GroanUp

Lego Animal Costume Minifigures

During the summer I was inspired by JaysBrickBlog to collect all of the Lego collectible minifigures where the characters wear animal costumes.

I was inspired by this picture. This guy’s Lego photography is far better than mine and the figures looked so good.

I began to collect just a few figures each month. I already had a giraffe and knew I had the chicken suit guy somewhere. I then discovered I had the shark guy too. That gave me a good start.

Finding the figures in the shops can be tricky unless you have a feel guide. So eBay is often your best bet so that you can get the exact figures you want. More recently released figures typically cost anything between £4 and £6. Some of these figures go way back to the very first few sets and cost more.

The most valuable figure was the Bumblebee Suite Lady. She is the most rare of them all and it cost £24. Good grief. But my collection would have been useless without it.

Jay’s collection only counted 18 figures but I have also counted the bear suite guy in Series 19 – if unicorns count then so do colourful bears.

The figures included are:

Colourful bear suit guy- a brilliant figure – excellent colours and design. The multicoloured legs are awesome.
Gorilla suit guy – an excellent figure – worth quite a bit too. The mould is excellent and I love the banana that goes with it.
Chicken suit guy – a classic. It’s brilliant!
Giraffe suit guy – at one point I had four of these. It’s such a good figire!
Blue unicorn guy – I prefer it to the white unicorn but that’s probably due to the sword and shield that comes with it.
Bumblebee lady – Why this is so rare, I don’t know. It’s nice but I am unsure why it is so valuable.
Dragon suite guy – What a figure! Again, strictly not an actual animal, but I’m counting it.
Penguin suit boy – Way cute. It’s hard to display as it’s so small.
Panda suit guy – This includes a panda teddy! It’s perfect!
Crocodile guy – This one doesn’t really stand out when displayed with all the others. On its own and you see the detail on the back of the suit.
White unicorn lady – A bit plain, but I like the blue hands.
Elephant ballerina suit lady – Absolutely brilliant! I love the face expression due to the mouse!
Rabbit guy – A fantastic figure. I love the mould of the headpiece.
Fox suit guy – Another classic. I love the way it includes a chicken and a bag of grain!
Spider suit guy – An effective figure, but probably my least favourite of the set.
Pig suit guy – Another excellent figure – I love the detail on the headpiece.
Cat suit lady – Another one I’m not fond of. It’s fine but it doesn’t stand out.
Tiger suit lady – Another one that doesn’t stand out as particularly special. It was quite expensive, from what I remember.
Shark suit guy – This one is so cute – the headpiece is excellent and I love the fins!

There’s a space on the front row of my display ready for the next figure to add to the collection!

UPDATE: FEB 2020

Here’s the completed board – I’ve added Cheetah from the recently released DC Comics collection.

And here’s the first minifigure on the new board – the pink valentine elephant!

Spam Recipes

I love spam. Not the stuff that plagues my work email account. Actual spam. Check out all of these recipes on the official Spam website!

The Philly-Dilly SPAM Sandwich looks incredible!

Philly-Dilly SPAM® Sandwich.

Ingredients

Sure, the name Philly-Dilly sounds silly, but one bite and you’ll realize this sandwich makes the Philly cheesesteak look silly. It’ll also prove to you that this Philly-Dilly was definitely not put together in a willy-nilly fashion.

1 340g can SPAM® Chopped Pork & Ham
1 green bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
1 large yellow onion
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2?1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
2 slim French bread loaves
4 slices mild cheddar cheese
3 slices smoked applewood cheese
2 tablespoons prepared dill veggie dip

Method

1Cut bell peppers and onions into thin slices. Sauté in a large, non-stick frying pan with 2 tablespoons butter over medium-high heat, until peppers and onions are tender, about 10 minutes.
While peppers and onions cook, shave off very thin, non-uniform slices of SPAM® with a sharp knife. Remove pepper and onion mixture from frying pan. Set aside and cover.
Return same frying pan to medium-high heat and add SPAM® slices in an even layer. Add Worcestershire directly on top of the SPAM®, covering each piece. Cover generously with black pepper. Let cook 4 minutes, then stir and flip the SPAM® and allow to cook for about 5 more minutes, until SPAM® is heated through and slightly crisp.
Slice bread loaves most of the way through and toast in separate frying pan with remaining butter. While bread is toasting, return pepper and onion mixture to frying pan with the SPAM®. Mix together well, and then spread into an even layer. Place cheese slices evenly on top of the SPAM® mixture and reduce to medium heat. Once the cheese is melted, remove pan from heat and stir the mixture with a spatula to incorporate the cheese into the entire mixture.
Place toasted bread loaves onto serving dish. Spread a very thin layer of the dill dip onto the top halves. Scoop sandwich filling onto bottom halves of bread and close. Slice into desired serving sizes and serve immediately.

