Train hell, A&E and a lovely moon

The plan had been to go and see Minions tonight but sadly the Universe conspired against us. I met Sam at Cannon Street as usual only to find that there were signalling problems causing havoc with the trains. Sam was limping really badly when he turned up and could hardly walk up the platform. This was due to it giving out on him at work and then falling down the stairs there. We managed to get a seat on a train and waited on it for thirty odd minutes before we were told by the driver over the tannoy that it "might" be cancelled. Apparently a member of staff was supposed to have walked up the platform and informed everyone on the train that they had to get off. This didn't happen. Some people had bailed out early but we had held tight due to Sam's ankle. We struggled to make it to the next train as Sam just couldn't move fast only to find that it was completely rammed so we opted to get on the train on the adjacent platform as it was nearly empty.

I updated Toni on what was going on and she arranged to come and get us at Westcombe Park so that we could then take Sam straight to A&E at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, much to his disgust. There were no wheelchairs around so he struggled to get into the waiting area. I got him to sit down and then at 19:30 I booked him in and we sent straight through to the Urgent Care Centre, fortunately  a nurse had found a wheelchair. We were seen after about ten minutes and were then sent off to the X-Ray Department. We got there at about 19:45 where there was a longer wait. After the x-ray was done we were sent back to the Urgent Care Centre and were back there by about 20:25. Sam had been ribbed by one of the nurses because he was carrying my handbag on his lap:

At around 21:25 Sam was seen by a doctor and his x-ray was studied. Turned out they didn't think there was any fracture or break and they thought it was a really bad sprain although he has been referred to the Fracture Clinic at a later date just in case. He was given a walking boot and put on crutches and told to take a minimum of two days off to try and get it to settle done. We were all done by 21:40 and headed home again. Just over two hours in and out of A&E was pretty damn good in my book, we had feared being there half the night!

When we got home I headed out into the garden for some moon photography with the new camera. I have to say I was very impressed with the results:

Hot day, Penny Dreadful and BattleBots

It was a hot day today. I do not like the heat. Going in to work was OK but by lunchtime it was not very pleasant and it was worse coming home. I am thankful that we have reasonable air conditioning in the office and I have a good desk fan otherwise I would be really grumpy.

Fortunately the house wasn't too hot when I got home. Toni and I watched a little more of The X-Files while Sam did some stuff and then we watched Penny Dreadful (a series which is going from strength to strength) followed by the latest episode of BattleBots (a rebooted US TV show based loosely around Robot Wars, not as good but entertaining nonetheless).

More doing nothing, Sherlock Holmes and The X-Files

Continuing the theme from yesterday there was more doing nothing. I was determined to give Toni a chance to rest and come up for air and I believe it was a successful exercise. Food was brought in from outside sources to make life easier.

We watched the two Sherlock Holmes films starring Robert Downey Jr, and were delighted to hear that there will be a third one at some poing. The day finished off with The X-Files right from the very beginning. Out plan is to plough through them slowly with a view to being complete by the time that the new series starts in January.

Busy doing nothing, more crochet and how not to train a dragon

It was a day of doing nothing today. Toni was feeing drained and tired so I made sure that she wasn't running around doing stuff so that she could recharge.

I did a bit of tidying up and then went and collected breakfast from Richard's cafe. We then embarked on the remainder of the Harry Potter film series, from number five.

Sam was back in crochet mode again today and this time has learned how to make a granny square. That's two fine pieces down now, he catches on quick and has a great teacher.

The day finished off learning How NOT To Train A Dragon. We found a series on Netflix called Dragons: Race To The Edge. It was set between the first two films. Sadly although the characters were recognisable, the voices were by different actors which just made the whole thing feel WRONG.  We did make it to the end of the first episode but it was truly awful and we won't be watching anymore. Very, very disappointed!

Sam learns to crochet

Sam wanted to learn how to crochet and Toni started teaching him tonight. He picked it up really well and Toni and I were both very impressed.

Interesting taxes!

Today was a productive day. We had some long meetings but the result was we came out with some good pieces of work with high level estimates to start taking forward. We also did an update on a new client requirement involving what they call Brazilian Tax. This is tax that is levied on financial institutions by the Brazilian government giving them a nice little kick back. Our update involved the introduction of a brand mew tax that might be getting implemented towards the end of the year.

I really can't think why I kept laughing every time we mention PIS & COFINS!!!!!!!

