Archives
December 31, 2003
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
Did you get this photo, Ele?
The Garth
We went for a walk up a local hill with Jack. It was about 2C, but Jack was quite happy in his Buffalo suit.
December 29, 2003
Tri Poll
Aha! I've finally managed to get Fusion Poll to work on the Cardiff Tri website. This is because I've moved the site to a new host. I'll be integrating it into the website, with some other modifications, this week.
December 28, 2003
Presents
Jack playing with one of his many presents.
December 26, 2003
Christmas!
Sorry I didn't post yesterday (Lee and Ele). As usual I had too much booze and food and couldn't be arsed.
Christmas Day was a little bizarre this year. Kim, Jack and I had all recovered from our colds, although Jack is still a little under the weather. But in Cheltenham everybody was sick. Weird. During the Christmas dinner everybody was coughing, and nobody had much of an apetite. Today people are worse, puking and stuck in bed. Dad and Nick are OK though. I hope it's the same virus we had, because I don't fancy looking after Kim and Jack for the second week of my holiday too :(
Otherwise it was a very fun day. Jack was so spoilt by presents that he hasn't opened them all yet. I forgot to bring the cable for my camera so I can't post any pics until I get back to Cardiff, but believe me that he was a very happy boy. Food and drink were plentiful, there was F all on TV as usual, but I got a sackful of DVDs so we were saved by Indiana Jones. Whiskey and word games finished the day off with fits of giggles. Mild headache this morning.
I hope Lee and Ele had a good Christmas in Sydney. It was strange not having you around, and we missed you. Dad didn't bother buying any Baileys because you weren't here. I've got a photo for your rucksacks round here somewhere. I'll post it for you to print out when I find it.
December 24, 2003
Christmas Eve
Woohoo! everybody's a little better today. Christmas isn't cancelled!
December 23, 2003
iPod in Tescos
I had to go to Tesco's yesterday to get the usual Christmassy crap plus nappies and food for Jack. I hate Tescos, unless it's quet. I waited until as late as possible (about 9.30pm) before I went down. It was packed. Luckily with my iPod I was able to blank out the awful Christmas muzak and it got me round the store. Nobody seemed that pissed off, which is unusual for a busy supermarket.
I picked up some beer, and got in the checkout queue at about 10.55pm. I didn't get served until 11.30pm, so I couldn't buy the beer (licensing laws). Great. I also didn't get the (Tesco's chinese) takeaway for my tea because they didn't have any. And I didn't get home until almost midnight. Ugh.
Thank God for iPod.
Snot and Puke
Jack has got worse, but Kim is a little better. Jack's got a bit of a temperature, an upset stomach (he's puked up a few bottles/dinners), a snotty nose and a chesty cough, and at the moment he's very tired and drowsy and doesn't know what to do with himself. Hopefully he'll improve by tomorrow or Christmas won't be a lot of fun. The same goes for Kim. She's been sick for 5 days now, so she should be improving.
I feel crap. Cough. Cough. Hack.
In between playing nurse/nanny/shopper I am nearing completion of UFO: Aftermath though!
December 21, 2003
December 20, 2003
Cold
We've all got stinking colds today. Kim seems to have it worst, but I feel rotten. On my first day of a two week holiday from work too! Plus, I was supposed to be racing in the Christmas Pudding 10k at Merthyr Mawr (Ogmore) tomorrow. That's not going to happen now, so I've given my number to long haired Andy. Hopefully he can use it in my stead, so I haven't wasted the entry fee.
Lots of drink, a bit of UFO:Aftermath and an early night for me tonight.
ROTK
I went to the cinema to see the Lord of the Rings finale, the Return of the King, yesterday afternoon. Whew. It will definately pass The Two Towers in the IMDB's top 250 when it accrues enough votes. I wonder how high it will go (it's 8th today). My betting is that it will beat the Shawshank Redemption.
December 18, 2003
Golden Triangle
I got a photo from Lee and Ele in Thailand!
Jif Gallery
It has gone midnight, but I've almost finished setting up the gallery for the Jif website.
