Fitness Fanatic

Ever the one to improve her fitness, my daughter, Lisa, telephoned the local gym to make an enquiry, and asked the instructor if she could teach her how to do the splits.
She said, "How flexible are you?"
Lisa replied "I can't make Tuesdays or Thursdays."

My daughter Lisa called Aaron, her boyfriend and said, "Please come over here and help me.

I have a really difficult jigsaw puzzle, and I can't figure out how to get it started."
Aaron asks, "What is it supposed to be when it's finished?"
Lisa says, "According to the picture on the box, it's a tiger."
Aaron decides to go over and help with the puzzle.
She lets him in and shows him where she has the puzzle spread all over
the table. He studies the pieces for a moment, looks at the box, then turns to her and says,
"First of all, no matter what we do, we're not going to be able to
assemble these pieces into anything resembling a tiger."


He takes her hand and says, "Second, Let's have a nice cup of tea, and then"




He sighed......... "Let's put all the Frosties back in the box."

Here is the next episode of our 'National Trust' journey - a few weeks ago we decided to visit the grounds of Scotney castle - again we were lucky with the weather and spent a few hours enjoying the lavish and beautiful gardens. It is strange but National trust properties always seem to be jam packed when you reach the car park but once inside the grounds everyone vanishes! Always a peaceful experience.

Well Guys, Wimbledon has finished and it is time to announce the winner of the big challenge!

after much thought and a very complicated tie-break system I can announce the winner

ME!!

Well after all - out of our 4 nominees only one became a Wimbledon Champion

Jelana Jankovic

Happy Birthday - MUM

Have a wonderful day mum- Lots of love from us all
TnTLAA

Happy Birthday - ANDREW

Happens to every guy sometimes this does:

Today your day special it is

Almost Invisible

I have heard on the grapevine that 'The Professor' has silently entered the country - Luckily I am one step ahead, and have already warned the custodians of the Elgin Marbles (and the Dagenham Girl Pipers) to keep all doors and windows securely locked until this alien has returned to the Land of the Cretans.





You can keep me in the dark but nothing escapes the chess ninja :-)

National Trust 2

As promised earlier - here is my second brief encounter with the National Trust. We travelled down to Sussex to visit the delightful ruin that is Bodiam Castle.

It is an interesting place, even when really busy it seems to be peaceful. The perfect place for a long sit in the shade with a historical novel.

A trip to the top of the towers is a must, but beware the stairs very steep, deep and designed for one way traffic only!!

Hope you like my photo of the castle, pity that tree walked in front of me - must have been a tourist!

Anyone for Tennis?

Just a week to go until the start of Wimbledon - and to prove the superiority of men over women - here are our family predictions for the 2007 Championship: well the 'grown ups' anyway

Teresa:

Men - Rafael Nadal

Women - Justine Henin

Trefor:

Men - Andy Roddick

Women - Jelena Jankovic

If Teresa is lucky enough for her guesswork to beat my skill, then I will buy her some flowers! And it isn't even her birthday for months

Of course she won't beat me, and even if she does strike it lucky, she doesn't read this blog so will never know about my 'generous offer'

:-)

Have a Great Day Dad(s)

Congratulations to all of the dads out there, especially Ivor and John.

Believe it or not, while I will spend the day vegetating in front of BB on the tv, Ivor will be cycling from London to Brighton and John will be chasing small defenceless animals around a wildlife park in deepest Kent. Not bad for a pair of 'oldies' with a combined age approaching 200 :-)

Lots of love

TnT

Happy Knights

So, here is my first chess game for a while, played on ICC:

I was white and both players had 15 minutes to make all of their moves. This was the first game that I analyzed with my coach. I was astonished at how little I actually saw! Anyway an enjoyable game with a pretty finish.

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Bc4 Ngf6 6. Ng5 e6
7. Ne2

[This is quite unusual but perfectly playable, the 'normal' plan is Qe2 and Ng5 to e4]

7. ... h6
8. Nf3 c5 9. 0-0 Be7 10. c3 b6 11. d5 [Better is Nf4 before d5] exd5 12. Bxd5 Nxd5

13. Qxd5 Ba6
[this is good for B , defending the rook and the B is happy on a6]
14. Re1 O-O 15. Ng3 Nf6 [ here white should exchange queens and Bf4 with a strong position]
16. Qf5 [ here black should have played Bd3!] Bc8 17. Qc2 Bb7 [A mistake, stronger was Be6]
18. Nf5 [white has threats now, looking at g7 and h6] Re8 19. Bxh6
[Interesting here was ... Bxf3, Bxg7 Bg4, Nxe7+ Rxe7, Bxf6 Rxe1+, Rxe1 Qxf6, Qe4 ]
Back to the game
19 ... gxh6 20. Nxh6+ Kf8 21. Rad1 Qc7 22. Ng5 [Better here is Ne5, preventing Qc6]
22 ... Qf4 23. Qg6 fxg6 24. Ne6#

Black has been checkmated.

