Bournemouth Air Festival

My little brother  Ken is off to Uni next week.

More of the same then, knocking back the JD on the campus.

Best of luck. Just shout if you need a food parcel seeing as you are only a few miles away from Guy and Laura. They can make you a Hotpot if you are hungry.

Will pop into Asda this weekend to get some back to school stuff for you like pens, pencil case and a Gonk.

Don't miss the Bournemouth airshow from this Thursday till Sunday. Bit of a coup for Bournemouth Council, well done.

Should be a great few days and bring in all the tourists. Unfortunately the weather doesn't look hugely great for the event but hopefully the rain will hold off.

As the fireworks are back on the BBQ will be on the Friday night.

Usual place on Bournemouth beach. Usual rules on food and drink.

6pm onwards as usual.

Weather report says things are picking up for the weekend. Not fully convinced about the swimming in the sea bit but as the scouts say, be prepared.

Had a great trip to the US. A hectic couple of weeks but great fun and food!

Were in Orlando for a week, at a karate summer course. Only managed to get to one of the theme parks, which was Seaworld.

Then it was off to Connecticut to see my brother Graham, then into New York to see Steve Clark, then into Boston to see the Chapmans, then back to Connecticut. Non-stop whistle tour of America.

Food highlight - eating at Nobu in NYC, a belated birthday present. Cheers Steve. Was a fantastic meal.

Not affected much by the jetlag - hence typing this up at 4am!

Why don't the phone manufacturers all build phones that power from USB. So annoying to have gone to the US taking my UK power supply.

Most computer appliances etc have power adaptors that can use 100V or 240V. Must be cheaper for the companies as well if they used that as a standard.

Argh!

Just got in from having a Japanese dinner at the equivalent of 3am UK time. Managed to stay awake pretty easily and get down to some pigging out on the first night of our holidays. Went to Rangetsu on International Drive for some Japanese food, which is only a short walk from our residence at the Hilton Embassy Suites.

For just under $120, (£60) we had a couple of cocktails, 2 large bottles of Sapporo, pickled veg and seafood, edamame, mixed tempura plus I had sushi/sashimi combo as a main and Angela ordered a steak dinner after talking about getting a Chirashi rice dinner. Unfortuantely they brought the raw seafood chirashi rice dish instead.

Angea asked them to stir fry the raw food up and stick it back on top of the rice. Would have been embarassing but it was their fault. The embarassing bit of the day was when the sniffer dog hunted down Angela's apples just before immigration. Hmmm, on the spot fine was on the cards.

It was a fairly large glass fronted building with a huge multi tiered koi pond with waterfalls.

Service was typically good.

We have safely arrived in Orlando.

Got to Gatwick in good time and started to queue up. Was told our flight was delayed by about an hour and a half. They offered us the earlier plane taking off in about 50 minutes and be upgraded to Premium Economy on Virgin. Ah great we thought, trying not to break out into cheesy smiles, having just checked in bag in they said that someone else has taken the other place. So we could have the one in each class or two in economy.

Well, I couldn't really let Ange stay in Economy by herself could I. The sacrifices I make! Damn.

So much for the glass of champagne Mrs Virgin co-ordinator. Probably a cunning ploy to release two seats for the later flight.

Beach BBQ

Not sure whether Angela wants it on the Friday or Saturday yet but pencil those days in your diary.

Haven't had a swim lately so may break out the shorts for a dip.

Can't afford to host another big hotel bash for our anniversary so you will have to make do with this.

Aidan and Joshua

We and the nephews went out for dim sum for dad's birthday on Sunday.

Photos of nephews

Photos of Dad's 71st birthday

Congratulations to Meg and Rich on the arrival of their new baby girl.

Born yesterday at 8.45am, 7lb 15oz and 49cm long.

Lauren with Ella

Arrived 1.32am on 8th July, weighing in at a massive 10 lbs. Is that big? I don't know.

Little Ella has grown up loads as well.

Mr & Mrs Hopwood

Congratulations to the both of you.

It was a great day at Avington Park near Itchen Abbas. The sun shone for the most part, the grounds were beautiful and the drink was free flowing. After a quick and sweet ceremony, just how we like it, they became Mr and Mrs Hopwood. We nearly got Rich P into a fit of giggles during his reading.

Bucks Fizz, then soonafter the orange juice part of it was dropped so it became just fizz, then it became just Becks, then it became just a mess. You know who you are. There was more than one.

Well done on the speeches, Jo's dad, Mark and seasoned veteran Max.

Here are some of the photos from the day.

Anyway Mr Mancunian, my name is not Mr China neither!