Ideal Home Show

Today I had a day off from work and Nicky and I went to the Ideal Home Show at Earls Court. We bought a few things, including:

• a peeler and a julienne cutter (free garlic peeler) - £15
• three curry sauces from The Curry Sauce Company - £10
• a Pureaire revitaliser (air purifier) with extra scent - £42
• some Method cleaning products (buy three get a free bag) - £10.

Oh yes, and one other thing, we finally succumbed and have ordered a massage chair, having tried out quite a few during the day! It is going to be delivered in 7-10 days, and we are going to have to reorganise the conservatory!

We also had lots of fun looking round and contemplating spending even more money on various pieces of furniture and gadgets. My particular favourite was the Games Room Company - put me down for a pool table, a hover hockey table, a pinball machine, a jukebox and a Coke vending machine (and a bigger house!).

Curry for tea tomorrow!

Sky Broadband

The good news is that Sky Broadband is now up and running, having installed the new router yesterday. As always I'm nervous about setting routers and wireless networks, because frankly I don't really understand them! However, there were only a few glitches along the way this time.
It seemed to take a while for the router to show a constant green light, meaning that it was connected properly to the broadband line, but got there in the end. I can't claim any meaningful input on that, other than turning the box off and on a few times.
Having got that far I had some trouble with getting the laptop to connect wirelessly, and got to the point of calling the support number. Whilst on hold I was looking at the access code, and thought "I wonder if that's an O rather than a 0, and sure enough connected up no problems with the change. I then had to explain to the person who'd come on the line whilst I was doing this that I'd solved my own problem!
The final challenge came with the desktop, as it transpires that my Vaio desktop, being 5 years old now, can't cope with the latest encryption methods which the router had as their default setting, so I had to lower the network security, reconnect the laptop, and then I could get the desktop to connect as well.
Still, all done now!
(Seems faster downloading, but per the status screen, the uploading speed looks slower than the one I previously had with Orange - will have to see how I get one next time I'm uploading photos.)

Rose Garden

Rose Garden
Originally uploaded by Miff73

Well I've been playing a bit more with the wonders of Blogger and Flickr and I seem to have successfully linked the two together!.
This means that I can choose a photo from within Flickr, click on the "blog this" button, and I can create a post for my website within Flickr and send the photo to my site all at the same time. Now that's clever!
The only slight drawback is that when I've been uploading photos to Flickr (over 4,800 at the latest count!) I've always selected the option to make the photos private, so that only friends and family can view them. But, if I want to blog directly from Flickr I have to make the photo public. Still, given that it wil effectively become public once it appears on the blog, this isn't really a problem.
By the way, the test photo chosen here is a picture of the Rose Garden at Castle Howard, taken on holiday last summer.

My first post

Well this is my very first post with blogger, and so I have no idea what it will turn out like when I hit the "publish" button! We've finally taken the plunge and set the ball rolling to change ISP from Orange to Sky. We get 8MB connection speed (rather than the current 1MB), a new wireless router, which is good news as the current on seems rather tempramental, and we save £13 per month. Seems like a good deal.
The only drawback is that Orange had some free tools with it that enabled me to publish my own website for free, and I don't think that Sky do the same thing. However, I have found Blogger, and it seems to be free, and it seems to be reputable (owned by Google) so let's give it a go.
As you can see, all I've worked out how to do is type so far, but no doubt there are lots of other possibilities. Hopefully I'll be able to link to my Flickr photos, add in the occasional bit of HTML and so on.
By the way, it's just started to snow!

You tube coaster

We love the Incredible Hulk Coaster at Islands of Adventure. Even Nicky, who's not normally a coaster fiend thinks that it's fantastic. Here's a picture of John and I on it from our holiday in December of 2000 taken from my Flickr album.

To remind us of just how much fun the coaster is I found this video on Youtube, shot by someone brave enough to take a camera on the ride, not to mention sit at the front. I must pluck up the courage to do that next time (sit at the front that is, not take a camera!).

