I really dislike being pressured into decisions. We started using an “independent” mortgage advisor when we first thought about buying a house. The way this worked was that we agreed a particular fee on completion of purchasing a house through him. At first it seemed like the right decision because we’ve never bought a house… Read More »
I have, it must be said, been extremely slack with this blog lately. It’s not exactly that I’ve been doing nothing, just that I can’t find the enthusiasm to blog it. Things change. As readers of Hannah’s blog will know, we’ve made some progress on getting our first house. Things have moved very fast so… Read More »
I’m writing this up for my own benefit as it will be faster to find next time I forget. I have problems installing Ubuntu on my laptop as it does not provide debian style floppy-based installation media. My CDROM drive is totally shot, so all I have is a floppy drive or network card as… Read More »
I had a fantastic Christmas this year. The reasons for this are: * !/pics/2004_1223204642.thumb.jpg (Hannah)! – we spent Christmas day on our own in our flat, and it was peaceful and relaxed and really good fun and Hannah is lovely. * !/pics/2004_1225233153.thumb.jpg (Snow)! – it snowed! * !/pics/2004_1225163425.thumb.jpg (Full plate)! – I had lots of… Read More »
Bah. I got hacked. I think it was probably due to a couple of files being world writeable (i.e. index.php and a style file) mainly due to my laziness in editing them in the wordpress editor. I won’t be doing that again. Of course, I may get hacked again, in which case it must be… Read More »
Hannah and I had a rare social engagement at the weekend. We booked a hotel room in Nottingham, shared with JCM and his delightful personal habits and then had an enjoyable evening at Dave Brailsford’s Christmas Bash. I really enjoyed myself. I ate, drank and was merry. I even discovered a couple of wines that… Read More »
Another day, another concert. This time at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall. Hannah was performing in the choir which was performing Mozart’s Requiem. Very nice it was too. There was also a Brahms concerto which was good, and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 7 (I think) which I found a little dull.
Had a quite enjoyable evening yesterday at the University of Birmingham carol service. The free mulled wine was surprisingly palatable and the choir was good (Hannah was in it). There was a small group of brass players who were quite good and bolstered my resolve to practise my cornet more.
Yesterday we spent the afternoon at the aforementioned “cathedral of materialism”:http://www.mcarthurglen.com/centres/home.cfm?centre=swindon and then bemusedly observing the behavioural traits of some drivers in the dark in heavy traffic. We were planning on driving back to Birmingham last night, but got sidetracked by the the excellent “School of Rock”:http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0332379/ and decided to come back this morning. Cue… Read More »
…and I am getting fat. But hey, what are you gonna do. We’re down in Reading for the weekend. It was Holly’s birthday yesterday and we went out for a meal and I partook of various meats. Did a bit of Christmas shopping today and more to follow tomorrow when we go to “a big… Read More »