Oh Dear Ben, Oh Dear....

So. Performance review today (I rock! But my people skills need work (who would have thunk?)).

I went up the allotment today (having already admitted to Dad that last time I went up there I couldn't find it and went home defeated) butyou don't want to hear about me finding the right shed, cutting the grass on the path to the shed, JP turning up with footie on the radio, and how I "showed him" how to dig over a 10 foot by 3 foot patch of slightly gone to weed ground....at which point we were about to head to the pub when Teh Allotment Dude turned up and pointed out we'd dug the wrong plot....the wrong way.

Yes. I am a ****. Especially with navigation.

Still, it was kind of amusing in a way. *And* it didn't matter coz we had not dug anything bad....and my actual plot already has 2 types of Gooseberry bush (super-sour and dessert), a redcurrant bush, spearmint (way too much spearmint....WAY too much), a nice stone-edged path (hidden by grass and the f*cking spearmint), a lovely little red-flowered plant called "Bristols Pride", a something-latin (looks mad and i've def seen one before), Oregano, Lemon Balm and a crazy palm-style thing slightly overgrown (like the rest of the patch)...lots of mad high grass and some brambly things.

I'm going up tomorrow (to the correct plot) and will take some pics!...and probably a scythe (or big blowtorch).

Thus, allotment-wise plans have changed though I have some seeds on order much of it may be delayed until next year while I get everything good and sorted. On the plus side, the berry-bushes are well established, the plot looks really good underneath all the weeds *and* my neighbour allotmenteer is really fit :)

Anyway, definitely owed JP a pint after that so off to the pub, which was rammed but as I scanned the crowd I noticed Flo on the floor...then Rosie, then Jen & Chris, then Es & Dondi....wow! Spent a lovely hour or so playing with Flo and generally interacting then gave a super-tired Es a piggyback home, swabbed the chubster down and stuck her in her jimjams, Rosie sorted Es while I put her to bed with a bottle and that's that!

A most suprisingly good day today all round. And all because I said "No" to languishing in front of fartball on a Friday evening and getting out and doing something sweaty...OK, so I had 2 pints too :)

I actually started this post because I wanted to post a few links and pics of cool kids stuff I have found on the web recently (many of which I have already passed onto Maggie (good luck for the 4th!)). So here are the ones I can remember.

Parent Hacks is a great source.
Some nice music....and NO Wiggles!
Babygadget is one of my new found faves...can't wait to get the Chubster some of these


















Never thought I'd say this, but if you're stuck or something to buy me for my birthday on the 25th July then you would be hard-pressed to buy me anything better than this

Such a good site that....I'm already saving up to buy this!

WooWooWoo

Forgot a pic from yesterday!

Bathtime

So. Work is....well, don't ask...however, I did just have possibly one of the best hours of my life ever.

It all sounds so simple but this was the 1st time I'd ever done the lot (in 10 months!).

- Dinner (everything eaten with hardly any mess and no trouble at all (2 spoons and lots of Mmm noises is the trick))

- Playtime (just while the bath ran)

- Bathtime! (Never have I seen a baby splash so much nor heard one shout with joy quite so loudly)

- A cuddle while drying off, then into pyjamas for some more playing and another cuddle.

Byootifarl chile taht she be!

WARNING: Contains nudity!

Zoomorphic Calligraphy & Paris

Wow!

Zoomorphic Calligraphy

'mazing huh?

Wish my handwriting looked like that. Paris was an interesting trip...meeting was shorter than I would have expected but lots got sorted...and I bumped into my old bosses and also some suppliers I used to deal with.

However, looks like more work shakeup ahead. That old favourite "teh re-org' is looming (yet a-f*ckin-gain)...in fact, the more I think about it the more it doesn't bother me as it has become the absolute norm to never know what is going on for more than 6 months at a time. Then you have 6 months of turbulence while all settles down, people realise it's still not right (what is?), and you get another one....

I've got loads of Digg stuff open in tabs at the moment, so there might be some more links to check down there on the right :-)

ps. The E50 is not doing too bad...apart from being Nokia and various mandatory websites not working....oh, and the camera is poop.

New Phone

So. I'm trying out a new phone, the Nokia E50






I've not been a fan of Nokia for a long time and for many reasons probably too geeky to go into here....OK, I'll mention a few of them: relative insecurity of Series60, lack of respect for the SIM (you will respect the SIM!) and strongarm tactics when it comes to buggy devices...to name but a mere few.

