My first nephew was born today.  Ollie arrived at 16:45, and weighs 7lb 4oz.  It's pretty cool to be a real uncle (I've been uncle Simon to my sister's dog for a couple of years now, but it's just not the same).

Originally posted on vintyfresh.vox.com

Went walking in Brecon again today.  We'd arranged to go as a group this time, so I thought it would be a little less lonely climbing up.  Unfortunately I was about 20 minutes late and the others decided not to wait for me.  I guess it was my own fault for being late (again), but it annoyed me a bit.  I pushed on hard to catch them up, and apparently I wasn't too far behind them when I got to the top.  One of the guys said "just in time for a team photo" and I almost made a sarcastic comment about "what team?!", but held my tongue.  At least I had some company for the walk back down.  The others decided not to go any further this week (which I was secretly pleased about, since I was quite tired from playing catch-up) so the long one is on hold until next week.  I'll try to be on time for that one.

It was a quite different day to last week.  A lot of the climb was through clouds, which I found quite refreshing.  Once I climbed to a level above them, the sun was burning bright and it was rather hot.

Here's a couple of pictures of the cloud-carpet.

Originally posted on vintyfresh.vox.com

This weekend has been quite busy.  Just as well we've had a couple of extra days for Easter.  Friday I was dog-sitting for Abbie and Nigel as they went to London for the night.  Saturday I was helping my parents clean out their garage and take things to the tip, and today I went over to the folks' place again, this time for Easter dinner.  We were all expecting a roast, but we actually had turkey bolognese.  When mum told me what she was planning to cook, I laughed and said it made me think of Bridget Jones' mother and her turkey curry buffets.  She looked quite indignant and replied that was exactly what my sister had said.  It was quite nice anyway.

This morning I climed up Pen Y Fan, which is a small mountain in Brecon, about 45 minutes away from where I live.  It's part of my preparations for entering the Six Peaks Challenge (which I was supposed to enter last year, but dropped out from as I didn't train enough and was blatently not up to it).  I was supposed to be going up there with two other people, but one had to cancel last night, and I'm not sure what happened to the other - I was a bit late and he'd either already headed off or not turned up.  I didn't see him at all so I don't know (and I don't have his phone number).

Anyway, going up on my own wasn't too bad.  At least I got to make good use of my iPod.  I took some photos with my phone because I don't think anyone will believe I went up there by myself.  Especially at 7:30am (was supposed to be 7:00, but everyone knows I'm always late).

Originally posted on vintyfresh.vox.com

I bought an iPod about 2 weeks ago.  I don't really like Apple stuff - it all seems a little bit too much style over substance to me.  Thing is though, I really like music, and you can't get anything even remotely comparable from anywhere else.

So I ordered a 120 Gig iPod Classic (silver) and it was delivered on Friday 2 weeks ago.  It took me the entire day to sync iTunes and then the iPod to all my music, but it was worth the wait.  Having all your music available to you wherever you are is a huge benefit.  Especially in the car - it was getting super-expensive to keep burning compilation CD's.  I got one of those fancy iTrip radio transmitters.  It's quite annoying though - it doesn't remember what frequency you last tuned it to when you switch it on, and seems to go for a random channel - completely different every time.  There must be a lab of engineers somewhere who are paid to come up with the most annoying solutions to every day problems.  I'd like to work there - sounds fun!

Originally posted on vintyfresh.vox.com

An 18-year-old has secretly painted a 60ft drawing of a phallus on the roof of his parents' £1million mansion in Berkshire. It was there for a year before his parents found out. They say he'll have to scrub it off when he gets back from travelling.

Originally posted on vintyfresh.vox.com

I've been finding it hard to motivate myself to update my blog in recent times, and I suspect there's several reasons for this:  Once you've not posted anything for a while it's hard to know where to start.  Also, I never had a huge number of blogging friends, and the ones I do have don't seem to update much any more either.  I also found it a bit tiresome to post anything of substance on Livejournal.  In an attempt to rejuvenate my enthusiasm, I've decided to try a new system.

I've been hearing a lot about Twitter lately, so I thought I'd give that a go.  I set up an account (here), and I've made a couple of updates.  I even set it up to update my Facebook status.  The trouble is, I just don't "get it".  You can only update in 140 character posts, and you're encouraged to do this regularly.  The frequency that I do things that I'd consider interesting to others is so low that I can't see the point.  Unless people really want to read about me doing things like putting the kettle on, but that brings me to the other reason I don't get it.

