Here Comes Summer

Heading for a fall

2005-09-29T14:16:00.000+01:00

Conkers thick on the grown outside our flat must mean it is time to end this blog.

I didn't devote as much time and energy to it as I should have but it was fun nevertheless.

So fare thee well summer of 2005.

Lifestyles of the rich and famous

2005-09-14T09:38:00.000+01:00

Lifestyles of the rich and famous
Originally uploaded by Dazza Waters.

We are having a ball here in Alonissos, a beautiful and quiet Greek island. Time is oozing by slowly, fuelled by the sun, carafes of local wine and plenty of seafood.

We spent a day on a boat crusing the smaller islands of the northern Sporades, many of them uninhabited.

We had lunch moored off a deserted sandy island which could have been in the Caribbean.

We rented a scooter for the day but after a couple of crashes - don't worry, no-one is hurt - we decided to stick to pedal power.

Tonight, we're taking a sunset walk to the top of the island, where we'll enjoy some ouzo.

Transitional

2005-08-27T16:59:00.000+01:00

It may still be August - just - but signs that Autumn is not far away are all too clear. Our road is lined with conker trees, ripe with their spiky fruit and already a few eager beavers have fallen to ground.

In a month's time the street will be thick with the green skins and the brown shiny peeble-y seeds.

At times the conkers can rain down from the trees, setting off sensitive car alarms and leaving the odd mark in the over polished roofs of over expensive cars.

When that times comes, it will my sign to end this particular blog.

I'll keep it open at least until we return from holiday. We've two weeks booked in Greece, on the small island of Alonissos.

Goody needs two weeks of absolute relaxation and that's what I plan to do.... nothing.

Plenty of books, sun tan lotion, shorts, t-shirts and the ipod are all that I plan on packing.

Four years ago we spent two delightful weeks in Rhodes, so we're hoping for more of the same. Although, our bags got lost last time, so let's avoid that!

Four years ago, the digital camera, blogs, laptops and PSP were not part of my world.

So here's too a relaxing, gadget-filled holiday!

Almost there

2005-08-26T15:59:00.000+01:00

It's Goody's last round of concerts this weekend. It's been a tough, long and stressful summer for her, working crazy hours in difficult conditions, juggling absurd demands.

But at the end of it all she can look back on an amazing achievement. Tens and tens of thousands of people will have been entertained. Great music will have been played, and you've made more than a bit of money for your employers as well.

I have said it before, but it bears repeating - I am so proud of my wife and in awe of what she achieves.

Congratulations Goody. You've almost finished.

The Tardis, Kew

2005-08-21T12:05:00.000+01:00

The Tardis, Kew
Originally uploaded by Dazza Waters.

Spotted in Kew today, a little house with a sign on it reading The Tardis!

Which way home?

2005-08-16T20:57:00.000+01:00

Which way home?
Originally uploaded by Dazza Waters.

A rare thing - a day off for Goody! We had the day together and shopped, lunched and wandered. In the evening we strolled around Kew - we are so lucky to live in such a lovely place. Perfect!

Leeds hat-trick

2005-08-13T20:44:00.000+01:00

Leeds.JPG
Originally uploaded by Dazza Waters.

We celebrated our third wedding anniversary with two nights in a country hotel near Leeds.

We were impressed with the city - it's mix of the industrial past and present. The people of Leeds were also very friendly.

It's been such a hectic summer for Goody so it was great to indulge ourselves and spend some time together.

My wife is an incredible woman and I'm lucky to have her.

Reality is smaller than memories

2005-08-07T20:17:00.000+01:00

reunion.JPG
Originally uploaded by Dazza Waters.

I spent three years in the 1990s studying at Sussex University. It was, I suppose, a typical university experience - spent in two states, drunk and hungover.

Despite the damage to my brain cells, I still have great memories of my time there. Living on a campus is being part of a huge community, a social network which is 24/7. There is always someone knocking at your door or a door to knock on.

I am by nature a nostalgic person - and my memories are very tied to places and objects. So I was greatly looking forward to returning to the campus for my best mate's stag party.

Five of the 15 of us had studied there so this was also something of a pilgrimage.

We rolled up after a night's drinking and found our way to rooms in East Slope, the block I had been on in 1990/1, much as I did for many many evenings as an 18 year old.

