Mutterings for the Minority

Spam assassin

I’ve spent some considerable time today exploring the wonderful open source mail filter called SpamAssassin. It really is the bees knees when it comes to filtering out everyones pet email hate - spam and it’s free. Although it is most at home on a linux based system, it has also been ported across onto the Windows platform. For those of you who took up my web hosting recommendation and went for Lunarpages - you’ll have noticed that SpamAssassin comes bundled with it as part of the package.

Weighed this morning (as per every Sunday morning) and I’m still 17st 2lbs. Enough said.

Can we fix it?

In keeping with the biking theme, we bought DDWT Junior his very first trike today. Being a big fan of Bob the Builder (are there any little boys who aren’t?) we couldn’t resist getting a ‘Scoop’ trike from Argos.

DDWT Junior was fast asleep when we bought it, so when we got home he was chuffed to bits to say the least. Part of the afternoon was then spent ferrying him up and down our street on his trike!

Once again I spent the best part of the afternoon/evening knocking down our garden wall and digging the foundations ready for a new one. I think I’ll give the garden (and me) a break tomorrow and head off down the beach with the family to make the most of this hot summer weather we’re currently having.

The hard sell

I decided to do my bit for the environment today and cycle the 9 or so miles into work. The main reason for doing this was that I’m fed up with having to spend about an hour a day in traffic travelling the 12 miles to and from work.

The other advantages of using the bike of course are that it saves me money and gets me fit - the latter also frees up my lunchtime as I don’t have to do my training then (although I have on occassion done lunchtime runs as well!).

Talking of training, we were invited this evening to the Glamorgan Health and Fitness club to have a look around and take advantage of their current membership deals. The club itself was excellent and had all the facilities you could ask for in such a place, but the OTT hard sell really was a major turn-off. The monthly £110 fee wasn’t too inviting either! It would be work the money if we were going to use if frequently enough, but with DDWT Junior being so young we really wouldn’t get value for money. So much to the disgust of “Anna-Lee” we decided not to take out a membership.

After we visited the club, Mrs DDWT and I went for a lovely evening stroll around Swansea Marina, whilst DDWT Junior was up with his cousins having a whale of a time and being spoilt rotten as usual. It’s really funny as everytime he visits them he ALWAYS comes back with some of their toys - which they don’t mind, but we’re really close to being able to open a toy shop!

Office location

Having just gone for a Forest Gump‘ish run along the Swansea Bay beach I’m feeling quite invigorated, which given how I have been feeling this week is a refreshing change. The 24 minutes seemed to fly by and I’m already looking forward to tomorrow’s lunchtime outing - be it on the bike or foot.

Not wanting to gloat too much - as how many people can say they work in an office which is literally a stone throw from the beach - I’ll dig out some pics of the aforementioned beach and add them to da blog later (now added - Ed). See them and weep y’all.

Right it’s time to dash now as I’ve got to devour my spinach and ham sarnies before my stomach rumbles on anymore (and at the risk of distracting others!). Lashings of dried apricots and raisans to follow - yummy yummy.

Another major milestone today is that DDWT Junior has reached the ripe old age of 2 and a half or 30 months as the medical professionals like to call it! I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone by - which is quite sad really as it makes you realise how precious time is with the nipper, especially when they are this small.

I’d also like to say thanks to Surreal Piglet for his definition of ‘Ciderspace‘ which he sent me…..

“a core state of mind. What is left in an empty strongbow bottle”

I like it a lot *smile*

Hula hoops

DDWT Junior attended his very first parent and toddler group sports day today and it was all the more significant as it was on the same sports field that I played schoolboy rugby on some 20 odd years ago.

He entered two races - the usual 10 yard dash and a hula hoop race. Given that he was one of the youngest there at 29 months, it came as no surprise that he finished last but one in the dash and well let’s just say he didn’t complete the hula hoop race due to wanting to play with the hoop rather than run with it! Nevertheless, he really enjoyed himself and found a new interest in hula hoops at the same time.

The realisation that the proper football (League One to those in the know) starts soon came closer today when I bought my ticket for the only home pre-season friendly at the Liberty Stadium.

The Swans entertain the Wolves of Wolverhampton on July 22nd in preparation for their league campaign which starts on August 5th - and I’ll be honest I can’t wait for it all to begin (especially now that I’m a season ticket holder).

Talking of the Liberty Stadium, I was done there yesterday doing some work and decided to pop into the club shop (in search of some bargains). Well I came across some kids Ospreys rugby jerseys and simply couldn’t resist getting one for DDWT Junior.

Considering that it is a sports jersey when all is said and done, I can see why the Ospreys shirts are the second biggest selling rugby jersey in the whole of the UK (behind the Leicester Tigers). It’s rather a nice looking shirt compared to some you can get and I was pleased with what I got for my £10. For the rugby purists reading this (of which there are loads I know *wink*) the jersey above is the Ospreys away shirt.

