What happened before Doctor Who

I should have blogged this stuff before but then I got side tracked and I had to talk about DW straight away so I thought I would take the opportunity now to catch up.



Friday
Recently My sister's best friend from School - Zoe - had her second child. She went 2 weeks over and ended up having to have a C-section but everything ended up fine. The baby is 2 weeks old now and Ange said she would take me round to visit.

Ange picked me up about 12ish and first we took a trip to the DCFC shop at Pride Park to look at the sale goods.

I didn't have any cash so it was just window shopping for me but Ange bought some stuff for my Niece and Nephew.

Next we went to the nearby Sainsbury's so Ange could do some shopping and then it was onto Zoe's.
Unfortunately Zoe had gone shopping too so we were sat outside her house for a while.

There isn't much you can say about seeing new babies. She is gorgeous but you can say that about any new baby as it is instinct. She is the spitting image of her mum. I didn't get to hold her for long as she was a bit grizzly with wind.
We were only there about 20 minutes before Ange drove me home again.



Saturday
Ange was playing in another Netball tournament so we Skyplussed DW and went to cheer her on.
It was a shorter tourney this time and Ange's team (Pressgang) were on the losing side each time. Their last game was a lot better and they were winning for a while but the other team went ahead just before the whistle went.

As it was an early finish we walked back down to Debz house. We called in at the local Sainsbury's to buy drink but I didn't have enough money to buy booze so I got some POP. 2 2litre bottles for £2 sounded good but when I got to the till it was the mum of Bill's best friend that served me and she gave me her staff discount which meant I got 2 2litre bottles of Coke for £1.80. Maybe I could have bought beers after all

We stayed at Debz until about 1am then walked home. I made Garlic bread and we watched Doctor Who...

Oh My God Oh My God Oh My God!!!

I was looking forward to seeing last night's Doctor who the 2nd part of the big Series finale.
I wasn't prepared though for what was to unfold before my eyes.

First of all I could feel my heart breaking as Rose witnessed the coming together of the companions with none of them aware that she was there too and no one seemed to give her a second thought. Tears were rolling down my actual cheek as she couldn't get them to hear or see her - Even with the will of the Nobles.

I loved that cheesey old scene with Rose and the doctor running towards each other, all we needed was some cheesey music like the theme from Love Story.

This is a muddled ramble I apologise but I want to get all my thoughts down as they come.

It was great to see Ianto and Gwen from Torchwood and we still got the Jack Ianto relationship.

Jack: I met a soldier in a bar, long story.
Ianto: When was this?

Bill was worried about the rating of the show but for kids and peeps that don't watch Torchwood it would have gone right over their heads. For us it was funny.
I also loved it when Doctor/Donna saw the multiscreen and Donna said of Jack "Who's he" in a lustful way and the Doctor replied "He's Captain Jack and don't - Just don't"

Of course the implosion of the Internets has been caused by this




My head has been in a complete whirl since seeing this. I did watch it at 3am and fell asleep with loads of theories whizzing through my head. God knows what I dreamed but I woke up in a sweat.

I have calmed down now though because the BBC have a few images on their site that have made me even more excited about the final episode.

Before I go I just want to quote from the journal of someone who's writing on this someone I really respect.

nick730.livejournal.com

On the other hand something felt a bit off about the regeneration. We didn't get even a glimpse of Eleven, which means if there is a new Doctor the BBC are giving themselves the headache of trying to cover up his identity for a whole week when everyone's been tipped off that there's someone to look out for. There's been rumours about Tennant actually splitting into multiple Doctors, and Dalek Caan calling him "the Threefold Man" could be suggesting this. There was an establishing shot in the teaser of Ten's "old" hand in the jar, and they brought him into the TARDIS for his regeneration where the dark street would have been a much more spectacular setting (this could just be 'cause it's easier to film the morph on a set, or it could be so he'd be close to the hand, which could interfere with the regeneration.) Then there's his last lines - Eccleston got "Before I go I want you to know you were fantastic, absolutely fantastic. And you know what? So was I." And all Tennant gets is "I'm sorry... it's too late... I'm regenerating." I just don't see RTD missing his chance to give Ten an iconic last line. And of course, we have last year's finale, and RTD's unfortunate liking for pressing the Magical Reset Button of Arse. This all makes me worry we might get Donna travelling back and sacrificing herself to save Ten or something. I don't know. I want for this to be a real regeneration and for the production team to have pulled off this amazing coup. I think it'll turn out to be something else entirely. We'll see.

