I was planning to have an early night last night - gonna be in bed for 21:00
But I got a call at 20:50 saying that work had invoked the Disaster Recovery plan and could I go in and sort out the network side of it. I arranged to be in for 22:00. Got home around 03:00 this morning :(
I've tried calling Rhiannon and Chandler yesterday and today, but they arent home. I will try again after my appraisal this afternoon - maybe when I am waiting for the train.
Greets out to Sarah, Cameron and Haydn in Aldershot - good to hear from you and speak to you soon...

Posted @ 15:50 GMT

Had a great laugh Saturday night. Didnt drink but still danced my heart out. Went to Time and they spent a couple of hours playing trance and rave - a musical style that coincides with my dancing style - so I was happy. So much dancing, chatting and fun - I might do the sober thing more often :)
They want to do the power thing again tonight - but I dont want to as I am doing a late change at 20:00 tomorrow!

Posted @ 13:20 GMT

YAY!! I did get to see the kids today after all...
Tim and I were in town getting tattoos, but before Tim he could he had to see his sister cos she said she would pay for his tattoo if he could convince their mum to allow her to have her belly button pireced. Anyway, she was round at Bimbos, so Tim and I went round there
Spent about an hour playing with the kids while Bimbo was colouring her hair - playing guns with Chandler using a hair dryer and making him squeal with laughter by attacking him with a small stuffed tiger. Rhiannon didnt want me to leave, but I promised that I would call her in the week and that she also would be with me next weekend.
Left for work at 1600 - just got home. We have had power problems at work (worked until late on Thursday night as well) due to broken UPS that looks after the whole datacentre. The "fix" didnt work, so we all have to come in again next week to try and sort it out - ho-hum.
Off out now to see Pete playing at Nicks Bar.

Posted @ 22:30 GMT

Didnt manage to empty the Volvo on Wednesday. Went round to Petes to resolve his "pigeon" problem by checking a hole at the back of his flat and then blocking it up - as pigeons were roosting in his bedroom wall!
Then went to Jonetes for tea and didnt get home til late :)
Then yesterday - sheesh! Got into work to find that there had been a power failure at our datacentre - system was all over the place, but as expected, my network (LAN, MAN and WAN) was up and running with no problems whatsoever. You got love dodgy NT servers for being so reliable :)
Anyhow, they decided that we needed to power down the datacentre at 6pm so that the power system could be repaired. It all went wrong - ie the power failed before we could get everything shut down. It all came back on, but I didnt get back to Weston until 10:45...
And we are doing it all again on Saturday afternoon - YAY! (although they are paying me for it)
Not seeing the kids this weekend, but am ringing them on Saturday at 3pm. Not getting too drunk this weekend, as I am on call (for which they are paying me as well).

Posted @ 12:12 GMT

Back to work yesterday :( I swear it is bad for my health...
Anyway, good day at work yesterday, then came home, down the pub for a pint, curry for tea and then home to download yet more MP3s. God knows why - I dont even have speakers connected at the moment...
Gotta finish emptying the Volvo (to be scrapped) this evening... and copy some CDs for people.

Posted @ 16:20 GMT

Lazy day today and yesterday. Bit cold and occasional rain. Was meant to sort out the Volvo but the weather was against us every time.
Net access is now all around the house - although the cables need putting in tidily - will do that later this week. Been downloading MP3s like its going out of fashion - I'm sure that will wear off soon :)
Pete has lent us his 2 seater sofa - picked it up this evening. Looks and fits perfectly in the lounge.

Posted @ 23:16 GMT

I love my kids!
I was warned that Chandler had become a handful and might prove difficult, when I picked them up. He was excellent all day. Didnt cry, scream, complain, moan or anything.
Brought Rhiannon and Chandler round to my house - Rhiannon loves her bedroom and Chandler just enjoyed wandering around (Note: get stairgates). We went to the Wacky Warehouse (just open after refurbishment) for an hour and Chandler fell asleep on the way home. Rhiannon had me in tears when she told me that she was "happy right now, Daddy. I've got you back. [held my hand then held Chandlers hand] I've got you two and that makes me happy". As I was driving, I couldnt sob like a twat for fear of crashing!
Out tonight for a bit of a dance, etc...

Posted @ 19:20 GMT

Day off work today due to the Bank Holiday - yay!
My ADSL was enabled last night - it works and its quick, which is cool. All I have to do now is run cables around the house to share the single connection...
Going out tonight but not drinking, as seeing the kids tomorrow. Picking them up at 10am and dropping them back at 3pm - provided Rhiannon is OK about it all.

Posted @ 07:12 GMT

Crumbs. Had a great laugh on Saturday night. Slept at Petes flat in town and went to The London for lunch. Got back home at 13:15 and went to bed. Got out of bed at 18:45. I think I slept for maybe 14 hours in total between 4am and midnight last night :)
Emma, Gemma and John came round to play Cranium. John is Gemmas new squeeze - and he fits into the group really well... Same bizarre sense of humour, etc
Pete isnt out this week (apart from maybe Wednesday for the acoustic night at The Imperial) as he has friends down.

Posted @ 10:00 GMT

Saw the kids again today. Went round at 3pm and didnt leave until 4.20pm - which was ace. Rhiannon and I spent ages doing some pictures and Chandler didnt wake up until I was almost leaving. Bimbo got him out of his pushchair and the first thing he wanted was a cuddle from me - yay! Took round all the clothes that I had at my house, and it looks like they will all fit them (apart from 1 pair of trousers of Rhiannons). Bimbo asked if I wanted to have them for a few hours next Saturday, as it is the Easter weekend. I jumped at the chance. They will call me in the week to let me know when to pick them up - so it is all going pretty well. Unfortunately, I left the pictures Rhiannon made round there, so I will call in the week and go and get them.
Off out tonight again - although I was also out briefly last night - but didnt drink. Went to see Pete at Nicks Bar and then went to the Cabot for a bit - saw Luke and had a chat about the kids.

Posted @ 17:22 GMT

Had a bit of a wild night on Saturday out in town. Spent a few hours in the Cabot, singing and dancing and then wandered off to go clubbing. Bumped into Cheryl again :)

Posted @ 09:15 GMT

Yay!
Saw Rhiannon and Chandler today. Went round at 3pm and left at 3.40pm. Both were extremely happy to see me and remembered who I was. Cant wait until next week.
After I left them, I sat in the car and cried for a while where I was so happy.

Posted @ 19:40 GMT

Court went well yesterday. I start seeing both the kids again this Saturday. The plan is: 1/2hr at Bimbo and Lukes and then slowly build up to taking the kids out, etc, etc until everything is back to normal. I'm well happy :)

Posted @ 10:23 GMT

Spoke to Rhiannon yesterday evening after her party. Hopefully see her this weekend, so she can have her birthday presents...
Went to see Ian and Shellie and their new arrival. She is very cute - I love newborns. They are so wrinkly and soft. As soon as I arrived, they handed her over to me, and I sat there with her for about an hour. It was great :)
Going to the Theatre tonight to see "Caucasian Chalk Circle". My friend Jenny is in it, as well as John - the bloke Gemma fancies the pants off of!
Tomorrow I am in court to argue the case for contact with the kids...

Posted @ 09:10 GMT

Happy birthday Rhiannon

Posted @ 12:25 GMT

Moved into the house today. Absolute nightmare! The couch and the large wardrobe wont fit up the stairs - so it looks like we need a plan B for some new furniture!
House is great though. I have the top floor with 3 bedrooms for me and kids, Tim has a middle floor room with an en-suite. I'll take pictures and put them up here for you all to see..
Shellie (and Ian) had their baby this evening - a little girl. Born at 7.25pm, 8lb 1oz...

Posted @ 23:55 GMT

Saw Rhiannon and Chandler today. Bimbo came round to her mums to drop off her Mothers Day cards. We chatted (amicably) and I asked if the kids were in the car and whether I could go and talk to them. Bimbo asked me not to, but said I could look at them from the front room. So I did!
Bimbo then went outside and told Rhiannon that I was inside, and Rhiannon then wanted to see me, so I went out to the car. Went to the side where Chandler was and he was looking the other way, at Rhiannon who was excited. As I appeared at his window, he turned and his little face lit up. I then went round to the other door and opened it. Rhiannon and I chatted for a bit and exchanged hugs and kisses. She said that she misses me, still loves me and wants to see me. Hopefully that will be sorted this week in court. Then I went back round to Chandlers side and opened the door, to be greeted by him screeching, grabbing my ear and hair and kissing my head.
When they left, I went inside, happier than I have been for hell of a time and then cried for ages...

