The debonair Basil Marigold's

Recently, we have had an issue with our main car. The issue was its inability to pass its own MOT. For cars, this is not good. It is, very bad. It can mark the death of the car. And boy, this car is virtually indestructible! However, there were quite a few major fails! It essentially boils down to the fact that the car is now thirteen years old, which, in car years is thirteen years. this makes it an older car. The plus to this is that it drives a lot of miles each year that helps keep the engine tip top. The drawback is that the car drives a lot of miles each year which that means every thing is fatiguing. In this case it was the brake pipes throughout the car. This is a big job, using garage parlance, and big correlates with expensive! But, it has now passed its MOT as the work has been done. This means thought that the warning signs are there and it is time to get a car where each repair cost more than the car. Currently valued by WeBuyAnyCar at £215!! So, with children in h...

You can spell ‘Contractor’ but not Plumber!!! 

At work we have a fully fitted kitchen for staff to make drinks, use the microwave and fridges etc. It has two sinks and an instant boil tap. I love the instant boil tap. Every house should have one! We also have some taps for our sinks. They have been there since I have been there and they are used very heavily every day and so, at some point, they will fail. The tap failed last week. Fortunately facilities swung into action and put up an out of service sign and rang through to get it fixed. I can only assume they had tried to call, Christopher Plummer...oh dear.

My son and I will often listen to music in the car. Previously he used to enjoy the AC/DC soundtrack to Ironman 2. His current listening pleasure is the soundtrack to the Guardians of the Galaxy films. These are performed by various artists, mainly from the 70s. I therefore find myself listening to music I used to hear on the Alan Freeman show on Radio 1 on a Sunday afternoon. He is particularly fond of sweet's, Band on the run.    Pure 70s Glamrock. He loves it. He'll also gravitate towards  Hooked on a feeling & Mr Blue Sky (This is the song on the opening credits). We will listen to all these songs in the car. But, the most appropriate one for being in a car is a song called, The Chain by Fleetwood Mac. It is suitable because this song become at some point the theme tune to Formula 1 racing. Joshua knows it as the formula 1 song. His other fact about Fleetwood Mac is that Mick Fleetwood is really tall. As we were driving through town we were listening to th...

As I count via the calendar it has now reached the ninth month since I have had any alcohol. This is a most bizarre state of affairs. I have made no new years resolution, and, as far as I am aware I have had no warnings over my health either. Therefore, I have no idea why this has continued for so long. I commute a long distance so I have not had a drink during a weekdays for years now. Yet, I could quite happily have a drink on a weekend but I neither felt the need nor had the desire to make a dent into my whiskey or gin in the cupboard. Perhaps the scariest part is I am not sure when this phase will pass. I will keep the alcohol on the shelf for the time being, though.

After three months of fairly intense watching I have now finished all four seasons of 'Vikings'. It has been highly entertaining watching the adventures of Ragnar Lothbrok and his family.  Ragnar Lothbrok is an interesting character. He is ingrained in the very fabric of Nordic, but also English folklore. In the late 8th century raiders from Scandinavia began popping along the English coastline and they were pretty grim folk. One of these ancient kingdoms affected was Northumbria. In the 9th century it had a King called Aelle. In legend this king finally kills the Viking Ragnar by dropping him into a pit of snakes.  This event kicked off in legend and reality a huge chain of events that still reverberate to this day. Ragnar Lothbrok's last words were.  "How the  little pigs would grunt  if they knew how the old boar suffers"   He had sons. He had quite a few sons. And one things Vikings liked was avenging. The death of Ragnar brought over from Scandin...

Yes. It has rolled around again; It's vast, overblown, and entirely fuelled by money! It is the FIFA World Cup. 2/3 years since FIFA nearly sank under the weight of it's own corruption their global jewell in the crown has landed in Russia. Known around the world for its transparent and open government, virtually free of corruption of any kind. 32 teams of varying quality have arrived in the East to win this golden trophy. This, to me, is the most beautiful trophy in the world. When I was young one of my first memories of world football was Mexico '86. At this time I was a year from secondary school and we were at the height of the Panini sticker albums. I completed the season one for the First Division. Teams like Liverpool, Aston Villa and Chelsea etc. But over the summer of 1986 they released the world Cup sticker album. This book contained non-english people. It was the most foreign publication I had ever seen. There were names I could not pronounce and they seeme...