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Jamie with his Ripstick

As you can see, Jamie was very lucky and received a ‘rip stick‘ from Father Christmas and fortunately he went back to sleep after that, only for another outbreak of rustling and paper ripping from about 2-3am. Fortunately they went back to sleep until about 6am. If you are wondering what a rip stick is, its a bit like a skateboard, but harder – sweep stake on when he’ll be able to ride it properly on his own…

Rebecca by the Sea on Christmas Day

After a delicious Christmas meal which lasted most of the afternoon we sat down for some more present opening and then tea! Then just sitting around not doing much with full bellies.

On Boxing Day we popped down to Seven Sisters to have a look at the wildlife and beautiful winding rivers there – I love going there, such a treat. Also such a shame that they are planning to flood the whole area – could be wrong but that is what my parents have told me. Managed to take some lovely photos of Jamie and Rebecca together running around having fun.

On the 27th we went to the panto (oh yes we did) and saw Robin Hood with Nasty Nick out of Eastenders and a load of other brilliant performers – extremely enjoyable as always great fun. It normally lasts all afternoon and some of the in jokes are excellent and right up my street.

Came home on the 28th and resumed work! Cleared masses of work out of the way, but still have a stack of it after Christmas and New Year too. New Year was good – popped round to the Scott’s for a few beverages.

So what’s in store for the New Year? Well loads as it happens. Picked up a couple of new customers, big big year for Cater For You, trying to get fit (if body stops breaking), jointly running the men’s 2′s hockey team with Dave, involved in a minor capacity with Newland Park development and our astro pitches, stand around Sunday mornings at Junior hockey, gardening and plenty more besides – like being 40…

An RIP to Stuart Dalrymple, 48, staunch supporter of the cricket section and I did a lot of work for him in my early years in web design – and he helped me tremendously. Condolences to his family.

Happy New Year everyone.

Personally I think Facebook is past its peak – not nearly as much traffic / usage by my friends on there as a year ago – will be interesting to see what happens in the next year or so. Also notice a massive uplift in Twitter usage compared with just 3 months ago – seems to be replacing FB – though my Twitter doesn’t work on Chrome very well for some reason.

Anyway, here goes…

The rarest bird I think I have had in the back garden and caught on camera is the Lesser Redpoll.  According to the RSPB web site, it is a part of the finch family and there are less than 30,000 breeding pairs.

Trading Depot

Chalfont Web Design has been consulting for Trading Depot since it was conceived in around February 2007. I was involved in the liaising and specifications for the CMS system which was to link with a central ERP system and how to set up the structure of the web site to make it as optimised as possible.

The site was launched a year later in March 2008 with over 7,500 products, class leading photographs and sales from day one. The web site is now approaching a turnover of £4m a year and I still go on site once a week to help with all aspects of the business not just the web site.

Key areas of business of Trading Depot includes:

• Aqualisa Showers
• Bristan Taps
• Franke Kitchen Sinks
• Dimplex Heating
• Underfloor Heating

The plans for 2012 are as exciting with the plan to continue to push the current growth trajectory of the business and the existing infrastructure.

March 2012 Update

The turnover continues to increase and plans are in place for a new and improved platform for the main www.tradingdepot.co.uk web site to improve speed and user experience.  In addition, a number of sub sites have been launched, including one I am in the process of finishing Hamilton Depot which focuses on Hamilton Switches and Sockets.

Sarah and I have had one each and they are pretty tasty.  Will be taking them into work tomorrow when I pop in.

Orange Icing, Vanilla flavoured cup cakes

If anyone is interested, in the picture there are the cup cakes minus a couple, a Wilton no. 22 tip with disposable piping bag and football cup cake cases. All baked in a Wilton cup cake baking tray.

Saturday Night Hockey Social
Really really looking forward to Saturday, though as I type this, I haven’t yet got my costume into my possession and whether it fits over my hips or not. Shame I cannot play hockey in Newbury before the social, but i’ll be on the touchline – Hamstring is well and truly knackered still hurts just walking on it. Looking forward to seeing Nick Wilson again and then back for a curry and into the club house for 8 o’clock. Little known fact about the evening, as there was supposed to be an email, the draw for the Olympic hockey tickets that the club was given, will be made on Saturday night – all those who paid their subs before October 31st are in the hat.

Jamie loses his first tooth

Another eventful weekend as usual. Too much hockey and unfortunately both of us were playing away – Rebecca did mutter about spending more time with us on a Saturday d’oh.  I was called up to the 1′s (yes they were desperate before you get there first) and joined Sarah in Abingdon.  Unfortunately I pulled my hamstring in the first 10 minutes – absolutely gutted as I thought I was doing ok.  So stood around in the oppositions half not moving – though still managed to score a goal standing on one leg much to my amusement.  It was so bad by the fifth goal I had an arrangement with their defence to not even bother walking back to the halfway line and just stayed in their 25.  Still we won 5-3.  The 2′s also won which brought a massive smile to my and Dave’s faces – he was also called up to the 1′s at the last minute.  The team spirit and atmosphere in the 2′s is one of the best i’ve ever know – its absolutely brilliant being a part of it – the closest I can think of was the old 1st XI Chalfont St Peter days when we were promoted and Neil Turner was Captain.

Last game before the Christmas break next Saturday – the 2′s have a massive trek over to Newbury – but I’m visiting the physio tomorrow to see how bad my leg is and whether i’ll be able to stand on the pitch by the game – been icing it all weekend.  We have a special guest star appearance or two and it is followed by the Christmas social / party – really excited by it as the team / squad have worked so hard it should be a really good laugh.

Work has been flat out as usual – loads of meetings which cuts down the actual time to do the work I say i’ll do.  Things have been hampered by the fact I’ve had a cold almost got over it and think I then caught another – so that’s been going on for two weeks now.  Ran out of drugs in the house today which was quite an achievement.  Cater For You was about 30% ahead of last November which was a great effort by the team.  Also uploaded the dedicated CSE Cables actinic ecommerce web site too on Friday.  Making good progress on the new Waggon and Horses web site – hopefully have another session with Simon this week and then start promoting properly – its a really interesting project as something slightly different from the normal and built in WordPress – hopefully made it secure and won’t be hacked like this one was …. yikes.

Listening to some great music at the moment as well – bought a load of stuff from banquet records recently and have another batch coming from Amazon this week.  Will post a dedicated music blog later this week hopefully.

Clearing the leaves

After Junior hockey session first thing this morning and then after cooking the pork fillet for lunch, finally got out into the garden to do some clearing up.  Still lots to do but we cleared the leaves and I put some Autumn lawn weed and feed down – probably won’t work as too late now!  Also repaired a load of Badger holes – first time in ages they’ve been – looking for grubs under the turf.  Found quite a few caterpillars sleeping under the leaves.  Will have to do some more tidying up next weekend assuming we feel o.k. after the Saturday night social.