Classic Eighties Movies

Over Christmas I watched a few movies from the Eighties. Time to reminisce for a minute about my childhood…

Yes, I am at the point where, although I am only 41, this is the sixth decade that I’ve lived in. Whilst the Nineties was the best, there are films from the Eighties that are classics and are still great to watch!

Perhaps one of the best films of all time, BTTF is the film that still makes me want to ride a skateboard. It taught me about how to be cool.

Back To The Future

The Goonies

Short Circuit and Short Circuit 2

Indiana Jones

Return Of The Jedi

Ghostbusters

Stand By Me

Die Hard

Gremlins

Beverly Hills Cop

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Big

Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure

Coming To America

Mi Smart Band 4 – a review

It was my birthday earlier this month. My wife bought be a great new watch and I’m really pleased with it. It’s a Mi Smart Band 4.

I’ve had a Pebble for the last five or six years and I’ve loved it. Recently, the watch has started to feel uncomfortable and heavy on my wrist. I was sure that the step count tracking was a bit off. And I was having to charge it up every two or three days. It was getting a bit frustrating. So started looking for a new one. Fortunately I spotted a tweet recommending the Mi Smart Band 4 – what a bargain!

You can buy the watch in various colours, but I went for black.

So, it arrived just after my birthday, but this means that I’ve had it around a week now. I guess it’s early days, but so far, I love it! And it’s affordable to replace if I have issues with it. I’ve ordered a screen protector as I’m paranoid about damaging it.

The watch was packaged well and it was very straightforward to get it on charge. Charging took a couple of hours, maybe. I was then able to link it to my phone after downloading the free Mi Fit app. This was dead easy and took seconds.

Once connected by Bluetooth, the watch had the correct time and immediately started counting steps.

Using the app I was able to set up notifications from different apps. To be honest, this was a bit annoying as they didn’t come through the following day at work. When I got home in the evening I rebooted the watch and suddenly they started working. I’ve had no problems since.

The big difference between the Smart Band and my previous watch is that this is so comfortable to wear. Instead of taking my watch off to go to bed, I can now sleep wearing this. So now it records my sleep pattern, which is interesting. The watch is waterproof too, which will be handy at some point.

After a week of wearing it, the watch still has 65% charge! Amazing, compared to what I’m used to.

I can’t recommend it highly enough.

3D Models of Landmarks at Lidl

My daughter and I had fun building a model of Neuschwanstein Castle this afternoon, using a set bought from Lidl.

Before Christmas we bought a couple of 3D landmark puzzles from Lidl. We bought two – Big Ben and Neuschwanstein Castle. Today we had a go at the castle and really enjoyed it.

The models are made without the need for glue and scissors as you assemble them using folds, hinges and joints. Having said that, I would recommend a small kitchen knife to help you cut out the holes for the joints, and some craft glue might be worth having for certain details.

It took around 45 minutes to make and it was good fun, actually and we would definitely recommend picking up a couple of you spot them in store. They were about £4 each. There were a few other options including Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower and Tower Bridge. We intended to go back and buy some more but haven’t been back to Lidl since then!

Board Beans Cafe

We finally got to try to Board Beans Cafe in Northwich today.

The Board Beans Cafe opened in 2019 and we’ve walked past it on many occasions but not actually tried it, for no particular reason. Today we finally did and it was great!

We were there on a Saturday afternoon. It was fairly busy but there was a spare table for us. It seemed like a great way to keep the children busy. We ordered drinks and an ice cream sundae. We were charged £3 per adult to play games – this would cover us for three hours, although we never planned to be there that long.

The was a huge choice of games. Because we had the children with us we only really focused on the children’s games, but we could see shelf after shelf of more adult games. The website says there are over 350 available!

We played a few games but the children made it a little difficult as they couldn’t agree on games and couldn’t agree on rules! But the staff were really friendly and patient, even explaining the rules for a balance a penguin game!

The food and drinks look great and I’d like to visit again but without the children so that we can play some decent, unusual games. There was one called Cash and Guns which sounded and looked fun on a nearby table!

This is a unique cafe in Northwich and, in fact, unique in the local area – there’s nothing else like it that I’m aware of. It’s well worth a visit if you’re passing.

Top Cashback

Over the last few months I’ve been using Top Cashback. You will have heard of it – it’s the one with the annoying adverts. But it’s the one that can make you a little bit of money for doing nothing.

I have been massively trying to cut back on spending so I haven’t made masses of money, but each time I buy something online I’ve checked to see if it’s a site that’s on Top Cashback.

So far I’ve made nearly £50 – which is great because, like I say, I have done nothing out of the ordinary. But I have made a little bit of money back just when buying things I needed to buy anyway.

If you sign up using this link then you and I can both earn some extra money: www.topcashback.co.uk/ref/member1012623211609.