Waking up in a cramped room with wobbly furniture and the gulls screaming outside my window, I had the strongest sense of deja vu. And with good reason.

I spent an hour wandering the paths and corridors of my alma mater, strangely quiet now that the students have returned home for the summer months.

Little changed, except the whole campus felt as though it had been shrunk somehow.

Everything seemed closer than I remembered. Long treks to bars or lecture halls were little more than a two or three minute amble.

Strangely, my memory had expanded distances between places when in fact the campus is quite compact.

Different locations triggered memories of conversations, antics and the humdrum stuff that I still treasure.

University was where I left my family and struck out on my own. It's now part of my personality, my character and it was emotional to return.

One of my university friends Craig remarked on the weekend that a "door is just a door", saying he would not be bothering to look at his old corridor, his old room.

Later that night I stood in front of the door of my old flat on campus 57c and felt drenched in so many great memories.

It wasn't even the same door from my time there - but it didn't matter a jot!

Alumni alert

2005-08-05T13:51:00.000+01:00

I'm on a stag party this weekend and we're heading to Brighton. The 15 of us are going to be staying at the University of Sussex, where five of us, including myself, were students between 1990 and 1993.

We're actually staying in my old block of flats!

I'm a nostalgic person so I'm interested to see how I feel when back there.
University years are a disproportionately important time in your life, given you are only there three years.

But the memories are strong and it's great I will be back there with 5 friends that I met when there and are still close to.

The stag, incidentally, also went to Sussex.

In many ways getting drunk and acting like idiots will be the perfect way to recreate the university feel - as that's all we did while "studying".

Fireworks

2005-08-01T18:01:00.000+01:00

IMG_1845.JPG
Originally uploaded by Dazza Waters.

It was fantastic to see the inside of a concert - the hard work, passion, and dedication that goes into providing entertainment for 20,000 people.

My admiration for my wife is boundless. She works ridiculously long hours in tough conditions to make her concert as good as they possibly can be.

She's underpaid and overworked but deals with all the hassles and problems with amazing good grace.

Penguin in a suit

2005-07-30T20:34:00.000+01:00

Well, I squeezed into my dinner jacket, which I've not worn in 6 years, and spoke to about 10,000 people.

10,000 people who were expecting a summer's evening picnic concert but in fact are huddled under umbrellas wearing macs.

The rain has stopped thankfully. And the orchestra is now playing.

I was pretty terrified to be honest but muddled through. I didn't crack any jokes - soggy sandwiches was a no go area to be honest.

I'm on again at the interval. Yikes.

Halle, thunder and rain

2005-07-30T15:24:00.000+01:00

Tonight I'm not just attending one of my wife's concerts - I'm participating. For tonight's and tomorrow's concerts I'm acting as MC at Tatton Park, near Manchester.

Yes, I will be on stage introducing the Halle Orchestra and, tomorrow, Will Young, in front of 10,000 people each night.

Nervous? No, not yet.

I'm actually blogging right now from a portakabin in a field at Tatton Park. They have wireless installed and my god, I feel I'm finally justifying the cost of this laptop!

The Halle orchestra is warming up right now, a lovely sonorous piece. Security staff and event staff are running about, hard at work, while I sit about.

Sadly, it is pouring with rain. Not the ideal conditions for a summer's day picnic concert. I fear some pork pies are going to get quite soggy.

But as MC it will be down to me to jolly the crowd. We're British, we're used to such summer conditions.

I'll drop some pix onto Flickr if I can track down my wife's digital camera.

My 'local' Starbucks

2005-07-23T11:00:00.000+01:00

I read an interesting feature in the Independent earlier this week about one journalist's love of Starbucks.
Read it here

Basically, the reporter embarked on a tour of as many Starbucks in London he could in one day and reported back on his findings - unsurprisingly his commments were not good.