This is what I want for Christmas

OK I know it's early but I just found what I want for Christmas...

My own personal David Tennant Doctor

Tell me you don't want one too

More kitten pictures

I thought you would like to see how they are doing.
The answer is fine :)

They are becoming cheeky little buggers and feeding time is like a military operation. The kittens want to eat Pica's food and Pica wants to eat the kittens food. Problem is the big cat food is way to rich for their little stomachs at the moment and little Ronno proved that when he sicked up his whole body weight in vomit this morning on the hall carpet.

This is Miney

And this is Ronno

As you can see, they don't like it when Bill gets the laptop out...

How not to get drunk.

Tonight was to be a casual get together at Debz place. We were getting there late as we wanted to watch DW first so I only took with me the last of my Vodka and Pepsi which I just poured all in the Vodka bottle.
The footie was in full swing when we got there and so I sat on the sidelines *AHEM* and read magazines.
After the game finished the darts players disappeared to the front room and the channel was switched to Big Brother.
I had finished my drink already and wasn't ready to go home so I opened up my bottle of Wham bar Vodka. I didn't have any Lemonade with me so I was drinking it neat. It was very hot going down my throat and went straight to my head EEK!

I didn't stop there because when I finished I opened the other bottle that I had found which was Gummy Vodka...Yep you guessed it Neat again and before long I could hardly focus.

I have no idea what time we got home but instead of the walk home clearing my head - by the time we got in I didn't even know what planet I was on. I must have been on auto-pilot though as I cooked Naan bread Pizza for us all and even had coleslaw and Beetroot salad with mine (I think the time may have been around 3am by now) I know I Twittered a bit too and began to feel quite unwell.

I didn't have a good night's sleep and felt really rough Sunday. My mouth was like sandpaper and my head felt like it had been switched with a bowling ball.

Next time the flavoured Vodkas are only to be drunk in small measures and WITH LEMONADE!

Junior football tournament

I was up at the ungodly hour of 7.30 Saturday morning as I was going along to watch my nephew play in his first ever football tournament. They were picking me up just after 9am and I had to be ready. Unfortunately the weather gods didn't smile on my DN and it was horrendous.
He and all the other great under 7 talents soldiered on though.

It was DN's first time playing in a proper tournament and I think he did brilliantly. Ange told me he was good but I didn't realise quite how good.

By the first game the poor little souls were soaked through and frozen they got in their positions on the pitch and kept moving to keep warm but the other team never showed. So they won by default but then had to wait another hour before they could play their first game.

All the other teams were really good I couldn't believe it for such little people. Unfortunately DN's team didn't manage to win a game but they did draw 0-0 in 1 match which was a victory for them.
Of course the children weren't the only ones that were wet and cold us adults were too but we had to keep up the support. I tell you it wasn't hard as I was so proud that most of the time I forgot about the rain.
little Dear Niece was awesome too, although she was shaking with cold she continued to shout and yell for her brother - An example to us all!

What really made me laugh was some of the parents and coaches that were yelling from the sidelines and kicking every ball with their dear offspring. It was as if some of them were living through their child. Some of the coaches were a bit harsh if you ask me. They were trying their best bless 'em and they were wet and freezing. I really like DN's coach as he praised each of his team continually all the way through their game. He gave them instructions and when they made a good pass or a good tackle he would tell them so.

I think we met a former Rams legend while we were there. He was with the mother of the little girl in DS' team although we think he may have been her uncle rather than her Dad (As in the brother of her mother) I was ear-wigging a lot but they were talking about when he used to play for Derby.He also talked about when he left Derby for Leicester and how he doesn't go anymore to watch as he gets frustrated. They also said he will be playing in the masters in a couple of weeks on SKY so I will have to watch it to see him.


Rob said he thinks that it was Phil Gee. I couldn't be sure really and wouldn't like to say but I have looked up some pics online and I think he may be right.