Renewable energy seminar, herb walk, Town Hall call, gardening and movies

It was an interesting and busy day today. Although I was supposed to be enjoying a day off I ended up working (sort of) to help a friend out. I went to Brewers' Hall in Aldermanbury Square to provide IT support for a breakfast seminar. What this really amounted to was making sure a Windows laptop and a Macbook could connect to a projector and then switch between them. I then got to sit through a very interesting seminar on the prospects for renewable energy under the new Conservative government. It was a very nice venue:

The speakers were Rt Hon Professor Charles Hendry (former Minister of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change under David Cameron), Edward Bonham Carter (Vice Chairman of Jupiter Fund Management plc and Helena Bonham Carter's dad) and Professor Dr Reza Abhari (professor of energy technologies and the Director of Laboratory for Energy Conversion at ETH Zurich).

It was a real eye opener hearing how the Conservatives actually have a sensible policy on sustainable renewable energies, that wealth management companies have long term investments in ethical and beneficial technologies and how far we are from being able to rely properly on sustainable renewal energies. I'm not going to bore you to death with loads of details but Professor Dr Reza Abhari shared some fascinating statistics based on years and years worth of simulations run every 15 minutes for the whole of continental Europe. There is such a long way to go and people are the biggest problem. Interestingly the UK is second to none on potential for delivering sustainable renewable energy from wind power through onshore and offshore technologies. Unfortunately the resistance met from people (ie people like you and I in local communities) are the reason this isn't moving forward as much as it could do. That was real food for thought. We all LIKE the idea of sustainable renewable energies but aren't ready to accept what has to be done to get there.

Once the seminar was over I shot back to Eltham to meet up with Toni and Giselle (from Wicca Moon) to do a herb walk in Oxleas Wood as a precursor to the next module of our Wicca Moon School Of Witchery course. We did some great exercises that were real mind blowers. I'm aware of the joy of hugging trees but this nothing when compared to getting hugged by a tree! I wish I'd had my new camera with me as the view was stunning but I had to settle for my iPhone.

After the walk I managed to grab 30 minutes on the PS4 playing Batman: Arkham Knight while Toni went off to take Zoe to an appointment. Unfortunately I then ended up having to do some real work as I dialled into a Town Hall update that was being given to our department. No rest for the wicked LOL

....and talking of no rest, when Toni returned it was out into the back garden to mow the lawn and talk about plans on things we want to do out there.

The evening was then spent chilling out watching Men In Black followed by The Wedding Singer.

Last.FM listening post

Here's last week's top picks music lovers!

Top weekly tracks:


Top weekly artists:


Overall top tracks:


Overall top artists:

TDE business cards and Batman: Arkham Knight

It was a good day at work, very productive with some meetings that actually showed some direction and focus for the next six months, most refreshing. My old boss from Canada is over this week so I managed to have a bit of a catch up with him too.

Good things happened at home too. I've just received a nice batch of business cards that I ordered for my activities with The Dark Empire. They look absolutely gorgeous:

The postman was especially kind as I also received my copy of Batman: Arkham Knight for the PS4. Sadly I didn't get a chance to play it tonight but I will be doing so tomorrow when I have a day off work!

Looking forward to a busy but non-working day tomorrow.

A lovely day

It was a day full of love today. Lots of messages flowing back and forth between Toni and I. It's great to know that the fires are still burning strong.

Father's Day

It was a good Father's Day with not a lot happening. Breakfast was courtesy of Richard's which is a lovely way to start the day.

Sam got me a new camera, a Fujifilm S9200.

Aaron got me this lovely pendant:

My day was spent getting to grips with the new camera and learning what it was capable of. Here are a few test shots:

Toni and I also took a bit of time to do a little garden stuff which also resulted in some new photos;

All of the garden shots can be found here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/114488708332382539692/albums/6162901512653753009

I finished off with a little graphical manipulation of the flower in the first set of test shots. I was very pleased with this :)

Toni's birthday and Scorpions live from Hellfest

It has been a good day celebrating Toni's birthday. We started off with a massive breakfast at Richard's before saying goodbye to dad who was back off home to Northumberland. Bob and Leanne popped by to drop off presents and Jade and Zoe also joined us for a while.

Sam took some time out to bake a cake which was well received.

We watched The Heat and Tammy and finished off the evening with an awesome stream of Scorpions live from Hellfest in France. This has now got me really excited for when we see them at Ramblin' Man Fair in July.

Happy Birthday Toni

Happy Birthday Toni
Hope you have a fantastic day
Love you loads and loads and bazillions and squillions!

Father's Day meal with the fathers

Dad is down for a visit and as it Father's Day on Sunday we decided to go out for a meal. Toni invited Bob along too and we all headed off to Rishta for delicious Indian noms. It was a really good night, lots of chat and laughter was had. Good times :)

Disney Infinity 3.0

Disney Infinity 3.0 is due out soon. They have brought Star Wars into the equation. I will be getting this..... nuff said

Last.FM listening post

Here's last week's top picks music lovers!

Top weekly tracks:


Top weekly artists:


Overall top tracks:


Overall top artists: