From the top left: The bounty from a fantastic Easter egg hunt A pretty nice hire car for a work trip The foggy weather out the back view our house Mother’s Day presents, tied up with string A surprise bunch of roses for my wonderful wife Boxes of wands in Olivander’s shop at the Harry [...]
It’s odd how one small thing can instantly take you back in time, one particular song, or place. Taking a look back at the last few years, I see how far some fresh-faced university students have come since 2006.
I was going to call this post A new pad, and talk about the flat that now has “Let agreed” outside and is waiting for me, but then I realised I could be clever, call it Two new pads, and also talk about the iPad!
So my final year of University has begun! It’s odd to think that I started this course in September 2006, and I’m now three-quarters of the way through.
So, I’ve spent the last few days in Oxford preparing for and attending the wedding of Dan and Kita; the first wedding I’ve ever been to, and the first wedding I’ve been Best Man for. It’s been a hectic few days! Saying that speech was one of the most nerve-racking experiences of my life! I’d [...]
On Monday night, Annie and I went to see Wicked the Musical, at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London. She bought the tickets as a surprise present for me a couple of weeks ago, including Monday night in a 4 star hotel in Kensington. It was so much fun!
It’s been quite a while since I actually posted on here… Before I left work in fact! So a number of things have happened since then. I finished work on the 12th June. We had a good lazy Friday, finished the few bits and bobs we had to wrap up and then we headed down [...]
This time a couple of years ago, I hadn’t seen a single West End musical, let alone dream of seeing a Broadway musical. Now, however, I’ve seen (or am about to see) this fairly long list: Avenue Q – Noel Coward Theatre, London (A birthday present from Annie) Blood Brothers – Phoenix Theatre, London (Going [...]
I realised it’s quite a long time since I’ve written anything on here, Annie’s actually putting me to shame! So I’ll update you all on what I’ve been up to, as dull as it is.
Last weekend was Easter, and it was great to have a 4 day weekend! Annie was here for all of it, and we had a really good time. Saw 17 Again, the new Zac Efron film – it was a good lighthearted entertaining film. We actually had a really lazy time, cleaned the house, and just chilled out. I love spending time with that girl.
Oh my, was New York the most amazing city I’ve ever been to?? Yeah, I think it might just well be… It was a good holiday (or vacation should I say?). New York was everything I expected it to be, and more…
Annie and I head off to New York next week! When we booked it, it seemed like so far off… but now, it’s just around the corner, literally! It’s awesome, I can’t wait. Also in this post are some photos from Intensified, and from a photo expedition Dan, Kita and I embarked upon last week.
I want to be back in Portsmouth, I want to be back with Annie, I want to be back at King’s, I want to be back with all my friends, I want to be back where I can join in with any activities, I want to be back with a good church……
Annie and I go to the cinema quite a bit, so this year she decided she wanted to keep track of what we’ve been to see. I thought I’d write a post about the ones we’ve seen so far: Yes Man, Slumdog Millionare and Seven Pounds.
Yesterday I turned 21, and I had a long weekend of birthday events! It’s been one of the best birthdays I’ve had, and I’ve had a few… well, 21 I guess! Plus what’s coming up for me in 2009? New York, John Barrowman, and others….!
It really is a busy time of year around now. Everyone says that, but it is. Christmas meals, presents, family gatherings, new year, then my birthday, it’s all happening. Really looking forward to a bit of time off work, and to get stuck back in with life at home with my family.
On Saturday night, Annie and I went to see The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which is based on a book by John Boyne. This post explains a bit about the film. It’s definitely not a book or a film you want to read or watch if you’re after something funny or light.
This weekend turned out to be more eventful than planned. Ruth had arranged to come up for the weekend, and a bunch of people from King’s drove up here in a minibus to attend some Jesus Culture conference at a church in Reading, plus a spontaneous visit to Portsmouth and a surprise for Annie.
You can really tell it’s getting near winter – the cycle in to work this morning was certainly very very cold.
Jim has put online some photos he’s taken from the offsite day that our team had at Ascot last Friday, feel free to check them out! Friday also meant a meal at a friend’s house, Saturday was “meet-the-parents” and Sunday a BBQ opportunity to meet new people.
