Saturday 22 December 2012

School holiday dates into Google Calender - csv import

Just thought I would share this, as I have uploaded the school holiday dates into my calendar for 2012/13 and 2013/14, should be fine for most schools in England (just double check yours) but is definitely correct for schools in Waltham Forest - dates taken from the WF website.  Note though that they do not have any dates from Spring Break 2014.

So first of all for those who don't want to continue reading find the csv files to upload for the school holiday dates, one for 2012/13 and one for 2013/14, click here
Import these files into your calendar and you will have the school holiday dates "just like that"

The other side to this is if you want to be able to import in bulk to your calendar using csv.  The following is true for most calendar but is reliable for Google calendar.  If you think I have made a mistake please point it out.
First of all you will need to open a new spreadsheet, you can use the two as above as a template instead of creating from scratch.

You will need the first row of your spreadsheet to have the following fields,
Subject, Start Date, Start Time, End Date, End time, All Day Event, Reminder On/Off, Reminder Date, Reminder Time, Meeting Organizer, Description, Location, Private

The first two fields are mandatory. Ensure that your Date columns are formatted as date (dd/mm/yyyy) and your Time column formatted as time (hh:mm:ss)
If you want to insert a date range then Subject, Start Date and End Date are mandatory and either Start Time and End Time or All Day Event = TRUE

Note if you use All Day Event then your end Date must be "your end date" + 1, otherwise your event will finish a day earlier than you want it to.
Thus for range 1/1/2013 - 20/1/2013, I would acutally enter 21/1/2013 as my End Date if I want the event to finish on the 20/1/2013 in my calendar. This is only an issue if you use All Day Event, otherwise just use Start Time 00:00 and End Time 23:59 and copy this down through all of your events.


Wednesday 19 December 2012

Why we had a white wall

When our eldest was younger, much younger than today ;)   we went through a period, as many a parent will recognise, of the walls of the house being marked with a pen.  Child is in the other room, they are too quiet and you go to see what they are doing, to be greeted by markings on the wall. Always seems worse if you have just papered or painted the wall.

So we gave our boy a writing wall.  The wall in his bedroom by the bed was painted bright white and he was given the go ahead to write on it as much as he desired.  The flip side was that he was not allowed to write on any other wall in the house, ever.

It served its purpose brilliantly.  He took to his wall with gusto, pens/pencils/colouring pens.  It stayed for about 18 months until he no longer was writing on the wall.  We painted over and the wall was restored to its  previously unmarked state.  He, as they all do, grew out of writing on walls, seemed to grow out of writing altogether at one stage.
Mainly though the rest of the house was pen free and he kept his artistic licence within the domain of his room.


It's not because I'm lucky

Do you recognise the line "you are so lucky with your kids".

Really? So nothing to do with the fact that the kids get all our attention; read with them every night, visit the library once a week, work with them on their homework and not least talk with them all the time, about all sorts of subjects, nothing is of limits if they bring up the subject.

Now when the person who throws the above phrase is not choosing to do the same and their off-spring and expect their kids to just turn out 'right', then please don't compare my kids with yours because it has nothing to do with luck.

Tuesday 27 November 2012

Bread

I made bread for the first time this weekend.  Homemade bread.  I have always thought that it was difficult. Not sure why I have always thought that, probably because of the number of people we know, who have a breadmaker and have always said it was difficult without a bread maker.

Well I proved this weekend it is not difficult.  Well myself and the kids proved it  :)
We started in the morning and had bread ready for lunch.  Took less than an hour of actual doing something, most of the time was spent leaving the bread to its own devices in a covered bowl. The whole process took about 2 hours, plus the little extra added with kids playing and doing things themselves  ;)

Ingredients were: warm water, honey, yeast, flour, salt, egg white

The finished article was a little heavier than normal bread but tasted the same. No, in fact it actually did taste nicer.  I know it is cliché but it did taste nicer. I used one of the rolls we made for my sandwich at work today.

For demonstration purposes see the picture below of the first batch that came out of the oven
bread out of the oven

oh and you may be wondering about the mix.  Well - the easiest way is too watch this young lady explain it all

Monday 15 October 2012

We Have Life - The Phone Lives

Hurrah!!

The phone lives.

