New gadgets

I got some new gadgets recently..... no wonder i'm always skint. i got a new phone (LG Viewty) and a new laptop (well if you can fit it on your laptop, more like a palm top or mini laptop) an asus Eee 701 and a new digital camera Fuji S9600

I'd had my old mobile (Samsung F300 - the one that beyonce was on the adverts with) for what seemed like a lifetime and wanted a new gadget. it had to have a couple of things

Have a half decent camera

look good

play music

Something unusual

the LG Viewty meets all of these criteria and i must say i'm totally pleased with it, cameras good, it got a touch screen, plays MP3. What more could i want.....

A new camera was what i needed next..... why i hear you ask when i'd just got a new phone with a half decent camera..... well i'm ipody (yes damo i admit it, i'm i-pody).

new camera (well second hand from e-bay) Fuji S9600. fantastic camera, 9MP, 12x Optical zoom (manual control not motor driven), eakes images in raw format for post processing on computer, can add additional lenses and filters for more flexibility and it expands on the already very successful S9500. Got 4 X 1GB Compact flash memory cards with it as well as 3 sets of batteries, 32 different filters, an additional 2gb XD memory card and a nice case to carry it all in. all i need now is a smart tripod and to read the manual to see how to work the damn thing, theres so many buttons to press.

Next on my list is Asus Eee laptop. jen wanted a new computer to do college work on, so she got the new Asus Eee 901 (12GB SSD, 1GB RAM, 8.9 inch monitor, Windows XP) and i got the Asus Eee 701 (or 4G as its other name) (4Gb SSD, 7 inch monitor, 512MB RAM, Xandros Linux). I'd read some reviews and thought they looked quite good. i must say i'm very impressed with the build quality of them both (especially with the price, Jens was £300 and mine was £179). I can add extra memory and storage to mine and retro install XP if i want but the thing plays Divx's, mp3, surfs the web with firefox, has open office on it. What more can i want as i only play games on either the Wii, PS3 or old N64.

New Gadget

I got a nice suprise for my 30th birthday on sunday, i got a PS3.......all that i need now is a nice 42" LCD or Plasma screen to go with it to enjoy games and blu-ray films in HD. I got loads of other presents as well, clothes, a new watch, a Ninetendo 64 (i do like retro consoles) with Goldeneye, socks, some more socks

We were supposed to be going to see Viv (Jens mum) and have a quiet sunday lunch with her but when we got there, there were shed loads of people (family and friends) for a suprise party for me, to say i was shocked is an understatement. For once i was speachless as i didn't really want to celebrate my birthday (what with being 30 and being in denial). It was a nice surprise, especially with both of my nan's being there as well.

"I remember saying that jen would be in trouble for arranging it all as she knew i didn't want a party but i'm glad she did"

I've got a few games for my ps3 now but have also downloaded some playable demos from playstation network and i must say i've never seen graphics quite like the ones on Colin McRaes Dirt. I can't wait for Gran Turismo 5 to come out, its going to wipe the floor with anything the X-Box360 can do.

I can now spend evenings taking anger out by shooting the S&^t out of people online on Unreal Tournement 3 or Drive like a loony on Colin McRae or i could even go retro and have a 1 on 1 with Jen on Goldeneye (note must get another controller for both consoles).

"Now all i need is to find some people at work who have ps3's to play online"

Crazy last few weeks

Well its been a crazy and surreal last few weeks, granddad died which was a total shock (see other posts), my fish tank lights broke and then started to work again and then broke totally, we've got a new sofa, liverpool fc have been playing like a sunday league team and other things.

We were told by our child minder that she knew someone who was moving house and they were selling their corner sofa, we went to look at it and bought it without measuring if it would fit in the room, my usual comment was 'yeah it'll fit, no problem......i think'. Having got back to the house, we realised that we would need to move the living room around a bit in order to get it to fit in. The TV had to be moved to another corner of the room, the fish tank had to be moved again, not a five minute job. Luckily the floor in the living room is laminate and the fish tank moved without being emptied (which is when i think the lights broke). Moving the tv was easy but it couldn't move too far as the co-ax cable for the virgin tv box was limiting how far it could move, still it gave me a chance to re-cable everything and dust the damn boxes as they were covered in dust. We had to pick up the sofa in Jen's espace, me being me said it would fit in in one go, cue me looking stupid when the first part of the sofa went in and the cushions filled the car to the roof. Once we got all the parts of the sofa back home, it just about fits into the room, in hindsight i should have measured the sofa and room before saying we'd have it. Lesson learned.

I took my lights from the tank to my local aquatic shop and they tested them and they seemed to work but a bit intermitantly, they suggested that i clean all of the contacts and it should be ok. Cue me getting home and cleaning it up and yes it did work..... for a day at the most and then it broke again. I looked on the net and found that juwel light units aren't the best in the world and only have a 1 year warranty (mine just being over 1 year old, crap). People have taken them back to the shop after on 12 hours of operation. I've seen on some sites that they had taken them to bits and repaired them, from the pictures it seemed easy, take the end caps off, peel the lid off and the innards would need a clean or swap to make it work. The problem with the units is that when the lights are on, the ballast (electronic gubbins that make th elights work) heats up and causes the air inside the unit expand, causing air to escape from the supposidly sealed unit. When the lights are off the ballast cools down, thus air is drawn back into the unit (the air being drawn in is full of moisture). This process over time causes the contacts or electronics to corrode and break.

