New Slide

We've got a new addition to the garden - a slide. Rebecca and James are ever so pleased with it. A sand pit also came our way too :-)

The garden is coming along nicely at the moment. We are eating plenty of vegetables out of the garden. I cooked some artichokes for the first time last Friday - what a faff - especially as they take so much room up in the limited space I have to grow veg. We are also tucking into fresh peas, mange tout (Rodney), the odd French bean and some new potatoes. We have also picked our first couple of tomatoes from the greenhouse.

Been really busy working and things not been stopping for a second. Off to either hockey or the sports club AGM on Thursday evening - very important as going to be a bit of a shake up after the last couple of years worth of stealing that has been happening. Quite important that as many people as possible get down there...

I've organised a couple of Badgers games which have gone ok. I lost my match ball last Monday which has rather annoyed me. Some good youngsters coming through though which is very encouraging.

Going on tour to Wayfarers in a couple of weeks, though have to come back early for Rebecca's birthday party. Might also go on another one later in the summer - been invited to another three or four I think.

Work is mental as always. Recruited a new member of staff the other week - had over 200 C.V.'s for the job... terrible employment market out there at the moment.

Dad has had another operation on his throat to try and keep it open so he can eat and drink - so another distraction for us - in a lot of pain I think :-(

Anyway, I'll try not to leave it as long for the next post.

Pilch and Emma Get Married

We went to Pilch and Emma's wedding last Saturday. The service was in St Peter's Church in St Albans and then we retired to a Hunton Park Manor House just down the road (though we managed to go via Chesham due to a wrong turn on the A41 anyway I digress).

It was a beautiful wedding and the whole day was just fabulous. We met up with lots of people we hadn't seen for a while - Catherine flew back from Kaliningrad and everyone had an excellent time. Wardy and I particular enjoyed the lamb for the main course... They even managed to arrange a spectacular thunder and lightning hailstorm - fortunately we were already inside and had enjoyed the good weather for the photos and things.

Anyway, splendid day, splendid wedding, splendid company and even had a splendid breakfast on the Sunday morning. Only the first or second time Sarah and I have spent the night alone without the children since they were born.

Off to vote

We went to vote last night in the European and Bucks CC elections. I do believe strongly in voting as our democratic right - no matter who you vote for - people sacrificed their lives for us to vote. Jamie scootered there and Rebecca cycled really well there too. Once there, there was a steady stream of people going in and out of the polling booth - and had a quick chat with some old parish council colleagues whilst I was up there. I do miss not being on the local council funnily enough, but I just don't have enough time at the moment. When I was a councillor I was an independent - fortunately there aren't 'expenses' as such at parish council level - and the web site which I maintained I did it practically at cost.

However, when I was due for re-election, I was approached to stand for District and Bucks and funnily enough, part of the reasoning given to me was you could make a lot of money from expenses. This is now of course becoming even more pertinent with the current climate and strikes me this goes through the whole system down to grass roots level. I did tell a few people at the time but obviously it wasn't on the radar. I'm not massively bothered by the whole MP's expenses 'scandal' as such as it was a given that it was in lieu of pay rises, though some of them like the moat claims are just laughable - and in comparison to proper fraud by overseas politicians it is nothing. The thing that does bother me most and seems to have been largely buried is the Lords being bought of to change legislation. I'm absolutely astonished this hasn't been the major headline and they aren't being charged with something - absolutely outrageous.

On a lighter note, I played hockey again last night for the 1/2's in Eastcote - against South Bucks. I played at the back again and this time we won. I came off pretty knackered though - amazing how much running I was doing at centre back being guided by Shambles - he was very good in telling me where to move to. One of my strong points I normally think is my passing skills, however, at the back as you know you are last in line I was getting rather flustered and putting some terrible 'passes' in - shocking they were. Just need to crack the composure and it'll be fine. One of the Midfield shouted simple passes to me afterwards - it couldn't have been a simpler pass I just screwed it up!! South Bucks didn't use the new rules at all which was interesting - and we didn't much for the start of the game. We won 3-1 though.

Off to Pilch's stag do later today - with Clodder as his best man - down in Bournemouth - hope the rain isn't as bad as they are predicting...

Hockey, hot weekend and other things

We've had rather nice weather recently which has been rather good. It means it is full steam ahead in the garden - or wilt as the case may be...

Rebecca and James with Sarah's rather clever help replicated Catherine's ice cream shop again this weekend. A cardboard cut out so they could sell us ice creams.

On Sunday Warren and Zoe and family popped round which was very pleasant - a very hot day but we had roast chicken!! Managed to make the chicken last for three meals which was rather good. Boiled up the left overs in some rice on Monday and it tasted surprisingly good with a few additions such as a lemon and things.

I played hockey on Thursday in Eastcote against Eastcote - a 7pm push back and I played at sweeper - I had to run rather a lot which I wasn't banking on. We lost 5-0 too which probably doesn't say much about my defending skills - though I did rather enjoy it - and as odd as it sounds we mostly had posession in their half and Chris and I were left with 3 vs 2 or 4 vs 2 for most of the goals!! Also played a friendly at Newland park last night. I was wondering whether that would be the last ever game at Newland Park - the astro really is very thin up there compared with the playing surface at Eastcote. Playing again this Thurs I think.

Off to Pilch's stag do in Bournemouth this weekend - well I think so anyway - cannot leave until early evening. We seem to be booked up for just about every weekend for the coming months.

The garden is going pretty well - the first few tomatoes have appeared already in the greenhouse which is rather early. Work is flat out as normal.

Seaford Parade, Eastbourne Beach and Gardening Update!

We as a family had a very relaxing and enjoyable bank holiday weekend. We popped down to Eastbourne on the Saturday morning first thing avoiding all the traffic and went down to the beach - where it was fairly overcast and not particularly warm.

As we were there the beach went down to low tide so were hunting round the rock pools to see if we could find any wildlife which was good fun.

Back at the house, we had taken the stablisers of Rebecca's bike and she managed to cycle across the whole lawn without falling off which was pretty impressive - more so given that grass isn't the easiest surface to learn on. Jamie was of course really wanting to do the same, but he is some way off yet - not least he cannot touch the floor yet - he can just about stretch to the peddles!

