23/12/2009 by Russell.

‘Let it Snow…Let is snow..’ is the line from the song and boy did it snow Monday afternoon.

Emily, Greg and I had a lovely shopping day in Milton Keynes, all under cover, no worries of the weather, we left to get a frame from IKEA about 4ish.  leaving IKEA an hour later, a few snow flurries appeared, and thought nothing of it since travelling at rush hour, plenty of traffic, no worries………….

By the time we reached Dunstable, it was settling and it was a slower pace of 20mph.  And we ploughed on up the hills to Tring, which we liked so much, we decided to take it steady and take in the Christmas snowscape.  We waited patiently, and moved and waited all the while the snow lay deep and crisp and uneven.  Wilst we slewed to the Total petrol station in Tring, one kind gentleman asked me to pull over so he could park outside his house, queues of traffic in each direction, numpty! we had already crashed into a kerb by this stage in Dunstable.

Well we waited and waited (hour and a half later) then we made our move, being kindness itself we let a Vauxhall (front wheel drive) out from the petrol station, bloody numpty number 2, he came to a standstill at the r-about, when we we cruising nicely…20 mins later after pushing him up the hill to Tesco’s it was my turn.

Out Emily & Greg went into the snowstrom, push and push with others, and I was off, I ain’t stopping - see ya! Santa’s sleigh ain’t seen anything like it - Emily and Greg chasing after me…once on the flat I went back to help others, but once we were on the flat, we saw a huge queue of cars in the opposite direction, amazing for a slight incline in normal conditions suddenly becomes the North Face of the Eiger.  Cars all over the place.  We stopped to help a car up the hill, the next car in line to tackle the hill (well more like anthill) was a Z4, uhm I knew he wasn’t going to make it, my rear wheel drive was suffering, so I knew what was in store for him.  Oh dear!

We abandoned the Merc on the high street and walked 5 mins to the sanctuary of tv and jacket potatoes. 3 hours later, for a journey of 50 mins
Sadly there was one person who I know would have loved it, my Dad.  He and I have great memories of snowy escapades, Wingerworth 1967, Lavender Hill, handbrake turns in a van, Chesterfield to Manchester 1981, such fun…where are you Dad? I hope you are smiling up there!

Posted in me, Emily, Grandad, Greg, snow | Print | 1 Comment »

12/11/2009 by Russell.

Well the clock keeps ticking, birthdays come and go (Emily17, Phillip 23), life goes on.

As well you may know, my 50th birthday was a raucus event…well,,it was a quiet 50th spent on the M6 travelling to my friend Barry’s gaff near Crewe with his family.  Bless, they stayed up to blow the candles out.

Typically, he was the only person who raised a cup of cheer with me.  Greg had a great time on his mower and on the wii with Jo.

At last number 1 is now cmpleted for rent, well no-one is renting yet, but its costing me money all the time now, am expecting the local authority to drop a council tax bill through the letterbox.  All decorated, all carpeted and burglar alarmed, who could resit? seems that no-one is ready to go to number 1, its been on the market a fortnight now.

As for the boys, the season is up and down, hammer Amersham 15-2 and lose 9-5 the next week.  However, I must say it’s rare to be awarded two penalties in a match for two weeks running, which Greg has despatched for two successive weeks. Well done. Ben is flying in scoring, but hpefully we have a little gem in Rob who has joined us, more pace in attack.

Now where’s me glasses. £220 later, 1 week later and my new proper reading glasses have been lost in the car? Wearing them on the bridge of my nose, I go to 5 a side footy, only for them to have disappeared….need a brain as well.

Hey ho - counselling is steady…….

Solicitors bills for house is an ongoing cost along with everything else.  No worries Greg got his apple computer which is splendiferous.

Now we are on with Spitfire making - thanks to James May.

Posted in Chesterfield, Barry, chesham strides, Wingerworth, Greg, Uncategorised | Print | No Comments »

20/09/2009 by Russell.

United at the death beat old City rivals, thanks to a scouser, you just can’t write a script like it, life better than fiction, first Manchester derby I have missed in 4 years, and this is the one which seems to be the one to end all derbies.  Ah well, plenty of others to come.  Well let’s see if it does the trick for United’s less than convincing start to the season in terms of performances.

