Well Friday was a busy day... went to the outlaws new bungalow.

Started off with helping arrange the furniture in the lounge, then working out where the speakers for TV and Hi-Fi should go.

I then re-assembled the hi-fi (with temporary speaker cables) and tested it all worked OK.

Third stage, reconnect the Home Cinema system, and "FreeView" digibox. TV, DVD and video were fine, but the terestial picture quality is pants! The digibox only picks up BBC 1, 2, 3, News 24 and CBBC - not much use really.

Lots of trunking, new speaker cable and 6 hours of hard work and it's still not all connected up properly... Hope to get some more finished late on Sunday, when we go to collect the kids...

Yep, we have lost the kids for the weekend.... :-)

So, today we took a trip 100 miles up the M1 to "Meadow Hall" shopping centre in Sheffield. Lots of Xmas presents purchased, a very nice meal out, and a trip to the cinema to see "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" before a nice steady run back - arriving home at 22:00 - Well knackered!

Tommorow is the MicroMart computer fair at the NEC, a day out with Barry - The girls are going to the "Good Food Show" that's on at the same time.

What a busy day, run around like a headless chicken and seem to have done bugger all...

Started off well enough, Amanda's Birthday, so she had a cup of coffee in bed and got to open Cards, Gifts etc. and after getting the kids packed off to school, I took her to work at 10:15.

From there to Deb's - Ariel man was there, son once he was finished, paid him... Trip into Pensnett to get a timer for the boiler, non in stock but the really helpfull guy behind the counter pointed me to one of him competitors that had a Digital version in stock at 1/3rd the price of the original...! Result!

From There (Kingswinford) to Cosely to pick up some stuff from the Outlaws, back to Kingswinford to drop off at the new house, then back home just in time - to collect Amanda from work.

Fitted the new time clock in the boiler - works a treat... Hope this one lasts longer than the 3 or 4 year average of the mechanical ones...

OK, you ask, where were you for the last month?

I was here, but after an accident with my PC, I had lost the cached login information to the Blogger site, and the tech support link to get you details back was faulty... They have now fixed the page, and I am back on air.... Whoopeeee

Well whats happened in the last month... I have managed to spend two complete weeks in the office, but I am on leave again this week ;-)

Alex's Sunday morning football has failed to take off, only 4 to 5 kids most weeks, so not sure if that is going to continue.

England won the Rugby World Cup, but you already knew that...

I stll haven't finished decorating the hall...! 4 panelled doors upstairs to paint.

Have managed to go to BodyPump classes twice a week for 4 weeks now, have lost about 2 Kilo's, but about 1" off my waist.

I have informed the boss that I am no longer prepared to do "On-Call" - That's created a bit of a stink...

I am activelly looking for a new job (again) - I am just getting bored and need a new challange.

My Out-Laws have finally managed to sell their house, and are moving on Thursday - I have been roped in on Wednesday and Friday to dismantle the HiFi and Home Cinema systems and rebuild them at the new address...

I have changed the Sky box for a Sky+ box - Worth every penny - what a magnificent bit of kit.

Finally my Archos came back from repair - fully working again... and Rockbox is about to be Rls 2.1

That's it for today...

Not good so far this week...

My ADSL Wireless modem has yet to arrive. should have been here Monday or Tuesday... I have e-mailed BT to chase it

HALO has arrived, but the controls are awfull... I need to spend some time setting that up....

My FM Recorder has gone faulty, and it's out of it's 30 warrantee - It's going to cost me £55 + post to the USA to repair. The charging circuit seems to have failed, and it can't switch on.

I did my first Body Pump class yesterday, I really enjoyed it - me and 5 women! Was a little stiff in the legs yesterday afternoon - nothing too serious. But this morning - My arms!! OH MY GOD... My biceps seem to want to be permanantly contracted! Ouch.

I was intending to swim today at lunch, but it looks like I will have to walk into town for the Post Office.