On Sunday we went down to Seaford on the bus from Friston for a village parade they were having. It was an absolutely glorious day down there, the highlight was of course the bus ride. The first photo is of them on a train ride at the fair which was at the end of the parade. It was so good we all were slightly burnt in various places - arms and backs.

The bus service really is good down there - it is every 10-15 minutes between Brighton and Eastbourne hardly any need to drive really and you get to see the beautiful scenery in between.

On Monday we spend the day in the garden in the sunshine which was really nice. I finished off planting all the greenhouse plants in to the garden and clearing more space in the veg patch. It is fair to say it is absolutely packed now. I have several vegetables I've not planted before including peas, onions, red cabbage, strawberries and parsnips.

Weekend - new warehouse neighbour

Had a fairly relaxing weekend as i've already posted - mostly gardening and working though. Working on a load of things at the moment which is weighing us down. We finally have an advert going out looking to recruit someone in the near future - so that should help us out.

In the warehouse where I work some of the time someone else has moved in next to us - and it is a toy distributor / importer. He was showing us some of the toys he has brought in today and I think I could be spending quite a bit of money - one of the toys was really simple a kind of marble tree - it started at the top and made a deeper noise as it went down - doesn't sound great from my description but was good for little ones.

The garden is doing well at the moment - i'm not sure where i'm going to put everything that we have in the greenhouse in the garden. I'm going to be cutting a bit more lawn up I think. Still have runner beans, sweetcorn, french beans, strawberries and red cabbages to find room for in my plot. Already sown are dwarf runner beans, peas, mange tout, spinach, onions, potatoes, carrots and parsnips. The photo shows some of the veg plot as well as R & J trying to fly the kite I bought (which isn't very good).

As if I wasn't busy enough already, I've also volunteered to help out with Badgers over the summer - as otherwise we'd have had to pull the team out.

Worthing Hockey Tour

Spent a cracking few days down in Worthing a couple of weeks ago now. A great crowd of hockey ladies and gentlemen complimented a very well organised tour. I think everyone enjoyed themselves with plenty of drinking and plenty of hockey.

Not the most raucous tour I've been on but thoroughly enjoyable. I have posted up over 200 photos on my Facebook account. The fancy dress evening was the most amazing fancy dress i've been to - some unbelievable costumes - simply stunning.

Apart from that, I've been rather busy with work, had a couple of chats about hockey and the parent company - some very productive chats I should say - and interesting revelations. The hockey AGM is this Thurs where all facts will be laid bare. The CPSA AGM is shortly afterwards.

I'm not sure whether or not to organise another hockey tour - I didn't get any feedback from the forum so might just go with the Usual Suspects - as they have four or five planned. They never have any ladies though... I think that is part of the attraction for them!!

Off on hockey tour

Off to Worthing this bank holiday for my first hockey tour since I organised one in Devon for Charlie's stag do 18 months ago.

We are visiting the South coast mixed hockey festival with 10 men from at least four different hockey clubs around the South East - A & C, Canterbury, Aylesbury, Tring (possibly) and I think Georgonians somewhere near Weybridge...maybe. We only have four ladies unfortunately - not to worry i'm sure we can 'acquire some' to help us out or play with six men.

I haven't tested my hamstring since I pulled it the day of the dinner and dance - so I'm wondering whether I'll leave the festival bar at any point. I have also purchased a hawaiian outfit for the Saturday night fancy dress - hopefully most of the team - the Questionables - will be wearing it.

Speaking of South Coast, we popped down to Eastbourne last weekend - and had a lovely time too. We were trying to teach Rebecca how to cycle on the grass - and she managed to make it most of the way across which is pretty tricky. She was keen to carry on so will have to sort it out at home. We also had a lovely walk on the Downs in Friston -
stunning views, and some paddling in the sea which R & J loved. R is always on a creative lookout and she pulled together a load of seaweed and made a face.

Charlie also flew off to Australia on Saturday - good luck to him and Annalisa.

Lent - thank goodness its over

I'm not particularly religious, and I've never given up something for lent before - I don't think, well not for a while. This year I decided to give up cakes and chocolate - as I was consuming vast quantities of them.

So Easter Sunday was good - mostly chocolaty....

Superb Easter Weekend

What a great Easter we had - pretty tired after it all - back to work for a rest!!

After Jamie's birthday celebrations earlier in the week which were extremely enjoyable with all the grandparents and a few friends - the Easter break kicked off on Thursday with a few beers down at the white hard with a few mates - didn't want to drink much as had to do some work on Friday morning - ended up having tomato juice with quite a lot of Tabasco sauce in it - quite tasty - though pretty spicy too.

Ash and Debs came down from Ipswich with Lauren and Max - R & J were so looking forward to seeing them and they set off as though they see each other every day!! Unfortunately it was quite wet so we went to Zoom in Beaconsfield on Friday afternoon for them to burn some energy off.

We then decided that a train trip and a visit to the Science Museum would be a good thing to do on a wet Saturday - the trains were packed and so was the museum - unsurprisingly I suppose - but the children absolutely loved it. Rebecca is so 'arty' that she insisted I took photos of her next to most of the exhibits in the transport section - I'm pleased she did though. Sarah and I thoroughly enjoyed it as well as it happens - I'd quite like to go round on my own / with Sarah so we can read and look at a few more of the displays.

Sunday Ash and Debs left and we tidied up the house and just did some pottering around - Ash and I had been to the snooker halls with Martin the night before and had a few beers!!

Monday we went to Sarah's mum and dad's boat and even had a trip towards Portsmouth from Fareham on the boat - the first time r & j have sailed / motored on the sea. We then went to Uncle John's boat - a beautiful boat in Portsmouth where we stayed for a few hours, had tea and then left - though it was so warm, my face was glowing like a beetroot by the evening.

Busy week with work coming up - though not at work on Friday. Broke the record today for the most amount of consignments we've ever sent out - and I've loads of web design work to do as well. All good fun though :-)

I think I might post a load of photos up on facebook later this week if I have time. I've also got to put the finishing touches to the hockey tour. One lady short which is a shame - I thought there would be quite a lot of demand for tour when I was asked to sort it out. Should be good anyway - only just over two weeks away now...

Beautiful Weekend

I know I haven't posted for a while and so much has happened in the last 10 days - though with any luck another blog might appear below this one tomorrow - backwards posting...whatever next!

