A Big Champion

Newcastle and Norwich

2008-09-05T00:42:00.002+01:00

Its been a very interesting week as both a hardened Newcastle supporter and recently adoptee of Norwich City. Interesting in a week were both clubs seemed destined to be affected by the financial side of the game.

With Newcastle and Mike Ashley seemingly forcing the hand of Kevin Keegan out of management instead of giving him the money you need in this league and Norwich City loosing the "golden" couple of Andrew and Sharon Turner so they can [I reckon] mop up their sub-prime company which is no doubt suffering troubles, the parrallels are not too hard to see.

Most Norwich fans are craving a big money person to come in and prop them up, take it over, whereas actions of the Newcastle board mean most of the Toon army are calling for the current Board to sell and move off.

With a similar thing happening at West Ham and Alan Curbishley I cannot help think that even though Norwich may not have a lot of money - the hearts and minds and wills of the current board have a great balance between making money and keeping the club afloat, along with ensuring the supporters feel connected. City fans should heed the warning that West Ham and Newcastle preach, and its going to be interesting to see if Man City make anything of themselves this year, giving their new financial backing.

House Update

2008-09-03T01:15:00.002+01:00

Well - finally there. We were meant to exchange contracts on 6th August but it was eventually the 1st of September....

To explain the delay is simple, and sad really. The house we are buying is a repossessed house. We knew this when buying it. When we went to see it, the house essentially had everything still inside, including very personal items. The bank were reluctant to exchange once these goods were still in there.

Unfortunatley the poor woman was in some denial and it was until the estranged husband turned up last week and managed to get 80% of the main house items removed that we could move forward. Even then there was some discussion about locks and access but this was eventually sorted out.

We are now left with a serious tidy up job and a rumble through quite a huge amount of stuff. The house also needs a lot of TLC and tidying but we will get there.
We are due to leave our current house and move into the new house on 18th September.

House Update

2008-08-31T21:21:00.001+01:00

There has been some progress with the house and we are hoping to exchange contracts tommorow with a completion on 18th August....

Once we do exchange I can give more detail....

football writer

2008-08-21T23:34:00.003+01:00

I read the following article tonight about Norwich City which appeared referenced in NewsNow:

http://norwichcity.myfootballwriter.com/full_article.asp?i=3980&w=8&a=0&part=1

I think (and have had a drop of wine) that the article is reffering at a high level that as a club moves in the financial side of things, then the sense of community that it has developed could be lossed. Couple this with the fact that Andrew Cullen is leaving (presumably better paid job) who is the Marketing guy at Norwich City, then both arguments compel to this point.

However - not being a "lowwwcul" but from Newcastle, I have witnessed first hand the sense of community that is present with regards to the club, and even though Newcastle run around with Mike Ashley can see the community in there. At the very basic level, supporting a football team whether at the game or not does promote community. It promotes a support, togetherness that is quite frankly missing generally in society nowadays. When I go to see City I sit beside a bunch of guys I would never speak to normally. They are from Hunstanton and they travel to and from there for every game - which is incredibly commendable....

Community is more than mere money, roadshows or local people running the club, it is and always has to be, the core support of the community around the area. Take for example if Newcastle (Lord forbid) they get demoted all the way down to League 2. I still think that there would be hard nosed supporters, locals, community, attending games.

Its a shame Mr Cullen is leaving, I think he will be missed. But as I have learned in my work, people you respect move on, and its how you react and move forward from that is the key to continuous success...

House Update

2008-08-20T14:51:00.001+01:00

Still nowhere forward.....

However there is evidence that something could happen this weekend with an exchange of contracts on Monday... I wait with anticipation....

House Update

2008-08-14T23:35:00.001+01:00

Still waiting to exchange contracts...
There is a fairly serious issue in the house we are buying, but cannot really go into it on here. Those that know me know what it is...

We are hoping that this weekend will produce a result but will have to wait and see?

Champion

House Update

2008-08-07T23:38:00.002+01:00

House update...

Still waiting to exchange contracts. We were due to exchange on Wednesday BUT the numptie solicitor being used by our buyers decided to send the deposit by BACS (three working days) instead of CHAPS ( on the day).

Crazy, wonder how they could get something so wrong....

Hopefully this Friday (Tommorow) will be done...

Bobby Robson

2008-08-07T23:35:00.003+01:00

I was really sad to hear the past newcastle manager, Sir Bobby Robson, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Apparently after a bought of kemo the growths remain although have stopped getting any bigger. It effectively means that there is no treatment on their return and is seen as terminal.

Such a great ambassador for sport and football, and a genuine true geordie.

House Update

2008-07-22T23:06:00.002+01:00

Well today we got our Mortgage offer which is great news. Nothing untoward in it either.
We also had to pay for searches for a HIP on the property we are buying which is quite annoying, because it should be the responsibility of the seller, however our solicitor deemed that the information was not enough information to guarantee certain things and protect our buy.

Apart from that no other news, was hoping for exchange of contracts this week, but is likely now to occur next week, which will prove interesting......

House Update

2008-07-21T21:05:00.002+01:00

One or two bits and bobs happened today, bit too private to post here but nowt serious...
On a practical note, we are hoping for exchange of contracts on 25th July, but this would appear ambitious.
We have answered all the questions we were given on Friday and handed them in, as well as our deeds signing (or something).

House Update

2008-07-20T08:00:00.002+01:00

Nothing much new to report....
We had a list of odd questions from our buyers solicitor which we need to answer, frankly some of them are quite odd...

One is relating to a planning permission we got for extending the front of the house. We didn't do it because we couldn't afford it and its clearly obvious we didn't do it - but even after two visits to the house, they were asking for confirmation it "wasn't done".... wierd...

On and on.......

Claire is the new Fern....

2008-07-17T23:59:00.002+01:00

For a long while I have always had a thing about Fern Britton. In fact I even applied for (and failed) but did attend a recording of Ready Steady Cook. (On another note the famous guest on the programme was non other than Suzzane Dando whom just a week later was shot dead)....

Anyway, here is Fern......... (Ah she is gorgeous with or without tummy stapling)...

And here is Claire Richards

If you don't know whom she is, she is Claire of the former band Steps.....
I saw her on Celebrity Masterchef last week and wondered who this vision of beauty was. I couldn't believe that it was Claire from Steps and she looks so much nicer than what she did before.... Hurrah, Claire is my new Fern.........

Well, maybe........

House Update

2008-07-17T23:56:00.001+01:00

So....

Survey on the house we want to buy is done.
Survey is complete on our house.
We had to send a full months bank statement, pay slips for June and latest mortgage statement to our new new Mortgage company.
Tommorow for various reasons of reposession the house we are buying is advertised for 1 week (normal practice apparently).

Hopefully that this will be all ok. I don't believe that we will get our exchange of contracts this week or next but will wait and see.....

Moving Homes

2008-07-14T19:32:00.002+01:00

Well, for those that are around us you know all about this, but I thought that something I could blog on was a belated blog about house moving....

So to catch up where we are here is a quick synopsis....
We had been looking initially to move to a slightly better part of the City, Beatrice Road, in Norwich for those that know it. However after much thought, we have decided to move (try to move) to Thorpe St Andrew as its the closest we get to church and school without being in Dussindale. (Not that there is anything wrong with Dussindale off course, just not our bag)...

So what have we done and where are we with things....

We initally put an offer in on a house for which was accepted BUT they wouldn't take it off the market until we had sold.

At the same time, another house in a similar place came on the market which was a lot cheaper for good reasons which I don't want to go into here (sorry).

We went and put in a silly offer on this house and it was accepted.

10 days later our house came off the market sold and we had in that process negotiated another £2000 of the house we were buying.

So now we are looking at exchanging contracts in two weeks and completing around 2 to 3 weeks after that.

I will post anything that happens .... (although unlikely to post tommorow as I am away on business).

Today - the only thing that changed was that we received (after a long while) the Building Completion Certificate in the post for the structural work we had done on our house.
We have filled out the house agreement (agreeing that we split the house equally if we get divorced).
And thats that.

Cullum v City

2008-07-11T07:24:00.002+01:00

Its been announced that this morning, all negotiations between city and cullum have been terminated because they couldn't agree a deal.

Frankly this is good news. There were serious misgivings I had about this deal...

1. To "embarrass and expose" the city board through the EDP is appalling, which is what Cullum has tried to do.
2. £20 million for new players would be great, but lets not be under any illusion this is a heart decision, its a business decision. Clearly it was thought NCFC could be bought on the cheap, especially in the current financial climate. The reality is he is a business man, and this was an attempt at a good business deal...
3. Delia and Michael have been great for the club and I am sure that if they had received an offer that was in the interests of the club first, they would not hesistate to step aside and support from the stands. If they feel its not good enough, and Andrew and Sharon Turner think it not good enough, then thats good enough for me.
4. Cullum's insistance on Majority share holder status means clearly one thing - he has to have more than 31% of the stake - that means he has to offer to buy out everyone who has shares or loans in the club. Since the current market value of shares and loans to the club, plus £20m for players is realistic, this comes to £56million - he is woefully short.
5. Its interesting that when City were at the lowest ebb last season, he wanted to do some deal. Where was he when we were in the premiership, why not finance support then. Again, proof to me this is about a "canny" attempt to make a good deal for himself and NOT the club.

Time for him to put up and shut up. If he is a true supporter and just wants to help, why not give a donation of X amount to support the club. He could have become the main sponsor as well, and gone "over the top" in the amount and financed the club that way.

I wonder where Andrew and Sharon Turner sit in this, maybe they are likely suiters and a deal is in the offing there. Unlikely, but who knows.

Time to move on, support city as we move into pre-season, on the ball city............

Facebook and photos

2008-07-10T13:05:00.005+01:00

A couple of things...

