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Tuesday 5th December 2006
 This is something to do with the PM programme on Radio 4. Maybe I should
put a link in at this point. There. But yes . . . in
the days previous I had been made aware of some kind of Window on the World thingy, where
listeners where asked to take a picture at exactly 5pm, and send it in. Seems like they got a
bit overwhelmed by the response. Several thousand photographs. I don't particularly listen to
this programme; it just happens to be on whilst I'm making dinner. That night, just before
5pm, I was in the process of getting changed, you see. Hence the shoes.
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Saturday 9th December 2006
 
Tonight we had my parents, brother and sister-in-law round for dinner. We had no idea how
cold it was outside. These pictures are of ice on the top of our car, at about half past ten
that night.
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Monday 11th December 2006
At last Blimey, that was an effort. One day, a long, long, long time ago, I tried to turn my computer on but
nothing much happened. Things whirled away as normal, but the LEDs on the keyboard were ominously
blinking and the monitor wasn't doing anything. All very strange. Then I thought I would try my luck at
the local computer shop, Bebbgee Computers (or whatever). Perhaps not the best idea. It took them a
little over two weeks to decide that the motherboard was buggered, and the CPU too. So I send them both
back to Scan, where I obtained those parts not too long ago, and asked that they replace any faulty
parts. They found something wrong with the motherboard, but could not find anything wrong with the CPU. A
new motherboard was returned along with the old CPU. Only trouble now is that Bebbgee left in some dodgy
video card and kept mine, so I'm having to do all this remotely. Ah well. So that's what happened.
Computer was broken. Miscellaneous bits and pieces have happened over the last few weeks, with
accompanying pictures, but it's slightly inconvenient not having a working monitor on the main PC, so the
pictures may have to wait. Ho hum.
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Friday 15th December 2006
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Something odd is definitely going on here . . . my web-site keeps
getting accessed by the strange web bot thingies. Several thousand hits
in the space of a few days. That can't be right. It makes it very
difficult to spot the one or two genuine hits.
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That first paragraph was probably written in the early hours of this morning. Later on, this being M****'s birthday, we went out for lunch to a pub in Grange, or near enough . . . somewhere around there. The pictures of A****** with the crayons are significant - he actually sat there with his crayons, perfectly happy, for about an hour. Then Mark had to collect his car from this BMW/Mini dealership. We left Mark there and went home. Me, M****, Liz, Antony, Helen and Stu went out for dinner at the Golden Dragon that night (no pictures) and then had a few drinks at the Penny Bank.
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Sunday 17th December 2006
    
Today we did go over to Ambleside to visit M****'s grandparents. I feel like I should write more on this, but a voice at the back of my head says that I'm only writing anything in this space in order to sort out the positioning of those two images to the bottom right there.
My computer keeps locking up. It's getting rather annoying. Ever since I bought this new motherboard, weird things keep happening. It doesn't help  
that Bebbgee lost my original nVidia-based video card and have dumped me with some wretched ATI thing (All-in-Wonder?! Hello?) and my computer really doesn't like that one. Hmmmmm. So yes. Oooo, that reminds me - I've got to collect a 10lb turkey tomorrow (today is actually Friday 22nd December) at some point. Might need to clear some space in the garage. Hmmmm. Right. Better hang those damp clothes up anyway.
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Monday 18th December 2006
So yeah . . . Bebbgee Computers (or whatever) have lost my original nVidia-based AGP graphics card, so have lent me some kind of ATI 9600 something or another. All very odd. So just trying to configure it right now. I don't think much happened today, except for collecting a table from M****'s dad's place. The old one has gone in the garage, pending a strip down and re-varnish. Erm . . . some stuff happened over the weekend (did it?) and there's some pictures. Bit busy right now with other things . . . Christmas cards and tidying and what-not.
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Saturday 23rd December 2006
So, the 100,000 external visitor to my web-site is . . . .66.249.65.113. But they look like a web-bot, as do the next few. Hit number 100,006 has the IP address 87.248.160.134 and seem real enough. So who are you? I think this person deserves a prize. I did a little investigation and they have visited my web-site three times now (well, at least, that IP address has) and have a strange ISP, starnet.md (Republic of Moldova?!). Hmmmm. I suspect this prize may lay unclaimed.
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Sunday 24th December 2006
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Yes, things. 11lb of turkey, lurking in the garage. But other things . . . I've managed to stabilise my computer. I think it really, really, really did not like the ATI graphics card, and anything to do with it. I now have a nVidia one and have removed all traces of ATI-related modules/drivers and we haven't had any kind of crash for long time now. So that's good.
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. . . and then later on I finally got round to putting in photographs taken that day. Liz and Simon were staying over that night and, during the evening, Justin and Anna popped round, as did Mark.
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Monday 25th December 2006
       
Hmmmm, Christmas-like things. Last year the volume of presents and the amount of unwrapping required seemed to freak A****** out a bit, but this time he coped much better with things. So yeah . . . it was all good. The day started with a cooked breakfast and, as we didn't have breakfast until about 11 o'clock, lunch was set back to about 3 o'clock. Lunch being the full blown traditional Christmas thing, with previously mentioned 11lb turkey and all the bits that go with it. M**** went for a nap at about 7pm, other people went for a walk, and I kind of pottered around a bit. After supper (for want of a better term), there was drinking to be done and games to be played. That's me trying to mime 'yell', as this word rhymed with something else.
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Tuesday 26th December 2006
    
Today we (as in me, M**** and A******) did go over to my parents' house for lunch.
As can probably be deduced from the photographs, the rest of my family was in attendance. There was also a camcorder involved in today's events, but I have yet to collect the tape for that. Hmmmm. I'm trying to think what else happened today. Erm . . . nope - mind's a blank.
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Friday 29th December 2006
Oh, hello. What with all the Christmasy things, I haven't really had a chance to make many updates here, except for dumping in a few photos. Yesterday was a decidedly quiet day. We popped into town for a few bits and pieces ('Return of the King' special, anniversary, never-before-seen-footage, extended, 13.1 channel sound, 5-d holographic imagary, all for only £3.97. Bargain). Then, late afternoon, Mark popped round. We had coffee and then a wander around Williamson's Park, where A****** did much walking and then a quick play in the playground. The playground was empty, on account of it being dark. Great. Then, in the evening, we just watched said DVD. And today is Friday, though it feels like Sunday. Hmmmm.
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This is something to do with the PM programme on Radio 4. Maybe I should
put a link in at this point. There. But yes . . . in
the days previous I had been made aware of some kind of Window on the World thingy, where
listeners where asked to take a picture at exactly 5pm, and send it in. Seems like they got a
bit overwhelmed by the response. Several thousand photographs. I don't particularly listen to
this programme; it just happens to be on whilst I'm making dinner. That night, just before
5pm, I was in the process of getting changed, you see. Hence the shoes.
Tonight we had my parents, brother and sister-in-law round for dinner. We had no idea how
cold it was outside. These pictures are of ice on the top of our car, at about half past ten
that night.
