I have faced the inevitable and come out victorious!! I have a passport that is valid, working and doesn't need to be replaced until 2018. It's greeeat!
So, I can officially confirm that I am off to Cape Town, South Africa, this Thursday 17th January and returning next Thursday 24th!!
Bon Voyage all!!
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
Monday, 14 January 2008
Preparing for the Inevitable
Well, I recently posted this on my Facebook account as my status, and I thought it deserved a little bit more then I put. So, I will post this on my blog now, and make this as public as I can.
This Thursday, there is a 50:50 chance that I will be going to South Africa. Why a 50:50 chance? Why not 100%?
It all started sometime last week. With under one week to go until we need to go to South Africa, my brother and I find out that our passports had expired. Not only had they expired, but they were children passports and we were adults. Under new British law, it is required that those needing new adult British passports for the first time have to sit an interview and possibly wait up to 6 weeks for the new passport.
But what was extremely strange was that our passports should have still been valid. We had 4 and a half year passports, and we should have had 5 year passports. A short call to the passport office, and we had an appointment booked for Tuesday (tomorrow).
So, the inevitable is that we are going to fail to get our passports, not be allowed to fly to South Africa, and not turn up for the wedding we are invited to go to. All in all, that's something that needs to be prepared for.
Here's to the inevitable being obliterated!!
This Thursday, there is a 50:50 chance that I will be going to South Africa. Why a 50:50 chance? Why not 100%?
It all started sometime last week. With under one week to go until we need to go to South Africa, my brother and I find out that our passports had expired. Not only had they expired, but they were children passports and we were adults. Under new British law, it is required that those needing new adult British passports for the first time have to sit an interview and possibly wait up to 6 weeks for the new passport.
But what was extremely strange was that our passports should have still been valid. We had 4 and a half year passports, and we should have had 5 year passports. A short call to the passport office, and we had an appointment booked for Tuesday (tomorrow).
So, the inevitable is that we are going to fail to get our passports, not be allowed to fly to South Africa, and not turn up for the wedding we are invited to go to. All in all, that's something that needs to be prepared for.
Here's to the inevitable being obliterated!!
Wednesday, 2 January 2008
Welcome to 2008!
Hello and welcome to 2008! A new year has arrived, a new time frame in the history of humanity, a new society driven time period for us to classify and enjoy!
So I wish you all a Happy New Year and good luck in 2008.
Now, I want to show you my pride and joy lying peacefully in my driveway: my new Honda Civic! Here are some wonderful pictures of my new car...
Some things to note before the pics are shown. Firstly, you have to press that nice shiny red button to start the engine, it's quite fun! There are two closed sunroofs in one of the pictures. The car comes with cruise control, a/c, a radio with CD Player, and various places to hide luggage and the like as standard; with blue underfloor lighting and really useful Bluetooth connectivity (with my mobile phone) added in. And finally, the number plates are digitally hidden ;)
So I wish you all a Happy New Year and good luck in 2008.
Now, I want to show you my pride and joy lying peacefully in my driveway: my new Honda Civic! Here are some wonderful pictures of my new car...
Some things to note before the pics are shown. Firstly, you have to press that nice shiny red button to start the engine, it's quite fun! There are two closed sunroofs in one of the pictures. The car comes with cruise control, a/c, a radio with CD Player, and various places to hide luggage and the like as standard; with blue underfloor lighting and really useful Bluetooth connectivity (with my mobile phone) added in. And finally, the number plates are digitally hidden ;)
Wednesday, 26 December 2007
Xmas Time!
Merry Christmas to One and All! I hope you all got what you wanted for Christmas :) I certainly did!
I got an iPod iTouch, quite a few DVDs including Princess Mononoke, a few games including Trainz Railway Simulator 2004, and a large poster detailing the inside of the USS Enterprise-D.
Brilliant!
The week before Christmas took a wonderful turn when on Saturday, we went down to the Honda garage and they announced the car had arrived! It is available to be picked up on Friday, so I will have a new car for Christmas too!
I have been quite busy during the week, doing some work for work and Uni, as well as playing EVE a lot. On EVE, I bought a new Thorax and an Iteron IV (a Cruiser and a Trading vessel) with the Thorax being a great EVE Christmas present!
Anyhow, I will finish off this bizarre blog post by adding that over the next couple of days I will be online on MSN, so if you want to catch me you can.
