No, really? Where do I begin. 36 days since my last entry. Very, very, very poor. Let’s see where things are at.
June came and went very quickly. Too quickly, as it turned out – as I discovered that the car tax on the RX8 was running out at the end of the month. Equipped with the fancy form from the DVLA and the interweb, I endeavoured to renew it…. and, about this point is when I discovered I’d totally forgotten about the car needing an MOT… Whoops!
So, I quickly booked the car in for the service it was due, and its MOT – on the 4th of July, a few days after I noticed the car now required an MOT (being over 3 years old), four days into the month the car’s no longer taxed for. Erk. To make matters worse, this weekend was Katy & Mark’s wedding weekend, and I was due to be in Shropshire over the weekend. Time, as the saying goes, was of the essence!
It was also around this time that I became aware of a dull pain in my right ear, and the gradual hearing loss I began experiencing. Over the course of a few days between the MOT expiry and the wedding, my hearing levels in my right ear dropped to barely audible.
When we heard, months ago, that Sheffield’s dilapidated ‘Roxy Disco’ building had been purchased by the AMG group – operators of the ‘Carling Academy’ music venues – with a view to it becoming the ‘Sheffield Carling Academy’ we were quite excited. As time moved on, and we found out that the venue’s opening act would be Grenoside’s own ‘Reverend & The Makers’, well, let’s just say that the clickthru to seetickets.com was more-or-less instantaneous.
As it turns out, it was quite lucky we bought our tickets when we did, because the gig sold out only a day or two later – pretty impressive for an act that’s only troubled the top 20 twice.
We arranged for my mum to pop over and babysit Aimee, and we toddled off to the bus stop for the bus to town – a little later than we’d planned, but we weren’t really bothered too much as we figured the first support act, ‘Toddla T’ (no, really) would be toss anyhow. If we’d could catch some ‘Smokers Die Younger’, the other support act, that’d be great. However, due to First South Yorkshire’s dire bus service (our ‘every 15 minutes’ service arrived after standing at the bus stop for nearly 50 minutes) and our mixed up assumption of the running order, we arrived at the Academy mid-way through ‘Toddla T’s set. Joy.
…are, mercifully, unfounded! 
I am a very busy bee, you see.
Off to a Reverend and the Makers gig tonight, will report tomorrow.
Took Aimee to see the “Baaa-baa’s” and “Moo-moo’s” at Heeley City Farm today. I’d never been before, and the south of the city is largely a big grey area in the road atlas in my head, so we relied on a Navigo to get us there – and it did, which was nice.
The farm is certainly what it says on the tin – a city farm. It’s literally right in the middle of some rows of pre-war workers terraces. It almost looks like the land the farm is sited on previously contained housing, which has been demolished to make way for the farm. Certainly, it’s quite odd to see 3 residential streets bisect the farm itself.
Once you step off the streets, and into the farm, it’s like being on a real farm – complete with the sights and smells(!). I think it’s great – some city kids won’t get to see a farm, and having this on their doorstep is excellent.
All of the staff are volunteers, and I must make a special mention to the young girl who showed us round the ‘small animals’ section, who described the animals in intimate detail and even encouraged Aimee to stroke and touch the animals themselves. Really, really encouraging to see this lass, who must’ve been about 12-13 really taking an interest in the welfare of the animals and not hanging around outside the local shops.
The term ‘supermini’ was first coined in the mid 80′s, and was applied to the Ford Fiestas, VW Polos and Austin Metros of the day. It intended to describe a small, practical car, larger than the likes of the real classic Mini and Fiat 500′s of the day, but smaller than what could be more broadly termed as a ‘small family car’ (eg. a VW Golf or Ford Escort).
As automotive technology has moved on, cars have gotten safer and more reliable, but all the extra fluffy bits have made cars heavier and larger. This weight gain has meant that modern superminis are quite a bit larger than their 20 year old counterparts. As the cars get bigger, manufacturers struggle to make the cars ‘fit’ the Supermini label. Indeed, BMW’s relaunched modern Mini now falls into this Supermini label, despite the name actually referring to a small car ‘larger than a Mini’.
These days, the ‘Supermini’ moniker is applied to an exceptionally wide band of vehicles – some of which are neither super, nor mini – no doubt due to the fact that Supermini sales make up the largest chunk of new cars sold every year in Europe. Because of this, car makers are forever dreaming up new market segments of vehicle types, and this brings us to the curious beast that is the Fiat ‘Grande’ Punto.
Had a very quiet and subdued New Year’s Eve – Aimee in bed around 7pm, and just me, our lass and the dog watching the telly and catching the bells at midnight. Stayed up til around 2am watching Jools’ Hootenanny. Pleased to see Seasick Steve and his famous ‘Three Stringed Trance Wonder’ guitar again – Jools gave him his TV debut _last_ New Year’s eve. Kaiser Chiefs and Kate Nash good, Macca looked a bit tired, Kylie had an awful dress on and looked like she was there for the money. Madness were very good, but there’s no escaping that they’re old men now.
We agreed that I’d give Emma a lie-in in the morning, and deal with Aimee when she woke, which I did, but because I’m working on-call today I got dragged to my laptop at about 9am when Nagios told me that something was broken at work, so I had to disturb Emma for her to look after Aimee.
Aimee is such a handful now. She’s walking, and by God does she want to use those legs. She runs round the house like crazy, and being on her feet – it brings a _lot_ more into her reach than ever before. She got an absolute shedload of toys for Christmas, but does she want to play with them? No. No, She wants to paddle in the dog’s water bowl, or swing on the tv unit door, or repeatedly switch the damn tv off!