Posted @ 22:44 GMT

Packed the house yesterday. Loaded the van with most of it and was out of the house by 2pm today.
Slight problem with the new property - we only got the garage today - we get the house on Monday...

Posted @ 18:20 GMT

Fitted the doors and stuff around the house today. Did some filling and painting, etc as the lady buying the house is coming to see it again tomorrow before the contracts exchange.
Went out last night - didnt get home til 5 this morning. Completely sober. Been drinking coke all night - had an excellent laugh, especially Tim and Pete being drunk :)
Working late tomorrow night and moving house on Friday...

Posted @ 23:45 GMT

Well the court thing went well on Thursday. Everything was dropped and the only undertaking was that the net equity from the house sale get held by Bimbos solicitors until the whole thing is sorted out. Which is what I suggested in my affidavit - although I didnt specify who held the monies :)
War has broken out in Iraq. I was watching the bombardment of Baghdad earlier when I got home from work. A world first - live footage of a city being destroyed with the images being transmitted around the world. Quite astounding...

Posted @ 23:59 GMT

Woah...what a weekend
Went out Saturday night and got home early on Sunday morning. Didnt sleep much, but stayed home most of the day, trying to get some sleep. I spent virtually all of Saturday in the attic digging out all the details so that I could prove my case in court on Thursday.
On Monday morning, I dropped off all the stuff to the solicitors and she drew up an affidavit, which I signed and had sworn in on Monday afternoon. Pretty extensive - about 84 pages I think (mostly copies of bank statements and financial details). Hopefully it will be enough to have all the restrictions lifted on Thursday in court
So far - my phone has been barred due to the DD failing, Halifax have contacted me regarding the cancelled DD for one of my life assurance/disability policies, and a cheque bounced as well! Thanks a bunch Bimbo... she has no idea what hassle this has caused for nothing, although I doubt if she cares at all...
Had to go back to work at 20:00 on Monday to do a reboot of a network switch that had a failure. How come that always happens? Whenever I am off on a Friday, I get into work on the Monday to find that some late work has been booked for me to do on the Monday I return! Bizarre!
Today, the court response would have been presented at court and served on everyone mine was served on. And this evening - I have been to bingo with my friends Ian and Shellie. Ian won £10, but Shellie and I won diddly squat!
Plus I bought a Gamecube today from Argos - black Gamecube, controller, memory card and Eternal Darkness for £78.99... now I need to sell some 1 of my Dreamcasts and the games I never play to get some money back on it :)

Posted @ 22:54 GMT

Had an interesting day. Spoke to the solicitor this afternoon, and hopefully it will all be resolved at the hearing next week. I just hope that I dont lose the buyer on the house, as that will defeat everything...
Bimbo has cut all ties with her family now... god knows what is going on in her head...
Currently sat in bed, typing this and watching Comic Relief (RND03) - damn funny, although I have got choked up at some of the Comic Relief adverts regarding anything to do with kids...

Posted @ 10:17 GMT

Well - all hell has broken loose here...
Bimbo took out a court order preventing me from selling the house and also froze my bank accounts
Cant quite work out why, as if I lose the buyer, there will be no equity in the property, therefore no money that she is entitled to!
Couldnt pay for petrol this morning, as my cards had been frozen...Its all gone mental
On the plus side, Andy has been sorting the car. Rust isnt that bad, handbrake cable needs replacing... plus he sorted out the bad running problem. Currently it has only cost me £50 in parts (handbrake cable and sill), which is quite good.
I just hope things improve today...eventually...

Posted @ 10:17 GMT

I drove the Gold Volvo up to Andy's yesterday afternoon, so that he can sort out the problems with it:
welding the n/s and o/s sills - the n/s needs a new sill, but the o/s can be patched
handbrake and spongey foot brake - needs a new handbrake cable
suspension bushes
leaking sump plug
bad running - it was a dodgy connection on the injectors
temperature sender - computer always registers engine as cold
He's cracked on with a lot of it already - which is damn cool. As soon as he has sorted it out and I have got it back, he is then having the Cavalier SRi for a couple of days to sort a couple of bits out on that as well :)
I need to get a new wing mirror and a couple of other bits first though. Nothing serious - electric wing mirrors not working, etc, so it shouldn't be anything major at all...

Posted @ 22:12 GMT

Bought another car today. With 3 cars outside that are undriveable, I needed one. So I bought an H reg Cavalier 2.0 SRi from my mate Pete. Its fine. The plan now is this:
1/ Break and scrap the White Volvo
2/ Get the Gold Volvo sorted out (being done this week)
3/ Get the Cavalier convertible sorted out for Summer driving only - ie dont worry about replacing the roof
4/ Get the Cavalier SRi sorted out and then sell either the Cav or the Volvo to pay for it all
Driving the gold Volvo to a friend (lo Motorman) tomorrow to have the welding, suspension bushes, etc, etc sorted out so I can get a full MOT on it

Posted @ 23:59 GMT

Crumbs I'm tired. Went out at 8 last night and got home around midnight. Didnt end up going back to the Rock club, stayed in a trendy bar and watched the women all night :) Quite nice though as I spent the evening with 2 pretty women (lo Gemma and Ruth) and Tim, participating in some people watching - causing some "Ooohs", some "Aaahs" and quite a few "Ewww"...
Was meant to be helping Ian and Shellie do some runs to the tip - but cant drive the car... arse!

Posted @ 07:35 GMT

Unbelieveable! Someone just trashed my car!
I went into the high street to post a cheque and send off a package. I had parked in a car park behind a shop. When I returned, maybe 10 minutes later, the front of my car was hanging off! O/s headlight and indicator smashed, radiator grille on the floor, headlight surround ripped off, front spoiler broken...
The guy in the car next to mine said it was a builders van, but it had just driven off!
I mean, I know the MOT runs out on Wednesday, but thats ridiculous!
AAAaaarrrggghhh!!!

Posted @ 12:00 GMT

Mad couple of days at work. Went in on Monday to find out that a firewall problem was being solved by a complete rebuild - starting at 18.30. Didnt leave until 23:20 and got home just before midnight. Got in on Tuesday morning to find that one of the connections on the firewall was having problems. The engineer that rebuilt it was non-contactable and it wasnt until 4pm he called to say he would come back! He arrived this morning and solved the problem in 1/2hr - it was due to a typo in the config when he had started the machine up! AAAaaarrrggghhh!!!
Got a letter from the solicitors this morning - I have my prelimary cour hearing on April 3rd - which is a lot sooner than I was expecting, so thats excellent!

Posted @ 23:00 GMT

Went out on the town last night. Started off at the Cabot (had a steak), then to Nicks Bar to see Pete and Jeff and then finished the night off at Hobbits. Essentially we were out for Jennies 18th (on Monday), but going to Nicks Bar was good. Met up with some old friends, had a dance and a chat. Then went onto Hobbits to headbang the rest of the night away.
The woman buying the house is coming round at 2pm - right in the middle of the Livepool game on Sky Sports!

Posted @ 11:30 GMT

Arse! The new Volvo didnt pass the MOT. Nothing very serious though, a tyre, suspension bushes and brake adjustment. I got the car booked in at a Volvo garage on Thursday to have it sorted out. It failing meant that I had to go and get the other car taxed. The MOT on that one runs on March 13th, so providing the new one is sorted before then, I will be a happy chappy!

Posted @ 12:42 GMT

Home ill today - stomach bug! :(
And today was the day of parcels - 3 parcels arrived and 1 was collected. Quite a busy day and frankly I'm glad I was home for it to be done...
The MOT on the new car is booked for Saturday morning at 8.30, so hopefully I should be driving it around next week - yay!

Posted @ 18:53 GMT

Back to work today - hohum!
Came home this evening, and Tim has sorted out the foam marks on the carpet, and then, when I got back from the pub - he had finished the filling downstairs and sanded and painted the repairs upstairs!
That leaves glossing the doors tomorrow and Wednesday - cool!
Got Rhiannon a "Maisy Mouse" door plaque today off of Ebay, and it also looks like I might have sold my GBA - meaning I should have the money to buy a GBA SP - which is damn good news
I am also considering selling the Cavalier Convertible to my ex-father-in-law Marcus, as he is looking for a project car and wants the Cav Convertible. If I do sell it, I will be down to just the 1 car owned, and have enough money for the deposit and 1mth rent in advance, without touching my overdraft!

