I can't believe it's spreadable.

On a recent Big Shop we picked up a different butter to normal, due to our prefered bread spread not having a smaller tub size.
But not all went too plan.

This other brand boasts that it's Spreadable, which is always a selling point in my eyes. If a butter/margarine can spread on bread within seconds of being taken out of the fridge, WITHOUT leaving holes then thats just perfect. (Something our favoured brand does, without boasting)

This butter , despite having Spreadable on its lid and sides, just tore up my bread when taken out of the fridge due to it being too hard.

No problem we can just leave it on the side.
This though, I feel, makes the Spreadable wording on lid and sides pretty pointless as all butter is Spreadable at room temperature, thats a Fact.
So what they are advertising here is basically the natural properties of putter. If they were in the bottled water business would they stick 'Wet' on the sides of their bottles?

But this specially Spreadable butter turns in to some sort of thick soup when left a room temperature.

A soupy butter

Soup butter is far too runny. It acts like an oil on the bread, rather being one with the bread. It falls off the knife causing a mess. It doesn't have the same 'mouth-feel.'
It's. Just. Not. Butter.

Now I have to think about sandwiches 15 minutes earlier to give myself enough preperation. And it doesn't help that the clocks went forward and hour, now I can't tell if I would like a tasty sandwich or if I had just had one?

What the frek where the butter guys thinking when they decided to make a Spreadable butter that was too hard when in the fridge and too runny when at room temperature? Those fools!

PS Please no one comment on the differences between butter and margarine. I've taken some artistic lisence.

Games I'm Playing Week 1

So trying to find a topic thats not Spain related so not to bore you all, let's go over games I am currently playing.

Having tried to get rid of a dozen or so games lately to lower baggage weight (I promise thats the only Spain related drop) I almost traded in Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles with a bunch of others, despite having only played just over an hour of it.

It wasn't until the shop assitant shown me my hidden £16 credit under my £2 credit note that I decided to keep hold of Umbrella Chronicles.

On my second time round I'm really getting in to this game. It's an "on the rails shooter" meaning you can only aim at the screen and have no control over the character movement.
There are other options in the game that I completely missed first time round, like side missions and upgrading of weapons, which makes the game much deeper and alot more fun.

I'm glad that I got the chance to give Umbrella Chronicles a second go, I've fallen a bit for it and it's a highly enjoyable game.

For those looking for some cheap thrills on their Wii I highly recommend this pick up and play title.

Anyone want to add my Friend Code, it's 4859 7530 9312 3844. Just drop me a comment to let me know.

Me tengo que ir

Or "I have to go"

Around me boxes are being packed. The office is relocating soon. Just like me. I'm sure there is a metaphor in there I could be using.

But that time has come, I have just handed in my notice with work.

Just a few more days and then woooooosh.

¿qué tiempo hace hoy?

Or What is the weather like doing* today?
*It's important to treat the weather like a person, it "does" stuff, it does not "like stuff, ie walks on the beach, late nights out with friends."

It's getting close to the Big Move.

If we were able to fast forward two weeks, right now me and the missus would be either doing what we should and food shopping or we would be sitting on the beach.
In 'real air travel' time we would just be cruising over France and sat in front of a screaming kicking kid.

It's so close to the move I can almost taste the weather. Actually I can't, but one website does show the weather two weeks from now so I can at least see it. Theyre both senses and thats a connection enough for me.

I never trust weather forescasts. Even ones from the BBC for today, they still get them wrong now and then.

The 3 day forecast I take with a pinch of salt.
Seven day forecast is more like a hopefully guess.
So a 15 day forecast is about as accurate as playing pin the tail on a donkey. With a live donkey. And your hands tied behind your back. On a raft out at sea during a hurricane.

This website though does have a 15 day forecast for Nerja. It's the only 15 day forecast I have found. Their day/week forecast is similar to this other (Spanish) one I look at, so they must have some good scientifical machines and lab coated persons.

