Soap on a Rope

by Ian Posted on December 8, 2007

homer soap on a ropeYesterday afternoon I went to my first Christmas meal of this season. I can’t say first of the year, because that goes to our work’s meal in January. Unlike the last couple of year’s, when we have been bowling, work arranged a meal for us yesterday. On arrival, we chose Christmas presents at random out of a bag. On opening mine, I got a Homer Simpson Soap-on-a-Rope. I didn’t know you could still get soap-on-a-rope. Others got socks, deodorant, chocolates, nuts and bodywash. Hmm, I could have got better, I could have got worse.

Needless to say, we ordered what we were going to eat some time ago and couldn’t remember when the hotel staff were bringing the food around. Luckily the organiser had the original list. I had:

  • Apple and Parsnip soup.
  • Roast Turkey, potatoes, sausage, stuffing, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and of course sprouts.
  • Christmas Pudding.

I hadn’t had apple and parsnip soup before, but it was really nice, although the parsnip was the dominant taste. The sprouts had a rock-like texture to them; I’m sure they had seen boiling water at some time. All in all a good meal though.

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Birthday Wishes

by Ian Posted on December 4, 2007

Happy BirthdayI’ll start this post with an apology. Eight days ago it was Lyall’s birthday and I forgot to wish him Happy Birthday. What makes it even worse is I remembered when I got his last email a couple of weeks ago and then forgot. I could use the excuse that I have been busy at work and had things on my mind from that, but the long and short is that I forgot.

So Lyall, I hope you had a great birthday and the weather was fine for you.

The other birthday wishes are for my niece and my son who both share tomorrow, quite a few years apart though. My niece is away from home in Nepal at the moment, as part of her nursing training, so we won’t see her until she is back. I’m not sure if she’s back before Christmas or just after.

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Kids Christmas Party

by Ian Posted on December 1, 2007

chocolate decorationsWe took the kids to the Christmas party that my work had organised this afternoon. They started off by feeding them, which was a good start as the kids got to know each other and by the time the entertainer arrived they were mostly all ready to take part.

We had Magic Dave to entertain the kids again. He was the same entertainer that we had at the Halloween party last year and remembered my son (oh dear he did make an impression). Some of the act was the same, but there were many new bits. He kept the kids entertained for the best part of a couple of hours with a selection of dancing and games followed by puppets and magic show. I think everyone was waiting to see if he would use one of the parents as a ventrioquist’s dummy like he did with me last time, but the changed routine didn’t have that this time. Phew.

It was all finished off with a visit from Santa who gave all the kids a chocolate Santa and chocolate tree ornaments.

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Saw the Queen today

by Ian Posted on November 29, 2007

Today the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were visiting Milton Keynes.
During her visit she offically opened thehub:mk and stadiummk before opening the new St John Ambulance Centre in Greenleys.
The new St John Ambulance Centre is only about 200 yards from where I work and she was due there at 12:30 when I have lunch. So, myself and several others walked down the road to join the crowd waiting to see her.
She was running a bit late, but I did briefly get to see her before having to go back to work. Including seeing her in the car go past and walking into the building, I must have seen her for about a minute. Still, that’s a minute longer than I had before.

Link to local story:
http://www.mk-news.co.uk/mknews/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=238262

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Be the Blog

by Ian Posted on November 24, 2007

Be the Blog AwardI’ve been given the Be The Blog award by Ev Nucci at My life is murphy’s law. This is an award that was created by Mark at Me and My Drum for bloggers who make their blog their own, stay with it, are interactive with their readers, and just plain have fun.

Thanks Ev, I think this is the first award I’ve been given. It is available in 4 colours on Mark’s blog: Creamy Cabernet, Midnight Oil, Pink Smoothie and Purple Passion, so pick the colour that suits best.

I’m going to pass this on to:

  • jmb at Nobody Important who writes engaging posts and always comments and replies to comments.
  • David Airey at David Airey who has a very professional graphic design blog. I don’t think that awards will fit well with David’s uncluttered blog design, so I won’t take offense if David doesn’t add it.
  • Vijay at scan man’s notes, though I don’t know if he’ll find the time (it’s not a meme Vijay) or the space on his sidebar.
  • Antman at Cre8Buzz. If creating the Cre8Buzz site for readers to showcase their work and content and interact with each other isn’t being interactive with your readers, I don’t know what is. I know Cre8Buzz isn’t just Antman’s work, so credit to the rest of the team as well.
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What security?

by Ian Posted on November 20, 2007

?The news today about the loss of Child Benefit data is astounding. The entire database of all families with children under 16 has been lost. The data at HMRC (HM Revenue and Customs) was saved to 2 discs and sent unrecorded through the internal post to the National Audit Office to be audited. The discs never arrived.

The data on the discs includes name, address, date of birth, National Insurance number and, where relevant, bank details of 25 million people; 15 million children and 10 million adults.

We are now being advised to carefully check all transactions on bank statements. It’s madness that the entire database should be copied to disc and posted. Surely in this age of technology, a secure datalink could have been established between the two locations, after all they aren’t small companies.

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