Posted @ 22:03 GMT

Crumbs. Been to the post office, visited the ex-in laws, and found somewhere to buy the doors cheaper (£18 instead of £28 each). Going to collect the doors from Bristol tomorrow.
I have filled all the upstairs holes. Later on I will sand them and then clean up all the mess - and hoover all through upstairs. Should make the house a little more presentable. Then tomorrow I can do the downstairs.
The buyer wants to come and look at the house again next weekend. So I have to have all the holes filled and painted, and the doors in place. Looks like we will be exchanging contracts in the first week of March and completing mid-March time. Might pop down and visit the new house (renting it from a woman called Andrea). Got confirmation of the price today - so thats pretty top :)

Posted @ 15:05 GMT

I didnt play snooker on Wednesday. I had a headache and fell asleep instead.
I've only been getting 2-3 hours sleep a night since mid January - what with all the crap going on and not seeing Rhiannon and Chandler! Might try and arrange to go and see the Dr... then again - it is all stress related, so chemicals might not help
Started ot get a couple of things sorted out from the mess Bimbo caused on Wednesday - spoken to a couple of people and started legal proceedings, etc.
Got a busy day tomorrow/later today. Some decorating, doors to buy and paint, letters to write, parcels to send, people to visit and pool to play!

Posted @ 01:55 GMT

Well - I had my joint mediation appointment this morning with Bimbo and the mediator. No progress. Bimbo got all angry, screamed and cried and then left. Its now gonna get properly legal.Which is a real pity, as I had hoped that this might work out. Ho-hum!
Anyway - going out to play snooker with Ben in later. He beat me (we play 3 frames a week) for the first time since about September. Hopefully he wont manage it again this evening. I'll update later with the results :)

Posted @ 20:24 GMT

Bought some filler on the way home, so that I can start sorting out some of the "damage" that Bimbo left
Been playing with Samurize. It adds various meters and stuff to your screen. Check out my current desktop with Samurize in the bottom right here

Posted @ 20:24 GMT

Sorting out some stuff around the house today. Plus I might go and buy a microwave - as we desperately need one. Plus some housework...
Next weekend I need to organise some doors - a built-in wardrobe and the utility room door need replacing (badly damaged, etc). I also need to get some general decor sorted out - filling holes, etc

Posted @ 12:10 GMT

Collected the new car today. I left Weston at 9.45 and arrived in Preston at about 2pm - due to 2 massive accidents on the M6, which delayed by an hour. Left Preston at 2.45pm and didnt get home until 8.15pm - towing a car at 50mph for 200 miles is very very boring...
Anyway, whats wrong with the car? It needs the handbrake cable sorting out and a washer on the sump drain (as it leaks) - so thats pretty good. Gonna book it in for its MOT, and check to make sure nothing else is knackered

Posted @ 21:13 GMT

It didnt stay like that. Well - I havent posted anything since December 6th. What has happened since then?
Been on holiday with Rhiannon to Center Parcs for a week (December 16th to 20th). Had a great time. Chandler didnt come as he was quite poorly, and I didnt want to make it worse or ruin Rhiannons holiday.
Had the kids on Boxing day. Got a shed load of presents (yay!) and had a really good time over Xmas.
Had both the kids on New Years Eve (stayed over at Ben and Emmas) and New Years day. That was cool.
Had Rhiannon on the weekend of January 4th and 5th - Chandler was ill again!

Apart from Rhiannon coming up to my room for me to read her stories, that was the last time I saw my kids. Bimbo has moved out of the ex-marital home and moved elsewhere. That was at the end of January. I knew not of where she went, didnt have an address or a telephone number to contact her. Since the weekend before, she has refused to let me have the kids at all. We are now going through a legal process to get it sorted. Just when I though things were going well - more shit happens. Ho-hum.
Anyway, now I am online more often I will be updating this quite regularly - maybe even from work, as I can ftp the files back and forth.

Posted @ 22:33 GMT

It was a great party. He had no idea what was going on until it got time to sing Happy Birthday to him. Then his face lit up as he realised that everyone was singing to/for him - wish I had a picture of it - but I have a picture in my mind as I was holding him at the time.
He has grown up so much in the last few weeks, but he still remembers who I am. When I turned up yesterday, he ran across the room to me and played with me for ages. The whole party, he kept trying to find me and give me cuddles. I just hope that it stays like this!

Posted @ 12:08 GMT

Today is Chandlers birthday. He has a party tomorrow. Should get some pics to post (in the normal area, with the normal password)

Posted @ 06:40 GMT

My friends Gemma and Jenny are going to see the Rocky Horror show tonight - in full dress. I'm going along to take them up to Bristol, so that I can take pictures... and no I'm not a perve :)
I have always thought Jenny was "different", but she proved it earlier in the week. She has bought a Harry Potter 2003 Organiser - and on the page entitled "My Secret Plans" she wrote the following:
"Use bees to conquer the world (oceans, incl.)
Note to self: buy bee sized scuba gear"
See?

Posted @ 12:14 GMT

It gets worse! A whole month without an update. I really must start getting this sorted out...
News updates:
Bimbo (the ex-) got diagnosed with cancer
She has had an operation to remove it, but wont know whether it is OK until December
Sold the house
Might be divorced (not sure of the date for the Decree Absolute)
Ummm... Oh yeah - and something is wrong with my car. I was working until midnight last night (one of the firewalls died), and the car said it was overheating on the way home. Will need to get that sorted as I wont be able to take the kids anywhere over the weekend otherwise!
Went to see Harry Potter 2 on Tuesday night. Good film - but not as good as I was hoping!
Anyway - more updates when I can remember to get on the net from home and do them :)

Posted @ 09:14 GMT

Flippin' eck!
No updates for 2 weeks! What am I like!
Couple of messages to anyone who has been trying to contact me..
Be patient :)
I have web access during the week - and because I am no longer at my main home - I dont have net access from where I am living. I hope to have that sorted out in the next few days - so hopefully I will be able to update here more often.
After living here since May - I have finally moved my Athlon XP machine here. I will be buying a computer workstation from Argos tomorrow, in order to keep it all together and tidy - plus give me some working space.
Anyway - hopefully I will update here a bit more regularly (Matt - I will do the SQL dumps when I can - promise!)...
Until then...

Posted @ 21:04 GMT

Got the kids at the MIL this weekend. They have been very good. My little girl is getting very headstrong though - does whatr she wants as opposed to what she is told. I've been told that it will pass!
Bimbo is taking the kids out for lunch to her grandads today - so hopefully - I will get some computer time around the other house (while they are all out), as I need to copy a shed load of VCDs for Ben, etc...

Posted @ 08:50 GMT

Wow! Am I tired or what!
Ian came round to babysit the kids on Saturday night, as I went out.
Left at about 9pm and got home at 4.20am this morning!
Almost got into 2 fights - one because someone was verbally abusing Emma (the birthday girl) and the second was where one of our druggie friends (Phil) got paranoid that me and Luke (Bimbos new bloke) were in the same club. Luke and I dont have a problem - just Phil!
Kids woke up at 6.30 this morning - so I am still pissed and very tired :)

Posted @ 15:40 GMT

Not done any major updates for a while. Hardly been near the computers at home (the "other" home) in order to get online.
RC5-64 has finished. So I am now doing OGR instead.
Also - some links to my Home Cinema setup:
Reoc A5 DVD Player
Reoc TT7 Widescreen TV

Plus a link to the little DVD player that I have in the bedroom Mustek V520
And finally - a link to my ickle fridge is here
I'll update some more tomorrow and Sunday to document what has been happening in my life and what I am doing over the weekend.

Posted @ 20:40 GMT

Tim came home at 10:35
If you know Tim - you will realise that this is significant.

Posted @ 23:07 GMT

Had an interesting week. Bimbo is now working extra nights, so I am having the kids Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Which is cool - as I am always booked up Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights. A full week :)
I ordered a mini-fridge yesterday and it turned up this morning. That will be going in my new room at the in-laws (everyone is moving around and I get a larger room so that I can have the kids in with me).
Have to do loads around the house this weekend. We have a viewing on Monday, so the house and gardens need to be spotless. Hopefully I will be getting help today/tomorrow doing the garden - I should be able to handle everything inside the house - but doing the garden with the kids is nigh on impossible!

Posted @ 12:07 GMT

Had a nice day in Birmingham on Friday. Left home at 7am. Arrived at the Bristol office at 7.30am. Drove to Birmingham with some kit and arrived at 9.40am. Installed the hubs I brought with me. Telewest turned up - the router turned up. I chatted to the engineers and read my book. Came home. A nice easy day :)
On Saturday, I helped paint my SILs new bedroom. The whole house if having a swaparound - meaning that I get a larger room with space for the kids and probably a desk (I can have my PC there!)
Went to see my friends Paul and Wendy today - to get a gander at the newest addition to their family - Max (see a couple of weeks ago). Had lunch there. Came back home to Weston and then took the kids to a pub quiz this evening.
All in all - an ace weekend.

