Mutterings for the Minority

FREE Digital Prints

Yes believe me it’s true, here’s some info on how you can grab yourself over 100 FREE digital prints!

Some of you may remember an older blog post of mine about some free digital prints, well if you missed that one don’t worry, all will be explained. Still interested? Then read on and I’ll explain how you can go about getting them.

All you have to do is register online (free and with no obligation) with the following 4 digital print websites:

Truprint (20 prints)

Snapfish (20 prints)

Photobox (30 prints)

myPixmania (40 prints)

If you’ve signed up with some of them before, don’t worry - either sign up again (using a different email address) or simply sign up to the one’s you haven’t tried and see what they’re like.

After all it is for free and you get to see which one is the best for when you really want to get that all important picture printed at a later date.

So go on grab you free digital prints and enjoy sharing them with your friends and family

Swans v Brighton

Another home game for the Swans today and yet another very disappointing performance. Despite the Swans gaining a point in a dour goaless game, it was the manner in which they played which perhaps is the most frustrating aspect, especially against a Brighton side (without an away point all season) which offered very little in any part of the field.

The now customary slow start and poor first half performance continued and it’s quickly becoming a worrying trend. It really was dire and for the first time in a VERY long time I wished I hadn’t even bothered going - such is my frustration at the moment.

So as usual here is a bullet-point summary of the day’s events:

• The atmosphere was as flat as a pancake (again) but it’s little wonder with what’s on offer at the moment;
• Notable contributions of the afternoon came from Chuckles (Angel Rangel), Orlandi and Dorus - who earned us the point with several fine saves;
• The referee - Michael Jones - made a poor game worse and really needed to take the Brighton time wasters to task;
• Tom Butler is obviously taking tips from Andy Robinson on how to look dis-interested in both the ball and the game on occasions;
• Darren Pratley - has obviously still got the crabs and he is certainly living up to his surname!

As you can imagine I can hardly contain myself for the visit of Swindon to the Liberty on Tuesday evening, it should be a real cracker (not).

As if the football wasn’t bad enough, I also had the misfortunate to watch Wales capitulate against Fiji - well part of it anyway (thankfully). What the hell is it with the Welsh team? If only they could have played the whole game as they did for the first 10 minutes of the second half. Surely, Gareth Jenkins has now got to go - along with some of the players in the squad. We can’t have turned into a 2nd rate rugby nation since the Grand Slam of 2005 - can we?

So it’s been a sh*t day really (on the sporting front anyway) and it’s put a real downer on my weekend. Sport does some funny things to us fella’s and it’s a good job we don’t have a cat that’s all I can say, otherwise it might have had its first flying lesson*.

* I can assure everyone reading this blog that no cat was harmed in the writing of this entry.

Websites launched

It’s been a busy day for me on the website front with the official launch of two new sites for some clients of mine.

The first one is Siop Ty Tawe, a Welsh shop in the centre of Swansea which is part of Canolfan Ty Tawe / Ty Tawe Centre. The shop sells Welsh language books for adults, children and learners as well as gifts from Wales.

It’s well worth a visit if only for a cuppa and a chat with ‘Siw siop’ (the owner) and they’ve got some cracking Welsh t-shirts there too. In fact they stock loads of Welsh merchandise - so it’ll be well worth a visit come Six Nations time

The other site launched was that of Partneriath Pontarddulais Partnership, a site dedicated to developing the Pontarddulais Community through partnership working.

The partnership is a voluntary group that consists of representation from the public, private, voluntary and community sectors and has a number of agencies acting as advisors. So if you’re from Pontarddulais why not get in touch with them as they’re always looking for new ideas.

So here is a shameless plug for my services, aimed at anyone who wants a quality website for an affordable price - no matter what the subject area. If you want to know more, simply drop me an email and I’ll be happy to have a natter with you.

On an altogether more amusing subject, I’m amazed by the number of Leeds fans who seem obsessed with posting comments on the video’s I put on YouTube from last weekend’s game. Thankfully I moderate all the comments, but if I hear one more about it being ‘our cup final’ and ‘how quiet we were’, etc I’ll go potty.

Anyone would have sworn the Leeds United supporting keyboard warriors were obsessed with us sheep lovers from Swansea

Swansea Bay 10K

After weeks of trepidation and a general lack of preparation, the Swansea Bay 10k finally came and bit me on the arse today!

I was somewhat knackered before the run (as a result of my Swans related travelling this week) and the steady head/cross wind, combined with incessant rain merely compounded matters as I plodded my way around the 10k course. I knew that I hadn’t prepared enough, but the pain I felt or rather “how much I felt like vomiting” over the last 2km really rammed the message home.

My time of 56 minutes 9 seconds was obviously more than I’d have wanted it to be, but all things considered I was merely happy to be under the 1 hour mark. The race results on the Swansea Bay 10k website showed me finishing in 1,650th position - out of 3,500 runners apparently. Although that figure seems a little off the mark to be honest as there are only 2,700 odd names on the results!!?!?!? Somehow I can’t see 800 people not finishing - can you?

