London Marathon!

Woohoo!!!

I've got a place in the London Marathon 2009! :o)

Please Please Please sponsor me to run 26 miles... It's a very stupid thing for me to do, but I'm doing it for a very good cause. I'm running for Ronald Macdonald House Charity (RMHC), who provide accommodation for parents with children in hospital. This is a very important charity to me as they helped my brother and sister-in-law stay close to their lovely daughter Nicole on two occasions for weeks at a time when she was very poorly in hospital. Nicole has since made a full recovery and is a darling little Niece :o) So I'm really proud to run on behalf of RMHC and would love for people to donate to them, even if it's just a few of pounds if you think I've run enough to deserve a beer, then put it towards the charity.

You can sponsor me online here -> http://www.justgiving.com/simonmaple

If you can spare anything at all, I'd really be grateful!

Thaaaaanks :D

Upside down dogs!

I've sent this photo...



To this website... http://upsidedowndogs.com/

Let's see if it gets in :o)

DIY done and DIY todo

We've been very busy with lots of DIY recently and have been thinking about other things that could be done next!

We've taken out the toilet and sink from the downstairs loo, put up new coving, prepped the walls with loads of plaster, filler and lots of sanding, put new isolation valves on the pipes (compression joints) ripped up the new floor, layed a new ceramic floor, put plaster coving up (one of the most irritating jobs I've ever undertaken as the walls are by no means square :oS) and painted lots of white paint everywhere as an undercoat. Liz's Dad, Terry, was great help with the DIY when he and Liz's Mum, Linda, came over to stay for a few days. Linda did lots of gardening and weeding and stuff with Liz when us men were grunting and doing manly things like plumbing.

So, that's what We've done so far. We still need to give another undercoat, especially over the new plaster, followed by the actual colour coat! tbd, install the new loo and sink, with plumbing and taps, new mirror, and wall tiles by the sink, then some other bits and bobs like glossing and stuff.

I thought today about a possible project: To convert the back of the garage to a fun bit of space. The bit I'm talking about is about 3m x 2.5m... As you can see from the detailed drawing below, It will contain, shelves to but beers on, a beer fridge, a pool table, a few stools, a dart board and a pool table light thing. It's gonna be fun :o) Now I just need to convince Liz... hmmm I'll tell her about the beer fridge first I think :oD