As for the boys - U15s - we got off to our first win in the cup today, thanks to a patched up team and a superb hat-trick by my centre forward Ben.  he scored a very late winner with a last kick of the match from the edge of the area after a mix up between keeper and defender.  However, we conceded defeat because we were playing two unregistered players.  I didn’t want to incur a club fine, money which can be better spent elsewhere.  Our Greg was ill, Keeper Toby felt sick and dizzy (another sterling display) and so we had players under the weather.

Greg has settled well into central midfield, and has the technique to look for the pass, and had two wonderful dribbles today leaving their No 7 on his backside.  Big Keiran needs his fitness levels to be improved, there were some flagging players at the end, but on the whole we deserved our victory against Cookham Dean.

Source: Daily Telegraph 20/09/09

Posted in Keiran, Man Utd, ben Standish, Greg, Football | Print | No Comments »

13/09/2009 by Russell.

Hi jolly campers

Forgot to mention that Greg and I went camping bank holiday weekend inbetween Portsmouth and Chichester.  We had a great time, weather fine, a bit windy, but nothing untoward.  the tent went up like a dream, what’s more we could just get up and have a ready made footy pitch.  Pity there was no floodlights though, once darkness set in, it was card games til late.

We were relativley prepared, tv, dishwasher, bathroom and bedroom. This is interpeted as Archos for tv,  Greg for dishwasher, bathroom - having a pee behind the car, and inflatable beds for cosy bedroom.

We visited the naval dockyard, lucky to see the Mary Rose as it is closing for two years in September 09 - moving to a new display, the Victory etc.  We had a saunter round Chichester and the Marina, the D Day museum at Portsmouth, but sadly no beach bumming, too breezy.

We managed hearty breakfasts and cooked our suppers without a hitch.  Our only incidents we had were checking sleeping bags for earwigs.

We are now ready for the Eiger summer 2010.  Well not exactly at the summit but in the foothills.

More recently the boys have started the season, we should get 16 registered U15s - whoo-hoo, the most ever, but results are required on the pitch, first game today and after leading 1-0, we suffered a 5-2 defeat.  Early days.

Kite Festival, Southsea, August Bank holiday 2009

very windy, it was busy on the front.

Posted in camping, chesham strides, Greg | Print | No Comments »

11/08/2009 by Russell.

Gosh! is it really way back in July that I last made a post?

First up was Derren Brown, on 16th July - what could he offer? very clever and manipulative chap? Was it all so random? I never saw the join between set up (if there was one) and inspiring comments ‘How did he do that?’ He certainly tries to think out of the box, so much random selection in the audience with whizzing paper plates.  However, I did work out where he was going with the word ‘Enigma’ but how he arrived at that was completely (or to me at least) seemed random selection.  Thanks Derren, Greg and I will be back. And what about the McFly thing? well if you went you would know! so book your ticket for the next time round.
Within Days of this we were off to Montpellier to visit Sylvie. Up at the crack of dawn, in Montpellier before 11am, thanks to easyjet.

Needless to say we left a murky Luton to arrive in clear blue skies of the med. We went to town, to Palavas for beaches, to the old Roman Aquaduct of Pont du Nord, to Sete, Cap D’Agde, Millau and Lord Foster’s bridge, to the Camargue etc, oh and a spot of sunbathing.

Sadly I fell asleep and scorched my back - loser eh?, we had a good beach at Palavas, which was a 20 minute commute - although there are many beaches to choose from from La Grand Motte to Cap D’agde.  The weather was glorious every day, very hot, comparable to Greece and Corsica.  We were in shorts everyday, watching our Archos/iPod movies by night, or playing cards on the verandah with Prissine, Sebastien and our other host Anne Marie, for which Greg and I were very grateful for the two beds and of course Banjo a friendly dog, seeking breakfast with me everyday (oh for the days of my dog Penny).

The day we chose to go to the Camargue, about 40 mins away, we had a good day seeing the white horses although not as I imagined trotting through the surf, but our quest was the Flamingo’s. Which we found on a wildlife sanctuary near to the town of Saint Marie de la Mer, but the jewel of the Camargue is the fortified town of Aigues Mortes, where we found weaponry for an army(and that’s the shops!) to the most delightful confectionery shop selling biscuits, sweets and toffees.  We paid a few Euros in there for one of Gregs friends.  On the whole we had a great outing.

