2026

Spilled milk

If you spill milk and clean it up there are no consequences you just spilled milk but if you continually spill stuff and walk away leaving others to hopefully sort out your stuff you will feel smug for a while that fools just clean up after you, but one day when the fools are no longer there you’ll be left on your own looking at the mess and I hope its a shit show when that happens and you realise what you did, how you made others feel…

Reagan?

Just got in from pool not in the best of moods because I feel like I let my team down, loosing my frame and allowing someone to get under my skin which annoyed me!

I am better than that.

We drew the game against a team we should beat but they played well and earned their point I should be able to be the better person and for the most part tonight I was but I dropped my guard for a moment…i was frustrated

This my be my last season playing pool forty odd years might be enough…?

Hate the way I feel right now?

Maybe time to call it a day!

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CCTV

After “acquiring” an NVR that has sat by my feet for a couple of years I got a bee in my bonnet to see if I could get it working so bought a PoE camera and give it go.

I was surprised how easy it was once I had factory reset the NVR it was basically plug and play after that.

Talking to Jamie I explained how I could use it and add a couple of cameras cover the whole property so its going to be a little side project to install what I’ve got and add to it as and when?

Odd fact while I practiced setting it up i got it all running in the bedroom and Jamie suggested letting it film us all night! Fascinating as it sounded we created a yawn movie with undubbed snoring lol

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Momday

Today was back to normal, Lincoln got up for school at 6am I heard the cat at 07:02 so got up and fed the little fucker hoping to allow Jamie and Reagan chance to sleep in.

I got home at 07:40 to find Mom in the kitchen searching for her fix of coffee so no lie in for her. Bouyed by the rest though she was somewhat perkier than I’d expected and although she didn’t move very far from the bedroom for most of the day had to endure route canal work at the dentist and take Lincoln to the doctor before she got to spend the rest of the day working on her bible college project.

We walked to the pub at 5 for Billy’s walk before cooking tea and spending the rest of the evening watching masterchef.

Reagan had to be at school for 11:30 after such a long tiring weekend in Poland so rose late showered and got on with her day like any other day…

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No joy!

Sat excitedly in the international arrivals lounge at Manchester Airport eagerly awaiting her daughter, clutching a packet of Percy Pigs as a welcome home gift, we joked with another parent that our joy wouldn’t be matched by our children.

What we got, after what seemed like an eternity, when Reagan finally came into view was at best a side eye possibly the slightest smile as she walked away from where we were stood. We met her at the end of the barrier for the coldest greeting she could muster claiming she couldn’t hear anything and off we all walked towards the exit.

Mom handed her the sweets,

“You got the veggie ones?”

No, thank you, no, you shouldn’t have, just disdain and that basically ended any chance of the two of them communicating for the rest of the journey home.

I tried my best to drag conversation out of her showing interest in what the trip was like and how she felt. Eventually I got some conversation our of Reagan while her mom sobbed in the passenger seat.

Arriving home Jamie jumped out of the car leaving me alone with Reagan I pointed out to her that Mom paid £400+ for the trip she just handed you sweets as a feel good gift and its Mothers Day, yet you barely looked at her you just showed how ungrateful you are? You said during the journey home you were going to buy a teacher flowers because she was so nice, yet treated the one person who would do anything to make you happy like you just did?

Whatever Mom does for you she would never do because she wanted something in return but she bloody well deserves at the very least a thank you and you couldn’t even say that?

Reagan thought about arguing but wisley chose to go to bed and I doubt she popped her head in to our bedroom on the way to…. let’s face it she just went to bed!

Welcome home!

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Mothers day

With Reagan in Poland it was down to Lincoln to make his mommy happy with flowers a card and breakfast in bed.

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360 this morning

With Reagan in Poland on a school trip, Jamie in Newcastle upon Tyne speaking at a conference, and Lincoln home alone, I was lying in my hotel bed looking at the 360 app and realised our family has probably never been independently as far away from each other as it is right now.

A sure sign that the children are growing up and beginning to need us less… sadly.

When I got home, the house was as tidy as I left it. Linco had been skating with his mates the night before, come home, cooked some food in the air fryer, washed up and gone to bed. This morning he got up, showered, fed the cat, walked the dog, made himself some breakfast and, again, made sure the house was tidy. The last thing I said to him was, “I love you, don’t let me down!” and he didn’t.

Reagan had organised herself while I slept and woke me at 03:10 to say we needed to be across the road in 20 minutes to meet the teachers (who didn’t arrive until 03:50, by the way!). She then flew off to Poland for the weekend to experience Krakow and visit the Auschwitz camp museum.

Jamie was working, being the success she was always going to be, speaking at a fertility conference in Newcastle, where lots of people will undoubtedly be impressed by her and realise what we already know, how great she is.

I love seeing how my family is thriving and living their best lives. My tiny part in all this, might just be my greatest achievement.

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Hilton reputation?

To say “I’m staying at the Hilton” would be a flex for me a big look at me because I think the Hilton brand is special a bit up there to aspire to, but tonight my opinion has changed if the Hampton by Liverpool John Lennon is what the rest are like!

Quite honestly I would prefer a Premier Inn because they are better in every way so far. On arrival they asked for a £50 security deposit, when Reagan & I got to the room only one bed was made up. We requested clothes for the other bed and went to dinner in the hotel restaurant. We asked for 2 cheese burgers and took our seats, by the time they arrived 75 minutes later accompanied by oven chips and some lettuce garnish I was already in conversation with others in the restaurant also dismayed at the service.

Very underwhelming considering that until tonight I thought they were a cut above!

The next Morning

Thought I would add my breakfast experience here too. I decided to go straight down for breakfast to seek out a better cup of coffee than the room shite instant brew offered, but disappointment awaited. Placing my cup under the coffee machine without an error message on it screen and selecting Americano I was served a cup of dirty water and thinking it might be different if I tried again I was left  with two cups of dirty water. I waited in the area hoping to catch a staff member to request some maintenance is carried out but after 4 or 5 minutes no-one came. I had noticed during my wait that there was no bread at the toaster station which was compounding my frustration but eventually someone else collared someone from the kitchen to replenish bread and all of a sudden 2 more staff members appeared, at last progress.

The Asian looking guy set about changing the waste hopper on the coffee machine and walked away only to be collared by the first person who used it saying he only got water, again? To cut a long story short he didn’t have very good English and it was a struggle to get him to replenish the bean hopper, when he did a queue formed.

I went to get food instead of standing in line and halfway through my sausage bacon beans scrambled egg and toast the coffee machine became free so I went to get a coffee finally. Glancing over my shoulder I spotted the guy start to clear my remaining breakfast away, now here I should point out that to sit where I was I had to clear the area of dirty plates cutlery  and wipe the table with a napkin, the whole room was a mess. “PLEASE DON’T TOUCH THAT!” I said sternly and he put my cutlery down apologising. The coffee was ok I finished my breakfast with a fresh knife and fork and checked out.

The one saving grace about the experience was at checkout I again showed the staff my parking receipt for driving through the long stay car park by mistake last night which cost me £12 that the night staff said was nothing to do with them, the staff this morning said they would not charge me for parking so it was technically sorted so that was good.

As I drove away I thought that was the first and probably the last time I ever stay at the The Hampton by Hilton at Liverpool John Lennon airport!

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Its got to be new…

I hope I’m with Reagan at that moment when she realises how hard it is to earn enough money to buy something she really really wants but has to prioritise buying something she needs instead.

Tonight she ‘needed’ to go to Boots in Crewe to get liquid items small enough pass through airport security tomorrow when she travels to Poland on a school trip. She bought every single thing she might need plus everything suggested on the school packing list then added snacks mints and sweets as she dragged me round M&S food looking for over priced breakfast bars? Unable to locate said granola bars needed to call at Morrisons on the way home to finalise her shopping for a two day trip.

£40+ later she’d even bought a £5 clear case to put it all in, I should say here that it was me paying through gritted teeth knowing half the stuff she does not need and the rest I have witnessed her throw away because she’d used it once and now it wasn’t new! Reagan turns her nose up watching her mom scrape the last dregs of foundation out of a bottle using the tube attached to the dispenser because she  know how long it takes to earn another bottle a lesson our daughter has yet to learn!

I have a drawer full of pencils in my shed all recovered from the bin when Reagan needs all new stuff for the new school year, most of them still factory sharp when I got them? All the torches I use were from bin dipping when she “tidies her room” I could go on but my frustration would boil over.

So tonight she got what she wanted all new all just how she imagined in her head she would arrive at the airport, so she’s happy. What I am going to do is unpack her bag on Monday because she will be too exhausted to do herself just to see how pristine most of all that new stuff still is!

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First cut is the deepest

Reagan offered to take Billy for a walk this evening because it had been such a nice day and still really nice at 5pm too. I had been wanting to mow the lawns all week but evenings are busy so it was going to have to wait until the weekend but not having to prioritise Bill meant I had an hour to kill before going to pick up Jamie from Crewe. BOOM

The mower started 3rd pull after languishing in the shed for 5 months which was always going to be the make or break of this evening and by the time I needed to leave for the station the back lawn was mowed strimmed and trimmed again and the from lawn mowed I was showered and ready to go out to play pool.

[Edit] Woke up this morning and it was pissing down, it just makes me feel like I won and all my neighbours are wishing they did theirs yesterday too. I know, I’m sad lol [/Edit]

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Its a hard life?

So disappointed tonight to take first Reagan and then Lincoln to their music lessons in Sandbach to realise they had both done next to nothing to help me while on meow’n.

Finished work at 5 and did a little collection of cups, plates and cutlery to the sink and got rid of any litter etc before taking Billy for a walk. I shouted to Reagan that I’ll be back to take her to piano… when I got back she wasn’t ready and it was touch and go that we made the lesson on time.

To save time I decided to have a chippy tea and walked in with 15 minutes to eat and was immediately told by Lincoln the cat had shit in the kitchen but he hadn’t cleaned it up. Once I’d cleaned that up and eaten there was no time to do anything other than leave for Lincoln’s drum lesson.

Got back at 8:15 to find the cat had shit in the living room and nothing had been done so set about cleaning up more shit.

The thing that broke me was that not only was the tea stuff not cleared up by either Reagan or Lincoln the breakfast and after school snack stuff was left for me, cups glasses plates cutlery condiments empty cans and litter it all just pissed me off that they hadn’t even done their own stuff!

I finally sat down at 9 but had to let the kids know how disappointed I was and that it just isn’t acceptable.

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