The weather forecast for the 9 April is showing as 21C and thunderstorms, which won't please the missus, or any other haters of flying, in the slightest.

Had we moved a week earlier we would be enjoying average temperatures of 27C for the next 7 days.
Perhaps we should consider moving things forward a bit?

At least for the next 13 days I can keep an eye on the weather and prepare my airport outfit.

(Yes you might be able to tell I am a tad excited, I haven't a clue what I'll be like next week. I'll either be making a constant "eeeeee" noise that dogs a few miles away can hear, or I'll be constantly doing my best impression of Meg Ryan in New York City café)

Friends forever

So this weekend took our count of major things to do before we move down by one. We entertained some of my friends and had a final big night out with all the missus friends too.
By the end of the night there had been plenty of offers and requests for a space staying on the new couch, which is always a nice sign.


Most of Friday was filled thanks to the guys over at Nintendo and passing the time away with some old gaming favourites, mainly Golden Axe.

I was with all the guys.

Games continued with a "Who can unintentionnally pull the funniest face" game.

The missus had a good time with the girls too


There was plenty of drink and some dancing, not by all but some enjoyed it more then others.


Easter had been forgotten about for most of the night until we walked out of the club and right in to a parade, which had a good turn out.


Towards the end of the night there were tired feet and heads. A few tears, making up with arch nemisis, missing coats and the next morning had some of the previous nights heavy drinkers with a huge day lasting hangover and generally feeling of sick.

But overall everyone had a good night.


Usual slideyshow

We will meet again

Or "From Robbie with Love"

So the weekend just gone I had my final trip up to Runcorn. The weekend was spent doing very little and saying long good byes to me family.

As always it was nice to see all my family. I don't get to see them often, once every few months, but that number will fall dramatically once I am in Spain.


My mum tried to make things better for me and the missus by getting an inflatable double bed. Previous visits to my mums I had always slept on a tiny - smaller then a single - camp bed that got put together in about 2 minutes. My mum being my mum wanted to upgrade me to a double bed. Unfortunately all didn't go to plan.
I've slept on the wooden floor of a tiny hut with rat noises just a meter from my head, but I still managed to sleep. (Although this might be because I was cold, soaked and tired after a grueling 10 hour walk.)
I'd of happily slept on that floor rather then on this inflatable bed. It was really uncomfortable and kept me up. In the middle of the night I had to go kick my neice out of her bedroom and set up the tiny camp bed again.
I found it hard to say bye to my mum. My nan passed away at the begining of the year and I still find it hard to talk about and I know she doesnt think I am abandoning her, but I don't like being so far away from her so soon after my nan passed away.
But saying that my mum can't wait for me to leave as she knows that her holiday visit will be much closer. It will be good to see her in Spain.


Megan like always was made me smile. She certainly does enjoy being the centre of attention and I will miss seeing her grow up. Like many children she is always asking questions and took it upon herself to take some photos with the camera, so here is her mini photostream. It makes me laugh the view point in some of these photos being about 3 foot off the floor,

Good work Megz!

I was happy to see my sister doing much better. Last time I seen her she had just been released from hospital having had her second baby, Dylan, and of course didn't look too healthy. But now she is up and about and helping out my mum with keeping the house clean when having two kids about. She even ahs time to help Megan cook some cake (see above photo of Megan for proof)
She also had a bit of a surprise. She asked if me and the missus would like to be Godparents to Dylan. Something which I'd love to do but it all depends on when we will be next visiting the UK and arranging Christening then.
But Dylan certainly has grown since my first visit to see him, I'll also miss seeing him growing up and making a pain of hisself, with much help from his big sister.


