"Just Because You Can Use Magic at Home Doesn't Mean You have to Whip You're Wand Out For Everything!"

Hello everyone, yep another blog from this week as i had to catch-up.

So last Monday, was Bank Holiday Monday and me and Kieron started unpacking our bags from our trip to Blackpool (see blog below). I put some washing on adn set off for the cattery to pick up Faye.

I saw Mandy and had a quick cup of tea, and then follwed Mandy to Faye's pen. She was meowing like mad but she was pleased to see me. When i got her pack to the flat, we made a big fuss of her giving her treats and playing with her non-stop.

We then popped down to see Kieron's mum and dad for abit as Kieron's cousin Michael was there with his girlfriend, who was interested in buying Kieron's old Citreon Saxo.

Kieron showed Michael the car whilst i was telling Tony and Maria all about Blackpool. We stayed for a couple of hours and then went back to the flat.

A bit later on i decided to see my mum for a bit. She was at home not doing very much so we was pleased to see me. We had a chat a little glass of wine and i told her all about Blackpool. After about an hour Kieron rang me to say that Michael's girlfriend wanted to but the Saxo and was going to drop off the money at Tony and Maria's.

So i said goodbye to mum, went and got Kieron and went back to Tony and Maria's. Michael and his girlfriend were already there and so was her parents.

Within a couple of minutes Kieron handed over the keys and the log book and we got the dosh!!!!


In the evening i sat and caught up with Eastenders, X Factor and Big Brother and Kieron played on the PC.

Tuesday was a good day, we got up and went into Town to have a look round and a mooch. Kieron brought himself the new Villa shirt and a game and i was going to buy a new pair of trainers but couldn't find any i liked!

We were in Town for ages looking round the shops, but soon we were ready to go. On hte way back we called in to the Cats Protection Centre down Packhorse Lane, as over the last couple of weeks we had talked about and decided upon getting Faye a little friend to play with.

Faye was 1 of 4 kittens in the litter, who were all born at the centre. According to the staff at the centre they were all lively and playful and they were a very close litter. They day before we went and chose Faye, another couple had chosen the 3 males leaving Faye on her own.

We think that she misses them very much as Faye is still playful and is looking for other cats in our road to paly with, so thats why decided to get her a friend.

We explained our story to one of the staff and they said it would be best if we went with a male cat. We had a good look round but couldn't find any male cats that we thought would suit Faye. So the search is on!

In the evening we went round to Stuart and Becky's house. We had a nice chat and enjoyed a bottle of wine. They have done a lot of decorating since we last went round and it looks really lovely.

We stayed until about 12am and then called it a night.

Wednesday me and Kieron didn't do anything really, i caught up with some programmes i had missed the night before and Kieron spent his time reading a new book and playing on the Pc & Xbox.

Tony and Maria popped round for a quick cup of tea about 4pm ish but they only stayed an hour as they were going out somewhere.

Thursday was another busy day, we got up as we had to go out and do something for a couple of hours and then we called in to Steve and Natalie's.

Natalie had taken the kids down to her mums and wouldn't be back for a couple of hours so i decided to leave the boys playing the xbox and i went in to town to buy some new clothes for work. I didn't want to go to mad so i decided to go to Primark.

I got ended up with two tops and a new pair of trousers which came up to £20 - Bargain!

On my way back home i decided to call in to see nan and grandad as i hadn't seen them for over a week. They were delighted to see me and i showed them what i had bought from Town. I had a cup of tea and a natter and was there for just over an hour.

It was almost 4pm by the time i left nan and grandads, and went straight back to Steve and Natalie's. When i got there, Natalie had just got back herself (brilliant timing).

We stayed round there all evening playing games, watching tv and having a good old chin-wag, but it was soon 12am and it was time to call it a night.

Friday me and Kieron had a massive clean down and tidy up morning as the flat was a complete mess. It took us pretty much all morning and we were exhausted when we had finished.

