Take One Cricket Ball...

Add a sunny Saturday afternoon in the glorious Dorset countryside and two U14 teams. What could be a better setting for a spot of cricket.



Aaron here with a bit of bowling - limited to 5 overs in this 30 over match. The first stint being 3 overs where he takes 3 wickets - one catch, one lbw, and one clean bowl.



The opposing team, Sherborne, built a mighty score of 63 so far...



Aaron bowls again - coming in for his 5th and final over.... he bowls



...He scores.... middle stump gone... bails still in the air.... Oh yes.... thats it 63 all out!! Followed by a modest celebration...



In the end Blundells win - not by much really - their batting being quite average - 64 runs for 8 wickets (Aaron in next) but at least its a win.

The question is - 4 wickets but for how many runs? Whats his real score? How good is he?

On Yer Bike Ben

Had a great phone call from Ben last night telling me he can ride a bike. A bit wobbly according to Jess but he can do it. Brilliant news.

Looks like I'll have a tandem for sale soon!

The 16th Hole - My Story

Today Dad & I went to play golf.



Making sure my feet are apart & not moving, remembering not to bend my knees I swing...



... oops and hit Dad in the knee. Ha ha!



So what are you looking at?

I made it to the green - I'm not really walking across it with my trolley. Thats an illusion.



Careful not to chip it into the bunker.



Its back to get my putter.



Carefully now - aiming for the hole...



It stops just short!!



I think I beat Dad but he said we weren't keeping score so it was a draw. I know I won!!

Good game though.

I am Hunter

This is my weapon - the EX360 - pump action intergalactic h20 squirtamatic with fully rechargeable cylinder.



I am Ben the Hunter. Ready to face all evil with my trusty & very cool looking hound, Lucy Liu.



Don't let the socks fool you, be afraid - very very afraid.

If you get in my way you will get wet, very very wet.

Must Be Mad

For some reason I have agreed to do a 50 or 66 mile bike ride this weekend. I'm not why but it sounded like a good idea at the time.



Yesterday - 4 days before the event I went out with Kevin, Lisa & Dean - we cycled to Blandford and back - 40 miles or there about as our preparation. It was so nice to be out in the Dorset countryside - stunning really. At 25 miles my butt started to hurt and from 32 I was shattered. Afterwards I was feeling absolutely knackered and a bit dehydrated, today though - I am surprised I don't ache.

Not sure I'm going to be able to say the same on Monday.

My Stick

What could be better - stick, beach and sunshine to chew it in.....



... now leave me alone.

Settled By The Sea Again

Its so good to be back by the sea - sun / fresh air / big skies - though the circumstances could be better - that can't be helped though. The pin on the top left is the flat, below that the beach and Hengistbury Head on the right.



The flat really is very comfortable and in a great position 5 mins from the motorway, 15 mins walk from the beach.

Standing in the hall no matter which way you turn you can see a window (as long as all the doors are open) which makes it very bright and airy. Sun throughout the day too.



This is a bit out of date though as the wicker chair has been replaced by a three seater sofa bed. Perfect for snoozing on those lazy Sunday afternoons.



The kitchen, small though it may be is great for cooking in. Everything just a step away. Loads of storage too.



Best thing about the bathroom is the shower - though small and with no tank it is powerful and stays hot no matter how long you run it for.



This is the master bedroom - no surprises there. A bit tidy though.



And bunk beds picked up cheaply off eBay for when the kids come to stay.



And the wee garden and shed. It gets the sun most of the day and will be perfect in summer for barbecues.

April Showers - pah!

Now this is what you should be doing in April.



Aaron waiting to play football, Ben building a castle and Jessica doing what she does best...



Having a beach so close it doesn't really matter what the weather is like its always fun. So glad to be back.

In the deep dark forest...

There once was a little girl and her dog. They were called Jessica & Lucy - that is the little girl was called Jessica and the dog called Lucy - just to save any confusion.

Any way Jessica and Lucy lived in a deep dark forest - in a little wooden shelter where all Lucy had to eat was sticks.

And here to prove it is a picture of them both....

Friday 25 Jan - 08.00

Mr Furry

Merry Christmas

OK so its not actually like this - a bit damper.... but we have hope.