Ange and Rob dropped me off back at home about 3pm and I jumped straight in the bath to warm up. We were meant to be going round to Debz' later too.

Today I made bread

I couldn't wait for delivery of my new breadmaker so I bought a bread mix from Sainsburys and decided to have a go by hand.
The mix I used today was Parmesan and Sun dried tomatoes.

First of all I mix the ingredients with water until it was the right consistency. While I left it to rest I watched Punk'd they were punking Zak Effron off of High School Musical.

The next step was to knead and stretch the dough until it was ready to go into the tin and go in the cupboard to proof.

I watched the rest of Punk'd until it was ready to go in the oven and then I watched Little Miss Sunshine.


The bread only took 30mins to cook and I couldn't wait for it to cool so I cut into it straight away.


The crust was a bit hard but it was absolutely gorgeous. I think it might have been a bit stodgy inside but I cut a couple of slices and made Bacon butties and they were absolutely fabby Yummy drool.


I can imagine that it will be so much better cooked in the breadmaker but at least I know I can do it by hand.
I got the teens' approval too which is always a good thing.

I've another one in the cupboard but that is a multi-grain loaf so I will probably be eating that one myself but I will definitely be buying this one again.

Addiction, Dependancy and obsession...

It's not all about white powder, a glass of strong liquid, or horrid sticks of brown stuff.
My dependancy is my computer and the ole Interweb. So to be without it for more than 24 hours is like being made to go cold Turkey with no view of when I am going to get a fix. Or even like losing a limb.

Just like with the Sky Subscription I have been paying my Virgin media bill minus the £5 fee as I deem that to be an unlawful charge. However they have you over a barrell when they turn off your service until you pay it and when dealing with a internet junkie such as myself then yes I think I would sell my own kids just for another fix (OK you know that I wouldn't actually do that but you get the picture)

I actually managed a whole 24hrs without internet or my landline phone (Which is great going considering I don't have credit on my mobile either) but I had to submit on Thursday and ring them to pay it. To their credit though, after I had a moan about how expensive it had suddenly become and how I may have to loose the service altogether soon (AS IF) they made me a new deal. How about 20mb broadband +my 24/7 free minutes phone for £10 less? Considering that I am only currently on 4mb I think that is a RESULT!!

I am still without Lappy though so I am having to sit at the desk and work on the main PC which isn't easy as the darn thing is so bloody slow. I think I may have to do some major housecleaning perhaps including a complete re-format and clean install of the windoze.

Tuesday

I got up this morning and really needed to go to town but Bill was supposed to come with me so really I wasted most of the day waiting for her to get up.
She eventually got out of bed about 12ish and went to put the Sky+ on to record a new show she has got into then we found that our Sky+ services had been restricted. We couldn't record or watch anything on the planner. All because I refused to pay the £5 handling fee on paying my bill by cash. So I had to relent and pay the Damn £5 although I don't agree with it.
We didn't get the services back immediately though so I said she may as well watch the show and we would go to town after that. Only thing then would be we would have to rush and get home for 3pm in case DS didn't have his key.

I wanted to try and get a covered over litter box for the kittens because they are a bit ferocious with kicking the litter all the way across the room.
Unfortunately the only closed in ones that Wilkos have are huge and cost £11.49 and I ain't paying that. I will wait and see if I can get one from petsathome (Or whatever that big place is called)We were walking back up the path towards home and I could hear an alarm. I joked saying "It better not be ours" but as Bill reminded me we hadn't even set the alarm before we came out. Well what do you know - As I got closer I realised it was ours. How embarrassing! I opened up and went in to find the electric had gone off and that must have triggered it. Luckily it did stop but I sent Bill to get some electric.

This evening I did a bit of baking and made a Blackberry and Apple crumble for pudding. It was absolutely gorgeous especially with the Raspberry ripple ice cream I bought in town. I wish I would be more inclined to do home cooking more often.

Who said there's no such thing as a free lunch??

Today I met my mate Lisa in town to go to Wokmania for lunch. The local evening paper have been printing vouchers to cut out and collect for a free lunch. Lisa - God bless her - has been collecting them so that the 2 of us could go and have a good lunch instead of paying the £7 lunchtime price.


