This is so cool...

Virtual Reality on your PC, using a Wii Remote

or if that's not your thing, how about a muti-touch white board, or interactive desktop...

Amanda's Pics online

Unlike me, Amanda does not take many pictures when away, but the few she took can be viewed online at

http://photoalbum.rockbox-themes.org/Fuerteventura2008/index.html

Last day as a single parent

Amanda is due back late tonight (actually more like early tomorrow!), so once our Golf lesson was over, it was all hands to the pumps to clean the house top to bottom.  Actually, it only took about 20 minutes, as we have kept on top of it all week ;-)

So, it's time to relax - settle down and watch Man U v Arsenal in the FA Cup, and then out for a curry...  A little TV and wait for Amanda ;-)

Firefox 3 Beta 3

I have recently installed the latest version of FF 3, and am generally quite impressed. 

I found two Issues

1) The Roboform Toolbar needed to be updated to latest version (6.9.87) which was not a major problem

2) The 'Home' button has been moved from the 'Normal' position on the Navigation bar to the bookmarks toolbar.  This was a major pain in the butt!  Fortunately there is a fix on the Mozilla Forums:

make sure you right-click on the toolbars and select 'customize' before trying to drag the 'Home' button from the 'Bookmarks Toolbar' to the 'Navigation Toolbar'. Leave that 'customize' window open while dragging buttons. If that still doesn't work, disable any weird extensions you have running that might not be completely compatible with this new build.

Unfortunately it seems that many of the developers consider this strange positioning to be 'More Logical' and this tweak may be needed more than once.

Not so much a 'new' toy...

More of a replacement.

On Saturday night -at the curry house - my iPod got smashed, and without a screen it was just not usable. I attempted to live with the Nano for a while, but it's just to darn small - 4 GB is simply not enough space.  Soooo, yesterday I became the proud owner of a 80 GB iPod Video 'Classic'.

I like a lot of the new visual 'tricks' that have been included in the updated software - Cover flow, album are displayed in a slight perspective view - complete with shaded reflection etc., but would agree with the early reviews which stated that Apple were pushing the processor in this platform to the limit.  I am sure they work a lot smoother on newer hardware - the iTouch - for example.

Trouble with the iTouch 32GB would just about be usable, but the price is ridiculous, any smaller is of no use to me. The 80Gb version of the older model was £150 - more than enough!

Still doing fine...

Tuesday - A visit to Barnett's Hill Garden Center filled the morning quite nicely, Alex and I managed to get to the Golf Course for a hour or so in the Late Afternoon.  It was Alex's fist experience of a 'Real Golf Course', we only played three holes, but he did quite well really. Amy had invited Beth over for tea / a sleep over, so it was the 'Stag' again for tea, and after a (false) fire alarm going off - just after we had finished our meals, a quiet night in watching TV.

Wednesday - A *very* late night for the girls was followed by a lie-in for the morning.  Amy, Beth and two others from the drama group went to the pictures for the afternoon, Alex played on the XBOX a lot, and George came to borrow some software - I got to go for a ride on his FJR 1300!! AWESOME!!  A simple meal of Beans-on-Toast, and an evening catching up on some more Sky+ recordings

Thursday - Amy handed over my Valentines card from Amanda, I had hidden hers in the suitcase... Another visit to Moms filled the morning, and Amy was again at the cinema in the afternoon, this time with her boyfriend and some friends from school.  Afterwards three of the girls Katherine, Alex (female) and Abbey joined us at home for a take-away Pizza.  At 19:00 I took Alex (my son!) to Cubs for a 24 hour meeting - I don't get him back till 19:00 Friday!!

Looks like I need to brave the washing machine again tomorrow ;-)

So Far So Good...

Almost three days now without Amanda to keep me in check, and both children are still alive!

Saturday was mostly taken up with two performances of the Panto, and out for a celebratory curry afterwards.

Sunday AM - A small amount of shopping for essentials (Bread, Milk, Diet Coke etc) followed by Gardening/Trampoline for me/kids, Football on TV, and then out for a 'pub Meal' at the 'Stag', finished off by a quiet evening of 'Dancing on Ice' and 'LA Ink'

Monday - I managed to escape for a hour on the Golf Course, and almost wished I had not bothered - I was CRAP!... Took Amy & Katherine to Merry Hill, Relaxed in Costa for a while with a nice 'Skinny Latte' before visiting my Mom. Chip Shop tea tonight (held over from Saturday), and Whilst Amy went back to Phoenix to assist with the 'Big Tidy' I had an hour on the PC, and Alex learnt the finer points of Sync'ing his mobile phone with Windows Media Player.

Has it been that long...

Since I last posted? Wow, time flies!

Ok, what's happened in the last two weeks...

Well, Vista with SP1 has been well behaved, and Microsoft have now released if officially.

I have (finally) been accepted onto the 21C Broadband trial by BT and hope to have 24 MB Broadband soon.

Phoenix productions have performed "Robin Hood - the panto" several times now, to good sized houses and much applause. Two performances left, this afternoon and tonight.

Bike has been for it's 7000 mile service, and fitted with new chain/sprocket set and heated grips.  It cost £600 all in, but the difference in performance, and the nice warm hands says it was worth it.

Work has been manic, we finally seem to have recovered from the "Winter Lull" (TM) and whilst the day seems to fly by whilst you are busy, the week seems to last forever!  Mind you the fact that it was a 6 day week helped that feeling, I have got used to all these 4 day weeks!!

Finally, Amanda has flow off today with some friends for a mid winter break in the Canaries.  I therefore have a week off work to keep an eye on the kids, and weather permitting - get some golf in!