I took it upon myslef to follow the pictures and instructions and go against the manufacturers warnings and take the light unit apart to see if i could fix it. Big mistake, the end caps snapped when i tried to get them off, the top of the unit cracked and broke when i tried to peel it off, leading me to say under my breath 'it was broken before i started, its definately fucked now'. Fast forward an hour or so and there is was super gluing the light unit back together so i could at least put the lids back on the tank (1 of them has a T5 power compact actinic light so i can see sucky feeding at night). After running out of superglue, silicone sealant was employed. I would put a picture on here but i can't be arsed to take one. I'm now on the lookout for a new light unit. Shops are quoting me 60 - 70 quid for a new one with 2 T8 lights. I've seen a new luminair for sale today however at A5 aquatics that uses T5 lights rather than T8 which should give more light and cost less to run. This costs about £100 but should last longer than the new juwel replacement. Juwel have got a bad reputation now for their lighting units. All the more reason not to buy a juwel tank. I'm trying to get a bigger tank but i'm not aloud to. No matter how many times i say 'A 6 foot tank would look nice in this room' it falls on deaf ears.

Still the tank was cleared of all plants the other day and the bog wood and rocks were re-arranged then the plants were re-planted along with about 5kgs of aquaclay in the substrait which should help the plants grow. Bacteria live on the aquaclay and help break down all the mess and convert it to harmless waste and plant food. We'll see.

Liverpool FC...what do i say, they started this season so promising but have gone downhill recently. I think the manager has made some shocking team selections which resulted in us not winning many matches since boxing day and going out of the FA cup to Barnsley for gods sake. If we can't beat barnsley, how the hell are we going to be beat inter milan in the champions league. I think Rafa Benitez needs to go, he's peaked and seems to only be able to win cups (champions league and FA Cup) not win match after match to win the premiership. After spending some £40m in the summer we don't look like winning anything this season. Lets hope we get a new manager soon or in the summer break and next season is better.

R.I.P William (AKA Granddad)

I got some sad news last night, my granddad had passed away. more to follow (memories, pictures).....

Where do i start, theres so many memories to tell but i guess i'll start from my childhood memories and add others later.
My earliest memory of granddad was his triumph dolomite car which he seemed to have for an eternity (probably about 10 or more years). He used to go everywhere in it (including taking me and clair to Chester Zoo every year). It was a nice car except for one thing..... the god damn clutch peddle squeaked every time it was pressed, which i guess was some spring attached to it. I kept feeling like saying 'Would you put some WD or something on that damn pedal, the squeak is doing my head in' but maybe not in those words.

I remember a 3 wheeled tractor that nan and granddad had at their house, it was one of those ride on things with pedals on the front wheel. I loved it and everytime i went there i rode it up and down the drive and when dad was repairing cars (which he did a lot of times), i used to get an old bottle jack and pretend to jack the tractor up to mend it.

When we used to go to nans for sunday lunch (every sunday) we used to pick fresh veg from granddads veg garden, picking fresh peas and eating them before they were cooked.....mmmm i can still taste them now. In the summer we used to pick grapes from his grape vines, strawberries and raspberries from his garden and they always tasted great.

We used to watch films when we went to nans for sunday lunch, it was always a fight between me and clair as to what was going on, she liked the water babies or the sound of music and i liked watching james bond. Nan and granddad promised to take us to Austria to see the places that we saw in the sound of music. When they retired from work we went to Austria and went to Saltzberg to where the do-re-me song is sung on the steps. We also went in cable cars up mountains, went to see the hintertux glacier which was great watching the skiers on the glacier (i'd only ever seen skiers on ski sunday, again watched at home or nans house). We also went to see the krimmel waterfall which was a long bus journey to get there. The bus in question was a big double decker and me and clar being about 11 years old wanted to sit on the top deck at the front and granddad wasn't happy with this. He then uttered a saying that has stayed in our minds ever since, he said in his usual deep voice 'If you go up there, you'll be the last ones off this bus', yeah did we care, we just wanted to sit up there. It was a holiday i'll never remember.

Thats all i can think of at the minute but i'll add more as i remember them.

Teigans operation No 2

Teigan was almost called in for an operation in the week before christmas but it was called off at the last minute so we got the next date of 15th Jan. At least she wouldn't be in a plaster cast over christmas and would be able to open her presents.

Her operation is to release a muscle that helps control the inward rotation of her arm and transfer it to help strengthen the outwards rotation of it. (see diagram below)

There is an added bonus from the operation, because Teigan has Erbs Palsy, she tends to move her arm differently to ours when moving it upwards (i.e to her mouth). Where as we keep our upper part of our arm down and move from the elbow upwards towards our mouths, Teigan actually raises her upper part of her arm until its pointing outwards but in line with her shoulder (as if playing the trumpet). This is due to the nerve damage she suffered at birth. Hopefully the operation will go a long way to stop this action but we will have to wait for her cast to be removed.

Teigan had been suffering from a cough and cold for the past week or so, which was worrying as they wouldn't operate if she was ill, so we've been dosing her up on cough medicine and multi vitamins to try and get her well again, eventually she did (on the day before we were due to go up to Leeds).

