Sometimes my daughter doesn’t want a kiss and a cuddle but I might though. Does this matter? My feelings, I mean. I think sometimes she plays a game and shuns me on purpose. Although it can be a little hurtful I have to remember it’s not about my feelings. It shouldn’t matter if she doesn’t want to be my friend. I’m not her friend after all.
I’m her Dad and that role shouldn’t be approached with confusion or doubt regarding my place…. There to give love and affection at any time. To help and guide always but also to let her trip and fall and learn from her mistakes.

So last night she didn’t want to know. That’s OK because tonight I’m still here……. Just in case she needs me.
Her Dad.

See more at my Flickr

That’s right.
Only 5 weeks before another baby comes out of my wife’s body.
Funny how being this is the second. The whole situation is treat completely differently. There is no panic to prepare a bedroom (not that we’ve space anyway).
There is no consumption of leaflets and books about what to do and what to expect if……

No worries, relaxed and just letting things happen. That is until 5 weeks to go hit home. I’ve only this weekend and then the agreed ‘one month before’ alcohol ban is in place so I’m sober when I need to race my Queen to the hospital.

I think this weekend we’ll pack the hospital bag….. Maybe. At some stage I’ve to dig out all the old baby gear that is stored away in the loft but when…..?

You see.
You approach the second with a different attitude. No less love or affection but slightly wiser and mentally prepared for what you’ll see and experience. To a degree anyway. We can only be prepared for what we have already experienced so fingers crossed….. But if this is not the case then, well, a baby is a baby. They still need feeding and cleaning and still need to be loved and still will provide happiness on infinite levels.

It’s certainly an exciting time and I cannot wait!

It’s been 26 hours since I last trained Thai boxing and around 87,600 hours before that. That’s 10 years to me and you. A long absence, and although I’ve managed to do over things to keep fit (even if it hasn’t been routinely) like Tai-bo and squash and even the 30 minute walk I do most mornings. Non of these things compare to the rigorous beating your body takes during a 2 hour Thai boxing session. Even pad holding is strenuous.

The morning after my body was aching but not with muscle pain.
No.
My chest was bruised from taking knees.
My wrist is bruised from taking kicks (albeit with pads).
My knee hurts from kneeing (obviously).
My back hurts from over stretching (I think).
I can certainly feel the inside of my legs from having one foot on my partners shoulder and the other on the floor while they stood up raising my foot and thus pulling my groin. But then I did keep saying “higher, higher”. Silly me, thinking it’s 10 years ago again.

But I’ve yet to ache the ’2 days later’ ache you get after putting your body though that kind of shit. Yes I can feel it coming……. Coming on like a slow building wave. I’m going to sleep now but I know come the morning and I’m fucked…..
Was it worth it? Oh yes. I enjoyed training with my brother and enjoyed taking a trip down memory lane, letting muscle memory kick in, pulling off the moves I used to do so well but now really can’t do very well…. sigh…..

Bring on getting fit again throwing punches and kicks!

I like taking pictures but I’m not a photographer. In fact I like some of my pictures that much that I feel like showing them off. Hence my newly opened Flickr account. A place where I can show off the pictures I’ve taken with my camera and with my phone.

Although some pictures appear on this site I’m reluctant to include links to full size images to keep upload speeds good. So I figured better to use someone else’s space better suited to massive image uploads. That’ll be Yahoo’s then!

Some pics on this site won’t appear on my Flickr account. I’m saving what I consider to be the creme for the Flickr account (mainly due to the monthly upload limit). That said. The pics on Wayne’s World are still pics enjoyed by myself!

So check out my Flickr pictures so far….

Imagine a world where candy floss, rock, ice cream, donuts and sea mollusc’s were the staple of every diet.

Where tea cup waltz’s and 2p machines were prime time entertainment.

Where the tide coming in and going out is what you set your alarm by.

That’ll be the English seaside.

Or that’s what I see when I’m there at least.

See more at my Flickr

It’s an unfortunate fact that Jackie Chan only does the bumbling side kick best in the eyes of the Hollywood casting directors.
This needn’t be the case because we all know he has charisma and talent enough to carry a film but the men in suits in movie land don’t think so. Shame really.

