Broken Biscuits

We're going through an odd time at home, as Emily is heading down the path towards leaving home. 

Not for any bad reasons mind you, she's 18 now and will be heading to university after the summer. This week she's gone off on holiday to Cyprus with 5 of her mates - which is giving the rest of us a trial run of what life will be like without her in the house.

I'm glad that she's getting a bit more independent and I think having to rely on her own skills will be good for her - having a bar job in the local social club has also helped to give her a bit of financial independence too.

I think it will help Georgia too - she gets promoted to the rank of Eldest Child in the House, plus she won't have Emily's shadow falling over her at school - its never easy to have to compete with your sibling's achievements and establish your own identity when they are still about.

Things we still need to work out are - what job does Georgia get as part of her monthly allowance - currently Em cleans the bathroom once a week, and how many times a week will we have macaroni cheese - its Georgia's favourite dish that Emily absolutely hates, so we rarely have it, but I'm guessing we'll be making up for lost time fairly soon .

Other issues like making the tea won't be resolved, mainly because neither of them are very forthcoming in the brew making department, so it'll be left to Jane and I as usual...Although as a parent, having a lack of putting the kettle on as the biggest complaint you can make about your kids is not such a bad thing at all

We went to see Oasis (and Kasabian, The Enemy and Twisted Wheel) at Heaton Park in Manchester on Saturday night.  Jane, Jamie, John and I meandered up to Pretwich and had a mostly enjoyable time.  We took a bus that went everywhere round Swinton, but saved us the effort of going into Manchester and back out again - bit like a magical mystery tour where you are surprised just how small a distance you can cover by taking a  wibbly wobbly path round the back roads of our towns.  But I digress...

The event was hailed as Oasis' homecoming gig when the tickets went on sale, so I was pretty keen to go...and then another couple of dates were added which kind of took the exclusivity of the event away.  Anyhow, the weather on Saturday morning was terrible, so I was expecting the venue to be pretty bad - but as luck would have it, the rain stopped about 2:30 and by the time we arrived at the park at about 4:15, most of the water seemed to have drained away and it was mostly ok under foot - no major swamps and quagmires to speak of.

Now, anyone who saw the coverage of the farce of the Thursday night performance would know that the generators broke down, and Oasis finished the set about 40 minutes after their license, and as a consequence were probably in for a fine, as well as the financial hardship of promising the fans that they would get their money back - which we subsequently have been told isn't now going to happen...

The knock on effect of the events of Thursday seemed to be that every band on the lineup were massively rushing to get their sets finished - like they were trying to claw back the time from the previous performance - Oasis themselves were on stage early and finished early too.  Also (probably due to technical difficulties) the screens at the sides of the stage were stuck on the ground, meaning that you couldn't actually see what was on them unless you were close enough to see the stage...and so making them completely pointless.

Toilet facilities were pretty useless, as you'd expect for any outdoor festival type event - it always puzzles me why organisers can't ever predict that selling beer at an event means that a lot of people will need a wee .  Providing enough toilets for about 200 people is never going to prevent everyone else from using ad-hoc facilities instead (like fences, the sides of catering vans, behind the wheely bins etc) just because they can't wait the required 40 mins.  I have to say this is definitely one area where being a bloke has a major advantage .  I've been to  a fair few festivals, so I wasn't expecting much, and I wasn't disappointed.

Anyway, the bands were good, but not epic, and seemed to be trying to wrap up the whole thing as soon as they could, which meant that at the end the 70,000 people in the park could leave and try and get on one of the 10 buses waiting outside.  Yup that's right, 10!  Whoever organised the transport for the gig needs a kick up the whatsit

For some bizarre reason the nearest tram station was closed (for safety apparently) and the promised loads of buses to shuttle people to Manchester city centre seemed the best option, except that whoever was doing the planning must have pressed the wrong buttons on their calculator - for 70,000 people, 10 buses holding about 70 people each isn't going to be enough.  And having only 4 marshalls to try and regulate the boarding of these buses was also pointless, and actually loads of people just climbed in through the emergency exits on the buses, which meant that joining the queue was also a complete waste of time.