Anyway getting back to her operation, we had to travel to Leeds General Infirmary on the 14th Jan to get admitted to the ward (by 11am). We phoned the hospital on the morning before we left, just to make sure there was a bed for her. There were supposedly 8 people being admitted that day and only 2 beds available on the ward so we may have been sent to a different ward.

The journey up to Leeds was hellish, it pissed it down the whole way, some places you could hardly see 20 or 30 feet in front of you, even with the wipers on warp speed but we got there in good time and safely.

After getting to the ward we found that there was a bed on the ward and all the worrying was for nothing. We saw the professors registrar and went through what was involved in the operation and saw the anesthetist to go through what he would do and how long he thought the op would take.

The operation would involve cutting a u-shaped section on the back of her shoulder and releasing the muscle, then re-attaching it on other side of the arm. See diagram below (yes it was done in paint and yes i know its crap but its hard to explain what happened).

Once the muscle had been re-attached, the arm would be rotated outwards and fixed in place with a plaster cast that was linked to her body with a bar to stop it rotating back inwards.

Teigan was being her usual 'pain in the arse' self on the first night in the hospital, she didn't want to go to sleep, no matter how much bribing we tried but eventually after i left the hospital to go to Eckersley house (where i stayed during her previous operation), Jen managed to get her to sleep.

We were told that Teigan was second on the operating list so she would be going down to theatre at aboout 10ish, i wanted to get to the hospital to help give her a bath before she was going to have the op so i got the early bus (now when i say early, i mean early 5:55am). Having left the car parked in the hospital grounds, i got a permit meaning i didn't have to pay for parking from then on but i had to move it to a multi-storey car park, which i did on the way to the ward. I think i finally got the ward just before 7:00. Teigan was awake and messing about, little did she know she was going to have another sleep that day.

After doing jigsaws and drawing, the time came to take her down to theatre (oh yeah and getting the nurse to nick some pink plaster cast from the plaster dept to take to theatre as they only have the usual white stuff). Once again it was time to let the anesthetist to do his thing and put her to sleep with gas (no way would she have a canula in her hand to inject drugs, that would have to be done once she was asleep). After a brief struggle, she was sleeping (and yes, we were both crying our eyes out, again but its one of the worst things you can go through as a parent, watching them go through all this). We knew she was in safe hands.

We were told she would be in theatre for about 2 - 3 hours, so we thought we'd head into Leeds city centre and get her a present for when she woke from the op, also get a bite to eat. Its really difficult to find something she could play with with only one arm being able to move (the other would be fixed in a case) and the arm she could use only had a thumb and two fingers on it. After much searching we decided on a sticker book with hundreds of stickers and a teddy.

After just finishing our lunch (mmmm Subway), we got a call from the ward saying that she was ready to come back to the ward. Panic, we were still in the city centre, so we literally legged it back to the hospital and met the nurse outside of theatre to get Teigan from recovery. It was a shock to see how big the cast was but we knew it would help her in the long run.

When we got back to the ward and she had woken up properly, she wanted some juice and something to eat, this was promptly done but then just as quickly thrown back up, more juice was drunk and hurled back up. A little later on tea was had and thrown up again, followed by pudding. Eventually a biscuit and juice was kept down later in the night. I had to make the journey back to Eckersley house again for the night.

We were told that we would probably be sent home the next day so i handed my keys back in and headed for the hospital the next morning feeling good. On arriving i heard that Teigan had eaten some more food and not been sick, she ate her breakfast and kept that down as well. Just after i'd bought my breakfast from the canteen, the doctor had been round and told us we could leave, Yes, not another night in hospital.

The journey home was full of rain again but we finally got back home at lunch time on the 17th Jan.
Here are some pics from our little expedition to Leeds.
Teigan in bed after the operation.
The obligatory ride on thomas (every time we go to Leeds, she has a go).
Sitting with daddy.

Now all we have to figure out is how to pick up a child that weighs in at 16kgs without holding under her right arm. You try it someday.

long time no post

I can't believe i haven't blogged for over a month now, so much has happened but i haven't had time to sit down for even a couple of hours to update my blog. Christmas has come and gone, diets have been started and stopped, new years resolutions have been made and broken. I'll try to make some sense of my mental life in the next few mins.

Lets start from the beginning, yes i did say that i was starting to eat more sensibly in early December (and by sensibly, i mean cutting out the usual crap i eat), but i do pick the hardest month to stop eating crap and being good what with christmas just around the corner so we (Jen and I) made a decision to stop and start again in Feb (Why feb and not after christmas i hear you cry). Well we are bound to have loads of chocolates left over after christmas and the usual mountain of mince pies and christmas puddings left over that need to be eaten, as well as Teigan going into hospital either just before or just after christmas for her next operation, meaning that hospital junk food would be eaten instead of healthy meals, so a new start to the diet is to be made. I'm proud that i only put on 2 lbs over the christmas period and now all the junk food has been consumed.

Having made the usual new years resolutions over the past few years (you know the ones where you will try to eat less junk, spend less cash, go to the gym, etc, etc), i decided to make one that i thought i would be able to achieve. I decided to make my new years resolution to be - 'Keep the house tidy'. Now i know this may not sound like much but you haven't seen the house when the kids have been let loose with their toys, it looked like a cross between a hand-grenade being set off and a tornado sweeping through the house, in other words a complete shithole. I spent a couple of days over the christmas holiday making a couple of built in cupboards downstairs work properly by adding copious amounts of shelving space to store the crap (out of sight, out of mind). i must say that the downstairs area of the house is looking pretty good now, upstairs is another thing, but i'm getting around to doing something about that.

