!!!!!

Mental day yesterday with work, but all settled down nicely by the time I headed home.

The parents have arrived for the weekend, so had fun last night with them sitting in the garden and having dinner. Packed them off to bed early (well, they had been up since 4 to get on the red eye from Aberdeen) so they are fully refreshed today!

The boys (my Dad, myself and two fellow Aberdonians, 1 who lives in London and one who's visiting) are all off to Wembley today to watch the playoffs. We are all football fans and watch it where we can when we are together (that did include an under 15's school match once - yes we are that sad) and the opportunity to go to Wembley was too much. Can't wait.

Tomorrow see's another busy day in Oxfordshire. Meeting a potential photograpgher and then on to the wedding venue to see it finally finished! They are hosting a party tonight to celebrate Laurence Oliver 100th birthday, so it will be a star studded event apparently, which officially opens the place since it's been re-done. All very exciting.

Oh, and new car looks like it's on the way...if all things work out and I like it, should get it at the end of next week.

I have an interest in animals these days, with cows rapidly becoming a speciality. However this story I liked - Dairy cows in Spain get water beds, air con and Mozart to improve yield. LINK

Now, onto more important matters - what happened last night to Liverpool? They could easily have won it, with Stevie G fluffing a shot he should have buried. They lost an unlucky goal just before half time, which improved my level of regard for Inzaghi - I think he's one of the most over-rated strikers in top level football.

Overall, they did well to get there, should have won but where unlucky. Maserchano should have been left on the park though as I don't think they would have scored the second with him to break it up.

Always next season...

I know it's the way it works, but I wish politicians would realise how stupid they sound sometimes.

The issue of HIPS seems to have come to a head, and good riddance for the moment. As I see it, there are a number of issues:

1 - there is EU legislation that says all the member states need to be able to show emisions on housing by 2009

2 - the government took bad advice on what else could be wrapped into the HIPS by people who were actually going to make money out of it (nothing new there...)

3 - mis-information supplied/spoken by government ministers on the numbers of people qualified.

I can see a benefit to them, but only if they provide something useful. An energy rating on a new house is useful. But if I'm looking at buying a victorian terrace, I know it's going to have rubbish loft insulation, no cavity walls and probably a fairly old boiler. So what's the point?

What has also annoyed me is David Camerons response. "How can you support green issues when you don't support this". Make your mind up man, a week ago you didn't want them. Stop bleating, get some policies and a position - people are looking for alternatives. Had an election come immediatly after your appointment, you'd have got in. But people want action, and your just letting off steam just now. Goodwill doesn't last forever.

Gorgeous day in Worcester, stunning sunshine. Makes a change from the recent spell of wet and windy weather.

Last night we all met up at the Cardinals Hat, followed by a great (but SO SLOW) meal at Amigos. The food there is great but just takes so long to come. They actually turned a couple away - there were only 12 people in the place and it seats about 70!!!

Come on you reds!

Ah, sweet feeling of success :-) Aberdeen win to finish third in the SPL, and with it comes European Football next season. Happy day yesterday, especially as to do it we beat Rangers who, to be fair, had it coming as we'd not taken any points from the forces of darkness all season, and it would have been the first time since the 70's we'd gone a year without taking any points off them.

So, just need Celtic to win the cup and we go into the first round proper of the UEFA cup - if Dunfermline fluke it, then we go to the qualifiers and they go to the 1st round. Seems a stupid way of doing it, as they were relegated this year, but what can you do. The SPL really should make it 3rd and 4th get the UEFA spot as last year it was Gretna in the UEFA cup and they were also in division 1. It's 21 years since Aberdeen got past the 2nd round in the cup (got close in the early 90's - Rico's 35 yard thunderbolt in 92 (?) nearly put us through.

So, all in all, good day, an optimism for next season what with the signing of Macnamara.

Also, did you know, Aberdeen has one of the most "1st"s in football? 1st team in the UK to have an all seater, all covered stadium? 1st team to have dug outs in the UK? 1st team to lose on penalties in a European competition? 1st team to win 2 European trophies in Scotland? I could go on :-)

Stand Free, Wherever you may be, We are the famous Aberdeen!

Traffic problems

Having spent a year complaining about my 3Com router, I think it needs a slight apology. The problem I have with it is that occasionally (and always when I'm in a hurry) my wireless router gives me an IP, but refuses to connect to the Internet. After rebooting it a few times it springs into life, but sometimes it just takes a while. On closer inspection, it gets a connection with the ISP, has an IP, all is well. But I can't get out and use it.

Friday morning saw this occur. I decided to investigate it further. Turns out about 4 layers into the config, hidden very well in a menu you'd never find, there is a setting which determines how the connection is initiated. It was set (by default I would add!) to be "only on traffic", and not "always on". I changed the setting to be always on, it immediately sprang to life. So hopefully, that's one of life's little challenges resolved, but why would you ever want your ADSL line to connect only on traffic? Especially when the router doesn't work when it gets traffic. Answers on a postcard...