I recently joined facebook, here is the link to my profile:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=1322140813

I also have formally set up my photowebsite but need to upload more photos:

http://www.dwmphotography.co.uk

Start again

2008-07-10T13:05:00.002+01:00

Someone had pointed out to my wife the other day that I hadn't been blogging...

Which is true. So I thought I would start to write up some stuff again and keep on top of it.

More to come.

Customer Experience

2008-01-19T08:11:00.000Z

One of my roles currently at work is monitoring customer experience, which is more than just the experience you and I get with BT...

This post though is to tell you how impressed I was with the customer experience I had at the Carphone Warehouse [CW]

My phone with 02 was coming to the end of its 18 month contract and I had seen some deals on the internet with CW. So I went to the new store at the Riverside complex to see what they could do. The deal, which I found incredible was for new customers, was a free Playstation 3 (other options were WII's, XBOX's and other things). So I went in and spoke to Matt. He advised me that there was every chance the deal wouldn't be on in February when my contract officially came to an end (with 02 you can upgrade a month early). So he advised me once we had found the right playstation deal, to ring up 02 and ask to go on their lowest price plan so for the last month I would pay the lowest amount possible, take out my new plan with Orange, and ask for my PAC code.

They did all the telephone ringing for me in the store getting through the miriad of "Press 1 for, 3 for, 5 for". We did all of this, got my PAC code, got my new contract and ordered my free playstation for free.

In short, I am on the same tariff price as with 02 but now with Orange.
I am getting 500 mins a month, and unlimited texts.
A new sony ericsson phone (which is great).
A new Playstation 3.

The playstation had to be delivered and when I did the deal it was 3pm in the afternoon. Matt at CW advised it would be delivered the next day - naturally I was dubious. However, 11am the next morning a courier arrived with the PS3 which included 1 game and 1 blu ray dvd as well.

Fantastic - great to see a company keeping its promises and delivering customer experience like that.

I was about to order a new TV, a Sony Bravia HD at the end of this month but was going to get a cheap upscaling DVD player with it. However, having a PS3 was icing on the cake really, as it does upscaling and plays DVD blu-ray (which I think is going to become the winner in the HD DVD / Blu Ray battle - like the old Betamax / VHS battle of old).

So true............

2008-01-06T01:20:00.000Z

BT Broadband

2007-12-15T11:11:00.001Z

This is a test....

BT Broadband

(Random I know)

Images of Cromer

2007-11-28T09:22:00.000Z

Introducing Raymond Holmes

2007-11-27T23:29:00.000Z

Hi

If you read my blog - please drop by my best friends blog, Raymond Holmes.

Raymond is a superior worship leader who taught me everything I knew ;-) ayeeeeee

I have known Raymond for around about 14 years. Do pass by and drop a comment and make him feel welcome.

Dave

Recycling

2007-11-26T23:36:00.000Z

Well, for the past four weeks we have been giving recycling a go. Emma had watched a programme on TV some time ago that was based around a rubbish dump and living of it (don't sound pleasant). Anyway she was shocked at the amount of stuff that is dumped that can be recycled, so we started.

In overview, we recycle tins, plastic bottles, glass, card and paper. I think in reality its the plastic bottles like soft drinks and milk bottles that take up so much room and we do go through an amazing amount - unfortunatley they don't recycle at doorstep for these, the rest they do.

We have seen our rubbish bin reduce from full to less than a third full, just incredible if not a bit frightening.

Max M

2007-11-25T00:39:00.000Z

Hi

In the spirit of Black and White.
Here is a photo of Max I took while he where in a local woodland with some friends.
I just love the expression on his face.

2007-11-16T00:53:00.000Z

Emma doesn't like the picture in black and white, but I particularly like it so I thought I would share ......

I DONT BELIEVE IT

2007-11-14T22:45:00.000Z

Im in Cardiff.
Who's on the radio....

Yip

Its Late Night Love
Its Graham Torrington.

I am being stalked by a Radio Station

Dave

Beach Hut

2007-11-12T05:47:00.000Z

My mother-in-law is lucky enough to own a beach hut down on cromer beach. When the weather is nice (and not nice) its a nice place to have so you have some shelter, somewhere to make tea and somewhere to store things. She only got the beach hut this year so there was little work done on it - however there are some beautiful ones there that have been around for ages and clearly had some time and money spent on them.

For one reason or another my wife and I completley forgot about it with regards to the recent storm surge and wasn't until my mother in law rang that we suddenly realised that there could have been serious damage. Here are some pictures from the coast she took, its truly shocking:

Fortunatley this is my mother in law's beach hut. Apart from a sleeper missing at the front, it being pushed back against the wall and some sweeping of sang, it remained intact. I feel so sorry for the rest of the other owners who have probably lost a lot of things and treasured possesions this week - as well as facing insurance claims.

Boat

2007-11-09T00:03:00.001Z

Anyone got a boat - I think some of us in Norfolk here might need one tommorow morning.
Yarmouth low lying areas being told to evacuate and I am painfully aware I live in a flood plain area...... oooooooh errrrrr

Still - they reckon swimming is good for you....

Blood Transfussion

2007-11-05T23:43:00.000Z

I was saddened but not shocked to read about the news that a mother died after childbirth because she refused because she was a Jehova Witness. From Wikipedia:

The official teaching of Jehovah's Witnesses regards blood as sacred and rejects allogeneic and pre-operative autologous transfusions of whole blood, red cells, white cells, platelets or plasma.^[130] This is based on an understanding of the Biblical admonition to " abstain from ... blood," based on Acts 15:28, 29, and also on Leviticus 17:11,12, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood ... No soul of you shall eat blood," and of Genesis 9:3, 4, which they understand to be the first instance of "the Bible’s clear prohibition against taking blood into the body." ^[131] Although accepted by a majority of Jehovah's Witnesses, evidence indicates a minority does not wholly endorse this doctrine.

Next time a JW stands at my door preaching love blah blah blah - I will need to excersise restraint to tell them where to shove it. When any man puts religious adherence over their family's well being is a poor man. YES - I accept there are times when people are persectued and are killed - thats standing up for something you believe in and is possibly no different. I cannot think of the reasons why as I am ill, tired etc etc but it does seem different.

In the end a religious nonesense has robbed two little children from the most precious thing they could find on this earth. To me - and Im sorry for swearing - is simply crap.

Forget global warming...flares?

2007-11-05T23:34:00.000Z

I was watching tonight a series on The History Channel all about The Universe. This episode was particular about the Sun and it focused quite a bit about solar flairs.

I have always known that solar flairs can and occasionally do have an effect on electrical equipment (as well as producing such amazing sights as the Aurora Boreallis). However they explained that the earth hasn't been hit by a major solar flair since 1859.

Imagine then the devasting effect a massive solar flair would have on todays modern society. Sattellites would be struck down, all communication on earth would go down. Since I work in a society where communication is key, to lose communication to an unrepairable state right across the world would be catastrophic. I suspect annarchy would set in since people wouldn't be able to work, get money out of banks, hospitals would not be able to maintain service - people would die. It literally would effect every part of the life.

Whereas global warming is bad this to me seems horrific in comparison. The only good news is that we are in a lull of a 10year solar activity - but many people are predicting a wave of solar flares in 2011 when it reaches a peak in preperation for the suns magnetic makeup swapping (which it does every 11 years).

On a positive note your likely to get a half decent suntan!

Champion - happy sunshine thoughts

This is canny old..........

2007-10-31T23:45:00.000Z

If you go to around 06:39 (don't watch all of it) the last person off the bus was someone you might recognise...

Halloween

2007-10-31T23:35:00.000Z

from wikipedia.........

The modern holiday of Halloween has its origins in the ancient Gaelic festival known as Samhain (pronounced /ˈsˠaunʲ/ from the Old Irish samain). The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is sometimes erroneously^[2] regarded as the "Celtic New Year".^[3] Traditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, where the bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them.^[4]^[5] When the Romans occupied Celtic territory, several Roman traditions were also incorporated into the festivals. Feralia, a day celebrated in late October by the Romans for the passing of the dead as well as a festival which celebrated the Roman Goddess Pomona, the goddess of fruit were incorporated into the celebrations. The symbol of Pomona was an apple, which is a proposed origin for the tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.^[6]

IKEA

2007-10-10T01:32:00.000+01:00

I like shopping at IKEA (well, Emma does) but I was well impressed with their returns policy today.

We bought a rug from IKEA in Gateshead but when we got home, it didn't really fit.
That was mid July, its now October.....
Unfortunatley Emma lost the receipt too.

However IKEA were good enough to say that if I brought the item in, in original packaging, with a bank statement proving the transaction - they would give me a credit note. Therefore as I travelled north, I stopped off, did the transaction, got something we needed and everything was fine.

Their policy is they will give you a refund up to 90 days after purchase with a valid receipt. I think thats brilliant.

I DONT BELIEVE IT (NO REALLY, I DONT)

2007-10-10T01:21:00.000+01:00

This post refers to a previous post http://montgomerys.blogspot.com/2007/06/torrid-load-of-sh.html

I am writing this in a rather nice hotel in the centre of sheffield. I have a lovely view over the main square. I had a great journey here in a nice hire car, passing by IKEA on the way and picking up a few bargains... I left the Nottingham Ikea and was travelling North and put the Radio on....

Trent FM - whereever that is.....

The voice sounded familiar, creepy - it couldn't be, is it, it was, I DONT BELIEVE IT......

YES - BLOODY GRAHAM TORRINGTON on TRENT FM......

I have to confess I swore, screemed, swerved the car and then thumped the stereo - I DIDN'T Believe IT, No really, I Didn't..... Thanks to the Lord that he provideth BBC Radio Sheffield......

PHEW, panic over.

Colin McRae

2007-09-16T23:12:00.000+01:00

I have never been a rally driver but I am saddened at the death of a legend in motorsport. Colin McRae died in a helicopter crash with a family friend and a six year old boy in his private helicopter.....