This coming week (including the next few days) seem packed with things to do: work under the nose of the big boss from America, a team day out at the Ascot racecourse (no Annie this time!), traveling back to Portsmouth for a meal with some family friends, meeting my girl’s family, Ruth’s 22nd, Student Welcome BBQ, and more…
Quite exciting news today! Annie and I have booked a holiday in March to New York, of all places! So on the 19th March, we’ll be boarding a Virgin plane and travelling 8 and a half hours, 3 and a half thousand miles to the Big Apple.
Made lovingly on Sunday by Annie (with a little help from me!)
So it’s been a very long time since I updated this! And since I’m sat at work waiting for a machine to reboot (which it estimates will take up to 20 minutes!) I thought I might as well give you guys a run-down on what’s been going on recently.
I haven’t updated this blog in a while, so I realise there’s probably quite a lot to catch up on. This post is simply an update of what’s been going on the last few days and what will be happening the next few!!
Life seems more and more strange recently. It’s getting near exam time, it’s getting near the end of the year, a lot of coursework is due to be done, and a lot of things are happening at church etc; yet it seems that as life gets busier, everything gets far more relaxed.
University has started again, which is awesome. I really missed everyone over the Easter holidays, and it’s great to see everyone back at King’s, as well as the people from my course. It’s good to have things to be doing all day, it’s good to be “busy” again.
I’ve been reading quite a few blogs recently where people have decided to take on a project to do something daily for 365 days (in other words, a whole year). A lot of these people are going to take a photo each day that depicts their life that day…
They look really good… I want some for myself now!! They even have a cool website to design your patterns on. And they have a unique way of sticking to the wall that apparently leaves no mark… we will see when we take them down at the end of the year..
It’s nice to reach the end of this week. It seems to have been particularly hectic, from about last Thursday/Friday onward. Friday was the house meal, Saturday was the gig, Sunday has church and things, tidying the house from the Friday, Monday was a very long day of lectures, Tuesday had the party for the [...]
So why am I so shattered?? I’ve been constantly tired this week, for no apparent reason – it started last Friday when we had our house meal, after that we intended to stay up and do something, a mini-party or something, but we were all so tired we just went to bed at 10. What’s [...]
It’s officially Christmas in our house now – advent calendars are up, presents are being wrapped, lights are in the windows, and the tree is up!!
Here you go Jen – gives you something to read! Where did I finish last time? Some thing about Thursday evening. Welll we had a fairly eventful weekend! Friday must have been the day we played rounders with a cricket set on the common with Jen Hotton and some of her “Fizzie” friends as she [...]
It’s the third time I’ve been, but the first I’ve been with Ineke, Dan and Ruth! It was good this year. A couple of new things to do, such as the opportunity to see how quickly you could change an actual F1 tyre (on an actual F1 car) on the Toyota stand. Dan, Tessa and [...]
This weekend has been manic, so busy. I was up at half 7 on Saturday morning to be in the square for 8 where we were to be setting up the stage and everything ready for the event. The stage was really interesting to set up – it basically folds out of the side of [...]
First things first – I’ve added new images to my blog. Each post will (hopefully) have an image associated with it that will show up on the right :) Comments on the positioning would be nice! I had a couple of opportunities to try out my new snooker cue last week, one on Wednesday and [...]
It’s one year old!!! Well, I should have done this a few days ago (on the 7th), but it’s close enough. I’ve been blogging (on this particular blog) for a year now. Doesn’t seem that long really… not compared to Toni but then he’s been blogging for ages. It’s really intersting reading through some of [...]
Three very different films seen three weeks running (and only £2.60 for each!) and I’d find it hard to say which one I prefer most, as they were all so different. Hot Fuzz I saw with Ruth Clare and Dan. It is a very very funny film! From the makers of Shaun of the Dead [...]
I’ve been dabbling in Pixel Art today… Just thought I’d post a couple of things I’d made:
I’ve written a game of Snap in Javascript for John, you can play it here! Meanwhile, time for that long blog I promised… On Wednesday, after work, I got the train up to Ineke’s :) Had to get a bus to Fratton, a train to Southampton Central and a different train to Bath Spa, but [...]
But the Internet’s playing up, so a longer post tomorrow!