The upshot was that we walked from Heaton Park - which wasn't too bad given it was dry and mostly downhill, and got a lift from Jane's Dad who very kindly got out of bed and met us at Agecroft and saved us the last 4 miles of the journey back, meaning we were back home by 12:30.  I doubt anyone waiting for the bus would have had as much luck. 

Hopefully all the bands will be better when they play V in the summer.

I thought it was about time I added a new list to my Blog, and thus demonstrate my willingness to conform to the rest of blog-manity...

After much consideration I decided that I'd make a list of all the cars I've ever owned in historical order, with a few details and colours, more as an exercise in testing my memory as anything else . 

1) Mini Clubman 1000 - L reg, in that orange colour that BL did so well - cost £100.
2) Mazda 323, 1300 - S reg - given to me by my sister, I painted it black and orange stripes with hammerite.
3) Saab 99, 2000 - P reg, blue - lasted 3 months before the floor fell out.  Cashed in the tax for more than I paid for the car
4) Triumph Toledo 2 door - N reg, red - was stolen once, but found round the corner the following day undamaged
5) Saab 99, 2000 - S reg, red - exploded core plugs after Jane drove it with no water - used for spares for:
6) Saab 99 turbo, 2000 - T reg, red - immense fun - took cylinder head from car 5) after overboost japes broke it
7) VW Golf 1600 - D reg, blue - solid, reliable, back doors leaked, dull
8) Saab 9000 turbo - Y reg, gold - enormous car that really shifted - massive mileage but became too expensive to fix
9) Peugeot 205 1800d - H reg (new H), blue - always suspected this was a 'cut & shut' but cheap to run, back door leaked
10) Fiat Coupe Turbo 2000 - N reg, green - in many ways both the best and worst car I've ever owned...
11) Rover 416 1600 - M reg, green - bought for us by my father in law to replace 9).  Never wanted it. Way way duller than the Golf. 12) Mini Cooper 1600 - 51 reg, black & white - first ever new car - still got it and still great
13) Audi A4 Cabriolet 3000 - 05 reg, red - proper cruise monster, great to drive, fabulous stereo & quick enough too, still got it.

So, what does all this information tell me?

All blue cars let rain in, so never sit in the back or you'll have a wet arse. I like turbos.  A lot.    Honestly if you've never driven one, have a go - you'll grin like a loon everytime you drop a couple of gears and give it the loud pedal.  Out of all of them, the Fiat was the most outrageous one I owned. Stooopidly fast (0-60 in just over 6 secs) and a chassis to match.

Everyone should own at least one Mini in their lifetime.

I have bought more red cars than anything else.  Not exactly sure why, but generally red cars have been good to me..  Taken in conjunction with the blue car theory, maybe this is why my kids support Man Utd and not Chelsea?

Saabs are hugely expensive to fix - often better to cut your losses and send it to the heap.  An alternative strategy is to buy two - one as a donor car to keep the other going - cars 5&6).  Prices of spares are so high that I sold number 8) as a non-runner with no tax or MOT for £400.

All green cars are trouble.  The Rover was trouble I never wanted - I was given it and then asked for the money.  Dodgy electricals, awful drive.  The Fiat was unbelievable trouble, and expensive trouble at that, made worse by unbelievably useless dealers who gave me nothing but trouble (and bills).

Never buy an Italian car.  Ok, buy one once to find out why everyone says never buy one, and then never buy another one. My Fiat was gorgeous to look at, fabulous to drive, but it spent more time in the garage than on the road. I think I spent as much on repairs in the 3 years I owned it  as I spent on buying it...never again.

And finally - never buy a green Italian car.  You're just asking for trouble

It seems I was mistaken - and that vegetables planted out in the soil can take a little longer to germinate...Go Carrots!

So it looks like I am the king of lettuce and have a definite surfeit of  tomato plants, but am less successful in the case of sunflowers where two out of the eight I seeds have sprouted, and as for the carrots - I am most disappointed - as they are showing no signs of showing yet...

..at least I can have a salad