So…..

This leads on to his latest movie. A re-make of a classic…. The Karate Kid. I saw this tonight and enjoyed it but I must stress. I am a big fan of the original and a big fan of JC so was fully prepared for disappointment. I wasn’t disappointed and enjoy the film. There were gripes though. So let’s start with them.

What was wrong with this film?

The acting was pants. Let’s face it, it was. In the ‘i hate it here I want to go home’ scene the Mum character is upstaged by Jaden Smith and that’s not a compliment! Sorry Jaden. I felt sorry for him because he must have found it difficult to make the character his own when the character is already so established so I won’t take anything away from him for been a little wooden……. His cuteness made up for that though (my Queen said)?!
JC was also not so good but again how do you do a Mr Miyagi impersonation without ripping off Mr Miyagi?
Also, I don’t know if this was a conscience disiscion or not, but, Karate Kid or Kung Fu Kid?! Setting the movie in Beijing looked visually impressive and that meant Kung Fu, naturally, but the bullies didn’t sit well with me. Americans learning Karate carries more weight because of the ignorance and arrogance of an American learning a foreign martial art means they would easily take it out of context. AND use it for wrong doing. I’m pretty sure there aren’t too many Kung Fu schools teaching the ‘mercy is for the weak’ mantra.
And finally….
The ‘crane kick’ scene at the end of the movie…… Come on. He may have well as flown over the finish line!!

But that said there were good things about this movie….

When I started watching it I was filled with worry that this was a modern take on an idea and not a tribute to a classic movie but those fears were soon laid to rest…. Much of the dialogue is very similar and although the plot has big obvious differences, like moving to China and not just cross country to California and our main character (named differently) being a lot younger then Daniel San. Everything else is much in the same vein right down to the love interest’s well to do family being close to the ‘Johnny’ character. This film is very much a remake and not a re-working. And that, in my opinion is more suited to this film. Maybe I’m just bias but The Karate Kid deserves the best and it very nearly is treated to such.

So all in all it is good BUT, and this is a big but……
If the original didn’t exist and this was a new film with an original script, would it be so good? Maybe not.
Newbies to the franchise beware…!

By guest writer, Rob

They say the corner shop is dying…

Large supermarket chains are slowly pushing them out, but I like to play as the saviour, well, to one shop anyway, until today.

As I spend nearly £20 per week at said shop I was stunned to have experienced ‘the bag’ incident today, I had purchased 2 x 2ltrs of diet coke and a 750cl bottle of vodka. I asked the lady behind the counter (The co owner) If I could have a second bag to split the weight as I had a fair walk ahead of me and the weight of all the bottles in one bag was sure to slice off my fingers. She looked at me in amazement as though I had just spat in her jar of penny sweets. I explained my predicament and she replied with “5p” … I said I would struggle home with just one bag and promptly left.
I have shopped there nearly 3 years and lived only a few houses away.

If these little shops want to co exist with the so called ‘Monster’ chains then they have to have a long hard think about what they can offer that sainsbury’s (200 yards away in this case) can’t offer me. The first thing and the easiest thing would be a personal, pleasant, one to one experience, a ‘hello, how are you’ would be good instead of inspecting the cctv as I wonder out of view. The only reason that i shop there is that the coke is chilled as apposed to sainsbury’s, but if she was nice to me it would be 2-0 to the corner shop.
At the end of the day it was 5p she wasn’t willing to lose, now she has lost £20 a week.

Cool. That was written by non other then published illustrator and friend, Rob.
check his work out….

Nights out in Shanghai are good…….

Fuelled by some of the most expensive ale I’ve ever had the pleasure of parting with my cash for….

Doing Dad dancers the world over proud

It’s surprisingly difficult to move your body to the beat and remain silly throughout…. Or maybe I just can’t dance, you see, the silliness I was good at but keeping the beat….. Not so.
My daughter didn’t mind though and the fact that she tries to copy your moves makes the whole escapade worthwhile.

Not a shade embarrassing for me but my Queen would rather I danced, well, well really.