I always welcome feedback, so feel free to email me
(Saturday 1st February)There's nothing easy about flying Easyjet. Admittedly, it wasn't entirely their fault that Stansted airport was closed due to snow, but their practice of checking in passengers for a plane that hasn't a cat in hell's chance of taking off, is both frustrating and time wasting!
(Saturday 25th January)I've been putting off updating the site, knowing the index page really needs archiving, but I haven't got time. I realise I haven't put in a link to CISV yet. This is the organisation I'm now working for on a part-time basis. Soon, the project I'm working on, a new website aimed at tracing and bringing together past participants, will be up and running and I'll be able to put in a link.
This AOL/BT business gets worse. I've discovered my fax went to Ireland. Ireland! I'm hard pushed to believe that transferring a broadband line to another number necessitates sending a fax to Ireland! I can't be the only customer to have ever changed phone numbers - and I really would have expected more than complete silence on this issue from two companies who are supposed to be at the cutting edge of communications technology.
I'm looking forward to next weekend, which ought to be a relaxing and enjoyable break in Oxford. I remember last year when I suddenly found myself working more hours than I could cope with, writing about how stressful life had become. I seem to be once again incredibly time poor, with so many different people wanting bits of me until there's nothing left to give, leaving me desperate for some time in the house without commitments and deadlines.
I found AOL's new self expressions, recently released in their latest beta version, unexpectedly amusing. Wouldn't it be nice to have nothing better to do than play with toys like this?
(Saturday 11th January)Just a quick entry for today, after a long trip to Oxford and back in freezing fog. I was delighted to see another new entry in the guestbook which highlights what a crap company E-Buyer is! I feel better knowing other people have had the same sort of problems I did.
(Friday 10th January)If I come back in another life, I'm going to be a vet! I thought I was pretty well immune by now to any nasty surprises when it comes to paying the bill, but once again I was truly amazed at the amount of money I ended up paying, as I reeled out of the door in a familiar state of shock.
I have one 6½ year old cat. Each year she has a booster, and I usually buy some Advantage flea treatment while I'm there. This year, the vet recommended a scale and polish for Lucy's teeth, which were starting to get covered with tartar that could lead to later gum disease. OK, I'm soft when it comes to animals - anything Lucy needs, she gets. We go through an annual trauma when we make this trip to the vet - it's stressful for everyone, most of all Lucy who's an absolute wimp and petrified of the vet. Now we have to do it all again next week, and worse, she has to be starved the night before and left at the clinic for a whole day!
As we made the arrangements, I paid for the treatment she'd had, the innoculations and the flea drops. £57 something, I was asked for. Did this include the scale and polish? The receptionist looked at me as though I was stupid! She could give me an estimate ..... if there were no extractions needed and everything was straightforward, the price would be just over £99! £99!!! For a scale and polish! Derek couldn't believe what I was telling him and thinks it's totally crazy. "You'll be taking her for a manicure next" he said in disgust.
Yes, I'll come back as a vet. It's a licence to print money and you're far less likely to get sued by your patients than a doctor or a dentist!
(Saturday 4th January)Wouldn't you think two companies specialising in communications, ie AOL and BT, would between them, come up with a better plan for dealing with customers' requests than telling them they must send a fax from a fax machine they don't have! Fortunately I was able to do this from work, but it does seem a bit ridiculous (not to mention non-productive, as I haven't had a reply).
I thoroughly enjoyed a surprise appearance on a radio show quiz on Friday. That'll teach me to experiment with texting in the answer to a qualifier! Still, I made it through 5 rounds of questions and won the ultimate prize - a limited edition Julia Hankin clock! WOWOWOWOWOW!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
(Wednesday 1st January)New Year's Day ...I was looking back at some of my earliest entries and realising that this web site is almost a year old. The very first web page that made it onto the site proper is the Thomas article. In fact, it was Thomas that spurred me on to create the website. I'd talked about it for a while, but never got round to it. However, after having Thomas put down at the vet, I had a sudden urge to write a web article in his memory, and the site took off from there. If you haven't read the short story of Thomas or seen what an attractive, lovable cat he was, click here.
(Monday 30th December)I've added a picture of Louise (my eldest daughter) to the photopage. What a difference a digital camera makes! It's most noticeable when viewing photos on the computer. It doesn't matter how good a photograph taken with a 35mm camera is, it just doesn't have the clarity of digital. Looking at the photopage has made me realise I have pictures of all the children there except Philip, and I can't find anything on the computer that would do. I don't want too many photos on the page or people without a broadband connection won't wait whilst they load. I'll have to hunt through my albums and scan something - I could do with a new index page photograph as well, as the current one must be a couple of years old at least.
