Top Spoddery!

Today I am helping out my dear folks. They have come to Bristol dress
shopping (in Mother's case) for an imminent do.

I showed them some stores in BS1 that they had not visited before.

Top escalator action as a consequence.

This really is BlogBS5 at its racing performance best!

Get in!

Sofa so good.

Today I hoovered under the sofa, which I try to do at least annually.

I found this! It belongs to a pair of hooligan quadrapeds of my great
acquaintance. I am seeing them next week and look forward to reuniting
them with their rope.

Their owner is well over the border of Scotland on his LEJOG tour with
Carl.

More posts soon!

Guaca-fucking-mole!

I think Peter Mandleson is a shrewd political operative and a very sharp mind in the political jungle.

Indeed, I like him, even as Guardian as he is but I think his speaking style is cold, insipid, insincere, patronising and slimy.

He is also in as a made up Lord with no vote from the public and yet with his hands on some important red boxes.

Surely they will be wiped out and deservedly so ; a complete fuck up these last years in my opinion and I hope they get a kicking, even though any alternative is long enough out of office to be scarily untested. To hear Labour try to say they know what the country needs is a scarcely credible. All that utter wank about none of it being their fault and it all being international politics!

Keep Gordon Brown on and give the man some dignity but vote them all out ASAP, I trust!

Okay - rant over - spoons, bridges, trains and buses to follow, as per normal.

At Carlisle

As you may know, my brother and his good pal C.A are cycling Land's End to John O'Groats, or LEJOG as they now refer to it.

You can follow their Blog from the link to the right of this post (Bars and Handlebars)

They stayed with me last week here in BS5 - it was on Thursday. This evening they are in Carlisle which is bloody great going over the weekend! Scotland tomorrow or the day after, I guess.

I am pretty impressed at thier pace on a bike and their pace with fund raising; they are £700 shy of raising TEN grand!

Here's to you, chaps...

A happy breakfast family!

Check out this little gang all having breakfast in a line!

I met this little family at one of my eight stores/sites today and in
the half year I have been at the job I have seen them go from small to
big!

I think Pa swan had already left for work.

There is no Spoon.....

Readers of this Blog may have noticed a trend of lacklustre task
completion (bathrooms, wing mirrors, gardening) here at Bravo Sierra
Fiver.

One such task is replacement of my late and trusty wooden spoon. He
was a fine implement and stirred many a recipe. Anyhow his time had
come back in January 2009 and I finally binned him last week.

The Spoon is dead.....long live the Spoon.

I have 'future-proofed' myself and swapped one for three.

Crazy Friday night posts, Spoon fans!

Pedal power!

Today my brother and two of his class mates from school begin three weeks of effort to cycle from Land's End to John O'Groats!

They are doing this to raise money for The Newman Holiday Trust which helps families with autistic children by providing breaks in care and tailored holidays.

Greg, Carl and Keith are doing this because Stu', another school alumni has a son with autism.

Greg (my brother) is writing a daily Blog so if you follow mine, I'd be grateful if you would take a look at his, and in turn from there , click on the charity link to see what it is all about! You can see other people's messages too.

Carl has been on this Blog before and Keith is flying in from the USA to do his bit.

Thanks also to Walshy for provididng the Domain name and Blog.

Greg's blog is here , and the charity link is at the top of his blog, Bars and Handlebars.

Thanks!

BS5

History!

Today I have been to Goodrich Castle, an English Heritage sight on the
river Wye.

It's a great castle for hide and seek and general larks . It was in
use and active in the 13th C and there's still tons left.

We caught a fabulous day of sunshine, more mid-July than mid-September.

Here's a vid from the top of the tower!

Dog BS5

Here I am at Ma and Pa's with 2 of 2, Greg's second hound. They are
both here on hols' and the garden is full of larks and mischief!

Where the profit goes....

Today I have a team away day visiting a managed reserve owned by my
firm.

We are having a good old yomp about to see how it is maintained and to
reconnect with a typical destination for our profits made through
retail, memberships and other 'revenue streams'.

I'd sooner be on day job visiting stores and working with other
retailers but I know I will enjoy today and the reconnection point is
important!

I encountered this top smart train on the way over from home!

I will try to take some snaps today from my nature visit in the east
of England.

For those keen on tiling: progress remains with all the potential it
had at the weekend!

Top cooking action!

Hey food fans!

After weekend goatery I have achieved a new milestone in cookery. I
boiled up the remaing goat and bony bits with an onion and some wine.
This made some great stock which I left overnight.

Today I chopped some steak (which my Mum gave me) and some carrots,
onions, garlic and leek. Top smart winter stew to come.

BS9 supervised and chopped too, so thanks to her!

There's a moral and warm glow in re-using one meal to propogate the
next one. It's cheap too!

I am working from home today so making dinner whilst I do so seems
fair enough to me.

Progress!

Hey there decorating fans!

After only three short years BS5 has reached stage 2 of bathroom
decoration! The walls are pretty much there but the floor has been
wanting awhile (36 months).

The man at Homebase said if I had any whole packets left I could bring
those back for a refund within 28 days .

28 days?!! This project is measured in years.

Best crack on with it I suppose and thanks to GHR for moral support
and assistance

On the domestic front downstairs I am making stock with the bony bits
of goat and some onions and herbs - soup to follow!

BS5 goes even Guardian-er!

Goat to follow!

BS5 goes Guardian! Eek!

This afternoon BS9 and I have been to the edge of BS5, Easton.

There is a wealth of Asian supermarkets and halal butchers in Easton
and we visited our usual one to buy goat for a curry tonight. We also
visited The Sweet Mart, a fab' supermarket with a new (Guardian-esque)
deli counter. We had a mix of meat and veggie samosas and ate them on
a sunny wall.

Curry goat and spinach for dinner!

Spod!

Just home after a fine run in VX52 over the Severn bridge.

Whilst not a pb this is a pretty good mpg performance and worthy of
blog action!

Get in!

Maybe it was a good batch of diesel as generously purchased by my top
smart bro'.

Toothpaste action!

My brother is home from Manila and when he comes over, he tops up my
supply of really smart toothpaste. I am easy to please! Here's about a
year's cover!

It's a great flavour that I can't ordinarily find in BS5.

Weekend Tails

Friday night is stick night!

Chillin'

Quiet train, cold beer, good iPod tunes.

Ideal

More journey action....live!

Well transport fans, here's some live blogging from the 1741 Oxenholme
to Birmingham train . I caught it only due to its lateness of a minute.

Three of us drove from Aviemore and I hopped out at The Lake District
to get the train home to BS5!

As you can see, vital provisions have been sourced.

Home for 10pm I reckon!

South!

I am leaving Aviemore just now and am going for Bristol by the day's
end! Car and train might see me there by 9pm! It's 500 miles and just
like BA Baracus (Mr. T) 'I ain't gettin' on no plane, sucker!'.

Love nature.

Well here I am in the middle of a vast Scottish forest near a remote
loch. Nature and wildlife are abundant and constant, and there are
sights to behold .....I have seen Osprey and red squirrel and a myriad
of small birds. I am 498 miles from BS5.

But what has really impressed here in north Scotland?

Check out this generator!

On the ropes.

This is a general test of my ability to blog via email via iPhone .
Not sure if it can handle pics but here's a wee chap I encountered
yesterday whilst working at one of our stores in the north of
Scotland . There again today.