There were a couple of startling facts - London apparently has the second highest density of Starbucks in the world, with 455 branches.
There are 9,481 branches worldwide, all offering a sort of McCafe culture.
Now I'd never set foot in a Mcdonald's 'restaurant' but I'm more than happy to sit in a Starbucks for an hour or so - in fact, it's where I am right now.
Clearly, Starbucks is doing something right.
I agree with the journalist, it's not about the coffee, which is typically bland and bitter.
Partly it's somewhere to hang out, alone or with friends. Britain has not been blessed with great social nexuses (is that a word?) apart from pubs.
Yes, Starbucks has killed off many local cafes and greasy spoons but the fact is these were by and large dreadful places with sticky floors, plastic table mats, and the odor of lard lingering in the air. Great for a sausage sandwich, awful as a crucible of conversation.
Let's not kid ourselves, there's no Parisian left bank-style discussions underway in your local Starbucks - well, certainly not in mine, here in Kew.
But at least you can sit in relative tranquility for 30 minutes in a chair that doesn't look and feel like it was once part of a patio set.

I suppose there is also an appeal to places which are so uniform that they transport you to a state of anywhere-dom. I could be sat in San Francisco, New York or Buenos Aires right now.

The only differences I have spotted is in the food on offer. The panini and sandwiches for sale in the US, for example, are so loaded with sugar it is like sucking on a bag of Tate and Lyle.

The pictures hanging on the walls here in Kew are straight out of the Starbucks production line.

There are a number of arty sepia-tone pictures of city scapes. I have no idea which city it is/they are because to know would be to break the illusion of anywhere-dom.

The same bags of coffee, mugs, flasks that you see in every Starbucks are also for sale here. Does anyone buy these things?

So why am I here? The opportunity to be psuedo-social when in fact I am on my own. People watching is always fun. I'm still in love with the idea I can surf the net in my local cafe. I can entertain the notion that when I step out of Starbucks, I'll be on Market Street in San Francisco and I'll grab a trolley car over to North Beach.

That's a pretty intoxicating illusion.

Open Saturday

2005-07-17T11:36:00.000+01:00

After getting a few hours sleep I hopped on the 65 bus and headed over to Alan's house. We gathered up a few clubs and strolled up to the local 9 hole pitch and putt course.

The weather was glorious as we hacked and thrashed our way around the course - twice. We both played pretty poorly but it was great fun. Alan had some nightmares, including a 12 on one particularly horrendous green. I also managed to lose a ball up a tree.

Here's a picture of Alan mid-swing. His shot, incidentally, missed the fairway!

Dirty Harry

2005-07-16T07:50:00.000+01:00

I've been up all night reading the latest Harry Potter book; not because I'm one of those man childs who can't let go, but because I was reviewing it for work.'

Fuelled by coffee I mananged to finish all 607 pages in under five and a half hours. Pretty impressive.

I blogged every 100 pages or so, and then went on Radio 5 Live to espouse my thoughts.

Not exactly Brian Hanrahan I know.

I'm now back home in bed with the laptop contemplating sleep.

Goody is working - of course. She's in Audley End, Cambridgeshire for her latest show.

She's working too hard and it makes me worry.

Palm sunday

2005-07-11T22:17:00.000+01:00

I don't see my neice as much as I should so it was great that Natalie and Billie came over to see me on Sunday. Billie brought her friend Tash - and the pair of them are double trouble. Mothers - lock up your sons!

Having one of the world's most beautiful locations a matter of yards from one's front door can be quite handy. We went for a wander around Kew, and found ourselves inside the Palm house.

If we thought it was hot outside, inside the great Glass House it was hard even to take a lungful of air.

I love Kew Gardens. It's a pretty special place for Goody and myself.

We used to go there lots when we first met, Goody was the events manager there for 2 years and we got married in Cambridge Cottage in the gardens in 2002.

Kew stroll

2005-07-09T18:47:00.000+01:00

Saturday morning over the last few weeks has meant an early start to go and watch the British Lions play New Zealand in a local pub.
The rugby hasn't been great - at least not from the Lions - but the breakfast has been pretty good!

After the Lions lost again I head home and ended up surfing the net in Starbucks, drinking expensive, strong coffee and experiencing expensive, yet weak, wi-fi.

Of course I could have sat at home and done the same thing... but it's nice to be social!

Danny invited me out for an afternoon pint and I headed down to Old Deer Park to sit in the sun, have a jar, chin wag and watch some cricket.

I brought the camera, took a few snaps along the way and a bit in the park.

We whiled away 90 minutes, occasionally watching the cricket, but generally just gossiping about work and stuff.

Goody is working. Up early really early to head to Kenwood where Hayley Westenra is performing.