It's always amusing to see how some people have chanced upon this site. Looking at the visitor details for today, for instance, someone was searching for information about Ebuyer and someone else was looking for pictures of Aquapark, in Majorca! Another recent visitor was trying to get some information about John Litherland, the a director of Northumberland Strategic Partnership, where I spent 8 months as a temp - he must have wondered what had happened when he ended up here! I sometimes wonder if the meta tags do anything at all ....
A postscript for today ..... found and scanned a picture of Philip, taken over 2 years ago, but the best I could find. In fact, it just illustrates how much better digital cameras are, for displaying photos electronically.
(Monday 23rd December)A chance look at my guestbook has just revealed two new entries! It's amazing how enjoyable unexpected internet communication is .... either from complete strangers who've chanced upon the site, or from someone you would have said would have been the last person to sign a weblog guestbook. Either way, it was a real pleasure to see two entries in the space of a few days, after months of hardly bothering to look at the guestbook because it never changed. Along similar lines, it was a pleasant surprise to see an email of mine published in the most recent edition of PC Answers. Fame at last?
(Wednesday 18th December)I decided to give the site a festive look (in a rather conservative way!), by adding the above. I then regretted the impulse as it obstinately refused to work, even though it was exactly the same code as the Cushat Law script (on archive4). As usual, John to the rescue (but I must ask what you actually did, John?).
There are some interesting colour combinations out there. I rather fancied "papayawhip" (but it was too pale), or "olivedrab" (but it wasn't very christmassy), or maybe "hotpink"? (That clashed with other text colour on the page.) In the end, I chose the not very aptly named "violetred".
(Saturday 14th December)Having battled round an extremely crowded and busy city centre today, I really feel sorry for anyone working in a shop in town right now. They don't just have to hold out until Christmas either - it all starts again with the New Year sales (which have already begun in some shops).
(Monday 9th December)My first day at CISV. I enjoyed it, but I never want to see an Access database again!
(Thursday 5th December)I'm never going to beta test anything again! AOL 8, I'm not impressed! Why don't companies at least make sure their software is some way towards working properly before unleashing it on their unsuspecting customers?
Good news today - a part-time job I really wanted is confirmed, and Strider arrived with two of my articles published. One has been edited slightly due to lack of space in the magazine, but there's a link to the full report, originally written for this website.
And at last! A report on the Leeds Swimathon.
(Monday 2nd December)Still working on the Leeds report! There always seems to be something more pressing to do than update a website ..... however, I'm adding another link to my drop down navigation box, as I think Andrew's site is worth a visit. There's an interesting article on the current and predicted IT skills shortage in the jobs market.
(Saturday 23rd November)I've had to remove the Cushat Law script, otherwise it was going to sound odd! (For a look at just how odd, see archive 4). The walk up Cushat Law was very enjoyable and very satisfying - I've now climbed all 5 of the 2,000ft peaks in the Cheviots this year.
The photos have arrived from last Saturday, and I will endeavour to write something about the Leeds swimathon this week. For a sneak preview of how I looked at the end (!) click here.
(Monday 18th November)Just back from a very enjoyable weekend in Leeds, where I took part in the Leeds swimathon, swimming 10,000 metres, 200 lengths of Leeds 50 metre pool. It all went smoothly as planned, but it was a long way! Particularly as I'm absolutely convinced I was made to swim an extra 4 lengths, due to my timekeeper not counting properly! In due course, I'll write an article on the swim, however I'd like to wait until some photos are developed to go with it.
To everyone on the mailing list - I miss you all very much! Don't worry, you haven't seen the last of me, but I think I made the right decision for now. Please email me any time - I still want to keep in touch on an individual basis, but so far only Richard has written.
(Tuesday 12th November)A new index page, and I was hoping to start it off by showing some thumbnail pics which would open in their own window if clicked. However, AOL is down, so I can't test them as I can't access Geocities. Working offline would suggest I'm doing something wrong, as the photos don't look like thumbnails at all! As my technical support team ie John, (or at a push Harley), is not available (as I can't get online), I think it'll be safer to put something else as today's edit.
Hooray! Internet access again! My offline work in Editpad looks confusing when I copy and paste it into Geocities File Manager .... the two text editors have different line breaks and it doesn't look as neatly set out now. Never mind, it saved me some work and it looks OK when I view the webpage. This is so time consuming! Why has nobody ever pointed out that I don't actually need to write "font color=blue" in the code for a link? Links are blue by default I've just discovered!
The story of Emily's holiday in Bordeaux continues ..... the tickets have been found, thank goodness! Today, the school took them round a vineyard apparently and Emily bought some presents. She told me I could expect a nice bottle of claret - as long as she got it through customs! It seems to me, inviting disaster the way this trip's going! Of course, being underage, she won't be allowed to bring alcohol back from abroad.
To read more archive weblogs, click here which will take you to the previous archive, which in turn contains a link to the one before that.