Hope 2009 brings you good fortune.

When it comes to Christmas time and you are buying a present for your wife, don’t let the kids see….

On Saturday, the present that I had ordered arrived in the post. Ellie was with me and wanted to know what was in the package. I explained that it was a present for Mummy, and that I needed to send it to Father Christmas so that he could deliver it. But first I needed to check that it was ok.

So after opening the package, Ellie wanted to see it. I showed her the present and she commented that Mummy had broken her previous necklace. (Gemma knows what it is so there’s no point trying to hide the fact of what it is!) So I said to Ellie that we can’t tell Mummy about it, it’s a surprise, we’ve got to keep it a secret. Ellie nodded her head and agreed.

I didn’t think anything of it again until last night.

We were all sat around the dinner table having our dinner, and I can’t remember what started it off, but Ellie then started to talk about Gemma’s broken necklace.

Mummy’s broke her necklace, she said.

“Yes, she has.” I replied.

Can we give her the necklace? she asked

“Pardon?” I asked.

The new one, off Father Christmas

“Ellie,” I said, putting my finger to my mouth. “Don’t tell Mummy! It’s a secret!”

Bless her, she looked all sheepish and went quiet. I told her that it didn’t matter, but we couldn’t give the necklace to Mummy as I’d sent it to Father Christmas.

Even though Ellie had given the element of surprise away, it was really heart-warming to think that she’d been thinking of her Mum and remembered that there was a new necklace waiting for Gemma. This was really sweet of her.

I’ve been very impressed with the initial setup, which was helped by reading some simple instructions that I found at David Potter’s website.

All photos will be available at the following page: Photos.

Over the coming days (or weeks, depending on time) I will be adding and updating the photos to the albums.

We made the trip for Gemma’s brother Shaun’s 21st birthday, and we all had a great time, with the highlight being the “Top Gear Live” show.

Below, you’ll be able to see some of the better photos from the day.

[Show as slideshow]

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Overall, it was very enjoyable. We managed to see all of the exotic cars on display, from the Aston Martin DBS to the Ferrari F430, and much more.

Gemma was really pleased as she got to sit in one of her beloved Aston Martins

The only minor criticism that I would have is that the MPH Car Show was not quite what I expected. I was expecting the stands to belong to the manufacturers like Aston Martin and Ferrari, but even though all the cars were there, the stands were mainly being run by companies trying to sell driving experiences etc.

Like I say, it’s only a minor criticism, and it didn’t spoil our enjoyment of a great day out.

On Saturday, he was taken to hospital after playing football, where it was revealed that he has a double fracture of his tibia and fibula. The injury was caused by a vicious two-footed tackle in an Under-16 football match.

We went to see him yesterday in the hospital, where he was in good spirits, despite his leg being encased in plaster along its entire length. The hospital have now let him home for a couple of nights until they can do an operation.

Initally, he was due to have an operation yesterday morning to set the fracture, but due to emergencies this has been put back until Tuesday. So, fingers crossed that it goes ahead.

It is going to be a long recovery, he’ll be in a full length plaster cast for about 5 weeks and then it will be a another 5 weeks in a cast up to his knee. Sad news is that he won’t be playing football until at least September 2009!

Hope it all goes well for you Rick.

Cars in the Snow

…causes so much chaos!

This morning was the journey from hell to work. Not that I got there!

It all started when we were woken at around 5am by Liam who was asking for a feed. As I got up to see to him, I had a quick look out of the window to see how bad the overnight frost had been. It didn’t seem too bad. I went into Liam’s room and changed his nappy, while Gemma went downstairs to prepare his bottle.

But as I was returning to our room to feed Liam, I caught a glance through the window-blinds of the first flakes of snow falling. It was falling quite fast. By the time that Liam had finished his feed there was a good covering on the ground, but the snowfall appeared to have stopped. We settled back into bed to get a few more minutes of sleep before the alarm went off.

I climbed out of bed as the alarm went off and took a look out of the window. In the time that we had gone back to sleep another flurry of snow had fallen, taking the depth to a good inch or two. Not a problem I thought, should be fairly easy to drive through.

After going through the usual routine of getting ready, I headed out into the cold. Once the car was clear I set off for work. Normally, my journey to work takes around 45 minutes to an hour to cover the 40 mile trip.

About half a mile from the house, I ran into my first queue of traffic. After sitting in this queue for around ten minutes, I decided to do a U-turn and head in another direction. BIG mistake.

I headed along the alternative route and very soon came up on another queue of traffic. Judging by this second queue, there was going to be traffic everywhere, so there was probably little point in looking for another alternative. So the decision was to sit it out.

I had left the house at 7am, and by the time I was in the second queue it was already 7.45am. On a normal day, I would have just about been at work by that time! During the next hour, it was very slow progress. I must have moved around 100 yards. This was not good!

Gradually, the traffic edged forward, and once through a major junction, the traffic seemed to ease, which gave me some hope of getting to work. However, it was false hope. I travelled about a mile and a half without too much trouble, but as the motorway approached, all sense of progress disintergrated.

I was back into gridlock. By this time it was getting close to 10am. I had been on the road for about 3 hours and my progress was about 5 miles! While I was sitting in this queue, I was seriuosly thinking about giving up and going home. I hadn’t moved again for about 15 minutes, and then the snow began to fall quite heavily again. That was the final deciding factor. It was not worth sitting in traffic to finally get to work to then have to leave early because the snow starts falling again.

It then took me a further 45 minutes to get back home. But as I travelled back I thought about all the other drivers heading in the other direction, who were not going to reach their destiniation any time soon.

I cannot believe how much disruption a little bit of snow can cause. I know that we don’t have a great deal of snow in the UK nowadays, but surely it is something that we can all cope with.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day, and that I can get to work.

Fingers crossed!

Bernie Ecclestone - he has some ideas!

What is Bernie Ecclestone thinking?

He has come up with another madcap scheme that will see a very radical change to the way that the F1 World Championship is won. Bernie’s proposal was announced yesterday and it is one of his “best” yet!

The idea that he has come up with is to replace the current points system with a system of medals, where the top three drivers would get gold silver or bronze medals, as athletes would at the Olympics. The thinking behind this is that the driver who won the most races would be the World Champion.

Under this scheme, it would have been Felipe Massa, not Lewis Hamilton, who would have won the title in 2008. Massa having 6 wins to Hamilton’s five. Although if it had not been for that controversial penalty at Spa, it would still be Hamilton’s title.

The rationale that Bernie has used to try to convince us that this is a good idea is that it would encourage overtaking, because the drivers know that 2nd place would count for nothing.

If this proposal comes to fruition, and Bernie wants it in place for the 2009 season, we could have the situation where one driver wins 5 races, and then doesn’t finish in any other race, would beat the driver who had finished 1st in 4 races but then finished second in the remaining races.

I can see that his reasoning has some merit, it may well encourage the drivers to be a little less conservative and be a little more aggressive. But the same idea could also be acheived within the points system. Up until 2003 there was a bias towards winning races with the winner receiving 10 points, while the second place driver received just 6, and so on to 1 point for 6th place (10-6-4-3-2-1).

This was then all changed because of Michael Schumacher’s dominance of the 2002 season where he won with plenty of races to spare, the points system was overhauled and the points gap between 1st and 2nd was reduced to just 2 points, but the points going down to 8th place (10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1).

I believe reinstating the points difference would bring about the same result. Increase the number of points for first place and that will give more of an incentive to win races.

Bernie Ecclestone has said:

It’s going to happen, all the teams are happy. The whole reason for this was that I was fed up with people talking about no overtaking. The reason there’s no overtaking is nothing to do with the circuit or the people involved, it’s to do with the drivers not needing to overtake.

Firstly, I cannot believe that ALL the teams are happy with this proposal. I don’t think that the likes of Force India, who drive around at the back of the grid and hope to pick up the odd solitary point during the season, would agree to this. It would give them nothing to show for their efforts during the season.

Secondly, the real reason that there is no overtaking is because the way that the cars have been designed. For years, there has been an increasing reliance on aerodynamics, which has led to the cars not being able to follow each other through corners, and hence get close enough to overtake.

Now, hopefully with the new 2009 regulations this will make it easier for the drivers to get into positions to overtake. They are not the prettiest cars, but if anything improves the overtaking then I’m all for it. The new cars will have larger front wings, smaller rear wings, and there is also the return of slick tyres.

I can’t see the plan being implemented, and there are reports that the FIA will not approve the proposal, at least not for 2009. The proposal has got it opponents, including former JordanF1 owner, Eddie Jordan, who think the whole idea is “nonsense”. I do tend to agree with him.

It will be interesting to see if this does come into effect, but I am waiting to see how much of an influence the new 2009 regulations have on the racing. Perhaps next season there will be a shake up as everyone is starting from a clean piece of paper.

Hope you have a great day, and that the great British Postal Service has got your cards to you on time

Thanks for all your help over the past few weeks with the decorating - it has been very much appreciated.

We all carry our mobile phones with names & numbers stored in its memory. If we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill, the people attending us would have our mobile phone but wouldn’t know who to call. Yes, there are hundreds of numbers stored but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency? Hence this ‘ICE’ (In Case of Emergency) Campaign.

The concept of ‘ICE’ is catching on quickly. It is a method of contact during emergency situations. As mobile phones are carried by the majority of the population, all you need to do is store the number of a contact person or persons who should be contacted during emergency under the name ‘ICE’ ( In Case Of Emergency). The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when he went to the scenes of accidents there were always mobile phones with patients but they didn’t know which number to call.

He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognised name for this purpose.

In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital Staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialling the number you have stored as ‘ICE’. Please forward this. It won’t take too many ‘forwards’ before everybody will know about this. It really could save your life, or put a loved one’s mind at rest.

PLEASE PASS THIS AROUND AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE AS THIS CAN HELP IN AN EMERGENCY

“PUT YOUR DAMN* LIGHTS ON”

*Language toned down for public consumption

This time of year really shows how many idiots there are on the roads. I don’t know about you but it has been driving me mad lately as the days are getting shorter, that some drivers are being so dense that they don’t turn their headlights on.

It really annoys me! (Could you tell?)

This is really stupid and just plain dangerous. Especially with the speeds on the motorways. It is hard enough to see cars approaching behind you in the dark, without these idiots driving without their headlights on.

Just because they can see everyone else with their lights on, it doesn’t mean that we can see them. I don’t understand why seeing other cars with lights on doesn’t serve as a reminder for them to do the same.

You can imagine the thought processes going through these drivers minds:

Oh, look at all those drivers with their lights on.

That’s really good of them. It helps me to see them.

And, because they’ve got their lights on that must mean that they can see me!

No, it doesn’t quite work like that.

In fact, its not just driving at night that drivers “forget” to put their lights on. Even when its raining they should be putting their lights on so that other road users can see them through all the spray.

Another point, sidelights do not qualify as having your lights on when visibility is at a premium. You might as well not have any on, for all the good they do! It is very hard to see the dim glow of sidelights in amongst bright headlights, or mountains of spray being thrown up from the road surface.

I think that it should be made compulsory for all cars to have their lights on at all times. It won’t cost you anything and it will save these brain dead idiots from having to bother to turn their lights on.

Russell Howard

On Saturday night Gemma and I went to see Russell Howard at the Albert Halls in Bolton.

It was the first comedy gig that we’d been to and we were not disappointed. We’d taken the decision to see Russell Howard after seeing him on the BBC show ‘Mock The Week‘.

Russell Howard is like a hyperactive kid trapped inside an adults body. He is so excitable about his subject matter that you cannot help but get taken along for the ride.

The speed at which the stories and subjects come out of his mouth makes you wonder whether his head will explode with so much going on. He just can’t wait to tell the audience. Then all of a sudden he goes off on a complete tangent, talking about something completely different.

Whether he is talking about the current economic climate and readers of the Daily Mail who’s biggest complaint is that ‘the world is going mad’, or telling antecdotes about the time when he was wearing his friend’s mum’s swimming costume as a wrestling outfit, he has endless reserves of enthusiasm.

We were truly impressed with his performance, and we left with our faces hurting from the constant laughing.

I urge you, if you get the chance, to go and see Russell Howard.

Ellie and Liam

Although Gemma should take some credit for the idea for the composition. But the beauty of this photo is that both of them are looking at the camera - a very rare thing indeed!

I’ve played about with it in Photoshop, cropping it and changing the picture to B&W.

Liam

We thought that we’d try Liam initially on baby rice, but he wasn’t too keen on that. And who can blame him? It’s absolutely tasteless.

Anyway, we’ve moved off the baby rice to trying him on rusks. He likes these. At the moment we’re only giving him a small amount once a day, just to get his body used to having some solids. He seems to be coping with it without any problems.

The next thing will be fruit and vegetable purees, so I’ll need to do some cooking and make some stocks up to freeze.

You can also copy and paste the message and email it to people you know.

Postal Scam
Can you circulate this around especially as Christmas is fast approaching - it has been confirmed by Royal Mail. The Trading Standards Office are making people aware of the following scam:

A card is posted through your door from a company called PDS (Parcel Delivery Service) suggesting that they were unable to deliver a parcel and that you need to contact them on 0906 6611911 (a premium rate number). DO NOT call this number, as this is a mail scam originating from Belize.

If you call the number and you start to hear a recorded message you will already have been billed £15-20 for the phone call.

If you do receive a card with these details, then please contact Royal Mail Fraud on 02072396655 or ICSTIS (the premium rate service regulator) at www.icstis.org.uk

Please highlight this to as many people as you know.

Last night was the first night that she has slept through the night without the need for her to wear training pants to bed. She woke this morning and there was no sign of any accidental wetting. This is a big moment!

The previous few mornings had been promising. Ellie had woken with her training pants dry. So, we decided to take the plunge and let her go to bed without her training pants.

And it all seems to have gone very well. We’ve put a protector on the mattress for the inevitable accident that will no doubt happen during this exciting time.

Gemma and I are so proud of our little girl.

Today was a happy day for Gemma. She has finally got her new car!

And, she is VERY happy!!!

It is a Vauxhall Astra 1.8i SRi (XP). And here it is in all its glory:

Our New Astra

Our New Astra

First impressions of the car are very good. Only time will tell how good a car it is, but I don’t think that anything will change Gemma’s mind about how much she loves her ‘little’ car.

It is a Nikon D40, digital SLR camera. I’ve been wanting a DSLR for a long time. And here it is:

My New Camera - Nikon D40

I’ve had it almost two weeks now and I am still working out what everything does, and how best to shoot photos. I will start adding my new photos very shortly. Keep your eyes peeled

Monday was a milestone in the Jones household. It was the day when Ellie had her first taste of nursery.

Ellie had been excited in the run up to this day, telling everyone that she was going to “big school” and ‘nursesry”. She woke about normal time and I brought her down to have her breakfast. I’d decided to go in late to work on Monday, as this was a milestone that I wanted to share with Ellie.

After breakfast I got Ellie ready, while Gemma fed Liam. She was so eager to go. Even at 8.15 she wanted to get going. On her first day she didn’t need to be there until 9.15, and it is only a short walk to the school.

Just before 9, and armed with her little school bag, we all set off. Gemma pushing Liam in the pram, and Ellie walking with me.

We arrived in plenty of time, and after being let in by her teacher, Ellie was shown where to put her coat, and her bag. To avoid any tears, the teaching assistant took Ellie by the hand and led her into the classroom to get her started. Gemma and I then headed home with Liam.

Her first morning was only a short one, just an hour, to see how she coped with being there.

Gemma and I headed back within the hour to pick her up. She seemed ok, but had some puffy eyes. The teaching assistant told us that she had got a little upset, but that was mainly due to the other children in her group getting upset.

Ellie said that she’s had a good time, and told us all about it on the walk home. She’d painted a picture, played with play-doh, had a butty and some water. I think that once she gets into the routine of going to nursery, it will all get easier.

It’s all a new experience for her. One that I hope she will enjoy.

Liam, 3months

Gemma had him weighed last week, and he is doing really well. He now tips the scales at 14lb (a whole stone!). I’m sure it won’t be too long before we’re thinking about weaning him.

In fact, Gemma had the weaning “lecture” from the health visitor yesterday. Don’t give him this or that before six months…. Blah! Blah! Ellie was on solids at about 4 months and she’s not had any ill effects.

Just in the last week or so he seems to have found his thumb, and it is more and more common to see it stuck in his mouth. He has also developed the most incredible cheeky smile!

Liam is also making the first efforts for crawling. When he is put on to his front, he is lifting his head and pushing himself along on his belly with his feet. He’s not moving very far yet, but it is a start. Before long he’ll be in the cupboards and getting hold of everything.

• How many regular readers I have?
• Where do you come from?
• How did you find me?
• What do (or don’t) you like about the site?

Please feel free to leave your comments, I’m really interested to hear your thoughts, and see how many people out there read this stuff.

Don’t be shy, I am a friendly guy!

The problem that I was encountering yesterday seems to be solved.

Bad news. I’ve no idea why.

Yesterday I disabled the WPG2 plugin so that I could investigate, but now today when I’ve reactivated it to recreate the error, it would appear that the problem seems to have gone away. Puzzling!

I will keep an eye on this. If anyone else comes up with an error when clicking through to a single post then please let me know, either by leaving a comment, or using the CONTACT ME form.

It would appear that the WPG2 plugin seems to be causing an error when clicking through to a post from the front page. I will have to investigate this. In the short term I’ve had to disable the Gallery while I get it sorted.

I will keep you updated…

Our Wedding - Signing

This year has flown! One year ago today, Gemma and I got married. It was a fantastic day.

Now, one year on, we have a little boy called Liam to add to our family whose big sister Ellie loves to bits.

Thank you Gem, for making this a wonderful year to remember. Long may the years continue and we grow old together.

I love you x x x

Over the coming weeks I will be adding some photos so please come back regularly to see them.

We were sitting down waiting to have some lunch, Ellie was finishing off a lollipop. She started messing around with it, and after a few moments Gemma and I suddenly stopped and looked at her.

Ellie was holding the lollipop upside down, holding it like a cigarette, and sucking on it. “Look, I’m smoking,” she said.

We were absolutely stunned!!

When we asked Ellie where she had heard that she began talking about other things. She went all quiet as though we were telling her off. We tried to reassure her that she wasn’t in trouble, but she stayed quiet. It was left like that, as at this age we didn’t want to make a big issue out of it. We are hoping that this is a one-off occurrence.

We can’t really know where she has picked it up from. The most obvious place she’d pick that sort of thing up would be from us, her parents, but neither Gemma or I smoke, neither do our families. My Dad used to have the occasional cigar, but never in front of the kids. So we began racking our brains where she could have picked it up from.

We came up with two options:

Television - this could be where she’s picked it up from, but you don’t see too many people smoking on the TV nowadays. Ironically, the one thing that did pop into my head where she may have picked up on this is the Anti-Smoking advert where they show the children copying everything that their parents are doing.

Our Neighbours - Out of the two sets of neighbours, three of the adults smoke. On one side of us the neighbours don’t smoke in the house, so come out into their back garden to have their fix of nicotine. Ellie is quite often in the garden playing, mainly bouncing on her trampoline, so she can easily see over the fence. And she also goes around there to play with the little girl.

I think the second option is the more likely place where she has picked it up from. I am not blaming our neighbours for this as they are entitled to do whatever they want in their own home.

Ellie is a really intelligent child and takes notice of everything around her, she is naturally inquisitive. It just goes to show that children, no matter how old they are, are going to pick up on everything that goes on around them in their world.

I think that this is a little warning for the future that even the smallest, obscure things are going to be noted and Gemma and I will probably have some explaining to do. What we don’t want to do is to make a big deal out of everything at this stage in her life. She will know doubt pick up on this and want to know more if we go on about it, and reinforce it in her mind.

Children are so very, very impressionable at this age.