Scary spiders

Yesterday I was on the carpet watching television with my wife and daughter when a huge enormous spider walked across the floor in front of me.  It, being big, was scared we were going to eat it.  I trapped it in a glass and having been drinking beforehand, when I was a bit more sober, and brave slid a card under it and set it free outside.

However, it was amusing that I, the man, despite being scared of the huge spider, had to get rid of it.  My daughter when younger let a tarantula crawl on her, but could not deal with this one.  At work, I work with a man who has had to get the ladies at work deal with any spiders found in his room, so I know that the stereotype of just women not being able to deal with spiders is wrong.  Of course, we also watched an episode of 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown which celebrated female empowerment.  The irony was not lost on me.

We were meant to have been watching Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, but after my son convinced us to watch it, he disappeared with his iPhone upstairs.  So we watched Strike.

I know that many are abandoning JK Rowling in this Cancel Culture Era, but I think that she is amazing and I agree with the views she has posted a while ago.  It is ironic that in an era where we accept that gender is non-binary that any discussion over it is viewed as a binary one.

Anyway, onto Pokémon GO.  I am looking for the following which are missing from my Pokédex;
Kecleon
Relicanth
Pachirisu
Chatot
Garchomp (though I hopefully will be evolving one later this year)
Carnivine
Probopass
Rotom
Uxie
Azelf
Serebii
Manaphy
Victini
Pansage (and possibly Simisage)
Panpour (or Simipour)
Munna
Musharna
Throh
Sandile
Krokorok
Maractus
Sigilyph
Zorua
Vanillite
Deerling
Frillish
Tynamo
Axew
Cryogonal
Mienfoo
Druddigon
Pawniard
Bouffalant
Heatmor
Vullaby
Larvesta
Keldeo
Meloetta

I am aware that not all are available.
I am also interested in high CP Pokémon as a lucky trade;
Burmy
Duskull
Nosepass
Woobat
Yamask

And a normal form Golem.

I am also happy to do a like for like trade on many other Pokémon, especially shiny ones.  I do not have as large a collection as others, but I am willing to consider shiny like to like trades.

We like driving in the car

It has been a busy day.  We were to see my mother early in the morning but due to a few ‘issues’ this could not happen.  Instead, we travelled later on.  My Mum loved seeing the kids, especially as we missed her birthday and she did not get to see her over Christmas.

After that we drove for lunch and supplies and due to traffic we had to take a huge detour on the way home.

My daughter was shattered and quickly went to bed, but my son happily played Pokémon Sword and Shield, a game that he has got with the birthday money my Mum gave him for Christmas.

Instead, my wife and I binge watched Bancroft. The second series is on ITV but we had not watched the first one.  We were very impressed and we are looking forwards to this series. But we are undecided if we should watch it after all the episodes are available so that we can binge watch it again.

And when it comes to Arsenal, I have now watched the highlights of the game against ManUre.  And I was very impressed with how we played.  I have yet to watch the Chelski loss, but if all goes well the performance of the team against ManUre will be repeated for the rest of the season and we may get to play European next season as well!

Fun Yesterday and today's torture

Another post by my son, though as before, not one which has been keen on doing.

Yesterday my happy day. Yesterday I helped clean out mummy's car. And it using a vacuum cleaner to get rid of the water. It took about an hour and a half.

Today I help my sister clean her book out from her room. It took about an hour. She gave me about 20 books, she said she'd help me with them putting them away and getting rid of some of my books. She lied to me. She hadn't helped me at all it didn't make sense, after all I helped lots.

In the afternoon I had to have A monstrosity of a haircut. I despised it and make pleaded not to have it. My mother said I have to do it or I would never be allowed to have Pokémon cards for the rest of my entire life! After it was done to she was smiling. I was very annoyed after all it's not like I wanted it.

As you can tell, he was not in the best of moods about typing this one!  I have to give him credit for doing these though.

Pokémon and Bluewater

Again, it is time for a post from my son

My day was just amazing- until the time of me writing a blog post 😭

After I woke up I found out that in Pokemon GO there is now a professor’s challenge and if you collect all the stamps you catch a legendary Pokemon or an invisible Mew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  

Afterwards we went on a perilous quest to Bluewater and went to the cinema to watch the film A Wrinkle in time! It was a bit scary when the cute, intelligent brother turned evil, but it all ended happy ever after.