The guys at HostOne have been superb again, fixing bugs with the Gallery installation within 8 hours of my first email. With that I've been able to get stuck into integrating the scripts into my website. It's looking good.
Once I have uploaded all of the existing photos into the new gallery I'll make it live. Time for bed soon.
December 17, 2003
Cycling to work this morning
The Black Weir bridge over the Taff.
The Boy
Not many pictures of Jack recently, so here's one:
December 16, 2003
Freezing
I ran into work along the Taff Trail this morning, and saw my first frozen puddle of the season. I really didn't realise it was that cold.
I have another work Christmas do this afternoon. A few cocktails should warm me up!
December 14, 2003
Tri Christmas Party
We went to the Cardiff Triathletes Christmas do last night, dressed as Elvis and Santa. As you do.
Photos on the Cardiff Tri website.
December 12, 2003
South West Implants Hits
Excellent. A website I've almost finished (still waitiing for some photos from the client to flesh it out) has started to appear on some search engines. We're starting to get some hits.
Group hug
We had our work Christmas do yesterday. Well, one of them. Group hug!
December 11, 2003
More...
I had another very promising phonecall today. And some very interesting conversations...
December 09, 2003
Offer
I had a very interesting phone call today. Very interesting.
December 07, 2003
Christmas Tree
We bought our Christmas tree today! Jack picked the one he liked best.
We decided against getting a real tree this year. Jack loves pulling things over, and a tree in the living room would be just too tempting for him. This one's got fibre optic lights!
December 06, 2003
cardifftri.net move
Cardifftri.net is moving to a new host over the weekend. Tests so far seem good, and nobody should notice any changes.
With this move we should then be able to host our own polls and a mailing list, among other things.
Samurai Jack
Oh God. I've just finished the Toonami marathon of Samurai Jack. It started at 6am (I picked it up at about 7.30am) and went right through to 9pm. Apart from doing some DIY and some stuff with Jack outside the living room (we spent the whole day together, poor lad), I watched for the full day.
Samurai Jack is an absolutely superb cartoon, but I feel a bit ill now, like after eating too much chocolate.
Jack's Advent Calendar
Jack's been opening his advent calendar, and had his first taste of chocolate. He wasn't overly impressed. I think he prefers his fromage frais.
Winter Jack
Jack's dressed up warmly because it's cold outside. Love the hat!
December 05, 2003
Cambodia Hit
Hey! My website just got a hit from Cambodia!
(Hi Ele and Lee.)
Three Gadgets
Must have gadgets: three I can't live without
December 04, 2003
Fast PHP
The Jif website is running much faster on the new server. The PHP scripts controlling the Grind content and the headlines in the right hand bar are running instantly, and there's no longer a wait for the whole page to draw. Excellent.
I did have a few problems with the transfer, but I fixed most of the bugs myself, and solved a particularly wierd one with the help of the HostOne support staff. They've been very good, and very quick at responding to my emails.
I closed the Jif Fasthosts account, and they rang to find out why. I pointed out that their PHP services are absolutely awful. The speed thing was not the only problem - they also will not allow the use of image manipulation tools like imagemagick or netbpm, making running a PHP based gallery impossible. I wonder what else you can't do? I didn't want to stick around to find out.
Interestingly the Cardiff Triathlete's website's PHP managed news page seems to be loading more quickly now (also on Fasthosts)... Coincidence? It doesn't make any difference. I will also be moving the Tri website to HostOne because the PHP script I want to use for running polls will not run on the Fasthosts' server, but will run on the HostOne server. Now why the hell should that be?
December 03, 2003
Birksy
God damn, Birksy, you suck! I rearrange my week because you say you're going to visit on Wednesday evening and then you don't turn up!
Wow! A new cryostat!
I get first go on a new cryostat! Sorry, dull, eh?
December 02, 2003
December 01, 2003
Driving, driving
We've been driving all over the place today, but Jack was very good, as usual. He enjoyed his weekend back in Cheltenham with his grandma's and pa's.
