These are a Few of My Favourite Things...

This is a picture La Petite Rosbif #1 made for me for my recent birthday using her mad photoshop skills. Ain't it purty? Isn't she clever?

You can see HMS Brangelina about to be cast on a lee shore attacked by the giant purple lightning shooting sea-monster (otherwise known as the family cat) while Daryl Dixon, from The Walking Dead, negotiates the rocky shore on Merle's chopper, and the TARDIS buzzes overhead.

Poor mog looks disgruntled rather than angry!

Beefy's Berfday!

It was my birthday on the weekend and I had a lovely day thanks to my girls who organised a lunch with my sister and her boys. I had a relaxed day which started with opening my presents in bed surrounded by my family. I did quite well on the Napoleonic front, but most of those presents are still en route. I know for a fact that I'll be getting one of these! Also I'll be getting the latest in this series, which I'm looking forward to immensely.

What really made my day was the effort my daughters went to make it a special Napoleonic themed day.

Exhibit one: My card.

It is a home-made card with a close up detail of the picture Napoleon in his Study by Jacque Louis David. Opening the card reveals the same image with one (not so) subtle difference: Over the great man's face another has been transplanted a picture of me mugging for the camera sporting a pair of lolly teeth (a type of sweetie or candy to non-Antipodeans), a photo taken a while ago which I'd nearly forgotten about. I'm glad that I wasn't drinking anything when I opened the card because I think I would have choked or sprayed everything in a half metre radius I laughed so hard!

Napoleon in his Study By Jacque Louis David

Some Gurning Idiot in his Study By La Petite Rosbif #1

Exhibit two: My cake.

I knew something was up in the kitchen as there were squawks of dismay and mock anger every time I ventured near the kitchen all morning. It's a difficult thing when one has to negotiate with one's offspring before being allowed to make a coffee!

However, all was forgiven when it came time to present the cake after lunch.

How about that? Aren't I a lucky dad?

The title of today's post is courtesy of John R. who wished me a happy birthday over the weekend. It completely slipped my mind that we share the same birthday (even though separated by many, many years!) Happy birthday, old man! :-P

The bedtime story you WISH you could have read!

For all of those of you who have ever had, or will have, small children and the associated sleep deprivation owning such creatures entails, this is for YOU! (read by Australia's Queen of Playschool, Noni Hazlehurst)

Enjoy!

(PS. the language is a bit blue, so don't play if you're easily offended or if there actually are kiddies around!)

She's a Valley Girl, fer sure, fer sure!

Nothing to do with wargaming, but a trip down memory lane!

Junior Rosbif #1 has arrived at that stage of adolescence when she's differentiating herself from the boring adults. The first manifestation of this is her language. It seems to be descending into a lot of 'stuff' and 'like' and 'totally' and 'OhmaGod!' etc. It's like listening to some sort of adolescent jackpot when all of the are linked together in the same sentence!

I started quoting 'Valley Girl' by Frank and Moon Unit Zappa back to her, which totally amazed her because, like most adolescents, everything's shiny new and no-one else has done anything interesting before them. Listening to it on YouTube was a complete revelation.

We now have a shared language thanks to this song. I now present 'Valley Girl' by Frank and Moon Unit Zappa to you, and if you don't like it you can say 'gag me with a spoon!'