2026

Working through it

I feel so frustrated right now that no matter what I do for the bloody cat it meows all day. Its making me very tired on my first week back at work because it starts at 5am and does not give up even if I get up and feed it.

It just doesn’t eat or it does I have been unable to suss out what makes it happy while Jamie is away working and I have tried, getting it soft food mixing tuna and lix but it ate one then turned it nose up?

I have had to walk away from it at times because it just does not stop meowing

/by

I’ll be back

Having dropped Jamie off at the station I drove home for a week without her, not something I ever want but I’m also so fucking proud of her and how she’s carving out such a brilliant career so I 100% support her!

Her parting words other than ‘I love you’  was ‘I’ll be back before you know it…’

Love the bones of her and always miss her even if she doesn’t believe that.

/by

Back to the coalface

Although Jamie still had another day off (she doesn’t work Mondays) the kids and me were back to the grind of life.

It went well to be honest and ended with a hot bath and a beer

/by

At the end of day

As Sunday drew to a close it also meant my holiday was over, yet I was sorting of happy because I’d achieved what I’d set out to do two weeks.

Spend a Staycation, with my family, doing what I wanted to do and I loved it

/by

Work on the horizon, sadly!

With the thought of work creeping into my thoughts I just wanted to make something in me shed but ended up adding another shelf under the stairs. Since finishing work two weeks ago I have not felt that I have pushed myself at all to do anything but I have achieved quite a lot and enjoyed doing it which was the main thing!

Lincoln broke his glasses at skating so Jamie took him and Reagan, who turns 16 later this month and with that stops receiving subsidised glasses, to Winsford in the afternoon to get glasses.

While they were there and the house was quiet I decided a bath and a lay down might be a great way to spend the rest of my day….

A few drinks in front of the TV with Jamie watching the end of Masterchef the Professionals made for a very relaxed Saturday night

/by

10th of April

Walked to Starbucks but Reagan struggled because it was about me not her…it was annoying because I hoped we could get a nice family photo with all four of us which if I think back is all I ever ask for on my birthday? She didn’t talk or smile so I just had a brew and we walked home, Billy loved it though.

It might have been my birthday but I wanted to carry on pottering like I have been so I made a coat rack utilising the hooks from the old ones we have been using. Again using some of my favourite tools and the router table to make the edges a feature too.

While I was doing that Jamie made me a coffee and walnut birthday cake something I’d asked Reagan to do but she showed no interest in doing it. I have to say it was a VERY good cake!!!

Gammon egg and chips was the preferred birthday tea, and once we’d cleared the kitchen and got Lincoln off to skating Jamie and I walked Billy to the King’s Lock for a pint before finishing the night off at home with a glass of wine or three

All in all a good birthday I am a simple creature easily please!

/by

The Doors

Yes, I’d talked a good game on buying and hanging new doors throughout the house and yes I’d done it before but that was 20+ years ago. The difference today was YouTube and the right tools, that said I did the same thing a long time ago with the tools I had and a tutorial from r-kid and those doors have lasted until now?

A Makita tracksaw is the best tool i own, a Trend self centering drill has been a game changer, the few hours I have spent sharpening all chisels has been worth every minute and the tip from the Internet of using a new Stanley knife blade and a trim router

I need to look online to find a small pot of “lacquer finish” to cover the parts of both doors I have cut to fit them and possibly test it on spine of closet door before finishing the job completely.

It has made me confident that I can do a really great job of buying and installing the rest of the doors which I will now do one a month

/by

Teenage rampage

Hardly a rampage but Reagan had arranged for a few mates to come round to our house which is not my favourite idea, but secretly I love the fact that as I left to play pool our children were sat entertaining their mates out on the patio around the fire pit under the awning.

I hope our house is the one all their friends talk about and want to come back to because its great…

We drew away at a really good team White Lion in Crewe which made my night great too!

/by

Don’t wait up…!

Spent the day hanging two new doors one for the closet and the other for the lounge there has been no rush and after the closet door went really well it was frustrating to struggled with the lounge door so needed to walk away, so tidied up and live to fight another day.

As I was clearing my tools away Reagan came into the kitchen dressed for a prearranged evening out on the town with her friends and she says “Ive got my key Dad, don’t wait up…”

It made me sad that this was the start of the next phase of our lives, and that she is nearly 16 years old and her word is getting bigger. Tonight was spending time wandering the streets with loads of mates something she has not craved before but we had no problem because its about stretching the apron strings.

My daughter is growing up and I am confident we have equipped her in the best way we know how to move into this next stage of her life…but its also sad too!

/by

Holiday mode

After yesterday it was always going to be a lazy day even though I went to Uncle Karl’s to help him move a washing machine first thing.

I bought some hinges for the impending doors arriving this week and cut them into the closet door frame while listening to Portsmouth vs Oxford which was a good game and kept me company…

I cleared the the kitchen, I have tried to make it my priority over the last couple of weeks not to allow the kitchen to be come cluttered because cleaning it is easy if things are put away. My family don’t realise how much they leave laying around after using the kitchen even for a minute a spoon here a cup there if allowed to mount up becomes a big job for someone. Over the last couple of days I have let it slip so I got it back in shape this morning as well as doing couple of loads of laundry.

When Jamie finished making fresh pasta for the first time in her life and left to go to the gym I went to my shed and made a French cleat shelf to hold my glues oils was etc something that has been on my mind for a couple of weeks having moved all of them on numerous occasions.

We are mom’s pasta tonight and it was excellent as I knew it would be, and when Reagan offered to take Bill the rest of the evening was me own I could get used to this holiday malarkey!

/by
Website designed by Alan Forster