Yeayy!! Got a phone call just before 1 o'clock this morning, telling us of the arrival of out FOURTH grand-child! Lennon weighed in at 7lb 13 oz - congratulations Jamie and Jess!!

Oh dear... I really have been very remiss... I've just realised that I haven't updated this page for over a year - oops!!

OK, here we go... the Incense Man clan continues to grow - we now have two grand-daughters (Bethany and Courtney), one grand-son (Lewis), another grand-son (probably to be called Lennon) due very soon, and yet another grand-child (as yet un-sexed and un-named) due in the autumn!!
You can see a few photos of the tribe on our Picasa page, http://picasaweb.google.com/incense.man

Other family news - The Elderly Mother has now had to leave her house, and is happily living in a residential care home... so hopefully no more phone calls for us in the middle of the night from neighbours, ambulance crews etc!

On the home front - our prospective move to the West Country has been put on hold, because of the current state of the property market... so I'm concentrating on improvements to our present house - little jobs like replacing our ageing central heating boiler, re-decorating, replacing various carpets, re-turfing the front garden, building a new garden shed (and re-roofing the old one), and generally getting rid of all the garden rubbish that's accumulated over the years. (There's a skip sitting on the end of the drive at the moment, almost full of god-only-knows-what!)

Ah well, that's QUITE enough for now... and I promise I'll try to post updates more regularly from now on!

Did the earth move for you??

Wow! We had an earthquake!! And just in case you haven't heard or seen any news about it, you can read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7266136.stm

The wife and I had only been in bed for about 15-20 minutes last night, and were just dropping off, when we were rudely awakened just before 1 am by a strange noise... it sounded like a huge gust of wind, followed immediately by what sounded like something sliding down the roof of the house.

(My immediate reaction was that a roosting pigeon must have been been blown off its perch, and slid down the tiles.)

Anyway, I jokingly said to Chris "Don't worry, it was probably just another earthquake." (We'd had reports of a very minor local earth tremor a week or so ago...) So I was VERY surprised when I turned on the radio this morning and heard on the news that it actually WAS an earthquake!

And before you ask - I've checked the roof, and there's no sign of any damage caused by falling pigeons.

Catching up with life!

SIGH... now I know I'm getting old! I've just realised that I haven't updated this page since last August - and that's not because there's been nothing happening to report, quite the opposite... I've been so busy dealing with all the s**t that's been hitting the fan, I haven't had any time to write about it!

So - what's been going on over the last 4-and-a-bit months? Well, I've had another birthday (although I've now had so many I try to forget them!), another wedding anniversary (very scary - it's 30 years now... equivalent to 2 life sentences - you get less for murder...), Number One Son has announced he's going to be a Daddy (so that'll be our third grandchild), Number Two Son has been on crutches, and in and out of hospital with a damaged anterior cruciate ligament (because he was the victim of a vicious tackle during a game of football), and Number Three Son has moved (again), this time to Lancashire.

Plus we've had continuing fun & games with "The Elderly Mother" - various falls, hospital visits etc... and add all the hassle of Christmas (personal and business)... so you can possibly understand why I've hardly had time to draw breath!

Still - it's a New Year and a new start, so maybe things will be a little easier in 2008... and I hope they are for you too!

Made up words...

What is it with advertisers making up ridiculously over-complicated, unneccesary and nonsensical words at the moment? Haven't we already got enough perfectly good words in the English language, for goodness sake?

The two that REALLY irritate me every time I see them on the TV are:

"Scrappage" - in (I think) a Ford car commercial... what the heck is that supposed to mean? And:

"Terrorisation" - in a commercial for some god-awful film, which according to the blurb "contains sustained terrorisation"... aaaarggghhhh!!!!!

It sounds suspiciously to me as if that ill-educated buffoon George Dubya is being employed on the side as an advertising copy-writer... God help us all!

Rihanna - Umbrella

Dear Rihanna

I'm sure you're really a very nice person... but that Umbrella song REALLY gets on my nerves.

It's a very uncharitable thing to say... but may I suggest you stick your Umbrella-ella-ella up your bottom-ottom-ottom.

Thank you!

Fave flicks confirm sad sense of humour...

I spent a happy couple of hours last night watching two of my all-time favourite films that happened to be on the TV, one after the other...

"Spinal Tap" rapidly followed by "Porky's".

Oh dear... what an unfortunate insight into my mind!