When you have your twitter account, you can "follow" other people and they can follow you.  This is pretty much the same as a friend feed on other blogs, but because of the regularity and nature of the updates, it seems a little more like stalking than following to me.  Not only that, but there are very few (if any) people that I'm interested enough in to actually want to follow.

I'm very much looking forward to the new album by St Vincent.  Her last one, Marry Me is one of the best albums I think I've ever heard, and the new one is released in May so I've been checking out her website for news.  I noticed that she has a link to her twitter, and naturally I had a look.  Clearly she expects people to read it, otherwise she wouldn't post the link (I assume), but I felt quite uncomfortable reading what was essentially messages to friends and people who actually know her in real life.

So no, Twitter is not for me.

Vox on the other hand is much more my kind of thing.  It's a lot like Livejournal, but it's linked with things like Photobucket and Amazon, which is a lot more functional and user-friendly.  It's made by the people who owned Livejournal before it was sold to some Russian corporation, so it feels fairly familiar - even down to a lot of the themes being the same, and it enables cross-posting to LJ.  I guess it's a blog with social networking features, rather than something like Myspace, which is a social network with some blogging features.

Anyway; let's see how it goes, eh?

Originally posted on vintyfresh.vox.com

I moved into a new place on the Weekend. It's a shared house with two other rooms, but only one of the others is occupied so far - by an Irish guy called Fergus, who seems friendly and tidy, which is cool.

It's a Victorian terraced house, but it's been completely gutted and modernised inside, with a large extension at the bottom which has a conservatory and a shower room, so along with the bathroom upstairs there are two showers between three people (when they let the other room, which they hope is soon).

I was originally looking for a place in Cardiff (because it's a bigger city and it's where I work), but this place in Newport (about 10 minutes walk from my sister's house) was a lot nicer than most of the places I saw in Cardiff, and also a lot cheaper. It's also still really close to work - between 20-30 minutes in the car depending on the traffic, which is probably faster than driving across Cardiff in the morning.

Of course at the moment the closeness to work is a little irrelevant as I have to play chauffeur to my boss because he's snapped his achilles tendon (ouch!) and can't move his foot, so I'm still getting up at about the same time I was when I had to take the public transport!

I've just started on a degree course in BSc (Hons) Quantity Surveying . I'm studying with the College of Estate Management through the University of Reading. It's a distance learning course, and that means studying in my own time, although it's being funded by my employers. The course officially started on 1st December, but I attended a face to face session on Tuesday, and I think for most people that was the real start. Certainly it was a big kick-start for me.

I'd already started reading and making notes for some of the courses, and I'd planned to do a little of each module each week as per a regular degree, but seeing just how much there is to do and the little time available for it, I'm having to rethink my strategy. We have to complete an assignment roughly every three weeks, and the general consensus amongst my fellow students (and those from last year who have been kind enough to offer advice) seems to be that we should work on one module at a time. Whilst this doesn't seem ideal, I think it probably makes a lot of sense.

I've also recently had a promotion at work. My job title is now Assistant Quantity Surveyor (which isn't a whole lot different to what it was before), but this is a Grade 2 job (as opposed to my previous Grade 1), and comes with a company car and a decent pay rise. This is supposed to be a promotion to the job I was already doing, but of course I've already been given a whole load more responsibility, and I'm incredibly busy all the time (except this week because I'm on annual leave - although I know there's going to be a mountain of work when I go back!). Still, this is all very positive for my career, especially in a time when many companies are cutting back and even going to the wall.

I'm supposed to have a Ford Focus, but currently I've been given a hired Renault Megane Estate, which is a little bigger that I'm used to driving, but it's quite nice. I should be getting the Focus some time in January. I'm quite pleased to have any car to be honest. It's been a long time since I've driven, and although I've had good access to public transport, it does feel like a whole new world of possibilities has opened up for me. It's a little like having passed my test again though - I know how to work the machine, and I know the rules of the road, but I don't have that instinctive confidence that you develop from driving regularly. I'm sure it'll come back in due course.

