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Well we had a nice trip 'down south' for the weekend.  Saturday was spent in Cardiff, walked around the town, then an hour or two around the waterfront area, finally back into town to see 'Die Hard 4' - well it seemed appropriate as we were in Wales...

Back to the Hotel and a very nice Rib Eye stake and a bottle of red wine finished the day off nicely. 

Today, after a very hearty breakfast we drove to Bath.  Spent a couple of hours around the Roman Baths, took in the Waters - Urghhhh! and headed home.

I think a nice early night is in order - I am shattered!

Away this weekend

Mother in law is having the kids, and Amanda and I will be spending a night in.... Cardiff!  Not sure why, but Amanda seems to think it looks nice on the TV - Too much Doctor Who & Torchwood I think.  Hope the weather improves a bit between now and then!

Finally got my new specs

I collected my new glasses tonight, and they are a *big* improvement on my previous pair...  The lens is a little larger, which allowed a higher positioning of the reading portion - this makes it significantly easier to read with them, and the new prescription is also working better.

Wet Golf Day

On Tuesday, in spite of the absolutely awful weather conditions, Mr Sankey and I took to the golf course at Himley Hall.

The ground was VERY wet, the ball stopping almost as soon as it touched grass, and there was a spray of water from the ball even on a firmly struck putt.

It was however a good workout for the new clubs, and I was generally very happy with them.

Given the fact that it was the first time I had played that course, and the weather, I was hoping to break 60 for the nine holes, but a disastrous tee shot at the 4th resulting in a 12 put paid to that dream.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	HOLE
4	4	4	4	4	3	5	4	4	Par36
6	7	6	12	7	4	9	8	5	64

So 28 Over Par

Early Start Tomorrow

I have just set my alarm to go off at 04:45 tomorrow morning!  Amy is going away to France for the week with school, and she has to be there by 06:00.

Luckily, she has already packed her hair mangling gear, so it should be relatively easy to get here up, washed, dressed, fed and out of the house in under 1 hour!  If only it was so easy on a school day!

New Glasses - Doh!

D&A called to say my new specs were ready for collection...  When I went in, we found that they had screwed the prescription - big time!

It was supposed to be Bi-Focal Intermediate/Reading, but was in fact Bi-Focal Distance/Intermediate where Distance = Clear Glass!

D&A have to phone the lab tomorrow to try and get the correct lenses ordered - so another two weeks!!

Birthday Present Ordered...

Amanda has today ordered a BOSS 1512078 for my birthday next month:

Gents Hugo Boss Stainless Steel Bracelet Watch in Black

Nice ...

There was a very nice Tag 'Links' watch I liked, but that was about £1100 too expensive :-(   Nice to try on tho'

New Printer Required?

My current printer is an Epson Photo Stylus 950, a *huge* beast of a printer that produced stunning photo prints, but costs an absolute fortune to run... seems that almost all 7 cartridges run out within a week or two of each other and they cost £8 (7dayshop) to £11 (everywhere else) *EACH*

But it seem that the end is in site for the 950, Epson are stopping producing the ink cartridges for this printer (Seems to be a unique design for this model), so once this last set expire, I need a new printer.

My short list so far is
Epson Stylus DX6000 - £63 (Amazon.co.uk)
Takes 4 cartridges at £25 per set

HP Deskjet 6980 - £85 (Amazon again)
Takes two cartridges at £27 per set

Cannon Pixma iP5300 - £85 (Once again - Amazon)
Takes 4 cartridges at £30 per set (includes 50 sheet 6x4 Photo Paper)

The advantage of the HP printer is that it can be network connected (Ethernet or 802.11b wireless), so would be easier to use with the laptop, but the Cannon won the recent PCLabs for quality, speed and economy. I need to investigate running costs, speed and quality on these two, and keep a look out for any other serious candidates in the meantime... I should have a month or two before the 950 runs out of ink again....

Could have done without...

...having to pay for a new pair of glasses!

Had my eyes test again this week, and my reading prescription has been increased. It wasn't much of a surprise, as my arms are rapidly becoming too short to allow me to ready anything without glasses!!

I have picked another pair of 'rimless' bi-focals, and in two weeks time I will be £240 lighter in the wallet. The annoying this in the previous pair are only two tears old - that's £10 per month!!

Robin on the Feeder

Put the feeding station up in the garden last autumn, and it has been well used by both a family of robins and several varieties of tit. This is the first time I have managed to get a good picture of any of them feeding. They have got used to us being around now, and will continue to feed when we walk past them - as long as we don't get too close of course.