Posted @ 22:59 GMT

Crumbs - what a week! Been working like crazy on normal and projects at work. Done a few late nights too :(
Over at my mate Andy's this evening ('lo Motorman) until 7.30 - when I have to drive back across Bristol to do some more work at 8pm - resetting a Cisco PIX firewall.

Then I am meant to be driving back to weston, so that I can go out for a meal with the family (step-father-in-laws younger brother is 21). As I wont be back until 9pm - I suspect I will just buy a bag of chips, have a shower and go to bed.

Got hold of some preview tickets to go and see "Road to Perdition" next Tuesday - apparently I need to get hold of 6 altogether, so I will have to try hard.

Traded for a VooDoo 3 3000 AGP card for one of my PCs (being built for a friend) and also got hold of some more Dreamcast games - 2 from HMV (StarLancer and Virtua Tennis for £4.99) and traded for Gauntlet Legends and NBA2K... This means that I now need to make a new link on the site pointing to a list of all the Dreamcast stuff that I have, and I reckon I have still spent less than £150 on it all :)

Posted @ 18:30 GMT

My mates Paul and Wenday has a baby yesterday. A little boy born at 14:53, 7lb 7oz, 53cms long. Congratulations!
Got my car tax on Monday afternoon - so I am all legal again now.
Went to go and see Insomnia on Tuesday - but it wasn't showing, so we watched "The Sweetest Thing" instead. Loads of funny bits, several surreal bits, too many penis jokes!
I need to get my web script up and running so I can update this site without using an SSH session to do it.

Posted @ 19:55 GMT

Arse - forgot to get myself car tax today :( Have to get it on Monday now
Had a great day with the kids. Spent last night at the in-laws, sitting my SIL and BIL (13 and 8 respectively) and this morning - went to Bristol. Bought the kids some new clothes and myself a new work shirt. Also bought my eldest some "Magic Sand" that she has been on about for weeks after seeing the adverts on TV (thanks to Boomerang and Nickolodeon for that).
My tickets to go and see "Lilo and Stitch" came through a couple of days ago. My eldest (3) doesnt know about it yet - but we are going to see the preview next Sunday morning - yay! I can't wait (more excited than her - but then again - she doesnt know about it yet!)
Then this afternoon we went to the park, had tea at a friends and have just got back home. Hope they enjoyed today - spending "quality" time with them is more and more important now...

Posted @ 23:00 GMT

Well
Bimbo has herself a bloke already. Someone she has known for a while (plus went to school with him). Slept with him on the first date (yesterday) and he was round the house when I went round there earlier to get some stuff.
How broken her heart must have been :)
Amazingly, I'm not upset! I left her with the intention that we would date, etc and get it together properly, but that is now out of the window. I genuinely want her to be happy, and I hope she is. As long as I have my kids I don't mind, although I am not too impressed with the guy being around there already - but what the hey!
As more shit happens - I'll post it..

Posted @ 21:10 GMT

Well - I was correct about it being about the weather...
Bimbo and I have split up again and I will be moving out. We have had a weird couple of days, and I told her today that I felt we had rushed into getting back together. Originally, I said that as we had spent 3 months apart - it should take us 3 months to get back together. So we are splitting up again - hopefully to put everything together properly.
I feel quite bad 'cos I wasnt honest enough with her a couple of weeks back. Although I told that was how I felt, I didnt tell how much it bothered me, and how different we now were as people - people that needed to get to know each other again.
On a brighter note... oh - there isnt one :(

Posted @ 21:15 GMT

Finished reading "Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy (A Trilogy in 4 parts)" today. Damn how I laughed. Must track down the 5th book "Mostly Harmless", so that I can lay it to rest.
Played Confidential Mission today on the Dreamcast this evening on one of my VGA monitors... incredible picture. Completed it on "Easy" level - quite disappointing - I will try the harder levels soon. Played it 2 player mode with my mate Ian...
This morning - my youngest got my attention by calling ".ad" - which is quite cool for an 8mth old. That cheered me up no end. I finished reading my book in the car just before I got out of it to walk to work. That cheered me up too. So much so - that on the walk into the office - I felt an enormous feeling of wellbeing settle over me..... must be the weather I think :)

Posted @ 22:50 GMT

Wow! What a couple of days at work. Our ATM MAN has been completely shagged twice - Monday afternoon and this morning. I was called nice and early this morning and had to make my way into work - emergency like! Quite cool :)
All sorted now (I didn't fix it)
Played 9-ball pool last night - I am getting damn good at it. Played snooker tonight - getting better at that too. Must be all the practice I am getting :)
Message to Lars - I cant reply to your emails - email me with what DVDs you want sending...

Posted @ 22:25 GMT

My order from Firebox turned up this week - my MegaJoy II (controller with 60 games built in), Buffy Top Trumps (to go alongside my LotR and Simpsons), and Monopoly (Bristol edition)
House is on the market with another estate agent now - and they have people interested already. We have found a house we like - I am going to view it tomorrow morning - which is next door to some good friends of ours (which may or may not be a good thing). And if we sell ours for near the asking price, and get the other house at a reasonable price, I should be able to put a huge deposit down and also have enough left over to get the place done up.
Il let you all know how it goes...

Posted @ 20:25 GMT

Well - Saturday night was fun!
Got extremely drunk - although after:
1x Jack Daniels and Coke
8x Aftershock (various)
2x FrostBite
1x Southern Comfort
1x Vodka and Coke
1x Budweiser
2x FireWater
3x Champagne
its not very surprising... Got home at 1:25am and went straight to bed :)
Sunday was cool - got up, moaned a bit, went shopping, went to bed. Got up - ate roast dinner!
Bimbo started being really ill in the evening (not from the drink), so she didnt go to work. Watched "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme" on UK Choice - first time she had watched it. I am now going to see if I can get the series on DVD. So a big thanks to Pete and Gemma for getting me into it :)
We have also decided what is going to happen with www.poo-face.com - its going to be a collective blog for the four of us. That means I have to get hold of Andy and get him to change what he is doing - although the script he was writing (allowing 4 of us to post) should easily do what we need it to do...

Posted @ 22:14 GMT

Well - those damn Compaq servers... have had all sorts of problems in the week - both software and hardware. Sorted now (and next week), but the 10 day piece of work is technically about 6 days behind schedule :(
Today is my 31st birthday... and I am going out tonight.
Bimbo and I are finally working things out - she has decided that the grass isnt greener on the other side of life - and that although I annoy her to hell - she still loves me. Which is good, as I never stopped loving her :)
Started ordering stuff for my in-car PC this week. First up was the car inverter - and that arrived yesterday (300W from Maplin for £29.99 - bargain!). I have most of the stuff already - but someone who has already done what I want to do (and I will be using almost identical parts) can be found here.
I have put some stuff on Ebay to sell - and hopefully, this will fund me to get the stuff I need to put my machine together. Only thing I have a problem with at the moment is how to shut the machine down when the car turns off without trashing the hard disk (good old Windows)...
I have also started up a new site with some friends of mine - that can be found here - www.poo-face.com :) Nothing there at the moment - domain only just registered - but there will be daily updated content coming soon on a whole variety of subjects... mostly a collection of insults we have heard. Greets out to Tim, Emma and Gemma :)
Thats enough for today I think - I will update again tomorrow - letting you know how the birthday bash went - and maybe even some pictures if I can find some batteries for my miniature Chameleon Digital Camera :)

Posted @ 12:38 GMT

Well - this week I have been working on a project to replace the aging server and software for the Remote Access system at work. The new servers are nice spangly 1U Compaq DL360... I started installing NT 4.0 server on Tuesday...
And managed to get it to work at 10am this morning!
Damn Compaq and their buggy drivers. Machine kept blue screening during the install - just after doing the network config. Got the updated drivers - perfectly happy. Damn Compaq again!
My memory card for my digicam turned up a couple of days ago - 32mb now lets me store 130 pictures - cool :)
I have also lost my Spiderman VCD... I'm gonna have to track one of my mates who I gave a copy to and copy it from them - arse!