We met at 12 outside the council houses and walked round to a pub called the Royal standard. This place has been standing empty for a few years and now someone has taken it on and totally refurbished it and modernised it inside.


It was very nice and very upmarket and they have a lovely roof terrace overlooking the river.
We had a drink in there and moved on to the restaurant so that we didn't miss the deadline.

I have to say that the food was all the more delicious for the fact that it was free. We ordered a half price bottle of wine to accompany our meal too. I had a selection of salads to start along with some samosas and sweet chilli chicken. I then moved onto Chow mein and singapore noodles with Lemon chicken and some gorgeous Vietnamese potatoes. I also had some sweet & sour Chicken and some other Pork and Beef dishes that I can't remember.

Then it was onto the desserts. A bowl full of Ice cream with various sweets and covered in chocolate from the fountain and I also skewered a few grapes and dipped in chocolate too.

It was about 3.30 when we left Wokmania and I suggested we go on to the Standing order for "one" before we go home.

Well I can't tell you where the time went after that as before we realised it was 7.50pm and we had been there for about 4 hours.
I got home and Bill had made tea and washed up so I just sank into the sofa. *SIGH*

Happy Birthday sweet Sixteen

So today - Sunday June 15th was the 16th birthday of my dear daughter Billie-Li.

I really wanted to make it special for her so we had a bit of a weekend of it.
Saturday night the family came over for a little party. They arrived about 8.30pm. I hadn't done a full spread this time, just bowls of snacks and Salad. The children brought their own sweeties and drinks.
We put the TV on and watched some of the Euro footie and then after that watched Big Brother. I say watched, we didn't really as we were discussing what had already happened.
As you know I am not really following BB but I know enough about what is going on to be able to chat to my sisters ( who are avid watchers)

Later we brought out the Singstar and I cooked some spicy wedges and garlic bread. Everyone left around 3am although it could have been later but Rob was really drunk - I mean tired and both my niece and nephew had fallen asleep on the chairs.

My nephew stayed over and Sunday morning we all got up early ready to give Bill her presents and cards but she didn't get up until about 11.30am.

Bill was really chuffed with the Converse All stars I bought her. I was chuffed too, what a bargain for £20 at Office.co.uk

At 3.40pm Bill's friend Emma arrived and we got a cab up to Pizza hut. I had booked a table for 10 and they had it all ready for us including books and crayons for the little ones. I was well impressed! When everyone else arrived we ordered our food.

For the 4 of us I ordered Salad bowls for starter then I ordered a large Pizza with the cheesy bites. We couldn't quite decide what toppings to have so we had half Hawaiian and half BBQ.


I piled my bowl high with Salad including Sweetcorn, coleslaw, cucumber, tomatoes (So many I almost lost them on the way back to my table) bacon bits & croutons.
The Pizza was gorgeous. The BBQ was very saucy and sticky and you know me - I got it everywhere! We worked it out so we all got equal although I am sure I could have fit a bit more in. Debz and Carl had to take some home. They had the same pizza as us but with Peperoni.

One of the best things about Pizza Hut is the unlimited free refills on soft drinks. Every so often the waiter would come back and ask if we need more drinks and instead of trying to remember who wants what he would just bring the complete order of drinks. Only thing is when you are drinking almost 2 litres of Pepsi each you should be prepared for frequent toilet trips.

For desert the lids were let lose on the Ice cream factory. This is also unlimited trips and there is always a risk of "Eyes too big for the belly" syndrome. You love to fill your bowl to overflowing but when it comes down to it you just can't fit it all in.

When everyone was completely stuffed we paid the bill leaving a very generous tip and went on our way. I made sure I went to the loo before we left but I have to confess I was losing in the taxi home. I think we made it home just in the nick of time and of course then there was a queue...

I think all in all it was a good birthday weekend. Bill seemed happy enough and although I didn't manage to get the Limo to take us there (Well at £345 for a hour I think not!) I think I made it special :-)

Kitten photos

As the kittens are getting more used to us and finding their way around now they are becoming braver.
My stupid camera won't take good pictures indoors so I am resorting to taking pictures just with my phone.

The tabby one is the most friendly at the moment and I managed to get these gorgeous pics.