Volume down + Home button + Power = Download Mode

Computer + Micro Usb cable + Odin 3.07 + Gingerbread Rom

Started Odin.
Loaded Rom into PDA, Phone, CSC

Connected phone to computer via cable and pressed Start.  Loaded and within about 15 mins I had my phone back.

I am now less scared about upgrades after that.  Always ensure you have your data backed up.

Hurrah!!

A big thank you to those who have put resources out there - especially those who took the time to add to http://www.xda-developers.com/

Sunday 14 October 2012

Phone ER

My phone is semi bricked!

You know that sinking feeling you get when you update your phone, following instructions, and it goes wrong.

I have the black screen of death on my samsung galaxy, see pic

The phone is well out of warranty so will do this on my own.

There is a lot of resources out there so here starts my reading and on another day at another time I will give you a easy to read guide for semi technical noobs

I will need to get this into download mode first, so went and ordered a jig off Amazon (under £2, fulfilled by DecentGadget) http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005BZFLJY/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

Will let you know how it goes once it arrives.

For now though I am back on my trusty old Nokia


Sunday 30 September 2012

My digital journey

Around 6yrs ago, I started pushing myself digital, just as my son turned two. His age is important, as this was the age he started visiting the bookcase which held the CDs and DVDs to unpack it on a daily basis, all over the floor.
So after some investigation, I bought a popcornhour A110, ran network cabling, setup a freenas server in my loft and ripped my CDs and DVDs onto the server.
At the same time another strand of my life led me to install a VoIP capable wireless router and setup our landline phone to make calls over the internet and accept calls through a standard landline.
My documents I scanned and stored electronically on the server and other word processed docs were stored on the server.

That was but six years ago and now that whole setup, though still used is looking very dated. A lot has changed in 6 years.

Now you can stream movies through to your TV. I can even stream movies via my tablet to my (dated) popcornhour. Will have to upgrade to stream directly via my A110.

Now you have the ability to store your documents easily in the cloud, where you can access from any device in any location. I am still slowly moving my applicable documents into the cloud.

My VoIP setup is the only piece that does not look like it is particularly dated, though I can just make use of my mobile to call via the same VoIP network now.

That is in just 6years. Imagine what another 6 will bring.

Saturday 8 September 2012

Paralympics - nuff said

Went to the Paralympics this week with my son.  We  saw the Boccia, wheelchair fencing and seated volleyball. No mention of the disability from him, all about the sport. Have to feel real hope for the future.

The highlight for him though was sparring alongside some of the paralympic fencing team. Here he is with some of the team in a group photo.  Thanks guys! a highlight for him. We will cherish.



Friday 31 August 2012

Because she is a girl?

I was going to blog about how great a job I did of re-spraying my son's bike for my daughter. I did do a good job because she tells me that I am the greatest dad in the world.

Instead though after a short discussion I have changed my emphasis from the bike to the bike's colour.
As you can see it was blue.  That is the bike after I stripped it down, primed it and finished it.




 The bike is now Purple with half red forks and her name on the down tube.

Why not leave it blue, because she is a girl? No. Because she does not like blue.  She is hot on purple.
She used to like blue and had toys in blue and clothes in blue. Once upon a time at nursery my son liked pink, he even painted in pink a bird house they made.

We never forced any colours on them and they have come out loving blue for my son and pink, now purple/red for my daughter.  Colours they chose and are happy with.

Also proud of my nifty re-spraying work.

Tuesday 21 August 2012

I'll give you "Ok"!

What does Ok mean?

"Please turn off the TV" > "Ok"
"Come for dinner" > "Ok"
"Stop doing that" > "Ok"

What do you mean Ok?!?

Currently in our house it means, I hear you but....
So actually hears me much like a wall hears me.

I'm sure the only reason my son has the monopoly on this, is that my daughter is not old enough for those "Ok" hormones to have kicked in.

I find that suitable response is to say "Ok" when he asks for something he wants :)

Monday 20 August 2012

Frosty Glass

In our recent house changes, we moved the bathroom to the front of the house. The bathroom windows are the former stairs landing windows, as you can see.

I popped down to B&Q and picked up frosted sticky back film. I am very pleased with the result. Lots of light into the bathroom but no blinds required. A good solution to replacing windows.



Thursday 16 August 2012

Missing the Neighbours

Or neighbours moved 2 weeks ago. They were good neighbours and we got on well. My daughter though really misses them or more specifically their daughter.

