A Year Ago

One year ago today was the worst day of my life. The day my Dad died. Suddenly and without warning in the early hours of 11th December 2005 he passed away, he was 71 years old. No one expected it, his mother was in her 80s when she died and his father only died a few years ago aged 94. But in one awful year his brother, his cousin (who lived with them as a brother when he was younger) and he all passed away. A whole generation wiped out with no one left to tell the tales.

Not a single day has passed since then that I have not thought of him, and I have shed tears on several occasions. I was very close to my Dad, we went to Oxford Speedway together during the summer, to every home match and to some away matches. We played table tennis together. We played golf together. We went on holidays together. We went to watch football together. Barely a day passed that I didn’t speak to him either in person or on the phone, he would ring me with the latest snippet of speedway news hopeful that I hadn’t ‘heard’ it first from the internet. I miss him terribly as do the rest of the family.

Rest in peace Dad.

Site News :: Flash Movies

You may have noticed the new link on the menu bar above. I have added a flash movie player to the site and have started adding video clips I took whilst I was in Mozambique. Hopefully everything works OK, if you notice any problems please comment.

I’m Back

Not been able to post for the last few days due to a PHP problem. Hopefully the host has solved the Trojan issue as well, I haven’t seen it for a couple of days. Like the new header? Thanks to Chowny for that one!

It’s Grrrrrreat

It’s an EA Sports game so it’s spawn of the devil but it is really good. I wouldn’t have bought this but so many people on my Friend’s List had it that I picked it up from Tesco (£39.96 in store which is pretty good) and I’m very glad I did.

It takes a few rounds to get the hang of it as there is no power meter as in traditional golf games (e.g. Links). You judge your swing based upon the lie, club, wind etc. and pull back the stick accordingly. It gives you fine control over your shots but does initially make putting seem really difficult.

As you play and beat players in the Tiger challenges your player’s skill potential increases and you have to train him/her in training games to fulfill that potential. You can create players in the face morphing option which can create some really freaky looking players.

I gave Colin Montgomerie a good kicking last night, despite him playing pretty well, we were matching each over ball for ball, on the way back in I chipped in and then hit two 40ft putts to pull into an unassailable lead.

Online I’ve played a couple of rounds, the first round was hilarious as we were all over the place, the second was a much more proper affair.

All in all a very good golf game, even if you have to swallow your pride to buy an EA Sports game!

Purple

Yep, the header graphic is still work in progress. Yep, purple is my favourite colour. I think the menubar looks nicer now though. Need to narrow that leftbar down a bit. I totally lack graphic skillz, you can probably tell that from looking at any of my sites! I’m a coder, I shouldn’t have to do graphics as well smile

Site News: Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

I’ve made a few layout changes around the site. The most noticeable is the date heading on the blog entries. I’ve also added page navigation, removed the latest entries list on the leftbar, changed the font for the blog entries, altered the category names, tweaked the gallery entries and some other small CSS tweaks. I’m thinking about altering the background image and adding some new leftbar stuff which might need to go on a rightbar in a three column layout.

Catch Up

Had a few days off work this week to do some catching up with things. Got to love the spell check capability of Firefox 2, no more spelling errors here! Been doing quite a bit of gaming this week mostly on Xbox 360. Lego Star Wars II is great, Test Drive Unlimited (TDU) is fantastic, best game on the 360 to date easily. Once they sort out the multiplayer bugs it will be awesome. Pro Evo Soccer 6 (PES6) is excellent if frustrating as I have yet to score a goal in about 20 matches!

Time for a redesign on here I think, should I go full width I wonder? Three columns? Hmmm………..

Back in the UK

Boo, back in the BGS office now! Quite a packed weekend, the family waited for me on Friday morning and the children were very excited to see me. Everyone loved their gifts. I got a wire helicopter for my son which has motors which make the rotors rotate. A doll for my daughter with a photo of them being made. Didn’t do much Friday, apart from sleep and catch up on a few things, went to the end of term assembly at the school and then spent the evening with the family. Saturday had a decent lay in and then just pottered about, played some Lego Star Wars II with my son on the 360. Sunday had my Mum over for dinner and my sister and niece came over to say hello. First roast dinner for 6 weeks! Slight panic when I managed to lock up the work’s laptop I had with me in Mozambique but local support sorted it out, so all files are safely on the server here now. Just sorting through some photos to add to the blog.

Home

Just a quick entry, got home about an hour ago. Flights and everything went very smoothly (apart from the food which was terrible). More thoughts later when I’ve had some sleep!

Last Night

I’m sitting on the balcony at the house on my last day in Mozambique. I still have some internet access! Last night we went to the Maputo Waterfront to meet with Lina and Carlos Magaia for dinner. There was live music as there is every Wednesday. Some weeks the acts are so-so, last nights was excellent, a jazz/blues/reggae four-piece. You know when you’re sitting with somone famous when the band leave the stage to come and introduce themselves to you personally! It was a fantastic evening, Carlos got up to sing, the food was good (even if they have no idea what well-done means, I’m glad I didn’t ask for rare or my fillet might still have been mooing!), the company was superb. Lina is very famous but very down to earth, she doesn’t see herself as famous, everyone knows her, she’s on TV frequently, she writes for the newspapers etc. but she still took a doggy bag home for supper!

Then it was off to Museu for drinks, again I was driving so was off the drink. Museu is definitely better enjoyed drunk I think! Lots of VERY drunk people, loud talk and singing. The conversations get very heated at times, but the atmosphere is like nothing else I’ve experienced. I’m still staggered at the amount of alcohol put away by some of the people there and then they get in their cars to drive home. Madness!

So a late night, past midnight at Museu – but I’m still awake at 6am. The bloody mozzies have been out in force the last few nights, driving me insane. You hear so many malaria stories here though. It seems like everyone has had it or knows someone who has.

Today is destined to be a day of sitting around various places. Packed yesterday, just a few things to shove in. Very disappointed to find a couple of the gifts I had bought had grown mould in the drawer I put them in. The atmosphere in the house is quite damp at times, cross that I didn’t put them out but I never imagined they would go bad! Still, no serious damage done – a good clean and they are almost as good as new.

Things to do today, wash sheets and towels (maid was paid off yesterday), last minute packing, deliver car, get lift to airport. Wave goodbye to Maputo! Can’t wait to get home and see the family…