No doubt come tomorrow I’ll feel like the preverbial robocop, as the stiffness and general fatigue kick-in, but I’m hoping the post-race stretching combined with a lovely radox-fuelled how bath on my return home will help reduce after after effects - or at least that’s what I’m hoping.

Leeds v Swans

The trip to Leeds - with the Dieters Bar Jacks - was my 2nd Swans away game in 5 days and one which we’d all been looking forward to since the fixtures were released back in June.

The fun started with a 7am departure from the Liberty Stadium, with Lance - as per Tuesday - at the helm of the ‘bus’. We also welcomed a new member to the DBJ’s - in the shape of Chip (and no it’s not the one off Soccer AM).

With the rain dying away we quickly ran up the miles and before long we’d reached Strensham services on the M5, our first stop on the 265 mile journey up north. After a quick strecth of the legs and visit to the loo we were once again on our way - with Helmut and Hans deeply engrossed in their newly acquired copy of the ‘Saturday Sport‘ (rather than each other for once).

This was the case until we reached our next stop or rather requested pee stop for Sick Bag to relieve himself. I can’t even remember the name of the services, but it was up north somewhere. This was also where we bumped (literally in Helmut’s case) into David Morgan - the Swans director and some Swansea based Leeds fans (which I’m not even going to start going on about…). They were travelling separately I hasten to add!

So after a very brief stay , Lance once again began clocking up the miles quicker than Ben Johnson on speed. As a result, we duly reached Wakefield - some 30 minutes from Elland Road - at around 11:45 and it was time to grab some nosh at a local watering hole. What better place to stop than the Swan & Cygnet!

The service was friendly and the food was both tasty and reasonable. The raspberry cheesecake was so scrumpious that it deserved a picture of it’s own!

So after topping up our energy stores with some further liquid refreshment it was time to hit the road for the final leg of our journey to Elland Road.

The excitement was now starting to build and with Elland Road in site and a throng of Swansea and Leeds fans mingling nearby, we parked up in Car Park B and headed straight for the nearest programme seller (having been advised to avoid the ‘Old Peacock’ pub). With my programme now safely tucked away in an A4 cover and Game carrier bag - we headed off to the turnstiles, some 75 minutes before kick-off.

—- ?Sent using a Sony Ericsson videophone

10% Waterstones Discount Code

For those of you who are into books, etc you might be interested in this 10% discount code for Waterstones.

Simply order any items online from Waterstones before 30th September 2007 and get 10% discount on your purchases simply by entering the code VY3546 at the checkout.

Even better is that there is no minimum spend - so you’ll get 10% off any item, no matter what the value on the Waterstones site.

With Christmas fast approaching you could save yourself a few bob and grab a bargain at the same time.

* NEW * England rugby jersey

Being an avid rugby fan and a proud Welshman - I just had to share this little gem with you. So may I present to you, the all NEW England rugby union shirt

It’s available from all good sports shops and some rubbish ones too. Oh and it’s also priced at the bargain price of £36 as well

If you don’t know what the hell I’m on about then read this story on the BBC website.

Away with the Swans

My first Swans away trip of the season is now underway

Here I am sitting on the Arriva Trains 14:55 Swansea to Manchester Piccadily train, en-route to Cardiff to meet Lance. From there it’s by car to Cheltenham - via some quality watering hole of course.

More to follow later…

—- ?Sent using a Sony Ericsson videophone

Another day…

Another day, another training session and more importantly another 26 minutes 35 seconds of roadwork in preparation for the Swansea Bay 10k this coming Sunday.

There was a distinct autumnal feel to the air whilst I trudged my way around a 3 mile circuit - not that I minded at all. I’d much prefer the cooler, breezier and often wetter weather we get at this time of year, especially when I’m out and about running. However, the opposite is most definitely true when I’m cycling!!

Wellie Wednesday

Strange title huh? Well that’s what Wednesday’s are called in DDWT Junior’s school. The reason being that all of the kids have to wear their wellies and as a result get to spend the morning outside in the school’s garden area - having a look at what nature has to offer. Now how cool is that. I don’t remember having that when I was in school

Having heard quite abit about ‘Twitter‘ (yes yet another social networking site) of late, I decided to take a closer look and sign up for a free account. Basically twitter is a social networking tool which can be updated via sms, IM or online and your ‘friends’ get updated via one of these methods as to your whereabouts/thoughts or whatever you choose to ‘twitter’ about.

It’s also got a nice little widget for blogger (and the other main blog players) as can be seen opposite. I’ll give it a go anyway, especially as I’m got a huge amount of free txt messages per month. So watch me twitter as they say!

After a day off from the running yesterday, it was time to get back onto breaking some slabs lunchtime again. I took the same 2-3 mile route as the other day, but was a minute quicker this time around with a time of 25 minutes 29 seconds. Perhaps what is more worrying is that I don’t feel in any sort of condition to run next weekend’s Swansea Bay 10K!