Had a lovely weekend in the sun - just what I needed. We didn't do too much - a lovely walk with Annie, Cash and Mylo - a long walk as it turned out but with some stunning countryside - and all just on our doorstep - just the other side of Newland Park over to Heronsgate in a long circular walk. Rebecca and James did very well to keep up and walked quite a lot of it.

Speaking of Rebecca and James - they are very well at the moment, and seem to be growing up really quickly. Jamie will be three this week - three...already... anyway, Mum and Dad will be up which will be good as I haven't seen them for a while - possibly even Christmas...goodness, surely I must have seen them since then.

I've also been flooded out with work recently, working until midnight most evenings - it is all very enjoyable work though. Mark has also re-launched our main plastic glasses web site in CSS over the weekend - so we shall see what happens with that!!

I helped Warren out with some house painting on Friday night - I must say the work they've had done on their house has made it look absolutely fabulous - well done them. I'd arranged to cook Martin brunch on Saturday morning. However, I must confess I was so so tired after the week of work and over doing it - he arrived at 10.40 and I was still fast asleep in bed - unheard of even for me to sleep that long - and I think if he hadn't of turned up I could have stayed there until midday!!

So on that bombshell, I'd better go to bed now!

Garden is looking Beautiful

All the work we've done on the top lawn section and the flower bed in the photo below has paid dividends this spring. It is a stunning ray of colour outside our patio doors with polyanthus, tulips, dafodils and more. I am wondering whether there will be much colour in it in two months though!!

Here is James helping out with the watering :-)

Hockey Weekend Dinner and Dance

A mostly great weekend - very busy as usual. We went out to Amersham for Wardy's birthday - at the old Cafe uno restaurant - taken over by someone else. Unfortunately I was rather thirsty after a busy day and polished off a couple of bottles of wine.

Fortunately I felt fine on Saturday, and was I thought playing rather well on the right hand side of the hockey pitch for the 2's - rolling back and years and seemingly quite fit - until my hamstring went - very strange - I felt fine, no warnings but suddenly I was mid sprint again and it went and just ended up on the floor with one of the opposition holding my leg in the air!! I was hoping it was just cramp due to dehydration and the night before, but alas not - it was still painful for the following week and sitting down at the dinner dance and definitely couldn't dance.

The dinner dance was a great evening, and I must compliment Rowe and Martin and whoever else was involved for the tremendous amount of work they put in to make it happen. Sarah and I left at midnight with Beanie having had yet another great evening. Here are a couple of photos - I've put 'all' my photos on Facebook.



It was great to see young Mr Pilch again gracing club supper - and Catherine flew in from Kaliningrad no less - I popped down the road.

Leaking Greenhouse

My greenhouse is still leaking water - I cannot believe it - I thought my concreting and guttering project was amazing - clearly not.

So siliconing from the inside this weekend.

I also cannot believe how much time i'm spending on my greenhouse - just to try and avoid getting blight again on a few tomoatoes...

We shall see come September I suppose....

Dan and Jenny's Wedding

Congratulations to Dan and Jenny who were married on Saturday in Thame. We popped along in the evening - just in time for Martin to wake up - and it was amazing how many people we knew - like a great big CSP get together but in Thame!! Dan and Jenny both looked absolutely fabulous and enjoying the day / evening. Apologies for the quality of the photo - my phone is rubbish in the evening / dark.

I had played hockey earlier in the day in Brent Cross - and somehow we beat West Hampstead - despite them being camped in our half for the whole of the second half. I was very stiff and sore on Sunday.

I managed to get up on Sunday for Mothering Sunday - r & j have been getting up with the dawn which is pretty knackering - I managed to keep going until the afternoon when all three of us fell asleep leaving Sarah to wonder what had happened!!

A very pleasant weekend though which was finished off by planting some seeds in the greenhouse - which had been cleaned on Saturday morning to try and remove the last remnands of any blight. We planted some red onions, dward runner beans and some strawberries - though the seeds were so small for the strawberries I'm not sure if r & j will have planted them ok...

Honda Jazz MPG

I broke my record for average MPG and total miles covered in my 1.4 Honda Jazz - over 325 miles and an average of just under 50mpg. A long run to Milton Keynes and warmer weather must have helped it!!

Discogs - Database and Marketplace for Music on Vinyl, CD, Cassette, MP3 and More

If you are a bit sad and like to pour over record labels and matrix numbers and details of records - this site is a must - stumbled upon it by accident looking at Human League records.

Hockey and Greenhouse

Played hockey on Saturday for the 2's. My knee didn't give me too much trouble - but about half way through the second half my back became really painful - which was really annoying as I was feeling pretty fit still - in fact to the end I was still managing plenty of running between the two d's. We also won 6-3 which was good.

I often get back pain when I am dehydrated, so I did a quick search this morning - and arthritis popped up everywhere on the search results. D'oh. Looks like another manifestation of my arthritis then - have to make sure I drink masses before a game in future to avoid the problem - apparently there is a water cushion between the discs in the spine - and no water means back problems for me with the arthritis. Still very painful today - Tuesday. My knee is also painful - which takes my mind off my back lol. Maybe I shouldn't play hockey again this weekend.

Decided to try and waterproof the greenhouse on Sunday - it was a beautiful sunny day so made the most of it. We put a load of concrete around the base to try and stop water running in when it rains and causing the blight which has affected my tomatoes so badly for the last two years. Just have to clean it with some special stuff I bought this weekend and it is ready for use. I already have a few onions on the go in the garage - and one pea!! I've already bought some potting soil so will be doing some early cucumbers and tomatoes I think this weekend...

Spoke to soon

D'oh, after being rather smug about my Arthritis not coming back this year..... its rumbling in my right knee - having a few problems bending it - which is a bit boring. My throat glands were really sore on Monday so that was a giveaway - but feel fine tonight.

Hope I can still walk ok for Saturday as I'm down to play hockey for the 2's again this week.

Think positive.... sleep... sleep.... sleep....

Hockey, Walking and working

Actually played hockey this weekend - somehow our schedules fitted to allow me to play an away game in Milton Keynes. I sort of enjoyed it but I was certainly not of my usual touch in front of goal - had a couple of half chances I'd have expected to have done better than I did with. We drew 1-1 in the end. I was planning to pop in to Wolverton on the way back to have a look at a Watts MBE that is buried in the church there and the Wolverton Working Men's Club as apparently there was many years ago a picture hanging up of him. Fortunately, some people wanted a lift back so I had some company instead for the hour long trip back.

