What a busy day……..

Sunday, usually a day for generally lounging around and quite often doing nothing.

Not yesterday!

Suit Fittings

My best man, Sam and his fiancee Bronwen came up so that we could get our suits fitted for the wedding as this was the only day he had free for the next few weekends.

So, me, Gemma, Ellie, Sam and Bronwen headed into town to the suit hire shop.

It was all pretty straightforward, although we had to wait a short while, because of a party of 8 having their fitting before us. And that wasn’t the only delay. The shop manager wouldn’t let us into the fitting rooms until she’d fumigated them, as the father of the groom (at least I think it was) of the party before us had a distinct lack of personal hygiene, and she had to give the fitting rooms a good dosing of air freshener. It was not nice!

Anyway, like I said it all went pretty straightforward, trying on the suits and trousers to find the right size. I had to try on a couple of jackets to find one that was comfortable, and ended up getting a size 46″ chest, just so that it wasn’t tight across my shoulders. I wouldn’t say that I’m fat, but I do have pretty broad shoulders, so anything smaller would just have been pinching all day at the wedding.

Gem and I had decided that the best style of jacket to go for was the Tailcoat, as this made me look a lot slimmer, especially my “dumpy” legs, as Gem calls them , with striped trousers, rather than plain ones. We’ve also decided on a gold / silver coloured waistcoat for myself and Sam, with our Dads and little Dafydd wearing silver waistcoats.

Lunch

After the suit fittings, Sam very kindly offered to take us all out for lunch. We all thoroughly enjoyed our meals, especially Ellie who had her usual “sausage”, and scoffed it all. She just loves sausages.

Sam ordered Gammon steak, which looked good, and it was a pretty thick piece of gammon. Bronwen ordered the Steak and Mushroom pie, just like I did, but we were told that there was only one left, so being the gentleman, I let Bronwen have it and I went with the Meat and Potato pie which was pretty good, but I think I would have enjoyed the Steak and Mushroom more . Gemma went with the lighter option of a Cajun Chicken wrap, which again looked nice.

Hospital Visit

After lunch, we said our goodbyes to Sam and Bronwen, and headed to the hospital to visit Gemma’s Mam. Gemma’s Mam has had very severe asthma since she was very young and handles it very well. At the moment she is having treatment to try and reduce the amount of steroids that she needs to take. She seemed pretty well in herself and hopes to be out on Monday. But we just need to wait and see.

Get well soon Mandy.

Sarah’s 21st Birthday Party

After visiting Mandy, we headed to my cousin Sarah’s 21st birthday party.

Sarah had great delight in showing everyone her “trophies” from the day before. She had gone Paintballing with her friends, and had been “shot” numerous times . Gem and I had been invited, but had been unable to go as Gem didn’t finish work in time. Maybe next time!

It was a good party, good food and plenty of entertainment, provided by Ellie and Dafydd. They spent most of the party playing with and bursting balloons. There weren’t many left by the time we left the party. The two little ones managed to keep going until we left the party, which was about 9pm.

We eventually got home just before 10pm, Ellie managing to stay awake until we were almost home. She kept herself amused by looking at all the cars and lorries and also by playing with her “Thomas the Tank Engine” Top Trumps cards that Taido had given to her that day.

It was a long and busy day for all of us and we were in bed pretty much soon after getting home. We were so glad to get home!

Another Scandal Hit Tour be France

How many more hits can the Tour de France take?

The whole event is becoming a laughing stock to the rest of the sporting world!

I’ve been a fan of the Tour de France for many years, about the time of Miguel Indurain and co, through the dominant Lance Armstrong era to the present day.

There have been a few drugs scandals over the years affecting the Tour, but after trying to clean up its image, the race has been brought to its knees.

Rasmussen misses doping tests

First there came reports that Tour leader Michael Rasmussen had missed several out of competition drugs tests and was issued warning letters from the governing body, the UCI

Positive Doping for Vinokourov

Then there was the report that pre-race favourite Alexandre Vinokourov had tested positive for blood doping after his stage victory in the individual time trial. Before the results of the test were revealed Vinokourov had had a roller-coaster of a few days.

After winning the TT in quite dominant fashion, the next day he absolutely cracked on the first stage in the Pyrenees losing almost 29 minutes to stage winner Alberto Contador. After this stage you would have thought that would be it for Vinokourov.

But no. The following stage he produced another scintillating performance, mounting a lone breakaway and winning the stage.

This roller-coaster of performances certainly raised questions about him, and when the results of the failed test for blood doping came out, it was certainly a shock to the Tour.

Following the news of the positive test Vinokourov’s Astana team were “invited” to leave the Tour. This shows that the sport will not tolerate any doping whatsoever. I think that this was definitely the right decision. Where the team goes from here, only time will tell.

Cofidis Rider Tests Positive

The following day after the Vinokourov saga came the news that Cristian Moreni of the Cofidis team had tested positive for testosterone. This prompted the whole of the Cofidis team to be pulled out of the Tour also, meaning that Britain’s Bradly Wiggins would not be able to go for glory in the Individual TT on Saturday.

This will be a huge disappointment for him.

Rasmussen Saga Continues

Now today Michael Rasmussen has been suspended by his team, Rabobank, and thrown out of the Tour de France. They have done this because he lied about his whereabouts when he missed the drug tests. He had originally said that he was training in Mexico, but it hasnow been revealed that he was actually in Italy.

I think this zero-tolerance approach to all these cases is the right way forward if we are to rid the sport of all of the cheats who are giving the sport a really bad name.