And I got this one of the black and white one.


As you see we still haven't settled on names yet...

Look what we got...

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They don't have names yet as we are not sure of gender until I get them checked out.

This one is DDs birthday present. It is very boisterous and we lost it all afternoon - found it finally all curled up inside the duvet cover.

This one prefers to sleep and spent most of this afternoon asleep on my chest/stomach.

I know I said I wouldn't but well just look at them, they are soooooo cute.
They are currently curled up together in a corner under the unit.

Doctor disappointment

I was debating whether to mention this weeks Doctor Who. I have read many great reviews of it and had people raving about it to me but I am afraid I can't be as enthusiastic.

It was a 2-parter written by Stephen Moffat. Usually this means we are in for a great ride. (Having said that, Girl in the fireplace isn't one of his best either) Stephen Moffat has written my 2 favourite episodes from the New Who series those being The Empty child/Doctor dances and of course Blink.
The first half (Silence in the library) was OK. The scary monsters were flesh eating shadows - The Vashta Nerada - Which were I have to admit quite scary for the kiddies. The episode held up on it's own I guess but I don't like the introduction of River Song who appears to be a future loved one of The Doctor who had a book of spoilers of his future life and who knew his real name.

The second episode just spoilt it for me. There were lots of elements I just didn't get and I got bored of it. Brian said it was sad but I just didn't get it at all. Although something Moffat did again was introduce the wibbly wobbly timey wimey element. The Doctor had to meet River in this episode so that when he meets her again in the future he will know how she dies so he will know to give her his screwdriver with it's little enhancement to keep her alive. Yeah I sort of lost the plot too.

The only part of this story I did kind of like was showing the other side of Donna. She disappears off to this alternate reality and falls in love and gets married and becomes a Mum. We see her as almost a normal likeable person. It was quite sad I guess at the end when she couldn't find her lover but when he saw her his stammer prevented him from calling out. I hope that we get to see them reunited before her demise at the end of this series.

Apparently Brian tells me there is no Donna in the next episode so Whoopie lets hope for some tenacious Doctorness.

Just realised I have no screencaps for this episode...I'll add some later...

And then you remembered

Friends, Big Brother and Ewan McGregor

I was really looking forward to Thursday. Me old pal Brian was coming over from Notts for a couple of days to hang out.



I did 2 days of mad cleaning and went into town at 10am Thursday morning to go meet him off of the bus. It was very hot so I suggested we go for a drink (Only a soft one as it was way too early for alcohol). We strolled round to McDonalds and I ordered a large Coke zero. It wasn't very nice and had no ice in it so I was kind of wishing I hadn't. Bri ordered a Choc milkshake which I would probably had been better with if it wasn't for the fact I don't like Milkshakes.

We walked up to Sainsbury's to do a spot of shopping and I had to get some bits from Farmfoods before walking back to my house.



Brian had wanted to watch the show Tinman on the Sci Fi channel but he doesn't have it on Freeview so I Skyplussed it for him and he was looking forward to watching it so I made us a drink and we sat down to watch. However by the first ad break Brian said it wasn't what he thought it was and he didn't want to see any more of it. So I turned it off and instead we started getting stuck into The Long way round.


I didn't really think it would be Brian's thing but he really enjoyed it. I think he got addicted to it just like me and we watched episode after episode.

I made a very nice healthy lunch of Prawn salad and cheese topped rolls. It was delicious and I was so proud of myself for doing something nice. It is a shame I couldn't say the same for the evening meal...

Back in the day when Brian and I shared a little flat in Ilkeston, We used to attempt to be grown ups and invite our friends round for dinner. I always used to cook chicken - usually in a red wine sauce with sweetcorn. Consequently we were named the Chicken gang.
So I decided to do us a nice chicken casserole. I think I should have cooked it for about an hour longer though and I apologise greatly Bri if I gave you food poisoning :(



The great event of the 2 days happened at 9pm - The night Brian has been waiting for - The launch night for the new series for Big Brother. I don't really do BB anymore but as a special treat so that Brian didn't miss it, I watched this weeks episode of Heroes last week.

We got loads of snacks to nibble at. I bought a giant bag of Popcorn and Bri bought kettle chips, nuts and sweets for the kids. We also had donuts that were BOGOF at Sainsbury's.