Oh Darling, are you good enough....

2007-09-16T23:06:00.000+01:00

I am not really a political person, and don't really understand most of it. I am not naive enough though to know that Alistaire Darling is the current (see cannot even think of the title)..... Chancellor...

I don't know, but for some reason I feel uneasy about this. When he was transport minister I thought he was naff and not really achieving anything. So I am not expecting a great deal as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

That all said when your effective boss has been in that role for a long time, its probably a shreud move on behalf of Gordon Brown and is possibly in the role so Gordon can continue his chancellor mandate.

Whether I like Gordon Brown is a different matter.....

The whip is back

2007-09-11T01:57:00.000+01:00

I am eagerly looking forward to films next year already.
Two reasons:

Star Trek 11 - not everyone's cup of tea but I will love it.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Indiana Jones 4)

Fantastic

Fastest Rollercoaster in the World

2007-09-10T13:26:00.000+01:00

0 - 128 mph 3.8 seconds
Won't run in rain as it can hurt the riders

New Lens

2007-09-03T21:30:00.000+01:00

Its my intention at some point to update either my photo blog or my website to reflect new images, but time is taken up with so many other things I am struggling to find the effort in developing something for the website. Least to say I have around 120 images to use in stock.

On that note I did invest in two second hand lenses for my Canon 400D. One is a telephoto lens the other being a macro lens. I find the basic lens that comes with the Canon 400D a bit wanting (albeit gives great wide angled pictures). So much to say zoom is poor. Similarly close up shots go wanting on the standard lens.

I bought both from the London Camera Shop in Norwich (somewhere up a side street near Pizza Hut).

Here are a couple of images from the zoom lens:

And a couple from my macro lens:

Obstructive Sleep Apnea

2007-08-23T22:24:00.000+01:00

Obstructive Sleep Apnea

For those that know me this probably isn't much of a surprise, but I was diagnosed with Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Details about it is found at the link to the top of this post.

Essentially, being a big bloke, very big in weight its no surprise I snore. I have done this acutely for all my life, weight plays a large part. This snoring is mostly down to the obstructive sleep apnea. To summarise in layman terms, obstructive sleep apnea is when my airway becomes blocked during sleep because of "over relaxment". With it being blocked it has two main outward appearances. First is I can snore very loud, the second is that I stop breathing.

In terms of snoring - its so loud my next door neighbour can hear me. In terms of breathing it means I wake up regularly during the night gasping for breathe (My wife notices this, but I don't have any recollection). There are some serious none visible signs which I will come to.

About 4 weeks ago I undertook a sleep study. This basically involved sleeping with some monitoring equipment that, in fact, made sleep difficult. I had a monitor across my chest, a monitor up my nose and a finger monitor for oxygen levels. I did sleep eventually. Today I received the results which confirmed my condition, one that my wife knew about.

The results were "interesting". During my sleep study, on average, I woke up to restart breathing 20 times per hour, however on one occasion I woke up 70 times (70) in one hour. I have no recollection of this at all. In terms of obstruction and not sleeping, my average was in the region of 20 seconds each time it occurred, but there was one monitor that observed me not breathing for nearly 83 seconds - 1 minute 23. I have tried to hold my breathe for that long tonight and its frightening because I can't. To me these are scary results.

We asked what could happen if not treated. This response was as shocking as the values monitored above. Being overweight I have always suffered from high blood pressure as we as a high craving for the nice food of life. However it looks as though the high blood pressure has been caused by the sleep apnea. Obstructive sleep apnea causes your blood pressure to go off the scale, apparently as I understand it because your body is not exhaling the carbon dioxide from your lungs, and hence your oxygen levels in the blood are dropping. This can then cause blood clots and consequently strokes, heart disease and death. Frightening.

Cutting this short, the upshot is I now have to wear a CPAP mask (Continuos Positive Airway Pressure), which prevents the blockage to my airways occurring and prevents the snoring. It is a mask and a half and is not pretty in bed, but the consultant at the N&N has said it was radically change my life in terms of energy.

The mask arrives on Saturday and I will at some point post a picture of what I look like to give you an idea.

Birthdays

2007-08-20T23:47:00.000+01:00

The past couple of weeks have seen us have two birthday parties, one for Amber and one for Max. The one for Amber, was just the four of us and was really nice and relaxed.

The one for Max was a different affair. To be honest it was more than a birthday party as we invited all his class / nursery mates and their parents around on the 19th. Max leaves nursery after being there for 3 full days since he was 8 month year old so the party was also a kinda leaving party for everyone as well - a graduation party you could say.

We live in a terraced house which when you have 14 children and nearly 19 adults became quickly crowded and absolutley packed. We had also spent ours making two cakes and cooking food and we were exhausted. Nonetheless Max loved it and it was great fun, the parents enjoyed wine and beer in the garden while the kids were entertained by Emma.

Anyway, Max has his last day on Wednesday, and will be starting at a new school (literally new too) in Dussindale. I know its going to be a big change for all of us but we are looking forward to it.

Here are some photos from Max's party on Sunday......

Washing Machines "possibly could" live longer with Calgon

2007-08-07T23:38:00.000+01:00

I was sitting here and the advert "Washing machines live longer with calgon" came on - being slightly bored, slightly tired and really in a need to go to bed, I did what most people do - went to see if the statement "Washing machines live longer with Calgon" is true.

And the answer - well - it would appear that they do but you don't need to use it.

Reading the article below it would appear that limescale gathering on the heating element is the worst cause. By adding more detergent you therefore effectively are making the water softer and consequently reducing limescale. SO - if your in a hard water area then likelyhood is you suffer from this nuisance (and don't really worry too much about the environment) you can either buy calgon and reduce the amount of detergent used OR use more detergent.

Simple really

http://www.washerhelp.co.uk/limescale_2.html#cl_q1

Milky Way and ET

2007-08-07T20:32:00.000+01:00

I am fairly sure that I have blogged on this before - and I cannot be bothered to look for it - but its two things really.

I am watching the BBC 2's programme Beginners Guide to the Cosmos and a guy is stating on here that in our galaxy alone there is possibly 10,000 other educated, communicable life planets out there. Multiplying that up to other galaxies the figure becomes unreal.
I've always found it hard to reconcile why there would be this intelligent life on other planets as a Christian.

Why - I just don't get why God would create intelligent life on other planets. If he has, is he hiding it from us? Did Jesus die for other people on other planets? Are they just as sinful as us? Maybe this is part of simply concentrating on your own walk and not even worrying about others (whether this planet or somewhere else).

The other thing is something I have never understood. The typical image of a galaxy is spidery arms with a fat glowing centre. Well - I know we can see the Milky Way (the spidery leg we are in our galaxy) - but where is our glowing centre - why cannot we see it when we can clearly see others in other galaxy's - therefore it its that bright, sure we should be able to see it?

Is that me being silly or just wierd?

Harry Potter

2007-07-20T16:35:00.000+01:00

I am sure there are plenty of people out there reviewing the Harry Potter film. For me it was great and certainly the best of them to date.

What did strike me though is - Harry Potter lost his parents as a baby, and maybe I missed it, but where is his grandparents? I cannot recall why he went to the Dursleys although I understand they were his only family.

But what happened to his mothers parents, what happend to his fathers parents?

In the penultimate book, Half Blood Prince, its left with a note from R.A.B - haven't worked out who that is - but I wondered if it were a relationship. Still my book arrives tommorow and all will be revealed.

Horcruxes - a theory

2007-07-12T08:37:00.000+01:00

Hi

First if what I say is obvious, don't tell me so.
Second - don't read this if you haven't read half blood prince in the Harry Potter series.

Now for those that have. I have just finished reading for the 2nd time Harry Potter and the Half Blood prince. My theory surrounds the fact that there are supposed to be seven horcruxes and as far as I can tell, Deathly Hallows will have some focus on that. My theory is that I suspect that Harry is the seventh Horcrux.
So, withouth reading the last book, here is a prediction - happy to be wrong.
He will destroy all the horcrux's and will kill Voldermort, however, to ensure Voldermort doesn't return then he will need to kill himself or be killed.

The reason I think this is the case is because Harry seems to possess attributes of Voldermort - special magic powers and be able to speak parceltonque. He is also "marked" via his scar.

We shall see - but this month is great for Harry Potter fans.

general stuff

2007-07-09T23:14:00.000+01:00

Life is going quite well at the moment if not a bit busy.
I am looking forward to Thursday this week as I off to do some extra work for the Stephen Fry's programme called Kingdom. This recently ended in May I believe but a new series is now commissioned and being filmed in / near Swaffam.

If I get some photos I will post them but I am not sure I will.

Today I got installed and setup a 2nd Broadband line in the house. Basically the reason I have two is that I have a wireless business network supplied with my own telephone line, but as a BT Employee I have BT Total Broadband Option 3 installed.

Effectively it also means I have three telephone numbers into the house, one 01603 to my office, one 01603 to my home and 01603 to my BT Broadband talk number - how crazy is that.

Sarah Jane Honeywell

2007-06-25T23:46:00.000+01:00

Who says Cbeebies is just for children...

Ahhhhh lovely: http://www.sarah-jane.biz/gallery.htm

Holiday Inn, Carrow Road

2007-06-25T23:38:00.000+01:00

Anyone thats been around carrow road will not have missed the Holiday Inn Hotel being built over the past year. Building work began in April 2006 and completed in May 2007.

Over the year I have tried to capture the build. Partly because I live near by and partly because it is taking up such a dominant space at the football ground.

This link shows the images that I have captured over the year, and attempts to show the hotel being built. There is primarily three locations I took pictures, from the road looking into the Football ground, from the front, and from the side.

http://dwmphotography.co.uk/carrow/carrow.html

Lessons Learned

2007-06-21T22:56:00.000+01:00

This may well be a "oh Dave thats so obvious" but I have learned a wee trick with train fares. It involves buying single journeys instead of returns.