Today I went to Waterstones where I looked up Pokémon cards I bought a shiny Darkrai GX box. It contains 4 Shining Legends booster packs a non-promo jumbo and normal shiny Darkrai GX .

Then we went to YO! Sushi where I ate 5 whole plates ! I mainly ate sushi and I thought I might explode/implode . Then I went trampoline bungee jumping.

And now for my recollection...

In the morning, while I was giving my son a massage, we watched Blackadder.  Our aim, well mine, was to travel to Hendon to visit the museum there, an important time to go considering the RAF is 100 years old.  But, we did not do so.  Instead, after a discussion on the way, we ended up going to Bluewater to watch a film and do some shopping.  As my son has mentioned, we watched A Wrinkle In Time, which was a good film.  At times, it moved too fast and this meant that the film did not flow properly, but it was great to watch.  Following this, it was lunch at Yo Sushi, we had not eaten there in a while and we all loved our return there.  My son had loads of fun playing Pokémon and also getting some cards, and I was very impressed at how much he walked.  He is hoping to #FindMew, and I wish him good luck in this quest.

Pokémon & Bulbasaur community day, a blog post by my son

Today was Bulbasaur community day. First of all today was Sunday the 25th. Community day on Pokémon GO is when a Pokémon appears more frequently. You also get shiny Pokémon which are much rarer and here are some images.


Today we walked into Castle Park when when we were walking I caught a shiny Bulbasaur, my father however did not. He was very annoyed since he did not get one at that point. The walk was quite long as my father kept on annoying me

When we got into Castle Park I got another shiny. I saw quite a few are the children. The adults did not get as many Chinese as children seem to. I had got 100 Bulbasaur candy which meant I could of of a powerful Ibiza. My father persuaded me to save my candy so then I saved 125 candy and a vault are powerful shiny. I was ecstatic since my father had not got one shiny. I battle the gym at Castle Park and put my shiny Venus saw. Afterwards my father finally caught shiny at the end I had six shiny Pokemon and my father only had three. I kept on rubbing it in his face as it was very funny

And then it was gone

The snow has almost gone which means that the children should be back to school tomorrow. They were essentially off over Thursday and Friday, though my daughter did have school for a few hours on Thursday. And while there was a lot of snow yesterday, which meant no cycling for me then, it was clearing and today most of it has gone here.  What we did though yesterday was to have another snowball fight.  And once again, both kids ganged up on me.  Due to the weather, the snow was more compact compared to what it had been before, which meant that the snowballs were easier to make, and travelled further.  And yes, both kids got me in the face again.

Today we did go for a walk in Castle Park and this involved a walk down a very ice ridden path. My son was not too keen on this, but to be fair to him, he did what his sister wanted, which was to walk down the path.  She in turn let us spend some time to do a Pokémon go raid, something she appears to hate now.

Anyway, the kids are in bed, and now I have to sleep after watching the final episode of Requiem.

Apparently I am crazy

Apparently I am crazy.  Well according to my daughter.

Last night, my wife had some friends round, and I was working late, very late,  So I was not too willing to get out of the warm bed this morning to cycle to a course to learn about hips, shoulders knees and toes.  But I did, and the cold wind that was blowing certainly woke me up on by bike ride.  The course was a good one and I hope put my new knowledge to use soon.  And the view was great with the sun being out.

On getting home, my wife was not feeling too well so while she rested in bed, the rest of us went out to get some shopping (and forget one item).  While in ASDA though, the kids convinced me to buy them some chocolate brownies.  When I asked about helping them eat them, I was told by my son that this was not an option for me as I have a weight problem!

Later (after the kids ate the food), while my daughter stayed at home, my son and I walked round to a friends house and then later, into town.  There was an event for Pokémon Go, but sadly, when we got into town, my son and I realised that we had missed this.  He made the most of this with a trip to the playground where he had fun, and my wife had got better with rest and drove into town to collect us, something we appreciated as it was freezing.

After a trip to the supermarket again, to buy the milk that the rest of us had forgotten, it was back home to eat and relax before watching The Voice.  And it was over this time that my daughter, after over ten years disclosed her view that I am crazy.  Not sure how she came to this conclusion though...

Starting a battle with no ammunition

I apologise of this picture causes offence in light of the recent school massacre in the USA. 