You know it makes sense

I had a day off today and used the time to continue with our garden overhaul, despite the lousy weather. When you’re not used to lots of daily manual work such as digging and breaking down walls it really does make you realise how much hard work it is - not to mention back breaking! I’m working towards clearing the garden by early August ready for sowing the seeds for our new lawn, but with plenty still to do I’ve a feeling I’ll be digging for a good while yet.

I decided to try and earn a few extra quid today by switching on the Google Adsense service on my blog. I doubt it will make me a lot (if anything actually) as the amount of traffic to the site is quite low, but nothing ventured nothing gained eh.

I’ve been toying with the idea of changing the template I use for my blog - but having looked at quite a few of them today I decided to stick with what I’ve got. Most of the other templates on offer either seemed to look quite different in different web browsers or (more importantly) were hard to bloody read due to the colours used.

Belissimo

No that’s not in celebration of Italy winning the world cup, it’s because I’ve found an Italian company who provide a free sms to email gateway service - which in turn allows me to update my blog from my mobile (using sms messages). The company is called ‘eXcell‘ and the only cost incurred for using the service is the cost of a international sms message (20p in my case). So when out I’m out on my travels next - I’ll give it a shot.

The weighing scales were frowning at me today somewhat with the display showing 17st 2lbs - which I suppose is my just dessert really after my over-indulgence on Friday evening. I seemed to have faltered a little on the weight loss front lately and it’s getting me down to be honest. I really MUST start cutting out the junk that I eat once again, I know I can do it, I just need to re-focus.

In order to try and improve my mood I took to the garden this afternoon to do battle with the plants once again (as part of our garden overhaul project). It seemed to do the trick and the garden looks a lot better as well! My mood improved even further when Mrs DDWT annouced that we were having roast duck for tea - which is one of my favourite dishes.

A trip in ciderspace

Unfortunately yesterday’s moblogging experiment was a complete failure as mPost didn’t process any of my sms messages - hence the lack of updates from last night’s trip in ciderspace. I’ll keep plugging away though as there has to be an alternative method/service that’ll enable me to update my blog in that way (and I don’t mean via wap and email!).

Nevermind I had a cracking night, drank far too much stongbow (mixed with red wine I hasten to add), had a great curry at Rajput exquisite indian cuisine and finally got home at 3:30 am (having been out since 5:30 pm). Bizarrely in all that time I only went to 4 pubs/clubs - the Wig (formerly the Wig and Pen), the Cross Keys, the No Sign Bar and the Lava Lounge (the music here was crap btw). Apologies as well to JR who was my ‘horse’ in the Oxford Street, Swansea piggyback race (during which we dismounted twice, ripped his shirt and chaffed his elbows) - which featured only one runner I hasten to add.

We had several rather bizarre conversations in the evening ranging from ‘nadgers’ (which is slang for testicles) to going brazillian/hawaiian! Needless to say, some of the entourage were rather bemused (myself included) as to the use of such terminology and their explicit explanations. Still at least I learnt something new and confirmed my own suspicions that I really can’t drink cider to save my life!

I haven’t really done much today (now there’s a surprise) even though I was up like a lark at 8:45 am. We all went to visit Nana and Grampa DDWT, had an afternoon snooze, did some weeding in the garden and erm, that was about it! What a waste of a day.

Let’s send an SMS to the blog

No it’s not a remix of that famous Police song - you know the one “Let’s send an sos to the world” - its about me planning to indulge in a spot of ‘moblogging‘ - which isn’t as disgusting as it sounds.

Basically I’m going to try and post updates on my blog using SMS messages - whilst out on the town in Swansea tonight. Now this could be very interesting, especially with me indulging in the art of drinking vast amounts of strongbow (or cider in non-brand speak).

After having such a grand idea my planned lunchtime run went AWOL as I’ve been busily googling for “free sms to email gateways” - without a huge amount of success I hasten to add. Anyway, I finally stumbled across mPost which seems to do the trick (albeit with a teeny weeny bit of an ad at the bottom of the post - apparently). Anyway, I’ll give it a try and we’ll see what happens!

Later y’all…. hopefully *smile*

Bargain web hosting

Was a naughty boy today as I didn’t do any training whatsoever, dunno why really. Half couldn’t be arsed and half had too much work to do, either way I’ll have to try and do something tomorrow. Gawd knows when I’ll get the chance though as I’m supposed to be attending my own office leaving do at 16:30 and I’m meeting Mrs and Junior DDWT at lunchtime (as the latter will be in bed by the time I get home and come to think of it so will the missus!). A full drink by drink account should follow on Saturday - but don’t hold your breath and certainly don’t smell mine!

I picked up a nice and easy £40 today thanks to some kind person buying some very cheap (£65 ‘ish per annum or $96 to those of you over the pond) and quality web hosting from Lunarpages via my affiliate link. I know this is a shameless plug, but I’ve been hosting with them for over 5 years and they really are a pukka web host - especially when you compare them to what is on offer here in the UK. Who else can offer all this …..

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