New Evanescence album out!!

Yes, I still love the band!! Their new album — The Open Door — is out and I must admit, it's cracking!! The first track released from the album, Call Me When You're Sober is absolutely amazing!

If you've not heard it yet, get yourself over to their site where you can listen to the track in all its glory!! There's another couple of tracks you can listen to from the album as well.

What, you still here? Click here for the Evanescence site.

Just another couple...

Added another couple of pics to the gallery — one of Wales and one more in Delamere. Promise, I'll get around to adding all the old ones, I've not forgotten!

Got my router fixed!

Yes, got it sorted. Bought an OfficeCom (3COM) box with 4 switch ports on the back end and it's solved all my problems. Even better, there was a 54Mbps card in there, and on trying this card in the front room, it's a massive improvement on the old 11Mbps card I had. That one couldn't get a reception when the washer was on! This one is more than capable of getting a reception any time of the day.

Anyways, the router is now working fine so I don't have any problems - it was simply that the previous one was on the blink. Just took a while to get it replaced, t'is all.

Bugger my router!

Wondering what the title means? It pretty much means that I'm having some "IT" problems.

Considering that I'm an IT guy, you'd have thought that I could suss this all out on my own? Well, believe me, it's not just a case of sorting something out, it's more a case of having the money to do what's needed. My main PC has packed up (and gone to lunch!!), my laptop (which I'm currently using) is hanging on by a thread, and my server machine can't be connected to my network since my router is not having any of it. So I have one network connection at a time, which pretty rules out the server. If I want to use the Internet, that's it - can't start the server up! Annoying?! I'll say so!

That's where the "bugger my router" bit came from. Anyays, this is what I'm up to. Need to sort the router out before I can go any further. Sod's law!

Music I'm listening to...

Well, listening to quite a few bits at the mo. Here's the low-down:

Another Update!

I'm not doing too bad lately — have managed to update the site twice in two weeks! Even by my standards, that's pretty good!

Still haven't gotten around to putting the new pictures up on the site that I promised (probably) about a year ago now. Ok, I'll get it done, just not yet. I really need to go through all my pictures and sort them all out. Most of them are straight from digital, but some are from old scans and they'll probably need a little touching up and stuff before I can put them on the site. Rest assured, they'll arrive...eventually!

— October 22nd, 2006 —

The New Pad

Yes — we're now in the new pad! Actually, we've been here just over three months now. We're currently going through the house, redecorating as we go.

When we first moved into the house, we both took the first week off work and redecorated the front room and dining room. Completely stripped the walls, repainted, new carpets — the full nine yards!

Done the stairs and hallway too — all redecorated and new carpets.

This month is bedroom month — we're supposed to be redecorating the master bedroom, but haven't made much of a start as yet. Sure we'll be onto it shortly.

The move didn't go too bad — pretty much everything was straight forward and as planned. Terminating the lease on the flat that we lived in at the time was so very painful though!

Obviously, we had to wait until we had exchanged contracts on the purchase of our new house before we could give notice on the flat, so when we gave notice we ended up having to keep the flat on for about the first three weeks while we were in our new house. We also had to wait until the day we were handing the keys back in on the flat before we could take meter readings (electricity, gas and water).

The estate agent that turned up at the flat on the day we were handing the keys in didn't have a key for the meter cupboard where the electric and gas meters are held. Of course, this meant that we couldn't take readings on the day as we should have.

So we had to wait almost a fortnight to get the meter readings! As if that wasn't bad enough — we had a hell of a job getting our deposit (or bond) back form the landlord. Spent pretty much about a month on the phone to them — calling them almost every day and kept getting promises of "I'll speak to our accounts department and get it sorted for you today..." As you can expect, that didn't quite happen.

Weeks later, I was still getting the same story. Even phoned their accounts department up — and get this — the person in accounts just put the phone down on me four times in a row! As soon as I mentioned my name, clunk — down went the phone! Teresa wanted to get a solicitor involved — not so much for the money but more for principal since it had been dragging on and on. And truth be known, they weren't the best landlord. They had no respect or time for their tenants — providing they were getting the money, they didn't give a care. Oh yes, they'll be all nicely-nicely to new tenants, but existing tenants were pretty low (well, at the bottom more like) on their list.

Obviously, I wouldn't want to name either the Estate Agent or the landlord — but I wouldn't wish them on anybody. All I can say is watch out if you're thinking of renting/leasing a flat in Chester!!