I mentioned the Worthing tour I'm organising and was rather surprised to hear that almost nobody had heard of it as particularly the younger players have never read or heard of the hockey forum. Maybe my subsidy of almost £200 a year is pointless!! Anyway, they know about it now. I'll have to do some flyers for the club supper / dinner dance.

I cannot tell you any more about the Newland Park project - as I seem to have been ex communicated by the new hierachy that have commandeered it. Fair enough I suppose means I don't have to do anything. It is stunning how the University have behaved though - probably best all I say.

Went for a really nice walk on Sunday - just after the rain had fallen around the NSE - R & J loved walking through the puddles and jumping in them - their feet were soaking despite sarah's best efforts to make them waterproof. As I was walking round I was thinking what a great place to put a double astro and club house to compliment the existing facilities there!!

Saturday night me Charlie, Chris and Scott went out for a Chinese and a few drinks in Wycombe (I was driving so lemonade for me!). It was a very enjoyable night out - though getting back at 1.30 I was pretty knackered.

The rest of the weekend was spent working as I have won 3 new web site contracts and masses of work from existing customers - which is good. I'm trying not to over do it though so I avoid getting my Arthritis back again.

No Hockey

I actually committed to some hockey this weekend - and South Bucks pulled out as they couldn't get a team together.

This is quite a sad barometer for the sport as South Bucks I think run four teams and so they are struggling to get their second XI out - i heard they are still running the 3's and 4's - which the league are apparently cross about. Anyway, South Bucks was born out of a merger between Richings Park and Farnham common - each of which had at least 3 or 4 teams - so they are losing close to five teams.

That is a real pity as clubs are dying everywhere - I'm guessing it'll only be a couple of years before Amersham and Chalfont merge with Gerrards Cross Hockey Club - meaning another loss of another club.

When I started playing in about 1995 there was CSP, GX, Richings Park, Farnham and Amersham. So that could be down to 2 soon or even one - quite scare and disasterous for hockey.

Half Term Week

Sarah was off most of last week and I was off on Friday as it was half term week. I had a lovely day with Rebecca and Jamie, it was just warm enough to go outside and mess around a bit. Rebecca is really arty and was looking forward to taking pictures outside of flowers and things - so she was very pleased when we also printed a load of pictures off too. She even found a caterpillar in the garden whilst clearing some leaves away. James loves digging in the garden - we will have to find a little patch for them this year I think - reminds me of when I was a Little boy, Sarah and I both had a little gardening patch right at the end of the garden

The weekend was pretty good too, round to Annie's for her birthday - ate all her vine leaves - very tasty - then the Sports Club quiz - about half the number of people who normally turn up. They also ran out of fosters fairly early on - which meant I was on Stella - which didn't do me any good at all...

Sunday we had another great pottering around the garden and a lovely Roast Chicken - stuffed it with cut up lemons and covered it in bacon and butter - the roast potatoes were delicious roasted in butter!!!

Looking at the attached photo, r & j are already growing up so very quickly - it is unbelievable.

Sarah's birthday

Sarah celebrated her 29th birthday again last week - along with Potty and Annalisa - congratulations to everyone.


We had a lovely (Waitrose prepared) meal round our house on Saturday night which was very pleasant, though the port took its effect the following day as well... We also had a very enjoyable family get together at the White Hart. Rebecca was particularly thrilled to see Uncle John Again!!



I was very very pleased to have Mark back from skiing this week - mostly in one piece - i've had to get on with a huge backlog of web design work this week. Probably have to work most of this weekend to clear a bit of it - which means no hockey. Fortunately hockey was cancelled last weekend so I was able to run around and get things for Sarah's birthday - bedlam in Sainsbury's Beaconsfield on Saturday - absolutely nowhere to park - chaos - I really really hate shopping at the best of times!!

Green Woodpecker

With the cold snap and plenty of snow and ice, we have been busy keeping the bird feeder topped up, water defrosted in the bird bath and the bird table full of food.

As a result the garden has been very very busy indeed with wildlife - most of it welcome! I really need to purchase a digital slr - but here is a photo of a Green Woodpecker that visited recently. There are plenty of smaller birds as well - and two foxes were roaming the paddock behind us today - one of them curled up and went to sleep!!

It is surprisingly rewarding bringing the wildlife to the garden and sustaining them.

Snow and Birthday

I 'celebrated' my birthday the other day with a few friends up at the Three Pidgeons - a lovely sirloin steak was my selection - I hardly ever chose steak as it happens. The meal was up to a good standard again - which is odd as i've been hearing a few negatives about the place.

This week the snow absolutely flooded down and we had a great time. It wasn't particularly handy work wise but that is a different story entirely. Next door very kindly lent us their sledge they dug out of the loft and we had some great fun in the back garden.

The snow has been good for wildlife too - or rather me spotting wildlife. Filled the garden up with seeds and bread and warm water and they came in their droves - well quite a few anyway. Even had a woodpecker on my garden this morning - digging it up...Not sure where i've put the photos for the wildlife though!!

I've also played a couple of games of hockey - for the 2's and 1's. I expect it'll be 4's soon!! Got to laugh.

Train Trip to London

I've been extremely busy recently with work and also at home. Work has been absolutely flat out loads of things happening at the moment with lots of fresh enquiries and older customers wanting more and more work - its amazing! I love it though and love meeting new people.

On Saturday I was back on a hockey pitch - turning up with Rebecca and James minutes before the 2's push back against Slough. It was pretty much the only game I could play. We lost unfortunately though I managed to sneak a goal in.



On Sunday we went to London to have lunch in China Town with a few of Sarah's work colleagues. What a tremendously enjoyable day we had - it was the first time they had been on the underground - we couldn't believe how busy it was - James loved the trains and was more interested in going home on the train than anything else!

I'm realising how out of date this web site is these days - but i've absolutely no chance of updating it. I need to do a blog set up for Chalfont Web Design and I've been buying lots of postcards of Chalfont St Peter for the village web site but had no time to scan those and upload them either!

Cater For You is very busy for a January - we have lots more stock in - including disposable coffee cups. Some really exciting things are happening with the business now it has moved in to a much large warehouse.

Fabulous Christmas and New Year

I think I had one of my best Christmas and New Years ever. What a fantastic time we had as a family. On Christmas day we had the whole of the Birger family round - i cooked the turkey for 12 people - and still managed to over cater though - if you have been round you know I always manage that. Rebecca loved seeing Uncle John and took most of his time up through the day!! I managed to keep the turkey dishes coming for the following four days after Christmas!!

We saw quite a few people over the break, including a trip up to Ipswich to see ash and debs and their family. Rebecca and James love to see them - and we had a lovely walk to Pin Mill - what a beautiful location.


New Years Eve was also particularly splendid with Warren, Zoe, Geoff and HJ popping round for a slow roast lamb (out of Jamie Oliver - a delicious recipe) and a suitable hangover the following day.

We then popped down to Eastbourne to see my Mum and Dad and my sister. Rebecca and James love to see Harry and Oliver and Auntie Sarah. These are the only photos I have to hand. Below are some of a walk round the Cuckmere Valley which is stunning, a very cold beach trip - but the children love seeing the beach :-)

I also managed to get masses of work done - mostly on the new Grant and Stone web site which should be going live next week I'm hoping. I think it is one of my best so far if not the best. Huge amount of pages.

CBEEBIES Live

Still feeling rather rough. Managed to haul myself out of bed for CBEEBIES live on Saturday morning. Purchased the tickets a while ago and Rebecca and James were quite excited to be going. The show was at Wembley Arena so we went on the train. I think James was more interested in the train ride than the actual show. I think Rebecca enjoyed it! We bumbed into quite a few people Sarah knew which was amusing.

Went to bed in the afternoon!! Then out at John and Jenny's for a very pleasant party - though i'm afraid I was hacking my way through the whole thing - especially if I was talking.

Cooked the Roast lunch on Sunday then went straight to bed until 5.30 which surprised me. Then went to bed at 9 and straight to sleep!! I've missed most of the parties i've been invited to and not had a drop of alcohol for about three weeks I think now...

Did I tell you i'd re-launched my Web Design site - rather nice CSS site now. Quite a few more in the pipeline now.

Still Feeling Rotten

Stayed in bed for most of the weekend. Popped out Sunday lunch time for Sarah's sister's birthday in Fulmer for a very nice meal. Unfortunately I then pegged out at 7.30 boiling hot.

Still swapping between hot and cold as I type...

CSE Christmas do tomorrow night - not sure i'm going to be making that!

James seems to have caught something as well - so i'm suspecting we'll be staying home watching cbeebies all day under a duvet...

Man Flu

I am mostly suffering from Man Flu this week.

Been really busy too no time to stop working and sleep so far.

Chin chin.

Two new CSS Web Sites

I've finally launched a couple of my new web sites. Both using CSS rather than tables - i've finally weened myself off.

My web design site has finally had a facelift and CSE Cables has also had the treatment. I'm monitoring them closely to see if they move up the search engines. So far CWD has gone down!!

I'll probably end up revamping most of my web sites now - including this one which is looking very tired and dated now.

Sarah and Ang visit, Cash for Dinner + hockey

Oh my goodness, it's almost December already. Sarah has reminded me that Christmas is only a few weeks away so need to start organising things. We've been really busy recently - non stop - at weekends I've either been working or socialising or playing hockey. Last week I played for the 2's - I was surprised how easy it was, right half and just walzing into the opposition's D.

Mum and Dad popped over on the Friday to pick up there new car - and I took delivery of their old one - so now the owner of a honda jazz - instead of the MG ZS which was starting to be a money pit. the insurance is half what it was and i've been averaging about 45mpg - marginally more that what I was getting in the 2.5ltr quad cam MG. The brakes are much better too - though handling isn't - almost lost it on a bend home from work this week which surprised me a bit!

When they left - Sarah came up with Harry and Oliver, we went to the swings to burn some energy off and then my Cousin Angelina and her partner Louie came over for dinner which was a really enjoyable evening indeed.

Then on Sunday when everyone had gone I did a few hours work before going round to Cash's for lunch - a delicious roast lamb. We had a look round his kitchen and it is absolutely fabulous what he has done with that area. Unfortunately Jamie wasn't very well so we had to leave a bit early - though we did go out for a quick walk round the block - Rebecca overcame her fear of dogs and was holding on to the lead (with Cash!).


Wow I've been busy recently both with work and the family.

Been really busy with work as well - Neil popped over and very kindly helped out with a new design for my Chalfont Web Design web site - which is looking very old and dated at the moment so will be good to get the new one up and running. I've also been busy putting up new racking at Cater For You and bringing new suppliers on board and generally sorting out the new warehouse we are in - triple the room which is really exciting.

I've also been busy on loads of web design projects recently - hopefully launching quite a few in the coming weeks. One of them is an ecommerce site for J & J which will have well over 3,000 products on it! Gant and Stone will also hopefully launch with a new design and content in the next few weeks.

Trading Depot is also still moving up the rankings slowly and surely and organic search referrals are almost the same as Adwords now. I guessed it would take about 18 months to start dominating the search engines but we are figuring very highly in a few key search terms already which is very pleasing.

James Loves Hockey

I have been so so busy recently so apologies for not posting before tonight. I have been drowning in work recently - and i'm about to move in to a new huge warehouse as of next week - so my web selling ideas are about to go mad!! So been busy sorting that out as well as normal work.

I've been playing the odd game of hockey, I think about the half league games so far this season, but Jamie has become fanatical. Every waking hour he seems to want to play hockey with us - and now he's even insisting on taking his stick and a ball to sleep with him!!! Got to laugh - he's actually becoming quite good unlike me who can only get in the 3's these days!!

I'll catch up with some more posts soon as lots to talk about such as the great halloween night - brilliant fun in the close and fireworks at the scout hut and much more. I'll be updating the watsy.com web site in the new year - i'm just learning css at the moment - my first site should be launched next week.

Yahoo Directory Listing

This must have just changed - I'm sure that it was per year very recently. I've had a lot of clients phone me recently about their listings - loads of work to do for lots of clients each who want better results.

I'm wondering if it is the storm before the calm of recession - though nobody seems to be slowing down particularly at the moment.

Speaking of storm, dreadful weather driving home tonight - and there is a layer of snow across the garden - and Sarah even returned home early from hockey training - it must have been bad!

Cornish Oak Aged Premium Cyder

Sarah and I are currently having a chilled bottle of Healey's Cornish Cyder Farm - Oak aged premium cyder - cannot believe how tasty it is. The last bottle left over from our holiday in Hayle - not available to buy on-line or available outside the South West so we cannot top up our stocks.

We'll have to savour every last drop of this one...

Wildlife - Good and Bads - Badgers and Redwing

I normally work from home a couple of days a week at the moment and yesterday I casusally looked outside at the holly tree which appears to be teaming with wildlife at the moment after its berries - and I spotted what looked like a thrush. however, after zooming in and checking on the RSPB web site it looks like it is a redwing which i've not seen before - so that is exciting.

On the bad side, the badgers have been regular visitors each night to my garden - and each night trash about 1ft x 1ft of grass - this is last night's visit. I don't think there is going to be much left of the lawn by the spring at this rate!

Adobe Mac User Show

Another week and another exhibition. Quite rare really as I don't like wasting my time on exhibitions.

Anyway, as you know I purchased the upgrade recently so wanted to see what was new in it. Picked up a few things to make it worthwhile, but felt a bit of a leper as a PC user in a Mac environment - the odd PC comment was also made!! Saying that given my experiences on Vista recently i would love to switch to a Mac - but Actinic doesn't run on a Mac yet.

I've also sorted my Adobe not installing properly this morning - all based around Vista permissions again - http://www.adobe.com/go/kb405598 this might help if you have the same problems.

Also sorted my monitor problem as well - the windows popping up not on the visible screen - i had the 1 & 2 monitors the other way round - which seemed to confuse it - all sorted now though.

I can start some work now!!

Adobe CS4 Design Premium

I purchased an upgrade to my existing web and design toolkit from Adobe this week - primarily of course because it didn't work very well on Vista (CS2 that is - I couldn't do 'save as' in Dreamweaver it would just close straight away). So I happily installed it last night - but low and behold Vista didn't let it install properly because of user access / administration access. Which is all a bit odd as I have the User Account turned off (I needed to do this for Actinic) and also tried a reinstall by right clicking the autorun and install as administrator. I shall see tonight how unsuccessful it was as I wasn't left with any time to actually use the software.

I think it is fair to say the Vista nanny state access is doing my head in - this is on top of my problems with my network 1TB hdd.

Whilst I was waiting for my two DVD set to install, I decided to fire up my old PC with its blank disk in it. I put a downloaded copy of Ubuntu Linux on to a CD and into the blank PC and low and behold it was installed and up and running within about 10 minutes I think. I had a look at it - user friendly, straight on to my network and access the Internet through Firefox and quick as you like.

Perfect for the children if nothing else.

Swing and Hockey

The now weekly trip to the swings whilst Sarah was playing hockey was as enjoyable as always. However, R & J wanted to go and watch Sarah play hockey and they thoroughly enjoyed it too. Jamie and I were playing on the side of the pitch and caught the eye of the coach - jamie not me obviously as he can hit and stop pretty well now. He was ever so pleased to be playing with the grown up balls.

Saturday evening we had Gary and Tigs and other guests for a really nice meal. We had 8 and I think that is the maximum I and the dining room table can cope with. I needed two woks for the food and only just had enough - which was remarkable for those who know my cooking quantities!!

Great week and weekend

What a great weekend last weekend. On Saturday I had a very enjoyable morning with R & J whilst Sarah was playing hockey, then played hockey myself at 4.30 for the 3's - and I have to say I really enjoyed it. We beat Henley 4-2 but the most pleasing thing was the improvement in many of the youngsters who played - it was great to watch and be a part of it. I helped set up a couple of goals and was robbed by an umpire decision of a great dink at the top of the D who said it was outside... robbed.

Anyway... popped down to Eastbourne on Sunday, lovely Roast lunch as per the photo then we all went down to the beach. It was extremely hot and sunny for mid October and all the children loved it. The tide was well out which was quite handy.

Had quite a few interesting developments with work this week - hopefully I can mention it in a couple of weeks time! Dad has also had his cancer results come back as negative again - though why he hasn't been able to eat for a couple of months is a mystery still... I'm still snowed under with work at the moment - and need to clear a lot of it fast.

Great weekend coming up too - not playing hockey which is fine as preparing for Gary coming round for dinner on Saturday evening.

Robert Peston

As well as watching in awe at the current financial crisis - i've been wondering whether this BBC Financial Reporter is actually getting any sleep. I've been subscribing to his blog via RSS for quite a few months now - and he is posting seven days a week and at all hours. He is also on TV at all hours - first thing in the morning on breakfast news then on newsnight about 11pm.

Excellent postings they are too.

I must say having Outlook 2007 and the RSS feeds as part of it is very good - though that is probably the only additional feature they have added to make it worthwhile upgrading.

I was chatting to someone the other day and I was predicting that in 10 years time Microsofts dominance will have been seriously eroded. I hardly ever us much more than the bare minimum of features in Microsoft Office these days. I still haven't got my Linux machine up and running yet - haven't had time - very very busy with work at the moment - so cannot tell whether it is any good for the average user.

Another prediction of mine is that the Government will raise VAT to 21% in the next few years - maybe not in the next 12 months but next 2-3 years. Irish VAT is at 21% yet their corporation tax is much lower - so could be a way to go - either way the uK government is going to have to fill this hole - and whilst inflation is already high they could almost 'bury' the hike in prices - then a year later when it drops out the road to recovery is clear. VAT is also harder to dodge - but I guess is also much harder on the low paid.

James in a Bed / Weekend

Had a fairly quiet weekend - played two games of hockey - on Saturday for the 3's and Sunday for Peter Westaway's 50th Birthday - where it poured with rain. Felt absolutely shattered on Sunday evening - and my right knee has been pretty swollen - so need to be careful I don't over do it. Hockey on Saturday was particularly good as I was playing up front with Martin again for the first time in years just like the old Chalfont days!

Monday morning Jamie wandered into our room to say Good morning, which was ok - except he'd climbed out of his cot - so we had to convert it to a bed last night - and he was over the moon - though he was on the floor by the morning.

Vista Permissions

Bloody Vista, its a hinderance to working efficiently. I've got a load of duplicated files on my 1TB external HDD and trying to move them round - i've now got to go in and update all the permissions to enable me to do so.

So unnecessary....

Need to acquire another monitor so I can set up my linux machine i'm getting ready....

Something else broken

Not that I like dwelling in my own misery (right) but we were delighted on Friday that Sarah had her car returned after its broken starter motor. It starts better than it ever has since we bought it - Sarah has mentioned that this was a problem and the Knotty Green Vauxhall garage just said it was normal for a diesel vectra.

Anyway, I'd almost got home on Friday to view the car in the drive - and my clutch packed up - so it is now taking the spot in the garage round the corner - previously occupied by the vectra.

We went swimming Sunday morning in Amersham, and I noticed the back tyre was looking a bit flat - further inspection revealed a rather large screw through it - great - so the Vectra has to have yet more cash spent on it... for goodness sake.

Apart from that it was a relatively pleasant weekend playing hockey, swimming and general domestic chores and working....

Ad:Tech Google

Went to an Internet advertising exhibition yesterday with one of my customers - specifically we had a 1 to 1 appointment with our Google Account Manager which was quite interesting. Learnt a few things - we are along the right lines but a few areas to tweak and improve the overall listing.

After the show we went back to Marylebone via Kensington Park - I'd never been through it and was a very pleasant walk indeed.

I've absolutely mountains of work / things to do on my plate at the moment - just finished last month's invoicing today!

Everything breaking again?

Had a pretty good weekend again - mowed the lawn with my hover mower which took a long time - the petrol one has broken down again. Sarah was stranded at Newland Park after hockey as her car broke down - starter motor we think. Ironic really as we were talking about bump starting diesel's the night before in the pub.

r & j love going to the swings in Chalfont St Giles - so went along there again which was good - a beautiful day.

Walked them both to nursery and school this morning (after we'd changed rebecca's clothes after spilling milk all down the original) I was amazed at the amount of dog poo along the way - what is wrong with people - there must have been plenty of kids who managed to trample through it on the way to school - disgusting.

Played hockey myself on Saturday for the 2/3's. It was only a friendly but I was rather appalled at the behaviour of one or two of our players. Constantly moaning about decisions (and they were invariably wrong in their opinion and the umpire was right) leading to a yellow card for constant verbal then the Captain refused to sign the opposition umpires card to say he'd umpired for level one recognition - I was gobsmacked - for a start it is not up to our captain to decide whether he was good enough and secondly he was absolutely fine as an umpire just our bunch of whingers decided he wasn't. Very poor form. It made me wonder why i'd bothered turning out for a game in North London at 4.30 - after working hard all week I want a competitive but enjoyable game of hockey - its fine if the opposition are winding themselves up - but not ourselves - in a friendly too. Absolutely absurd.

Shorting Stopped

I've watched this week with great interest - BBC Business pages have been constantly open and on refresh! As per my blog on Wednesday - the government have stopped short selling - and the shares have rebounded strongly. Which is good as I bought some HBOS shares near their bottom during the week.

I have a busy weekend coming up - i'm actually playing hockey this weekend - well i've replied to say Yes anyway - though away against west hampstead for the 3's late in the evening.

I've been trying to upload our holiday photos to facebook - but it keeps crashing / erroring which is really annoying - I think its their new system they have got.

I wonder who Crystal Palace are going to lose to this weekend. The Championship is looking really strong this year and I suspect even more closely fought that last year. Good job we seem to be losing most of our best players - don't worry - we've got Scowcroft...hmm. I was thinking about the Championship this week and came to the conclusion that a lot of UK players are now playing in this division because of the influx of foreign players to the top flight who are better and probably a lot cheaper! So the strength of the Championship has also been increased by default - just not at the same rate as the Premiership. There is also a lot of good managers in the league.

Financial Markets

I cannot quite believe what is happening at the moment with the financial markets in what appears to be domino meltdown.

Llloyds TSB and HBOS have announced they are talking about merging - with customers of HBOS reportedly starting to take their money out - what is the matter with people? The speculators who are shorting the stock are the ones causing this - and after HBOS they'll target the next bank to make their mega millions - i'm amazed that the government aren't imposing some sort of short term restrictions on this - probably impossible though I guess.

Had a very relaxing and enjoyable weekend - thanks to Annie and Wardy for having us over for dinner :-)

Just trying to upload my holiday photos to facebook at the moment.

Tomato Blight

For the second year in a row - its been so wet in my greenhouse, the tomatoes have gone rotton on the vine - very frustrating as the few i've had have been very tasty. Had to strip them all out already... The cucumbers have slowed up a bit out of the greenhouse as well.

The rest of the garden is going well though - at the weekend Warren and Zoe came round for Sunday lunch and we have sweetcorn, caugettes, runner beans and french beans out of the garden to eat.

St Giles Show and Blackberry Picking

What a fantastic and busy weekend we had. First up I cycled off to hockey on Saturday morning - bearing in mind i've hardly moved off the sofa since I was ill back in March - so it was a bit of a shock to my system to say the least - enjoyed it though.

Then we pottered off to the St Giles show where we met up with the rest of Sarah's family and had a very good and enjoyable few hours there. Fortunately the clouds held off long enough for it to be a dry afternoon.

On Sunday we had Warren, Zoe and co round for Sunday lunch and then went blackberry picking / a walk round the NSE. R & J always enjoy it and they end up eating loads of fruit lol. As you can see we managed to collect quite a few - which are now in the freezer ready for a pie later in the year!

All in all, a very enjoyable weekend.

Rebecca Starts School

Somehow I managed to hold myself together this week when Rebecca started school for the first time. She didn't take too well to the first drop off but is really enjoying it and now just waltzes in - which is good news.

She looked ever so smart in her new uniform and already seems to have grown up a little bit since leaving nursery. James I think is a bit bemused about Rebecca not being in nursery any more. He went on Monday with Sarah to drop Rebecca off and he tried to go in with her and had to be removed kicking and screaming.

Trees on the A40

I've noticed recently whilst driving between Gerrards Cross and Beaconsfield just how many dead trees there are - masses of them - especially near Wapseys Wood dump. All very strange.

They are also the majority of the way through the new service area off Beaconsfield M40 roundabout - well the road amendments anyway - and it is amazing how much green environment they've had to rip out to upgrade the roads. I'm still surprised we actually need a service area - still if you pay enough money you win the appeals I suppose.