The kids got spoiled rotten again over christmas, we also think that we haven't got much or one has more than the other so you go and buy more presents but you only realise that you've overdone it again when you come to wrap the damn things up. This year we finally made it to bed at 2:30 christmas morning after aboiut 5 hours of solid wrapping (i think we'll have to make a resolution in a few years to start wrapping before christmas eve).

Top christmas toys for the kids were.

A digital camera for Kira (made by VTech, it has toughened casing and built in games and photo editing software, it gets the thumbs up from her).

Peppa Pig toys for Teigan (Peppa Pig motorhome, DVD's, etc, etc)

We finally got our Nintendo Wii about a week before christmas so my excuse for not going to the gym is that i don't need to now we have the Wii. I've never been so knackered after playing on a computer game.

Top games i'd recommend are Mario Galaxy, Rayman Ravin Rabbids 2 and Wii Sports (especially Tennis).

Theres a particular level on Rayman Ravin Rabbids 2 where you are on a balcony overlooking a bar where the rabbids are drinking. your task is to eat a carrot then spit into a rabbids drink to gain points. Sounds boring doesn't it but in order to eat the carrot, you have to shake the controller up and down (the faster the better), then once eaten you dangle a length of flob from your mouth and wave the controller from side to side to swing it then press a button to release the flob into the rabbids drink, which is then drunk by it. The sound effects are fantastic, i've never laughed so much in my life. After playing the game for just a couple of minutes, your arm aches like mad.

Glorious LFC

Good old Liverpool FC are keeping up their unbeaten record in the premiership this season by beating Bolton 4-0 on sunday. Nice to see Torres turning out to be a goal machine he promised to be. I did listen to the Champions League match last week against Porto and found it frustrating that after Porto equalised, liverpool kind of lost the plot for the next 30 + minutes but eventually we won the match 4-1 which only built the confidence up. All that stands in our way now is an away tie to Marseille to reach the CL knockout stage.

I think Rafa had a bad week last week and was a bit stupid in criticising his bosses by slating them in the press and was lucky not to get the sack but i can understand why he was so frustrated. He only wants the best for the team and needs some cash to buy maybe some defenders to bolster the team. These damn yanks don't seem to understand the way of proper football. Hopefully when they meet in the next few weeks they will get things sorted and some new players will arrive in the new year. If they can keep up current form then hopefully they stand a good chance of winning the league this year. Lets just hope they don't fizzle out like they usually do over the festive period.

Jose for England Manager, definately. FA fat cats, get your money out for a proper manager.

Update

Yes i know i haven't updated my blog in what seems like ages, but i've been busy. The kids take up most of my time but i've started to blog in my lunch break so hopefully i should be able to keep things up to date
Its that time of year again, people are rushing arouns spending money like its going out of fashion on crap that we probably won't like but who cares becuase ITS CHRISTMAS!!!! soon.

Jen and I did the same as usual by asking each other what we want for christmas and as usual we got the same answer, there's nothing i need or want so this only makes it harder to shop for each other. Jen has ordered a new mobile as her contract is nearly up and she gets a Free Nintendo Wii with it so she should be easy to buy for now, just a few Wii games and Wii accessories should do the trick. I on the other hand am more difficult to buy for as i really want a PS3 but can't afford one at the minute, ah well i guess i'll have to wait until next year and see if the price comes down after christmas. I've got some new games for my PS2 which should keep me busy over the christmas period. I've got Need for Speed Pro Street and Jackass the game. I'll add a review or two when i've played them properly.

Teigan still hasn't been for her operation on her right shoulder yet but we're hoping it going to get done the week before christmas so she has time to fully recover before starting school next september. Its strange but we were in the same situation last year as we were waiting for her appointment to have an operation on her hand.

Jen and I thought it would be best if we started to eat a little bit healthier as we kind of eat a bit too much junk food at the minute so its time for the Fat Man to loose a bit of weight. I've been carrying around a few extra pounds now for a few years (ok a bit more than just a few pounds, more like a few stone) and it needs sorting. we've done things properly this time by sorting out some healthy meal plans and doing more regular shopping trips for fresh fruit and veg rather than chucking microwave meals and shite in the freezer for convenience.
My starting weight is (drum roll..........)

17 Stones 2 Pounds (yes yes i know i'm a fat git i know). After 1 week i'm now down to 16 Stone 12 pounds so its going in the right direction. I'm aiming to get down to 12 or 13 stone over the next 6 - 12 months as well as having a healthier diet. I'll keep you updated.

Top Gear - Sunday 4th November

I saw Top Gear on Sunday and have to say that it has to be my favourite episode of the show ever. I've never laughed so much. The people behind the show's special challenges are genius. How do they come up with them.
Buy a car for £1500 or less than is not 4 wheel drive and not built for off road driving then drive 1000 miles across a part of Africa. I also like the way that jezza and james modified their cars to meet each part of the challenge.
I will be adding this to a collection of Top Gear episodes and burning it to DVD to watch again.
African stig trying his best to destroy Richard "Hamster" Hammonds car, an Opel Cadett (aka Oliver) Also i must say that the episode last week with jezza driving around the bbc offices in his Peel P50 microcar was pretty damn good, i want one of those cars for myself, what a laugh.