For example:

14th July - Norwich to Peterborough
Out 09.57
Return 18.42
Cheap Day Return - £14.40
Two singles (2 x £5) - £10.00 (saving £4.40)

12th July - Norwich to Newcastle (via Peterborough)
Out 09.57
Return 15th July (12.00)
Cheapest standard return available - £95.30
Single standard £32.50, return £24 = £56.50 (Saving £41.80)
However, you could treat yourself to:
Single First Class £42.50 x 2 = £85 (Saving just under £10 from the return).

Finally, I have been sitting in the dining car coming back from London on the 18.20.
You get a very quiet carriage, a nice choice of food, and a bottle of wine for under a tenner.
All you need is a standard single as well.

You can check fares at Nationalrail.co.uk or www.onerailway.co.uk

Torrid load of Sh**

2007-06-18T22:59:00.000+01:00

Apologies for the language, but driving home tonight I ended up listening to Graham Torrington's Late Night Love. What winds me up is the attitude at times and borders on self righteous, but more so, is its got nowt to do with Love.

This programme is as much about love as Jerry Springer is to being a vicar.

Really iritating.

So whats been up....

2007-06-14T21:30:00.000+01:00

Well not much exciting, I wish I could say I have been travelling in Austrailia but thats simply not true.

Basically, there have been two things. Firstly I have never had my own PC / Laptop. I used to be able to blog, upload photos and do all sorts using my work computer. The problem with this is that my work PC got updated and stopped people accessing blogs and posting to them through an enhanced firewall. This wasn't too bad, I could still look at blogs and I do some basic stuff.

Then, a fault developed on my work PC which meant that the hard drive had to be completly rebuilt with a new build, this then had a new firewall installed that prevented me doing any uploading or downloading of any sort - effectively it prevented me accessing the internet. That was that and I knew I was buying a new personal laptop in June and here we are.

So - what did I buy. I took a good few weeks to decide on this. Fortunatley for me I was given £200 from a BT Customer as a thankyou for helping (corporate customer) so this helped.
At first I knew I wanted a dual core processor but didn't realise that there were two types. Apparently there are two types - dual core and core 2 duo (the latter being the 2nd type and more up to date of core processors). I also really wanted to have 2GB of RAM to make sure Vista ran really well. However I was struggling to get 2GB of RAM machines at a decent prices (I only had a small budget).

Well last week I found the following machine from John Lewis:
Samsung R20 at £599
This spec to summarise is:

T5300 Core 2 Duo
2GB Ram
120Gb Hard Drive
Ethernet Port
Wireless
4 USB, 1 Firewire

The cost was £599 but I used my £200 to claim vouchers for John Lewis reducing it £399.
I also found a site called hotukdeals.com where I found an online code for £20 off if you spend £100 or more, taking it to £379.

So all in all a good deal. SO I should be back blogging and getting my websites up to date and working soon.

CHAMPION

Start Again

2007-06-14T20:17:00.000+01:00

Well Im back

Its taken a while but I have a new laptop.

I will explain my long term absence soon and what I have done about it but if anybody is reading this, thanks for your comments and emails.

Cheers

Dave

First Photos

2007-03-23T23:21:00.000Z

I still have a lot to learn having a "grown up" camera now... but here are some first shots. If you click on them you will see 'em bigga.....

New Camera

2007-03-12T19:28:00.000Z

Through good luck more than anything I have managed to grab a new camera at an incredible price. All my posts on my viewed blog have been taken with this camera, the canon powershot s2.

But Emma's brother was unfortunate to loose his camera through his car being broken into. The insurance then sent him a new camera which they felt was too big and surplus to their requirements. This is the Canon EOS 400D (Xti Rebel as known elsewhere).

I got it for an incredible price thanks to my brother in law. I will post some pictures when I get my memory card which I ordered. Champion

Flight v Train

2007-03-03T08:35:00.000Z

Its interesting that since the new tax has been introduced, this has pushed the cost of flying (irrespective of whether you think its good for the environment) to a new level. In the past experience has been that flying low cost airlines was cheaper than getting the train (although I confess booking a train in advance could be cheaper)...

I have been looking at the cost of going to Newcastle with Max. With easyjet I found a flight out for £4 for both of us and £16 return. £20 in total for the flight. However tax works out at £64. Thats £64 for the government fund and I find this somewhat distasteful - I don't pay this in car tax for six months - even though I use the car far much more.

I dont want to drive to Newcastle either but may have to think about it.

Having an affair

2007-03-01T10:27:00.000Z

Here is something I have been thinking about blogging about. To be clear this is not relevant at all to me its just the subject matter.

I have always wondered if there is any difference between (a) passionatley kissing someone in a nightclub, (b) having sex with someone as a one off (c) having an extra marital relationship.

Clearly there is a difference between the two, and personally feel a long term extra marital relationship is incredibly damaging and I personally think does more damage as its longer term. It also has more intention or implication to hide from you partner. Therefore I guess my thoughts really surroung (a) and (b)....
I know that if Emma went out and I saw her or she told me she kissed someone like this in a nightclub I would be hurt. However its only a kiss and I think it would be something that she would have done probably out of too much drink (albeit Em doesn't drink). Therefore I probably would find it more easier to forgive. However it seems quiet a different thing with sex. Since sex is supposed to be precious and private between two couples, if she were to have sex with someone else, that seem somehow a violation of that privacy... Does that make sense....

I also wonder if these are male point of views and that a female would see it very differently. Don't know...... what are your thoughts?

New Church

2007-02-26T23:10:00.000Z

Its interesting and possibly good about the announcement of Zion merging and consequently planning for a brand new "superchurch" - read about it here.

I think its fantastic that two churches are merging together instead of splitting. Its great that a site is potentially being rejuvinated for Godly use, and bring top Christian speakers, teaching et al to a much needed part of the country...

I feel however somewhat dismayed though. Essentially it was a church largely built and supported around the Heartsease estate, which - correct me if I am wrong - is a very needy place. Furthermore that the church attracted a lot of people and youth from the area into a Christian environment. The article talks about being good for the community - this might be true for Drayton and Hellesdon, but its a shame the plans for Heartsease haven't been revealed. Currently Zion bus people into Drayton for the Zion church service, but economically and more so environmentally is not sound.

I don't subscribe to the philospohy that bigger, bolder and newer is the best thing in God's space and this decision seems only to fit the church's ethos and propogation of the prosperity Gospel.

I also wonder where this leaves the plan for a Evangelical School. Although thats another subject
I am not getting into now.....

I wish them well but have a sad feeling that a heart of something community based, Godly and right has moved purely on the opportunity to be bigger and bolder and make "more of a name". I hope its not true and say God Bless them......

How ironic

2007-02-17T23:56:00.000Z

Football

Norwich (Yellows) were beaten by Chelsea (Blues)
Arch rivals Ipswich (Blues) were beaten by Watford (Yellows)...

Even more so consideration the last minute goal was scored by Damien Francis (Ex Norwich player)....

Bizzare but true............

Nackered by Children

2007-02-17T06:32:00.000Z

Oh my goodness. Children are the best gift in life you could have.....
But at 5.30 in the morning for the past two month, although I love them to bits, its starting to wear this ol' daddy out....

I look at a friend of mine with great envy, he has kids that are slightly older and want to stay in bed.... oh .... oh.... oh please let me be like that soon.

And my wife wants 3 more . . . . . . .

God of the whole universe

2007-02-09T13:41:00.000Z

I have always had a fascination with astronomy and in fact for my GCSE IT got 100% for covering how computers are used infrared spectrometry and monitory emmsisions. As a Christian I am often amazed at the University that’s been created before our eyes however it does prove somewhat of a challenge at the same time. Clearly as a galaxy we are not alone, there are millions of other galaxies, some bigger than ourselves, some containing more stars and many so much more older than ourselves. Even today science has proven the evidence of planets going around some of our closest neighbours, albeit admittedly these tend to be gas giants such as we have in Jupiter and Saturn.

The challenge to me is that as a Christian, I have adopted whether rightly or wrongly that the Earth is at the centre of God’s plan. To think that there is intelligent life like ourselves outside the solar system seems somewhat wrong. I guess it doesn’t neatly fit into our Christian thinking. Neither am I convinced by some people try and cover this by saying “Well, Jesus said (and I paraphrase) – go to the very ends of the earth and beyond”. I guess the question of other intelligent life beyond earth is, somewhat a mute point – its along the lines of “Did Adam have a belly button”, “Did Noah and the flood exist”, “Is Norwich going to get promoted” – they are things we will never know for sure. This is where I turn to core principals that Jesus was alive, he died and there is evidence he rose again to crowds, plus I feel I have a personal relationship with him.

But what if science discovers life elsewhere – taking a simple scenario – lets say the Mars rovers Spirit or Opportunity discover a recognisable organism, something that clearly is life. Does that matter? What if science says “Look, here is a planet, we can tell that there is evidence of life on the planet that is intelligent like ourselves”. Does that matter. My heart wants to say no, my mind says a big yes. If life is found in our simplistic looking the implication therefore is far reaching, it probably means life is in abundance throughout the Universe. The argument is that we have never heard from such life, but given the vast distances to travel this argument is mute. For example, to get to the nearest star in our OWN galaxy, would take 4 years at the speed of light. Given that science says travelling at the speed of light is impossible and worm holes are only theory at the moment, then the time take to do anything between our next door neighbour suns becomes problematic.

Christian Pomp

2007-02-01T01:17:00.000Z

I have been enjoying reading the posts that Mark has been putting on his blog.
One post was about street preachers and whether they are irrelevant. He subsequently said that irrelevant was the wrong word. Anyway, this got me thinking....