It's been sooo long since I've updated the site, but there's been so much going on. Work is really busy at the moment for me, and Teresa is still working shifts so it doesn't help much as she is working pretty much every other weekend. As long as it is done before Christmas (which is approaching quite quickly!), it'll be fine (he says...!).

One thing that always baffles me about moving — you always lose something! This time, it was the remote control for the Sky box! Oh, and I'm sure I'm a couple of DVD's and CD's missing — not sure where they are either!

Since we've moved in, my laptop packed up (ended up having to buy a new PC!), my firewall PC also packed up (gave that up as a bad job!), my router died (might be something to do with me plugging the wrong AC/DC transformer in and popping it!!!) and the DVD player broke. All in all, not bad for 3 months!!! Let's hope next year brings more luck! Will tell you those stories another time!!

— October 14th, 2006 —

On the move...

We're finally moving! It's taken three years, but at long last we've decided to up sticks. We're not going quite as far this time (thankfully!), Helsby — it's off junction 14 of the M56, so it's easy to get to work for both Teresa and I. Most of the packing is done, and at the moment, trying to get into the spare room (where the PC is, surprisingly!) is like tip-toeing through a mine field! Still, we've done better with the packing this time — last time we moved, it was literally a last minute thing, we were still stuffing clothes in bags on the morning of the move!

I'm still following the World Cup! England are in the quarter finals, playing Portugal this afternoon, 4pm kick-off. I'm hoping they've got what it takes to get through — they're tough matches now and all the teams that remain are strong. The thing is, it's around 30°C in Germany today — us Brits aren't used to such heat which always affects their play. The last time England beat Portugal was 3-0 in a friendly in 1998, and we don't have Owen either (he returned home with an injury). We've played Portugal 4 times since then and either drew or lost (some with penalty shoot-outs). Hope Sven has something special up his sleeve!

The other game this evening is Brazil vs. France; this should be a good game too. I must admit, I was quite surprised that France got through, but in their last match, they pulled off 2 blinding goals later in the game!

Well, good luck England! Good coverage of the matches can be found here on the BBC's World Cup website.

— July 1st, 2006 —

Summer is here!

It finally happened. Summer arrived! And coincidentally, it seemed to miraculously appear just before the start of the World Cup. Ain't that wierd? The temperatures have been up to 29°C (84°F) over the past week which is quite hot for the UK. Unusually, the humidity has been quite low (around 65%). Normally when we get hot temperatures over here, the humidity ramps up too.

As most people who know me would tell you, I'm not keen on football. Rarely watch it and don't have a clue about the teams, players, etc. But I watch the England matches in the World Cup. Guess it's just being British — it's like a loyalty thing.

We made our last trip back to the North East for a while last month. I'm a bit thin on holidays (vacation time) at work and it's only June — need to save some for later in the year! Next time we'll be back up that way is likely to be around Christmas when we go through to take presents for the family. We're trying to save money at the moment and it works out an expensive do with petrol, hotels and such.

— June 11th, 2006 —

It's nice to be finally mobile!

I have been lacking a little of late — my apologies — I have been meaning to do some updates to the site for quite some time now, but simply haven't had the time! Most of my spare time over the last couple of months has been put into writing a new server application for work. Anyways, enough of the excuses...

Finally, I have passed my driving test and we now have a car. It didn't take too long to pass in hindsight, but I think everybody feels the same — the driving lessons seem to go on and you often don't feel like you're getting anywhere. Well, my advice would be to stick at it — it doesn't take as long as you think and you'll get there eventually.

Now we have a car, we made our first journey back to the North East in a while last weekend. It was so nice to see all of our family and friends again after such a long time. Obviuosly, now we're going to have to make the trip more frequently as we now don't have the excuse of having to rely on trains, etc.

On the weather side, Spring is here — and with it came the rain with a vengeance! The clocks have already changed (went forward by 1 hour in March) so we're starting to see some lighter mornings and the nights are now lighter for longer. Wonder when we get "summer" this year??

— April 7th, 2006 —

How Was Your Christmas?

Mine was pretty quiet. The wife was working so I spent most of the day curled up on the couch with the dog! But I must admit, it's nice since next year ('06) I'm going to be extra busy with things going on at work.

— December 28th, 2005 —

Well, it's Christmas Eve. And - as per usual - I left all my shopping until today! I was discussing this with a colleague at work and they commented, "So you'll be there...with all the other men?" Absolutely!!!

