Are you watching...Black Sails?

Have you seen Black Sails, the pirate action drama series from Starz Originals? If you haven't, you really, really should. All four series are available now on Amazon Video for free if you have a Prime subscription.

The show has a cracking title theme

Round and round the garden

I came to the realisation recently that I’m getting old. It wasn’t due to the aches and pains I’ve had for a while now; the little creaks and groans my joints give off every time I move, but more that my attitude and interests were shifting to things that young me would have scoffed at. I distinctly remember going to a house party, many years ago. My friends were talking about the virtues of various garden sprinkler systems. I laughed at them, called them old buggers and wondered off to find more scintillating conversation. But here I am, 12 years later (give or take), thinking about gardening equipment.

Take, for example, my new garden storage box. Our garden has long been a point of contention: we’d love it to be somewhere we can use to relax, that our son can play in and that we can have dinner in during the warmer summer. Instead, what we generally have is a garden that looks like a set from Jurassic Park. 

An actual picture of me last time I ventured out into the garden

It's oh-so-quiet

Sorry I've not posted anything this week, it's been a busy one at work and we also had a sick toddler to contend with for the start of the week. I've got a few post ideas I want to get off the ground in the next few days, but just to let you know I haven't disappeared!

This is how ET spent most of Tuesday.

My Sunday Photo 21st February - sunrise over the Fort

The story of why I have this photo is extremely funny. K sold some Pandora charms on eBay and agreed to drop them to the buyer at their home late one evening. She was a little nervous, so I agreed to go with her. It was really dark by the time we arrived at the house and I said I'd 'do the deal', so I get out of the car, walk up to the house and see a woman in her dressing gown open her kitchen window and look at me cautiously. 'You got the charms?', I imagined her saying, to which I'd reply 'you got the money?', like some bizarre, middle-class drug deal. Anyway, she was pleasant enough, the 'deal' went without a hitch, with no PoPo in sight.

Cut to a few days later and Kelly has sold some more charms to the same woman. This time she asks us to meet her at the Fort Shopping Centre at 8am one morning. Sure enough, there she is, waiting for us outside W H Smiths. This time Kelly comes with me and does all the talking, so I'm just stood slightly behind her like an enforcer, or something. The woman hands over the money, we say our thanks and head to Starbucks to grab a latte (something I bet no drug-dealer ever did right after a deal) when Kelly notices the lady has shortchanged us. The woman has made it almost across the car park at this point, so I give chase and flag her down. She is understandably embarrassed and checks her pockets, handing over the missing cash. Once again I thank her and walk away. As I'm walking back to Starbucks, cringing at how embarrassing the whole situation has been, I see the sun cresting over the top of the shops and felt compelled to take this picture.

Kelly, who had been watching the entire ordeal from the warmth and safety of Starbucks and providing a running commentary with one of the Baristas, couldn't stop laughing at how dodgy the sight of me running across a car park, in my long coat and leather gloves, after a woman must look to anyone observing, and has taken to calling my gloves 'come strangle me gloves'...nice.

Anyway, I promise no one was harmed in the taking of this photo...

#MySundayPhoto

#MySundayPhoto 14th Feb 2016

It's Valentine's Day, so what better photo than one showing the two loves of my life: ET and penguins...erm... I meant ET and my wife K, of course! Also penguins.

#MySundayPhoto

Warcraft Weekender...I'm an altoholic

My name is Stephen, and I'm an altoholic.

Hmm...who to play today?

Warcraft Wednesday - Returning to the World of Warcraft

I've played World of Warcraft (WoW) since just after release. I'd not really played an MMO prior to that, apart from a quick go of Star Wars Galaxies (my computer at the time wouldn't run it properly) and a grindathon called Ragnarok Online. I don't know what made me suddenly sit up and take notice of WoW, either. Whatever it was, I remember it being sold out everywhere in Birmingham, but my brother managing to get us a copy each whilst he was working away from home on a training course. Since then, I've played for hundreds of hours (I'm too scared to look at my total time played), got one of every class to at least 90 and currently have four level 100 characters. I've raided, I've been casual, I've done PvP and I've never done a single pet battle, because screw that Pokemon crap.

One of my first and most vivid memories of that time is cresting a hill in Dun Morogh as a lowly Gnome Rogue, not having a clue what I was doing and just being amazed by how seamless and vast the world was. I saw the Dwarven capital of Ironforge, built into a distant mountain. I wondered if I could run all the way there; turns out I could, and so much farther.

Sadly I lost all my original screenshots of my early adventures