The Wedding : Less than 8 weeks to go now

The wedding is certainly getting ever more closer. There are now less than 8 weeks remaining until the big day.

It seems even closer after we paid a visit to Rossett Hall, the hotel where we’re getting married, to run through all of the details. We also took the opportunity to look at the bridal suite to decide which one we wanted for the wedding night.

After the meeting we decided to have lunch in the hotel restaurant/bistro - Oscar’s - which has a pretty good reputation. The food was lovely, I would definitely recommend it. The Duo of Steak Burgers which I had were really good - though quite filling. Gemma had a Tuna and Red Onion sandwich, whilst Ellie had her usual sausage and chips - she can’t seem to get enough of sausages. If you ask her what she wants for dinner, its always “sausage”. Bless her

Gemma is still working incredibly hard with all the preparations, and is currently working on the seating plan and menu choices, organising all things to do with the reception etc. Most things are going pretty smoothly, its just the little things that are causing a few stresses. Things like people not sending the RSVP’s back, and then if they do, they forget to send their menu choices. So we’re having to chase people. Thankfully its only one or two.

Speech

I’m now getting quite nervous, not because of the wedding itself, but of the speech that I’ll have to give. As I’ve said before, I’m not one for standing up in front of people and making a speech, if I can I’ll try to avoid it all costs, except on this occasion, where I’ve got the opportunity to tell everyone what a great woman Gemma is. I’ve started to write it, but at the moment the words do not seem to be flowing, I know what I want to say, but finding the right words to convey the sentiment is the tricky bit.

Dress Fitting

Gemma went for another dress fitting on Saturday, and came back excited as its the first time she’s seen it for a few months. I can’t wait to see her in it, she will look absolutely stunning.

I’ve got my suit fitting in a couple of weeks, along with Sam, my best man, my Dad, and also Gemma’s Dad. Dafydd, our nephew, is going to be a page boy, and will be having his fitting nearer the time. I’m sure that he’ll grow a bit before the wedding.

Anyway, I’m off to find some inspiration for my speech. (Not that I need much inspiration with Gemma by my side) (Slushy!!)

Finally……..

I’ve got the HDD back for the laptop

It arrived yesterday, so last night after I got home from work, and sorted out dinner for Ellie and I, I set about installing software.

First off I completely formatted the HDD, and then opted to install Windows XP again. Would it install? Would it heck as like! So the next plan of action was to try Ubuntu.

This was a breeze to install. Very easy to understand the on screen instructions. The only real decision that I had to make was whether I let Ubuntu partition the HDD itself or I did it manually. I settled on the first option, having had a disaster the last time I messed around with the partitions!!!

Once everything was installed I rebooted and, hey presto, there was a fully working installation of Ubuntu!

I’ve even managed to get the NAS up and running. Now all that needs to be done is get all the old data from the DVD’s and put it on the newly installed system.

The only thing that I now need to do, is install the drivers etc, for the wireless network card. There also seems to be a small problem with my sound card too, as it is not making any sounds at all. I guess that it could be the driver’s need updating.

Anyway, apart form that everything seems to be going well.

As it is, it’s early days but everything looks good for the future

Little Miss Bossy-Boots

Ellie is turning into a right little Miss Bossy-Boots. I think she’s got it into her head that she’s now in charge.

She is getting a lot more confident in her speech now, and is quite happy giving out orders to everyone.

The classic line yesterday was were she ordered her little cousin, Dafydd to eat his dinner:

“Dafydd, dinner, eat!”

She had us all in stitches around the table.

And she’s always being helpful to Max, always directing him to where his water and food is. Telling him to “sit”, to get “down”. She is really growing up, and now that she’s found her voice there really is no shutting her up

Wouldn’t have her any other way

Bloody Dog!!!!

AAAAARGH!!!

Max has done my head in!!!!

Yesterday, Gemma, Ellie and I went to visit our families back home in Wrexham, and as we were going to be out for a lot of the day, we decided to take Max with us.

Usually this is not a problem, except usually on the journey he occasionally does puke or have a “dump” in his cage - not nice having to clean the crap off a dog after he has rolled around in it I can tell you . Although this time he did really well, and never did a thing on either journey.

Instead, he decided he would empty his bladder all over the floor in Gemma’s parents’ house on a few occasions - and this is with taking him outside on regular occasions to do his business, but for some reason he won’t do anything! (At least this time it was only on the laminate floor and not on her bed!)

Then when we went to my parents, where he emptied his bladder on a couple of occasions on the carpet, and then he had a “dump” in the middle of the dining room while we were having dinner. Not a pleasant experience. It appeared to be a whole day’s worth too . I must have lost count of the number of times that I took him outside to do what he needed, but he just didn’t do anything.

Something needs to be done, I’m reaching the end of my tether with him. .

Poor Max

Max was looking all sorry for himself yesterday when I got home from work. And who can blame him?

The operation went well and Max is now testicle-free! I think he was still groggy from the anesthetic because he spent most of the evening flat-out asleep. Even with all the noise of making dinner didn’t stir him. After dinner, Max was fed and this seemed to perk him up a little, so much so that when we let him in the garden to do his business, he decided he wanted to run around like a whirlwind for about 15 minutes.

Nothing too wrong with you then?

Hopefully he’ll calm down once all the testosterone has been worked out of his system

The computer saga drags on

Yesterday, I got all excited when a package arrived from the company who were doing the data recovery.

It was a case of good and bad news.

Good News : the package contained DVD’s with all the recovered data on it.

Bad News : there was no HD with it

I’ve been in contact with the company today and the HD is in the post, so I can expect it in the next day or so. That’ll be a relief I can tell you.