Holidays Over

The weekend at Stoke went well, it was nice to see Andy again and a good night was had by all. On Sunday morning Arthur managed to find a 'tap' of the correct size and thread to clear out the roof fixings for the roofbox - no more rattles..!

Monday's trip up the M6 went well, all 7 passengers and a fully loaded roofbox - 190 miles at an average of 52MPG.

The only real problem with the whole holiday was that it was too short :-( A few hours in the spa, a massage, several pints of Guiness, a bottle or two of wine and it was time to go home.

Friday's trip home was via Windamere - very nice views, and quite a demanding drive - especially for a fully loaded scenic!! By the time we got home at about 19:30, we had still managed to average 50MPG.

We have already booked to go back again next August, this time for a full 7 days.

Winding Down...

Today is my last day at work this month!! 

Amanda's mom is having the kids from this evening till Sunday afternoon as Amanda and I are going to Stoke for the weekend.  It's Andy Finikins 40th Birthday, and we are going to celebrate with him - Chinese Meal and a few drinks.

When we get back on Sunday, it will be time to pack for CentreParcs... Ready to leave around 09:00 Monday morning.

Fitted the roof box back on the car last night - that was not without it's complications - the fixing mounts on the car roof have got a little corroded, and I can't lock the box down tight!  There is a good dose of WD40 soaking at the moment, and I am tweaking my nuts at regular intervals - so it should be OK!!

Minesweeper - The Movie

Now that it's a movie, you can use it to procrastinate for a full 90 minutes.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1770138

hehehe, well worth a look...

24,500 miles

... from the first set of tyres at the front of the scenic. They were replace with a pair of Dunlop SP 300's at a total cost of £138. (0.56pence per mile)

MAG - Are you a member?

The Motorcyclist Action Group are revamping their image

Click on Logo to visit the new web site Click on the Poster for a full size HiRes version

It just keeps growing...

The number of visitors to www.rockbox-themes.org per month...

Jan  43,000 (1397 per day)
Feb  58,000 (2084 per day)
Mar  85,000 (2765 per day)
Apr  91,000 (3062 per day)
May 107,000 (3463 per day)
Jun 128,000 (4282 per day)
Jul 137,664 (4440 per day)
Aug 167,847 (5414 per day)

Are You Secure II?

My subscription to McAfee expired today, but I have not been too happy with that application for a while, it seems to be really eating memory and CPU cycles.

Added to that the latest edition of PC PRO did a group test on security software, McAfee only managed to detect 78% of the test infections!  The winner was Kaspersky Internet Security with 98% - and it's cheaper (£66 for a two year subscription with anytime download) - having just installed it and started it running, it's already found one e-mail virus that McAfee had missed!!

Are you up to date?

Secunia have released a BETA version of their Personal Software Inspector - Find out if you have been keeping up to date with all those little apps you have scattered all over your hard drive.

Tempus Fugit...

Wow!  It's August already...  Soon be Holiday time, we received our welcome pack from CentreParcs today, so only a couple of weeks to go before we head off to Cumbria.

This morning Amanda and I were up early, as we had to be at the local scout hut for 07:15!  Today is the 100th anniversary of the first scout camp on Brownsea Island.  To celebrate, scout troupes all over the world held a special sunrise ceremony today at 08:00 where they all renewed their promises. In addition breakfast sandwiches & tea were provided to anyone who attended.

Alex is very tired, they had a 'sleepover' at the scout hut last night, and it was almost midnight before anyone got any sleep, they were all up and dressed by 07:00 this morning.

I have suggested he gets some sleep this afternoon, as this evening we are going to Old Trafford to watch a pre season friendly (between ManU and Inter-Millan) with Neil, Ryan & Nial - so another late night!

Back Home...

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.

Another busy weekend

This time we were off to Blackpool for a couple of days. It was originally supposed to be last month - in place of a birthday party for Alex - but Amanda was sent to hospital with suspected DVT, so we postponed till this weekend.

We arrived at the hotel (up by North Pier) at 11:00, and after a quick check of the room, and unpacking the overnight bag, we set off for a walk. The weather had been forecasting a rather cold day with lots of showers, but it was lovely - so nice that I managed to get sunburn on my head!!

We had an 'Edwardian' photograph taken on central pier, spent an afternoon on the Pleasure Beach, and finished of with the Hot Ice show, a tram ride back to the hotel for 22:00, and a couple of drinks in the bar. Alex was fantastic, it was the first time he had been old/tall enough to go on any of the 'decent' rides, and we started him with one of the best - The Grand National, followed up with the Revolution, the Avalanche, the Big Dipper and few other assorted rides. He absolutely loved it, and now cant wait to go back next year when he should be tall enough to take on the remaining rides - The Big One, Infusion, The Mad Mouse and the Ice Blast (he is about 2 cm too short for those four at the moment)

This morning, the weather was most definitely looking wetter, so after an early breakfast we all went to 'The Sandcastle' where Alex again had his first experience with a decent water slide, and again loved it. The journey back took in a shopping trip/lunch at the Trafford Centre, and a steady run back down the M6 to arrive back home at 19:45.

Personally, I am glad to have a couple of days off from work to recover!!