I got an iPod iTouch, quite a few DVDs including Princess Mononoke, a few games including Trainz Railway Simulator 2004, and a large poster detailing the inside of the USS Enterprise-D.
Brilliant!
The week before Christmas took a wonderful turn when on Saturday, we went down to the Honda garage and they announced the car had arrived! It is available to be picked up on Friday, so I will have a new car for Christmas too!
I have been quite busy during the week, doing some work for work and Uni, as well as playing EVE a lot. On EVE, I bought a new Thorax and an Iteron IV (a Cruiser and a Trading vessel) with the Thorax being a great EVE Christmas present!
Anyhow, I will finish off this bizarre blog post by adding that over the next couple of days I will be online on MSN, so if you want to catch me you can.
Monday, 17 December 2007
Christmas Hols: The Beginning
Long time no post, I know... but the weeks after Operation Gold were extensively busy. For starters, I had two assignments to deliver by Tuesday last week. One was a Database systems coursework, and another was a Data Communications assignment.
The Database coursework was mostly easy, if long, except for two particular questions that were designed to be extremely difficult, and a challenge for even those skilled at SQL. The Data Communications coursework involved analysing PING packets sent to ten different hosts in South Africa and the Middle East (supposedly) and took a lot of time to complete to perfection.
Add on top of that the biggest Java lab of all (GooChristmas), as well as all the other stuff that goes on, and things just got in the way.
The Christmas holidays began early on Friday after the Java lecture was cancelled. The day after was spent mainly out in Guildford at the LaserQuest (and Burger King for lunch) for my brothers late birthday party. Saturday evening, my brother hijacked my laptop for a 'through-the-night' gaming session, that ended at midday the next day. As would be expected, he has since slept for the past two days.
Sunday's highlight was a trip into Redhill to visit Honda. I planned on getting a new Honda Civic Hybrid, but when comparing it with what the original Honda Civic offered, the latter was chosen. Other then that, Sunday was quite a relaxed day, and I found out that our Corp had been declared war on in EVE. Magical!
Today I went for a test drive of the Honda Civic. It drives beautifully; feeling like a manual car turned auto rather then an ordinary automatic. In that respect, you get to feel the gear changes the car makes, and Honda's intuitive 'paddle sticks' on the steering wheel, in conjunction with the gear stick, allow you to switch between controlling the gears manually and letting the car do the hard work. Not to mention the car looks like something out of, say, Star Trek... and I love the 
dashboard! (Similar but not quite right picture). Enough said!
Tomorrow is also going to be a busy day, but that's for a future post!
I also want to announce here that I intend to release GooChristmas on my website over the next few days, as well as put more work for my group up on the dotProject site, do some work for work (my job), and carry on playing EVE. So the fun never stops!
The Database coursework was mostly easy, if long, except for two particular questions that were designed to be extremely difficult, and a challenge for even those skilled at SQL. The Data Communications coursework involved analysing PING packets sent to ten different hosts in South Africa and the Middle East (supposedly) and took a lot of time to complete to perfection.
Add on top of that the biggest Java lab of all (GooChristmas), as well as all the other stuff that goes on, and things just got in the way.
The Christmas holidays began early on Friday after the Java lecture was cancelled. The day after was spent mainly out in Guildford at the LaserQuest (and Burger King for lunch) for my brothers late birthday party. Saturday evening, my brother hijacked my laptop for a 'through-the-night' gaming session, that ended at midday the next day. As would be expected, he has since slept for the past two days.
Sunday's highlight was a trip into Redhill to visit Honda. I planned on getting a new Honda Civic Hybrid, but when comparing it with what the original Honda Civic offered, the latter was chosen. Other then that, Sunday was quite a relaxed day, and I found out that our Corp had been declared war on in EVE. Magical!
Today I went for a test drive of the Honda Civic. It drives beautifully; feeling like a manual car turned auto rather then an ordinary automatic. In that respect, you get to feel the gear changes the car makes, and Honda's intuitive 'paddle sticks' on the steering wheel, in conjunction with the gear stick, allow you to switch between controlling the gears manually and letting the car do the hard work. Not to mention the car looks like something out of, say, Star Trek... and I love the 
dashboard! (Similar but not quite right picture). Enough said!Tomorrow is also going to be a busy day, but that's for a future post!