This morning, I woke, went to work to catch up on some paperwork and had to return home to be a taxi.  My daughter went into town and I dropped her at the friend with whom she was to walk into town.  In addition to this, my wife managed to get a free pampering session in town and went with a friend.  After dropping them off, my son and I went out to catch Pokémon.  He was annoyed with me playing Pokémon GO in Southwold yesterday but was more than happy to play it today.  In fact, yesterday he accused me of loving the game more than him.  I told him, that while he was wrong, he was right to tell me how he felt.  And then I explained all the things that we had done which did not involve Pokémon GO yesterday.  I do think that it is important to let him know that he can tell me how he feels, but while he was wrong this time, there will be times that he will be right.  I forgot to tell him that and will need to tell him that again.

After picking up my daughter, I had to attend a call of nature when back home.  During this time, I heard the screaming and shouting.  My son, had got one of his NERF guns and took a shot at his sister.  She got her NERF crossbow and shot back.  Apparently, my son felt this was unfair as he had no bullets.  My son, who started the battle, felt it was unfair.  And in addition to this, he forgot a very important issue with NERF bullets,  That being when you shoot someone, they can pick up the bullets to shoot you back.  However by the time I was able to get out to discuss this (I was tempted to walk out of the door and leave them to it) he was in such a bad mood, that he would not listen to logic on this matter.  That and he refused to let me look in his room to see if he had bullets there (though he agreed to this later).

Anyway, the day later turned out for the better.  And I guess in the interests of fairness, I should point out that my daughter left a bottle of orange juice (mostly empty) with the lid undone on the back seat of my car...

Takeaway wine

I am tired, so a quick post and then for me, bed.

After waking up late(ish) for me, we travelled to London.  My wife had originally wanted to have breakfast at Brick Lane and then travel to Maltby Street, but after rising late, this was not possible, so instead we had something to eat in Colchester, and something to eat on the way down, and instead went to Maltby Street for lunch.  While I parked, by wife found somewhere to eat, a great place, out of the cold and with great and for us, original food.  I loved it, as did she.  The kids were in a bit of a funny mood so did not enjoy it as much as they normally would do.  The photo is of an array of wine that is available to buy to take away with.  I was surprised to see how empty the place was, but glad as this meant that we almost had it to ourselves, and of the food came quickly, something that is very important with two kids, kids who quickly can and have turned on us!

Before we left, we went to the Bad Brownie company, well, my son and I did, while my wife and daughter went to a different stall.  We are return customers to this stall, but we had something new, and loved it. My son was aware that it was not fully fair that his sister did not share her food,but got to eat some of the Brownies, but did not complain too much.  But considering that it is now the half term holiday, I am sure that will happen later this week.

After this, it was a drive to collect my mother who has kindly agreed to come up to Colchester to look after the children.  I made a bad choice when it came to the route we took, for we had decided to go to Costco first, but rather than take a quicker, but less direct route, I took my chances with a more direct route.  And I should not have.  To be fair, the kids were very well behaved over the two hour journey (that would have been much quicker if I had taken the roundabout route) and my son had so much fun catching Pokémon that he got bored and stopped.  I am not sure if my daughter was interested until she found out that she had a Mewtwo caught for her.  When on a trip to Brightlingsea last year she took part in a 'raid' and due to this, was offered a pass to an exclusive raid.  In summary, Pokémon Go is about catching and collecting as many Pokémon as possible. This raid allowed her to catch a powerful and rare one, one which I have failed to get, despite having two attempts.  We were not able to attend the raid in person, but one other player kindly used her account (with the permission of my daughter) to catch it.

Anyway, they are now all in bed and my mother is here to look after them.  They have grown over time, and I do hope that they behave for her, especially as she has given up so much time to look after them for us.

Last of all, the music is from a group, now defunct, formed by three singers from The Voice.  One has since left but we were listening to this in the car and no doubt till enjoy it again in the future.

Disappointed

First of all, I have a new iPhone. My old one had issues with its microphone which meant that I could speak to Siri and also record video's, but not make calls.  It has been an issue for a while and I needed to transfer photos and videos from it before having it sent away for repairs (well, trying to reset the software and when that did not work, sending it off).  I had an idea it might come thanks to the updates from EE, but once it arrived, my son and I walked into town to get it. One the way back, we stopped for what turned out to be his last Pokémon Go raid on his glitchy iPhone.  Because we had a spare iPhone 6 from having our phones from before, he has effectively had an upgrade, but his last iPhone 5 was terrible. He did not catch the raid boss, and he was understandably upset, but hopefully that will no longer be an issue for him.