We had some lunch and we were a bit bored so we went down to Blockbusters as Kieron fancied getting a new game for the Xbox. We had a mooch round and they had a bit of a sale on, Kieron decided to buy Too Human as there was nothing else that caught his eye, and i treated myself to some Harry Potter dvd's.

I have read all of the Harry Potter books (thanks to Rosey) and i have seen all five films but the only one i had on dvd was the thrid film Prizoner of Azkaban, but it was a really bad copy. Blockbusters only had the first three films (Philosophers Stone, Chamber of Secrets & Prizoner of Azkaban) and film five (Order of the Phoenix) all for £5 - so i brought them all!

When we got back Kieron was on his xbox and i had a Harry Potter marathon. I only managed to watch the first one, before i had to get ready and go over to Andy Lake's for his 50th birthday party.

I got there, and dad hadn't arrived so i went in and said hello to the people i knew. It wasn't long before Andy turned up and he didn't let us down. The "them" for Andy's 50th was to do with water - there was a reason for it but i cant be bothered to explain, but it was basically something Andy said to dad once about water features.

Dad, Pete Twist, Brian Hands and my brother actually built a water feature in Andy's back garden (whilst he was on holiday). It was with an old bath (see Gareth's blog for more details) and an old pool pump.

So Andy carried on the theme and he came to his house party dressed up in full snorkel gear! Brilliant!

We had a lovely evening full of fun and laughter - we got to watch the film they had made building the water feature! I stayed until about 12am and then called it a night.

Saturday a good day i went round to mums in the afternoon, watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and then me and Kieron went round Steve and Natalie's in the evening.

Sunday was the usual thing, we went and did the shopping in the morning and to my delight they had Harry Potter 4 (Goblet of Fire) and then i went to see nan in the evening and had tea!

So that's it for now readers - cheerio!

Brummies Go To Blackpool!

Hello everyone as promised my blog all about our trip to Blackpool....

.... So the story continues Friday 22nd August me and Kieron were up quite early. We both had showers and packed up our toiletries and other little things into our suitcase. We also sorted out cameras and PSP stuff to take with us in the car.

Whilst Kieron was still sorting out last minute stuff i took Faye down to the cattery. I had booked her in with Wildrose Kennels where i used to work because i know i can trust them. I got down to the cattery at 9.15am dropped off Faye said hello to Mandy and Norma and called in at the petrol station to fill up the car.

I then headed back to the flat where Kieron had just finished locking the flat up, we dumped the stuff in the car and headed round to Steve and Natalie's. When we got there Steve and Natalie were ready, they said goodbye to their children, Lucy and Phoebe who were staying with Natalie's sister Heather, got everyone in the car and set off.

Kieron was driving with Steve in the front and me and Natalie were sharing the back. We put on a Queen CD and cruised through Town and onto the M6. It was about 10.50 when we hit the motorway and it would take a couple of hours to get to Blackpool.

We all had a packed lunch with us in the car so that we didn't have to stop unless we absolutely had to.

The journey wasn't too bad, it was a bit busy on the motorway but Kieron drives up and down the M6 on most days because of work so he was very relaxed and calm. Two hours had passed and we were now leaving the M6 and joining the M55. We only had to go pass 3 junctions before it was time to leave the motorway and enter Blackpool.

I had a map and some directions for our B&B once we left the motorway, which i handed to Steve as he was in the front.

It didn't take us long to find the B&B as it was on a fairly main, but quiet road. The B&B was called the Carlee, we pulled up and i went to the door (as i had booked the place). The owner Heather (a different one, not Natalie's sister) was a lovely lady, although she could talk for England. Once booked in and sorted out we were shown our rooms.

Our rooms were together on a separate corridor from other people's so we were had our own little private section where noone could come and hassle us, which we thought was great.

The rooms were very spacious and decorated quite well, bright, breezy and clean. We got bags to the rooms and had a 5 mkinute rest as we had been travelling for about 2 and a haf hours. It was nearly 2pm and we decided to head out.

