Since Ali, Mark and Rob have all blogged about my birthday outing (and their fighting) on Sunday, perhaps I don't need to. I did enjoy travelling on the Great Central Railway. Steam trains are fun.

It wasn't the best steam railway I've been on though. There were no tunnels (which are good because Ali holds her breath through them) and no curves, so you couldn't see the engine pulling you along. But the Loughborough station was great, with lots of cast iron decoration and old luggage and, well, the fat controller was there too! Wow... Or Sir Topham Hat, as he now seems to be called.

And yes, it was 10 days after my birthday. But hey. I finally received my brother's presents, and wow they're good presents! I have a special guitar lead that has a switch on the lead, so I can unplug it from the guitar while the amp's on. He also bought me Fast Fret (to make my fingers faster, apparently) and an excellent guitar stand. Now I can play at church and be totally equipped! Cool! And as if that wasn't enough he also bought me a mini-maglite and swiss army card. I mean, one of those ones that's a bit like a credit card instead of a knife. I'll feel like MacGyver. Possibly.

So we had the train trip, then a BBQ, and then Ali, Mark and Rob made the house look like a bomb site. I feel like tidying when I go downstairs, but I have to resist because I have to do work. I only have three weeks and one day left... Everything's taking me so much longer than I planned, and, well, aargh!

I think that's all I have to say. :)

Except that I think everyone's had car incidents in their past, haven't they? I will now relate all the stupid driving misadventures I've had in an attempt to make myself look like a terrible driver, because Ali is a good driver whose reverse parking amazes me! I mean, I tend to just crash into stationary things. If I could reverse park like her I wouldn't have had any of these accidents!

My worst one was a skip when I was reverse parking on a very crowded street. I misjudged it and the corner of the skip screeeeched along the side of the car leaving a rather ugly gouge. It actually lifted one side of the car off the ground, I think. And don't ever try to park in the Stansted Mountfitchet car park! If you manage to get into a space, there's no guarantee you'll be able to escape again without... unpleasantness. And the last one, well, that was reversing in a petrol station. There was a car parked to the left behind me, and I caught the corner of it. Very slowly, mind you, and there was no damage. But the person yelled at me a bit about how stupid I was before letting me go. I knew I was stupid. :(

My brother John had this theory about the longer I went without driving the better at it I became. Maybe he has a point. :)

I have been mostly.... WATCHING (TV): hungarian grand prix (itv) / READING: Star Wars New Jedi Order 1: Vector Prime (R.A. Salvatore) / LISTENING: blade runner soundtrack (vangelis)