These two girls were so alike, they could play with each other for a whole day and you would never know they were even in the house apart from food and drink needs.
Pretend play all day, with dressing up in various dresses for each other. The old phrase "they could have been sisters" was very apt for them.

If you have ever played shop, just to buy the same things over and over again, with minutes feeling like hours, then you like me will understand how much I also miss the neighbours and specifically my daughters friend.


Thursday 9 August 2012

8yr old teenager

I cannot tell you exactly when he turned into a pre-teen teenager but I think it was somewhere between the between "love you" and "It's my choice!!"
If I could just roll back to that previous I am sure all would be fine.

Now don't get me wrong he is a lovely kid, teachers tell us all the time how great he is. It is just that I feel, I am behind the curve in keeping my parenting skills moving as fast as he is growing. That and the fact that I am always wrong, apart from when I do what he wants me to do.

Was I really so surly? Nah, can't have been.  :-)

Maybe it is all just payback for what our parents went through. 

"But I was angelic!"

Sunday 29 July 2012

Room with a view

Ahhh, builders have finished.  We have moved back into our house and tidying up.  The tidy up takes ages, feels like we are chasing dust as well as moving back in.  We had to move everything out of the rooms of the house into the front room.  The one room in the house they were not allowed to go into.  Unpacking the front room, was even more difficult than packing it in the first place.

Apart from the stress and of being out of our house and keeping an eye on the trades people after work, I was impressed at the speed of work and the quality but what impressed me most was the views I had from the top of the scaffolding a similar view from our new loft room.





Wednesday 25 July 2012

Home at last

Last night for the first night in 6 weeks I slept at home. The lost conversion and associated works are complete. The house feels so different but it was great to be back there at last.
8 weeks is not ages but those who have been in same situation will understand, it was long enough

The strangest thing was my daughter's reaction. She could not get to sleep as the house feels so different. She had the same reaction when we moved to my mum's place; took her at least a week to get used to the new surroundings. My son is with his grandma at the moment, so will get his reaction soon enough.

Home sweet home.

Thursday 12 July 2012

Bazuka

It is called a Verruca and I have no idea where he got it from.  My son in fact has 2 verrucas on the sole of his feet, well one more on the underside of a toe.  I remember verrucas from my younger days and it being the silent contagion at the swimming pool.  Well must have been picked up from somewhere else, maybe karate class?  Saw it after one of his showers the other day. 

You know when you look, then have to do a double take? Well that was me and calling my wife over, we were both looking almost like it was a rare bird that would suddenly disappear.
Well of course it did not, so off I went to the chemist yesterday to buy a verruca remover and came back with Bazuka.  Was only then that I remembered the adverts for this verruca gel, "Bazuka that Verruca!"

Well we have started bazuking the verruca (new verb?)

The gel forms a dry white patch on the verruca, which you have to pick off, if possible, each evening and put more gel on and then rub it down once a week with the included emery board.  Yesterday was day 2. 

So lets Bazuka that Verruca!

Monday 2 July 2012

Good bye my lovely uncle Herman

The obituary for my uncle says it all today. Love you uncle.

Herman, the fifth child of Thomas and Jane Reynolds, was born early one Sabbath morning on May 1, 1937 in the tiny fishing village of Whitehouse, Westmoreland in Jamaica. He was a very happy, helpful and playful child who loved the great outdoors. He particularly enjoyed running his wheel along the road as he went on errands. He and his younger brother Irwin were inseparable as children, often going bird hunting and exploring the woods together. One of Herman’s fondest childhood memories was waiting at the seaside every morning for the arrival of the colorful fishing boats weighted down with all manner of catch. As he peered childishly into the throng of weather-beaten faces emerging from the boats, one face in particular, that of his handsome father, would fill him with joyful anticipation. Oh the stories of the sea that his father would tell! Herman developed a love of fishing that remained a lifelong passion and sparked a similar interest in his children and grandchildren.

At the early age of ten, he accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal savior and was baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He retained that first love experience for his entire life.

He completed his early education at king’s Primary School. Following this, he attended West Indies College (Now Northern Caribbean University) where he successfully obtained his Senior Cambridge Certificate. He entered the civil service of the Government of Jamaica in 1957 and worked in various ministries for the next twenty years.