We had our own keys to get us in and out of B&B so we could come in or go out at anytime we wanted without disturbing anybody. We set out towards the front which was only a 5-10 minute walk.

We walked towards the shopping area as Kieron needed to find a cash point to get some money, after that we headed towards the nearest Pier.

Blackpool has three Piers, North, South and Centre. We were nearest the North Pier which is a lot quieter than the other two. This is mainly because it has a theatre on it which isn't open unitl the evening so it gets busy later on.

As we walking up the Pier we had a photo moment:

Awww don't they look lovely together!

Smiley Selly!

There was a merry go-round and Me and Natalie couldn't resist having a go!

After the merry go-round we headed to the end of the pier and it was a bit windy so we went into the little bar and had our first drink in Blackpool.

After our drink we headed back down the pier and we decided to walk down the beach towards the middle one. The middle pier is one big fairground, with little rides and games and sweetie stands, we didnt stay long as there was nothing there that interested us.

We then hopped on to the tram to take u down to the south pier, this is probably the busiest pier throught out the day as most of the local attractions are around the south pier. I saw the Crazy Mouse ride that Gareth warned me about and it did look crazy - i never got chance to have a go, but i think if i had i would have died!

We walked across the road and went over to the Pleasure Beach. You can walk around the Pleasure Beach for free, to go on the rides though you can either buy a £30 wristband, like you would at Alton Towers or you can buy tokens so that you can go on a couple of rides if you're not interested in staying there all day. We thought this would be good for us, as Natalie is pregnant she can't go one most of the rides bu there were still some fun ones like the hall of mirrors and thinks like that she could do so we went to buy the tokens. We soon found out however that the tokens is a complete con becuase you HAVE to buy a minimum of £20 worth of tokens! No thank you!

We left the Pleasure Beach and made our way to the nearest pub to get a drink and some food. We found a nice family pub (a bit like a Harvester) called The Manchester.

We stayed in there quite a while having a couple of drinks and some food and trying to decide what to do that evening. The night life at Blackpool is heavily aimed at Hen/Stag Parties who are on the Club scene an want to get completely smashed off their faces from booze! If you go away from the front there are some quieter pubs that you can go to, which we founf ideal for us.

So after a few bevvies we decided that we would go to the cinema to watch the new Hellboy movie, and funnily enough we just around the corner from the Cinema. The film started at 6.10pm so we made our way.

The film is a good average film, and i think it is better than the first. When we came out of the cinema we headed back towards the B&B as we were all getting tired. We decided that we would have a few bevvies (Happy Hour) in our room back at the B&B. We stopped and got some supplies and mae our way back.

Me and Natalie settle for a nice cup of tea and the lads had a couple of cans of Scrumpy! We sat and watched the Big Brother Live Final and something about the Olympics before going to bed.

Saturday morning we all woke up fairy early, we had our showers and got ready and headed down to breakfast. We were all looking forward to our Full English and the smell was mouth-watering.

We stuffed our faces full of toast, egg, bacon, sausages and beans, coffee, tea and orange juice, it was delicious. Today me and Kieron took out the video camera in the backpack as we had a full and busy day ahead of us.

The sun was shining and we started off the day by popping in to Primark for Natalie as she needed a different t-shirt as her top was making her too hot. We then headed to the Sea Life Centre. Its quite like the one in Town about the same size, and laid out in a similar way too.

Again we had some photo moments:

Nasty Pirhanas!

We spent a good couple of hours walking round looking at all the funny creatures. After the Sea Life Centre we made our way to Louis Tussauds. Louis Tussaud was the great grandson of Madam Tussaud and Madam Tussauds in London is alot better than Louis' mainly because they have alot more waxworks and they are better look-alikes but it was still good fun!

Delboy and Rodney greeted us at the entrance!

They had a Hollywood Section:

Kieron & Angelina Jolie

Coronation Street:

Natalie called in to See Jack and Vera!