You can play the game here by using the 'video player' buttons under the board below:

Carry on 'Clever Trevor'

I was told this week, that my spelling and grammar are atrocious – and apparently I am also unable to tell the time.

Well I don’t own a watch, so that is my excuse for my failure to decipher the tick-tocks correctly. A weak excuse admittedly but the only one I have, so I am sticking to it like glue!

As far as my writing skills go, I am searching the web for a cheap educational book - I did do a Google search on ‘Dick and Dora’ and yes before you ask, Dora’s pussy is still called Fluff.

knock me down with a feather

Clever Trevor

widebrows wonder wether Clever Trevor’s clever

either have they got

nor neither haven’t not

got no right to make a clot

our of Trevor

also, it takes much longer to get up north, the slow way

(Ian Dury)

Iceland

Well this August we celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary - I asked my beloved where she would like me to take her.

She replied ' Iceland would be nice'

Fine by me, but doesn't she know that they deliver free if you spend over £25?

Chess

As most of you will know I am a bit of a chess nut, well I finally decided to try and improve and now have lessons, don't titter dear it is true - luckily my chess coach is very kind, patient and extremely brilliant, as well as having achieved one of the highest ever tournament performances in World Chess History :-)

I will print some recent games in the next day or so:

Sandwich Bar - take 2

Now, lots of people have emailed, send me txts or just grabbed me by the arm demanding to know if the beautiful lady ever arrived at the sandwich bar, and what did she do to me to stop me from blogging for 5 months!!

Well all I can say is watch this space and her name will appear sometime this month.

and . . . . . . yes she is still beautiful

National Trust

I had a brilliant birthday present from my beautiful daughter, a subscription to the National Trust. We will try to make the best of it and visit as many places as possible.

First on our list was Ightham Mote - a really lovely house, full of history and we were lucky enough to visit on a beautiful day. Here is a shot of the side of the house, as we trundled past on our way to buy ice creams!

Long Time no See

Hi guys,
apologies for the long delay between posts, blame it on the weather, blame it on my job(s), just don't blame it on the boogie.
At least it is now the summer and I will try to post a few times each week. Look out for dodgy photos (NO!! not 'that sort' I mean badly composed) and even dodgier chess games

Cheers
Trefor

Sandwich Bar and the mystery blonde

Had a great lunch on Monday, well a cornbeef and cucumber sandwich anyway, was joined by a very beautiful lady. Just managed to take the photo on my mobile phone before she dived into the surf, then with a wink, a wave and a toss of her tail she was away. Must have been too much garlic - - - Oh well next time it's a salad followed by a steaming roly-poly

Dumb Bells

Was handed an application form to join the local gym at work! I haven't worked out yet whether it was because I look fit and hunky as I stroll from desk to tea machine or otherwise :-)

Anyway I will investigate the gym, by all accounts they have a bar with with ice cold Guinness!

Chess Draw

Well guys, I played my first team OTB game for what seems decades monday night. The final position is shown above where we agreed a draw. I was black and it is my move in the position. My opponent offered a draw, and it was enough to win us the match, I was also worried about messing up my advantage, so accepted. It was a strange game where I sacrificed a pawn on move 1 and a bishop later to secure an attacking game. A draw was a fair result in this game though I don't think the final position, interesting as it is, offers anymore

Exciting Monday

It is now the weekend and I have 2 days to relax and re-charge ready for next week.

Monday promises to be exciting, the start of my first full week with my new colleagues, playing a "real" chess match in the evening - forgotten where, but some dark and dingy tourist town in Kent no doubt -

My New Job

Started my new job on Wednesday, so have safely completed my first week, albeit a short one!

First impressions are very good, all of the staff are friendly work seems varied and interesting and office modern and only a short walk to a lunchtime bar - non-alcoholic guinness of course lol- Spent a few hours today making CD cases, don't ask, lets just say that I don't have a big future as a Blue Peter Presenter - which is a shame as I love dogs and free holidays.

Oh, almost forgot by all accounts I get paid too!

Exhausting End

Well guys, my car has been repaired - and I have to be honest, I went to Kwik Fit and was very impressed by their attitude, knowledge and price. I know nothing about cars and could have been easy meat for a rogue garage man (Not many of those around !!) But Kwik Fit were friendly, fair and quite cheap, or in TV shopping land speak - "affordable"

While I was waiting for the repair I sprinted into town to pay in some money at the Nationwide BS . . . .OMG what a crazily long queue they had and seemingly in no rush to fill the empty cashier's desk. The queue crawled along with most of us clock watching and fearing that as lunchtime approached the tills would close and the Nationwide employees would be off spending the Christmas vouchers - I made a pledge with the lady behind me to let the cashier have a piece of my mind - alas when I was eventually served she was too beautiful to be annoyed with, the best I managed was a rather feeble "Happy New Year" I didn't have the courage to tell her it felt like it was almost 2008