In July 1960, while a member of the Kencot Seventh-Day Adventist Church, he became hopelessly smitten by the former Miss Fay Evans. After a two-year courtship, they were married on April 18, 1962. This union was blessed with two beautiful children, Handel, a radiologist in Atlanta, GA and Heather, a registered nurse in Sunrise, FL.

Due to the turbulent political climate in Jamaica in the late 1970s, Herman decided to emigrate to the United States with his family in 1978. After spending one year with his sister Verna in New York, He relocated to Florida, going, like Abraham, to a land he did not know.

During the three decades he resided in Florida, he was actively involved in his local church, serving, at various times, as Sabbath School teacher, Personal Ministries leader, Deacon, Elder and First Elder.

Herman will be sadly missed by Fay, his devoted wife of fifty years; his children Handel Reynolds (Marlene) and Heather Reynolds-Bartley (Ludlow); Grandchildren, Ludlow (LJ) Bartley Jr., Gevin and Telissa Reynolds; siblings, Melvin Reynolds, Celeste Laws, Verna Green and Irwin Reynolds along with nieces, nephews, cousins, church family and a host of friends.

To know the man was to love him!

Thursday 24 May 2012

Excited

The house is coming on really well.  The builders have over the past 6 days, taken off the roof of the house and created the shell of the loft conversion.  So excited.
We will now have to move out though as the stairs are going to be removed and rebuilt, to face the opposite direction.
I will have to get up some photos tomorrow.  Ooooo, so excited!

Monday 30 April 2012

Nasal Balloons to Surgery

You may remember a while back, I blogged about my son and his ears.  Although his hearing has improved, he still has fluid behind the ear drum, so he is to have grommets fitted.

He has been booked in for his surgery in June.  It will be done under general anaesthetic and take less than an hour and he should be fine to go home the same day.

We are nervous for him.  We want the issue corrected, as the older he gets, likely the worse it will get.

Nasal balloons worked well for him, but if he were older they may have worked better as it is difficult getting a youngster to use these exactly as it says in the instructions. 

We have explained everything that will happen and what to expect; especially the use of ear plugs while swimming and washing his hair.
The grommets falling out over time and the ear healing itself.

He has taken it all in his stride, with lots of questions, which has led me to do loads of reading about it.
We are the ones who are nervous about it all though.  Can feel my stomach knotting as I think about him being under general and he is having what is considered a minor operation.


Wednesday 25 April 2012

The problem with Telcos or How Virgin Tried to Pull a Fast One

Got my latest virginmedia bill and yet again it has slowly crept up. Ever so slowly a pound here or a pound there and the bill has gone for the same services over time from £20 to over £30

So I want to reduce my bill, hardly use the phone as we both have mobiles, but it useful to have a landline, the internet is the basic package and the TV is the basic package also.  No need for more than that in the house at the moment.

So I see an opportunity to save some dosh, reducing my monthly cost to £25.  Oh no I am told it is not for existing customers, cue discussion with agent on end of phone while I sit in front of computer telling her what it says on the web page. https://my.virginmedia.com/customer-news/articles/collections.html

We can upgrade you but cannot give you anything to reduce your cost she tells me and recommends I speak to their retention team but not before she says but we can just upgrade your broadband at no cost to you. I say no and she insists that there is no cost to me so why not just get it.  So of course I do and then get a letter saying they are putting me on a new 12 month contract.
So I have cancelled that no cost to me broadband upgrade! which would have fixed my bills at there present rate for the next 12 months - cheeky buggers!

So I'll have to discuss with their retention and find out why they are offering their collections to existing customers but not really offering, as you will not get it at the rate they show but rather the rate you are currently on providing it is more than the offer rate.


Thursday 29 March 2012

Time to Retire

My colleague is retiring and his last day in the office is tomorrow.  Although I have only worked with him for the past 3.5 years, we have become rather close and I admit I will definitely miss him.

I will be giving his leaving speech, the first retirement speech I will have ever done.  Have to admit I feel rather nervous but also looking forward to it.

I have also with the undercover help of his wife managed to get a number of photos of him, showing him over the years and taking in his many hobbies, including sailing, playing music and morris. These will be printed and around the office tomorrow along with a photo slides of him to show later in the day.

I will miss his many stories but I have gained a sense of how much can be achieved and personally how much you can be involved with to give real meaning to the fullness of life, once the kids are all grown up.