Finally saying goodbye to my dad. It was always going to be hard saying goodbye to him. I always, whenever visiting my hometown, try to split time between my parents 50/50. He certainly doesn't get to see as much of my sister and his grandchildren as I would like hime to see. Sometimes I've even had to take Megan over to see my dad because my sister won't go. There is no reason given, just that she can't be bothered, although she has tried to put more effort in in the last few years, but still not as much as I would like.
One of my favourite things about going to Runcorn (and possibly the missus least favourite) was always going to the 'Old Mans' pub to have a few pints with me dad and watch some football. It's been a ritual that I have done for many years and when in Runcorn it was a weekly thing. But these times will be much harder to come by now.

My dad took the saying goodbye much harder then I had expected. It caught me off guard. It's hard to make promises to say I will visit as often as I can, as that will be very little. But I certainyl will make sure to spend as much time in Runcorn as I do in London on any future visits to the UK. But I'm trying to get him to renew his passport sooner rather then later.

So it feels really weird saying goodbye to my family. I've spent the last 2 or 3 years living quite far away from my hometown, so visits in that time have always been quite spaced out, but they will be even more spaced out now.

Obviously this isn't the last I'll see of them, but I'll miss alot of growing up and some long standing rituals.

But then there is always Skype to the rescue. Which I have gotten all family members (and the missus too) to sign up with and have gotten them all to purchase webcams.

Again, like previously, here is a slideshow of all my weekends photos. Muchos el ninos photos alert!


But I certainly havent been put off moving. I still can't wait

Next weekend, the Friend Farewell.

Watching the tide

Or "A million and one ways to count to 21."

Following on from yesterdays posts about getting tired of waiting for The Big Move, I've been finding "lap markers" to use to make the time between now and the move seem closer.

The major ones are the weekends running up to Big Move;

1. Visit my family in Runcorn and say goodbye
2. Have a leaving drinks thing with friends in London
3. Move the fish from tank to a friends pond and also buy some proper sandals and shorts
4. Have a get together with the missus family

+2 days leave for Spain

So really its only three pretty packed weekends. I'll have more info on Runcorn later, once I've renamed and uploaded all the photos.
But still that seems too far. At least for me. I'm that impatient.

So I've thought up other different combinations of counting down the remainder of the three weeks.
First one to think up is just three more weeks to work. Thats it.
But also I have a 4 day week this week, four day next week and then a whole week, so even less actual days in work.
Also on my way to work I keep counting down my Oyster card amount. I have about a months traveling to work amount of credit on my card, so each day I get the bus I can see the number dropping down each day by £1.80
Only three more weekends.
Five Chelsea games. Although this seems quite a high number at first, they play twice a week for the next few weeks.
Three more rubbish collection days and just one more recycling collection day.
Just two more Big Shops for food in the house.
Another version of this is the rest of this week its just "two of [whatever day]", ie "two more Wednesdays." We leave on a Wednesday so I have three more Tuesdays to go.
My favourite count down stat though has to go to the amount of Mondays I have to work.

One.

Just one more Monday to work, thanks to Easter of course. But its good to know that I have just one more Monday morning to come in to work.

Also I've been jumping a head with some stuff, like packing. I've done a test pack to check on weight and if it will all fit.

Mine and the missus parents have said we can send over some clothes with them when they come for a visit a few weeks after we arrive. So I've had to prepare a bag of clothes to send to Runcorn this weekend when I have friends staying over. It's been tricky to to pack clothes that you want to take, but can do without for the next few weeks, but will need for the first few weeks when in Spain. Example, sending all shorts to Runcorn now will mean no shorts for a few weeks when there. So if I expect to wear shorts, sending all my jeans/trousers up now will mean I only have shorts to wear for the next few weeks, and the UK doesn't have short weather at the moment.
I think I was able to make the right sacrifices, it just means that for the next few weeks I'll have a total of about 5 outfits.

In other packing news, I was able to get rid of about a quarter of my clothes to send to the charity shop.

These were mainly jumpers and some shorts and trousers which worringly no longer fit me. I blame the few crates of beer that were bought for me and drunk over the Christmas period.

