28 December 2006

Project:365 (Prequel #3) - Carsington

Decided that the family needed some fresh air today, so we headed off to Carsington. The kids took their scooters and we treed along the side of the water. The weather was quite foggy, so there weren't that many people around - it was good to sweep the cobwebs away and feel like doing something slightly more energetic that raising the hand to the mouth!

We stopped off in Ashbourne on the way back home and mooched around the sales.

25 December 2006

Project:365 (Prequel #2) - Christmas Day

Christmas Day over and it was brilliant. The kids didn't wake up too early after we'd been tracking Santa all day on NORAD tracks santa. We opened most of our presnts, then Mum & Dad came round. We had beef (not turkey) this year and Dad had arranged some party games. He produced some more fireworks. Aftre the second was was discharged (at about 5:45pm) a disgruntled neighbour, who stayed in the shadows at the bottom of the garden (so we don't know who it is), became very aggressive and threatening - Happy Christmas to you too!! We had to call off the fireworks, as we felt things would turn nasty. that kind of drew the evening to a conclusion really.

24 December 2006

Tracking Santa



We're all here tracking santa here

22 December 2006

Weather

I'll be glad when I don't have to drive in all this fog the UK seems to be suffering at the moment. It has been days of unbroken thick fog which is destroying the plans of many travellers for Christmas time (but us hardy contractors need to battle the weather to get to work!)

Picked up on this great Flickr slideshow of a blizzard with proper snow - not the slushy stuff we get here.

21 December 2006

Is Locke, Ben's brother?

Well thanks a lot Mark!! Not only did you get me back into watching LOST (which I've caught up with now) but you also pointed me to the SKYONE podcast aired after every show. They have now filled my head with theories that I'd not thought of (or never would have), the finest being that Locke is actually Ben's brother. WOW! Episode 6 was great, and as there is a break in episodes (startup again in February), there was a cliff hanger.

Also immediately following LOST was the prequel for 24-Day 6, which got me hooked straight away, you can't beat a bit of Jack getting tortured action. Looks like its going to start on Sundays at 9pm in January - right before LOST when it restarts - that'll be inducive to getting to sleep then!

20 December 2006

Project:365 (Prequel #1)


I have decided that I'm going to post a few prequel episodes of Project:365. I will be doing some pretty good stuff before the beginning of the year (well certainly more interesting than the daily mundane stuff that will probably get posted when I get started proper).

Last night 21 of us went into Birmingham to watch a production of Guys & Dolls, which was great. Joe McGann, Nigel Harman & Bonnie Langford were the named stars, but all of the cast performed very well. It was an insight into what can be done with a professional company as there where a lot of great dance numbers too (and some nudity whichwas nice). Tasha & Jane, who will be in another production of the show after Christmas also enjoyed it and didn't come away feeling depressed (which I was a little worried about). Best part for me was Rocking the boat, closely followed by Luck be a lady.

Before we went to the show, we had another great meal at the big wok - not as busy as the 2 previous occasions I've visited.

As a bonus, we sat across from David Bradley, who plays Argus Filch in the Harry Potter films.

18 December 2006

Early Morning People Watching

Down at Gatwick (after a bad drive in the dark & wet) for hopefully the last time on the current training schedule. I think that there is going to be some more next year that I might have to get involved with.

Listened to some good iLife Zone back issues on the way down this morning, and sitting here in Costa Coffee at North Terminal I feel embarassed typing on my old Compaq Armada running Win2K, rather than a slick and sexy black MacBook!

My challenge of producing the family video for New Year is actually going OK, and I think I might actually do it on time. Got through and edited another heap of clips last night.

Tasha has excelled this weekend, in completely re-decorating our bedroom. Most of the work was done on Saturday, which left yesterday for her to go buy some dressings. My solution of glue, seems to be working for holding the curtain rail to the roof of the bay window.

Anyway must get back to some people watching, before heading over to set up my presentation equipment. I have some goals (tasks that occur regularly) which I want to start the new year with, and I need to think hard about setting realistic but challenging targets for.

14 December 2006

The Chancers Christmas Ball


Great to see all the chancers on Saturday night, thank you to everyone that made the effort to travel from far and wide to join the first ex-Siemens-now contractors get-together. Plenty of good chit chat about Gordon Brown's announcement and how it affected different people, and also the lastest romours with the folk that are left in Coventry, both Siemens and Silvertech. As usual far too much food was consumed at the Big Wok (after eventually getting in after they lost our booking!). After another visit to a very crowded Apple store with Mark, I think I'm warming to the black MacBook more. We'll wait and see what happens after Christmas.

Christmas tree went up at the weekend, which was a great event as always. Nate is really excited this year, now that his going to pre-school he knows what is going to happen. Only one bauble casuality this year too, but we have vowed to get some new ones after the season is over. Had a great afternoon over at my Aunty Sue's, much good banter. Can't beleive that its a year since we were last over there.

See all my photos from the Chancers meet here

07 December 2006

Christmas Bazaar

Some of the 400 muffins Tasha has made for the bazaar!! As well as a lot of large cakes. She hopes to sell them all in record

The problem with big breakfasts

I was done at a training centre near Brighton this morning. Got up at 0345 to start driving. Horrible weather and a big accident (which hadn't cleared when I came back), meant it was nearly 4 hours in the car - a small hire car. At my destination I fuelled myself on a big breakfast, only to find out that the training centre also offered a very high quality free lunch as well. Two very square meals and the early start, meant I was pretty drowsy on the way home (another 4 hours in the car), so I stopped at the services, reclined the seat and played an energergiser Pzizz - the rest of the journey was fine!

04 December 2006


The business became fully VAT registered today, so will definitelt be up and running for the right date now.

Got quite a bit of web work on now, so its busy in the evenings too at the moment. Hoping to get 2 sites finished by Christmas, and another just into the new year.

Was contacted about this pucture today. Its been short-listed for the latest revision of the schmap guide for York.