Good old Liverpool FC

I thought twice about watching the match last night after liverpools poor show in this years champions league, i'm rather glad i did decide to watch it though as they made history last night. The most goals scored in a champions league match.
Liverpool 8 (Yes you read it right 8) - Besiktas 0
Without torres they have seemed to lack the killer strike that they have when he is playing but last night proved that they didn't rely on just one player to score goals. The team played well as a unit, no one player shone as outstanding above all the rest. Arbeloa was running around like a man possesed and benayoun played fantastic, babel could have had a hat trick in 9 minutes.
Bring on fulham at the weekend and lets unleash another thrashing then bring on Porto and Marseille and the group knockout stage of the Champions League.

Update!

Holly crap batman, its been ages since i last blogged.
I've been a bit busy recently and haven't had any time to keep you all up to date.
Here goes

Kira has had her 5th birthday (29th October) which was not just 1 party but a party on Sunday (28th) at our local wacky warehouse for all of her school friends (14 of them) and Monday was a party at our house for her actual birthday (muggins here had to do the food for the party at our house, even though i felt like crap).
The party at the wacky was supposed to be 2 hours long, an hour for the kids to play and then an hour for them to have some party games and food, all ok unless the food that we had ordered for all the kids was cold when they got it, the manager of the pub attached to the wacky being a complete arsehole (we had to chase him a couple of times and the miserable git only knocked off £20 the food bill). At least Kira seemed to enjoy it. Roll on next August when Teigan is 4 and wants a party too, we'll have to think of somewhere else to go.
A picture of the Fifi cake that Jen made for Kiras birthday party. Kira got loads of birthday presents (she's not spoiled though), daddies present was cool though, a kids fish tank (yet another tank in the house, yeah). Although not as big as my tank, its a start. Its an elite cool 10 plastic tank that she can keep goldfish in. For £17.50 you get the tank, gravel, a plant, food and internal filter which is basically all you need for keeping goldfish. I'm trying to talk Jen into letting me get a bigger tank in the living room now, i've got my eye on the wall with our battered old dining room unit which is only used to store some glasses and junk. The wall is about 12 foot long but i would only want an 8 foot tank as the dogs cage takes up some space. I've even thought about building a false partition wall and setting various smaller tanks into it but i think i would have to do a lot of begging to get the ok for that. My current tank is doing well, some more fish have been added (clown loaches, platties, etc) but i've still got my old fish, A Red Tailed Black Shark, A Albino Red Finned Shark (which apprently wont tolerate red tailed black sharks, mine does), Plenty of neon tetras, Tiger Barb, Black Widow tetra, Guppy and of last but not least Sucky the Pleco. He's still growing (Now about 8 inches long) and i think maybe a getting a bit large for my tank. He is still devouring cucumber and courgettes. I did however loose a large dalmation molly recently at the grand old age of 1 year, it was a sad day, i've watched it grow from a very small baby into a 2 inch long adult.
I've been ill and had a couple of days off work to recover, so i guess i could have updated this then but i was too busy watching tv and being ill. The new series of top gear rocks, i especially liked the episode where they had to revisit the building of car boat hybrids and take them across the English channel (not some miniscule lake this time). Once again, jezza ruled with his 4x4 with a huge outboard motor attached, they did manage to get across to France without sinking. I also liked the race last week between a Bugatti Veyron and a Euro Fighter (a very expensive and fast jet fighter). It was a close race which i thought the Veyron might have won, what a car it is although a little on the pricey side.

A sad day for Rally Fans

Colin Steele McRae, MBE (5 August 1968 – 15 September 2007)
I was shocked to hear the news that Colin McRae had been killed in a helicopter crash, not only killing himself but his own son as well.
Being a big Rally fan this was sad news. I'd seen Colin driving like a man possessed on many a rally circuit in the Welsh forests (on some occasions marshaling some stages) and was wowed by his driving style.
How many more top British sports people have to die young, Richard Burns was another comparatively young successful British rally driver who died last year.
Take a look at his website and leave a message of condolence, Colin McRae.

Kira Start School

It was Kira's first day at school Yesterday, see pictures below of her in her school uniform, it made me proud to see her all grown up now and going to school. She went into class without even a hint of tears and has enjoyed every minute so far. We did have a fear tears this morning when she was dropped off but i think it was over very quickly. Teigan has started full time a pre-school now so Jen has some free time in the mornings to do house work and stuff.
Kira in her new school uniform, all growd up Kira and Teigan together before going to school and pre-school.

Reach Day Out

On Saturday, we attended a regional Reach meeting (Reach is a charity that supports people with upper limb deficiencies, such as missing fingers, missing hands, etc. They support Teigan because of her missing fingers when she was born). If you see a collection for this charity please donate anything you can spare, they do fantastic work with children who have a disability that they were born with and made their lives harder than normal.
Please visit their website to find out more information about the charity and what they do - REACH.
The day started with a buffet and along with getting to know other people who have children going through life with the same problems that Teigan has. It was amazing to see that we weren't the only people with a child that had missing fingers, etc. There were babies crawling around with one arm that ended at the elbow. I found it fascinating watching how each child coped with their problem.
We got on well with a family who has a child (who is now 9 or 10) and had the same operation that Teigan has just gone through (Bi-Lateral Toe-to-hand transplant). His parents said that there is not much that he can't do (Some things are difficult and take more time than they normally would).

After the food, the children got a chance to play in the biggest wacky warehouse I'd ever seen, with parts of it five stories high. I mist admit i was fast becoming a kid again.
After running around the kids play area chasing my kids, i had a few bounces on the trampolines and a couple of go's on the massive bumpy slide (in fact i think every adult had a go on that). The one thing I had to go on was the indoor climbing wall, i've never been on one but having seen kids with only one hand attempting to climb (some more successful than others) I had to have a go. I wish i hadn't picked the part of the wall to attempt first that had 2 overhangs but i managed to get to the top, although completely knackered.
Now it was time to let go of the wall and fall back to earth (now i'd seen some adults do this and they fell quite slowly, their fall broken by the brake on the rope, i guess they didn't weigh as much as me). When i let go of the top of the wall, it felt like being in a lift that the cables had just been cut, holy s*&t...... i thought that the brake wouldn't stop me, eventually i did slow down (about 10 feet from the ground), although it was a bit scary, it was a massive rush. I did have to have another go on a different part of the wall. I'd love to have another go at this sometime in the future.
Pictures of kids and adults in play area.

Nanny and Teigan on the slide. Mummy on the slide. Its me on the climbing wall. Darren, Lee, Jen and Joy on the slide

AX and its MOT

The AX is booked in for its MOT on Tuesday (18th), if it passes then i'm switching my insurance over to it and the megane will be up for sale (not decided where yet, maybe ebay, autotrader, local papers, etc).

The AX reminds me of the days when i had a H Reg AX GT (Reg H522BHA), i'd like to know if it is still around as i'd spent a lot of money on that car (stereo, tuning, etc) but part ex'd it for a BMW 525 which i lost a lot of money on, D'oh.
If anyone knows of the where abouts of the car then let me know. I loved the car, it was quick considering it only had a 1.4 8v engine which although only producing 85bhp standard power, mine was in excess of 100bhp), it could do 0-60mph in under 9 seconds (mine was in the low 8's or high 7's) and it went round corners like it was on rails (especially as it was lowered around 100mm at the rear and 55mm at the front and was running a hard suspension setup).
Eventually i'd like another GT but in the mean time i'll have to make do with the AX 1.1 that i have (hey its cheap to run and cheap tax). I could slot in a GT engine and gearbox from a scrapped car for a few hundred quid if i could find one. Apparently Saxo engines are exactly the same as the GT engine, it just has injection rather than carbs, i did investigate getting a Saxo VTS engine fitted to my old AX, ABP would fit it for £1100 but i had to find an engine and gearbox (scrap yard one would have done the trick). With a little tuning, you could have an AX weighing less than 800kgs with over 150bhp.

I'll add a pic of it soon but here are the details:
Renault Megane 1.6 Auto
1997 (P Reg)
Colour = White
71000 Miles
11 Months MOT
No Tax
It has a couple of dents (drivers side wing and passenger side front door) but it is mechanically sound and drives like a dream. Its had 3 new wheel bearings in the last 5 months (2 front and rear drivers side, common problem around 60k miles. I have a spare new rear wheel bearing in case the other one needs replacing, this will be with the car), If you know someone who needs a cheap car then let me know.
£800 ono Contact Details: l.woollett@ntlworld.com - Tel:01604 465495

Delays, Delays

Kira was due to start school on Monday (10th) but the school didn't ave the classroom ready in time for the reception class. The school has been having some building work done over the past year or so and they hadn't finished what they were supposed to, they had used the new classroom where Kira was supposed to be, as storage and it couldn't be cleaned in time for the reception class. We got a letter 3 days before she was going to start school saying that school for the reception class was being started a week later. God damn school, Kira was all excited about starting school only to be told that she had to wait another week befire she could. Some parents have even taken their kids out of school before they've even started and moved them to another school (which is a bit extreme).

I had arranged to have a week off work so that i could take her to school for her first week but i had to change those plans at the last minute. Why is nothing simple these days, it seems like something simple like getting a classroom ready for new school starters ends in disaster.

McDonalds and meddlesome metal

Someone bought a sausage and egg muffin from McDonalds in Merry Hill and was shocked to discover that they were chewing on a bolt that had somehow got into the sausage. Now i've heard of a trying to get some iron in your diet but this is taking the piss. The company has been fined £13500 for its failure to keep metal out of its products (which is a drop in the ocean compared to their profits, guess some fat cat manager somewhere won't get his bonus this month).

I guess Jim will have to add this to his reasons not to visit McDonalds after finding staff at the Burton restaurant were handling raw meat and bread without washing their hands properly in between. I bet he will stop eating them for all of a week or so until the urge will get to much.

More Gran Turismo 5

Just found some more Gran Turismo shots, this game looks fantastic, see clips below.

kids new phrases

I've heard my eldest daughter come out with some new phrases over the past couple of weeks that i have no idea where they came from...... Honestly.

I woke up on saturday morning last weekend to the sound of Kira telling her little sister Teigan 'Will you get out of my bloody bedroom', not once but several times.

Kira called her uncle Paul 'a dirty minger' when he told her that he used to eat celery with yoghurt when he was a child.

She has called me an 'idiot boy' when she can't get her own way.

I shit you not, they pick up this fucking language from some dirty foul mouthed people, obviously i refrain from swearing in front of them so i have to save it up for when they aren't around.