As he is so fond of his Morris, as tribute to him a linky to the Kennet Morris Men -
https://www.facebook.com/KennetMorrisMen
http://www.kennetmorrismen.co.uk/

Tuesday 27 March 2012

Where has the TV gone?

We have removed access to the TV!
This is not an experiment though.  We have done it a number of times before over the years.

There is no access to TV in the house for the next few weeks.  What will we do?  Well I suppose the same as previously, the children will start playing with their toys again and talking to us and us to them.

We started over the weekend and the kids have got used to it already and it does help with the better weather.

It is us adults who are having the most difficulty though, being so used to relaxing in front of the TV in the evening.  We are talking more and reading more now,

You'll be amazed how much you find to do and talk about,

  • Reading
  • Talking
  • Sitting down for longer at dinner time and having family discussions
  • Playing cards
  • Playing in the garden
  • Playing games together

Monday 26 March 2012

Changing Faces

This month is birthday month for both of our children.  Eldest, Aden, is 8 and youngest, Zara, is 5.


As another year has crept up on us, the unsuspecting parents, we were reminiscing a few days ago about how fast the years seem to have gone and our once little babies are growing fast, rushing towards those teenage years.  


I got to looking through some of the many pictures we have taken of the children over the past 8 years and thought I would share a small collection of them with you via a collage (I used smilebox
This is the shortest of journeys through 8 and 5 years respectively


I will leave you to work out which baby picture is Aden / Zara.


Chainging Faces

Thursday 22 March 2012

One missed call

I was remembering today and thinking back, many years ago now, while I was working overseas I spoke to my then girlfriend (now wife) every day.  I do remember rather keenly though that there was one day on which we did not speak over my 2 years before she joined me, as wife.

Maybe it was the fact that we spoke every day that makes us remember the one day that we missed. The great thing about talking every day was that we really got to know each other very well, especially as most days we spoke twice per day.

Now you are asking yourself, how long have you known each other.....well since 1990.....university sweethearts.

Wednesday 21 March 2012

key fob repair

Every so often you come across a website that belongs as a note in the little black book of useful sites.
This is one of them,
http://www.keyfobrepair.co.uk/

Our car remote key fob was looking rather tatty, with holes giving a clear view of the electronics below the casing, as well as only being able to remotely open the car. Locking the car was a manual task.

To get a new remote from a dealership is an expensive bit of kit, which makes manually opening or closing the car rather bearable.
I went hunting though for a solution to my partially working, tatty looking remote key fob and came across this site.  

I visited their shop in Palmer Green and within the space of half hour I parted with £20 and had a fully working and new looking remote key fob.

A great addition to the little black book of useful numbers and sites.

Saturday 10 March 2012

A year in photos - Lost

You know the proverb about making hasty while the sun shines? Well we all prove it true at some time.
My opportunity came last month.
Nearly a years worth of pictures stored on our home laptop (you're guessing what happened already...)
There is no reason these pictures should not be backed up; we have a NAS shown as a drive on the laptop.
Thought about just dragging and dropping the pictures so often. Did I do it? "No!"

So the day comes, son accidentally drops the laptop.

There in that moment, the hard drive becomes as useful as a paperweight and the curtain closes on photo memories of 2011, apart from what has been shared on the social networking sites.

A lesson to reaquaint myself with need to backup files, especially when I have made it so easy already.

Friday 2 March 2012

Here today, gone tomorrow

Every so often a day comes along to remind you personally of the fragility of life. Not the numerous newspaper reports of people "living by the sword, dying by the sword" but just someone taken away without warning.

A friend's dad died yesterday, Thursday.  He was fine at the weekend.  On Tuesday he was admitted to hospital not feeling well and by Wednesday the family had news that he had a form of leukaemia. He went into a coma on Thursday and passed away the same day.
Apparently his blood was "poisoned" and his organs then shut down.
This "all out of the blue"

That is the fragility of life.  Enjoy every day you have.

Saturday 18 February 2012

Chicken Dad

It is not often I get to take over in the kitchen.  Usually I am told "It is not your domain. You will just end up burning something." Well that is apart from when I am baking.

Well yesterday I was not baking but cooking.  I was cooking up some fried chicken, healthy fried chicken under the grill.

All was planned so nicely.  My dear wife had marinated the chicken for me and left me to get on with things.


