A Garden Visitor

I'm sure you'll all be glad to know that we didn't waste our time while snowed in on Wednesday 8-)

I must admit that my head is now a little cold as he's wearing my hat. But there really is no need for sympathy as I have a spare.

Regards
Chris
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Have we turned soft down south?

On Tuesday evening it started to snow. By 6:30 Wednesday morning it was 4" deep and 2 hours later, 6" deep. This raised several questions for us at home.

1 - Would my son's school be open?

2 - Would I get a train to work?

3 - Who would look after Junior if his school was closed?

The first question was answered quite quickly by the local radio station. Question 2 looking like a definate no, which made the 3rd one easy to. It would be yours truly and Mrs P could walk to work. That wasn't a popular decision apparently, but a practical one none the less.

By Wednesday evening it was clear that Juniors school would be closed again on Thursday. This time Mrs P was to stay at home & I would try the train. To my surprise I had very little trouble getting to work and I even got a seat!!

Today (Friday) the school was still closed. Unable to get any child care, we decided to both go to work and trust Junior to stay at home on his own. After all he is now 13, he had everyone's phone numbers to hand and it was only for 4 hours. It all went very well and when I phoned him, he was sick of people checking up on him.

All this brings me to my main point.

Q- Are we so soft now that the powers that be won't let our little darlings into school because it's a bit slippery and they might fall over?

Q- Or are the schools worried that they'll get sued if one of their charges takes a tumble?

What kind of example is this setting for our youngsters? At this rate they'll grow up thinking it's ok to stay off work because it's a little nippy out!

Regards
Chris
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Posted from my iPhone

London Fox in the Snow

I found this quite amazing photo on the LBC Website. I wish I'd taken it, but sadly not.

From the LBC Website

Our friends at Bread and Shutter Photography sent us this magnificent photo of a fox in the London snow.

Uploaded on 6 Jan 10

Regards
Chris
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Sent from my iPhone

New Year, New Job

After a somewhat turbulent 2009, I am now looking forward to 2010 with renewed hope. The main reason for this positive outlook is that today I start a new job, having been made redundant from my old one in December.

That was a first for me, which makes me lucky I suppose. There are many others who are nowhere near as lucky. In fact I had secured a new position before I had even left.

Anyway, I'm now waffling.

Happy New Year to all in the blogging world.

Regards
Chris

Have I Sold Out?

As a geeky lover on technology, I do love a good gadget. There are people who are obsessed with all things Apple, but I wasn't one of them. Until now that is.

I was recently working with quite a few of these obsesive types and some of it seems to have rubbed off. On Wednesday, after much careful consideration, I bought myself an iPhone 3GS. It wasn't cheap, but I'm extremely impressed and haven't put it down since. In fact I'm writing this blog on it now.

How sad and I? LOL

Regards
Chris
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Sent from my iPhone

For Geeks Of A Certain Age

I stumbled on this on Youtube and I had to share it. lol.






Regards



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The Camden Triangle

A colleague and I are currently working night shift on an LUL Signalling project in London. We must have really annoyed some one in the company, as we are on permanent nights for the whole of the summer. In fact we haven’t been to our Croydon Office since February this year. Although we haven’t actually been anywhere near Coventry, we both feel as if that’s where we’ve been sent. However, in the current economic climate at least we can say we still have our jobs where many thousands of others don’t. Of that I’m very grateful indeed.

One thing that we have noticed while in London is that my colleagues TomTom Go700 SatNav keeps drawing us into the one way systems round Camden and refuses to let us out again. The SatNav constantly tries to send us the wrong way down one-way streets, making it very difficult to get out of the area. On our first visit we managed to drive round Mornington Crescent tube station at least five times!!!!

I can only assume that the road directions in Camden have been changed since he last updated his maps about two years ago. We have since avoided the area at all costs.

The moral of this story is –

Don’t forget to regularly update your SatNav’s mapping information.

You have been warned.

Regards



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We're On A Road To Nowhere

After months of not being able to ride my bike due to lack of time, work commitments and financial constraints, I’ve finally got my beloved CBF1000 back on the road. In fact since November 2008 I’ve gone from being an everyday hairy arsed biker type covering 12,000 miles a year to a virtual non-rider. In that period from November to May I think I’ve ridden no more than 200 miles.

However, just before Easter I had my bike serviced and hoped to get out that weekend. The trouble was that the service showed up a rear brake problem. The pads where right on the limit and needed changing immediately, but unfortuantly I was unable to get replacements in time. I finally managed to hunt down the required pads last Friday and I fitted them on Saturday.

On Sunday morning, Pablos and I set off at last for our much anticipated trip. The plan was to ride to Bury Hill, hoping to meet up with like minded members of the World famous Bury Hill Bikers. We had travelled about 8 miles from my place, when Pablos pulled into a layby. One of his rear indicators had stopped working, so we set about fixing it at the road side. It didn’t take too long to cure, but that’s when the real fun started.

His bike failed to start and refused all attempts to persuade it into life. Even the usual push start wasn’t working this time around. We spent the next hour and a half sitting at the side of the road watching the world go by, until his Wife arrived by car with jump leads and more tools.

It took under a minute to get his bike fired up and there was just enough time left for a quick dash to his place for tea before I made the short journey home.

It wasn’t how either of us had intended to spend our Sunday morning and I felt really bad for him as he was probably blaming himself for messing up the ride. I tried my best to put him at ease and after all, we did get out and have a laugh. Missing out on our now customary “Bikers Breakfast” probably won’t do us any harm either.

Next time I’ll make sure he’s packed jump leads before we set off 8-)


Regards



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Women Pays £50 to Call Off Contract on Husband

A Turkish Cypriot Woman from Tottenham North London was depressed and fed-up with her Husband, she decided to have an affair. While chatting to a fellow Mum at her child's school, the other women suggested that she have her husband murdered. The disgruntled Wife though it was a good idea and arranged to pay the other woman and her friend £800 to carryout the deadly deed.

The following day, the Wife was feeling a bit guilty and decided to tell her husband about her affair and the contract she took took out on him. I get the impression that he was a little miffed about it and asked his Wife to cancel the contract, which she duly did. The really funny part is that her friend demanded a cancellation fee of £50.

The woman was given an a 10 month sentence suspended for 2 years, but her friend and the hired murderer got off Scott free. They claimed that they never intended to carryout the murder and were "Just testing her resolve". Fleecing a very stupid women more like!!!!

If there is anyone reading this who is in a similar situation, may I suggest divorce as any less risky alternative.

Original Article from BBC News - Life lessons for death plot wife

Regards



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Proof That It Does Snow in Sussex

Yesterday it started snowing here and it has continued since then. This morning the Schools are closed, the roads are blocked and the Railway is at a stand still. No chance of getting to work today. Therefore I have used my time productively and completed something I have wanted to do for the passed 12 years.

I’ve finally built my Son a Snowman 8-)

Regards



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