I'm just waiting for one of them to swear in front of their great grandparents or something, i'll have to stop myself from laughing too much. It does sound funny though when they do it but i have to try and put on a serious face when i'm telling them off for saying it.

This is one for Damo

I know you've been having problems with Windows VISTA recently damo and you've had to re-install your machine quite a few times because those nasty people at microsoft brought out this shiny new operating system called Windows Shitsa Vista.

I've been doing some research on taking an image of a machine (when its in perfect working order) without bowing down to the likes of Norton (Ghost), Acronis (true image), and all the rest of the companies who want to charge you for a piece of software you'll hardly ever use.

Why does it always come back to the opensource (i.e. Free) software to save the day?

I found that you can download a copy of a Linux distribution called 'Knoppix' although any flavour of Linux / Unix will do, i only chose Knoppix as it can boot from the CD Iso image you download (which contains the OS and many many applications, all of which run from the CD).

To take animage of a machine, you download the ISO image and burn it to CD, slap it in your machine to image and let the Linux OS boot from the CD. Once it has booted, mount a drive that links to a shared drive somewhere on the netowrk and run a command called dd. This command can be | (piped) through the compression utility GZIP and split the image into CD or DVD sized files if needed for safe backup. Once this is done, your machine image is safe.

I tested the software for you already by sacrificing my works laptop (scary i know), i took an image of the hard drive which contains about 35GB of data and compressed it to an image of about 14.5GB in about 4 hours. Once donw i trashed my machine then re-imaged the machine from the files i'd just taken (people at work were very worried that i had lost my marbles, but i had faith in Linux). In about another 2.5 hours my machine was back up and running fine.

If you want some instructions i suggest looking at Joescat website for full instructions.

I'm going to use this utility at home and suggest that we use it at work, as it means we don't have to buy any software (pat on the back for me).

I'll be back again soon with some more machine saving tips.

fifth gear crash test

Did you see the crash test doen on fifth gear yesterday (yes i hear you cry, fifth gear is crap, a top gear wannabe)?

They did a first of a kind crash test which made Euro NCAP think again about their safety tests. They took a15 year old Volvo 940 estate and a Renault Modus and smashed them into each other head on at 40 mph.

Which one do you think ended up worse off?

The 1.5 ton 'Built like a brick shit house' Volvo OR The little dainty Renault Modus

Well it totally shocked me when they played the crash back in slow motion, the renault just demolished the Volvo like it was made of wet paper. Not much really happened to the Modus (smashed bumper, no bonnet left, dented wing, engine pushed back a little), even the dash and drivers footwell were unscathed. The Volvo was completely knackered. Nothing much was left of the front end, the front wheel ended up pushing the footwell into the dummy, smashing its legs. The steering wheel roseup and slammed into the dummies face (obviouslygiving it a little nose bleed). It seemed like the little Renault used the Volvo as a crumple zone of its own.

I would have put money on the Volvo just destroying the Modus without a scratch. How wrong can you be.

Looks like Renualt did a fine job of building the little car, Euro NCAP rating 5 stars and well earn't. I would feel safer driving one, having seen what it can do.

Look at me, a big solid car, nothing can break me. Look at me, i'm all dainty and plastic (typical french car) Ouch!!!!!!!!!!!! Look at that Volvo crumple up like a pack of crisps Now thats gotta sting a little bit, i think he may need to see a doctor. Thank god, my legs are fine, don't reckon much to volvo's now.
Plastic car strong, solid metal car weak.

Interesting clips

Whilst looking through various clips on youtube i found the following clips which made me laugh. Destruction galore.

Shredding hard drives

Computers dont stand a chance against this beast.

Even engines don't stand a chance, i wouldn't want to have an accident with one of these machines.

HOME MADE JET ENGINE Now this one is fantastic, i've been thinking of how i can build something like this for ages and after seeing this clip i realise its not that difficult. Turn up the sound and listen to the turbo charger squeal, watch it glow white hot and the flames. 10/10.

Jet powered invalid carriage Watch out, your gran could be lethal on one of these babies. Maybe someday someone will start a race series and this will be part of the F1 class where as the electric ones will be for beginners.

F1 engine test Watch an F1 engine get pushed so hard that the exhaust manifolds glow white hot and flames shoot out. No wonder people have to put their fingers in their ears.

Another F1 engine being tested, watch the fuel being squirted directly into the inlet ports.

jezza driving a skyline, not a standard skyline.... no no no this is one tuned by a japanese company called Jun. Its name i think is Jun Hyper Lemon skyline and it has 1000BHP.

This shows just how quick a well tuned skyline is, watch how quickly the car goes from 0 - 300kph (nearly 200 mph). The car launches at 6000rpm and gets to 40mph in what seems like just over a second. Within a few more seconds its touching 100mph and it doesn't seem to stop accelerating. See other videos on www.exvitermini.com

more videos and links to other cars and instersting stuff coming soon.

Happy Birthday Mobile Phone

Look at the brick the old guy is holding Its been 20 years since mobile manufacturers decided to build the mobile network GSM. I myself have had several mobiles over the years and can't imagine living without one now.

My Mobile History

My first mobile phone was a sony CM H333 (sony mars bar as it was known), i was 16 and had just left school. None of my friends had a phone and were they jealous. I hardly used the damn thing but it was great to have a gadget that nobody else i knew had. The phone didn't have a sim card, no text messages could be sent, it was just a phone and had 3 number phonebook. The phone was on the celnet network.