Don't know about anybody else (or other blokes), but I always leave my Christmas shopping until Christmas Eve. It's almost like a tradition. I wouldn't care, but all it does is incite anger since when you're in town, it's so busy and nobody will move for you - you end up having to walk round everybody and it's a huge pain. But, again, I sucessfully managed to leave it till the last day. Should make it a New Years Resolution - start shopping early!

Haven't got much planned for Christmas, and just as little planned for New Year. But then again, we're not really big on New Year celebrations anyways - no doubt, we'll just spend a quiet one in.

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas - and a Happy and prosperous New Year.

Here's to 2006!

— December 24th, 2005 —

It's the time of year when people are making arrangements for their Christmas day.

This year, we'll be having a quiet (and slightly unusual) one! This is because Teresa is working Christmas day this year. Since she works in a residential/nursing home, they're open 24x7 - and that includes Christmas! I guess somebody has to do it, and it just turned out that this year, it's Teresa! There will be others there too. Still, we will still be able to have a Christmas dinner since she doesn't start work till 2.30pm. No doubt I'll end up spending the afternoon curled up on the couch with the dog till she gets back in! Still have time for a few drinks though...

It's also looking very unlikely that we'll be able to go through to the North East to visit family in the run up to Christmas. We're hoping to be able to get through early in the New Year though.

Hope everybody else's Christmas goes as planned.

Happy Christmas!

— December 8th, 2005 —

We're in what us Brits would call Winter. For the past few weeks, all we've had is rain!! What, so you don't like rain? Why not?? This is something that we're quite accustomed to, and something that we pretty much expect.

England seemed to switch from Autumn to Winter over a single weekend! On the Friday, it was around 18°C, then following a clear night, Saturday went down to around 5°! It's been all downhill since then. This weekend, parts of Scotland and the mainland (Birmingham and places close by) have been -1°; it'll be colder before it gets any warmer. Most mornings, the ground has been completed frost-covered — because of the shorter days now the clocks have changed back to GMT, the frost in some parts doesn't get a chance to thaw! I dare say snow is just around the corner.

Anyways, do you really want to know all this? The music I'm currently listening to is listed on the left though I still have all my midi discs (from as far back as 2003) which I'm listening to.

Have fun all!!

— December 3rd, 2005 —

I was going to a meeting with work in Warrington today (just near Manchester) so thought I would check the roads to see what they're like, especially since we've had some rough weather over the last couple of weeks only to see on the weather forecast that we're in for quite a bout of snow! According to the BBC weather website we're in for snow come Thursday 24th November - and it's set to last a while too. Temperatures are already below zero on a night, but they're set to drop to around -8°C over the coming days. Ok, now it's time to wrap up!

— November 22nd, 2005 —

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New blog bit!!

Ok, I didn't get around to adding the contact section — but thought that between a contact thing and a blogish thing — I'd go for the blogish thing!

It's here if you want a ganders! Will get on to the contact thing later.

— October 15th, 2006 —

Coming up next?

Next, I hope to add a new "Contact" section. For this, I hope to be able to use the server-side forms which means you will be able to contact me direct without having to have an email address. Might not mean much to some, but might mean a lot to somebody else.

I'm also going to put some more photos up there (haven't yet...), which will be me when I was very young. These are not digital photos, they'll be scanned pictures from the 70's and 80's, but which ever way, there will be some scans and pictures there. I must admit, while living down the North East, I got some cracking sunset pictures between the old Hartlepool docks and Seaton Carew, but it's not quite the same now — Hartlepool was overtaken by the Marina (and I lost my "docks" in the process) and Seaton is not what it used to be since it was commercialised by loads of companies!!!!

— December 3rd, 2005 —

What's new?

About to add a blog section. Nothing fancy - just somewhere to have a rant from time to time!

— January 29th, 2006 —

I've added some more pictures to the photos section. We recently had a short break at Loch Lomond in Scotland (as an alternative since we had to cancel our scheduled trip to Paris) so thought it would be a good time to try out my new toy (camera!). Don't think they've turned out too bad, but David Bailey has nothing to worry about in the foreseeable future, put it that way!

I've now started work on the photo's section.

I have quite a vast amount of photos (it's a bit of a hobby!), but am trying to collate them into sections, doing one at a time. The few that have been added will invariably be expanded and new sections added.

— August 30th, 2005 —

Links, bits n' bobs

Not totally sure what to put on the site to be perfectly honest, so for the time being I've included what I think may be interesting, useful or just plain takes up space! I'm sure as time goes on I'll think of other stuff to add, but if you think of anything you'd like to see here or know more about, drop me a line