You may ask why I am sat doing this and not opening presents - simple really...

I'm at work :-(

Power Cut

Shock horror power cut hits Surrey.

Not so much of the shocks really.

Strange not hearing the generator kick in after 38 secs though. So
much for living in the first world. We will just have to sit here till
it comes back again.

Life is so tough! :-)

H P Sauce

OK so it has stopped raining but it works.

The Houses of Parliament at night.

All we need now is for Adam to turn up and do his two lives and we can go home after 11.

Amazing Google

If this works it is amazing as I am sat outside the Houses of
Parliament in the drizzle at 8pm. All done from my mobile.

Next is to see if I can post a photo.

My Life

Hello!! My name is Jessica i was born in 1997 in Hong Kong Where
my brothers were born. I have a mum called Kathy and a Dad called
phil. My Dad is a fillmer for Sky News and my mum is a
house mum but is getting a Job.

Time to Blog Again

Have a years worth of posts to catch up on now - a daunting task - as well as copying all the old posts across to Blogger - the old software kept on being hacked and then not working properly no matter what I did.

Technology - wonderful ways to make your life simple!


Will start to do a bit of both.... from all sides...

Holding

Yes I know there has been a while since the last post - moving you know.

Its Cold and Snowy... to say the least

I have many many entries to write but nothing surpasses this. It’s James letter to Dan about the first week of his Pole to Pole expedition. All I can say what a fantastic letter home!!

Hi Danny, hope you’re well, just arrived in Siorapaluk after a pretty intense few days, but her’s the story until now…

When we first got here we had an absolute nightmare with the helicopter, it seemed that even when the weather was perfect the pilot found some excuse not to fly like the suns too bright or something! Anyhow after a week at 78 degrees north and getting seriously bored twiddling our thumbs we decided that the only way we were going to get anywhere was overland and sea by dog sled. Was quite surreal actually getting ready to go - walking into the supermarket up here and putting a rifle and bullets in your trolley along with some apple juice and a pizza!

Was seriously cold to begin with, and then we got delayed by a huge storm… never seen anything like it at the time, couldn’t stand up outside or see past the end of my nose… then more bad weather but we carried on slowly north with the dogs, pretty difficult getting the massive sled over all the rocks and ice, almost broke my leg a few times getting stuck behind a block of ice and getting pulled by the dogs at the same time!

Eventually we got to the pole on April 7th and started out in (more) bad weather on the 8th. Very hard to begin with pulling our sleds, 100kg each, through deep snow and icy rubble blocks, then going through another storm which had blown apart the ice so we had to swim across some open water. I was terrified, first there was this thick soupy icy water which you could barely move in and I kept hjaving this image of a walrus (apparently there are lots up there) biting on my leg and dragging me under…

We then had to pull the sleds up onto the glacier and the first two days over the rocks completely ripped up the bottom of them, they were practically impossible to pull you felt like every step the tendons in your legs and back would snap I can only compare it to trying to pull a plough up a mountain! Those few days were unbearably cold, I thought I’d got frostbite a few times and my breath was literally freezing on my lips as it came out my mouth. Then another storm…… this time two days long but so much snow built up in the back porch we thought it was going to collapse on us during the night. Then we went onto the glacier and more huge effort to pull the bloody pulks uphill! I have to say there’s isn’t much more mind numbing than pulling a dead weight hour after hour with nothing to look at other than blank snow! And a face full of wind blown snow…

Eventually we started descending yesterday and we found it was quicker to sit on the pulks and sledge down, was great to begin with but on the second time the hill was a little to steep and after sliding over some huge crevasses at about 60 kmh my sled flung me off and then hit me and tangled me in its lines as we tumbled down the hill, was amazed I hadn’t broken anything but I can barely sit down at the moment my bum is so sore! Then we made the even bigger mistake of taking a wrong turn in almost hurricane force winds and found ourselves being pulled over an ice cliff by our sleds with massive crevasses on either side. We spent hours pulling the sleds back uphill into the wind and off to the side to relative safety where we could descend down a steep snow slope. We eventually were able to pitch the tent at midnight but the winds were so strong they flattened it as we tried to erect it and now all the pole are bent and some snapped - not a comfortable night. We new we had to reach a village called siorapaluk - the northern most settlement in the world today so we left early this morning and continued to descend down the glacier in strong winds and after slogging it out all afternoon we’re eventually here, happy to be alive after yesterday and even better smelling fresh from a nice shower! We’ll probably stay here another day to recover and then carry on to Qaanaaq which is about 4 or 5 days away andis the town we started from with the dogs, it seems like a beacon of civilisation at the moment!

