14 Years, is that some sort of record?

Happy Anniversary to my darling wife on our 14th Wedding Anniversary!!

Funny how it goes so quickly. It certainly hasn't been easy. But i'm proud of me, proud of she, and proud of we.

I'm only 35 but been married for 14 years its so mad. Made even more so by the fact that my best friend of 37 is getting married for the first time this October. What makes it strange is that he is so pathetically loved up, that i'm considering locking him and his new Mrs up for the next 2 years whilst they calm down! I went through this when I was 21 for heavens sake!

I've taken this week off to spend more time with the wife of my youth, and our kids. We've done loads starting last Saturday 10th June where we decided to have a family day where we gave Anniversary gifts to each other including the children. We like making it a family time, not just mum and dad. Monday we (the family) spent the day down at the beach in West Wittering, which was beautiful and so sunny. We had a great laugh playing in the sea and jumping over the waves, making sandcastles and kicking a football around. Only downside was I got badly sunburnt and i'm still paying for it 2 days later! When will I learn?? Tuesday we went as a family to Legoland in Windsor. I was grumpy first thing probably because of the sunburn, but I didn't stay like it for long. I took my son on his first proper rollercoaster rides (nearly had to drag him on) and thankfully he loved it. The 2 that stood out would be the Jungle Coaster and the Dragon Coaster, both were good rides, with the Jungle Coaster having the most serious dip! Saying that, as we emerged from undercover on the Dragon Coaster we were met with a major blast of heavy rain! We got soaked!! It added an extra dimension to the ride that i'd be reluctant to redo ever again thats for sure! Our faces were pitted with the heavy rain meeting us at speed on the ride. That wasnt the only time I got soaked too, I think all the water rides and the weather had it in for me big time. The worse case by far was this waterfall that started and stopped in the Amazing Mazes , this suggests that you can pass through if you are quick enough when it stops, but oh no the blighter is rigged and it released its full force on me when I attempted a balletic swan dive to the path the other side. Wet does not describe what happened to me, neither does soaked or drenched. Is it posible to be wetter than in a bath? If so that was what I was!! This didnt dampen (groan) my spirits, I mean hey i'm on holiday from work and at a theme park with the family. Today (Wednesday) I took the kids out on my own and we went to a craft shop in Chertsey that allows us to buy and decorate lots of different gifts and cermics, which was great. I even had a go and painted a small bird box!! After that I took the kids to see the Disney movie 'The Wild'. All i'm going to say about that is DO NOT SEE THIS MOVIE!!! If it was possible to make a movie worse than Madagascar then I think Disney have done it. It got better this evening with my wife and I going out for a meal and catching Poseidon at our local Vue cinema which although it wasnt the best it did entertain.

To finish let me give you an update on the Triops from my last post. They have gotten BIGGER in fact if you include the full length of the tail i'd say I have a couple that are about 40mm long now. They are so fascinating, I love watching them especially when they eat. Lower fins have become evident now and they look fully developed. The only shame is that we have had our first deaths. As mentioned previously they have a short lifespan and I think that they died because I needed to replace the water more often than I have. Its a learning curve but the whole experience has been so cool and i'd recommend it. We have a number of the critters left to enjoy still anyway.

Time for bed now, I hope you found this all a little entertaining. :-) chux

Triops...............how cool are they!!

It just astounds me!

My son had one of these kits given to him as a gift, and so it has become our latest science experiment together. It is incredible, from dorment eggs that are like specs of dust, by just adding spring water to a container and doing minimal preparation within 1 week we have living creatures that have already grown to about 10mm long. I have checked just in case as to whether this growth rate will continue, which it will, but to a maximum of 25-75mm (1-3inches).

What I dont want to happen is that I come down one morning and these things have grown so big that they have eaten the kids for breakfast. Saying that the old coffee jar that they are currently living in may get bit tight in the next week or so. (blimey)

Triops are crustaceans that have been on the earth for a long time. A Triassic, Jurassic sort of thing. (what does the odd 10 thousand years here and there matter) They have been incredible to watch, although I must say my wife doesn't quite have the same level of enthusiasm about them as the kids and I do. The other sort of things you can get like these are Sea Monkeys which live for longer but don't get any where near as big. Watching them eat their food is facinating. They hold it under their body with their legs (for want of a better way of expressing it) whilst they slowly eat. They often scuffle when it comes to lunch times a bit like a donut in a health spa.

There are loads of information resources on the web about Triops. Here's one with good images and the video clip is excellent. click

Bipolar

Have you had this experience?

One minute you are laughing and then the next sobbing like a child?

All it leaves you is exhausted, shattered and heartbroken. Even with loved ones around you, you can feel so alone and so misunderstood.

Sometimes I can't even keep up with being me! People have an expectation that I just cannot fulfill anymore.

I can't say I ascribe to all these feelings in the image but I understand it better than I want to.