Is a very good film, I’d recommend it to anyone! Despite the fact that it was Hugh Grant playing Hugh Grant it was still good! Interesting too, if a bit far fetched at times! Went into Bristol today, was very suprised at how un-smoggy it was! We saw someone get hit by a car… luckily [...]
Apparently there wasn’t any when Ineke left for her 8:15 lecture, but it was starting again when she left and now its covering the ground again! And nobody’s been out to mess it up, so it’s still white and clean and smooth. I stayed in bed while Ineke whent to her 8:15 and her 9:15, [...]
There’s snow everywhere! It’s so white and cool… but unfortunately I’m not in Portsmouth so it’s not really snowing at home… but I’m in Bath with Ineke and theres snow everywhere!! I might get a chance to use that ‘snow’ setting on the camera… Ineke’s shower hasn’t improved… still feels like I’m standing under a [...]
With o2! I rang them, and played them off against Orange, said what I could get from them and they’ve done better :) 250 any time minutes and 550 texts all for £25, which is basically less than I’m paying atm for more stuff! Woo! Monday or Tuesday it’ll arrive… Oh yea, and I’m getting [...]
First exam today… but that’s not what I’m talking about! Dan, Ineke and I played pool today, and I won 6 out of the 9 games!! Ineke won 2 (:O) and Dan only won 1!! Hehe! And to explain Dan’s latest blog post, we were playing a game of pool called Cut-throat, where you have [...]
I haven’t blogged yet in the New Year, so… Happy 2007!
That’s what it’s starting to feel like! I’ve either been busy, or too tired, or some other reason. Oh well, got a lot of catching up to do! I suppose you’re all wondering what I got for Christmas? Those of you who don’t already know that is… A really nice 250Gb external harddrive by Lacie, [...]
Clearing out your computer is harder than it seems. I’ve been trying to free up some disk space on my harddrive, by deleting programs, data, etc. But deciding which programs I don’t need is really hard! You would have thought, oh yea, I don’t use that program often, lets get rid of it, but quite [...]
Seeing as I haven’t since Tuesday! I’m writing this on Dan’s Mac… woo! It’s only Ineke and I in the room, Dan and Kita are still walking here from Jamocha’s… we drove! hehe. I like driving :) haven’t done it in a while so it’s nice to be back in the car. We’re going to [...]
I may have completely finished my Christmas shopping today :) hopefully. We had our Christmas Meal in the flat on Sunday. Hayley, Ineke and I cooked the roast chicken, roast potatoes, peas, carrots, yorkshire puddings and gravy, then dished it out to everyone else. We also had really cool crackers :) It was a really [...]
I haven’t blogged in soooo long! This time I’m going to try and blog every day for over a week! Like Dan has… We’re sat in Dan’s flat listening to Christmas music and chatting about Live Aid… We’ve just got back from playing Pool down Gunwharf where I only won one game and that wasn’t [...]
Why am I getting so lax with my blogging? Maybe it’s just that I have better things to do and don’t want to be up til some unearthly hour in the morning blogging… Anyway, since I last blogged a fair bit has happened. Ineke and I had a really nice breakfast on Saturday then went [...]
To win just one game of pool :( Oh, and a Mac Mini or Macbook :D
We’re now sat in Dan’s living room playing playstation and eating spaghetti on toast :) It’s been a long day!! Got up at 9, and didn’t do much except pack and talk to Ineke until i left for the train station at 1. We met Adam and Adam, and got the train to Oxford. We [...]
Seeing as its now Wednesday afternoon and last time I blogged was Sunday… So what have I done since then? Well Monday was the usual hectic Monday. Dan didn’t get home from Oxford due to train things and generally being shattered. So I had the first lecture on my own, but it turned out to [...]
So… Friday was an interesting day! Got up and met Kita from the station with Clare (Ruth), then we went back to mine to dump her stuff and on to meet Dan at Jamochas! They looked happy to see each other, bless them! Kita, Clare (Ruth) and I then wandered round Palmerston Road, bought a [...]
It’s been quite a busy week so far! I last blogged on Monday evening so I’ll pick up from there… Dan now has a new blog! It’s powered by WordPress, and Dan, Kita and I have upgraded my hosting to a more expensive package and are sharing the costs. We can now each have our [...]
