Thanks!

Thanks to all for your birthday greetings - good to hear from everyone. Yes, the footie *was* a major disappointment but, hey, it's not all bad.

• We beat the Aussies at the one-day cricket
  
• There's a Brit (alright, a Scot!) still in Wimbledon in the 2nd week
  
• An Englishman is leading the F1 championship

Oh, and I got a fish tank from Caroline and the girls for my birthday! Just set it up tonight so I'm still waiting for it to settle down before I put any livestock in it. Because Elena is working in the 'aquatics' bit of a local garden center I'm sure to get some good advice on what to buy!

Oh dear, another world cup disappointment.

Happy birthday anyway Simon. Hope the "football" didn't cloud your day too much.

The Birthday Bruv

Happy B/day Bruv Simon Ave A Gud 1 xxx

Jacie made u a cake

England v Germany

Hope you all watching the footy sunday 3pm if we beat the GERMANS it will be like winning the world cup !!!

ENGLAND

Silver in Barcelona

First day back after 3 days in Barcelona to celebrate our 25th Anniversary. Caroline and I had a great time - loads of things to do and see and as you would imagine the food was lovely too! Never enough time on a trip like this , we'd love to go back again and do all the things we missed this time. Here's a few pictures of the brilliant Gaudi architecture from the famously unfinished Sagrada Familia to a wonderful apartment building.

Scary, huh?

Lauren is back from Uni for a few days and she and her friends decided that going to a bar in Croydon (by bus!) in animal-themed fancy dress was a good idea (-;

Hope im forgiven now !

Hello family
Sorry about the sunday lunch _ BUT i had to go to WEMBLEY to watch the Daggers the only time im gonna get to see them at wembley but im sure ill see you plenty of times ! PS:hope to see you soon


love bruv Paul xxx

Thanks, Boris!

Dunno if I mentioned it last weekend but the week before my big ride I rode over a big pothole on the South Circular and wrote off one on my expensive wheels (£150 a pair!) but managed to avoid coming off and having a nasty accident. Anyway, I thought I'd have a bash at claiming for the repair bill from whoever was supposed to maintain the road. I discovered that it's the local council *unless* it is a red route (which the S. Circular is) then it's comes under Transport for London.
So off went a finely crafted letter along with some close-up photos taken on the ole 'mobly' and a bill from the local bike shop and I thought that would be the last I'd hear of it. Not a bit of it!! On Saturday, onto the doormat drops a vaguely apologetic letter from TfL and ... a cheque for £99.99 (the cost of a single wheel) - result!

Hats off to Boris, I say (and sorry mate, no I still won't be voting for you next time round!).

Geek Meet

Got back at lunchtime today from the annual UK Games Expo in Birmingham. This is now my 3rd time of going (it's only been running for 4!) and again had a really good time. It's a trade show and board gaming meetup combined that runs over 3 days (2 nights) - I went for the Saturday day/evening, stopped overnight and came away first thing.
The show was great, managing to restrict myself to only a couple of purchases and got to play quite a few new, soon-to-be-released games. I met with some people from the game club I go to and also hooked up with 2 separate groups who I've met from previous years. This meant I had no shortage of willing and friendly opponents and eventually gave up at around 1 a.m. still leaving a surprisingly large number of folks still soldiering on!
I even met a really nice fellow gamer, Beth (who is also an illustrator) who did this terrific personalised cartoon for me!

Already planning next year's visit!