I’ll call again when we get to Qaanaaq, but send everyone my love and take care,

Lots of Love,

James

www.180degrees.co.uk

Quarantine

Here is Lucy in Delhi - a few weeks ago.

And here she is in her new bed / cell for the next 6 months.

Its not really that bad - I bought a new bed to go inside today with a cushion so she will be a lot more comfortable. After her 14 hour journey inside her kennel she was not too happy when she arrived but seems to be settling down slowly.

In fact she does have a great view of the local airfield.

Bored with the view its time for a drink.

Ignore that black bag - that is full of pigs ears.

She was very happy to see me - couldn’t stop jumping up and down and whineing - she will find it hard at first but she will adjust - I guess we will too. Two months will be hard but then weekly visits will be firmly the order of the day until she is released in September.

Soon please…

Who said Mondays were Bad?

Well they are.

Today we did a story about a pair of serial killers in Delhi with a penchant for killing poor children & young women. Not to mention the cannibalism, selling organs, and then leaving the remain in the drains outside their house. When locals asked the police to investigate - they did nothing - who cares about poor people. At one stage they even arrested one of the men but he paid a massive bribe and got let off. Anyway they are now in custody, being subjected to doses of truth serum and brain mapping - what ever that is. They aren’t goping to be free anytime soon thats for sure.

Having fed that story and tiding a few things up before I leave the office at about 7pm I get a call asking for some pictures for another story London is doing as they don’t have them. We do, but they are not qood enough quality. I have to get them dubbed off again, load them into the computer and send them to London. Wonderfull - Pizza Hut for tea!By the time this is all done its just after 11pm. I check they are at work safe and sound - but the audio is out of sync at the end. Bugger but its late and I’m going home, so I tell the desk that they will have to fix it. It would take another two hours to for me to correct and feed what they can do in seconds.

After 9pm trucks are allowed to use the roads in Delhi so there is another rush hour for all the lorries that have been waiting all day to get from one side of the city to the other. The main north south road passes our estate of course. And there are road works too as they make the road, NH8, into a proper motorway type thing - not that anyone drives in lanes. Faced with a huge queue through three bottle necks I decide to go the local way - on an as yet unmade road to the side. Checked it with the kids last week and it was fine.

Clever Phil gets stuck 200 yards from the turning to home when trying to drive over / past/ through a huge lorry load of gravel that has just been dumped and waiting to be rolled out. I got over one at least. After 20 mins of trying to dig out the wheels all alone, front and back, I of course end up digging myself in deeper. I give up and walk home. I’ll get the other car and pull it out.

Hmm, how do I drive two cars at the same time. So I phone Shiv at 12.05 wake him up and ask him to come and help. Thankfully he only lives 10 mins away. On the way home I walk pass a huge statue and see some handy rope acting as a cordon around the temple.

Back at the site with Shiv the mounds have gone - they have been flattened and a poor white Qualis remains stuck in the middle of the road. We tied them together using some cable that I had picked up that was lying around at home. Slowly backing off and boing its breaks. Bugger back to plan b and go back and I cut a portion of rope from the temple.

This time it works - and I even used the Endeavour in 4x4 mode. Probably the only time it will be. Safely out Shiv takes the Qualis home and I carry on my chores of getting diesel for the generator - again. Its on for about 10 hours a day at the moment. I seem to be endlessly going to fill up the jerry cans.

So technically its not Monday any more but it hasn’t been a good one. Oh yes I forgot - bugger once more - my talking head is broken - yet again - the thingy we use for lives. This means we are very kind of stuck in our capability to do stuff. getting a replacement is also a nightmare.
What a day. I guess its time to finish my beer - at least we had some in the fridge - and head off to bed. - Its 2.10am which gives be a whole 4 hours 20 mins before getting up and sorting out the kids for school.

Tuesday had better be good.