A Music section:

Boy George

Robbie Williams

The Royal Section:

Princess Selly!

Star Wars and James Bond Sections:

Kieron & Daniel Craig

Yoda & Selly it is!

And then finally they had The Chamber of Horrors. This was (as i'm sure you can guess) was all the waxworks from horrible films like, Hannibal, Scream etc etc. It was very dark in the chanber and they playes spooky music. Me and Natalie had to hold each others hand as we were both a little bit scared and we were worried that someone was going to jump out on us!

Don't touch the box Steve!

After we had come out of Louis Tussauds we crossed the road and went to sit on the beach for a bit as Natalie needed a quick rest. It was almost 2pm and we felt a bit peckish so we headed towards The Manchester pub again for some drinks and food. We all had plenty to drink and eat and we had a lovely chat and a good old laugh and giggle (mainly at the lady behind the bar who was a tad bit hairy!).

After our refreshments we had to decide what to do next, Me, Natalie and Kieron wanted to go up the Tower but Steve is affraid of heights, like proper phobia of them! So we decided to think on route and made our way to the Tower anyway. We stopped off and brought ice creams and bits and bobs and before we knew it we were at the base of the Tower. Steve wasn't going to change his mind so Kieron suggested that me and Natalie went up the Tower and him and Steve could go in the Arcade next door as Kieron wasn't too fussed what he did.

So me and Natalie bravely left the lads and set off on our adventure. Inside the tower there was a mini aquarium, the (very famous) traditional ballroom, a circus and a small 3D cinema. We opted out of the circus and cinema as we had to come back at a later time for the performances and we had other stuff we wanted to see and do.

On our entrance to the Tower we decided that we would go round the aquarium and have a look in the Ballroom before going to the top. The aquarium was ok, obviously not as impressive as the Sea Life Centre but it still had lots of weird and wonderful fish!

Then we went up a bit furter and into the Ballroom, of course all the older generation were already in there. There was a band playing and yep there were couples doing the old waltz. The ballroom is huge and is very magnificent. Me and Natalie watched for a good 20 minutes or so before going on.

The tower is approximately 518 Ft (in comparison the Eiffel Tower is about 990 Ft!), but the furthest you can go is 412 Ft. They take you up in a lift, which comes every couple of minutes, but it only takes you so far and then you have walk the rest of the way.

We got off the lift and took a few piccies and then made our way to the top. It was very windy up there and you can feel the tower swaying ever so slightly. We stayed up there quite a while, taking in the view and trying to decide if the land on the distant horizon was Wales (which they say you can see!).

Once piccies were done and we had had enough of swaying on the rusty tower we made our way all the way back down again. When we got back outside on the lovely ground, we made tracks to try and find Kieron and Steve. Unfortunately their signal had dropped off in the Arcade so we couldn't phone them.

Once inside the dark Arcade we set about walking, round and round and round and round until we found the lads playing on a game by the doors we had originally come in!

We then decided we would walk down the front to find a small museum place called Ripley's Believe It or Not. Its basically a museum full of all weird but interesting facts about people and culture all over the world. Things like the worlds fattest man or the calf born with two heads things like that!

It was only a small place but it still took us about an hour to go round. When we came out it had slowly started to rain, only spitting, so we dived onto the nearest tram to get us further back up the front.

We walked back to the B&B to relax for a bit as we had done a fair amount of walking. In the evening we decided to go out somewhere nice for a meal as it was our last night in Blackpool. In the rooms there were little packs of information about the nearest facilities and sure enough there was a section on restaurants. We decided to go to the mexican restaurant that was mentioned, so we all got ready, got in the car with the map and off we went.

Now if you think the one-way system in Birmingham is bad, then you haven't experienced the one-way system in Blackpool - it's bloody awful!

We drove round and round, up and down trying to find the restuarant and couldn't find it. I tried ringing the number but there was no answer so we went back to the B&B try and decide what to do next.

