Tango Fire

We went to see Tango Fire at The Civic last night. Basically it's a whole evening of Argentinian Tango, our favourite dance from Strictly Come Dancing and one they don't get to do until well into the series as it's so difficult. We'd previously seen Tango Fire at The Sage a couple of years ago and it blew our socks off. Last night... didn't quite.

I'm not sure why - it was much the same performance and certainly danced just as well. Perhaps we're now more accustomed to dance and this is not so "different" as it was then; maybe the stage was a bit too small for them to really extend themselves; maybe The Sage just adds something to any performance that you see. It was still a very good night and worth going to see, the second half even more so than the first, being a kind of Argentine Tango-inspired Free Dance, with lots of lifts and throws. If it had been like that all the way it would have been more exciting, though the dance troupe would have been knackered!

They were certainly well received by the audience and got a very enthusiastic round of applause and very vocal calls for an encore at the end. Like I said, maybe we're just a bit numbed to it now,.

Marley & Me

We watched Marley & Me last night. It stars Jennifer Aniston, who I adore, and Owen Wilson, who wife adores, so it was at least watchable for that. The plot wasn't really up to much, the dog (Marley) just annoyed the hell out of me and much as I love pets he would have had to

• A) Get trained
  or
• B) Get a new home

because he couldn't have stayed with me. Especially when the handful of kids arrived on the scene. I'm not saying pets and kids are incompatible (though that is how we inherited our cat) but that dog and those kids most certainly were.

I could sense an unhappy ending coming along - but it wasn't the unhappy ending I was expecting - clever scripting or dumb viewer? Bit of both probably.

Anyway, without giving anything away, the ending had wife in tears for a good half hour, so perhaps the film had something about it after all. It's not every film that delivers that much emotion.

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Don't you hate it when people don't get back to you after promising they will? NFU Mutual, on 3 occasions, said they'd call back the next day. They never did. Needless to say we'll be getting our insurance elsewhere. If they can't be bothered when they're trying to get your business, what will they be like when they actually have it?

Growing Up

AJ is growing up. Every time I blink he seems to be a little bit bigger. He's a proper little boy now, and it won't be long till he's driving cars and dating girls. He could do the latter now - he's a real lady's man and never fails to smile and make eyes at a pretty woman, the blonder thay are the better. His dad loves it.

He's great at walking and climbing. He'll be up and over the garden fence before you know it - if only he could negotiate that 1/2 inch "moat" between the grass and the path! That's a real stumbling block for him (literally). He has to sit down and swing his legs over it then get up again once at the other side. It's amazing considering that he can climb stairs, the steps to his slide, onto chairs and tables... and yet a 1/2 inch gap...

He'll probably have matsered that by the time I finish writing this, and then there'll be no holding him back.

Kitty Litter

Charley used his litter tray on Friday. No big deal, you say. Except that it's ony the second time in his life (with us) that he's ever used it. Normally he doesn't need to - he can hold off needing "to go" till we get home and let him out. On Friday we were late...

I'm glad at least that he does know how to use it, or else we'd have had a nasty mess to clean up. As it was, he had scattered cat litter, as my mother so charmingly phrases it, "from arsehole to breakfast time". It was soon tidied up though.

It was funny later. His tray was clean but empty and he went and sat right in the middle of it and started crying. I lifted him out onto the bed, but he jumped back down, went back into the tray and started crying again. He wasn't happy until we'd refilled it. It'll be another year or more till he uses it again, but he just wanted to know that it was there if he needs it!

Swine Flu

Seems like I was wrong about Swine Flu. I thought it would go the way of every other recent scare, that it would amount to nothing and simply pass; another needless worry caused by scaremongering press eager to sell papers.

I still think part of that is true (the latter part) but it does appear that Swine Flu will eventually affect many of us. Of course everything from the common cold to "man flu" will be passed of as Swine Flu now. Already Wife's hairdresser and several of her colleagues claim to have had it, though it's more than likely they were just hung over from a week's over-indulgence on holiday.

Having never once had "ordinary" flu I'm hopeful I won't get Swine Flu either, fingers crossed. Will I change my life to try and avoid it? Don't hold your breath. Now that could be a way to prevent getting it...

We're Jammin'

The cherry tree has done well again this year after last year's drastic pruning. We've left it a little late to pick them though, with the result that the birds have had loads of them. I still managed to get 1.4kg though, which was quite enough for jam making.

I also made blackberry & blackcurrant jam (all in one, not two jams) though this fruit wasn't hand-picked. It's lovely, I really like home-made jam when it turns out well. We don't eat that much of it though, so each jar takes us a while to get through and this batch will probably do us for the year.