Bloody Students!

Look what happens when you decide to be civilised and leave the pub and your mates early, to go to an intimate family gathering ... but ... accidentally leave your property behind (in this instance, my hat) ...

Charming ...

This hat sees more of London than I do!

I can't even afford a cab home ...

finders keepers?!?

And these boys are now qualified professionals ... scary thought.

Ageing Gracefully?!


Sister Anna enjoying her grandstand view of the "Wind-up Granny on Zimmer" Racing at my surprise birthday party last night ... Granny Racing is the perfect stress buster for a soon-to-be Physio, according to my looney (nurse) ma, who picked out the gift of the decade here, for this aspiring health service professional!

Well done to Jo, for organising the surprise dinner for my 35th birthday yesterday. She had led me to believe I was billy no mates the whole preceding week with mates and siblings all telling me they were booked up with better or more important things to do.

So when I walked downstairs to a table of 12 people, I was gutted as I was looking forward to an intimate and romantic dinner date alone with my lovely wife! Just kidding!! It was really, really touching to see the effort everyone went to (or as Andy put it this morning by email, "Jo paid us 5GBP each to be there" - cheers b'stard!). I felt extremely guilty for having slagged everyone off!

Great night out, and just a pity that rest of the family couldn't be there to share. Thanks also to all for your generosity on the gift-giving front. A few more pix at the Flickr site.

Big love, Nick xxx.v

Happy Birthday to me .. Happy Birthday TO me ...

So i got here! I made it to mid-life - 35 today!



Keep your eye on station clock in top right corner. This is me celebrating the arrival of my birthday last night at Liverpool St Station last night while waiting for my train home. Bit naff, but I was alone .. and bored (that's no way to see in a birthday!)

Encouraging words from the old man "Well, there you go son, half your life gone!".

Meal tonight with Jo and good friends. Maybe a beer or two .. life can't get any better than that, can it - so it can end when it ends!

At last .. something productive on the web!

It has been bothering me for years (and years and years) - when exactly was my first Norwich City game back in the 70s? All I remember is the whole family going, sitting in the South Stand - and Norwich drawing 2-2 with Man Utd.

Now I know the answer thanks to Soccerbase's "Head to Head" feature.

And the answer is ..................... 7th April, 1979! Da-nah!

Try it. It's fun!

7hrs 32 minutes to go ...

Lionel Richtea

Thanks to Nina for this gem, received by email today .. the first in a while that really made me laugh out loud!

And here's another from about a year ago, that I just remembered from Ben H., which elicited a similar reaction (gosh, two belly laughs in a year - I need to work on my smile therapy):

Question: How do you know when you're flying over Africa?


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hee! hee! 35 in another day and a half so it's my party and I'll laugh if I want to!

The Day the music died ...

So, my iPod bit the bullet today exactly 3 years and 8 months to the day since I spunked $400 on it, on a brief visit back to Houston, Tx. There are two schools of thought on replacing it - some seem to think that approaching 4 years for a portable, electronic item like a walkman is a fair level of mileage; Jo on the other hand says she will skin me alive if I buy another iPod brand product when the one I have "only lasted" 4 years. The $400 cost of this mere 10GB grey screen model galls me when you can buy 30GB colour models for half that price, but that's progress I suppose. Who decided progress meant things no longer need to be built to last?

My instinctive reaction was to cut ties with Apple, since they are still as everyone knows sold at bloated prices compared to other models that do the same thing. And to be honest yet have not started researching non-Apple mp3/4 players that may be compatible with my 2002 iMac. If anyone has any suggestions, I am "all ears" (appropriate pun at inappropriate moment as I have no music, man!) at nickseecharan@yahoo.com.