Then Natalie remembered when we went to the cinema the night before, there was a Frankie & Benny's and it was easy to get to. So that's where we went.

We had a lovely meal, i had a Chicken Carbonnara, Natalie had a lovely tuna steak salad, Kieron had a pizza and Steve had New York Chicken. We had a couple of drinks and had a really lovely evening.

When we got back to the B&B, Steve and Natalie joined us in our room for a bit before we all went to bed.

We woke up Sunday morning with sun shining again and it was our last day. We packed up our things and went down for breakfast.

We said our goodbye's to the B&B staf, bags in the car and off we went. We decided to go to Blackpool Zoo as it was away from the main part of Blackpool and it was on our way home.

Chilled out Lemurs!

Funky Giraffes!

It's quite a big zoo and we took our time going round. There was lots going on and we all got to see our favouites. After the zoo we got in the car, went to the petrol station to fill up and then popped into Macdonald's for some lunch, as by now it was almost 2pm. After lunch we set off for home.

The motorways were even quieter than coming up, although we did have a mini hold-up as Police were finishing off clearing remains of an accident that had happened that morning. It was just coming up to 4pm when we got back to Steve and Natalie's, we said our goodbye's and went, finally, back home.

Well that's it from me, so cheerio!

Short But Sweet!

Hello everyone and my apologies for the lateness of this blog, but blogger had a bit of a tizz and wouldn't let me sign in last week but never fear, i am here now!

Right, so, let me just quickly explain, this blog is what i did two weeks ago, but it will be a short one as i will blog my holiday to Blackpool separately (as i want to upload some piccies!) and then i will blog what i did last week as i was still on holiday! I hope you've got all that!

So Monday 18th August work it was and it was final week at work before going on holiday. So i made a check list of all the things i needed to do and finish before i went away. The day went by quite quickly and i had already completed approximately 80% of my list - Brilliant!

In the evening i watched my usual round of soaps and tv programmes before going to bed.

Tuesday and my list that i had almost completed had suddenly tripled. Everyone decided to give me stuff and label it as 'Urgent', so i started sifting through it all and it made me feel miserable.

I was soon home though, i got changed and headed down to nans to see my dad as it was his birthday. Aunty Jan, Rachel and Gareth were already there and we sat down to eat Spag Bol which my dad had cooked.

I had bought my dad Series 1 of Family Guy as he has recently become a fan and Gareth had bought him some new cufflinks he wanted.

We had a nice evening but i left about 10pm so that i could get home and go to bed.

Wednesday was again another hectic day but i managed to survive and get most of the things done off my list. I was soon home though and watched my usual tv programmes.

Thursday was my last day at work before i went on my little holiday and i was very excited. I got everything done on my list and i just went around making sure that everything was in tis right place and everything was set before i left.

Before i knew it iwas running out of the door at 5.30pm before anyone could stop me and i was soon home. I had a quick shower and made a list of everything i needed/wanted to take with me to Blackpool and slowly putting those things into the suitcase. I also had to help Kieron pack as, well lets face it men are rubbish at packing!

I had something to eat and then off i went to meet up with Emily, Rosey, Dan and our good friend Jen, who we haven't seen for ages, at The Barn in Solihull (actually i think its in Hockley Heath!?!?). I quickly had to drop some stuff off at mums to be tumble-dried and then made for the pub.

I found where they were sitting and to my surprise Jim was there too! He was training but had finished early and met us at the pub!

We had a lovely evening having a laugh an a joke and a few drinks, but sadly time was soon running out and i had to say my goodbyes and set off back to mums to pick up my stuff. When i got to mums Gareth was there and he showed me his new toy - a TomTom Sat Nav. I was vey impressed (and slightly jealous) but he showed me how it worked and all the little features on it. I stayed about 20mins but had to get back to the flat.

When i got in i still had some sorting out to do before but it didn't take me too long and then me adn Kieron went to bed.

Well i shall leave you there for now readers as i will blog Blackpool separately as i want to add some photos etc.

Cheerio!