On the Plus side - Man United beat Leeds 3-2 AET in the Carling Cup! We have West Brom at the Hawthorns in the next round.

We seem to have got to the bottom of the Clock Change failure on a number of systems - now we just need a fix from Nortel. This morning will be a ball-ache - I have 5 escalations for Call-Pilot to raise!

First visit to the Gym this morning... not quite early enough for the BodyPump class at 07:15, but have a better idea of timing to enable me to make it on Wednesday. The plan is BodyPump Monday and Wednesday morning, swimming Thursday and Friday lunchtime, and some weeks (but possible not every week) a relax in the sauna/steam room after work.

I had a steady aerobic workout this morning, 10 mins on the Rowing machine (2000 M) and 5 mins on the Stepper (15 Floors), and some light resistance weights. Even so I am aching a little this evening.

Not managed to get very much done at work today, there seem to be quite a few problems associated with the clock change again this year... Nothing we can put a finger on, but there have been more reports than normal today! And to top it all, those nice people at Stratus have upgraded their web site, and seem to have locked all the users of it out!

I'm off to bed... good night

Oh yes,

Man United got stuffed 3-1 by Fulham yesterday, but at least Arsenal only got a draw against Charton. Still only two points covering the top 3.

I have also won my first ebay auction - A copy of Halo for the PC - £24.50 Have already been looking for cheats etc...

And finally for today, I have changed the template I use, and I think that Archives now work. These have been changed to monthly rather than weekly...

Yesterday was a long day, out the house at 09:30 to head up to vanessa's dad's farm. That's where Amy got changed and had her makeup done. We then headed over to the church for the wedding. The wedding went fine, but the weather was lousy... all the photo's had to be done inside the church.

The problem with that is, the flash on the Minolta f300 is rubbish! never mind, lots of tweaking in Photoshop recovered most of them. You can see my efforts here.

We then had a 30 minute plus run to Weston Hall for the Wedding Breakfast. That started badly... I turned the wrong way out of the church! Never mind, thanks to the trust map book, we managed to get there with only one argument!

Once there the photographer spent another hour, taking outdoor pictures (the rain had stopped, but not for long). By the time we sat down to eat, everyone was starving... The food was superb, and the service was good, but very slow. It must have been getting on for 18:30 by the time we finished.

The bestman's speech was one of the best I have ever heard. "Big Stuart" is an absolute natural public speaker. It lasted about 30 minutes, and he hardly refered to his notes at all!

By 21:00, both Amanda and the Kids were getting tired, so we made our excuses and left, arriving home a little before 22:00.

Guess who forgot to put the clocks back last night... I got up an hour early this morning... Good job Amanda realised!

Alex has had his second football 'Lesson', 6 players this time. His main problem at the moment is that he doesn't understand the concept of 'Teams' and chases after anyone with the ball regardless of which colour bid they are wearing!!

Most of the afternoon was spent 'Photoshopping' the wedding pictures, whilst Amanda took the kids out Shoe Shopping.

Watched "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc" tonight - Amy loved it. Anyway, I am shattered so an early night - I am going to the Gym in the morning...!

Not been keeping upto date this week, mainly I havn't had time... But to recap the last few days :

On Wednesday I joined the healthclub next door to where I work : Livingwell. Bt have negotiated an improved corporate deal - £40 per month, if paid 6 months in advance. On Thursday lunchtime I did 10 lengths of the pool to gently re-introduce my body to exercise.

On Thursday evening, the auction closed on the Fuji Finepix : £320.13 + £10 P&P. Payment was by PayPal, so today I was off to the Post Office to dispatch the camera to it's new owner (In Cornwall, so it should get plenty of use)

Today, I ordered a "BT VOYAGER 2000 WIRELESS ADSL Modem" (£140) and a "BT VOYAGER 1010 USB ADAPTER" (£45). My PC will connect into the LAN port, and the USB adaptor will be connected to Amy's PC upstairs. I will then install Norton Security suite, with the parental control and allow Amy to access the internet on her own PC.