Posted @ 22:24 GMT

Kids have been great. On Wednesday we went to the Wacky Warehouse for them to play. First time for my youngest who has only just started to crawl. He seemed to enjoy himself... although we had to leave when he filled his nappy with something that smelt like Satan had made it by mistake! Arrived home to find the MIL waiting for me - and she swapped a cigarette for a nappy change! Thank god...
Started to organise my birthday do... On the 10th of August, I will be 31! So I am arranging a little b'day drinking session with my best mates here in Weston-super-Mare. Should be about 10 of us (including some female company) and the plan is to go out drinking in places that play the heavier side of music... and apparently the new Hobbits has now opened, so I suspect we will be there :)

Posted @ 07:34 GMT

Got the freeserve thing sorted out. Apparently, my ISDN connection was trying to make thousands of connections in the space of a short time, so they disabled my account. How that would stop the connection attempts I dont know (FUD obviously), but my account is now re-instated and all is lovely :)
Bimbo went on holiday yesterday. Her plan was to go to Newquay, the same as I had. My directions were: M5 south until Exeter, A30 to Oakhampton and then A30 til it end, then into Newquay...
I had a phone call in the afternoon asking is she should be anywhere near Andover... she had got to the A30 and then gone in the wrong diretion...so I told her to turn around and then stay on the A30 all the way. She called in the evening to inform me that my directions were all wrong and that she had arrived in Torquay!
She really shouldnt be allowed out!
I am home today waiting for the auto-electrician to arrive and sort out one of the convertibles as neither will start (which currently leaves me with no transport - even though I have 3 cars outside the house at the moment!)
Got an email from DVDSoon this morning telling me that Slugs: The Movie had been despatched from Canada - yay!

Posted @ 10:15 GMT

Wow! A huge break in transmission...
I worked a fairly normal week until Friday. I had Friday off! Why!?! Because I went on holiday!
Originally, about 10 people were meant to be going, but in the end it was me, my BIL Tim and his SO Emma - in a six man tent, in a field, in Newquay!
It was excellent - I am still red from sunburn. Spent just a small amount of money (which is good). Got presents for the important people in my life, and bought myself some leather band armlets and also a Celtic necklace - damn cool it is too :)
Came home to find that my damn Freeserve account has been locked!! God knows why! Freeserve wouldnt tell me why, they referred me another company who I am now trying to get hold of. It may mean faxing a letter to them and then getting an answer faxed back...idiots! The guy on the phone said that it may be due to an abuse complaint or hacking complaint! Like - sheah! Whatever!
Should find out later and then I can be back online 24/7 as opposed to being limited to a couple of minutes here and there while I use my Pipex account!

Posted @ 13:33 GMT

Collected a parcel this morning... it was my order from Pharmacy2U. What a great company...
I have my BIL and SIL staying over tonight - the MIL worked Friday 8pm to Saturday 8am and she didnt get any sleep during the day today, so I offered to have them (I'm nice like that - plus they are pretty good)... Their names are Jessica (13) and Joe (9)
Got to cut the lawn tomorrow :( and who knows what else...

Posted @ 21:42 GMT

Had a good week. Last night, I Played 9-ball pool for several hours at Rileys American Pool bar... also renewed my membership and got a free pool cue and case worth £32.95 and £7.95 respectively...
Got a great deal on some DVDs yesterday...Safeway had the Nicholas Cage boxset for £27.99 - The Rock:CE, Gone In 60 Seconds and Face Off.
Ummm - what else has happened this week... no idea. I'm still waiting for my super deal from Dixons to turn up, although I have to go and pick something up from the post office in the morning, and I have no idea what that is.

Posted @ 23:12 GMT

Yesterday my youngest was 7mths old.
Went to my mate Pauls birthday BBQ which he shares with his best mate Darrell - started at 12 finished at 6ish. Excellent laugh. The kids had fun, I had fun, ate, etc, etc - a damn good day :)
Off to my sisters and then some shopping today.

Posted @ 07:08 GMT

Had loads of stuff in the post the last couple of days - 2 Jackie Chan DVDs, my missing groundsheet, my brother-in-laws GBA game (still to be collected), loads of spam, etc :)
Got the kids all weekend - but tomorrow I am going to Paul's Mum and Dad's house for an all day BBQ - so thats pretty cool.
And Sunday morning I am going to my sisters and then shopping in Bristol.

Posted @ 23:52 GMT

Just finished watching "The Fugitive" with Harrison Ford. I am amazed at how much of the film I didnt remember! What an excellent film :)
The off-side driveshaft went properly wrong on Monday, while driving home from work. The car now jerks sideways over bumps, manhole covers, etc and generally feels like you are in a skidpan when turning left or right. Quite scary!. I have arranged for the part to be sent to me, Bimbos grandad will do the work on Monday or Tuesday next week, and until then I will be driving the Mondeo... which has no stereo :(
My youngest has just had his late night milk - in his sleep - and he has now dropped off again... hopefully until 6am (but I doubt it)!
I have been frequenting the MooBunny recently. It has degenerated somewhat, but it is still an enjoyable board. The owner/writer/developer (John Sheppard) is a very talented guy - both with his coding and with his art. If I ever got into a position to employ the guy - I would... even though he is on another continent!

Posted @ 23:40 GMT

Both the kids are in bed... although how long they will stay there is anyones guess :)
My eldest had her Ballet Exam this morning. She looked gorgeous with her full outfit on - ribboned ballet shoes up her legs, hair slicked back and into a miniature bun...
We won't know for a while how she did - until we get something through the post - although her group was only in for about 1 minute - so I doubt that she could have got anything wrong in that small period of time...
Yesterday I got my CSA papers in the post. I cant fill them in as apparently I have "special circumstances", so I will need to call them in the week. What fun :(

Posted @ 20:30 GMT

As you may have noticed - a lot of my updates are done over the weekend. This is due to the fact that I am back in my home (with my kids) during those couple of days as the soon-to-be-ex-wife stays away with friends. Mind you - she is now working Tuesday nights as well - as I will also be doing updates then...
Stuck some Duck tape on the Cavalier roof today - just to patch a couple of holes as it started raining - hehe
My eldest has her Stage 1 Ballet Exam in the morning - and I have to take her. Round to the MIL first to get her hair and everything ready and then I will be off to the Dance Hall for 9am so that she can be tested. She has been practising her curtsies for the past couple of days - as that was the only she needed to work on :)
I called the Volvo garage yesterday to find out how much an off-side drive shaft for my 440 would be - £250 exchange... So I used findapart.co.uk and someone has contacted me from a Bristol breakers quoting £30 incl. delivery!

Posted @ 21:37 GMT

My camping stuff turned up in the week. Sleeping bag is excellent. Really looking forward to going away now :)
Did something stupid in the week. I bought myself another Vauxhall Cavalier Convertible :)
A 1987 D plate one. It needs a load of work - new hood, etc and mopstly a new interior - but the bodywork and engine are in fantastic condition. It only cost me £425, so the most expensive thing will be the roof. I will post a "doing up my car" diary on here somewhere, so that people can see what state it was in, and what I have cleaned up, changed, built, etc, etc until it is a finished product. I have some cool plans for it...

Posted @ 22:21 GMT

Spent all weekend getting the tent ready. It is a 6 berth frame tent - living area, kitchen and 3 bedrooms. We have had to some fairly major repairs to it - waterproofing it (as it was leaking), some patching and also some fabric repairs to the inner bedroom tent due to the number of rips, etc in it. Still it is all done now and we have left it up waiting for it to rain so that we can get it tested :)
Ordered my sleeping bag and some other stuff, I just need to find a power hookup cable somewhere cheap - one that converts a caravan hookup into a 240v distribution block - so I will be trawling Ebay later :)

Posted @ 17:48 GMT

Been back at work since Thursday. Got some good work done too - including getting to grips with writing some new documentation - hurrah!
Last night I spent with Pete & Gemma in Yate - did very little but ended up nice and chilled out - yet again - another great evening. Got a couple of good jobs as well :)
Got the kids over the weekend - and supposedly a second viewing on the house. Hope that goes alright...
Oh yeah - and I am going on holiday this year - middle of July for 4 nights down to Newquay - camping with some friends. Should be a blast (and probably sopping wet as well knowing my luck).

Posted @ 23:44 GMT

Ewwww! Since Sunday afternoon, I have been suffering the effects of a sickness/diahorrea bug that has been going round. Bimbo had it on Friday/Saturday and I had it Sunday/Monday/Tuesday - not very nice at all. I tried eating something last night - only to feel queasy and turn green again - so I guess that the bug ain't gone yet. It is now 05:15am on Wednesday, and I am awake and at Bimbo's house! She called me at 04:30, as she has gone down with the bug again :( The little ones have had it midly, but they seem a hell of a lot better now - although Bimbo is really ill again...

