The company i work for has three head offices: the main one in London where I am located, Manchester and Reading. Depending on what’s going on, and where i am needed, i get to travel the great railway lines between the 3. Today was Reading. Next week i’m doing two days in Manchester.

Tottenham Hotspurs vs Fulham at White Hart Lane.

One year on, to the day from my first football match, we’re here again.

The blogging software I’ve been using for the last couple of years, doesn’t seem to be under development anymore, with the last update being pushed out back in April 2008. The problem is, that without further develpment, any security holes that are discovered won’t get fixed, leaving my website open to attack (again!). And this software does have a couple that are like gaping rust holes in the side of an oil tanker.

There are coders on the support forum that are able to help users to fix issues, but without a full roll out of the updated pages, they’re just hack jobs. Enough to keep the software working. Bit like the coat hanger or gaffa tape that holds a car together. Good enough but only for the short term.
So… I have abandoned Simple PHP Blog, and given my loyaties over to Word Press.

Wordpress is lightyears more developed, with greater functionality than that of SPHP, with of course a hell of a lot more security. It’s able to pick up emails from a special address and automatically post them to my site, and I’m also able to use an iPhone application to post entries from where ever I am (like the post below).

It’s taken a couple of day to reformat the template to match the design of my site and to import all the previous posts and comments. I think in the end it will be worth it.

The old blog will stay online, but if any hacker thinks they can use the security issues to take over my site, good luck. The files are going to have all write access removed.

One year on, julia and i finally made it to the ice rink at the Tower of London. Julia broke her finger a couple of days before we were able to go last year.
We didn’t fall over or break anything but we do have sore legs and feet!

(Sent from my iPhone while laying in bed.)

Test post sent from WordPress application on the iPhone.
This is my iPhone desktop screen cap.

Ash Grunwald, The Funk Necks, Crispi and finally, Robbie. Makes me so very proud!

Tis official! Robbie’s finally struck a deal and is releasing his first album of chilled out alternative instrumental tunes!
Treat yourself to a relaxed soundtrack to your holiday festivities and visit the CUT label website to order a copy. All you folks in the UK can check out the Arabesque site for details of outlets stocking the album.
There’s loops, bass, guitars, banjo, ruan, liuqin (and a host of other cool sounding ethnic instruments) along with field recordings made here and abroad, all combining to create an eclectic mix of down-tempo tunes!
There’ll be launch gigs to follow, so keep posted on the Garagee Records myspace!

I have just bought an iPhone (8gb version), and not too sure whether I should be feeling excited and proud, or just plain dirty.

It is almost as if I have covered myself in my own excretment, grinning happily as I repeat my name in a sing song voice.
And now that I have bitten from the Forbidden Fruit, can I expect little black silhouette demons to sit on my shoulders whispering Apple slogans into my ear, while Steve Jobs sits in his frozen circle laughing maniacally as I thrash about, white cables holding me down as I scream unbelievingly ‘I only bought it for the apps…!”?

Maybe…

In the meantime, the Devil’s Whore sits on my desk at work staring blankly at me, knowing I can’t do anything with It until It has called home with the vile and soul destroying iTunes.

Is this the beginning of the end…

12th September 2009.
Keep it (and possibly a week or so beforehand) free.

Those of you in the know, know it. Those that don’t, might soon. Those who won’t, well, I’ll think about it.

It snowed last night. Well, it was more like a slushy sleet that turned into crusty ice by the morning. No snowball fights today. Would probably have had an eye out!

Autumn again, even though my body says it should be Spring! I’m finding myself walking to the station each morning, wondering why I’m not wearing gloves, and whether I should be growing a beard to keep my face warm over the coming winter months. It’s just not right, I tells ya! Damn topsy turvy Northern hemisphere. Next thing you know, it will be snowing again, at Christmas of all times. Oh well. I know I should just get used to it. I won’t be seeing a real summer for a while now…

Things have been quite crazy over here the last two months, for Julia and I. Not only are we engaged, but we’ve been dealing with future employement concerns, a household move, visa application merry-go-round, and a Skruff and Cath catchup. All at the same time.

Julia had been going through a reshuffle at her workplace, where a number of people in the same role were to be made redundant, with the rest to be placed into a newly created position. Everyone who wanted to stay, were required to go through an interview and job review process. I’m very happy to say, Julia was one of the survivors.
I’ve been working for the last 12 months, in a contractor capacity, with the firm Spire Healthcare. My role was basically to build a intermediary system to manage their pension scheme, which I had done with only maintenance of the system keeping me around. When they heard that I wanted to take a break and work somewhere else for a couple of months, they made their move and offered me a full-time position, matching the pay rate of the other contract’s offer. So now I’m fully employed, with great prospects ahead of me.

At the start of September Julia and I finally moved into our own digs. A 2 bedroom flat in a lovely part of Enfield called Bush Hill Park. This was perfect timing, as Skruff was over here for a short visit with his lovely Cath for her brother’s wedding. Just what he wanted to do while on holidays, help his best mate move!

Of course, end of August is a special time for me. It is my birthday. Not that a lot of people know, they just generally suspect it and I quickly change the subject when they ask. Julia surreptitiously had been in contact with Cath, and between them arranged a wonderful get together at the Oxo cube on the river Thames in London. Neither Skruff nor I knew this was happening. I believed it was just Julia and I having dinner together, and Skruff thought he was being dragged out to meet more of Cath’s friends. It was bloody great! The look on Skruff’s face when he saw us walk through the door. Wonderful. And the meal, tasty. It was the first time I’d ever had rabbit, and all while looking out over the Thames in a restaurant located in a tower devoted to gravy stock, The OXO Tower.

I started this blog entry a few weeks ago, and now can’t remember what I was going to write about… oh well…

I’ll get around to putting up more photos at some point. Although I have pretty much given up on the daily sidz pic, keep an eye on the album though as I will be putting them up once in a while, especially if I’ve been somewhere interesting.