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Hats off to the Twitter Knitters

January 27, 2012 in General | No comments

[Note: If you've offered to knit a hat, please head to the Hat Knitter's page - and THANK YOU!]

I had a message from a friend of mine. Let’s call her Amy (names changed for privacy). Amy has a friend not-called Bea and Bea has a 4-year-old daughter, Charlie.  Charlie has recently been diagnosed with Leukaemia.  Charlie has just started chemotherapy and her hair has started to fall out.

Amy knows that my wonderful wife, Sally, is a dab hand with a pair of knitting needles. So Amy asked if Sally could knit a hat for Charlie.

But Sally is mum to our 8-week-old son, and barely has time to make a cup of tea, let alone knit.  It’s very much life-one-handed here at the moment!

So, I put a call out on Twitter.  I have a few creative followers and was pretty sure someone would be up to the challenge.

The response was amazing! I mean, I know things have gone way more viral, but I had a mass of re-tweets, new followers, and, of course, offers of hand-knitted hats.  The first within about two minutes from the generous and creative Jennifer Begg (@livefreerange).

The internet is AMAZING!

Flat White

October 18, 2011 in General | No comments

20111018-225458.jpg

A bit behind on daily pictures. This from Sunday as I completed the third coat of paint on the ceiling of our lounge, which we’ve had re-plastered.

I like the abstract-ness, and the weird dark patch that the iPhone’s HDR produced. And I like the smooth, white ceiling we now have too! :)

All change – Sky to Virgin Media

June 13, 2011 in General, Techie | No comments

So, life’s a bit different now to how it was a few months ago. I’m earning less and working from home, so it’s time to review  a few things.  And one change worthy of mention is my broadband supplier.

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Routine

May 30, 2011 in General | 1 comment

I’m a far-from-compulsively over-organised person and I like to think that I’m quite balanced: we need to be organised to get things done, but being TOO organised can, in my opinion, hinder your work.

But…it’s gotten a little too chaotic around here. I’m not overloaded. It’s actually been quite quiet of late. But with working from home and for myself, I’m both loving the flexibility and missing the routine. I’ve enjoyed the flexibility for a while now, but it’s time to impose some order on my days.

So… starting tomorrow: the routine!!

Hopefully this will include some personal blogging time. I guess you’ll find out soon enough if it’s worked.

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Vows

February 15, 2011 in General, History | No comments

Wedding PhotoSomeone, several years ago, asked me this:

“Ross, will you take Sally to be your wife? Will you love her, comfort her, honour and protect her, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?”

to which I answered a loud and resounding and heartfelt, “I WILL”.

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The Most Disgusting Thing I’ve Ever Had To Do!

February 10, 2011 in General, House, I Can Do It | No comments

[Warning - this post contains scenes of disembowled animals - not for the faint hearted]

So, you may know that we’ve had rats and that, fortunately, these rats have been confined to the walls and loft of our home. We’ve had them on and off for several years and everytime we think we’ve found the source and plugged it, we have a quiet month or two and then they appear again.

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Hopping Lindies

January 9, 2011 in General | No comments

I’m married.  Which means I had a wedding.  And it’s traditional to do a “first dance” at a wedding.  And, being a middle-class white guy, I’m not so good at dancing.  So I agreed to go along to some dance classes in the run up to my wedding.

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A bit of fun in the snow

January 7, 2011 in General | 2 comments

Devon HillsOne of the nice things about not hiding my identity any more is that I can share more stuff with you all.  After my long LTP rant the other day it’s time for some positivity and fun.

It’s amazing how quickly time passes.  It was a whole SIX years ago, before I married my lovely wife, that we were visiting my now-in-laws for Christmas and it snowed on Christmas day.

Sally always gets very excited about snow, but I don’t really get it.  The difference, it turns out,  is hills.  When you have hills you can go proper sledging.  Swindon doesn’t have hills, but Devon does!

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Playing with light

January 2, 2011 in General, Photography | No comments

The blog has been a bit quiet of late again, but I’m hoping to make more and shorter posts this year.

The world has gone mad on a couple of things:

  1. End-to-End Cycle Challenges – loads of people I know are planning cycling either John O’ Groats to Land’s End or vice versa this year.  I’d love to have a go myself but I’m behind on cycling and exercise in general, and with current circumstances can’t really commit to it…but it’s very tempting to join this trend.
  2. Photography – I got lovely wife a Nikon D5000 DSLR for Christmas so the last few days have involved a lot of photography.  In fact, lots of people seem to have got cameras, or just the photography bug, over the Christmas period, including, to my pleasant surprise, a very good friend of mine who’s attempting a photo a day this year – if you’re a photographer, do pop by and offer Dave your tips!

We headed to London to see in the New Year with some good friends there.  New Year’s Eve was no exception.  The Nikon is really good in low light and she got some great shots of me juggling with rings of light-sticks. Here’s a sample for you.

I hope you had a very happy Christmas and that you have a blessed, happy, and joyful year in 2011!!

Playing with Light

Playing with Light

Coffee!

July 22, 2010 in General | No comments

I like my coffee – it’s widely known that I despise that dirty water some call “tea” – and over time it’s become clear that espresso, and espresso-based coffees – are by far my favourite.

So when I got some nice birthday money, I decided that now was the time, and a shiny new espresso machine now sits on our kitchen worktop.

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