra III, and found it cheaper new online... Christmas money, plus rob a bank and...

Editing... getting confused. Asked Ma to tell me the dates we did things. They don't match up with mine. Am not suprised. Should have not been lazy and blogged at the time.

Ma says that:
4th I went to the Job Centre and you and dad were in the city. Met you in Jarrolds and bought my red duffle coat. Did we have chips and peas on the market that day?

Yes Ma, we did. I think Pops was also very very kind and paid the bill in Millets. Once we made it inside the shop... Dad being a pratt for a change and pushing and pushing, then seeing the actual door one metre to his left... I started off with a bargain water bottle reduced from £12 to 3. Ended up with a pile of stuff. All absolute bargains, all really useful, but a bit 'eek' when she totalled it up. Thanks Pops.

This isn't all Millets.. but several trips to the City. Started off being really good.. got worse.

Getting even more confuddled. Ma says "3rd We walked Geocaching in Aylsham and went round Lesleys and stayed for tea"

Panto is completely missing from her itinerary. Ah well, it matters not. At some point we went caching around Aylsham. And we were crap. We faffed all morning (probably I read Little Dorrit and played Kinect while they faffed..or turned into teenagers.. Ma in the back room on the PC, Pops in the playroom on the laptop!.. at one point I skyped Pops in the next room... very Argos blue alien, incidentally they were the best adverts this year .. cup of tea? on the tablets, and 'tweeting him as we speak' and 'Mum sorts all the presents.. what even her own.. arrgghh!' oh, and the john lewis snowman getting the scarf for snowgirl, with the new version of power of love song.. anyway, where was I?.. ) so not long left in the day by the time we got out the door and decided to go to Aylsham because the other caches we had in mind said they required wading. With the recent floods, I didn't fancy swimming. So, found somewhere to leave the car, right by the first cache. Ma stayed in the car while me and Pops completely failed to find the cache. We gave up and went on, via helping Ma over the gate (she was not happy) and me demonstrating a textbook gate vault.

There were 11 caches on the route around that bit of Marriots Way. I think we managed to find two of them. I think we were looking for the fourth in the series when it got dark and Pops was using the torch app to search the trees! Nightfall and Ma's desperation for a pee sent us back to the car, and off to Lesley's.

I should have taken photos of Lesley's house. It's amazing. Last time I was there you had to balance around on joists. It's now finished. And lovely. My favourite things are the 'distressed' floorboards.. they are kind of wavy and feel lovely under your feet. Lesley said I could come back as I polish the floor with my socks. My other favourite thing was the wood burner. One day...

Went round for a pee and maybe a cuppa.. ended up staying for tea! Even pizza seems posh when its served in an amazing kitchen.. and with a mixed salad (she must have followed the suggestions on the box hey Ems?!) oh, and we did rather better on celebrity mastermind than we did on University Challenge!

Oooh!! Aaaah!!

Right, now that I can get on the blogger website I can catch up with holiday stuff. (turned out to be Avast stopping t'internet from working, and we won't go into Firefox saying my OS is too old too support!).

My journey to rock stardom began this morning! I got Rocksmith on Xbox for Christmas. On Boxing Day I discovered that my old guitar, the cheap and cheerful Encore that I bought when I was 16 is kaput. The electrics are beyond dodgy. I think I discovered that the last time I tried to play it, then forgot during it's stay in the loft. This morning I managed to get it working sufficiently by wiggling things.

So, spent the morning in my jammies being awful at 'Can't get no satisfaction', discovering that the game makes it harder every time you 'play again'!! Gave up when Ma started screaming at her phone and saying that we had to go out or she would go mad. So, formulated a plan. Texted Chalkie.

This afternoon we went out caching at Overstrand and then on to Cromer to watch the fireworks.

 The hint for this one was that Alice would have to drink me to make her small.

And in it was a Geocoin commemorating 200 hides from Quebec..

Failed to find the last one, despite half an hour climbing slippery slopes and getting slashed by brambles. So.. off to Cromer for chips, hot choc and donuts, then the Fireworks. Found a great spot down the steps. First outing for the Lego bag I got from Emsy..

Chalkie got fed up waiting..

Photos were mostly disasterous, and the videos were mainly blurry blobs of light. I do very much appreciate my new lumix camera.. but nothing will beat a proper SLR! especially for fireworks, and especially now that I've found a quieter spot with room for a tripod.. roll on next year! Still, the blur gave some quite neat effects..

Did get a couple of good ones.. and the ones fired off the side of the pier are always cool..

Made my Lego calendar when I got home and am now blogging while half watching Polar Express..

Oh.. forgot.. we got up in the morning to discover that our front wall had been demolished overnight! Found out later that all the neighbours had woken up when a BMW smashed into it at 4am. We didn't!