I have recieved my Black 'Third' man Utd top. Long sleeves and 18 Scholes on the back. My DVD box set for "Indiana Jones" should be here real soon - the only problem with CD-WOW is the long delivery times...

I have also ordered a case (MCSDG200 : Minolta Leather Case For F100/F200/F300 £12.76) and an additional memory card (LSD256 : Lexar 256MB Secure Digital £51.06) from fotosense.co.uk. If you add the cost of these accessories to the £240 I paid for the camera, it just comes to the price I got for the Fuji... I just lost out on the Fee's. Even so, changing your 2 year old camera for a new (higher pixel rating) model, and it only costing £30 is not too shabby....

I took a few pictures of Birmingham with the Minolta at lunchtime, I will stick them into a web album later on tonight...

Tommorow will be a long day, Stuart & Vanessa are getting married (it was his stag do, the other weekend) and Amy is the bridesmaid. Not sure who most excited.. Vanessa, Amy or Amanda!! We need to get to Vanessa's dad's farm for about 10:00 am to make sure that Amy has enough time to get ready for the 12:30 wedding. By the time we get home after the evening reception, we will all be shattered!! I can try out my new camera in anger...

Finally get around to trying to get the archives online.... Made some changes, not sure if it works yet tho'

What a good day Sunday was...

Alex had his first football training session. Got took out for a very nice meal by the mother in law on the evening. The best bit, however, was shopping round Merry Hill.... Yes Shopping...!

The first good deal was "Matrix Reloaded" for £15.90 from Asda - £1 cheaper than Play.com. Next was a pair of 'hiking' trainers - List price £69.50, on sale in 'The Officers Club' for £19.50...

The best deal was at Debenhams... a 'Minolta f300 indigo' for £240 !!!!! The next best price I have seen is £311....

At least it was quiet at work today, only a few calls, and they were pretty simple. Even better - No Calls At All between kick off and final whistle on the Rugby match between England and South Africa.

Another bid received on the 6900, £205 now - still quite a way to go there....!

Man United also won today, 1-0 against Leeds - unfortunately Arsenal beat Chelsea, I would have prefered a draw.

"Today Matthew, I will be very boring"...

1/2 day traing course in Chester today, nice weather, nice ride out on the bike. 150 mile round trip took about 2 hours each way. decided against the motorway, so went up the A41. It was a little bit chilly this morning (42 F - 5 C), but was very pleasant and sunny on the return journey (58 F 15C).

Tickets have arrived for Eric Clapton at the NEC next April. One of these will be placed in the father-in-laws birthday card next month...

My topbox has arrived at streetbike, and is now firmly fitted to the back of the bike. It does look pretty darn good!

No movement yet on the Fuji Finepix on eBay, but there are still 6 days to go.

Busy day at work today, mostly web updates, patching updates etc but it kept me busy... I have been having another think about digital cameras. The DiMage is starting to feel like the favourite, but not 100% convinced yet. It seems that Comet are offering it at £311.99 online (£380 instore!) hmmmmmm tempting...

Well, the headache is still there, but a second coat of paint has now been applied, and it is looking good. If I was a perfectionist, and had another litre of paint, I would go for a third coat... But I'm not, so I won't!

Popped over to my mom's this afternoon - got a right telling off - its been 4 weeks since I last visited! Whoooops!!

It seems that someone at work has been busy. They have negotiated a special discount rate at the health club (Livingwell) next door to our office. It should be £51, we can have it for £40 - well for the next 6 months. If 45 new members have joined from BT in that time, the rate stays. I may well take them up on that offer, the one thing that became painfully obvious during the Paintball on Saturday, is that I am really out of condition.

I will be glad to get back into the office tommorow, for the rest! I am exhausted after another 3 days decorating. Mind you, I am out again on Friday - back up to ITEL at Chester for a 1 day top-up course, before being in again on Saturday.