I'm also looking for a new place to live. It's time to move out of my sister's house, and my current plan is to find a house/flat share where I can keep my outgoings down and hopefully in 6 months to a year I will have saved up enough money for a mortgage deposit just as the housing market hits rock-bottom. I've seen one place, and I have another viewing on Friday.

It's all go at the moment, and that's not even mentioning Christmas!

Oh yes, and I shaved off my beard!

There's a show from the BBC called Last Choir Standing, which as you might guess from the name is a kind of Pop Idol for choral groups. I do love a good harmony, and some of the performances so far have given me goosebumps. This is a cover of Justin Timberlake's Cry me a River, which I particularly like because of the way it ends. Enjoy.

I used to live on the internet. Now all I seem to do is occasionally check to see what people I never spoke to at school have added me as a friend on facebook.

I entered the Six Peaks Challenge. The task is to climb the highest peak in each of six countries in the British Isles (Isle of Man, Wales, Scotland, England, Northern Ireland & Eire) in 72 hours. I did some training and decided to quit. My fitness level has dropped exponentially in the three years since I did the Three Peaks Challenge. I suck.

Cardiff City made it to the Semi-Final of the FA Cup for the first time in 81 years. My father, Abbie, Nigel, Gerald (Nigel's dad) and I managed to get tickets, and we had a fantastic day out as Cardiff beat Barnsley 1-0 to reach the final.

Match Report


We went all the way to Wembley (in London) to watch the footy, and we end up in IKEA?!? We decided to get a coffee whilst we waited for the car park to open. You can see the famous arch in the background.


Here's a closer picture of the stadium, with Gerald (taking a photo), Abbie, Nigel and Dad.


Here's me, Abbie and Dad waiting for the turnstiles to open.


Abbie and Nigel in the stadium before the crowds arrived.


Sadly a little blurry, this is a photo of the City fans doing the Ayatolla. Remember when Ayatolla Khomeini died, and there were images of loads of Iranians slapping their heads in mourning? Well we made it into a dance...

a few more photos here

Grand Slam!!!


Lewis Hamilton wins Australian F1GP!


w00p!

Holy crap, Cardiff City are through to the FA Cup Semi-Finals at Wembley. Could this be the best sporting weekend ever?!

Roll on the Grand Slam!

On Saturday I went to a fitting for my sister's wedding. Granted; my dad has lost a hell of a lot of weight recently, but I was really shocked when the tailor gave the pair of trousers my dad had been trying on to me.

It's been a long, cold lonely winter; but today for the first time in I can't remember how long, there was a little natural light both when I left the house this morning and got home in the evening. Usually I only see daylight through the office windows during the week.

On my way to the train station this morning, I walked past a bollard with a neatly folded pair of jeans placed on top. At first I thought that someone must've had a really great night. Then I thought that they might have had a really shit night. Eventually I figured that whatever kind of night the owner had, it had to be more eventful than that of the person who folded them up.

I went to see the new Die Hard film on Friday. It was as overblown and ridiculous as you'd expect, and Bruce Willis' trademark grunting put the Williams sisters to shame. Kick-arse baddies (except the big boss was a bit of a pansy), amazing stunts and good interplay between McClane and his more technologically-minded sidekick made it a hugely entertaining summer blockbuster.

I also watched Pan's Labyrinth last night. All I can say is what an awesome film. If you haven't seen it yet, you really need to.

There was a massive hold-up with the trains last night. The one I caught was over an hour late, but pretty much every sercive was massively delayed or cancelled. I found out this was due to an incident between Cardiff and Newport (i.e. on my route home). The train manager announced that although we were travelling on the relief line, we'd be passing by the scene of the incident so "anyone who's squeamish might want to engross themselves in a book rather than look out the window". What better way to get everyone to the windows?

Fortunately, it seems that whatever transpired was cleared away before our train passed by.

I got a new phone on Saturday. A Sony Ericsson w880i Walkman phone.

It's a real thing of beauty, and has a 1GB memory stick so it stores plenty of tunes.







Of course, I had to transfer all my contacts and whatnot from the old phone. I was looking through some old text-messages - intending to copy some across, and it was quite a sad moment. Things that were so meaningful once no-longer seem to have any relevance. I decided to delete them all in the end, which was probably for the best because pretty much everything I had at the times I received them is lost too.