ChrisMerriman.com

Dec 03 2009

Digital, HD And Aliens

Category: Personal — ChrisM @ 12:22 am

So, apparently people in the Swansea area of Wales no longer have an analogue terrestrial TV signal! All channels must be viewed via either Freeview boxes (or integrated units in newer sets), satellite boxes (obviously mostly Sky STBs in Britain) or a cable box. Mum and John have a Sky box, a Freeview box, a Freeview recording device and Freeview built into one of their tellies, and of course a modern high gain aerial, however some sort of technical hitch means most of the televisions in the house aren’t currently showing what they should be capable of. If it isn’t sorted by next February/March, I’ll hopefully figure out what has gone wrong for them.
The picture below? Taken from a strip at AbstruseGoose, it shows what any aliens would be watching right now, if they happened to be monitoring our transmissions. Obviously the further away from our planet they are, the ‘older’ the signal would be that they could pick up right now.

TV Watched Across The Universe

Tags: Britain, Mum, Swansea, Wales

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Jul 02 2009

The Day Before

Category: Personal,Pictures — ChrisM @ 1:44 pm

So, just one day before Anna came into this world, we were at the hospital, with a contraction and baby heart rate monitor attached to Irina. We saw a few other soon-to-be Mums in the ward, who we’d met at pre-natal classes & during previous trips to the hospital. I was a little over-protective, and asked the cleaners to come and sort out the dried blood I’d noticed on the angle-poise like lamp. Ooops, turns out someone who had used the bed prior to us had had chocolate on their hands!
As we looked out the window together, wondering just when Anna would decide that the time was right, Irina noticed a medical building across the road that looked vaguely familiar. Turns out that her old company (PKL healthcare, where she worked when we lived back in Cheltenham & Bourton on the Water), had constructed it! Small world…

: View Out The Window (PKL Building)

: Ira, Anna & Their Monitor

: Irina Smiling On The Bed

: Where Is Ira? The Window With The Coke Bottle In It!

Continue reading “The Day Before”

Tags: Cheltenham, contraction, Google, healthcare, Irina, Mum, Swansea, United Kingdom

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Jun 29 2009

Singleton Park

Category: Personal,Pictures — ChrisM @ 10:02 pm

At least I think this was Singleton Park. Anyway, just after New Year, Ira, John, Gwen and I went for a walk in the park, and he took a few shots…

If I have remembered the location correctly, then click the read more link below to see a satellite photo of the area. If I’ve not remembered where we were, then, well, click the link to see a photo of the area we weren’t in at the time 🙂
Continue reading “Singleton Park”

Tags: Google, Irina, New Year's Day, satellite photo, Singleton Park, Swansea, United Kingdom, Wales

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May 25 2009

Birthday Meal With Dad And Nick

Category: Personal,Pictures — ChrisM @ 9:19 pm

Again, I think I may have used PockeTwit to provide a quick update at the time (25th April), but here are the proper photos. Dad and Nick came over for a meal to celebrate my 30th birthday. Whilst living in Clydach, any time I drove into Swansea, I’d pass a restaurant that looked interesting. TBH, anywhere that sells New York Italian food is likely to get a thumbs up from me, and whilst not exactly a dinner jacket required sort of establishment, the food was delicious. Anna behaved very well, and the next time we’re back in Wales, I’ll gladly be heading over to Frankie & Benny’s.

: Dad Nick Anna Clydach

: Irina Anna Clydach

: Chris Nick Irina Anna Clydach

: Nick At Chris’ Birthday Meal

: Irina At Chris’ Birthday Meal

: Chris Birthday Meal

Tags: Birthday, Clydach, Dad, food, Nick, Swansea, Wales

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Apr 25 2009

Just had a great b-day meal wi…

Category: Pictures,Tweets — ChrisM @ 2:03 pm

Just had a great b-day meal with Dad, Nick, Ira and Anna
http://twitpic.com/3ym9w

Frankie And Bennys Swansea

Tags: Anna, Dad, Irina, Nick, Swansea, Tweets, twitter

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Apr 18 2009

City Link Shit Everywhere

Category: Personal — ChrisM @ 12:38 pm

Having paid extra to ensure birthday presents arrived on time (next day delivery), I was eager to trace the consignment from Amazon. Having entered the consignment number, I was presented with the following…

13:06 Friday, April 17, 2009 On route to delivery depot 05:58 Saturday, April 18, 2009 Arrived at Delivery Depot 06:16 Saturday, April 18, 2009 Goods loaded onto a van 09:24 Saturday, April 18, 2009 Delivery point closed (Carded) 10:03 Saturday, April 18, 2009 Goods returned to depot

9:24am this morning, people were up in this house. No one rang the doorbell, or even bothered to leave a card. Ringing the company, I was presented with a message informing me that they closed at midday on Saturdays. Drove down to the depot, in case they just stopped answering calls, but still had staff there. No joy.
So this Monday, on my 30th birthday, we will need to wait inside the house, for a package that had been sent with next day delivery. Instead, it will now take three days. I should not be surprised really, we often had problems with City Link being lazy and lying in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire – I’d just hoped this was a one off, and that Swansea’s branch wouldn’t be staffed by inefficient lying bar stewards as well. My mistake.
My thanks to Amazon for being very efficient and actually fulfilling their end of the deal, and also to one of the companies that sells second hand XBox 360 games, as their delivery arrived fine (Royal Mail) FOUR days early!

Tags: Amazon, Birthday, Cheltenham, Delivery Depot, Swansea, United Kingdom

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Apr 04 2009

Park By The Pub With A Crazy Golf Course

Category: Anna's Photos,Personal — ChrisM @ 9:02 pm

4th April – I’ll try and remember to update this post’s title when I discover the real name for the park in Swansea. I think I tweeted from there, and possibly originally included a snapshot from my phone and the GPS location. Anyway, Irina and I originally visited this area (Sketty Lane? Rd?) a few years ago, and wanted to take Anna there before we left for Kazakhstan. You can’t quite walk right around the little pond there unless the sun has dried out the muddy patches, but Gwen enjoyed the trip, and we popped over the road to see the beach before we left. Which reminds me, if anyone found our cute little baby toy, that can be suspended from a pram’s handle, in the area, let me know 🙁

: Park Irina Anna Swansea

: Park Chris Anna Swansea

It looks as though there weren’t any photos taken on Irina’s camera for another three weeks. I’m guessing Anna’s immunizations, drop in clinics, my and John’s 30th and 60th birthdays, preparations for moving to Kazakhstan and other assorted distractions kept us from taking many shots. Or I just forgot to copy them over from the memory card. Anyway, one more post to go before I’ve emptied the hard drive of Anna Photos. This batch of posts were originally written around 16th/17th May, and scheduled for publishing over a week or so, to ensure people had a chance to see the pictures before they dropped off the bottom of the first page, and also as a rather blatant attempt to encourage people to become regular visitors here 🙂

Tags: Anna, Anna Photos, Birthday, GPS, Irina, Kazakhstan, Swansea

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Apr 04 2009

Anna Surrendering

Category: Anna's Photos,Tweets — ChrisM @ 5:50 pm

http://twitpic.com/2tkz6 – Anna surrendering. Random park by the sea, with a lake, on Sketty Rd(lane?) in Swansea. http://is.gd/qKnZ

Crap, for some reason Google Maps doesn’t want to play nice and allow me to create the embed code for this area. Click the is.gd link above to be taken to the correct area.

Tags: Anna, Anna Surrendering, Google, Swansea, Tweets, twitter

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Mar 31 2009