Almost John’s 60th birthday – http://twitpic.com/4vihr
May 07 2009
Take Away Their Ammo!
So, if you have read the recent comments on this blog, you’ll have seen someone wasn’t happy with their appearance in a snapshot I took. In a blatant attempt to prevent further such outrages, said person sent me a picture they took on my birthday. Well, to prevent any kind of potential censorship/blackmailing occurring, here it is in its entirety 😉
I’ve also included a shot taken moments before/after by AlexC . You can see the original image in her Birthday Celebrations in Wales post.
JohnNameless Individual’s shot
AlexC’s shot
May 06 2009
Catch Up Post
There haven’t been a lot of ‘real’ blog posts recently, with tweets from my phone being the normal method of updates. So, just to sync everyone at the same time, we went to see Dad on Saturday, over in Evesham. Luckily the car didn’t need any major work done to it (it was making a noise like an Austin Metro engine when you turned the steering wheel), just a top up of the power assist steering fluid. This meant I was happy driving on the motorway with Anna and Ira, without worrying about breaking down or exploding 🙂
It was great seeing Dad, Aunty Chris & Bob again, and to catch up with what has been going on. I hope to see Dad and my brother Nick (and maybe Roz?) before we leave for Kazakhstan on the 14th. From there, we moved onto Cheltenham on Sunday, to see some friends who had not yet met Anna. Irina managed to find a great deal on a room at the Queens hotel in Chelt, which I’d never been in before, let alone had a room. TBH, the rooms, staff and decor were all fine, but I think the reputation of the place had led us to think it would be a lot better. Ira #2’s boyfriend (Andy) instantly became a demi-god when he took a quick glance at our pushchair, diagnosed and then fixed the fault within a couple of minutes – the brake had been semi-engaged since the day it arrived, which meant pushing it and Anna uphill was un-necessarily arduous. Unfortunately, whilst returning from town the brake had fully engaged, so we had to half carry the thing up the Promenade. Silver linings in a cloud and all that though, as if it hadn’t finally engaged like that, we’d not have mentioned it to Andy & therefore struggled over in Kazakhstan pushing it along stony tracks etc.
So what plans today? Sort out a couple of things for John’s upcoming 60th birthday, help look after Anna, generally not get in the way of Irina who is packing boxes to send ahead of us for Astana & try and check out the rest of the demos I downloaded over the weekend for the XBox 360.
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May 01 2009
Assel’s Birthday
Today is a happy day for Assel (Walton’s wife). Hopefully we will meet soon, and celebrate this day properly. Hoping you have a relaxing and stress free day 🙂
Apr 25 2009
Dad Don’t Moan – The Other Ones Had Stranger Looks!
These ARE photos from a day that has already been posted about – 25th April when my brother, Nick, and Dad came over to Wales for a birthday meal. We went to an New York-Italian restaurant, and I loved the food and company. For complicated filing reasons, these photos aren’t residing in my ‘not yet published’ folder within Anna’s archives, so I wanted to post the pictures now, so I can close a Windows Explorer window I’ve had open for a few days as a reminder to publish them.
Chris Anna Birthday Meal
Dad Nick Chris Birthday Meal
wow, just looked at the photos properly – Anna looks so tiny in comparison to now, sat in her car seat there!
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Apr 21 2009
Too much aluminium in tea bags…
Too much aluminium in tea bags… http://twitpic.com/3orw1
Seb AlexC Clydach Birthday
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Apr 20 2009
Thank You Everyone
I’m currently a little too pished to type out a proper post, but I just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone that has taken the time to e-mail/facebook/skype birthday greetings & congratulations. I will try and reply properly to everyone over the next couple of days, but in the mean time THANK YOU.
Everything is fine here, I have spent the day with Ira & Anna and Mum & John in person, and others via online messaging etc. having a good time, and being congratulated on my 30th birthday. I did try and stay sober for AlexC and Seb’s arrival, but they were unexpectedly delayed, so I’m no longer 100% compus mentus. Hmmm, firefox UK dictionary not helping me with Latin (Greek?), sorry.
Brilliant day, superb company, really good to hear from everyone.
Apparently friends have arrived, so I’ll sign off for now. Thanks to all the family and friends that have passed on good wishes and sentiments, most, most, MOST appreciated.
Apr 20 2009
Happy Birthday Irina !?!
Yep, today is Irina’s birthday. Not my wife Irina, but our friend’s daughter. So huge congratulations (pazdravlyayoo, as I still can’t use Cyrillic characters on this blog). I hope your day brings lots of hugs, kisses, presents and cards, and that you start and finish the day with a big smile.
Later on today Alex, Mat (her fiancé that we’ve not yet met) and Seb are all hopefully coming over. Alex and Mat have taken a holiday from Australia to visit their homeland (Britain), see Anna for the first time, and also get together for a meal for my own birthday. I need to check if the outdoor furniture is in the backyard, as we are hoping to have a barbecue if the weather is good enough 🙂 Failing that, cheeseburger and chips from the oven, along with a few shots of nice Welsh vodka should still do the trick. I’m even allowing myself to hope that City Link will actually deliver a few parcels.
[edit]
City Link delivered this morning. Begrudging thanks to them for getting their act sorted in time.
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Apr 18 2009
City Link Shit Everywhere
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!
Apr 10 2009
Gwen’s birthday today.Mum and …
Gwen’s birthday today.Mum and John just back from Spain.ChrisD arrived 🙂 .All good here.Anna growing brillliantly day by day.
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