So we have chicken, egg and seasoned powder for the chicken.  All so good so far.

I even put all the ingredients together correctly, what more could you ask for?!  Look at that! Tasty and I have not even cooked it yet.



Well it seems I put on some oil to heat up under the grill and it heated up a bit too much, to the point that it started burning and made the kitchen rather smokey, errr.... VERY smokey.

I got it all sorted out but the words came floating from the lounge, "Hun, what are you burning! That is why I do not let you cook in the kitchen"  :0

Now, though just look at the results.  They were very tasty and kids want me to make them again.  Result!


Eat up  :)

Tuesday 14 February 2012

Empty. Nothing.

"Noooooooo!" That was my response on finding out our laptop was dead. I was there thinking, what have we not backed up?
No reason for me not to backup, as we have a home NAS and use dropbox.
Still though, lost a couple months of photos :(

Had to get a new hard drive, install it and reinstall operating system.
Let this be a reminder to you! Backup!

Saturday 28 January 2012

Oh the Embarrassment

It is a bright Saturday morning. No Zumba for my wife, so we are both dropping kids off at Saturday morning activities. Daughter successfully taken to ballet and now dropping son of at football.

We register our attendance and walk onto the field. Imagine the scene, parents dropping son off at football. Nothing special about that at all.

As usual I kick around with him until the session starts, except today we have addition of mum.
Mum though, suddenly became invisible. He could not see her. His every move on the field proved he could not see mum.

After football we were met by the words. "Never do that again mum!"
"Do what?"
"Embarrass me like that!"
"Sorry?! What do you mean?"
"You came on the football field and tried to play. You even gestured to take one of my friends!"

My poor boy, his whole face had the look of 'Oh, the shame of it!'

I think he would have stayed calm if we hadn't started laughing  :)

Friday 27 January 2012

Me and my Jeans

Bought a couple of new jeans from Debenhams this week. On sale and really nice.  Fit well and look nice. Though will admit the wife helped me choose them  :-)

Have a look.



Saturday 21 January 2012

Ears of a stranger

So you know the back story. Me, a hospital bed, an ileostomy, wife pregnant with child.

Laying there in the hospital bed, on a drip and pain killers a button push away, your mind wanders. You feel elston for being alive, fear for the future, worry for your family and most of all regret for things you have not done. That more than any other is the kicker, 'Regret'.

I asked to see the chaplain, not because I was at death's door, or that I was very religious, but I wanted someone to talk to who was not family. Someone I could confide in without having to have a relationship with, if that makes sense; it does to me.

She listened and she listened, I had many a tearful conversation with her but most of all I have memories of that point which I can only describe as "Peace".
Not fond, because it was not a happy time. Not pleasant, because as much as it helped me to talk, it was not a pleasant time.

I do remember out though as a time that brought me peace by being able to talk, cry and hug at that point in time author having it follow me as it would have done if I had spoken with family.

So just for those 3 days which helped give me hope, get pain, anger and frustration off my chest and helped me cope with not being there for my son's 3rd birthday - I dedicate this to the chaplain of Whipps Cross hospital,thank you.

Friday 20 January 2012

The beginning of Change

Continuing on from my previous post......

So there I was minding my own business, a Friday, end of January, a day off work, child at nursery, myself and my pregnant wife down the shops.
Oooohhh, feel like I'm getting a stomach ache.....what did I eat last night....will have to get home soon....

Stomach ache continued a bit over the weekend but not bad enough for me to think anything major, just my body getting over it.  By Monday stomach was paining a bit and not much was coming from the rear and what was was watery.

Got myself down to my Doc and saw a different doc than my own as it was an emergency appt.
Told to drink lots of water as probably constipation. Visited Doc on next two consecutive days, by 3rd visit, senior doc takes a look and ships me off to A&E with a letter.

A few tests later they decide to keep me in overnight for observation and next morning an egotistical consultant with a gaggle of junior docs comes to visit and in his loudest and most "I know exactly what is going on here" voice tells me after a quick check of my stomach, that I have appendicitis and that it is standard procedure nothing to worry about, be back out within a couple of days and flies off to see the next product on the production line a few beds down from me.

They duly took me down to surgery a little later than planned, a week since I was first at the shops with my twinge.  I was lying on the trolley outside of the surgical room in a state of mild apprehension...never been in surgery before...never been put to sleep...wife, child and child on the way....all sorts of thoughts going round my mind.  Nurse gives me something to help calm my nerves.  It sure did!
Woke up in the hospital ward with that ileostomy bag and some wires coming out of me and hanging off me.

