21-03-2005
ha! its gone and happened again. many months have passed and this Diary
was not updated. Samual Pepys I am not! :-) Okay, lets give a run down
of the past months (from what I can remember)
Firstly, the big one, July 2004. Got married to Bobbie. We wed at Colwick Hall which is a fabulous venue and really matched and met our expectations. Late at night I drove us down to Birmingham and at 4.30am the next day we crawled out of bed and onto a plan to CUBA! ... but first a 3 hour stopover at Charles De Gaulle airport. .. Cuba! what a wonderful place! Whilst being a vegetarian was 'awkward' in almost every place we went (ah! Like my trips to Japan and France its a learning experience and I'm glad I put in a few hours of learning Spanish!) the food was pure, the people were all friendly (too friendly some of them - beware the tourist grabbers!) and the music, drinks and weather were all perfect.
and then back to work for the rest of the year :-)
in the world of DIY, not much else was tackled 2004 (we tackle jobs early in the year). The backroom was plastered by professionals after a very good job (their words) by myself and Bobbie with pre-rendering and plasterboarding. the pros then returned in October and we got the house fully fitted with double glazing (in traditional wood. no UPVC here!) then earlier this year we attacked our central heating system again...a reasonable clean out of magnetite followed by replacement of front room radiator (with a mighty fine 'school style' radiator - though very low) and the spare bedroom - after the 'sword' accident of 2 years back. dont ask. I'll post pictures to a new section of this site int he future.
Computing. well, I got my PS2 Linux kit back in October. HD, keyboard, mouse, network adapter and Linux for PS2 on DVD. Quickly installed it then blatted the Sony Linux with BlackRhinos stuff. I have to get a low-profile PS2 for home and take this one into work. My Debian box is still going strong. I installed various web tools and image library systems onto it...I played with MythTV on it too...but the specs are too low for what I want it to do..so must wait until I've got cash to splash on frivolous upgrades :-) My Amiga is still ticking along....my OS4 beta install is a little outdated due to workloads and late nights down at Loughborough but thats to be remedied during Easter
Game consoles - well, Nintendos' DS came out. and I got one! great fun and the touch screen is the needed paradigm of game control that has so far been missing. I've REALLY enjoyed the Sony Eyetoy for PS2, the dance mats, the Gamecube drums (yes, got those too) but non of those would work on public transport...well, neither does having to shout into the microphone...but still.. :-)
Horace (our cat) was involved in a car accident in early February. This was a mjor blow to us, but he recovered well..after 2 operations and is now almost back to normal. we were very worried about his left eye, but that too, seems to be back to its normal 'target Alans finger' ability :-)
thats all for now folks
Older files: April 2004