It strikes me that as Christians are quick to complain, are quick to say "oooh, don't like that its not how it should be done". I include myself in this as well. I wonder actually if its not Christians, but life in general. When you do something regular and someone comes along and is doing it different, even when you think the way your doing something is better and more productive, its easy to waggle a finger and go - "Your irrelevant because I know that people don't need that and frankly I can / know a better way".

I don't really want to make this a rant blog but if your a Christian, lets stop doing a critique of everyone elses methods (and I include myself). Using the Street Preacher example - I don't think its probably the best way of sending the gospel - but the street preacher's walk is not my walk - likewise a street preacher might see me leading a band in corporate worship a waste of time, similar other Christians might see a band as irreverant and prefer quiet meditation with God in a church.

Thank God we are all different - Thank God he is pleased with the man on the street preaching, for the woman quietly meditating, for people that are branching out a church service and reaching a community, for people that are loud, vivacious and brash. Christianity is simple, but more importantly should be tolerant of each others passions and desires whatever we do. Its basic simple faith. Lets stop judging each other and each others choices, lets just love people.

Sorry for rant and thanks Mark for stimulating a good thought.

Casinos

2007-01-31T00:14:00.000Z

I see this as a similar argument to that below of which I have also heard today where the church is objecting to a "super casino" and its damaging gambling additiveness. Reality is most of these well meaning Christians will not have done their homework. A representative from Great Yarmouth demonstrated this well by saying "We have dog racing, we have horse racing and we already have a small casino plus endless fruit machine halls, yet our gambling problem is no worse than anywhere else in the country".

I am not saying gambling is good. But its no worse than anything else that is addictive and gambling, in small pleasurable measure is probably fun. For example, I enjoy a drink - I know that if I have too much too long, I can be lead into a form of addiction. This could be because I am vunerable, desperate for a drink. However, like a lot of people, I simply enjoy a pleasant social night out trying different beers. Similarly I have been to the dog racing and have been to Newmarket racecourse on a special day. This was massive fun but I don't have a problem with gambling. Reality is if you have an addiction, you will find ways when desperate to source that addiction. Opening a supercasino is questionable probably but only from a point of whether its needed at all - answer is it probably isn't. But is it going to fuel a gambling culture - nope, I don't think so.

Christian / Catholic Adoption

2007-01-30T23:58:00.000Z

I have noticed on a few peoples blogs, well some, that this has become a hot topic.
The subject really is centred around the Catholic stance that children should not be adopted into same sex marriages. I cannot help think this is not about whether a child is loved, nutured, brought up correct with good morals, but more the stance the church takes against homosexuality.

At a basic level I understand their view however I think there is very little measure in the arguments. The reality is that a same sex couple is (from a sin point of view) doing nothing different from a hetrosexual couple. The people in a hetrosexual couple still sin, and can be responsible for adopting and bringing up children. I can only then imagine that the church's objection is purely on sexuality and its consequences and mixed messages.

Christians have become more tolerant and accepting of homosexuality in general and thats great. To be clear I think the bible is clear that the act of homosexuality is wrong, but I do believe we live in a broken world where our human bodies are torn to shreds and messed around through sin over the years. I believe God's intended way was a man to be with a woman and not that of a man with man or woman with woman. However someone that is homosexual can still be loved by God, can still no Jesus and have a relationship with him and thats that. So thats my brief view on that.

I would rather a child was handed over to a loving set of people that had nothing more in their intentions but to raise a child lovingly, caringly and thoughtfully than be handed over to a care home / foster homes or in fact, a series of them. This argument has little to do with whats best for the child and more to do with Christians being pompus again and not voting for common sense.

Blackpool Contracts

2007-01-27T06:59:00.000Z

Blackpool holds some very fond memories for me. I used to be taken there when I was small and to some degree is where I learned to grow up. What I mean is that I remember having to make scary decisions which in the end benefited me. For example I remember sh****g my pants (no not literally though) queueing to go up blackpool tower. I remember the same feeling going to the fairground there and queueing for the big rides. They were all very frightening to a small young lad but I took a chance and now love going up huge heights and going on fairground rides...

I tell this little tale really because I was reminded that Norwich travel a very long distance to play Blackpool in the next round of the fa cup and I am somewhat in fear that the trip here might not be as pleasant. Even bookmakers favour Blackpool to clinch the game which is saying something.

The other thing I am led to believe is the high amount of contracts out of date this summer at carrow road. This is a joke but only serves to highlight the amount of disatisfaction within carrow road camp at the moment.

I hope we win, it would certainly go along way to curbe the criticims.

Loans R Us

2007-01-22T22:17:00.000Z

My home office is currently being redesigned and my dining room table needs clearing, so I have migrated onto the sofa which inevitably means that along with working I get a daily dose of daytime TV and Sky News....

But thats that, what this is about is to rant about un holy and unethical are the adverts for loans on TV. For example, one might say "Mrs Adams reduced her debt payments from £1000 to £175". Others include statements like "You can have a loan from anything from 5000 to 100,000" over 180 months.

Having had serious debt problems in the past, which are now sorted I despise companies like this. They claim to take away the "millstone" or pressure around people who are struggling to keep up payments on debts owed. Reality is that to get a reduction from £1000 to £175, the example is a loan of £20,000 spread over 180 months (thats 15 years). AND I would guess that should someone have the financial blessing to pay of the debt, that you will need to still pay the X amount of years interest left on the loan anyway, which could be thousands and thousands.
But the problem is not solved, the debt is simply transfered on new terms and at an extra cost.

I suspect these companies do nothing to ensure credit cards, store cards etc etc are all cancelled. With that in mind I suspect that a lot of people taking out these loans then clear their debts but reuse the credit card / store card when convenient, quickly racking up the same bills and same debts and placing themselves in a far worse position.

Banks are not void of blame here. Although they are not keepers of peoples money management they do little to prevent you getting more overdrawn, or charged excess fees for unauthorised overdrafts. Banks are not moral / ethical disciples by any means, but they should, in my opinion, be taking care of clients in a more accountable role.

I guess there is a lot of us that just want more than we can afford. If we could just learn a little delayed gratification when we want something, or realise we don't need certain things then this would go a long way to sorting out debt problems I am sure. Maybe the old fashioned word is that most of us (I include myself in many ways, not just finance) are GREEDY....... thoughts?

Ebay Issues

2007-01-22T00:10:00.000Z

I have recently delved into buying stuff from Ebay and become somewhat dismayed by two reasons.

First is that Max lost his teddy and I thought, "I know - ebay". I found someone on there that had a store or something like that selling Ikea things, including the teddy. The feedback looked really good and though the price of the teddy was double that in ikea (£1.25 Ikea, £2.50 on the website plus £1.80 p/p = £4.30) I thought it was was a good idea.
I ordered it on the 16th and still have not received it. The seller has said they have sent it and are now claiming compensation from Royal Mail. They have said they have sent another one but am still waiting. They also asked me to return the first teddy if it arrives but my thinking is that this is the property of the Royal Mail as the seller would have received compensation. I suspect if I rang Royal Mail they would either say (a) keep it or (b) give it to charity / childrens home / childrens ward in hospital.
Therefore not impressed - I even got a sarcastic email telling me I should have responded to the email they sent me. Not good and will be giving negative feedback for this one.

The second is, again for Max, I was looking for a bridge for his wooden train set. This lead me to two other issues with Ebay. Postage costs and general pricing....
On postage costs, there seems to be this "Sellers Standard Rate". For a set of tracks (including a bridge) one seller wanted the postage costs to be £20. I have sent some heavy things in the past, recorded delivery, and its never been that much. I am fairly convinced after looking around this is a money making excersise done to "boost up" the cost of an item. What I mean is that actually postage costs half of the amount quoted (£20) making a profit of £10.

I didn't proceed with this but did find a bridge. The postage on this was £2.99 and the item sold for £7.50, total cost was £10.49. However, looking at a normal shop I found the following item
http://www.321toys.co.uk/twt_60-515_wooden_train_track_bridge_arches.htm. The cost of this is £2.79 plus £1.99 delivery, total £4.68, a saving of £5.81 on ebay.

So - ebay I am sure is good - but things like this don't really do it any favours.

Annie Get Your Gun

2007-01-18T00:14:00.000Z

Hi

Just to let you know that I am performing in Annie Get Your Gun for Thorpe Players.
Thur 25, Friday 26th and Saturday 27th, Feb 2nd and 3rd all @ 7.30PM

More details found here: http://www.thorpe-players.fsnet.co.uk/

Toys

2007-01-12T08:22:00.000Z

Its some silly hour in the morning and both kids are demanding me to play, one has left a parcel for me on her play mat and the other is asking me to call fireman sam as there is a crocodile in the computer.....

It made me think about what toys and stuff I played with when I was young. In recollection I think there where probably four main items that I recall from my pre-school / primary school age:

Marbles - marbles where massive and very expensive. I remember though my dad who until recently worked on ship repair bringing me back some large 5cm ball bearings. Now to those who played marbles (and it may be different across the country) these were called ironies. They didn't last very long, I managed to bounce one of the floor into the glass bottomed panel door..... ooops....

Star Wars - I think Star Wars originally came out in 1977 which would have, at best made me 2 1/2 to 3 years old. My time over the next ten years or so was consumed by star wars figures and space craft and I still love the films nowadays.....

Transformers - "Robots in disguise" - I loved these toys and was quite lucky in terms of I had so many. Transformers if you don't know are machines / objects that turn into robots. In my previous posting you would have seen an advert for the upcoming transformers film.

Other toys - other toys I remember is a telephone set. They came with about 50 feet of wire between the two and rang. A little square game with lights on - you could play various colored puzzles. BBC Micro B - this was great and launched my career. I basically played games on it with a mate for hours and hours. Its great nowadays as you can get an emulator for BBC (as well as spectrum / acomdore / etc) - my favourite game and I have this on my PC is Chuckie Egg and Fat Man Sam.