I didn't get my next phone for several years after my sony mars bar, i did eventually get a motorola colorado. It was light years ahead of the sony i had previously. You could send sms messages, change the ringtone, store more than 3 phone numbers in the phonebook (99 was the limit). The phone was on the one2one network.

The bext phone was a classic, a Nokia 3210. It was great, no external aerial to stab you in the leg when it was in your pocket. You could even make your own ringtones with the in built composer (although i never did). I just went onto various mobile sites and got them to sms me a new ringtone (you could do this for free at this time before the greedy people started to charge you 2 or 3 quid for a ringtone). I loved the 3210 and bought many different covers for it. It was my first phone on the Orange network and i've not left them since.

My next phone was a Nokia 7110 (matrix phone). After seeing the Matrix, i had to get one of the phones. Although the 7110i wasn't the same as in the film, it looked very much like it and was called the matric phone. I got a data cable for it and the nokia suite and created my own logos and stuff for it. The phone lasted about a year until i managed to spill half a pint of vodka and orange juice over it. Although i dried it out and cleaned the circuit board, the microphone and answer mechanism gave up the ghost. A phone call to orange saw a replacement handset with me within 2 days and not a penny to be paid (even though i didn't have insurance with them).

After the 7110, i decided that i should try something new, i decided to get a samsung a300 (yes i was attracted to the flip phone and dual screens). After about 2 weeks i wished i'd never had the phone. The phone came with 2 batteries, one was slim but lasted a day on standby if you were lucky and the other was big but still only lasted a couple of days. The OS on the phone was crap. I reverted back to my trusty 7110.

My next phone was a Sagem MY X6, i bought this whilst on my wedding anniversary in london. It had a camera, loads of ringtones and the OS was user friendly. I loved this phone (especially the mooing cow ringtone that i used to set off for the fun of it in the office). The camera was shocking compared to todays phones but back then it was cutting edge.

My next phone was a SPV E200, my first smart phone. I worked with some people who had the first spv's but i decided to wait until the e200 model came out so orange could iron out all the bugs. The phone was great but the battery life was a bit bad. I downloaded shed loads of apps, games, etc for the phone and it served me well.

After a year of the SPV i grew tired and wanted just a normal phone again so i decided to get a nokia 5140. This phone was great, it had a radio, thermometer, compass, had a rubber case that made the phone dust and splash proof and it could also be thrown across a room and survive (due to its strong case). The battery life was great and the phone was small.

I then got an SPV 600 as damo kept banging on that the 500 was great and the 600 was going to be better. Altough i liked the phone i regretted buying it as i just bought it as my contract was due to expire on my old phone. The phone was ok but i hardly used the features it had.

My next phone came after a break from having one. I used my works pda as a phone for a few months. I had been reading up on MP3 players and decided to get a combined phone and MP3 player. I decided to get something that wasn't the run of the mill phone. I got a samsung F300 which loads of people were slagging off but i just liked the look of the phone. It has a memory card slot that takes micro-sd memory upto 2GB and is one of the slimmest phones around. The OS on the phone is user friendly, the MP3 player is great, the battery life is acceptable and it looks fantastic. I highly recommend getting one.

R.I.P pavarotti

Just a quick message to pay my respects to Luciano Pavarotti. Although i'm not a big fan of opera music, he was fantastic. His rendition of Nessun Dorma was great, it still makes the hairs on my neck stand on end when i hear it after all these years. He brought opera into a new era and to new listeners.

At last england win

At last england are starting to win matches again, the england cricket team have beaten india in a 1 day series 4-3 (the 6th match was fantastic), england rugby team beat the USA 28-10 (although this wasn't as convincing as it needed to be, we should have buried them) and England football team beat Israel 3-0, hopefully this shouls settle some nerves and we can go on and qualify for Euro 2008.

Good old michael owen scored a fantastic goal (he should have never left liverpool when he did).

20MB cable is F***ING fast

Yes i know i said i was getting 20MB a while ago, it has taken NTL to enable northampton to be 20MB. But the day is finally here. I couldn't resist testing the connection out to see what it could do, see results below. I downloaded Windows 2000 service pack 4 (size 129.2MB) in just over 1 minute (and no the file wasn't cached before you ask). My connection is that fast.

as you can see 2010 KB/sec isn't to be sniffed at, although i can only get this speed sustained when using cat5 cable, the wireless can't cope with this kind of speed, i'm not sure if its the router or the wireless adapters but i think i may buy some cables and hard wire the house. I'm only getting 4MB to through wireless at the minute :-(

Interesting site found Speed Test.net, take a look at it and try your own connection. See my results below, this was taken today (08/09/07) connected via CAT5 through Linksys WRT54G wireless router)

When on slow wireless i get 4000 kilobits / sec (4MB), being plugged into router with cat 5 i get 12000 kilobits / sec (12MB) but when plugged directly into the cable modem i get just over 16000 kilobits / sec. May need to upgrade the cable modem as i think its maxing out so will have to speak to NTL and see what they can do.

IN YOUR FACE ALL YOU ADSL PEOPLE WITH YOUR 24MB CONNECTIONS, GET CABLE AND GET A SUSTAINED FAST SPEED FROM ANY DISTANCE FROM THE EXCHANGE AND NO CONTENTION RATIO TO WORRY ABOUT EITHER.

Watch out newsgroups here i come.