The weather this morning was cloudy and a tad chilly and I feared for the picnic concert but as the afternoon has progressed, the clouds have burnt away leaving a lovely evening, warm in the sun and quite still.

I hope people are sitting on that bank in front of the stage, enjoying some food and drink, chilling and lapping up the music.
They bloody well should do - Goody's worked so so hard over the last 12 months to make the concert happen!

We're in...

2005-07-08T10:43:00.000+01:00

The boxes are unpacked, flattened and taken to the recycling depot. Our bits and pieces are on display. The audio video hub is wired up and ready to go.
And we've even got some pictures on the walls.

No-one can accuse Darren and Goody of slacking when it comes to moving house!

The truth is that we're now a crack commando unit when it comes to removals.

It's strange being back in a flat we occupied four years ago. New memories are overlaying old memories, while some things forgotten are re-emerging.

Old routines are coming out of hibernation, while the changes to the area in Kew and flat in the last few years are jarring with memories of things as they were.

Some changes have a certain fatal inevitability about them - Starbucks has replaced the local bread and pie shop, Tesco has taken over the Europa store.

So I can get a nice cup of Java, but the stilton and broccoli pasties are lost forever.
I can get a wide assortment of snacks, but Paul Newman's pasta sauces are no longer stocked.

Hardly stuff to warrant losing any sleep over - the planes coming in to land take care of that - but jarring nonetheless.

At least we're closer to Kew Gardens again - about 250 yards - so it will be great to visit a place that has a special place in our memories. We did get married there after all.

Take a look at Kew Gardens

Pack up our troubles...

2005-06-27T19:51:00.000+01:00

We're on the move again - some would call five times in five years an addiction.

We spent Saturday packing boxes, and wrapping every possession we own in bubble wrap.

We had planned to pay professionals to do the packing but after we got the quote we realised it would be cheaper to fund the first manned space flight from the UK.

So our flat has become cardboard city and bubble wrap world.

Each time we move we swear it will be the last.

But this time.....

Here ComesThe Flood

2005-06-24T19:20:00.000+01:00

Well, I wished for some cooler weather... and here it is. Of course, the rain always seems to fall during Wimbledon week and the start of Glastonbury.

Contrast our camping experience last week with the state of the pitches at Glastonbury.

Not my idea of a festival!

London's melting

2005-06-23T21:59:00.000+01:00

A week of fantastic weather, the mercury pushing past 30 degrees celsius and the friction has started.

I've already seen one row on the bus, sparked by almost nothing, and I'm feeling pretty irritable myself. I felt like a boil in the bag curry as I travelled home on the bus tonight, the tiny windows letting barely a breathe of air in.

And as the picture shows - the heat is shrinking people.

Thankfully, the humidity is expected to lift tonight. And with it the tensions...

I'm not saying it's like Do The Right Thing.... but it is hot.

Carry on camping

2005-06-21T19:48:00.000+01:00

camping.JPG
Originally uploaded by Dazza Waters.

A glorious weekend, started with a meal out with friends in Soho, ended in the sunshine of east Dorset.

Chris and Rachel gave their first work out to their VW camper van, and despite a few teething problems, the "beast" was a roaring success.

We took the tent, and pitched up on a funny old campsite that was "adults only".

Thankfully, no sign of swingers!!!

We chilled, drank wine, played triv and scoffed a barbecue.

Such weekends of constant laughter are rare and to be treasured. Here's to plenty more.

Under canvas

2005-06-16T14:43:00.000+01:00

Goody and I are off camping this weekend with friends Chris and Rachel. They'll be roadtesting their VW camper van, while we'll be under canvas giving the tent it's first airing of the year.

We're heading down to the New Forest and the weather promises to be sweltering hot.

Given that the camper van doesn't do more than 50 miles an hour, we'll probably arrive in time for lunch.

The only decision is - barbecue tea or in the pub?

Devon knows how they make it so dreamy...

2005-06-12T17:46:00.000+01:00

devon.JPG
Originally uploaded by Dazza Waters.

We spent the weekend in Devon at the Elliott's and were joined by Gareth and Emma from Manchester. The weather was lovely and so Saturday afternoon was spent on the beach at Bigbury on Sea.