Titan

2007-01-11T00:00:00.000Z

I have always been intrigued by Titanic and its story. There is something romantic but tragic about the story and shows humans at their best (achievement, drive) and worst (rush, cockyness, short sighted).

However I stumbled upon a story that has amazed me. I read it via a link on seehere.blogspot.com and linked to top 10 coincidences. Here it is and I have tried to remove paraphrasing as much as I can....

The story goes that a ship was built and was the greatest ship built by man and the largest on the ocean. Both internally and externally the ship was made to the highest luxury and highest standards with stewards cabins being refered to as first class in their own right.
The latest technology was used in the building of it including the addition of '..nineteen water-tight compartments.. With nine compartments flooded the ship would still float, and as no known incident of the sea could possibly fill this many. It was was considered practically unsinkable.

Because it was considered unsinkable she only carried the minimum number of lifeboats required by law - 24 - able to carry 500 people. This was not enough for the 2000 passengers on board. It hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean and sank. 2987 people died in the disaster.

If I asked you what ship that was you would be forgiven for naturally saying Titanic. Acutally the ship it refers to is called the Titan. It gets better - Titan is the ship described in a Novel called Futility by Morgan Robertson. Finally - to top it of - this Novel was written and published in 1898, a full 14 years before the Titanic disaster.

Just unbelievable, even more striking similarities can be found here:

http://www.historyonthenet.com/Titanic/futility.htm

New Photo for Profile

2007-01-09T22:30:00.000Z

Just adding a new photo to update my profile.....

Music and Church

2007-01-09T19:50:00.000Z

I was chatting with a friend the other day with regards to church and its attitude to music. The conversation went along the lines that the church my friend goes to advocates that as a christian you have no need to listen to secular music (secular music being things like Anastasia, Snow Patrol etc etc). People are encouraged at certain services to give up their secular CDs and they are then destroyed.

The same church insists that if your part of the leadership team that you sign a waiver that you will not drink alcohol at all (and its not methodism). This is because drinking is frowned upon within the church.

Frankly, to say I get dismayed with this attitude is somewhat short of the mark. It makes me angry. One of my vices, issues, things I struggle with is moderation. This is what should be preached to be fair. A moderation between good christian music / teaching and secular music should be healthy. Similarly with alcohol. Getting slappered every night is not good, and for some having a beer or two at most once every other day is too much - its all about moderation for yourself. Jesus drank wine and could, by his deeds, say he promoted it drinking wine at least.
I know some churches encourage a no drinking attitude and I can understand that to some degree, but it needs to be a self choice not forced by elders upon you. This should then be moderated through accountability especially if in a leadership place.
But to categorise non christian based music as "trash" and encourage them to ditch it and ignore it, is like saying ignore the world and what its involved with. I also believe music is about creativity and ultimatley creativity comes from God who created us in his image.

2007 Films

2007-01-08T23:36:00.000Z

Being a film fan and not being able to get to the cinema recently I am now looking forward to finding many babysitters and seeing some of the films coming out this year as I think its going to be good. Looking forward I predict 2008 will be good personally, there will be Star Trek 11 (or is it twelve) and Indiana Jones 4.

Today I had the day off, so after my singing lesson me and em went bowling at the riverside. Since we needed to pick the kids up from Nursery and we didn't have time to see a film as well, we bought some popcorn and drinks and spent 3/4 of an hour slouched in the Odeon (nee UCI) watching the trailers on the big screen in there.

Here are a few chosen films that I believe are must see this year ( you may need quicktime at the latest version to play) :

Fantastic Four : Rise of the Silver Surfer
http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/fantasticfourriseofthesilversurfer/large.html

Transformers
http://www.apple.com/trailers/dreamworks/transformers/transformers_large.html

Harry Potter
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/harrypotterandtheorderofthephoenix/large.html

Shrek the Third
http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/shrekthethird/t_large.html

Simpson : The Movie (In 2D)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/thesimpsonsmovie/trailer2_large.html

Spiderman 3
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/spider-man_3/large.html

New Year, New Changes, New Challenges

2007-01-04T23:11:00.000Z

For those that know me you will know that I have a close relationship with Ipswich (apart from the football, damn blues). For those that don't I basically moved from the North East in August in 1997 to Ipswich for a graduate job with British Telecom.

Through various means and ways I met Emma in Norwich in 1999 and eventually got married in 2001. We decided because (a) Norwich is nicer than Ipswich and (b) Emma needed to be here for her job I would move to Norwich and commute to Ipswich. This initially meant a drive from Dereham to the train station every day, then the train to Ipswich - and the return journey on the evening. 5 years ago though we moved to where we are now.

For the past few years most will know I have worked from home but commuted regularly when needed to Ipswich as that was where my team worked. However, through changes in BT which I won't go into here, the team I have worked in for 7 years is no more and I have a new role, in BT, working for another team. This team is based in Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle and therefore it is unlikely I would be travelling back to Ipswich for anything much.

So today was quite moving, interesting, sad and exciting in one go. New year, new changes and new challenges lay before me and it should be interesting.

27 Seconds

2007-01-02T00:13:00.001Z

27 seconds and toon are loosing 2 - 1 with another scholes goal..............

Barbie Dog Poo

2007-01-02T00:03:00.000Z

There has been quite a lot of bad TV in my opinion this Christmas, but the worst, in my humble opinion was left to an advert for Barbie...

(Paul Scholes just equalised (12.05 am Tuesday)..... - see previous post....

Anyway, advert starts off ok, Barbie looks nice and she has a lovely little dog. Arrrr and bless, you can feed the dog treats. But as any good dog owner knows, dog treats makes prizes..... Poo prizes. Now I know there are a few people on this blog know my opinion about picking up dog poo, its should be banned, and dogs banned.....

So, anyway, you can feed the plastic barbie dog but you can also wag its tail where it then (pardon the french) shits the pelets out. In the advert there is a little pickup stick and a little bin to deposit the waste material. IS IT ME OR IS THIS JUST VILE.....

Will we see action man feeding his english bull terrier meat and seeing it come out the other end. No - so please, don't buy yourself or your children a pooing plastic poodle, frankly its probably shite.....

(apologies for the use of colorful metaphors, I am still irritated from my last post hehehe)

Gateway Vineyard and Newcastle Utd

2007-01-01T23:56:00.000Z

Just to let you know that the "plant" / "sister church" of Norwich Vineyard is starting Sunday Morning services. Gateway vineyards website and more information can be found here and I wish Hannah and Craig all my best for the future and its success / impact.

Now why has that anything to do with Newcastle United you may ask. WELL let me moan at hell (at the website and not my friends).... I had spent all day today waiting to watch Newcastle Utd v Manchester Utd, even having to put up with two hours of Tourchwood on BBC3 with my wife. So I decided to surf and went to the gateway website. On the right hand side there is a fantastic little scroller telling news and sport. As I arrived I caught side of Man Utd scrolling up. Being a sport fan, I naturally glanced over not expecting to see the DAMN RESULT. I went mental. Waited patiently as a lamb to see the game, recorded from SKY today to find the score out. I believe it was 2 - 2. I am hoping I might have, possibly, mistakenly seen something else, but I am fairly sure I didn't. At this point laptop lid was slammed and a few colourful metaphors directed at my computer were used.

James Milner for Newcastle had scored a beauty of a goal as I type. And its not a bad game....

Champion

A Few things to post about....

2007-01-01T23:53:00.000Z

I have had several things that I have wanted to post about....

1. Gateway Vineyard and Newcastle United....
2. Barbie Dog Poo
3. Best TV on over Christmas
4. Saddam Hussein
5. Weight - again
6. Hopes of 2007

I will start at the top of the list after posting this as its the most relevant and recent.....

Worlds smallest goalkeeper

2006-12-12T23:35:00.000Z

Is this the worlds smallest goalkeeper or what....

Lost III

2006-12-03T22:57:00.000Z

I think I am now watching my 3rd episode of series 3 of Lost.
The premise is that a plane has crashed landed on a mysterious island where there are other people there, and there is something all wierd - thats the incredibly short story. There is something about the island, something about the way people act or are affected.

Hence therefore there are a lot of theories around about what is happening on the island, what its all about etc. Here I would give my two top theories for those that have seen it (one I have read before, the other is one I have made up).

Theory 1 - Purgatory (My Theory)
Purgatory - defined in wikipedia is: which posits that those who die in a state of grace undergo a purification in order to achieve the holiness necessary to enter heaven.^[1] This purification of the elect is entirely different from the punishment of the damned in hell.^[2] The Catholic doctrine holds that the souls in purgatory undergo temporal punishment due to venial sins or as satisfaction due to their transgressions,

I cannot explain this theory or justify this theory so it extends to every part of the show, however it fits quite neatly when you exposition the characters a little (I will struggle with the character names mind). Furthermore, we have only seen in flash backs the most briefest of the history of the characters. However each of them seems to have issues or done something that they deeply regret or have had massive implications in their lives. A lot would appear to have father son relations that are damaged. This is evident in the black guy and his son, and in the asian couple (their baby) and the asian mans relationship with his father in law.
So my theory is that they are actually all dead, and they are playing out a dream sequence whilst they go through a purification and a temporal punishment for their past sins.
I also wonder if the "others" on the island are simply angles / demons / or challenges that they must face and are in fact not real other people. It would also do to explain why some of the people (not all) have been miraculously healed. Thats my theory.

Theory 2 - Experimental Island
Ok - I haven't thought much about this one but here goes. Its an experiment island which has gone wild - hence polar bears, the others, the bunkers. If you have watched it closely you would have seen a black cloud floating around. The theory goes that this cloud is nano robots (minature robots) that have taken on their own world and own control. This would go to explain why people are healed at times.
I don't have much more to say on it than that. Bit poor on the 2nd one but I like my theory.

