Roman About...

We are on holiday in Rome, Italy. This is a picture of me taken next to the river on the right.

I've got my Gatorade and Phone!

We went to St. Peters today and to my surprise the pope was speaking. There were thousands of people there, security was tight and we were all scanned before entering the courtyard.

Pope.

We've just got to Rome, Italy and I'm sick. Matthew had a bug the other week and now I've got it. During the night I threw my guts up and felt a bit better. Good job there's a farmacia next door, now how do you say 'the sh**s' in italian.

Sick!

This is the Boeing 737 that we will be going to Italy in. It's my first flight so I'm quite excited. No alcohol required at the moment!

First flight!

Burger In The Trees

It's tea time and last time I had the indian and it was great. This time I ordered the 'Tall Trees Burger with Chips'. Now this is no small burger let me tell you, in that bun were 2 huge burgers, salad, sauce, bacon and cheese, the chips were mighty good as well. To be honest I wasn't mega hungry but I managed to polish off almost all of the burger and a few chips and this was no mean feat, it would have done me for 2 standard meals!

Yum Yum

I am working in Teesside and stopped at the Talls Trees Hotel again. This is a better view than last time, I didn't realise there was a fountain around the back.

Tall Trees Fountain

A Monopolising Cheater

It was Julies birthday today so tonight we got an Indian to eat and after a few bottles of wine played monopoly. Now, I normally win at this game but tonight I had to try a different stratergy - Cheating. I was getting well beaten because she had lots of hotels and stuff and these were costing me £1000 a hit so I decided to grab a few more £100 notes when I passed go, I managed to get away with around £4000 worth before getting caught. "Oops, I must have made a mistake counting them out" was my reply when she realised I was a cheater. Next time I won't get caught!

Monopoly Game

I stoked up the Chiminea, or at least tried to. I stuck part of the pallet it came on in its oven part and some paper and card and lit it. After I got it going the paper and card burned well but the wood just sat there and scortched. I'll try again another time because it's smoked the whole house out and it stinks.

The Metal Chimney

The chiminea arrived so I couldn't wait to get it built up. It took around 3 hours to build and it's really heavy. I am going to stoke it up tomorrow because it is a bit windy at the moment.

Chiminea Before Fire-up

Chiminea Has Been Delivered!

The chiminea has arrived today. Julie has taken it in and I can't wait to get it put together and tested. I know what I'm doing tonight!
I don't really spend any of my own money when I buy stuff off eBay. I use PayPal and that gets credited around $30-$40 each month by Gomez. I have earned over $800 so far, look at the picture below, or if you want to see my current earnings look Here and look for MikeHodgson in the money list. If you want to sign up to Gomez Peer click Here.

My money making machine in action

The Cardboard Robot

We got some presents today so I made Matthew a robot out of the cardboard boxes. It took almost 3 hours to make but was good fun. Later on in the night the robot went berzerk and started attacking people, it's head was swiftly removed. Maybe tonight I might customise it with some LEDs and a switch. Maybe even a sound chip out of one of those musical cards!

Robbie The Robot

Chiminea Is Coming...

I've just had word that the Chiminea is on its way, it's due to be delivered on Wednesday. I can't wait to get this and stoke it up, apparently it's about 4 foot tall and antique bronze. I got it off Ebay for about £80.

Shed Of Spiders

I've rambled about the power outages before and went to A-Z today who sold me a 2nd hand car battery for a tenner. I had already sourced a solar panel to charge the battery up, and an inverter to create 230V ac from it. For safety heasons (mainly hydrogen from the battery) I decided to stick the gear in the shed and run a cable indoors when a power outage occurred. The shed was full of rubbish like burst inflatable toys, an old desk, empty sand bags and stuff. I sorted it all out and got a couple of bags of rubbish from it. The old desk I had in there got kicked to bits (I knew I wore steel toe-capped boots for something) and I stored this inside because I have a chiminea coming soon and the wood will do for fuel! Over the next few weeks I'll get the battery and the rest of the gear put on a shelf in the shed and get that running.

Static Gas

Every few months I go through my direct debits and pick the highest ones and look to reduce them. Last month I saved £30 a month off my car insurance, this month I am looking into new electricity and gas suppliers. It's funny, when I type my consumption into u-switch.co.uk it says British Gas is £35 a year cheaper than my current supplier Scottish Power. If I pretend I'm a British Gas customer and type the details into the Scottish Power site it says I can save £31 a year. Bizarre! Someone is telling porkies!

Ah. Which One To Choose?

Fairly High Up Branches

I stopped at the Tall Trees the other night when I was working away. Got a Chicken Tikka for tea... here it is!

Nice Chicken Tikka!