The girls lounged while the lads engaged in beach olympics. It felt like the first real day of summer to me - sun tan lotion, sand between your toes and then that stinging feeling on your legs and cheeks as you head home.

Gareth, Emma, Helen and Keith remain bemused by the blog, and blogging in general.

Oh well.

steveandhannah

2005-06-01T22:18:00.000+01:00

steveandhannah
Originally uploaded by Dazza Waters.

We spent the afternoon with Ems and Steve, Megan and Hannah on Monday. Megan was hysterical - potty training can be pretty funny!
Hannah is changing so quickly and has such chubby legs!!!

Back from the fold

2005-05-31T23:44:00.000+01:00

We've returned from the gig - which was awesome, if ever there was an understatement.

Wow! Ben Folds and his band were just bristling with energy and it showed. Great musicianship and performance that had the Apollo rocking - not bad for a male, middle class and white country boy.

It's up there in my pantheon of all time great gigs.

What a way to rock the suburbs.

Into the fold

2005-05-31T17:26:00.000+01:00

Goody and I are off to see Ben Folds at the Hammersmith Apollo tonight.
V excited to see the bespectacled piano man. I'll be wearing my casual geek chic clothes for the occasion!

Down the bay

2005-05-29T20:46:00.000+01:00

weekend.JPG
Originally uploaded by Dazza Waters.

Much of Cardiff Bay is currently under scaffolding or being built. But here's the St David's hotel - now a familiar part of the bay skyline but still dramatic.

Bay days

2005-05-29T20:44:00.000+01:00

weekend.JPG
Originally uploaded by Dazza Waters.

I love this pic of the six of us. We're in Cardiff Bay.

Poppy...

2005-05-29T20:43:00.000+01:00

weekend.JPG
Originally uploaded by Dazza Waters.

Just a pic of a beautiful poppy growing in my mum's garden - it opened overnight!

Mum's the word

2005-05-29T20:41:00.000+01:00

weekend.JPG
Originally uploaded by Dazza Waters.

Goody and I went down to Wales to see our mums. We called in at my mum's first and spent the evening scoffing curry.
A lovely day the next morning and it was great to see my mum recuperating and pottering in the garden - which she loves!

Mother missions

2005-05-28T12:14:00.000+01:00

We're off to see our mothers this weekend - both of whom have been poorly.

The weather is lovely - so hopefully there will be a chance to sit outside and enjoy some wine.

Here's hoping.

SuperJen

2005-05-22T21:56:00.000+01:00

SuperJen
Originally uploaded by Dazza Waters.

Goody went up to Blenheim Palace to watch Jen compete in her first ever triathlon.

She's been training for months and has raised hundreds of pounds for charity - so hats off to Super Jen!!

Karaoke Saturday

2005-05-21T21:45:00.000+01:00

It's sing-a-long-a-saturday. We've watched the first hour of Eurovision and now we're watching Hit Me Baby One More Time.

Goody's got a bit of a thing for Pat Kane of Hue and Cry which is only a bit worrying!

Dan and Eleri are watching E'vision and are sending us plenty of hysterical texts.

Why oh why are these two shows on at the same time?

The white wine has just been finished and now I'm on the red....well, it is Sunday tomorrow.

Goody is going up to Blenheim to watch Jen run in a triathlon - her first.

Good luck Jen! We'll post some pictures tomorrow.

Cup weekend

2005-05-21T15:47:00.000+01:00

You know the summer can't be too far when the FA Cup Final comes around.
I've got such great memories of sun drenched finals down the years.

There's not much sun and not much action on the pitch either so far.

Oh well. You can follow the action here:

FA cup final

2005-05-15T17:44:00.000+01:00

We'd not see H&S for a long while. They'd not even seen the flat - which proves we are terrible at getting people over!

2005-05-15T17:43:00.000+01:00

This weekend we had Dan and Eleri down and on Sunday also had Harriet and Sylvia and Dan and Nicky over for Sunday lunch. Goody and I were up at the crack of dawn peeling spuds - well, 9.30am - but it was all worth it. As usual Goody cooked up a storm, and the weather was unexpectedly good so we were able to sit in the garden. Lovely.

2005-05-15T17:41:00.000+01:00

Goody always gets pretty excited when she sees something with her name on! This was from Didsbury in Manchester!