Barley has arrived

Well our puppy has finally come home, and importantly she has a name now. After having both Barley and Jessie in the final two, the decision has been made that the new puppy's name is "Barley". We picked her up on Thursday evening, and so far she seems to be settling in really well.
We had our first trip to the vet this morning, and he was pleased with her - we'll be back in a couple of weeks for vaccinations and micro-chipping. Opus isn't very happy about this turn of events, and is mostly making himself scarce, although there was one moment today when he got a little angry!
So far Nicky and I have done one night each of sleeping in the conservatory!
Below are some pictures that I have uploaded to Flickr.

Oscar holiday report

Back from our two holidays now, so time to catch up with some holiday report writing of our week in Scarborough and our break to the South of France. (Note - in transferring this post into Blogger I see that I never managed to get round to the South of France bit !!)

Friday 27th - Up and away at about half past eight this morning for the long drive to Yorkshire, with Jake stocked up with DVDs in the back to keep him going. Stopped off late morning at one the "OK Diners" and had a full English to keep us going - Jake had pancakes. Made it to Scarborough at about half past three. John and Margaret had gone straight to Oscar (our train carriage accommodation for the week). We stopped off at Morrisons to stock up on provisions, and then made our way to Cloughton. J&M had already unpacked in the small twin bedroom, so without too much hesitation we made ourselves at home in the double ensuite at the end (again)!
Tea was in accordance with tradition for first night of holiday - chicken risotto!

Saturday 28th - I think that I surprised everyone on our first morning by being up early and going out for a walk to get the newspaper, and a very pleasant stroll in the sunshine it was too! After breakfast it was off to Scarborough, and first stop were the penny arcades, with ice cream cones thrown in for good measure. Lunch was at a fish and chip restaurant (not a patch on some of the others found later in the week), and then it was off to the beach for a our first beach cricket game of the summer. We decided to go to the beach "round the corner" (i.e. at the Peasholme Park end) which I declared to only be a five minute walk and no need to move the car. Twenty five minutes later we arrived, and I probably wasn't too popular, but we still had the energy for a game of cricket, and then thankfully were able to come back along on the open top bus.
A stop off at the little funfair area followed - dodgems and big wheels, and then it was back to Oscar.

Sunday 29th - Lazy morning (although I went on my papershop stroll again - this time accompanied by Jake) followed by another trip into Scarborough and to the French market. Provisions were taken back to Oscar, and we had an outdoor lunch of french bread, cheese and wine, after which the swingball challenge began in earnest.

Monday 30th - Day trip to Whitby today. We had a wander around the shops in the narrow lanes, and then Jake, Nicky and I climbed the 199 steps up to the Abbey (and Jake has the badge to prove it). After a little wander around the churchyard (marvelling at the eroded headstones) and admiring of the Abbey, N&J went back down whilst I went in and took lots of photos, before returning to find everyone in the pub!
Fish and chips for lunch and then a look around the other side of town including Captain Cook's statue and the whalebone arch.

Tuesday 31st - Different trips today - Nanny and Grandad took Jake to the Sealife centre and to Peasholme Park whilst Nicky and I headed for Castle Howard. The grounds of Castle Howard are lovely, especially the Rose Garden (and the weather was glorious). Nicky managed to avoid being attacked by any of the peacocks! Best bit of the house was probably the tea rooms! Had a tasty lunch at the stable courtyard cafe, and bought some provisions and presents at the organic farm shop.

Wednesday 1st - The morning was spent on the beach - mostly playing cricket, but with a bit of kite flying, paddling and ice cream eating thrown in for good measure. Then we got on the open top bus and went along to town. John and Margaret took Jake for a fish and chip lunch whilst Nicky and I headed into town.
After lunch we took the bus back to the beach and decided to stop in at the little funfair. Jake enjoyed a ride on the kids' roller coaster, but then we made the huge mistake of taking him on the waltzer (without watching it to see how fast it went before getting on). Let's just say that Nicky and I both came off feeling very queesy, and unfortunately Jake's fish and chips returned!

Thursday 2nd - John, Jake and I went to the spa in the morning (and had a listen to the spa orchestra) whilst Nicky and her mum did some shopping in the town. Then we met up for lunch at Ask, before Jake and I climbed the steps and the slope up to Scarborough Castle. We had a great time exploring and learning about the castle and its history, and we even got to watch an archery demonstration.

Friday 3rd - Packed up in the morning and set off on the long journey home. J&M went to visit Auntie Carol, and we stopped off at Brownhills on the way down the A1 to admire the RV's.