I have been looking at digital cameras today. The Olympus C750 was excellent on paper (screen?), but when I held a real one, it was just too bulky. I now have a new shortlist:

Minolta DiMage F300 - 5 Megapixel (2560 x 1920) - Very clever autofocus etc. £325

Pentax Optio 450 - 4 Megapixel ( 2288 x 1712) - 5 times optical zoom £380

First coat of gloss has been applied, and I have a bad headache to prove it. This paint is very difficult to apply, and looks pretty rubbish after the 1st coat, but the second one should be easier and it does make it look a lot better. That's a job for tommorow.

I collected my Givi rack this morning, and fitted it this afternoon. It only took 1/2 hour and looks pretty good. I have also ordered a top box from Streetbike. That should be here by the end of the week. I have just recorded the engine on the Moto Guzzi with my FM Recorder, just click on the bike picture.

Ok, first bid has been recieved for the Fuji, not at reserve yet, but there are 9 days left. Three of these cameras have sold this week for £300-£310, I would be more than happy at that.

I finished "Sword of the Shannara" last night, and will be starting "Elfstones of the Shannara" very soon. I have also finally realised that there are two 'N's in Shannara!!

I have just had a phone call from Speedaway Motor Cycles, my Givi rack has finally arrived. I will collect that later today.

I had a lie in this morning, and managed another chapter of Harry Potter, and then found that Chapter 19 was also missing the start. I had better fix that one soon, as I will be listening whilst painting today. Yep, the decorating plan has changed again, I really cannot take another day of rubbing down just yet, so I will gloss the woodwork I prepared yesterday - ready to second coat it tommorow. At least it will look completed downstairs then.

Well, I've done it... My Fuji 6900 is up for save on eBay hopefully I can get £300 for it, and then the hard part... Which camera do I get next..?

I have been listening to my Harry Potter Audio book whilst decorating today, and have discovered that my MP3 conversions were not without problems. Two chapters have been completely recreated and 1 chapter had a minute misssing in the middle, this has been corrected. I can start again tommorow from Chapter 18 - Dumbledore's Army. I have only a couple of chapters left on Sword of the Shanara, I am going to see if I can't get that finished tonight - before Stargate...

OK, I am now done decorating for today... I have managed to rub down and prime the complete banister, posts, spindles and sides of the stairs. Tommorow the four upstairs panelled doors, and Wednesday, first coat glossing.

I have just ordered an upgrade to Sky+, £200 including fitting and no additional subscription fee's. I could have had it October 20th, but have had to put it back to Saturday Nov 1st, to find a day when somebody will actually be in the house!

Sitting here trying to work up the enthusiasm to start rubbing down paintwork again, I have found that Eric Clapton is to play the NEC on April 30th 2004. I was right on the phone, and am now the proud owner of two tickets, thats also sorted out the problem of what to get the Father-in-Law for his birthday.

I have also ordered 4 Adult tickets for Old Trafford, ManU v Blackburn on Sat Nov 22nd, now just have to wait to see if I get them. So far this season, I have applied for 6 sets, got 2, failed 3, waiting on 1. Not too shabby.

Well, I really can't put it off any longer.....

Well, back home and a little bruised and battered... The Painball was good fun. I have three very nice bright red marks on my back and a very sore lump on my head where I was hit. The team we played against were mostly regulars - we got hammered.
The final game was the most fun, well to everyone except Groom and Best Man! They were given bright red flack jackets, and deemed invincible. They were then given a head start, and the pack was let loose. Both Stuarts got a severe spatting, and the bruises to prove it.

The evening was pretty tame, and it generally petered out by 11:30, so the remaing four of us carried on drinking at one of the local lads houses till 02:00. The end result - I am shattered today, and it took a couple of cups of strong coffee to keep me awake for the return journey.

Our host Ian has a new toy, a Caterham 7 with a Honda Blackbird engine!! the acceleration was quite amazing, and the road holding superb. very nice, damn good fun, but i'll stick to the bike thanks.

Ahh well, lets get a reasonably early night - its decorating again tommorow :-(