Java Junkie

End of Easter

2006-04-18T20:19:00.000+01:00

We finally made it to chessington park armed with 1 discount ticket and two sets of Tesco Vouchers (for 5 Days). The weather was windy but bearable, and not as warm as yesterday. Bubble works has become Imperial Leather Bubble works (talk abut product placement). Everything was much the same as last year.

All in all Chessington is a good place for the younger the kids (if you have teenagers then I recommend Thorpe park instead).

Well, tomorrow my son if off to school again. Must get his 'kit' ready for another term... Is it him or me thats off to school?

Tilgate Park

2006-04-18T09:43:00.000+01:00

We planned to go to Chessington Park (again with Tesco vouchers), but some friends called and they wanted to go on a picnic instead. So we lead them to Tilgate Park (south of Crawley). Took the wrong junction off the M23 (too early) and got lost around CRAWLEYS famous one way systems. A convo of 4 cars driving around town is easy to get lost.

Eventually had to phone my nephew to look up the address, entered it into TomTom (my TomTom kept crashing as soon as I selected Parks and Rec areas)... Fate!!!

Another great day out. Nice Lake, there is a small zoo (suggested entrance fee is £1 but not mandatory), childrens play areas. Great day out. There is also a family pub there with indoor play area. SO if it does rain you can still enjoy yourselves.

Road Trips

2006-04-15T23:59:00.000+01:00

We had a wedding to attend in Ilfrod. Jurney from Purley to Stradford 1hr. From Stradford to Ilford 1.5 hrs. Next time there is a wedding there just dont go. On the upside the Food was good which is unusual for Asian weddings.

Made a trip to Archway to visit my cousing who just had a baby boy. Oh boy, glad to be back home.

Woburn Safari

2006-04-14T20:30:00.000+01:00

The Easter holidays is almost over and due to FLU and Accident we havent taken my 5 year old son anywhere. So with Tesco Days out vouchers in hand we headed for Woburn Safari (my son loves animals) and clubcard vouchers means we get in free.

In Purley, it was raining. On M25 it was pouring. But by the time we we hit the M1 the sun was shining and you couldnt believe that we were in the same land.

Woburn is a great treat for kids. The park and swan ride at the end is really worth the trip alone. And dont miss the sealion show. Goes down well ith kids.

Flowers

2006-04-10T12:00:00.000+01:00

I go into to Purley to get some flowers for the Lady in the Car accident, I really feel sorry for her. We went through an accident where a large 4x4 hit our car and totalled it. The nightmares all came back. Hope she likes the flowers.

8Mbs Broadband

2006-04-10T11:30:00.000+01:00

Eclipse is making 8Mbs Broadband available (MAX service). But last minute snags means that their website will only be working after 5pm. Hmm have to wait.

Goodstone Vinyard

2006-04-09T22:21:00.000+01:00

Today we went to Godstone Vinyard (J6 of M25). A nice place with fishing ponds, small Cafe (which serves a delicious Sticky Tofee pudding with custard) and place to walk around. A great day out. Free Entry.

On the way back I stopped at a convience store to get Bread (they were out), got back into the car and started to full out. WHAM. A small car came speeding around the corner, hit my front and turned over. I looked across (and flash backs from our own crash where our car turned over came all back to me).

Ran out and helped the driver out, it was an Elderly gentelman (probably in his 60s). His wife on the other side was stuck inside. Police arrived, Amulance and eventually the Firebrigade. The car had to be cut up to allow the lady to be removed safetly.

I had just recovered from a FLU, the tempreture was very low and wind chill made it worse. But I felt so scared for the lady. Man quickly can an accident occour. In the flash of a second. And I must have been doing 3 mph.

The Great British BBQ

2006-04-08T08:40:00.000+01:00

There is nothing like butane to chargrill meat to instant perfection (or over perfrection). Forget those lame coal based BBQs you have to spend the best part of morning trying to start. Just Ignite and enjoy. And no worry afters disposing of the ashes.

Yummm...

Lot of time off

2006-04-05T12:12:00.000+01:00

Being sick with flu gives you lot of time off. So here is a catalogue of stuff I got up to while waiting to play golf...

Tried to Install Solaris 10 on a Laptop (got given this Laptop install CD at the JavaUK 06 gig). First tried it on a old Toshiba Satellite Laptop. Preped it with Partation magic to make a 12G partation. It wouldnt install. Do went into Partation magic and set up Partation ID manually. Solaris 10 wont install over a Linux partation. You need to set the partation ID to 0xbf. Then everything installs sweet.

The Java Desktop looks way better than windows XP and reminds me of the BSD based OS that Mac people love. Everything stable, firefox comes standard on the install. sweet. No Internet? Hmm... No CARDBUS drivers. So my old Xircom card wont work.

Next I try on a more upto date Toshiba Tecra Laptop, built in Nvidia graphics, WiFi and Ethernet. Installs first time, no fuss, no muss. Everything works. Even WiFi. Quick check, it works brill! Linux CDs get thrown into trash!!! I couldnt belive how well it worked. And how fast. It even installed OpenOffice 7. And in less time it takes Windows to format the harddrive.

Now for the Acid test. Pass the Laptop to my 5 year old son. Hmm.. He seems to take to it like duck to water. He starts playing the stack of inbuilt games. No problem navigating, he even makes his way to the browser. I type in the cbbcies web site and off he goes. Sweet!

Sun may be onto something here. Considering its free, its a good way to get legal on those home PCs. Forget the hype about linux. Forget the fustration of Windows XP. It even includes a boot manager should you need to keep XP on that work Laptop!

Day 2 - The sun shines again

2006-04-05T10:42:00.000+01:00

Its amazing how much better a little sunshine makes you fee. I am feeling better. So I decide to drive my pregnant wife to the midwife appointment. I of course wait outside with my O2 XDA Exec, UMTS internet connection and magic on the radio. Life could be a whole lot worse.

Anyways a simple 10 min check up turns to 50 min in no time... Thank god for technology and sunshine to keep busy. Now if only they built in a toast vending machine into cars!

First day in Blogg Land

2006-04-04T16:15:00.000+01:00

Just been stuck home with flu for the last few days. And luck would have it, I just bought some nice golf clubs. In my egerness to try them at the local range, I braved cold wind and rain for only a few hours on the fairway to be stuck inside for a week...

Having the flu is miserable. Having a flu and a pregnent wife is unbearable!!! I dont understant what in it for men and marriage. I understand whats in it for women, what in it for us guys?

Anyways, I dont know how I got here, but I guess its like all lifes discovries... You set of in one direction and wham... somehow you are here, quite unplanned. Verymuch unlike Golf, which I had planned for the last week... Bit of downtime I thought, take in a new sport (never played much golf), and what do you know. I am writing a Blogg instead.

Well if you arr still here, hope we will catch up sometime else.