I was also able to tidy up my sock drawer. If I'm wearing sandals alot, or having my feet in the pool/sea, then there is no need for odd and holey socks.

I have to admit though I was expecting a far higher number of odd socks. I don't know whats happened here? I could of sworn I complained far too many times about odd socks for there to be just FOUR!

In other Spain news, I have found an actual good use for Facebook. Rather then using it to keep up with old friends receive hundreds of requests for Gifts, Pets, Vampires, Scrabble, Bites and Hugs, I've just started using it to find groups/clubs/people in Nerja. And I'm surprised to find quite a few. Infact the few groups there are have quite alot of members, but how many of them live in Nerja full time I don't know? But at least it's a start at trying to find young adults in Nerja to make friends with, especially as this was one of the main problems I thought we would encounter when moving.

I just hope all that abdoning and slagging of Facebook has been forgiven and any new added 'friends' dont try to Zombie/Vampire/Bite/Hug/Best Friend/Throw Food At me.

Day Dream Believer

I keep having dreams about moving to Spain. Nothing major, just ones really about arriving in Spain and our first days living there.


In one, once we had arrived in Nerja, rather then doing things that we have planned to do on our first day, which is to buy towels, bedding, food, we instead went out to the beach and sunbathed and didnt have any towels, bedding, food. Nothing else happened.


In another we arrived and had to choose which apartment to live in. We already have our apartment, but in the dream we were also offered a house boat instead - this may have something to do with watching Psych earlier on that night. We didn't choose the houseboat, mainly because it kept swaying far too much depending which side of the boat we stood.

I've had about 5 dreams. 3 over this weekend. Nothing really happens in them, just day to day stuff. They're getting pretty annoying really. I just want to move. We've been planning this move for a few months now and it's so close. But time seems to have.

Stopped.

Controller of the radio

The radio at work has been moved and placed right behind me. The regular whorer controller of the radio will be off for a few days so I have taken it upon myself to be controller of the radio.

I'm sick and tired of Capital Radio as they play the same 8 songs over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.....
I hate listening to BBC Radio1 of a morning as Chris Moyles is the most annoying person. Ever. Just writing about him makes me want to......"aaarrrghhhhh motherhubardkungfu"

....
....
Sorry about that.
Yeah, so I don't want to keep changing the channel before/after each show.

So I've opted for the nations and OAP's favourite BBC Radio2.
But why do all presenters on Radio2 sound like Terry Wogan? I'm sure he should of gone home after his show but it sounds like he is doing some overtime. I'm sure if Terry did actually do some overtime this would confuse OAP's making them late for everything and jamming up the public transport service - more then normal - during rush hour.
But Radio2 does have great hits like ELO's Showdown and a playlist longer then a Hear'say Greatest Hits album.

I just wished some of the presenters would try and put on a higher/lower pitched voice just so they don't sound like Mr BBC Radio2 Terry Wogan.

Anyway, I'm off to get a sandwich. Hopefully when I return the computers at work will be working and I will have more to do then listen to the amusing ramblings of the lovely Terry "Trousersnake" Wogan.

Another slow day at work

Well its was another slow day at work. The newly updated software had a few flaws. Some of those being major applications in our work. So I spent all day doing nothing.
It got so slow infact that Sleeping Guy had another nap.

But this time I was prepared and snapped this.

He is asleep, I promise.

Next I promise to get a photo of the polling Chip and Pin machines, as long as there are no slow old ladies taking FOREVER to bag their groceries and I have more then 1 item giving me time to take photo.
Stay tuned.

Some more random photos

After wiping out my phones memory card I copied over all the photos and here are some that were lying around.

Featured photos

This was the sunset a few days ago at home. The mist gave the sun a very strange look.

My birthday treat from last year.

Something I am looking forward to doing a lot in a few weeks. But on actual sandy beaches.

Enjoy the show.