First test of a video for the family back home

Trying a first upload of a video from my Blackberry Q5.  Unfortunately I had an old micro SD card that didn’t support HD (since been rectified).  But quality is even worse as I took the original 212MB MP4 and shrunk it to about a 40MB MP4 before uploading to GoogleDrive to get it on my blog (via Live Writer).  Anyway…

New Old Computer

I’ve rebuilt a freebie computer from work and put in extra memory (also freebie) and old 300GB & 160GB hard drives from an old computer and am now playing.  Did Windows Updates and it installed Windows Live and Windows Live Writer that supposedly make it easier to write blogs… well, I figured I’d play…  Here’s the only photo that happens to be on this computer… a photo from Phoenix this past New Years with the sis and bro’s family (or many of them, Alison and Max missing) on the way to a Coyotes game (the old Jets).

I'm a Celebrity

I've got some photos to post of trips Netherlands, Turkey and Norway, but going to be a week or so before I get around to it. But in the mean time, just to prove I actually was there, here's a photo of Pat and I in Stavanger...

finally a post again

Okay, it's been a few months. Probably most people have given up on me posting again. Work got a little intense and it's summer and... I've got a list of excuses, let me go grab a couple more :)

Work was intense. Second week in July I got out a report that was three volumes and over 1000 pages documenting most of what I had been working on for 13 months. And then July 30 I was in Belfast to present the reports to the regulator and have a meeting. Anyway, since getting the reports done I've started to refocus and reduce the workload and have been doing a pretty good job.

I've been doing a fair bit of play as well... I've spent a weekend sailing around the Isle of Wight (near Portsmouth), have been hiking in Dartmoor (SW England near Cornwall) and Gower (south Wales), climbing in the Wye Valley (on the border with Wales and England at the River Severn), kayaking near Brighton, etc. etc. So definitely have been getting a chance to see some of the British country side.

I've been pretty bad about bringing my camera or getting photos from others (or just too lazy to keep them in one place). Here are a couple from Gowers a couple weeks back:






And a couple weeks ago I got dressed up and went to the Cartier's International Polo and saw England and Argentina play along with my buddy Prince Chuck. Quite a snooty affair, but fun none the less:






As for the next few months, I'm still trying to get to the Netherlands to visit Jen, Darran & Jenny and Lisette, also Norway to visit Pat & Stef, and various places. I've bought tickets to climb Mt. Toukbal in Morocco starting on my birthday (Oct. 7 for those that want to send an early present) and I'm off to Turkey in a couple weeks though I still haven't bought my ticket. And I need to do a better job of working from France as I don't pay taxes when I work there!! (just did my UK taxes and getting 15% of my taxes back from last year!) I'll try to do a better job of snapping some photos and writing blogs in the coming months!!