If I blog for too long I know that many of you will stop before you even finish this sentence, so I’ll try and keep it short and sweet! I haven’t blogged in so long some of you might be thinking I’ve died, but I can assure that’s not the case! Here come the subheadings… [...]
It’s Thursday morning, and I haven’t blogged about yesterday yet! Oh no! Well here we go… I’m sat in a lecture atm, Electronic Communicatoin Networks, learning about Flow Control :S lol we have a peer-marked test later so hope I can remember stuff! Yesterday we had another one of our B164L Labs, programming the microcontrollers. [...]
For the day, as it would have spoilt the mood of the last post… When at Rome, do as the Romans do.
So my weekend in Bournemouth, huh? Yea, it was fun :) We had a good time. On Sunday morning I got up when I woke up, and washed up all the stuff that was left on the worktop from the night before, then dried it all up and put it away! No doubt in all [...]
Is where I am right now. Sat round a table chatting to Tessa, Suzie and Ruby. The rest of the house have gone to bed. We’ve been out to Wetherspoons this afternoon, it’s so much easier going out in Portsmouth, everything is so much closer and cheaper, we don’t have to get a taxi just [...]
I’m currently sat on the floor in Dan’s flat and I have a very numb bum. Maybe I should move. Or not! I wonder when we’ll be kicked out? Shall I see how long we can last before Dan does kick us out… Us being me and Ruth, we’re sat listening to music. Anyway, today [...]
I don’t know what it is, but I feel much closer to my group of friends at Uni than I did to my group of friends at college (Ineke excluded!). Maybe it’s the fact that the main group of friends I hang around with are Christians, and that I spend every lecture (other than a [...]
Has been long and fun and is now over :( and I don’t know where to start blogging! From the beginning would be a good place I suppose! Toby the Terrier Thursday evening – I caught the train (just), and then had a long and boring train journey with not much to do but read [...]
At least there was hot water today! But I’m just used to a much more powerful shower, that’s all. Longer blog later maybe!
Was really quite good. We all sat round tables, very informal, while there was a jazz quartet playing on the stage. Then the guy chatted for a while, told a few funny stories, got the God message in there, and told a few more funny stories. We walked back from South Parade Pier and here [...]
I had my RSA Training yesterday. It meant I had to get up earlier than I otherwise would, being at 10 when my lecture wasn’t til 2, but it was ok. We were basically taught how to use the House on the Hill software, and told what to do etc, and given our bright purple [...]
So where did I finish off last blog? Oh yes, Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning! On wednesday I had no lectures, so got up quite late and had a lazy morning doing nothing that I can remember! At 3, 6 of us met outside James Watson to go bowling down Gunwharf. There was me, James, [...]
So its been an eventful day. A lecture in the morning, followed by a small group tutorial. My tutor is Manish Malik, and there are 4 of us in the tutor, two doing Internet Technology, one doing Communications Engineering and the other doing Engineering Analysis. I had to go shopping before lectures began today; I [...]
Since I’ve blogged. But that’s because Ineke’s been down and it’s been a fantastic weekend. But she’s just left on the train, and it was unbelievably hard to watch her walk through the barrier with tears streaming down her face. But she’s gone now, and I’ve just got back from the station. I bought a [...]
Sketch of Dan, drawn without looking When did I last blog? This morning at 2… ok. Today has been rather lazy. I woke up late, met Ruth at 12. She had a strange request from a friend of hers in London to find a pen with “University of Portsmouth” written on it, so I took [...]
I don’t have to be up until 11 tomorrow so I can justify staying awake this late… besides, I’ve only just got back from Adam’s house where we’ve been having an Xbox Halo 2 workout – me and Dan against Adam and Dan (WeeManDan). I’m not sure who won overall; we played loads of games. [...]
I have come to the deep and meaningful conclusion that people are afraid of banks. The queue for a cash machine outside a bank usually stretches halfway down the street when the queue for any machines *inside* the bank can be only one or two people… it doesn’t make sense. Illogical. Oh well, makes life [...]
That’s the simple truth of it isn’t it? The Lord is gracious and compassionate. We wouldn’t be here if He wasn’t. Praise the Lord, oh my soul, praise the Lord. I was reading Dan’s blog where he had listed his favourite worship song, answering questions like “One worship song that has changed your life?” and [...]
