Day 766 (31/01/2012)

Well after about only a week of trying the online version of the theory test and only reading his highway code on the way to the test centre, Thomas passed his theory test.

What a jammy sod.

In other news I'm arranging a course myself so have to sell places on it to make my money. I'm not a natural salesman and have trouble setting a price and haggling with people. I only need a few people to pay me to cover my costs but basically want to sell 12 places to make my money for the month. Hoping this one goes well so I can arrange a few more. Fingers crossed.

Day 765 (30/01/2012)

Happy Birthday to my Mum.

I know I work for myself and could pay myself whenever I want but I get paid quarterly and I always get really excited when my accountant sends me my pay slips, even though it's me that has to pay it, to me.

Update - 21:45 - Popped over to Mum & Dads for Mum's Birthday this afternoon / evening. Had a nice tea (northern dinner) and got her a cake.

Thomas drove us there & back, first time driving in the dark, not too bad.

Day 763 & 764 (28 & 29/01/2012)

Well Alistair McGowan's show about Noel Coward was quite good.

We have a busy few days (along with a load of work for me to do) as it is my mum & mother-in-laws birthdays coming up. Tonight we are going to see Lord Of The Dance with my parents at The Hippodrome in Bristol.

Before hand we are all having dinner with Gary & Elaine at The H Bar at The Colston Hall. We have eaten there before but it was a while ago, I just hope it is nice tonight.

Tomorrow I am going out for Mary's Birthday with all of my wife's family. I have purposely not met them or spoken to them all (apart from Mary) for years but am going along to make my wife happy. I hope I manage to last the day without explaining why I don't bother with them any more but I think th ey may have guessed already.

Update - Sunday 18:30 - Well Lord Of The Dance was a fantastic show and we all really enjoyed it.

The food before hand was nice but it would be true to say the service was a nightmare.

On Sunday I went out with my wife & kids to meet up with her family for Sunday Dinner. I have avoided her family for the last few years but thought I would go to he Mum's 80th Birthday, it wasn't that bad.  

The food was OK but they had run out of roast potatoes so had chips with my roast pork.

Day 762 (27/01/2012)

I am supposed to be hard at work but it's nearly midday and so far I have only updated my old netbook so it can run the iplayer & twitter so my main computer will work a bit faster when I'm actually working. It is a quick computer and I should just clear out all the old software slowing it down.

I am off to The Brewhouse tonight with my wife to see Alistair McGowan in a one man show about Noel Coward.

Hopefully it will be good.

Day 761 (26/01/2012)

A bit of a busy day as I had a meeting at Birmingham City University this morning to talk about giving a few presentations to journalism students.

On the way back there was a big hail storm, where it was like a snow blizzard but hail, thankfully I was in the car, though driving was a bit difficult.

Come on Mr Sunshine, come out to play, we want the summer not the winter.

Home in time to catch up with even more work.

Day 760 (25/01/2012)

Yesterday my wife decided to order her mum a birthday cake, surprisingly at fairly short notice, so checked out the website of the lady who had made some of our other cakes. She was slightly surprised to see as an example of this ladies work Kelly's Mini Car Birthday Cake.

At the time the lady hadn't done a Mini or even a car before and didn't know how it would turn out. As you can see it was very good, well worth displaying on her website.

This morning we all had to get ready and leave at around 9:30am, all going to different places. I think we need more bathrooms as two are just not enough.

Still working hard but as quickly as I send the completed report outs I keep getting others sent to me. It's never ending, which in some respects (the money) is nice but in others is a pain in the butt (slightly American).

Day 759 (24/01/2012)

Early start on wet grey day.

Its not nice out but luckily I don't have far to go to get to my office so stayed warm & dry. Those poor sods who have to be outside, I remember those days, thank good I have a job where I can stay in, with plenty of tea, the radio and a million other distractions stopping me from working.

Day 758 (23/01/2012)

Doing lots of work to clear a sudden back-log that has appeared.

