Bowch's Blog

This time last year I was waking up as a single man for the very last time.

It's been an interesting year; a few ups and downs, but mainly ups.

We had a weekend without the kids; who were at the grandparents. So, we decided to head to Coniston yesterday. We popped in to say "Hi" to Tim and June, who were so kind to loan us their home last summer for our honeymoon. We had a meal at the Black Bull and then had a short walk on the lakefront. We picked up some Duck Eggs and some Home Cured Bacon, which I'm just about to cook up for our breakfast.

We'll be going back again next year; a tradition has been started.

Well, after yesterday's general election here in the UK it looks like we'll be getting another 5 years of Conservative government; although without having to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, who have lost roughly 50 seats since the 2010 election. I guess that's a strong message that their supporters were not happy that they got into bed with the Conservatives last time around.

Locally, labour candidate Jamie Reed retained his seat with 16,750 votes (42.3% share), a majority of 2,564, with a 63.8% turnout.

With the school's off for the Easter holidays, Beck and I took the opportunity to head off with the kids, to Butlins in Skegness. We met up with Beck's sister, her husband and their two kids. I think everybody more or less had a good time, although as is usually the case, not everything went smoothly. It's been about 20-25 years since I last visited Butlins, that time in Ayr, and I think the quality of the holidays have improved; the food selection was pretty damned good, and we had fried breakfasts every morning and a wide selection to choose from each night. I never had the same evening meal twice. There was also a wide selection of events and entertainment to enjoy, including street dance troupe, Diversity, winners of the third series of Britain's Got Talent. I'd heard of them, but never seen them, and was surprised to find myself enjoying their show.

All in all, a good week!

Spam is always a pain in the neck for blogs. Even though I've only made 14 entries, including this one, my comment count, is almost 700, of which only 6 are genuine. The rest have been spam comments I've deleted.

Anyway, I've got a few spam blockers in place that don't seem to help much; especially since I'm having to moderate a lot of the spam comments myself. Tonight, I've added Googles Recaptcha to the mix, and hopefully that'll help!

US release date of July 10th 2015

With both kids out yesterday, Beck and I took the opportunity to watch some movies:

World War Z, Dog Soldiers and I Am Legend.

3 cracking movies.

Kids are out again this afternoon. so we might watch something else!

One cold and bitter Thursday in Munich, Germany,
Eight great football stalwarts conceded victory,
Eight men will never play again who met destruction there,
The flowers of English football, the flowers of Manchester
Matt Busby’s boys were flying, returning from Belgrade,
This great United family, all masters of their trade,
The pilot of the aircraft, the skipper Captain Thain,
Three times they tried to take off and twice turned back again.
The third time down the runaway disaster followed close,
There was slush upon that runaway and the aircraft never rose,
It ploughed into the marshy ground, it broke, it overturned.
And eight of the team were killed as the blazing wreckage burned.
Roger Byrne and Tommy Taylor who were capped for England’s side.
And Ireland’s Billy Whelan and England’s Geoff Bent died,
Mark Jones and Eddie Colman, and David Pegg also,
They all lost their lives as it ploughed on through the snow.
Big Duncan he went too, with an injury to his brain,
And Ireland’s brave Jack Blanchflower will never play again,
The great Matt Busby lay there, the father of his team
Three long months passed by before he saw his team again.
The trainer, coach and secretary, and a member of the crew,
Also eight sporting journalists who with United flew,
and one of them Big Swifty, who we will ne’er forget,
the finest English ‘keeper that ever graced the net.
Oh, England’s finest football team its record truly great,
its proud successes mocked by a cruel turn of fate.
Eight men will never play again, who met destruction there,
the flowers of English football, the flowers of Manchester

One of the films I've been wanting to see since I first heard about it was the Stephen Hawking biopic 'The Theory of Everything' starring Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones. It's based on Jane Hawking's book 'Travelling to Infinity, My Life with Stephen' and charts their first meeting at a party in 1963, their life together, Hawking's deteriorating health as a result of his illness, and their subsequent separation in 1990.

It's unsurprising, at least in my opinion, that it it has been nominated for Oscars as Best Picture, Best Actor for Redmayne, Best Actress for Jones, Best Adapted Screenplay for McCarten, and Best Original Score for Jóhann Jóhannsson. It was also nominated for ten BAFTAs. It has already won Golden Globe awards for Motion Picture Drama, for Eddie Redmayne as Best Actor and for Jóhann Jóhannsson with Best Original Score.

I would highly recommend the film.

Well, I'm feeling better; more or less. The wife, however, is entering a third week of feeling like crap; she has a rather vicious throat infection, which has blocked one of her eustachian tubes and caused her some balance issues. She's on a course of antibiotics, and we're hoping she'll start feeling better soon; especially, since she wants to enjoy her pregnancy.