2005-05-15T17:37:00.000+01:00

Goody and I took a trip to Lewes a few weeks back. Here's a little picture.

Weekend amidst the rugby

2005-05-14T09:30:00.000+01:00

Dan and Eleri are down with us this weekend. Our plans are somewhat influenced by the double header rugby matches at Twickenham this afternoon. Town will be packed with four sets of rugby fans.

We'll try and find a relatively calm pub to watch the games.

Dan and Nicky will be bbq-ing food tonight - whatever the weather - and Goody will be doing the sunday roast.

Yes - it's another weekend that revolves around food.

Pubbing it

2005-05-02T19:06:00.000+01:00

Off out in a mo' for a drink with Steve and Ems. Goody's been hard at work in the front garden while I've been watching CSI:NY. Good job she didn't marry me for my practical skills...

Bank holiday madness

2005-05-02T14:41:00.000+01:00

No trip to the garden centre or B&Q for us! No, it was an early start to meet Danny and Nicky for a game of tennis at the local municipal courts. At £5.50 an hour it was easy to see why Britain hasn't produced a Wimbledon champion in decades.
As Nicky pointed out - courts are free in NZ and there would have been a queue to get on them even at 9am on a bank holiday.

But after finding the local key holder to unlock them - Goody always overcomes bureaucratic hurdles - we pitched into a game despite the rain.

It was a close game - 9 games to 7 - and got the competitive juices going; although I don't think Nicky appreciated my "fuck a duck" comments as self-motivation.

After tennis, Danny and Nicky treated us to a bbq-ed breakfast - home made pancakes, sausages, and even cooked apples. You've got to love that antipodean way of life.

But there's something peculiarly British about the sun and the sound of a distant lawnmower! Or is it just my suburban upbringing?

Full to the brim - when aren't we stuffed with food? - we lolled in the garden until the sun had tipped past the noon zenith and it was time to go home and loll in our own garden.

Goody's is on the sun lounger looking as perfectly beautiful as she always does and I've managed to find a hotspot in the garden for the laptop under the shade of the umbrella.

Surrounded by bird chatter and the noise of kids, no doubt causing havoc and tiring our their parents, in gardens some way off, it's a lovely bank holiday monday.

Of course, we could be in the paint stripper aisle at B&Q...........

Beach bums

2005-05-01T23:23:00.000+01:00

Beach bums
Originally uploaded by Dazza Waters.

Out of London, laden with food, we made our way to Lewes, west Sussex, where I had lived for a year as a student.
It's a beautiful old market town, with plenty of antique shops and loads of character.

We wandered past my old student house - a lovely terrace, which I shared with 3 friends.

We then headed to Ferring, just outside Worthing and sat on a lovely pebble beach in the sun, stuffing ourselves silly!

Dozing in the sun with full bellies. Lovely.

Good friends

2005-04-30T16:12:00.000+01:00

goodygarden
Originally uploaded by Dazza Waters.

Ems and Steve brought their gorgeous girls - Megan and Hannah - over to see us a few weeks ago for lunch.
Goody cooked up a storm and we were royally entertained by Megan who can be hysterically funny.

Sun seeker

2005-04-30T16:10:00.000+01:00

goodygarden
Originally uploaded by Dazza Waters.

A sliver of sunshine and Goody is out and enjoying it!

And then....the sun

2005-04-30T15:50:00.000+01:00

A bank holiday weekend and the sun. One of British life's rarer combinations!

Goody is sat in the garden while I'm in the kitchen - the network fades to a trickle on the patio.

We have had a great morning and are settling into the afternoon.

We're looking forward to some quiet time after a tough two weeks. This blog is not the place for private family matters but we lost a loved one recently and we've been dealing with the necessaries since then.

We're planning a picnic tomorrow - somewhere down on the south coast. Of course the rest of the population will have the same idea so it's bound to be busy, but escaping the city is one of the great British summer traditions.

The new Ben Folds album is on the stereo - sounds a touch more serious than previous stuff, but we'll see. Just love his chiming piano. And he's a geek so he gets my vote.

We're hitting the pub tonight with some friends Danny and Nicky - they've been out walking the hills south of London on the way to Brighton, so I'm sure they'll appreciate the liquid refereshment.

Kew weeds

2005-04-16T22:58:00.001+01:00

Kew Gardens holds a special place in Goody's and my life - G used to work there, we used to live next door and got married there also.

So any stories about Kew are always on our radar.

Weeds and Kew

Gardening and networking

2005-04-16T16:47:00.000+01:00

The weekend...finally.

Goody spent the afternoon in the garden, putting in bedding plants and tidying up the front and back of the flat. It now looks just lovely - all we need now is some sunny weather and we can fire up the bbq and sit out.
As she toiled I sweated over our new wireless router. Getting the thing set up was easy - apart from the hassle of unplugging the current wired connections and disentagling a score of cables - and within minutes we were online and, most importantly, in a secure network.

We've been piggybacking on the unsecured network of our neighbours for the last, ahem..., weeks and our guilt at using their bandwidth is only eased because of the suffering their ceaseless late night noise causes us.

But now the desktop PC and apple laptop are both connected - sadly I can't get the Apple to see the PC or the Slimp3 to see the PC. I'm pretty sure it's to do with the router but why does it have to be so difficult? Should computer users really have to know about IP addresses, NAT, port forwarding etc.

It should be plug and play with a few boxes to click on and off the features/access you do not want.

Geek rant aside, we can now surf the net in the kitchen and even in the garden. I won't be streaming DVD quality video but at least I can answer a few emails or catch up with the latest on Slashdot or the BBC.

Making plans...

2005-04-12T20:41:00.000+01:00

Friends Steve and Ems are coming over for Sunday lunch with their gorgeous little girls, Megan and Hannah.
I'm hoping we can sit in the garden and share a few glasses of wine.

On the Saturday Goody is going to do some gardening, while I sit in the garden surfing the net on our new wireless network. Raking or surfing - I know which I prefer.

I'll be popping out to PC World on Saturday morning - I hope the network will reach the garden!!

Boats on a pond

2005-04-12T20:39:00.000+01:00

Boats on a pond
Originally uploaded by Linda6769.

Came across this pic on Flickr today - just loved the impressionistic feel to it.

This is the Summer feel I'm hoping for - the stillness, the harmony.

Hangovers, coffee and a picnic on the green

2005-04-10T19:13:00.000+01:00

Friends Chris and Rachel (in photo above) came down for the weekend on
Saturday.
After catching up we got dressed up and went to the
evening wedding reception of a colleague Helen and her
new hubby Nick.
Many other work mates were there and we all had a
great time quaffing champagne and dancing - in that
rather embarassing way people do at weddings.
The four of us got carried away with our digital
cameras and took some great "experimental" snaps,
especially in the cab ride home.

Sunday arrived accompanied by a hangover - especially
for poor Chris - and the unexpectedly sunny day lured
us out of our shady kitchen.

Fuelled by a gallon of coffee we wandered along the
river to Richmond, and after a failed attempt to find
a table at a pub we settled on the Green and C&R
treated us to some food luxuries from a nearby Italian
deli.

We sat in the sun, scoffed our toasted panini and
assorted, pricey treats and just felt - for a few
hours at least - all was right with the world.

It had been a great weekend and a good sign for the
summer to come.

Before leaving we got a date in the diary for a
weekend "booze cruise" to France.

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Picnic pleasures

2005-04-10T18:31:00.000+01:00

Before I really get into the heart of this blog I should explain why i'm doing it.

Summer: it's about lazy weekends with friends, hoped for blue skies, chilled wine and barbecues.
It's about thawing out the bones and brains and remembering why we work so hard to enjoy such fleeting pleasures.

But for my wife, Summer is the culmination of a year's work. She runs summer concerts as stately homes in the south east of England - and one near Manchester - so for her summer is about long hours, tiring days, crowds of people, celebrity singers, snatched moments of quiet.

I wanted to blog that dual nature of summer in our lives - share some times with friends, celebrate my wife's hard work and just keep a record of one, hopefully great, summer.

Of course, it's only April. But today was one of those days that gave the first hints of what June, July and August could offer as we spent our time with two friends under the sun in Richmond.

Walking along the riverbank I thought I'd start my blog today with a few pictures and an optimistic sense of what the future holds.

This weekend our friend Chris was keen to remind us of the outlook of the recently departed author Saul Bellow - that every day we should wake up and revel in the pleasure of simply being alive.

Amen to that.