After that it was a trip to see Tony and the Arsenal match.  And needless to say, I was disappointed.  In some ways I was expecting worse, but I never want Arsenal to lose, let alone against our local rivals.  The first half was a close thing, but our defence, the issue which I feared would fail us lost concentration too many times in the second half.  Still I was expecting worse, and it could have been so...

The one that got away

We have been the house of ill since I last posted.  My daughter had been off school and then, on Wednesday, my son was mysteriously ill.  Well, he did have a cough which sounded bad, and it is better, so I guess that he was ill enough to have the day off.  And due to the snow on Wednesday, I had to work from home as well (I did not feel up to cycling on ice).  Anyway, both are better now.  Sadly, my wife, who injured her knees on Sunday is not back to normal, though she is improving.

My son though is very happy.  When it came to Pokémon Go I had got another raid pass to catch a MewTwo. My son had got one as well, but this was for a raid in Devon, because of him playing Pokémon Go when he was there last year on our summer holiday there. Sadly, it is for this Sunday, and we have told him that we will not be travelling down there just for this. My daughter has been given a pass for one in Brightlingsea and we may or may not go to this. But going back to the raid, this was my second chance to get one of these rare Pokémon, the first raid being one that only a few turned up to take part in (which meant that I failed in this). And there was a large turn out. The MewTwo was defeated and of the fourteen players there, eleven caught it. And guess who was one of the three who failed...

The first family walk of the year

Okay, it was not all the family, but it was a nice walk anyway.

Yesterday, Lynne and Steve came round.  We had not seen them in a while and they were surprised to see how much our daughter had grown.  It was great to have them around, though I was quite sad and had to go to sleep before they left.  My son did spend the time watching The Voice UK, but had to miss the last act as he had to go to bed.

Today, we spent the morning in bed watching Once Upon A time before my wife went out for a lunch time meet with Michelle for her birthday.  After the kids were fed, and a discussion was had over issues with behaviour (followed by ice cream), we (without my wife) walked into town.  It was a lovely walk, the kids were amazing during it.  We went to Waterstones were my daughter bought some books, and then it was a trip to the Comic Book Shop.  Each time I go there, I hope to see a copy of Groo the Wanderer, but I have not been so fortunate, yet. This time, my son bought some Pokémon cards, my daughter bought a poster, and I bought a fridge magnet.  And they did not mind the walk back either.

All in all, a good day.  And one I hope we improve on.

Mewtwo

My son is laughing.  Last month, he had got a pass on Pokémon Go to something called an exclusive raid.  The problem is that, despite his account being registered as that of a child, it was for a time when he was at school.  Fortunately, some kind player in Colchester agreed to catch it for him when the EX raid took place.  On that day, when he got home from school he was so happy.

Since then, I have overtaken him in Pokémon Go, in that I have reached a higher level than him.  I started to play in September after getting annoyed with the way the kids were managing their accounts and have done quite well on it.  So when I got a pass to such a raid, I was quite pleased as well. 

So on Tuesday, I was able to get some time to take part in the raid.  I arrived on time expecting to find quite a few other players there.  And there were two other players.  We tried to catch the raid boss, but with two players, our chances of defeating it were very small, and needless to say, we did not succeed.  But as this resulted in me not catching this rare and elusive Pokémon, my son was quite happy.  I may have some Pokémon that he has not got for now, but I doubt I will be given the chance to catch another one again. 

Pokémon Go and my son

One week ago, my son was heartbroken.  After collecting him from Cubs, I took him to a Pokégym not realising that there was a raid occurring there.  For those with a life, who do not know about this, Pokémon Go is a game where you encounter Pokémon which are virtual creatures which can be caught using an app.  My son got into it when his friends at school had taken up the craze.  Most have given this up, but he is going strong.

My daughter took this up later, but her enthusiasm died after attending a raid where she saw some of those who play Pokémon and decided to stop playing it as much.  Well, we have only been able to go to a few raids and have never caught one of the Legendary Pokémon.  So last week, we got there to find lots of people about to take part in one. We joined up and the 'Raid Boss' was defeated. But then it came to capturing it.  The sad thing is that I got it and he did not. Understandably he was distraught and when the same happened on the weekend with another one, where I caught one and he did not, he took it better.

So on Monday, I had the chance to get one for him.  And this time I got it for him.  The screams when he realised brought a big smile to my face.  Sadly I was not able to do the same for my daughter, but maybe next time...