Family Tree

I've started an online family tree with Ancestry.co.uk and integrated that site in this one under the Family Tree link on the left. I have invited 5 family members to become Editors of my tree but only 2 have accepted so far.
So if you, Paul, Gillian and Margaret, haven't joined in yet go to your email now and click on the Ancestry link I sent to you and get registerd so that you can contribute to the whole tree.

The tree starts with me but you can find your way to the Shortall, Rowbottom, Duplock, Rainsford, Wood, Jones and Brown families by exploring the various links on the page.

If any one I've not invited want to join in then please let me know.

Something for the weekend

We're off to Brighton again this weekend. We've arranged for a little family gathering at Dan's and Loz's place in Gloucester yard. We've invited Margaret & David, Gillian & David and Pete & Tracey for lunch on Sunday. Wendy and Loz will be cooking up some sort of buffet and I think Wendy is in a bit of a state about it all because it'll be vegetarian and M&D and G&D aren't used to that sort of food. I'm sure that all will go well and everyone will enjoy the buffet.

I think we'll have cheese and pineapple on sticks and perhaps vol-au-vents as well.

I'm looking forward to it as we've not really had a family gathering for some while now.

We're also going to see Ron and Ruby for a late lunch on Saturday too.

A good weekend!

Following some trying times at work with my line manager and her line manager be put "At Risk" of redundancy and on "Garden Leave" I was happy to look forward to a little family gathering with Margaret, David, Gillian and David on Saturday.
They were due to come to Henley for Lunch so Wendy and I had checked out the local pubs for availability and suitability for the right sort of food. Nothing too fancy and not too expensive as none of us have much money to spare these days.

They arrived at about 1pm while Wendy was out posting a letter. after a quick chat and a cup of tea we decided to walk down town to the Three Tuns pub. It's a small place with a "Restaurant" area at the back but we decided we'd sit at the very front of the bar area so we could see what was going on in the streets. We started of, as usual when we all get together, with a drink Pints of lager for us men and wine for the girls.

We got ourselves settled in the window area and asked for some menus. Various choices were eventually made although Gill and I had to order our main course before anything else as we had decided on Pasta and the chef had to get that cooking or it wouldn't be ready with the other main courses.
Mushroom soup, Mushroom Brusectta, avocado salad for starters and Sausage-n-Mash, Char-grilled veg-n-Pasta and Steak-n chips for main course. We of course had more beer and wine with the meal and finished off with a few puddings. I had Lemon Tart with Crème Fréche. We managed also to entertain ourselves between drinks and food with a little box ow trivia questions to be found on each table in the pub. Available from "Talking Tables" web site which I've not yet checked out.

On the walk back home we decided to stop at the Bird in Hand pub for a quick one where Jarvis had a nice time playing with the pub dog. Wendy had been out to get Jarvis while Gill and Margaret were looking around the shops and Dave, Dave and me were in the pub have more drinks.

When we got back we decided that more drinks were needed and some more food. I got the drinks, Wendy made sandwiches David W was ill in the toilet and David S fell asleep and entertained us with his snoring. I have pictures and a short video which I may post later.


Sunday has been a lazy day. We woke at our usual 6:30 am and had tea and just lazed about for a few hours then we got up and went for a walk down by the river. The weather was so nice. Not too cold although there had been a very heavy frost in the night. It was bright and sunny and the river was so full the lock flood gates were running wild. Here is a picture of the flowing water.

All in all a good weekend...

Life is so coincidental...

I decided to have fried eggs on toast this morning and guess what....

Liverpool Story Unfinished

WARNING - Allow enough time to read this OR to get bored by it. Alternatively you can skip to the end for a brief synopsis.

As some of you will have seen on Wendy's blog we went to Liverpool last weekend to visit my Auntie Phyllis as my Uncle Frank had died some months ago and she has some interesting family history stuff that Frank had been collecting over recent years.

The journey to Liverpool was uneventful so I won't bore you all with it, save to say, the Hilton motorway stop did not live up to it's Hilton name!!

We'd booked into the Adelphi Hotel as we'd seen the series about it on TV and the web site pics made the interior look prety good.

When you're greeted, as we were, by the doorman saying "Welcome to Fawlty Towers" in a joyful Liverpudlian accent, perhaps you should check out immediately and find alternative accommodation.

Our initial impression of the hotel was pretty good due to the reception area being quite grand with the reception desk to the left and carpeted steps directly in front of you leading up to the Lounge which is furnished with various styles of leather arm chairs and sofas. We arrived at about 11:30am so we tried to check in but were told that earliest check in would be 2:30pm. That was OK as we were all a little tired from the journey and all wanted a drink. David and I went to put the car in the garage while Wendy and Margaret went off to find the bar and order some drinks.

Car parked, luggage stored and drinks now available we settled down for a little relax in the lounge. By the time we'd had our drinks we all decided to have some lunch and so ordered an afternoon tea for four from the menu. This turned out to be much more food than expected, thick filled sandwiches of Ham or Cheese a pot of tea and then a cream cake & a scone and jam with more cream!

Here is the hotel front

I'm not sure why I'm standing like that. I think I've been caught mid pose prep or maybe too much cream cake.
After a little bit of a look around we decided to go off the the Ferry Across The Mersey. Thats the one I got my head stuck in the railing of when I was young.
Here are a few pics of our journey

The Liver Building with the famous Liver Bird on top
I saw a post card for sale just like this shot. That's why it's on an angle




Wendy on the ferry
They're playing that Ferry Cross the Mersey Song too...




They have life belts on the Ferry just in case.


The view from the Ferry







Having been out on Sunday our room had been serviced as you'd expect it to be. However the standard of service really lived down to the quality of the Adelphi. Here is a picture of our freshly serviced bed.

It looks like its been slept in and just the covers pulled up. I think that is what actually happened!
Still it is Sunday and I'm feeling relaxed




------------ Synopsis -----------------
FRIDAY
Family history trip to Liverpool
Set off Friday 6:15pm
Travelled to Paul's to drop off Jarvis
Arrived at 8:30pm
Travelled to Margaret and David
Arrived at 10:30pm
Had tea and wend to bed
SATURDAY
Left for Liverpool at 7:30am in Davids car
Arrived at Adelphi hotel at 11:30am
Had MASSIVE afternoon tea (unexpectedly large amount of food)
Choice of Hotel restaurants. French Style, Carvery Style.
I wanted the french style food, others wanted to eat in the carvery. We couldn't agree so went out.
Found reasonable place to eat, dinner and drinks for 4 = £85
SUNDAY
Arrived for breakfast at 9:15am
Self service buffet breakfast
Scrambled eggs tasted like eggs but I am really not sure what they were
Complained about Eggs to Polish Waiter - He went to kitchen, we didn't see him again!
Made our way to Auntie Phyllis' house
Met Phyllis and Vera (my cousin)
Had cup of tea, spoke about old times
Saw an old photo hanging on the wall of my mum as a child, "me nin" (grandmother) and grandfather and some others. I've been promised a copy...
Went out to lunch and had a good chat about the family as it was in Liverpool. (some skeletons there I can tell you...)
Went to see My Auntie Agies house (not there, even the street is gone)
Got a pic of the old railway sidings I used to watch the steam trains shunt about in
Saw the Church my cousin married in. It's really run down and looks derelict although I am informed it's still in good use.
Went for afternoon tea at the Adelphi as my Auntie Phyllis mentioned she could not afford to go past the front door
Eventually got tea and cream cakes on room service delivered to the lounge. Everyone enjoyed that.
Took Phyllis home, then took Vera home and stayed for a cup of tea. A lot of tea is had in Liverpool! Milk in first though.
More skeletons let out...
Back to the hotel
We'd already eaten too much so decided to slum it in the local McDonalds. Cold chips, cold vegetable crappy roll thing, diet coke. Not enjoyed at all, please don't let me eat there again. EVER!!!
Back to the hotel and off to bed
MONDAY
Seems a shame the weekend has gone so quick
Travel home with a detour across the Peak District
Stopped for a couple of photos but not much good. I'll be editing them for ever...
Traffic jams all the way
Pick up the car and travel to Pauls to get Jarvis
Travel Home

Pheew! What a day, What a weekend....

Food interest

Yesterday evening saw our first taste of Caviar. Ellika cooked us a Swedish meal although I'm not sure we were able to get all of the traditional ingredients from the local Sainsbuy's.

The food was not what us English blokes are used to (there were no chips!).
Starter: Toasted bread with a medley of fish (including Caviar)
Main Course: Smoked Salmon with a sweet mustard sauce, Tomato and pine nuts with balsamic vinegar and Potato cubes in a creamy sauce.
Sweet: Swedish Glacé Ice Cream with chocolate sauce and luxury wafers.


Ellika tells me that the Creamy Sauce was not as expected due to the Rice Milk not being right.

It was all very nice and everyone went back for more.

Dogs and Open Doors

We stayed at Ben's house last night and as usual we slept in the lounge of an inflatable mattress. Wendy like "a bit of fresh air" so the patio doors are opened as wide as they'll go. Of course we have Jarvis with us and he's sleeping next to the open door. Well, I say sleeping but what he was actually doing was keeping guard and watching out for anything that moved in the night.

After about one and a half hours I got a bit fed up with the constant noise of the dog moving around then running to the end of the garden then coming back then barking then running to the end of the garden then.... Well you get the idea.

The patio door closed I managed to get off to sleep.

In the morning I enquired, as one does, if Wendy had had a good nights sleep. Yes fine she said.
Did you hear the Jarvis barking? I asked. No not at all.
Some people have all the luck b ut I'm not sure how someone can just "Tune Out" a barking dog while you're trying to go to sleep.

All well this morning though. It's a bright, if a little chilly, day and Wendy's going to cook lunch for us while Ben and I do a little DIY on the curtain rail which I am dreading. As you'll know, me and DIY don't really mix so I'm praying that the super glue worked.

Super Glue

Is there anything that Super Glue can't fix?

Ben needs to make sure his curtain rail stay fixed to the wall when the curtains are hanging on it. Trouble is that most of the plastic fixings are broken. We've tried to Super Glue it back on because we couldn't find the right type of fixings to replace the broken ones. This morning we'll see if it works...

Stay tuned for more curtain dramas later.

The King is Dead...

After 3 years faithful service (well a bit sporadic actually) the Powerbook G4 is almost dead.
Mums been having problems for the last couple of weeks with it not connecting to the internet, crashing and switching its self off.

Mums become quite attached to it and had started calling it Mr Mac!

We're looking at getting her a new Mac Book. What do you think?

To Pro or Not to Pro that is the question...

Black or White?

I'm thinking:
MacBook White bottom of the range for £750

Computers

While sitting in te garden this evening and chatting away about nothing much really; the conversation went onto computers and I asked Wendy what our first computer was.

Do you know?

I'll tell you it was a Texas Instruments Ti 99 4/a and is the only computer I have made money on.
I bought it in 1982 from Argos in Brighton got it home and after a couple of days it busted.
Lukily, Texas Instruments had thought it a great idea to offer a £50 cash back on the purchase of the Ti99 4/a so I'd already sent off the voucher.

I returned the machine to Argos who refunded my money, no questions asked, and a couple of weeks later we got a cheque for £50 from TI. We of course sent the cheque to Argos. ;-)

This little aside got us reminiscing about other computers we'd had and I couldn't really remember what we bought to replace the 99 4/a. I think it may well have been a BBC Model B and soon after fitted a SOLIDISK external drive chip to the mother board. Very adventurous !!!!

Favorite game on this was (and still is) ELITE. Marvelous space trading game that I've not seen the like of since. I seem to remember that we had an analogue joystick. Yes analogue. None of your modern digital rubbish. What would it be like to have a digital accelerator peddle on your car. Rubbish !!!

I think we then moved onto a Sinclair Spectrum and after that it all gets a little blurred and I think we may have had the Spectrum before the BBC.

I know at one point after moving to Victoria Road we had an Intel 8086 PC that I used to send type setting via modem to a firm in Bournemouth whp would do the setting and return it the next day via DX mail and I'd collect it from the Solicitors office in Shoreham.
I remember I was spending about £250 a month on that little baby. And that's how I got involved with Macs. Never needed to look back!

Unusual Saturday

We went down to Brighton yesterday to have a chat with Dan and Ben about work and to watch Ben play football for Southwick FC against Whitehawk FC.

The journey down was OK a little traffic slowed our progress a bit but we made reasonable time anyway and the journey took one and a half hours so we got to Dans place at just about 11am.

After a late breakfast / early lunch I popped into Cancom (local Mac dealer) to get some extra memory and a couple of other bits (cleaning cloth and fluid, neoprene case and an additional Airport Express).

We then left Dans to pick up Elika from Bens house, Ben had already gone to football as he had to be at Southwick for 1pm so that they all travelled together into Brighton for the away match.

we were a bit late and didn't get to the match until about 20 past 3.

Ben was on his good form making a few good saves but letting in one. Then just before half time this happened:


Yep, it's another goal but what's worse it's a Broken Ankle too.
Ben was in so much pain. Wendy Cried, I took pictures!








Now ben has to spend 12 weeks in Plaster so that the broken bones and ruptured ligaments can heal.

Poor Ben.
Get well soon