I am told that they opened me up went for the appendix, took it out, saw that it was healthy and then had to open me right up, take out the intestines to find out where the infection site was.  Diverticulitis was the name and giving me an ileostomy was the option.

I do view that as the beginning of the days over which my outlook on life changed significantly.  By the end of that year I had gone through a lot of change both physically and emotionally.

If these last posts have kept you interested from either a personal or other perspective, then feel free to come back for further follow up posts.

Wednesday 18 January 2012

Life Changing

Do you know what a Ileostomy is? No? Neither did I until 5 years ago, when I woke up with one after surgery.
I woke up to find in my drug induced stupor that I did not have to get up from the hospital bed as I did not need to go to the toliet to relieve myself, it was all being done for me.
Well the catheter I think most people will be aware of and is no biggie but I also had a hole in my side and a bag covering it, into which was flowing stuff that would have usually been formed and ejected from my body in a regular toilet visit.
It is amazing how casual you can be about these things when you drugged up to manage the pain.

Very close call was how the consultant put it to my Dad and wife, who was 8 months pregnant with our second. Followed it up with statement that a piece of the intestine had been sent off to test for Cancer.  Was all down to something called Diverticular Disease

Amazing how such things change your outlook in life, especially a close call with death and knowing you would have left your family bereft and children with only pictures to remind them of their father.

A bigger experience than I can fit into my first post on it.  Actually the first time I have mentioned it publically via a blog.  It was quite the experience going through it....

Thursday 5 January 2012

Joy of Customer Support - Really

Some companies make good use of twitter and others don't, well let's be fair some are plain Rubbish.

Tesco are an beaming example of good.
We bought our son's glasses from Tesco's Opticians a few months back.  Unfortunately second day at school after PE he accidentally sat on them.  They were in his bag and he heard the crack - Uh Oh, busted glasses.
Fortunately he has a spare pair, or call it as everyone does the 'old pair'.

Sent Tesco a tweet rather than call, as I was busy with work, asking whether they kept prescriptions on file and they would be able to make up another pair without eye test. They responded within about 5 - 10 mins, checked a couple of details, got onto the store I bought glasses and gave me a call back to give me the info I was looking for.
Did you know that for under 16 yrs if their glasses break within 2 months of purchase Tesco will replace free? No? Neither did I. Son's is over 2 months but even so it is good to know.

I'm sure they have some sort of fair use policy around this, though maybe plastic and titanium for the glasses would be more suitable if you actually have to discover this practically.

If it were urgent I would of called of course but when on the go and needing assistance Twitter is a very useful tool.

Not wanting to be pawing all over one company but they are fresh in my mind, if you have had a postal issue or are with Orange you may well have availed yourself of their Twitter customer support and they are brilliant also.

Would not be right to talk about the good without mentioning the bad. I wont though as hopefully they will up their game. For me how a company react after a sale is so much more important than the pre-sales - get the money off the customer team.


Tuesday 3 January 2012

Learning to love to read

This past christmas I realised from the presents that my 7yr old son got that he is growing up. Most of the presents were books or book tokens, family must know his parents well   :-)  rather than toys as it used to be.  It is not all read, read, read - he did get the football kit he wanted and the PSP game, before you judge me too harshly.

Every since he turned 4 we have been going to the library every 3 weeks to borrow books, initially that I read to him then as he started to read books, that he could  read.  Every night we have reading time before bed and I think I enjoy it as much as he does.  Now he reads on his own and I have started the same routine with his sister, who is just learning to read.  Every time we borrow a book I used to read to my son, it brings back a lot of memories and my daughter is now in the habit of asking, "Did Aden read this book?"

He loves to read and I am sure she will gain the same love of books.  It has been a lot of work to ensure we got to this point, though enjoyable. 

If you do not make time to read regularly with your child, I would encourage you to do so, it is very rewarding and impacts so postively on their ability to communicate effectively and exceed in school.

In case you are wondering, yes I did love to read. I remember been a teen not wanting to get up on a weekend morning until I had finished the book I started reading the night before.   Any of you remember Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew?  :)
Later in life - Stephen King, Stephen Donaldson
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