Posted @ 05:17 GMT

I found the hack for my new DVD player :)
In fact - I might make a page listing all the hacks I have used on all the DVD players I have...I currently have a Samsung DVD709 (which Bimbo is getting), a Proline DVD1000 (which I am selling to my brother-in-law), a Reoc A5 (for my main watching experience when I get my new place) and now a Mustek DVD-V520 - which will be for the bedroom (14" TV to go with it). As it plays everything it should be quite cool - I might in fact link up my spare amplifier and speakers to it as well. Last week also saw the delivery of my new speaker system for the PC, so that would free up an amp and 4 speakers....
Oh - did I mention that I got Unreal Tournament for the Dreamcast in the week for £4.99? No? Oh. Well I did :)
And England beat Denmark 3-0 today - so hopefully nothing will go wrong and spoil my day, as so far (apart from a headache) everything is cool ;)

Posted @ 16:01 GMT

Crumbs... what can I say?
My new phone has arrived along with its free gift - a Mustek DVD-V520 DVD Player for my bedroom - which is cool. I have checked it out and I can play CDR/CDRW/AudioCD/MP3-CD/DVD/SVCD/DVCD and VCD - which is rather excellent. I am currently trying to a multi-region hack for it as all the ones I have found so far have not worked... If I cannot get it multi-region I will be well annoyed...
The Mondeo got broken into on Wednesday night. Some idiots smashed the rear windscreen, climbed in and stole absolutely nothing!
Bloody idiots - they have cost me £50 in excess now for getting it replaced :(

Posted @ 20:47 GMT

I called ParcelForce today to chase my damage claim. Apparently they had closed the call due to being unable to inspect the goods. "Interesting" I said. "How come the guy who has the damaged goods hasnt heard from ParcelForce at all then?". So I demanded that they reopen the case :)
Ordered some new speakers from Dabs today - Creative FPS 2000 - front/rear with sub for £37 delivered. The 5.1 system I used to have on my PC is now attached to my DVD player and w/s TV :)

Posted @ 19:20 GMT

Nothing to see here - please move along...

Posted @ 19:30 GMT

Watched 2 things last night - Mean Machine with Vinny Jones was first. I was expecting a lot from this film - but I was gripped by it. Well acted by everyone and a storyline that held my attention for the whole film. Excellent ending and Vinnie Jones was his usual hardnut self :)
Followed that up by watching the Golden Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace. Watched up until Rod Stewart was on - and then we had a power cut. That was at 22:25, and I went to bed at 23:05 - with the power still off. According to the clocks - it must have come back on around midnight...

Posted @ 07:10 GMT

Watched the football yesterday - congratulations to England for not winning their game. The first half they played really well, the second half they played like a bunch of schoolgirls. Lets hope they sort themselves out for their next group games.
I need to go and get myself a lawn rake today. Bimbo and her mum mowed the lawn - but there is loads of cut grass all over the lawn that will kill off the lawn if I am not careful
Last night - I also setup my laptop downstairs. I had to relocate my hub downstairs as well, as well as use an AUI/RJ45 convertor to use the lead going back to the switch... what a pallaver!

Posted @ 07:00 GMT

Well - I called Safeway last night to reserve again at 21:30. I went in a 08:00 this morning - and they had reserved me an A3 (again) - hohum!
So I reserved another at the customer service desk and they called me at 10:30 on my mobile to say that they had one. I went in - and it actually was an A5...
Took it back to where I am living and connected up the TV, the speakers and plugged it all in and turned it on. Truly excellent.
Had a bit of a problem with the centre and sub channels - but that is due to the fact that the outputs were labelled the wrong way around :)

Posted @ 16:28 GMT

Well - I tried to get a Reoc A5... and reserved one... but they reserved an A3 instead - the buffoons!
Anyway - I called them this evening

and they have some - so I will collect it in the morning :)
Doing some cool work at the moment - redesigning the Remote Access system for the company I now work for - right up my street... :)

Posted @ 21:38 GMT

Had a good week so far. Done some good honest work and feel quite good about myself atm.
I won an auction for a Sun serial cable for my ancient Sun IPC and IPX machines - now I have that I will turn them into little useful boxes running NetBSD or something :)
Got myself a new TV from Safeway in the week - a Reoc TT7 - 28" Widescreen. I was also meant to be getting a Reoc A5 DVD player (onboard DD decoder) to add to the TV and the Bush Pro 300 speaker system I already have...
but Safeway dont get the damn things in and when they do - they sell out within minutes!
However - I have reserved one now - and will keep doing so every 12 hours until next Tuesday until I get one :)

Posted @ 23:50 GMT

Had a really good first week in my new job. I have already caused a couple of stirs and queried the current way of working - for example:- there is no network sniffer/analyzer for the Comms team! So I have suggested that they get a Solaris box and we use "snoop" until they find the budget for buy a full blown network jobbie!
This idea has already met some barriers due to the whole company being Windows based :)

Spent several hours on Friday night with Ian playing Unreal Tournament on the LAN at home - great fun!

Posted @ 07:45 GMT

I started work yesterday!
Its really cool - quite disorganised (as they werent ready for me), but I have everything I need (apart from a permanent desk although that is being arranged).
Yesterday and today I have been dealing with a problem regarding a NAT connection between the Bristol office and Notes servers in Dublin - which has meant that I have partially learnt their network and also been using Checkpoint Firewall-1 quite extensively (which is good as I have only ever used it once before and know I can find my way around it quite easily).

Ummmm - what else... oh yeah - quick message to Lars - "Thanks for the paper - it is fine..."

Posted @ 20:00 GMT

Got the kids over the weekend - they are ace :)
Also - I just won an auction for a new PCMCIA ethernet card for my Linux laptop - the last one (a 3Com) had the dongle broken when my little one and her friends decided to incorporate my laptop into a climbing game they were playing...
So now I have 2 3Com PCMCIA cards to sell - that work perfectly if mated with a functioning dongle...what fun!
Plus while looking through Ebay and Yahoo - I found an item that may not have been listed in the correct category - check here on Yahoo and remember that the category at the top of the screen is: "Auctions > Computers > Networking > Server" - LOL

Posted @ 14:59 GMT

Time for some links:
Rack mount Atari 2600 anyone - check it out here
Emulation cartridge for PSX - buy it here
I have been doing this recently and also some of this - which is great fun :)

Posted @ 21:56 GMT

Well - as promised - here is my list of Dreamcast Stuff that I have:

Hardware/Accessories
Dreamcast Console
Dreamcast Controller (x2)
3rdParty Dreamcast Controller (no joltpack slot) (x2)
Dreamcast VMU
3rdParty Dreamcast Memory
3rdParty Dreamcast Jolt Pack (x2)
Thrustmaster Dreamcast Steering Wheel
Dreamcast Lightgun
Dreamcast Keyboard
Dreamcast Mouse

Games/Software
Blaze MP3-DC, Revolt, PowerStone, OutTrigger, Chu Chu Rocket, Shenmue, House Of The Dead 2, Soul Calibur, Sega Rally 2, Who Wants to be a Millionaire
Bust-a-Move 4, Virtua Striker 2 v2000.1, Virtua Fighter 3tb, Worms Armageddon, Ecco The Dolphin, Sonic Adventure, Space Channel 5, Metropolis Street Racer, Quake III Arena, Sega GT, F355 Challenge
Confidential Mission, Sword Of The Berserk, Capcom vs SNK, Capsom vs SNK 2, Crazy Taxi 2, Alien Front Online, Death Crimson, DDR 2nd Mix, Speed Devils, Rez, Phantasy Star Online, Tomb Raider Chronicles, Fur Fighters, GTA2

Not bad really :)

Posted @ 13:00 GMT

Life is shit :(

Posted @ 12:42 GMT

Downloaded the new version of DreamSNES last night (0.9.7) for my Dreamcast. Tried it out and it is perfect - found nothing wrong with it yet - was playing Aladdin and Streetfighter into the early hours of this morning :) Retro gaming is fun
Might try and download some more ROMS this afternoon - plus get the Nero images for the homegrown Space Invaders and Phoenix...

Posted @ 09:26 GMT

Got my contract of employment through this morning - which I have to take with me when I start my new job on Monday...
Plus last night - I got SW Ep.II and Spiderman on VCD - yay!
Watched the Spidey film - it is ace - especially Kirsten Dunst in a wet t-shirt - but I am not gonna watch SW yet as I am seeing it on Thursday night at 9pm with a load of friends. I will post my views of it when I can.

