The lads in The Crooked Billet

After dinner at Fi and Grae's, the lads headed off to The Crooked Billet. It was a very good turn out, with about 16 people turning up.

Mill's visit, and dinner round Fi and Grae's

Mill was over for a few days for his Dad's 80th, and decided to stay on for a few days. On Saturday, we all went down to Fi and Grae's for dinner before going out.

Lunchtime walk

It was another sunny lunchtime today, so I went for a walk around in the chilly sunshine, before the big freeze hits this weekend. Below is a photo of The Monument.

West Ham v Hull

The rain has eased off in time for kick off. Its still a bit cold and misty here at Upton Park.

Lunchtime walk

After the grim, wet weekend; it was nice to get out of the office for a while to go for a walk.

In the Earl of Wakefield

Celebrating the 3-1 win

West Ham v Fulham

Grae and Paul get into the pre-match spirit with a Shire famous Cornish Pasty. That's SHIRE!

Luke's mango

Tuesday night we went out to La Genova restaurant with the boys from Norway, as well as the people from Crosskey. Luke ordered Mango for dessert, which was served up like a 1950's swimsuit! So hence a hastily taken photo opportunity....

Karin, James and the kids came down to visit Lesley and Mark, So on Sunday, we all met up at the local Toby Carvery, to use the free meal vouchers we'd got after a previous less pleasant visit. This time the food and service was excellent! I'm wearing my Philadelphia Eagles game in preparation for today's big game, which the Eagles won!

My first proper drawing in ages!

After Barack Obama's recent appearance in Spider-Man, Rick asked if I could do a drawing of him with Obama and Captain America...for some reason! It showed how out of practice I am, my hand was aching by the end!

Visit to Valentines Park

Today was a crisp, sunny, wintery day. So Siv and I went over Valentines Park in Ilford for lunch in the cafe, and a walk around the grounds feeding the squirrels. A lot of the park is undergoing renovation with money from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and things are looking a lot better now than they did a year or two ago.

New Year's Day at Mum and Dad's

We spent New Year's Day round Mum and Dad's where we all got to exchange belated Xmas presents, and have a very nice buffet dinner. We all ended up trying out the Picooz Challenger set we got for Russell and Grace. People behind the helicopters seemed to get caught with strange expressions for some reason!!

Mum tries to use mind power to control the helicopter!