A Man Of Many Blogs

2006-11-23T23:39:00.000Z

Hi

First time in my blogging world did I see one with so many blogs associated to the user.
Seems a nice guy and not meant to be sarcastic, just made me smile, thanks Mark

Check out his profile and read http://beta.blogger.com/profile/00162392116154997189

Cheers Mark - not meant to offend, I do like reading your blog.

Beach

2006-11-08T00:03:00.000Z

I decided that I wanted to take some photos at the beach on Sunday.
The weather wasn't fantastic but it was worth getting some fresh air at least. Just me and Max went and we had a great time ending with Fish and Chips snug and warm in our car getting greasy fingers on every part of the dashboard.

Surprisingly because the wind was heading north, the cliffs at Cromer gave a nice shelter. Here are some pics I took when we were there. Remember to check out my viewed.blogspot.com website where I try and regularly put pictures on.

Halloween

2006-10-30T00:05:00.000Z

Well Halloween is nearly upon us and we have been chatting in my house about how we handle this with Max.

There are some parts of Halloween that I very much dislike, one of them being the trick or treat around the doors. My main objection is the encouragement of children to go knocking on strangers doors for cash / sweets. I think if this is done with adults in a a supervised manner - its probably not that bad although I am not sure it is giving a good impression to young people. The other is probably the imagery used can be frightening - and I know this from experience.

When I was young (less than 10) I was taken on a ghost train. The experience has scarred me for life and I actually will not go on one today nor down any sort of dungeon (like at Norwich Castle). Therefore I know the experiences at a young age like this can have an effect.

I know some Christians will be jumping around and praying for peoples salvation from the devil for participating in Halloween. However I cannot help find myself think "hold on -what a load of cack your spouting". Yes, we need to be careful with imagery and what we are showing young children, and yes, we need to ensure careful handling of trick or treating. But at times we give the Devil too much credit I believe.

I do wonder how much of it is about fantasy and fear. I don't think there is particularly anything wrong with either of these, but like life in general, too much of it can have a negative effect. Sometimes, on the odd occasions, Christians need to take a chill pill. The Harry Potter books are an exact same argument as in Witchcraft and Wizardry and its hand in hand with Christianity. And yes, probably fair, witchcraft and wizardry plays little part in Christianity - likewise James Bond play little part in Christianity. One could argue that Harry Potter may lead to kids trying to perform spells, chants etc etc - could you not then also argue if kids read / watch 007 they might try and kill people? The answer is clear and is no - but for me proves how ridiculous an argument of whether Christians should read Harry Potter or not. Its fiction and likewise Halloween must be treated with a smile, some realism and some careful parental guidance as to what it really means.

ps - should you wish to send me sweets, chocolate or money for Halloween I can provide my addy.

Emerging Church and Culture

2006-10-23T21:57:00.000+01:00

The post title is a little bit deceiving possibly as I am not going to talk about emerging church / culture truly but about how people make it (to me at least) appear bizzare.

Around the local web (I mean local as in I have a bunch of blogs I read based in East Anglia) that have an element of church / christian based content. A lot of these seem for some reason to focus on emerging church.

However more than not I find myself getting completley irritated by most of them because they speak a language, write in a style and present in a manner that I think is probably more alienating generally. Often its not humble and can come across rude. There are exceptions, Paul and Heather for example, where they present in a manner which is less pressing and less covered in a fashion that prevents that alienation. At times I struggle to understand what even they are talking about - however they two of only a handful that generally make emerging church a little more appealing in my eyes. This may also have more to do with that fact I know them and can feel comfortable saying I don't understand.

But I have read so much stuff that assumes arrogance and a forthright attitude that I struggle to understand how any of it can be deemed as Christian in the least. Under the banner at times of church and emerging generation all other stuff I have seen people say that we should not love gay people, we should shoot people that have done something wrong, that people who appear threatening to our culture should be made to conform. All this presented in a banner of emerging church. Anyone who tries to claim this is church or an aspect of church are wrong.

The other thing is the language used. Words tend to be long and complex and probably beyond the understanding of the general person on the street. I understand that at times this is someones journey, and that the words used are their expression on that journey - but does it need to be alienating to others? If emerging church is in the process of deconstructing and reconstructing Christianity to engage with a western society (wikipedia) I wonder if it is really only achieving a self satisification in engaging with the Christian western society.

I am not knocking emerging church - its probably good and have little experience of it - but so far many blogs around me that claim to be poponents of it, more often than not draw me further to a conclusion that for most its a means of self satisfication. I fully understand the need to make church relevant and to de-bore that general attitude there is - and to engage in things the general western society understands. But it needs to be done careful (and reverently) that an emerging generation is not something seperate from the current generation.

Store Wars: Attack of the Clause

2006-10-21T21:48:00.000+01:00

Lost

2006-10-21T00:57:00.000+01:00

For those that care and are interested - there is a third series of Lost. Yeaahhhh

If you're not subscribing to sky for sky one - then you will be waiting a while as sky have bought the rights to the next series. boooooo

Thought I would let you know.

Pop

2006-10-17T22:16:00.000+01:00

Got the following from http://seehere.blogspot.com/ - its truly scary.....

http://axiomsun.com/home/video/how_much_sugar_is_in_a_can_of_soda.html

I will be wanting to try that on beer next.

Frightening.

Private Education

2006-10-12T00:53:00.000+01:00

Now I wish to point out that in general I don't favour private education over state education, likewise private health over NHS health for all the reasons you can argue about.

Nonetheless for a lot of people, including Heather and her post on the subject of choosing schools, is a hot topic. As I understand it applications for primary schools need to be submitted so a few people are looking around, checking ofsted reports and finding out whats what.

In a drive to cover all areas, we all trundled off to Notre Dame Prep School last Saturday. Notre Dame Prep is a private school over near Dereham Road. On first inspection the overall feel (in terms of building) was that is was no different than any other school, nothing special. We were presented with students doing some drama and some singing. We were then escorted around the building by two charming young girls. We then saw a demo of football and some more singing. We were told that students per class were currently about 8 which I understand is excellent. However our overall impression for a private school was somewhat dissapointing. Furthermore they made it clear that a lot of the education was aimed at a private school exam (or whatever it is called). This didn't really impress us too much either.

On Tuesday we trundelled along to St Johns Roman Catholic First School - in between Dereham Road and Earlham Road. The difference was stark. As soon as we walked into the first classroom, which was down a rainbow covered walkway, I knew this was the place. It was fantastic. The kids there seemed happy and it was geared up to be a place where you would learn about Christianity (as well as other religions too!!). The dilemma we have is there priority is Baptised Catholics, which neither myself, Max nor Amber are. However we didn't feel it right getting him baptised for the sake of a school. So we went and explained who we were, about our faith and the importance of an education with a christian input. They told us that they only took 60 people in each term, but had never rejected anyone so far. The school received an Ofsted mark of Outstanding last year.

SO there we go - goes to prove private education may give smaller class rooms but doesn't mean its the best education.

Advertising, damn it, really annoys me

2006-10-08T23:40:00.000+01:00

Apologies for the swearing in the blog (don't get me started though on what is and isn't swearing - thats another posting).

I was watching a recording on Sky+ tonight from Wednesday. On here I noticed an advert for Anadin - Double Strength.

http://www.anadin.co.uk/products/ultra/double/

What annoys me is its advertised as a wonder product but the truth of the matter is that it simply is 400mg of ibuprofen tablets where the recommended dose is 1 tablet (1 x 400mg)- compared to normal ibuprofen that is 200mg tablets where the recommended dose is 2 tablets (2 x 200mg).
Essentially the same amount and probably costs more. Just find it irritating really.

Furthermore, I wonder if there is any difference from a boots own brand 400mg tablet and this anadin double strength apart from the price difference being massive.

Charitable Giving

2006-10-02T00:23:00.000+01:00

I read with interest Heathers posting on bottled water, see http://heathercracknell.blogspot.com/2006/09/bottled-water-saving-world.html

Essentially the purchase of this water means that some money goes to worthy causes.
I think its good Heather points this out and I know her heart for these sort of things.
So thats cool.

But what annoys me is this - that this is seen as giving. I think its great that something you buy or purchase helps people out but the problem is there is no understanding about how much markup the selling companies like Tesco or Waitrose are making on this. Ultimatley if there is no benefit to them they won't sell it - I truly believe it. And I am fairly sure this is seen as a marketing opportunity more than anything else.

I choose to buy fairtrade coffee. Why? because I think or am led to believe that coffee farmers are poor and need support where possible. But do I see this as giving? - no - I see this as supporting an attitude of mind and of business. It it were giving I should give the money for the coffee straight to the coffee makers, then go and buy at an additional expense my coffee.

I have always ( and it might sound cocky ) seen giving as an action that deserves nothing in response. In some circumstances the long term results of your giving may or may not benefit you (I am thinking of such things as cancer appeals etc). If I give money to a friend, I don't expect them to want to be nicer to me, nor return the money or change in behaviour. I give it because they need it. The frienship is something else I invest in. There is a temptation to think that if I get nothing out of the giving I have made, its a worthless investment.

Giving is a one way channel and not a supermarket promotion or supermarket profit making excersise.

(PS: to make it very clear - I heartily respect Heather for her attitude in this area - she sets an example for us all to lead - I am not critiquing her, she's great - its our attitude to what is and isn't giving).

Health

2006-09-30T06:14:00.000+01:00

Well its been an interesting time with my health recently and I will tell a little what going on here. Although at this moment I have this horrible cough and cold that isn't shifting and it means for a second week in a row when I am leading worship means I will sound like barry white, which for a strong tenor is awful....