Anyway, this one doesn't seem too bad so far. S60 V3 is quite a big improvement but still rubbish compared to UIQ in my opinion...and even Palm is better. There's a few nice "business" features that also lend themselves to the world of real-life friends like the 'Team' Organiser which enables you to do cool things with PushToTalk but with it's homepage thingie could well work out nicely with the whole Web 2.0 thing (I may well investigate and post on this later). Couple of nice setup wizards too, though I now have access to the "Send Settings to My Phone" service in the UK (the one to be replaced with my current project).... ;-)

Admin access too! Heeehehehehe....Plus picked up some new projecty stuff at work, so now not only am I the techie guy for OverTheAirProv (OTAP), FlexOverTheAir (FOTA) and general handset or network tech ,but also the "Smart" PhoneChooser (SPC).....FLAs and TLAs ahoy!

Here's some photos I took earlier this evening....let's see what the E50s camera quality is like...







Crap compared to the SonyEricsson :-(

In other news I'm off to Paris tomorrow for the day, which is a bit of a pain, but at least it's not a solo trip.....and there's a very good reason for going. Not sure about the Monday trip to London yet, but I'm sure I'll post on Sunday when I have Lil next.

---end of message---

Ejector: One-click ejects all mounted media

Just what it says: Unmount all your USB, Firewire, whatever mounted media. Top Mac tidyng tool.

read more | digg story

My First Fathers Day

Dunno if that should have an apostrophe in there or not....Dont care. I should have taken more (and different) photos today also, but I forgot....I'm saving up the best ones for later (namely 'the first boyfriend' thing...nothing like naked baby ass to embarass all in that sitch!)

So. Today was my first ever Fathers Day (still don't care too much about the apostrophe), and it was nice. Started badly as I was very thyroidal this morning; lethargic, cold-sweaty and a bit bloated in the head...but that was soon sorted. Food, water and some more of these funky seaweed tablets (more on them another time).

Picked "The Chubster" up at 10 and because she'd only just woken up we had a gentle introduction to the day with a walk to the farm, saw the rapidly-growing lambs (they have mini horns now and try to nibble the front of the buggy (and Lil's hands if not careful)), fat pigs, a huge black dog and the most comedy ducks in the world...Then a quick sprint to Tesco and home to play.

Yesterday my living room floor looked like this.



And following a clear up and a baby-wee on the sofa (hence the throw hanging over the door) it looked like this.



BTW, those flip-flops suck. And I lost one this afternoon to boot (ha hahahah so to speak).

The kitchen was good because the cool lino soothes the nappy-rashed bum...yes, I made sure there were no crumbs on the floor (though she did find something anyway...she ate it...not dead....not too worried). It looks like this.



Then off into town for some International Dance Festival..that quite frankly was neither festival, dance nor international, except Nepalese food for Daddy while Lil slept, some Rap when she woke up and then up Park Street...bumped into a few people on the way to The Caff where we stopped for a bottle of milk and a bottle of beer. :-)

Then a dawdle back home, a quick go on the swings and back home to mummy.

A wonderful day....and I got a very cool card from Lil (ok, Rosie) with feetprints and a nice message inside.

Next year: Running, Jumping, Shouting......can't wait! :-)

Finally, the Protect-A-Bub roolz! Not only a great sunshade, but also a nice dark cave for long sleeps ;-)

[no that is not where i bought it from]

ph|_|k off phoetbawl

is that ginger in the hairline?



i am bored of your come-on-engurland shenanigans!



trinidad all teh way!!!



...in other news the blog might be moving; depends on the domain I can get...in the meantime, here is my latest free project.



Knackers!

Chubbing Out

Had a wonderful morning with Lil (after I'd made myself a huge fry-up with potato/onion hash and everything!). Finally got round to buying some shorts, and also got Lil a drum!

She had an hour or so asleep in the buggy and then on the sofa...where I also fell asleep for a while. Upon awakening we partook of our new favourite way to greet the afternoon: Chubbing Out!

I also picked up some cheap aviator sunnies...what with all the hair, it's a pretty hilarious look!

Lil is properly mobile now, we had fun playing "where's daddy?" (always in the kitchen in case you wondered)...but I've realised that all floors need to be super clean all the time :)

That is all.

Huh!

So. Been a bit busy with things so no recent updates. Sorry about that.



Anyway, Lil is crawling.....we're going to go to classic car show on the downs on Sunday....here's some of yesterdays pics and videos.

It was a really lovely day yesterday! And so proud to see her wandering around under her own steam ;)

Summer?

Maybe.