Posted @ 15:52 GMT

Long time no update - thats really really bad.
However - I do have several items of news that I need to post here:

• Starting work
  I am starting work on the 20th working as a Systems Support Specialist in the networking team of a large financial institution in Bristol. Quite looking forward to it :)
  
• Seperated
  Bimbo and I have seperated :( It isnt something that I wanted to do, but she has had enough of me (quite frankly). Over the past few years (since we got married) I have tried being different people - that is - altered my personality in order to be the person that I think I should be. None of them have been successful and I should have just been myself - which is the person that she fell in love with.
  We have now grown apart from each other and although we love each other, and are still the greatest of friends - we just cant be in a relationship any more. I have moved out (get the kids at the weekends) and everything is now going through the legal system.
  
• Living elsewhere
  Doing to have to move out - it left me in a situation where I needed somewhere to stay in the short term. I contacted my parents - who told me that it would be inconvenient to them and that even though they were away for a fortnight in June - I couldnt housesit for them! So if you are reading this Mum & Dad - thanks a bunch, it is really comforting to know that you are there when I need you...
  So I have moved in with Bimbo's parents - which is fine - but I dont plan on being there for long - a bit strange if you know what I mean :)
  
• Stopping hosting
  Currently I run a couple of servers around Europe - providing free hosting for geeks and also run as a commercial outfit selling webspace to people. Anyway - as I am now in a lower paid job, plus I have other financial commitments - I am going to pack it all in. I might get all my kit together and relaunch next year when I am a bit more organised. This website will still exist - as I have already secured hosting with a friend.
  I have yet to inform all my clients/customers of this decision - but it isnt anything they have to worry about until about November of 2002.
  
• Dreamcast
  Wow-oh-wow-oh-wow!
  After getting my DC a few months back with 3 games and another controller, I have been kitting myself out with games and equipment on the cheap. Electronics Boutique, Game and my local MT Games Exchange have helped me out along the way, and I have still spent less than £200 on what I have. I will post my full games and equipment lists within the next few days.
  
  

Posted @ 16:38 GMT

Well - I had an interview on Thursday for a network architect role.
I found out today that I didnt get it :(
Essentially due to the fact that although I have knowledge of most of the systems they used - they were looking for a guru is 3 areas - firewall (Cisco PIX), web cacheing technologies and layer 4 load balancing switches - none of which I am "expert" in :)
But on Friday I got offered the other job - which I am going to accept - although the money is not right - at least I will be earning something instead of nothing...

Posted @ 22:20 GMT

Yay!
I have a second interview on Friday (for the job I interviewed for last week) and another interview on Thursday. The job on Thursday is the one I want - 10K, plus car, plus better benefits plus managerial work over the other job. Mind you - I have heard on the grapevine that the job I interviewed for last week is in the bag (basically 'cos I know about 10 of the senior members of staff) :)

Still want this other job though - although I have been considered for others in the past few days - any of which might work out nicely - including a shift manager job in Staines...

Posted @ 21:21 GMT

Still job hunting. Stilll waiting to hear if my dream job has come up...
Got a load of VCDs on Thursday night from Big Andy - incl. Blade II, Ali G Indahouse, Gosford Park, Ice Age, etc, etc...

Posted @ 18:41 GMT

Had a job interview today in Bristol city centre. My interview was scheduled for 11am - I arrived outside the office at 10:40 and then started to look for a parking space...

Which I could not find

Until 10:55

Which was 1/2 mile away...

So I was 3 minutes late and rather flushed when I arrived. But the interview went well - so I am quite hopeful :)

Posted @ 19:19 GMT

Our little 3 year old started pre-school this morning...I didnt go - Bimbo took her and collected her - I stayed home and looked after the littler one and job hunted...I shed a few tears - she is growing up too fast :(
Spent the rest of the day at our friends (Ben and Emma) - had lunch and dinner there.
Rang up about a few more jobs - plus I have an interview on Thursday - well, more of a test/interview - personality/technical test and then they invite you back for the mainn interview later :)

Posted @ 21:21 GMT

Great weekend - nice weather and did hardly anything :)
I need to get my exhaust replaced on the Volvo - the silencer has 3 large holes in - and it is currently only supported by:
1) The manifold
2) the silencer bracket
which is not a good situation to be in :(

Back to job hunting again today - oh yeah - and bill paying :)
Forgot to mention on Friday that we have bought another car - a K plate Mondeo 2.0i 16v 5dr Ghia. We decided to sell the Escort Cabriolet as it is totally impractical for Bimbo and the kids :)

Posted @ 10:21 GMT

Got back from holiday this morning. Had a very very relaxing time apart from last night! Our friends were staying over in our villa (2 adults, 2 children) and they are pregnant with only 3 weeks to go - anyway - last night she went into labour (we think!), so they had to leave at 11:50pm :)
On the job front - apparently I had loads of phone calls while I was away - but the house sitters didnt take any names/companies/numbers....doh!

Posted @ 14:06 GMT

Off on holiday today - YAY!
Going to Center Parcs (Longleat Forest) for the week, so I will be back on Friday. Bimbos brother and girlfriend are house/dog/cat sitting...

Posted @ 12:27 GMT

Interview went really, really well. Technically I am more than qualified, and the lass reckoned my customer/personal skills were better than the other 2 candidates that they had put forward. Anyway - the guy at the company gets back from holiday on Monday, so they will call me this week to let me know about another interview, etc :)

Posted @ 12:27 GMT

This is ridiculous! I have spent 3 weeks putting my CV, etc around and have received entirely zero interest! Then - since Tuesday, I have had about 12 phone calls regarding jobs - both permanent and contract!
This morning, I have an interview in Cheltenham, for a job based in Bristol - Infrastructure Specialist/Engineer - which will turn into a Team Leader/Manager role with 3-4 staff over 2 sites! Which is exactly what I am looking for - YAY!
Plus I have another interview for a job in Bristol next week (while I am on holiday in Center Parcs), but I should be able to make that one as well :)

Posted @ 12:27 GMT

Still looking for jobs. Had some phone calls yesterday from some agencies that may have found me some work in Bristol. Reasonable pay, car allowance plus bonus and benefits - should be fine (less salary than before but enough to manage with).
I am also looking into setting myself with a 2nd income - maybe telecom related as well as reworking my website hosting charges. Currently I am not charging for anything - although I am using all my bandwidth allowance!

Posted @ 12:27 GMT

Bank holiday Monday!
And it is raining! What a surprise :)
Amazingly - the weather here has been fine for the past 3 days, but today it has been pouring down...
Today is also my little ones 3rd Birthday and she has a party at 2pm, with all her friends from ballet, etc coming - should be an ace laugh :) I've been blowing up balloons all morning and now my face aches...

Posted @ 12:25 GMT

Wow - this website is sooooooooo boring isnt it?
Nothing if interest at all is going on...
Well - apart from being suspended from Ebay yesterday, because some dolt reckoned that I hadnt sent him something (even though I have and I have the proof of posting). He doesnt even want his money back (after a claim from the post office) - he just wants blood - or rather my Ebay account. Stupid twat!
Still job hunting - both permanent and contract. Ringing the recruiters up daily and hassling them - and Thursday I will call in some favours from a a few people :)
Can't get this damn ECS P6BAT-Me motherboard working again - even though it was a few weeks ago - I knew I shouldnt have taken the memory out of it for another machine! Gonna test the memory and Celery 533 next week, plus when Ebay gets its act sorted out I will be putting a whole load more stuff up for Auction (Sun IPC, IPX, CD, Tape, 4U server, 2x AT Full Towers (brand new), plus any other stuff I can find...)

Posted @ 16:50 GMT

Not doing much this weekend. Going to visit Bimbo's grandad tomorrow and then Monday - back to job hunting :)

Posted @ 16:50 GMT

All my car stereo has been installed - and it sounds great.
Needs some tuning - and the hifi shop has offered me a 1/2hr scope session for £5 - which is worth doing as it will calculate when the speakers start to distort and what the optimum settings are - ie cutoffs and input levels on the amp.

Posted @ 16:50 GMT

I have the flu :(

My Volvo was meant to be in the hi-fi shop today to have everything fitted into it - using the existing cabling that I put in when I had the car before.
Kenwood MP6090R Head Unit (MP3/CD Player)
Kenwood KAC-846 4x100W Amplifier
Kenwood 5"+1" Component Speakers (front)
Rockford Fosgate 10" 300W Sub
Rockford Fosgate Sealed Enclosure (.9 cu ft)
I now have to arrange for it to be installed later this week when I am feeling better...

Posted @ 16:50 GMT

Well - today was my last day at Lucent - I am now officially unemployed :)

Posted @ 19:20 GMT

Well - I got my Volvo back today. It passed the MOT (after some work) and I now have it taxed, tested and insured... And it is still as quick as I remember it. The engine feels a bit lumpy (but it always did when I dont have Splitfire plugs installed) but when the engine has 173K miles on it.