Anyway. About three or four weeks ago I was sitting watching TV when I noticed this "flash" in my eye. The way I explain it is if you look at a light bulb and then look away and blink, there is a residue image left behind that you can see that slowly disappears. Well I could see this little dot but it wasn't dissapearing. I talked about it to Emma and then rang my optician. (As an aside I have to say that my optician - Dipple & Conway - were excellent and for a proper optician, not a "glasses" place like specsavers, I would recommend them).

The optician did a thorough exam and they did a photo of the inside of the eye to find that I had suffered a slight bleed at the back of the eye. They were concerned enough to bypass my doctor and get me an appointment at the eye clinic the following day. They organised and arranged all of this. The hospital appointment was not fun. They told me not to drive to the appointment so a friend of mine took me.

The appointment confirmed the bleed but it also confirmed that my blood pressure was through the roof (and probably the cause of the bleed). They decided to do a full range of blood tests though to check for diabetes and other things as that could have been a cause as well. Having a blood test was fun for the reason that I had never had a blood test before in my life - partly through not really needing one - partly through a fobia of needles meant I never really pushed for one. I also got my blood pressure taken again.

The blood pressure was still high, so I was told I needed an ECG trace. Not having one of these before I was expecting a two hour lie down with monitors et al. In fact, it lasted about 20 seconds and I was in and out of the doctors in 3 minutes. I went back for another blood pressure check and that was still high so I was referred back to my GP.

The last meeting with the GP was fun. I am really blessed to have a doctor who is witty and fun and is prepared to talk and listen about things. To bring a long story to a conclusion is that the ECG was fine and the blood tests were fine apart from my thyroid was quite low. Consequently I am now having to take thyroid tablets for the rest of my life. Now this is a God thing in two senses. Firstly, I am asthmatic and have to take a range of inhalers which I have always had to pay for and secondly, a low functioning thyroid can have, to some degree, have a weight increase effect. Being diagnosed with a thyroid function means I now qualify for free prescriptions for the rest of my life. Secondly, taking thyroid tablets should mean with a diet I will see a more significant weight loss than I had in the past - which in turn should lead to a lower blood pressure.

Alsoafter a chat he decided that I may suffer from a condition known as sleep apnea. This is where I stop breathing during the night and wake myself up gasping for breathe. It sounds worse than it is and I rarely notice it. When I do notice it, its more annoying than anything else. Emma sees it more than what I do and she says it frightens her as I just stop breathing. I will be reffered to the sleep clinic at the hospital where hopefully this issue (and a snoring issue of gigantic proportions will be sorted).

The last thing (yes another thing). He asked me about my breathing and more so my nose. I have always breathed through my mouth as my nose is frequently blocked (at least one tube anyway). So now I am being reffered to the ENT (Ears Nose and Throat) clinic to see if I have polyps that are blocking my nose.

So there you go - all good fun - a friend said that it sounds like I am having a Health MOT. Certainly feels like it.

Spiders

2006-09-20T12:36:00.000+01:00

I know I am not the only one to notice but there are an awful lot of spiders around, and some big beasties as well.
Apparently this is all to do with the winter which was wet and warm and enabled successful spiders to hatch eggs.
Optimum breading apparently.

Anyway, here is a pic (which will appear on my viewed.blogspot.com at some point) of one I caught on camera at Blicking Hall.

viewed.blogspot.com

2006-09-17T00:04:00.000+01:00

Hi

Just a reminder that I am trying to regularly post to my photo blog.
If you have time drop by and leave comments on what you see.

http://viewed.blogspot.com

Amber update

2006-09-17T00:00:00.000+01:00

Just an update for those that are interested.
Nothing new to report really. Amber is well. Currently she is settled into a routine with a bath at 6.15pm and a feed at 6.30. Then she is put down by 7pm and is usually asleep.

Max then follows later around 7.30 - 8.00pm. We then wake Amber up for a feed around 10pm, then she will wake up aroun 2.15am, then carry on to morning. Some nights are better than others.

Amber is feeding well and mum was given permission to drive at week 5 by the doctors and insurance company. So good all round really.

I Hope

2006-09-12T22:01:00.000+01:00

Theres been a lot of posting about deserters, death and killing as well as the shadow of 9/11. Therefore this post really is to close of the subject for me for now and onto other things. I was listening to the dixie chicks on my way back from Ipswich and the words of this song, possibly a bit treacly, but well meaning seemed to hit the nail.....

Sunday morning, I heard the preacher say Thou shall not kill
I don't wanna, hear nothin' else, about killin'
And that it's God's will
Cuz our children are watching us
They put their trust in us
They're gonna be like us
So let's learn from our history and do it differently

CHORUS:
I hope For more love, more joy and laughter
I hope We'll have more than we'll ever need
I hope We'll have more happy ever afters
I hope We can all live more fearlessly
And we can lose all the pain and misery
I hope, I hope

Oh Rosie, her man he gets too rough
And all she can say, is he's a good man
He don't mean no harm He was just brought up that way
But our children are watching us They put their trust in us
They're gonna be like us
It's okay for us to disagree We can work it out lovingly
(Chorus)

For I hope
For more love, more joy and laughter (I hope)
You'll have more than you'll ever need (I hope)
You'll have more happy ever afters (I hope)
And you can all live more fearlessly
And you can lose all your pain and misery
I hope, I hope

There must be a way to change what's going on
No, I don't have all the answers

Steve Irwin

2006-09-05T01:19:00.000+01:00

I was genuinely saddened to hear the death of Steve Irwin (aka Crocodile Hunter).
He seemed such a caring, full of life person whose manerism has been copied I am sure many times.

He was killed by a Sting Ray. More details can be found here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/5313078.stm

9/11

2006-09-05T01:02:00.000+01:00

Its clear (by tv evidence) that there is plenty to remind us that the 5 Year anniversary since the the world trade center disaster.

I have watched two programmes this year partly, and probably wrongly because I was in New York earlier in the year and wanted to see something to remind of the trip. However I think it is a defining moment in current history and deserves special attention.

I don't really want to focus this post too much on the event and what lead to it, neither where we have ended up after it - but wanted to give a review of two programmes I watched so far.

The first was about a rookie firefighter at Ladder 1, just around the corner from ground zero. Basically a documentry group were following this fire fighter with cameras around as he graduated and joined the fire department. However, I think it was 8 weeks into filming when 9/11 hit. The documentry showed how the firefighter and the ladder 1 team worked capturing all the images, fears and emotions. I was struck that when the firefighters entered the WTC you could see the pillars and windows at the floor were buckled and cracked. It was a brilliant and shocking thing to watch. Furthermore it told what happened to the people afterwards and how their lives were changed.

The other documentry was about the 13 / 14 people that were the single surviving people in Tower 1 when it collapsed. Again, it was amazing the hear their stories, see what it was like where the people were etc etc. It was terribly moving as they introduced how relatives felt and how they struggled to get news about their loved ones. It also pointed out that the survivors would not have survived if it wasn't for a single woman that they decided to help.

Here is a picture of the remaining buildings and the gap where the WTC should be I took when I was there earlier in the year. Its a very solemn place and very thought provoking.

Christians shouldn't forgive

2006-08-28T23:31:00.000+01:00

I have been reading and adding comments to the following blog post by Ben - http://roughageman.blogspot.com/2006/08/conservatism-2.html

The thrust of it focuses around whether some deserters should have been shot to death or not in world war one. In his post he states categorically and I quote "In my eyes, there is no pardon for these men, just as there is no pardon for anyone else who thinks themselves above democracy."

I am not sure whether Ben claims to be a Christian or not, my impression is that he does. Neither do I know him personally so I cannot comment on his attitude per say - however - it has made me a tad annoyed.

I cannot believe anyone who is a Christian can portray such a message. Examining the statement he makes "... there is no pardon..." means that they should not be forgiven - is pardon not the same as forgiveness - or near enough. He therefore justifies these people being killed without any consideration. I can appreciate that people killing people is part of the world we live in, fair enough - but to support it and say its ok - is that right? He goes on to say that the people shot for dessertion had no consideration for those giving up their lives for freedom. A pointless and fruitless comment that only serves to bring about fear in peoples lives from within.

Jesus preaches forgiveness at all levels - as Christians we should stand up for justice, mercy and truth and not support this crappy world where people are "allowed" to kill other people because they are seen as weak and inferior. Jesus wouldn't so why should we. For God's sake get a grip.

Emma and Amber

2006-08-23T00:02:00.000+01:00

Two weeks tommorow and Amber was born so here is an update.
Em has had an infection and suffered somewhat. She is just starting an antibiotic 5 day course so we are hoping that has sorted stuff out.

All of us very tired and the quiet moments are very precious. Two children are much harder than one thats for sure. Anyway, here are two of my favourite photos I have captured.

Cider....

2006-08-12T00:45:00.000+01:00

I have always liked cider but over the past month or two I have seemed to have rediscovered it (unfortunatley via mass marketing).

My friends came down in July and when we were out one afternoon I didn't fancy lager, again. So I had some Magners cider ( you would have seen the advertising). Been lovely drinking it, especially with a tonne of ice in the glass. http://www.magnerscider.com/about-us/

The other is Frome Apple sweet cider. I have had a few friends drinking this and they thought it was one of the best cider drinks they have ever had. At 4.5 % its a weaker cider than most, hence the compromise in taste, but its Apple sweet is true to its word and is so drinkable. It can be bought in Tescos and has won many awards, details can be found here http://www.henneys.co.uk/products.htm

Enjoy a lot............. And use ice, it really makes a difference.

Amber Emma - more photos and update

2006-08-11T09:57:00.000+01:00

Hi

Emma is doing really well. She has had a few showers and can walk around which is great. Amber is feeding like a true Montgomery (not knowing when to stop). So everyone fine and I am hoping that Emma will be allowed home tommorow (Saturday) which would be great. Thanks for all your messages it means a lot: