Sunday, December 31, 2006
I've mentioned the various pets in this house on occasion, so I figure it's time I formally introduced them all.This is Cat, who you've seen here once before.
He's grown a lot since the last photo I posted here, and oh yeah... that's a wardrobe he's standing on top of. He gets everywhere.
This is his brother, Milo.
Milo has a prettier face than Cat, and a less aggressive temperament, but he's not as bright
This is Whisper.
The photo doesn't really do her any justice.
Whisper's an incredibly sweet cat, with the most amazing purr... she trills when she's really happy. She's not a very bright cat, which can be funny. Fill the food bowl right in front of her, and she'll still bug you for food, till you show her that the bowl's full.
This is Farl.
For all that he may look a little like Whisper, he's by no means a sweet animal. In fact, he's usually downright horrible. He's mean to all the other cats, swipes at anyone who dares to stop stroking him, and frequently teaches Max, the puppy, exactly who is boss.
For all of that, apart from Cat, he's my favourite moggy in the house, largely because he's a really good lap cat.
This is Ellie.
Despite her expression in this photo, Ellie's a really sweet cat, but very neurotic. She'll stand on your lap, but won't sit down, preferring to walk round and round while you stroke her, sticking her tail in your face, and licking your hands.
This is Chloe.
She's an absolute princess, and woe betide anyone who forgets it.
The cat's food bowl is kept up on top of the washing machine, so that the dog doesn't eat it, and Chloe will sit on the floor looking up at it wailing, till someone lifts her up to it. However, if there's no-one around, she'll jump up to it, no problem.
Oh, and don't ever dare rub her tummy, no matter how appealingly she offers, coz she'll rip your hand off.
This is Little'n (LittleUn?)
He's a very bright little moggy, and in cat terms, something like a teenager in temperament. He'll be all over you and affectionate as you like, when he feels like it. The rest of the time, he'll completely ignore you.
And awkward? You better believe it. Whatever's least convenient for you is what he'll want to do.
This is Chester.
Sadly, this is a very poor photo of him, but I didn't want to startle him with the flash, as he's a very nervous moggy.
We don't see much of Chester, as he prefer's to stay in Andrea's oldest daughter's room.
Pity really, coz he's a really huge, incredibly sweet cat, with a head that looks like it belongs on a gorilla's body. Oh... and he's completely gay. How can such a huge moggy have such a wussy voice? The kittens have deeper voices.
And finally, here's Max, having grown a bit since the last photo I posted here.
He's turning out to be a really good dog, especially now he's mastered the finer points of house training. Lively, but not insanely so, he's learned the basic commands like sit, lay, paw, and NO!
Labels: animals, cats, dogs, photos
Steve 12:32 AM [+] (0) comments
Saturday, December 30, 2006
So then, now all of that's done and dusted... Christmas, and the run-up to it.On the 21st, Andrea and I went back to Milton Keynes for a couple of days, mainly to drop off pressies for my family, but also to do a spot of shopping.
As it's a damned long journey, we figured it'd be better if we stayed the night in a hotel, and while we'd initially booked a room at Newport Pagnel services, at the last minute, Andrea managed to get us a room in The Cock Hotel in Stony Stratford.
This was ultra cool for two reasons.
Firstly, Stony Stratford is my absolute favourite place in the whole world, and at Christmas, with all of the lights up, the place is absolutely magical.
This pic really does the place no justice at all, but you get the idea.
Secondly, we've stayed at The Cock Hotel before, and though on that occasion, our room was a little shoddy, we really liked the atmospehere of the place. So this time, we were thrilled to bits when we got a vastly better room for an absolute knock down price.
As you can see, the room was a decent size, with a double bed, decent sized sofa, HD TV, and wonderful decor and general ambience.
Now if that was all, I'd have been impressed, but the view from the window was really good too. Maybe if it hadn't been Christmas, it'd have been a little less impressive, but as it was...
This was the view looking directly out and down, while looking up the street a little...
So that's the run-up... what about Christmas itself?
Great day.
The build-up to Christmas is always pretty stressful, or at least, I find it so... so the fact that Christmas day was a really chilled and relaxing day was a real bonus.
With Andrea's 3 offspring all in attendance, it was a full house, with much food, drink, pressies, and tv. Just how things should be.
What did Santa bring me?
Among lots of other really cool stuff, top pressies were a Colecovision (early 80s games console... expect to find details in my Consoles And Computers section in a week or so), some books on photography and historic buildings, and Top Gear DVDs which repeatedly caused me to wake Andrea, coz I kept laughing at them, watching with headphones while she slept.
Yup... top Christmas.
Labels: Christmas, holidays, hotels, photos, Stony Stratford
Steve 9:12 PM [+] (0) comments
There we go... all sorted.
I'd say it's finished, but it will never be finished. However, (almost) everything that you could see and read while the blog was on tripod is now here.
I say 'almost', as clearly, some things are missing. The octopus is awol, and as I'm now using the integrated comments system provided by blogger, all of the old yaccs comments have gone.
So, apart from new posts, what can you expect, and how come I'm describing these pages as 'Life Story'?
Well... I have diaries dating back to my early teens (with gaps here and there), and as I get time, I'll be typing those up and putting them on here.
No doubt much of that won't make for very interesting reading, but since this blog is effectively a diary, I figure I may as well include those too.
So... the archives list should gradually start extending downwards as well as up.
Elsewhere on this site, I'll be finishing the photo gallery, though that will take quite some time, as I have around 500 photos to put on. Also, I'll be starting work on my Computer and Console Collection pages in the next week or so.
The chatroom, reviews and forum sections aren't likely to be completed particularly soon though, as the workload created by the bits I am working on now is fairly overwhelming, and I simply don't have time yet.
Labels: blogging
Steve 8:34 PM [+] (0) comments
Friday, December 29, 2006
Here we go... at long last.I've started moving my blog across from my old tripod server to my new site, with the new design.
A few photos are likely to be awol for a while while I transfer files across, but hopefully, by the end of today, things should be more or less sorted.
You can probably expect more posts from now on, as while I've been procrastinating for the past few months, I haven't really felt like writing much. This was simply coz I knew I'd have to move everything in the near future, and it really is a pain in the arse.
Labels: blogging
Steve 11:11 AM [+] (0) comments
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