The debonair Basil Marigold's

Our ebay purchased bureau disappeared on saturday to a new home in Yorkshire! clearing yet more space in the ex-spare room, now being converted to the nursery! Today I moved out the double bed and mattress so I could at least begin to make some headway. To give us both a fighting chance! I now had space to put up the cot and here are the photos! also the ikea changing table bought again, in yorkshire, Leeds, in the background. If we're not selling to Yorkshire, we're buying from Yorkshire! What continues to amaze me is that something so small, needs something so big, because that cot is large!

....So, I had some spare sand and gravel! boredom, is a terrible thing, especially when you have spare sand and gravel!

Collateral Damage 'any damage incidental to an activity.' Since my wife became, 'with Child'. Life has, surprisingly seen a few alterations. Now we have seen collateral damage. Living in an old terrace house our entrance is fairly narrow at the back and is not helped by the placing of our recycling bin outside the back door. Now we could move in and out comfortably, but with impedding Buggy Jockey, due soon. We wouldn't be able to get the buggy past the bin and into the house. So, essentially, we had to rennovate the garden to surmount this obstacle.We aimed to do this by removing a front part of the garden and slabbing it so we can put our bins on and remove it from the near the house. I firstly removed all shrubs and bushes and strained my back doing so; which is why I despise gardening, as it is why Hobbits excel. They don't have to reach down 3ft to dig. So now the ground was clear of plants and bushes and also the trellis fence had been removed which was gr

This is a Beatles lyric a friend of mine posted on his Facebook site a few months ago. It is from one of the beatles more introspective records. It got me thinking then of music and things I remember and I found myself thinking of who I have seen and whose music has really touched, and changed my life and thoughts. Because that is what really good music can do, reach inside and change you, provoke you, engage you and even seduce you. It hasn't changed from Mozart to Beatles, the power of music is one of the worlds most powerful creative forces, alongside Literature and Art. Like those it has continually changed, but still its essence is the same. So here we go on a tour of who Tony, has paid money too see and be entertained by; Pink Floyd - Legendary Band from the Mid 60's to the Nineties. No one can listen to the wall, the final cut and not know music as thought provocation. Spent my formative years devouring the back catalogue and altering my view of the world. London Janes A

Yes, today was the first day of the proposed Ante Natal course, my wife and I are booked on. It's a free 4 week course: There is a reason for this I found out after spending 2 hours of my life coming to terms with just how long 2 hours is when you really, really, count, every single second as it ticks by, remorselessly. It started badly. The chairs were layed out in the circular fashion. This immediately puts my back up as I now knew what the first sentence would be from the midwife. 'Let's introduce ourselves.', it was in fact 'lets introduce ourselves...and say a few things about your pregnancy'. It was going to get tougher than I thought, I thought. 6 couples, 6 men and 6 women. Women appeared interested to be there. The men, I counted at least 3 who wanted to be somewhere else, anywhere else. Fighting in the somme, for example. I think what annoyed me most, was that I spent 2 hours and picked up information that was actually on the handout. Could I not have

Okay, so for those who don't know we at the Theaker household are having what is commonly called a clear out in preparation for the arrival of Child. It can indeed be cathartic. But it does turn up some surprises. And my books are one of them. Today I revealed this book, pictured below. Arguably my favourite author is David Gemmell, who passed away last year, and was I think the best fantasy writer in the UK. His first book and masterpiece was called 'Legend'. Now, as I found myself in Prague, a city I love, about 6 years or so ago. I always wanted to visit Prague, pretty much from the day I watched this music video by one of my favourite bands, INXS. While I was in Prague I walked into a bookshop and there in front of me was a copy of David Gemmells, Legend, 'Legenda'. So as a treat I purchased it. The only drawback being it is translated into the Czech. Looking back it was perhaps a pointless gift and now it is leaving the house. Unless of course I quickly learn C

Or so this girl would have thought, what with the explosion in tattoos of late, especially in exotic languages, such as arabic, ala Beckham, or Chinese Pictograms, as this poor girl has just found out. It does pay to have them in English as you really then know just what they mean! As opposed for being an advert for ASDA.

For those who have seen it, the New co-operative advert is very good. It is also very long, but gets the message across. I have banked with the co-op now for a fair few years as I admire their ethical stance over investments and what they stand for. I am also a huge fan o Bob Dylan, who provides the song to the advert, which as you can read is exceptionally rare to occur. Bob Dylan is, arguably, one of the greatest singer songwriters of the 20th Century. More so the songwriter than the singer, as his voice was never brilliant and has gradually over time got worse. But his songs remain some of the most powerful written and reflect the age within which he developed and became famous, in the 60's and beyond by taking issues and writing songs about them. Hence, Cooperative getting the rights to play one of his, it seems to be an almost perfect synergy. I do enjoy the song, I have it on the greatest hits album somewhere, but I think they missed a trick by not picking another Bob Dylan

I mention that I am drinking a bottle of cornish real ale on twitter @tonytheaker and I am now being followed by the brewery! @Tribute_Ale Just how cool is that? seriously, for me, very cool.

I have had a fairly early starts to the past couple of days. Today was spent being a leader for the day with the leaders of the Notts Councils, as our leader is heading to Harrogate. It was though, in Retford. A town in the North of Notts and not especially easy to get to via public transport. It is a nice market town though, quite surprising in some of the older buildings it possessess and a nice town hall I attended. But this is not the point. I managed to get home at about 5.30ish having left there at 4pm and I was tired, so I went out and came back with 2 small bottles of beer. One from the lake district I sampled the sneck lifter, which is a very dark ale and very nice accordingly, for a dark ale. (though I would also recommend the Crag Rat). If you do have a look at their site, please see the greatest advert I noticed when I did, simply, but effectively labelled. "Competition - Win Beer". How great is that. The other is from the St Austell brewery A much paler ale, wh

Is that I start snooping around You tube. This was never a problem before the Internet. Anyway, here's a classic of a song that I am a sucker for. I did enjoy the film, the original. And when I watched it I absolutely adored this song. I liked it's quirky, psychedelic influences and the english accent of Noel Harrison, who appeared in the best ever episode of Ironside, ever. But that's another story. But apart from that I was never a huge Steve Mcqueen fan, as it seems most men tend to be.

sat in retford costa coffee shop, filling myself with hot cappucino. Yet, i have the coldest feet. Retford seems nice and they have a cannon in front of the church too. # end

not the most inspiring train station.

Here I am, sat at shirebrook waiting for the train to move from the station as today I am heading to Retford for a meeting. So far the sun is starting to breach the horizon and the frosty rooftops look stunning under the golden stare of the sun. How could you enjoy this in a car? --

There is a TV show which goes round peoples home and searches for artifacts that could turn out to be valuable. At the Theaker household we are a little like King Midas in reverse. I shall now prove this by my experience in the Shed. Now that the local tip is open I went in last weekend to make some space and give it a nice sort out. It is much more spacious now. Though while I was exploring I found, not only a water tap, but below it I found perhaps the greatest piece of Tat I have so far found, I present below the All Saints, plastic orange bucket; I, sadly, believe this exotic find to be, essentially, worthless.

Okay, this did happen at the world championships and somebody is going to get sued. And boy, oh boy does it look painful.