I also want to announce here that I intend to release GooChristmas on my website over the next few days, as well as put more work for my group up on the dotProject site, do some work for work (my job), and carry on playing EVE. So the fun never stops!
Monday, 3 December 2007
Operation Gold: Result!
Operation Gold (that of my grandparents 50th Anniversary surprise party, (yep that's right, 50 years married)) was a huge success! People who I haven't even met before came to celebrate and enjoy the company of everyone else who came, and we've got some fantastic pictures to share soon!
The theme of the party was Only Fools and Horses, and we saw some interesting stuff! My family (and by that I mean my close family) all dressed up in clothing to represent the theme, complete with hat, jacket and bling!
We had a huge banner in the hallway which contained the text "Congratulations! Shirley and Bill! Only Fools and Horses Last 50 years!" and a rather digitally enhanced (you could say digitally edited) picture of the two standing together against a rather picturesque background.
For food, we had a huge buffet that included simple foods and Indian snacks, and when evening came had curry too! And for drink, we had everything, even a small bar filled with all sorts of spirits and stuff!!
Everyone enjoyed themselves, and even my grandparents (despite their dazed shock; they thought they were coming to Christmas dinner!) who couldn't stop smiling as they met old and current friends alike!
Overall, super!
Will post a separate blog entry containing pictures.
The theme of the party was Only Fools and Horses, and we saw some interesting stuff! My family (and by that I mean my close family) all dressed up in clothing to represent the theme, complete with hat, jacket and bling!
We had a huge banner in the hallway which contained the text "Congratulations! Shirley and Bill! Only Fools and Horses Last 50 years!" and a rather digitally enhanced (you could say digitally edited) picture of the two standing together against a rather picturesque background.
For food, we had a huge buffet that included simple foods and Indian snacks, and when evening came had curry too! And for drink, we had everything, even a small bar filled with all sorts of spirits and stuff!!
Everyone enjoyed themselves, and even my grandparents (despite their dazed shock; they thought they were coming to Christmas dinner!) who couldn't stop smiling as they met old and current friends alike!
Overall, super!
Will post a separate blog entry containing pictures.
Friday, 30 November 2007
Operation Gold
In my last blog, I stated that I was working on a secret operation that involved my close family. This is Operation Gold (and Operation Flashpoint that was within Operation Gold). The results of these two ops are coming to fruit tomorrow, with the surprise party of the golden anniversary (50 years married) of my grandparents!!
Obviously, to be a proper surprise party, it's not on their anniversary, but sometime after...
Anyway, what have I been up to the past half-month? Well, University, Work and Personal Life have been all crushing in on me and demanding more and more attention. What with Operation Gold tomorrow, the end of the school term in two weeks, and the creation of my EVE Corp's website (Chaos Industries), I've had more and more things to do.
For EVE, I've finally reached 40 Mil ISK; I'm planning on reaching 100 Mil by Christmas, but we shall see!
For Uni, I've got three assignments to do; one of them is a group project managed by my good friend Rohan Sherrard, the other two are data communications and database systems (the latter being longer then the former).
And of course, we're finishing off Java as well (for Uni). My favourite subject!
Well, sorry to everyone who hasn't been able to read my blog lately. Hat's off to you! And a special mention to Luis Kals, I know he'll want to be somewhere in here (with his famed GOO Cube!)
I'm back to blogging! :)
Obviously, to be a proper surprise party, it's not on their anniversary, but sometime after...
Anyway, what have I been up to the past half-month? Well, University, Work and Personal Life have been all crushing in on me and demanding more and more attention. What with Operation Gold tomorrow, the end of the school term in two weeks, and the creation of my EVE Corp's website (Chaos Industries), I've had more and more things to do.
For EVE, I've finally reached 40 Mil ISK; I'm planning on reaching 100 Mil by Christmas, but we shall see!
For Uni, I've got three assignments to do; one of them is a group project managed by my good friend Rohan Sherrard, the other two are data communications and database systems (the latter being longer then the former).
And of course, we're finishing off Java as well (for Uni). My favourite subject!
Well, sorry to everyone who hasn't been able to read my blog lately. Hat's off to you! And a special mention to Luis Kals, I know he'll want to be somewhere in here (with his famed GOO Cube!)
I'm back to blogging! :)
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