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03/02/09 : Snow!

Living right in the middle of the south coast we tend to be sheltered from any interesting weather, so snow is rather a novelty. Looks particularly nice at night I think.

Don't forget to feed the robins!

29/09/08 : September

In some ways, September - the oddest month of the year - is a bit depressing. Summer is over, the days are shorter and the mornings colder. The "back to school" feeling hasn't gone away even though I left school in 1989. And it's the month in which one is terrorised by evil eight-legged monsters.

On the other hand, it's still usually warm and sunny in the daytime (especially at the moment) and the freshness of the air is quite pleasant after the heat of summer (not that there was much in the way of heat this year). And the leaves' swansong of colour is nice to see before the bleakness of winter.

It feels like a time for fresh starts - far more so than in January, which really is a depressing time of year - so I'm going to keep myself busy sorting out my jumbled mess of websites out (which was actually one of my resolutions at the beginning of the year).

My garden, pleasant early autumn day

25/08/08 : Going away - and having to come back

Sarah says that, however much she's enjoyed a holiday, it's a nice feeling to get home at the end. I, however, would prefer to stay on holiday instead of returning to chores and the horror of having to get up in the morning for work and stuff.

To make things worse, we returned to rather crappy weather, making it feel like summer is over and it'll soon be time to go back to school (I left school in 1989 but that feeling never quite goes away).

It's also one of those things where Old Father Time is a complete git. The family (parents, siblings, associated spouses and offspring) decided it would be nice to go back to Jersey (we first went in 2001) about two years ago. Much planning and waiting followed, then we go and a week later we're back home and it's all over.

Still, it was a nice break. Sarah has some pics and stuff here, I might post some myself later.

27/07/08 : Tim stands at the top of Hengistbury Head and turns around

Taken on a family walk today.

It's a little wobbly and there are a couple of jumps where I edited two clips together, but you get a nice view of the surrounding area; first looking over Southbourne beach, Bournemouth in the background, then round to the right across Christchurch harbour (you can just about see the Needles (Isle of Wight) 32 seconds in) and right back round to the beginning (just who are those people standing right in the way?)

More pics here.

05/06/07 : Sarah

Tomorrow is our wedding anniversary. Nine years - which these days is probably quite impressive!

We've both been married before - her to a jealous, possessive, violent alcoholic; me to the moodiest and second-most self-centred person in the known universe - so it's hardly surprising that neither marriage lasted. I actually remember on my first wedding day pushing away the feelings of doubt with the thought "oh well, if it doesn't work out we can always get divorced in ten years time" (it turned out to be less than three).

With me and Sarah though things are very different. Basically, we just sort of "gel". I can't imagine us not being together, and there's certainly never been anyone else I've wanted to reproduce with. And nothing has diminished over the years. She's still got the same "sunny" personality that she had when we first met, and she's still a babe (cute and girly, slightly hippyish, innocent looking but with a look in the eye that gives just a glimpse of the solid core of wanton filth inside).

There's nothing else I need to say - I'm not going to make my readers feel ill by getting all slushy, so I'll just end with a picture.

27/03/07 : Springtime and kids

After a false start a couple of weeks ago, spring seems to have arrived. I like the different seasons, but get fed up with winter once christmas is out of the way.

The warmer weather makes me feel sort of "free" - perhaps due to not having to keep windows shut or wear protective gear just to leave the house. So to celebrate this feeling of freedom I thought I'd climb a tree (this primate-based habit hasn't left me yet) and take some pictures of the kids!

I saw my dad for the first time in years recently and in our conversation he expressed concern about pictures of our kids being on the net, which wasn't something I had ever thought of as a problem. Then a few days ago there was a phone-in on Jeremy Vine's radio show about some woman who had tried to stop another parent taking photos at a school sports event in case pictures of her kids were on the photos and they "ended up on the internet".

I suppose the fear is that paedophiles are going to get hold of these photos and alter them for some perverted thrill. They're going to have their work cut out though - there are millions of people who have pictures of their kids on their blogs and things. And anyway, I'm sure that these warped people have better things to do (like find real kids to do stuff to, or at least proper kiddy porn sites to looks at). I think this is just a moral panic thing - where certain politicians and media groups play on fears that they themselves have created with the intention of promising to sort out exaggerated problems in the hope of getting support. The support in this case being to "police" the net.

Please people, don't let the internet die! There may be some dodgy content (I'm not just talking about child pornography here) but that's a small price to pay for the best media source ever invented (free speech and access to information on virtually anything from around the world). And anyway, surely it's better that this dodgy content is on display where people can at least keep an eye on it?

03/01/07 : Christmas, new year and all that

I make a point of not going anywhere on New Year's Eve. Go to any social gathering and you have to put up with people desperately, and in an over-the-top manner, trying to have a good time because they feel they should. It's all so fake. So, we stayed in with good food and drink and watched Jools on the telly.

Christmas this year went without any hitches, family arguments, murders and the like, which was nice. There was also a perfectly cooked dinner by me, perfectly made Christmas pudding from my mum, and a perfectly made Christmas cake by Sarah.

Presents (not including the boring but needed clothing items but including the stuff I got on my birthday a couple of weeks before) -

Books by James Herbert, Val McDermid, Douglas Adams and Richard Dawkins
CDs of Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Iron Maiden (musical schizophrenic, me)
DVDs - Tom and Jerry (best cartoons ever!), The Matrix trilogy and Buffy Season 6 (just one left to get).
Metroid Prime 2 (Gamecube - loved the first game, couldn't ever find this one, presumably Sarah got it from Ebay) ...
... and the thing that's been taking up most of my free time since ...
Twilight Princess (Gamecube - yes, I know it's also out on the Wii, but I haven't got one yet - and I'm not sure I'm ready for a "revolutionary control method", at least not for Zelda).

Anyway, if I had a new-years resolution it would be to post more often on this blog. But I don't bother making resolutions because, presumably like most people, I don't actually end up making much effort to keep them.

28/05/06 : Talking 'bout the weather

The weather is a frequent topic for an English pleasantry - but it is sometimes worthy of discussion due to its weirdness. Over the past few days its been hot and sunny for a few hours before suddenly chucking it down with rain, only to be hot and sunny again a little while later.

I've been gardening during the sunny intervals and as I'm trimming bushes (stop snickering!) all these bugs and things are running away in terror and I feel like a complete git. I think I must have been a Buddhist in a past life or something.

The main reason for doing the gardening is that the letting agents are coming round on Wednesday for an inspection. Why they bother I don't know - we've been here for nearly three years and haven't trashed the place so far. The woman who does the inspection only stays for about 30 seconds but it still feels like a massive invasion of privacy. Still, it does force us to actually do some cleaning and stuff.

Anyway, after the gardening I was sat on the sofa and Rosie shoved a microphone in my face, expecting me to say something interesting. I said the first thing that came into my mind, which for some unknown reason was "No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space". I then felt the urge to listen (in part) to Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of War of the Worlds, and - obviously being in the mood to listen to slightly strange 70's concept albums - followed it with Rick Wakeman's The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knight of the Round Table, which April did a stately dance to and Sarah told me was crap.