Well I haven’t blogged properly since a day less than a week ago. So what has happened since then? Not a lot really… Sunday morning I did absolutely nothing that I can remember… saw Dad and picked up some glasses that I wanted at uni because he had to come in to sort out some [...]
Well I’ve been here for a day now. It’s been a busy couple of days! Actually, today has been rather boring so far, but I still feel tired… Moved in yesterday, got all my stuff in my room and was bascially finished by half 12. I was the first one in my flat, but a [...]
Well tonight is it, the last of my life has been packed into boxes ready for shipping off to start a new home in a new place. OK, so it’s not quite that dramatic, but I have packed away most of the posessions that I use on a regular basis into boxes, including all my [...]
I stopped off at the chip shop the other day, and pulled a ten pound note out of my wallet to pay for the chips. And I discovered today, that that same ten pounds could buy clothing for over a dozen refugee children in Burma and Thailand. Shocking. It really makes you think doesn’t it? [...]
Well, from me anyway. We basically moved Suzie and all her worldly possessions (well, it seemed like it) into her new house today. Me and Mum drove up in Smo, and Suzie and Dad went in the Mazda; there was only two free seats in the Mazda after all Suzie’s stuff, and one was needed [...]
Well, officially not until tomorrow, but we had her goodbye meal tonight, just me, Ineke, Suzie and Tessa. We drove to the Osbourne View, presumably so called because you can see Osbourne on the Isle of Wight from it’s windows. We had a three-course meal, after which we went and walked around in the dark [...]
Without a single thought for the others. The parable of the greedy farmer: Luke 12:13-21. We have built our barns and filled them with all the crop we have grown – our wealth, our own little insurance for when life might get tougher in future, our own little fall-back for when ends might not meet [...]
I went to my first wedding yesterday. It was quite an experience! By ‘my first wedding’ I mean the first wedding I have attended, not the first of my own weddings… I don’t plan on having more than one. It was an interesting time, Graham looked petrified before the service, seemed a bit more relaxed [...]
One’s drawing to a close, another one is just about to begin. In between, though, is two weeks of nothing-ness. It’s my last day at work today. OK, so I’ve only been working at the University for 8 weeks, but it’s just another thing coming to a close. I had my last rehearsal for the [...]
Well it’s been a fairly eventful weekend! It started off fairly badly, Saturday morning was boring… But the afternoon was spent playing the Sims 2 (University) with Tessa and Suzie which proved to be entertaining when they decided to make themselves. In the evening Ineke came round from work and ate with us, then stayed [...]
Finally free! I had my train tracks taken off my teeth on Friday after 6 years of wearing them!!! But now I have to wear an annoying retainer every night indefinately :( Had to work yesterday which was boring as usual, but I could smile at people with my pearly white teeth! Now I’m sat [...]
They’re now online – the Chick Flick Movies. Me and a few other people from college were messing around with small Easter chicks, and generally being quite mean to them – so we decided to film it! The 12 completed movies can be found here, or by clicking the title above. They’re available in WMV [...]
Well, I’ve added some Spring Harvest photos to the gallery, along with some Iceland photos. Once again, if you want to see the photos please contact me for the username and password! You can now also comment on the photos… I’ve just done that in the last hour. I’m sat in the Internet Cafe at [...]
Went to TGI Fridays yesterday for Holly, Sarah and Nathan’s 18th Birthday party… It was a really good evening! I think I may have eaten too much though… I’ve put all the photos I took online (click this post title for the gallery) but you need a password to access them, so ask me if [...]
Well I finally have a layout that I’m happy with! I don’t know how long I’ll keep this layout before I decide I actually don’t like it, but we’ll see!
Theres not much point in having a blog if no-one reads it and those that do don’t bother to comment on it.
Well Spring Harvest is over this year… The picture is of Zoe, one of the girls I stayed with. The other one was Hannah but I don’t think I managed to get a nice picture of her! Spring Harvest was good after a shaky beginning. What was fantastic was not only were there good seminars [...]
Spring Harvest tomorrow… I’m posting this from Ineke’s computer, she’s gone to get me a drink (she knows her place!)… I’m staying over tonight, whoop! Pillows at the ready… Helped at the Romsey Baptist Church Youth Club tonight… Got my CRB forms to fill in, well, the first lot anyway. It’s really quite annoying that [...]