Seeing at it was Chinese New Year we went out for dinner but all the Chinese Restaurants were closed, which seemed fair as we close everything on our Bank Holidays, so why shouldn't they have a day off. So we went to a Thai Restaurant instead.

We had been here before & the food is nice but the place was very busy and the service was very slow. We had gone out just after 7pm but the services was so slow we left at nearly 11pm and I still had a report to finish & email off, so it was a late finish.

Day 756 & 757 (21 & 22/01/2012)

The weekend is here but I have too much to do to enjoy it. Hopefully within a few months I might have a few people helping me with my reports. It will be nice to get most of the basic stuff done so I can concentrate on the other stuff and the courses.

Everyone else is going out to work today or visiting Bristol, so at least I can get on in piece apart from picking up the kids after work.

Update - Sun 19:30 - Doing loads of reports this weekend and so looking forward to being able to sit down and relax with my wife.

One of my favorites films was on this weekend, Enemy Of The State, its fantastic. Gene Hackman is always great in any role.

Day 755 (20/01/2012)

Nice to have been back in my own bed and to have a nice lie-in. I enjoy the courses (mostly) but hate being away and hate getting up early.

Thomas has two photo's in the paper this week.

Day 754 (19/01/2012)

Course finished & went quite well, back up north in a couple of months time.

Long drive & home now, looking forward to being back in my own bed.

Day 753 (18/01/2012)

The mixed grill was OK last night but I tried a new Indian restaurant tonight. It was a few miles away but easy to get to & quite nice and nice to go somewhere different for a change.

The course is going OK but looking forward to getting home tomorrow night.

Day 752 (17/01/2012)

After a bit of a late night doing some work on my computer I had a nice early start, so I could defrost the car in time to get to the training venue.

Have work to do of an evening whilst I'm here, which I never enjoy but has to be done.

Looking forward to a steak or mixed grill tonight. Having a curry tomorrow night.

Day 751 (16/01/2012)

You have to love Sherlock, 3 episodes are never enough. I can't wait for the next series but I think I have got how he did it.

Off to Preston this evening but still trying to get everything sorted first.

Day 749 & 750 (14 & 15/01/2012)

It was a nice night last night, meeting up with the guys, we had all aged but admittedly I was probably the biggest, they were all still fairly sporty.

Its bloody cold this weekend & I have so much to do but am trying to spend some time with the wife.

Update - Sunday 16:00 - Had a lovely meal at The Worlds End last night with my wife, as I will be away these week.

The seem to have a new menu and everything was lovely.

I am doing a course this week & have reports that need doing as well. I don't think I have ever been so unprepared for a course, thankfully did the laminates last week.

Day 748 (13/01/2012)

Took Kelly to the train station as she is having a short working break in London, watching a few shows with a friend. How grown up.

Meting some friends from work this afternoon. Hard to believe I have not seen some of them for 15yrs but will always care lots about them as we were the closest once, having spent many hours together cramped in the back of a van playing cards & drinking tea and doing some work.

 

They may be shocked at how large I am nowadays, hopefully some of them have aged badly (I know they haven't).

Day 747 (12/01/2012)

Had a meeting in Bristol today so Thomas came with me to go shopping. He certainly bought the right things.

The meeting went well and when we got home we found that not only was one of Thomas's photographs in the paper but his comments about the race and the photo were the only comments printed. So I suppose technically Thomas is now not only a published photographer but also a published sports journalists.

Now he has his new camera equipment Thomas should get even more photo's published. I hope he will soon be able to earn his living doing this as it seems a nice way to work rather than being stuck in an office or stacking shelves.

Day 746 (11/01/2012)

So today I managed to get rid of, no sorry that's wrong, I managed to donate loads of old computer stuff to www.communitycomputers.org which was both nice of me and good to clear out the stuff we haven't used for the last few years.
 