To drive on and see the Millau bridge over the Tarn Valley is spectacular to say the least. It clearly beat the pants off the alternative proposals, so who says Brits can’t do design? come in on budget and look aesthetically great (which was a requirement) - wonder if we include this on our civil engineeering projects.

Down side was my hearing, which at times plagued me.  Iwas in the little store buying Phillip’s bracelet when this chap said something behind me, thining he was speaking to me in french about the bracelets, I immediatley responded saying something like ‘just looking, Ok mate’ only to notice he was talking to someone on the the phone, me and Greg just howled with laughter.  We had some great light moments on holiday, especially in Intermache, taking one of those bags to put your fruit in off the dispenser…yup - the whole roll came shooting out across the floor of the supermarket..

The lilo was great on the beach and in the pool where we were staying.

I personally was on a quest for a pair of cycling shorts for my colleague Rob. we went everywhere, hypermarket, sports shops, until we arrived on the Saturday to the largest Decathlon I have ever seen, shorts? and boats and guns and wet suits and footwear and punch bags, and even lockers to put your belongings in as you went hunting for goods. So shorts were easy to purchase.

In all the only real mishap was my chipped tooth in the departure lounge at Montpellier airport, the tooth broke awaywith the filling and cost me £100 to repair..ho hum, back to normal now fiddling with my Dad’s house

Greg in Montpellier

Posted in Derren Brown, Sylvie, Montpellier, Greg, Holiday | Print | No Comments »

14/06/2009 by Russell.

Emily’s too expensive for you, but if you can offer that kind of money, well Emily’s worth even more than that!

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09/06/2009 by Russell.

Thanks to Barry I have, he’s rekindled my thoughts of photography.  I used to have filters, tripods and stuff for my olf SLR, now with the advent of digital SLR, there is every opportunity to develop even a better crop of pics.  I have downloaded Elements 7 for a 30 day trial and here are a few of my early fiddlings, more vivid, more colour, more sharpness, and more realism to the shots.  In Vegas and the Grand Canyon, the light is very bright, so have increased the contrast to remove the glare.

Just click on each pic to see full size

For this photo, have added a blue Sky and toned down the glare from the Sphinx, it was far too washed out before…

.

Joshua tree cropped and green ehanced and given greater definition

Tint of sunset enhanced whilst reducing the spikey Joshua tree washed out from the flash photography

Increased contrast and deepened the contrast of the rock formatio in the foreground.  The greenery against the river enhanced

The sky has been increased in its hue. Looking over a sunset on Lake Mead, Nr Las Vegas.

Posted in USA, Photoshop, Barry, Emily, Greg | Print | No Comments »

31/05/2009 by Russell.

 Wow! it was hot, and we both flagged a bit, Oblivion, Nemesis and this one, Willy WOnka’s glass elevator and a stroll thru the gardens.  Emily you missed it,  easy journey from Chesterfield, rather down south.  Top tip, get online and buy in advance, plus get the queue beating ticket for £8 extra.

Click the pic to see full sized image

Posted in Alton Towers, Greg, dad, Holiday | Print | No Comments »

12/04/2009 by Russell.

Is your daughter’s hair worth £87? ask Emily.  I was expecting say £50 tops, but 2hrs later my pockets were much lighter. The salon is Keith Hall in Chesterfield, smart job done, and she’s happy.

Here she is with Greg:

Posted in Chesterfield, Emily, Greg, Uncategorised | Print | No Comments »

15/03/2009 by Russell.

We were up then we were down, Chesham Strides U14s needed the win against the league leaders. We were always up in the game until the last 2 minutes again, what is it about our results? Another hard defeat to take, I can’t do much more. On the positives we have found our formation, 4-5-1.  We have played much better and with more steel.  We should have been 5-4 up just after half time, but we hit the post for the second time in the match.

A failure to communicate, to pass and to finish teams off.  However, we have more-or-less found a settled side and now its up to the boys to finish the season with a flourish.   If we get relegated, it would be too much to bear, c’mon boys.

Next up is New York City, I fly off next Sunday in the late afternoon - ah well see what comes round the corner next.

Posted in Tom, chesham strides, Louis, ben Standish, Greg, Football | Print | No Comments »