Josh

The latest comedy that we’ve rewatched is Josh, starring Josh Widdicombe, Jack Dee, Beattie Edmondson and Elis James. It came out in 2014 and ended in 2017. It’s an underrated classic!

Our Sunday night tradition is to have an earlier night and watch a couple of episodes of a TV comedy. The latest one is Josh. It’s one I watched when it was first out. I think I probably appreciated it even more the second time around.

There are some real laugh out loud moments as the three flatmates make their way through life whilst dealing with their weird landlord.

I’m sat here trying to decide which episodes are my favourites but I honestly couldn’t pick. Seasons Two and Three are sublime.

It’s now on Netflix or it’s available on DVD.

Museum of Science & Industry

I would give the Museum of Science & Industry, Manchester, a miss at the moment.

We visited on Sunday January 5th 2020 – to be fair, it was the last day of the Christmas holidays. That might explain the poor museum, but I’m not sure.

The Museum is free and it has always been a nice day out. We were keen to take our little boy as this would be his first experience of the museum that he would actually remember. “There are trains, planes and lots of games to play,” we told him.

The main entrance is really impressive. The staff were really polite and friendly. We visited the Experiments part of the museum. This is really interactive and fun and was the most popular part of the museum. Our children loved it, but I couldn’t help but feel that it needed some TLC and investment. It needed a good clean. Many of the exhibits were not looking their best. For instance, there is a bike to ride which lights up a skeleton riding a bike. The skeleton’s leg had fallen off. There was an emphasis on sustainability on some of the activities, which was ironic as the picnic area didn’t offer many facilities in the way of recycling.

The cafes, as we walked past, were really impressive. They are clearly assets and the part of the museum that generates a lot of money. The shop looked great too, but we avoided this – it was January.

The textiles area was very quiet and there wasn’t much going on at all.

There was an exhibition about the sun, but this had a charge to go in, and the children weren’t particularly interested.

There was a science show – this was actually the last day of the show. This was great – our children really enjoyed it. The guy presenting was fun and interesting. It was interactive, funny and the children learned some good facts about the sun.

We went over to the Air and Space Hall. We noticed a sign that said the roof had leaked due to the heavy rain a few weeks ago. This might have explained why many of the planes and vehicles were covered up and why some of the paths were closed.

The 1830 Station and Warehouse were pretty much empty. There was a very old exhibit about connecting Manchester. A few years ago these buildings were thriving.

The Power Hall where the trains were was closed for refurbishment.

I am being harsh as it seems that the museum is undergoing lots of developments which will perhaps make it a better place to visit in the future. But sadly, at the moment, to be honest, it’s not a great day out.

New Year’s Resolutions

I am rubbish at keeping to new year’s resolutions. Lots of the promises I make to myself are immediately hard to keep for two reasons. Firstly, because it’s my birthday so early in the year, so I almost immediately break the routines I am keen to get in to. Secondly, because I have no willpower. At all.

But I am going to try to keep to these during 2020, so I am sharing them so I can remind myself about what I’m trying to do.

In no particular order:

Spend less money – a big one. A HUGE one. I need to do this. 2020 is about spending less money wherever possible. The things I buy need to be essentials.
Find out what is wrong with my stomach or at least what foods make me poorly – in the last few years I seem to have developed intolerance to certain foods – bread in particular. I can’t go on making guesses and feeling poorly. I need to get this sorted.
Collect stamps and coins – see, I have no willpower. I am trying to get into buying first day covers of stamps and coins (specifically 50p coins). But this is such an expensive hobby, I will need to see how it goes. If they announce, let’s say Lego stamps – I will get them. If they announce stamps with caterpillars on, I will not. Same with coins – if I’m interested, I might take the plunge. I will write about this potential hobby at some point. This will be the one treat this year. Although I will hopefully buy the Friends Lego set at some point.

Keep the house tidy – I can see clutter, even as I write this. But I can’t carry on having an untidy house. I need to get everywhere as straight as I can get it.
Use my phone for less crap and be more productive with it – I waste so much time reading social media. I want to limit this and use it for more productive things, like keeping a diary, maybe.
Create more social media content than I consume – I want to use social media to build a platform for this blog and for a professional blog. I also want to develop my wife’s online presence for her little craft business.
Go to bed earlier one night in the week – I am beginning to feel my age. I need more sleep.
Read more – I have found it hard to keep up with reading in 2019 for various reasons. Back on to it in 2020.
Regularly spend time sorting the garden – I say regularly instead of weekly as I couldn’t commit to that. Spending any time doing this at all would be an improvement compared to last year.
Iron once a week – hate this.
Eat more fruit – looking forward to this, actually.
Clear the garage and loft – we have so much crap that needs getting rid of. And we have so many things we could sell and generate a bit of money.
At work I want to be relentless in our pursuit of high standards in the school, keep everyone focused on our school development plan and avoid making errors in administration which I have managed to do this year and last.