I’ve decided from now on, I’m going to celebrate my birthday with a quiet weekend away – as befits someone of my increasing years (not really, I’ll still act like I’m 14, I’ll just get to spend more time in the countryside).
This year, there was need for a transition, so last weekend (the week before my birthday) I did my “normal” birthday thing of an afternoon around Chester with friends.
The day begun as always with me reviewing my memories box (I do this on my birthday and on New Years day). Followed by scrambled eggs for breakfast (my mum used to make them for me on my birthday, and its a tradition I’ve kept going).
With a few hours before the main celebration begins, Nikki and I drive to Winsford and have a nice relaxing walk along the river.
Returning to Chester, I hooked up with my friends and did the usual run of the Mill, The Lock keeper, The Temple Bar and finally a meal at Hickory’s by the river Dee at 5:30pm.
And just like that, its over.
It’s the 17th consecutive year that I’ve celebrated this way, I’d like to thank all the people who have joined me over the years 🙂
This weekend I’m off to Ambleside for the weekend, so a new chapter of adventure begins.
Above, is an artists impression of my new kitchen (I’m also having a lot of work done on my living room).
It will involve a new floor, new ceiling, completely new units, completely new appliances and a lighting and electrics refit.
The reality.
For the next few weeks, my home will look like something from the 3rd world !.
It’s been a disruptive time, but as you can see, the fish have coped well with their move into my bedroom (I didn’t want any plaster dust getting into their tank.
But the fish aren’t the only casualty.
johnsunter.com has been forced to temporarily relocate. Corks Out in Chester have kindly lent us some “office space” to continue our work.
On the adventure front, some good walking in the Lakes this weekend.
2 weeks later, were doing an InnTravel walk to the Black Forest.
In a couple of years, I have a birthday with a 0 in it, so I’ve decided to do a trip to Antarctica. It will take a lot of planning, years in advance, but after all the other things I’ve done, it will be the trip of a lifetime.
Were at home this Christmas (we go away every other year) but we’ve decided to do something cool for New Year. With the rule that wherever we go must be less than 90 mins flying time, were looking seriously at Amsterdam or Paris
Things at work continue to go well.
I can’t talk specifically about our technology on my website, but above are some servers I’m repurposing, I’ve been involved with a Juniper networks firewall.
I continue to learn more and more cool stuff about VM Ware (and I thought I knew a lot about it before I started here).
I attended a talk on health and safety.
In the room, you could see myself and the other attendee’s look from one to the other in a “knowing” fashion. We couldn’t have been more wrong!.
The speaker set the scene early. He put up a table of statistics, said you’ve probably heard all sorts of daft stories about H&S and children not being allowed to feed ducks.
He continued. If you look at the screen, you’ll see 133 people died at work last year due to accidents – 133 people never came home from work. 133 family’s devastated and all of this is avoidable.
He the put up the picture above which he’d found on the internet.
A fascinating talk. All I can say, is I personally take H&S a lot more seriously now.
I don’t know what’s going on with TV at the moment, but everyone must have heard of the Game of Thrones character who was “definitely dead” and now isn’t. Why did they think anyone would be surprised.
And in Madam Secretary, a show I’ve grown to love, Dimitri is alive. Did anyone genuinely believe he wasn’t coming back ?
Well, that’s it for this time. Its been a bit of a quiet month on the adventure front but the weather seems to be improving, so get out there and enjoy it.
Near and far, the search for adventure continues…