Boom!

Flash! Whoosh! BLAM-O! SCREEEEAM-POP-POP-POP!

Imagine that noise from the moment the sun sets, right up to.... whenever. Imagine that happening every night from mid-October and through most of December. Over here in Jolly Old England* the country (or, at least, 99% of the country) are celebrating Guy Fawkes Night (click the link to figure it out!). Of course, with it being Guy Fawkes Night, or Bonfire Night, every Tom, Dick and Harry has a firework or fifty.

Believe it or not, new laws were passed regarding the times of fireworks being launched - "normal" days, not after 11.30pm, but celebratory days (tonight, and New Years Eve), it's allowed through till something like 1230am or 1am. Whatever. Now, I might sound like a miserable old git, and I probably am, but I just cannot see the point. And, fair enough, as a child at a "Fireworks Spectacular" I was burnt on the arm and have never enjoyed it since! AAAAAnyway. People spend a fortune on these things, and they last anything from 0.2 seconds, up to a whopping 5 seconds. They might as well just burn their money - or give it to me, I'm not fussed! hehehe

So - what else is new in the Land of Dan? Well, new hobby creature, the Triops is fecking massive:

That was taken on Tuesday evening, and he is six days old - he's even bigger tonight, and I think has started laying eggs. I say "he" but most of them are hermaphrodites... Still, considering that Wednesday morning he was little more than a spec floating in the water to what he is now - impressive, no?

Xmas is whizzing towards us (Don't believe me? Look at the countdown on the right!), and, for a change, we decided against the usual mental "Three days till Xmas, best get some presents" and started last week. Went to Lakeside today - busy, but not as busy as it can be. Completely knackered, but hey ;) Managed to get hold of a cinnamon massage bar for my back that is soooo nice - good ol' Lush :)

Baby Land - ie, Jodie - is currently all good. Fat - boy is she bulging - but has actually lost 5lb so far, and has had zero weight gain, which she is very happy with! We had a "consultant" appointment at our local hospital this week, but again, we were confronted with Mr Idiot, so learned nor gained anything from that.

On the other hand, I THINK I felt baby move a couple of nights ago, but I might have imagined it! Jo looks soooo good preggers - all pregnant women do - and I love the "I felt it move!" stage, so hopefully that won't be far off!

Went to something called "The Circus of Horrors" on Wednesday night... Jo's dad managed to get us front row seats, and THEN we discovered that there is a woman on there with bloody great snakes. So - this was back in June or July, and I have dreaded it every single moment since then... Of course, this week, Grant and Chris (Jo's dad) have been saying things like "Looking forward to the snakes?!" at every chance, and Wednesday loomed...... The show was great, but I would have enjoyed it more had I not been planning to scarper at the first opportunity.

And would you believe it - the Snake Lady wasn't on. I couldn't believe it! I was soaked in Fear Sweat (tm), and the skin on the sides of my fingers was gone, leaving red-raw and bleeding fingers. Otherwise, it was a good evening.....

Added to this week, Bethy spent yesterday morning at the hospital teaching new students how interesting birth defects can be, I blew up my hard drive and lost all my mp3's, but, thanks to an early Xmas Pressie of a 250Gb (yes, that's 250,000Mb!), I have managed to rebuild my collection of music thanks to Amber/Ross, Grant and Ian. AND I managed to gain a few songs in the process - not to mention I nice chap in Ireland that has been sending me songs via email! Thanks Niall!! AND not to mention the kittens are now little sods running around the living room, bribing council workers to remove stacks of junk from our garden, having mini-wars fought on our street between two different gangs, me falling down some stairs, and being called a racist for moving to let an African lady go past me!

EDIT: Have added my MP3 Listing back onto this site, the link is on the right-hand bar :)

Other than that, all has been quiet...... HA!


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*May not be true