Big Brother was the usual load of tosspots. No actually I am doing them a disservice. There are a couple of possible real winners in there. I will do a separate post about the trials and tribulations of the BB housemates. It is interesting to see how the crowd reacted to each new contestant after their VT. Some of them got the usual booing but some of them received a good reception and we will have to see if they are deserving of that.

We sat and watched all the BB shows including The Friday night project special and Big Mouth. Then we watched some of the live feed intil Brian was falling asleep in the chair.
The plan was that he would sleep in my bed and I would sleep on the sofa.
I wish I hadn't because I was kept awake most of the night by Pica meeowing his head off. He is really starting to annoy me at nights. Why did he choose that one night to not want to go out for the night??!

Friday morning I still had to be up at 7am to get DS up for school. After he left I lay back down on the sofa for a couple of hours.

When Brian got up about 10ish we put the Long way round back on so that Brian could finish watching it. By 1pm we still hadn't finished and Brian decided to take the DVD home with him.

We walked into town and went to Burger King for Lunch. I had a load of vouchers left so we had BOGOF Angus burgers.
Before you know it Brian was on the bus back to Notts and I was doing more shopping (Not fun shopping mind you)

The Doctor Dates His Daughter From 'The Doctor's Daughter'

I read this story and went looking for some further info. I didn't find any but I did find this story which made me laugh a lot.


The Doctor Dates His Daughter From 'The Doctor's Daughter'
By John Scott Lewinski EmailJune 03, 2008 | 4:03:03 PMCategories: Sci-Fi, Sex, Television

From England comes a report that puts the "ew" in sci-fi "news": Doctor Who star David Tennant is currently dating Georgia Moffett -- the actress who portrayed The Doctor's daughter in the Who episode of that same name.
Normally such gossipy kiss 'n' time travel news is better left to check-out line tabloids or Larry King, but there's such a bizarre pseudo-incestual, mobius strip of intertwining coincidences here that they almost create a sci-fi story on their own.

Moffett is the daughter of Peter Davison, who played The Doctor's fifth incarnation. So, she's a Doctor's daughter playing The Doctor's daughter. She's also the first Doctor's daughter who played The Doctor's daughter to date The Doctor.
Davison appeared with Tennant himself in a special Who episode last Christmas, "Time Crash." That yuletide story was written by new show-runner, Steven Moffatt.
So, Tennant is the first Doctor to date the daughter of another Doctor -- having just appeared in a story with that paternal Doctor. See, Tennant met the father (Davison) of his new girlfriend (Moffett) on an episode written by his new boss (Moffatt). Young Moffett's roll in "The Doctor's Daughter" is not the first time a previous lead actor's descendant has appeared on the show. David Troughton, son of Doctor No. 2 Patrick Troughton, appeared in Doctor No. 3's "The Curse of Peladon" in 1972. Strangely enough, Alice Troughton directed "The Doctor's Daughter" with Tennant and Moffett, but she bares no relation to Patrick -- so she's not a Doctor's daughter.

If you're scoring along at home, that's four Doctors, three Troughtons, two daughters, a Moffett, a Moffatt and a migraine.

Rhubarb and Custard

Remember these?



Well not them!
Last night Debz gave me some real Rhubarb from her garden so today I made Rhubarb crumble and custard for pudding.

It was gorgeous and I want to make some more for certain. If Debz runs out then I will have to buy frozen.

Ingredients
10 sticks of rhubarb
4 tbsp water
8 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp powdered ginger
110g/4oz butter, softened
110g/4oz demerara sugar
180-200g/6-7oz flour

To serve:
ice cream or double cream

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
2. Cut the rhubarb into 7½cm/3in long sticks and place on an oven tray, sprinkle with the water and caster sugar and roast in the oven for 10 minutes.
3. Once cooked, remove from the oven, sprinkle over the ginger and mix well.
4. Fill an ovenproof dish about 4cm/1½in deep with the rhubarb.
5. Rub the butter into the flour and sugar to make the crumble toppping. Sprinkle over the rhubarb and bake in the oven.
6. Remove and allow to cool slightly before serving with ice cream or double cream.