Tuesday, 20 February 2007

TV Prompts Discussion

Me and the wife were watching TV last night, and we are getting to know the kind of programmes each of us likes watching, (in a proper married kind of way), and next up was a programme about people with a mental disorder in which they were hypochondriacs attempting to heal themselves of their obsession over medical issues.

A hypochondriac is someone who believes themselves to be in need of medical attention or medication, usually inventing their own symptoms to suit which ever disease they are reading about that week.

I'm mentioning this, because my wife is a borderline case. Every ache and pain she gets is cancer, and every bump and cough and sneeze emitted by anyone in the household is caused by cancer.

So while we watched this show, my missus admitted to me that she has a genuine fear of me dying, in addition to which she believes that one day I just wont come home, as I have died somewhere without her knowledge. Now I could have taken it 2 ways, one to laugh it off as nonsense and just normal paranoia, but the other is to take her fears to heart and realise that everyone should be concerned over this matter. I was quite touched by her openness, and giving thought as to how I can alleviate her fears on a daily basis, whether by emails, text messages or other methods, so that she knows I am still around and living.

pete_darby (194.60.106.5)
21st Feb, 2007 12:13 (local)
I think my sweety still doesn't quite get this about me; whenever she is late, I worry that she and the kids are tangled up in a mess on the motorway somewhere. Especially if I can't get her on the mobile.

It's also why I text her all the time, tell her I love her all the time (and the kids)... because it would just be my luck that the last thing I said to them was "The cat's crapped on the clean washing, sorry, got to run for my bus, haven't got time to clear it up."

It's also why I got really hacked off when she had a bad asthma attack a couple of weeks ago, but phoned everyone else but me because she "didn't want to worry me." Sweety, worry means care.

Sunday, 23 July 2006

Russian Food Funnies

Im married to a Russian woman, not a mail order bride or even an online mail order bride, but some poor woman who seemed to like me more than I liked myself.

But being Russian means she loves eating Russian food, and we are lucky to have 3 shops in the area that sell Russian food.

Well this blog today is about the food she buys. And today she bought some chocolate balls which taste just like Ferrero Roche, but due to bad translation end up as something else.



And thanks to Russian translation for the ingredients they become;



Sexy "Balls in Chocolate Power".

Mr Roche will not be quaking in his boots, and nor will our Russian guests think we are spoiling them.

Tuesday, 11 July 2006

Missing Reviews

sorry about the lack of reviews - I wrote about 6 of them on my phone, but the phone went wonky and is due to be upgraded in the next 2 weeks, but I have them saved on a memory card which I shall pull them off once the new phones arrive. RIP Orange M2000, long live O2 XDA Exec!

Sunday, 2 July 2006

Children's TV for Adults

No this isnt an entry about pornography, but rather a review of children's TV, specifically CBeebies, the toddler channel from the BBC.

With a 3.5 year old running around who cries at the thought of not catching the latest episode of the Shiny Show or the Fimbles in the same way we hit the roof to miss Star Trek or Dr Who, I end up watching a lot of children's TV.

The reason it is CBeebies is (a) is available on freeview, (b) its from the BBC meaning it has a certain agenda which is visible and trust worthy, (c) advert free.

We try, as parents, to limit her viewing for the sake of her eyes, plus I dont want her to become a couch potato.

While I am not going to be reviewing any of the shows now, I will shortly, Im listing below the ones that I at least enjoy, in no particular order.

The Shiny Show
Big Cook, Little Cook
Come Outside
Lazy Town
Fimbles/Roly Mo Show
Teletubbies
Tikabilla
StoryMakers
Balamory
Boogie Beebies
Bits & Bobs
Boo
Smarteenies
Lunar Jim
Little Robots
Fab Lab
Doodle Do
Bobinogs
Tweenies

Im only going to review the ones Ive watched more than 5 times, and those she watches, you will see there are quite a few I havent mentioned, simply because I dont see them.

Remember my reviews are going to be from an ADULT's perspective giving ratings according to

educational information - i.e. telling me things I didnt know
entertainment value - it is agonising to watch or does it surprise
production value - even though you can spend a ton on a show it can still look crap
presenters - including both human and puppets etc...
emperor's new clothes - this is the one Im most interested in (apart from the last), are we learning the same stories (sharing toys, be nice to your mum and dad, never tell lies) but with different characters?
adult value - would you shag the female presenters, do they wear clothes that are inappropriate for the show, are there in-jokes and sarcasm lost on children that adults find funny (Doodle Do)

Well here goes. I hope to review all 19 by this time next week.
Each show will get a short write up, good and bad points, then each of the 6 (so far) sections will be rated 1-5, and a total at the end. And just for completeness Ill throw the figures into an excel spreadsheet and see what comes out the other end.

Any comments or extra criteria I should add?

Saturday, 17 June 2006

Family Plus 1

Okay time to come clean. In my user info I stated that Im married to a woman and father to 2 more. Well that was true as at 9.49am 17th June2006 GMT. But before then it was just a lie.

You see my wife gave birth to our new daughter to make my user info correct. I guess I was just being lazy and not wanting to update it.

Regardless Im here to start the welcome to the world Amelia Rosina XXXXXX.

Love Daddy

Monday, 5 June 2006

Little Things Piss Me Off

Realised tonight that I have a dead pixel on my laptop. Yes its a Dell and its over 3 years old, so it has done well. But it still narks me off because Ive just coughed out money have the memory and hard drive upgraded.

Not done any writing as mentioned earlier, but spent the evening putting stuff on ebay.

Wife still on baby-watch, but worried the baby will be born tomorrow and have the birthdate of 06/06/06.

But my wife pointed out that a nicer birthday would be 20th June 2006, which would be 20 06 2006 or 2006 2006. But she cant wait that long, and nor can I.
Sitting here watching Big Brother, writing this blog and thinking of baby names. We have one in mind, but keeping an open mind.

Pissed that tomorrow will be the 4th episode of Lost season 2 that I have missed, but recorded and not watched.