Started watching Tremors 4 – The Legend Begins tonight… It starts good, but I stopped watching it to ring Ineke, I’m on the phone to her at the moment. You may notice from her previous blog that she isn’t in the best of moods tonight. I don’t like arguing with her, and I don’t like [...]
Its Mother’s Day today… I bought my mum the new Jack Johnson album, and John and Suzie got her some other stuff. Gave her her cards and presents between main course and pudding of the roast dinner which me John and Suzie prepared for her… John forgot to put my baked beans on though and [...]
Booked the flights yesterday – fly out at 8:25 (arrive 9:10) and back at 18:40 (arrive 19:25)… I also picked the seats we’ll be sat in, and its a titchy plane, tho I suppose it would be, only going accross the channel. Sat in the Internet Cafe at college atm with nothing to do… Sat [...]
Well we’re off to Jersey finally! The hotel has been booked (www.highlandshotel.com) and we have the confirmation letter – just need to send off the deposit! And then Ineke needs to pay me for her half… :P So now we need to decide what we’re going to do on the four days that we’re there! [...]
I have now finished my latest project – to provide a way of archiving the leaders topics on the BPCU site so that only the old leaders can read them. Rather proud of it, to be honest! Thats if it works at all, seeing as I havent tested it because its irreversable… Oh well, I’m [...]
There are benefits to not having to go to computing pratical lessons anymore… I have a free, I don’t have to do any work, I can do whatever I like, I can roam the college, I can eat, etc… But there are also downsides. Mainly the fact that now I have this free, I don’t [...]
Well tonight has been a very boring evening! Spent most of it rebooting, uninstalling, reinstalling and even contemplating defragging, which shows how bored I must have been… For some time now my Camera Capture software hasn’t been working, so I decided I would get that working and I think I’ve installed the same piece of [...]
I don’t understand what the uproar about the Da Vinci Code was all about, I mean, so it has blashpemy in it, but it is only fiction, and surely plenty of other books contain similar stuff that the Church doesn’t get upset about? Such as His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman… that talks of [...]
I apologise for the last few posts, I was not in the best of moods! Anyhow, I’m feeling better today… Had a rehearsal for the sunday morning 11am service last night – did a new song which I’ve not seen before, “Worship God with the morning sunrise” – its quite a good song, very upbeat [...]
I dont much see the point in having a blog if nobody reads it and if they do read it they dont bother to comment…
Well thats that. End of our plans to go to Jersey. Woo lets go to *Devon* instead its *so* exciting there.
Physics is rubbish! I don’t know why anyone would want to do it… I have a double free with Ineke atm but I have nothing to do because she’s doing her physics coursework… So yah boo to physics. Also, its not looking very hopeful at all that we’re gonna get to go to Jersey, we [...]
I now have two people who have emailed me about taking over the CU site… How do i decide which one? I suppose I need to talk to both of them, find out which has more knowledge of PHP, MySQL and the Internet… I will be sad to give it up though, I like doing [...]
I’m sat in maths.I’m bored. We’re supposed to be doing Recurrance Relations in Excel but they’re really really really boring, and I’ve done mine, Ineke’s just trying to get Excel to do what she wants, its not happening atm! I’m very boredBut i *am* sat next to the most beautiful girl in the world… I [...]
I’m in a free at the moment and have nothing to do. I’ve been trying to get a new script to work on BPCU, but the server is being so slow to respond i’ve given up trying to save the new file, it keeps taking longer than the allotted 30 seconds that net2ftp allows… I’m [...]
Its monday morning now, tho u can tell that from the time this was posted…I’m sat in college, waiting for my free to end so I can go and join Ineke in our next lesson, go recurrance relations!Ineke’s currently in FP2, taught by Kathy until Paul gets back, she was so tired this morning bless [...]
Oh yea i almost forgot… But i didn’t quite forget coz i’m not *that* rubbish8 MONTHS WITH INEKE :DWhat more could I want?!
I really need to create a new design for this blog, but I’m currently having a mental block and can’t think of any designs… Its not good… lol I need some ideas for websites, i wanna change this design and the design of bencardy.co.uk So any ideas would be helpful!!! Anyway, on a better note… [...]
Woo i have a blog, powered by Blogger… I must change the template, when I get around to it…