Total costs... £200 for the car, £75 for the parts and £180 for the MOT and associated work - which is not bad really...

Posted @ 15:00 GMT

Well - Bimbo's grandad has checked out the Cabriolet and all is OK. It needs a couple of things sorting out (just for good measure) but there is nothing stopping here from using it for the next couple of weeks until he comes back from holiday.
The Volvo is having its new radiator fitted today and is booked in for its MOT on Wednesday. Bimbo's grandad is also sorting out the ignition and misfiring problem for me - so I should have it on the road and be cruising by the weekend - YAY!

Posted @ 11:30 GMT

Bimbo bought herself a new car today - a Pink Ford Escort 1.6i Cabriolet!
It is a 1989 F reg and is in pretty good condition... I am still waiting for my Volvo 440 to be sorted out...

Posted @ 11:30 GMT

Well - yesterday I went to the scrapyard and got the bits I needed. Well - some bits...
£75 got me - a perfect bonnet, a radiator and a glove box...
The doors on the scrap car were worse than I thought, so I didnt get them and the seats were not the same as mine - I have recaro style ones - whereas these were just flat...
The new bonnet and glove box are fitted, and the car will be going to Bimbo's grandad next week for the radiator and an MOT. Then I will know what more I need to spend on it to get it looking pristine again :)

Posted @ 11:30 GMT

BIG NEWS
I bought my old Volvo 440 Turbo back from the guy that bought it from Bimbo. I paid £200 for it....
The only things wrong with it are:
Some more rust spots
Leaking radiator
Anyway - I went visiting the breakers yards today - and during the week I will remove from one white Volvo 440 the following:- bonnet (immaculate), drivers seat (immaculate), radiator, nearside wing mirror, nearside rear quarter panel cover, and a couple of doors
The breaker said that it would cost me about £100 for the lot :) Pictures of the car that the previous owner took (the guy I just bought it from) are here - Picture 1 and Picture 2

Posted @ 15:00 GMT

Aaarrrgghhhh!!!!
All hell has broken loose - my server in Holland was powered off and removed 5 days before it was meant to!!!

The new server is all in and working, and now just needs everyone to wait for the DNS changes to occur...
Some people arent happy - and me the least. I was more surprised than anyone else - but hey - this is what the internet is all about :)

Posted @ 12:25 GMT

Well apparently they have decided on the numbers and the name for this round of redundancies...
5 people from 18 (our section alone)
And if I haven't received a phone call by the end of Wednesday - that means I still have a job. Not a particularly nice way of it being done - but what they hey!
If I don't survive - a job hunting I will go. My CV is almost ready for distribution (needs updating slightly) and today I will start looking for permanent and contract positions in my area of expertise in the South-West of England :)

Posted @ 20:05 GMT

I have been debtaing whether to attend Alt-WOA - the first Amiga show of 2002. I dont think however that I will. My Amiga usage has dwindled down to using it purely for email and IRC... plus the occassional game. I no longer do much on the Amiga mail-lists, although I am still active on the amiga web sites that I assist in the running of.

Posted @ 16:18 GMT

I am on a course! I have been "requested" to join the Security Practice section of our Professional Services Group at work - and today is the start of a basic overview course for everyone who is in the group.

Posted @ 08:15 GMT

Good course it is too. The guy taking it (Tony) is well experienced in these areas, and the course has degenerated into a free4all discussion between him and I on exploits, secure practice, etc, etc - damn good fun!

Posted @ 15:30 GMT

Had a fantastic weekend. Strange thing happened on Sunday night though when we got back... My MP3 server (Duron 800 Linux) started smelling of coffee and then it switched itself off - never to power on again. So I ripped out its generic 300W PSU and replaced it with a nice Macron 300W AMD certified one (that I originally bought for my XP1600+ machine but didnt need) and now it is all back up again.

Thank god really - as I have a 40gb and a 20gb drive full of MP3s, backups and VCD images!

Posted @ 20:05 GMT

My auctions have all sold... The P3 didnt go as high as I wanted but what the hey - I got some money back :)

I'm off to Aldershot for the weekend tomorrow to see our friends Paul and Sarah - should be an excellent laugh. Kiddies party first and then we are going out int he evening - yay!

Posted @ 17:23 GMT

I've been running RC5 now for quite a while - but only recently have I been working hard on it. Currently I have it running on my A4000T (AmigaOS3.9), Athlon XP1600+ (Win98), Dual P3-700 (Win2k), Duron 800 (Linux) and PII-300 (Linux laptop)

Check my stats at: My Stats

Plus I also put an advert up on AmiBench to sell 2x A4000D base units. I had a reply for one of them within 1.5hrs....

Posted @ 16:16 GMT

Well I got my Ebay items up - check them out here: My Auctions

Posted @ 17:34 GMT

Phew - nothing of any importance has happened for a couple of days - which is quite thankfull!
I hope to get some items up on Ebay soon - an Apple Mac Centris and monitor, a PIII-733, P233MMX and an AMD K6/2-450.
That is only part of it - I hope to get rid of about 20 bits from my office over the next couple of weeks - meaning more space (thankgod) and some extra money (yay!)

Posted @ 09:25 GMT

A quick message to Ian Chapman if he reads this:
It has been sent - ParcelForce 48 yesterday - due to cockup at the post office I dropped it off at!

That wont mean anything to the rest of you but it will to him :)
Essentially, I sold one of my Amigas and I dropped it of at my local post office near where I work in Swindon (the PO is in the countryside as it is the nearest) on Friday morning and I had an email from Ian very early this morning asking where either his Amiga or his money was... I called the PO and they said "very sorry - big cockup - went yesterday"... Once again - the Royal Mail and ParcelFarce save the day - NOT!!

Posted @ 10:10 GMT

Well Tim finished the back garden on Saturday and it looks amazing. I should have taken some before and after pictures really...
Had Bimbos party last night - and it was a total and unmitigated success! Everyone enjoyed themselves (thats what they told me) and the Indian buffet went down a storm.

Posted @ 19:30 GMT

Watched Vanilla Sky last night... woo - was that difficult to watch or what!?! After the first 1/2 we almost gave up - but by the end of the film we were saying how great it was, etc :) Lots of twists and very confusing

Tim is still doing the back garden - path is laid, patio is 50% done and turf is arriving tomorrow..
I have to finalise all of Bimbos party this afternoon/tomorrow - paper plates, etc need to be obtained and decorations as well :)

Posted @ 11:34 GMT

Currently having my back garden sorted out - patio and grass with maybe a little feature around the manhole cover - my brother-in-law Tim is doing it all - and a damn fine job he is doing too. Yesterday was rotavator day, today I have had 2 mega bags of scalpings and 1 of sand delivered, a whacker plate and 44 patio slabs are about to arrive!

He should be finished on Saturday!

All the arrangements for Bimbos party are sorted - all I need now is the money to pay for it all :)

Oh - and greets go out to the following:
all the member of #twilightzone
JFW - I'll speak to you soon
Sam G - and you as well :)

Posted @ 10:20 GMT

An interesting weekend - went shopping on Saturday and visited Bimbos grandfather on Sunday for lunch...didnt spend anything!!! which is quite amazing for me...
Friday night we went out for a meal with some friends - Prawn Cocktail for starter, followed by a Mixed Grill followed by Mississippi Mud Pie (along with copious amounts of alcohol)...
Today saw my eldest cat (Allie = Albertina) visit the vet for some grooming! She had some humungous knots of hair that we couldnt remove - so she was sedated (cranky cat) and parts of her were shaved..she is now home - a hell of a lot happier and I am £77 worse off :)

Posted @ 20:20 GMT

Collected my new tumble drier last night, put it all in and hey presto! I now have a working tumble drier again...
Sorted out my Linux server - moved it all into my old Duron 800 machine and that is now all OK. Re-arranged the mount points and the SAMBA share names and also put a 20gb drive in to it:
6.4Gb System, Swap and 4Gb "Fileshare"
40gb MP3s
20gb Movies (DivX, and VCD backups)

Also put my nephews machine together...
Pentium 166MMX, 64mb PC100, 8x CDROM, SB Live!, 8mb VooDoo2 (running from the onboard 2mb S3/Virge DX)...
all I need now is a hard disk to go in it and its all sorted - which means £60 in my pocket and less clutter in my office :)

Posted @ 17:10 GMT

Well, my new condensing tumble drier should turn up today :)
I was up until 1.30am this morning playing Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast - I think I am about 60% of the way through the game (first time I have played it) and it rock