They had a very interesting van, which was more like a beach-bums pimp waggon but apparently they use to it show videos to the public, warning about the dangers of speeding & drink driving.

Yes, to warn people about the dangers of drink driving you definitely need a £24,000 entertainment system in a pimped-up van.

Me & Thomas went out to the local London Camera Exchange this afternoon where we managed to get a good deal on the majority of his new equipment.

 

He was very happy.

Looking forward to seeing some great shots and to his photos being in the papers every few days.

Day 745 (10/01/2012)

OK I did find a local charity that wanted computer stuff and today I have been going thru 10yrs worth of computer things and deciding just how many usb cables I need. The answer is about 10% of the ones I had.

I should be taking a car full of stuff to them tomorrow but today I have cleared some space. I think they will be getting a lot more than they were bargaining for but I am sure they will be able to use it all.

I have also been going thru some old harddrives and backing up my works computer, which frighteningly I haven't done for over a year.

Still trying to update my course material and had more work in today, so I now have a back log of work already.

Day 744 (09/01/2012)

Dieting is a bit like tidying up. If only you could see a difference straight away then perhaps you might have the enthusiasm to complete the task.

I have got rid of a few bags of stuff from my office but it is still full of stuff that I hardly ever use. What I need is a charity nearby that wants anything to do with computers.

Preparing for the upcoming courses and had to spend 4hrs doing bloody laminates. One of my least favorite tasks.

Me & Thomas are shopping around for his new computer equipment at the moment and I am amazed that hardly anyone is prepared to offer a good deal if we buy an expensive camera and 4 expensive lens's at the same time. Their greed is costing them the whole sale, what idiots.

Day 742 & 743 (07 & 08/01/2012)

The weekend is here and we might be having some new broadband stuff installed.

Waffle / Pancakes & fruit breakfast this morning, healthy apart from the maple syrup which is compulsory.

Obviously Kelly's is the more artistic one, I just throw the strawberries on the plate.

We really must get rid of these plates. We got them when we first had the kids and never thought we would still be using them 20yrs later but they are just so handy.

Update - Sunday 16:30 - So yesterday the people came to fit the satellite dish for the new broadband from www.tooway.com.

The dish is bigger than I expected, it's about 3 or 4 times the size of a sky dish and because of the angle it had to be put at its on the side but towards the front of the house, which doesn't really disguise it. 

But its a load faster than my rubbish landline broadband. 

Today we were having breakfast at Mum & Dad's and Kelly was shown a local magazine, where she appeared in a photo.

So that's both kids in the press this week.

Day 741 (06/01/2012)

A day without terrible wind, just what the Doctor ordered. No not my wind, outside, it was the calm after the storm. I was as windy as ever.

I even went outside to turn out new solar powered lights on.

They looked a lot better than in the photo. I can't wait to put some nice plants in the garden and then to start using it in the summer.

Day 740 (05/01/2012)

We didn't get to the cinema last night as Sherlock Holmes wasn't on, think we might have left it too late.

Another wet & very windy night & day.

Still getting back into work, slightly distracted by finding the free film section on www.blinkbox.com which included An American Werewolf In London, what a classic in so many ways.

They also have The Exterminator as well, which I will watch tonight. I have not seen that since it first came out on video and I watched it at home with the family in the very early 1980's. Most unsuitable for my parent at any time as I recall but me and my brother enjoyed it.

Thomas had his first few pictures published in the local newspaper today, hopefully he will have many more published and start to earn his living soon.

Day 739 (04/01/2012)

Guess what, yet another bloody wet & windy day in the South West.

The internet has been appallingly slow for weeks now, so I have given up and signed for a satellite internet service from www.tooway.com.

Hopefully going to see Sherlock Holmes with my wife on an Orange Wednesday tonight.

Day 738 (03/01/2012)

Another wet & windy day in the South West.

Went out to Pizza Express with the family.

I can fully recommend the Chili Bread starter.

Still easing myself back into work.