I still think about when the sports club tried to get advertising hoardings up round the ground yet it was objected to by the parish and chiltern council. Yet GX Golf club (who also used to have members on both councils but never declared an interest) manage to get huge great silos up and Wilson Bowden massively rip up countryside installing larger roads, massive (still empty) office blocks and dumped huge amounts of spoil on a green field at the old British Alcan place but were all granted ok.

I'm back on the astro project again - so will be looking forward to being blocked at every turn again as we haven't got people in the right places.

Rebecca's Last Day

What a sad day - Rebecca's last day at nursery today. Off to school in a couple of weeks - which is a whole new world for her. We are also wondering what Jamie will make of it without her being there - as they are very close.

Had a busy but great weekend last weekend. We were off to Odd's Farm on Saturday morning for a birthday party which was very good as usual - then we went to Eastbourne to see Mum and Dad. Rebecca has been wanting to go to the beach / sea most weekends every time we say what do you want to do she always says beach. It was a bit cloudy but mostly ok - James and Rebecca played really nicely there -
James loves throwing stones in to the sea. From 1pm there was also a Red Arrows display which Jamie absolutely loved - excellent display as it happens.

I found an old family album at home as well - so gradually uploading a load of photos to my Facebook space.

Been extremely busy this week - feeling a bit rough today as it happens very sore throat. Looking forward to the weekend though - I've got blackberry picking on agenda if the weather is half decent :-)

Fun Weekend and Busy Week

Although the weather was wet again - it seems to have been raining non stop this 'summer' - we had a pretty good weekend. On Saturday I managed to fix the front guttering round the porch so it stopped leaking - though there are loads of other leaks to fix I noticed - and on Sunday removed the shrub root on the patio outside the back door - with the chain saw and axe - good fun. We also went out to a bar-b-q where rebecca and james had a good time - there was a sunken trampoline - it was a fantastic idea - they were completely wiped out by the time they arrived home though!! Fortunately the weather held for the bar-b-q all day which was nice.

Been really busy with work again recently. Had trouble with a couple of domain names I now manage and used to manage. Bit of a palava. Also been sorting out some CSS menus which has been interesting.

IIS on Vista

Now i'm only a basic web site designer so why on earth do I want to set this up on my Vista machine. Well if you run .asp files then you have to upload them to the web server to see what you've done. So in the past on xp i'd set up a local server to preview them.

Anyway, I couldn't see how to do it simply like on XP (of course) but just so I can remind myself in case I need this again - I need to :

• Go to Control Panel
• Load up Programs and Features
• Left had bar go to Turn Windows features on or off
• Add as many Internet Information Services as possible (I think you'll need to do a reboot here as it didn't seem to work straight off)
• Then to go run and inetmgr
• Then add the virtual folder you want to - fine turning where the physical site is (ie where you actually hold the files)
• Then assign an IP address as if it is on network
• Then you can now view the .asp web site

I know this will probably be blindingly obvious to some of my mates but hey ho might not be if you've come across this on a google search... now to get actinic working on it!

Having a good weekend - as you can tell!!

Chris off to Australia

My old friend Chris from Connexe Peripherals dropped round on Wednesday evening for a meal and to say farewell - as he is off to Australia with his partner Pete at the weekend.

Chris is an I.T. god and also very good at photography - so i'm sure he'll have no problems getting a job in Australia - he already has an interview with the top software company. A very pleasant evening was had talking about photography and what his plans are and what he's been up to.



Maybe when r & j are a bit older we'll pop over and see him. Quite a few of our friends are moving or have moved to far away lands. What is wrong with this country?

More Wildlife - Muntjak and Bat

A very rare treat at the end of our garden on Saturday morning was a Muntjak - i've only ever seen one once before in our garden. I took a number of photos from the house and this is the 'best' one.


I somehow managed to catch this bat in mid flight during the pitch black of night - it isn't a great photo as i guess the flash just bounced straight of it. Still it was lucky to pick it up at all!

Messenger United - Windows Live Messenger

This is quite an interesting link - combining facebook and msn messenger.

I guess that now MS have bought a stake in the company they'll be looking for various ways to tie up - with an ultimate goal of somehow loosening the Google stranglehold on the Internet...

Busy Busy Week

Wow, what a week we are having. It started last weekend when Rebecca had her birthday and we had the family round and Auntie Annie. We went for a lovely walk to the picnic table at the back of the NSE - and had a picnic - James and Rebecca loved it - great fun - lots of pictures on Facebook later tonight.



This week i've been flat out with work and about the place. Suspect I'll be clocking up about 60 hours in five days - got to be careful not to overdo it though.

Sarah's mum and dad popped round tonight as they are having a new kitchen put in and we cooked for them - hopefully we are getting our new hob and second hand oven put in early next week :-) Hopefully out at Cape Fish tomorrow night in Chalfont St Giles with a couple of good friends. Did I mention we were at Charlie and Annalisa's for a Bar-b-q last weekend as well?

Odds Farm at the weekend where Rebecca will meet up with a lot of her nursery friends to properly celebrate her birthday. My old college friend Ash and his family are down this weekend too which should be good fun.

Wrote a 4,500 word report today on a web site I help with and how to get to number one across their search terms! Created a new web site yesterday, fixed another one earlier in the week as fasthosts seem to have mucked up their Windows server scripting - i'm guessing via the php upgrade they've done.

Lots more going on which I can tell you about when I finally get down the pub!

Human League on BBC Breakfast

The Human League are embarking on a steel city tour in the Autumn with Heaven 17 and ABC and to promote it they appeared on BBC breakfast this morning.

I was amazed that they clearly had underaken absolutely no research on the topic - the lady presenter asked if they had ever bumped in to the other two bands and had some rivalry when they were in they hey day in the early '80's - which is a surprising question because Heaven 17 and the Human League were the same band until 1980 - until they split in two - so that was a genius of a question....

Greenhouse Progress

Good progress in the garden overhaul, with the greenhouse leading the way. We picked our first tomatoes today - Rebecca loved her one - Jamie gave me back his one - i'm sure mid July is quite early for me to be harvesting them already. Had quite a few cucumbers already as well which is good.

The veg patch is looking pretty good - picked the first french beans yesterday and had in a chicken risotto with some home grown broad beans - very tasty.

Yes, that's a green tomato James...thank-you...