Ran out of time on Friday to post an entry. Had to drive over to my parents house as Amy and I were staying the night there (Mel’s birthday celebrations the next day et al). Talked with mum and dad for a while — primarily dad in regards to starting up the new planemaking venture (which I’ll get into in another post some time) — but then fell asleep while watching TV at around 10.30pm. I seem to be doing that more and more nowadays over there. It’s just so damn hot there with the heater on that I just kinda lose consciousness or something?

Saturday was pretty good. Not only was Mel there but Adrian and Dan — my two best friends — visited as well. There was some concern earlier that morning with Adrian’s mother (who lived across the road from my parent’s house) being a little disorientated and wandering the streets but Adrian managed to sort things out. By the end of the afternoon Amy and I decided to stay at my parents for another night.

Back home on Sunday we started to get back into the groove of things. For some reason though the internet seemed to be playing up and the connection would momentarily drop out all the time. It was quite annoying and so I didn’t bother to update the blog, instead opting to watch a bit of football on the TV. By late Sunday night we lost all connection to four of our websites — The Speckled Band being one of them — though we were able to get to other sites. Even the main page for our web host (for those 4 sites) was down so I was unable to say “Hey? What goes on here?”. At any rate I decided to worry about it the next day and went about updating some of the other sites hosted on different servers (and with different companies). I’ve found that, although it takes a bit of extra effort keeping tabs on different accounts, it makes sense to have the websites hosted by different people. If one (or two) of them drop out for whatever reason at least you can still get income from the others that are still up and doing OK. Website downtime is inevitable so it pays to not put all your eggs in the one basket.

Finally got on to the web host this morning and lodged a “work ticket”. Didn’t hear back for quite a few hours but they eventually got things back on track and working — one site at a time. Had to clear the cache on the browser as it seemed to want to tell me “web site does not exist” etc. which was a pain in the rear end.

So, after a little bit of effort, I’m able to continue on with the updating of this particular site. It’s just a bit of a shame that I don’t have anything brainstormingly fascinating or even remotely interesting right now! Ohh well. That’s the way it is sometimes.

Adieu!

Tomorrow – well today rather – Amy and I will be going to my parent’s house for Christmas lunch so we’re both looking forward to that. My sleep patterns are all out of whack again (surprise surprise) so I’m not sure how I’ll be in the morning? I’ll probably be all “punchy” and stuff.

I’m sure glad I made the story of Sherlock Holmes and The Speckled Band a “sticky” post as it appears that’s the main thing that people come here for. Rather than have a bunch of disgruntled net surfers I saw it as my “duty” to make sure they at least got what they were looking for. After all this website is in the number one spot for “The Speckled Band” so I figure it’s the least I can do.

Lastly I just want to say that I wish everyone out there a great Christmas and holiday season! A Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Merry Christmas!

With this in mind I WAS going to come here first this morning but we ended up having a fairly busy day instead – away from the computer as opposed to sitting right there in front of it. Having said that I’ve just finished typing up an entry which I then decided would make a much better “wrap-up” of 2005 rather than a pre-Christmas post. Subsequently I haven’t much to say right now as I’ve already said it in a past post which will now be a future post.

One thing I can say though is that I’m still very busy with the website stuff and shall be for quite a time. I managed to get some stuff from Christine for her website so I can get stuck into that soonish. I also grabbed some newspaper articles about Christine that mum had saved away.

I have been doing practical projects as well, making household items out of wood as well as making the Christmas presents. As I’ve not quite finished ANY Christmas presents yet it may be some time before people get anything…..Maybe. Everybody is getting the same sort of present so I still MAY be able to pull off a little Christmas miracle and get some – if not all – of the presents made. I’m probably about half way through so anything is possible.

And yes, I’ll take some pictures of the work in progress as well.

So in case I don’t get the opportunity to make another post before Christmas I hope that everyone reading this who celebrate Christmas and the festive season has a good one. If you don’t celebrate Christmas at all then I still hope you have a really cool time over the next few weeks or so….hell, let’s go “for all eternity”. I hope everyone out there has a good time for all eternity! There ya go!

Peace from Downunder!

It was really a last minute thing to have Thanksgiving over there, otherwise we would’ve invited the whole family – Faye, Wayne, Melissa etc. Amy and I were always going to have it but, with a few days to go, we asked mum and dad if they wanted to have it at their house. Being a free meal and prepared by someone other than themselves what answer could they give but “yes”. Plus they seem to like our company – Yeah, I know! After all those years as me for a son! It surprises me too!

Then again there’s Amy. Everyone loves Amy!

We also invited Adrian and Dan. Ebony was there for the weekend as well so it was a bit of a full house. We got there a bit later than anticipated but, as Amy had done most of the preparation beforehand, we only needed to cook the pumpkin pies and the turkey/yams/potatoes/etc. We had four hours or so up our sleeves so it worked out OK. We cooked two pies – mainly because we had the mixture for two – so there was plenty to go around. Not that Ebony cared. Thankfully she still doesn’t like pumpkin pie – not that she’s ever tried it – so that just meant there was more for us.

Ohh, by the way. Did I mention that when I say “We cooked this” or “We cooked that” I basically just mean Amy….With maybe a little help from mum. I was more of a hinderance really – being argumentative and generally obnoxious. I really don’t know what got into me that day? Anyhow, I felt I’d be of more help if I was out of the kitchen so I went and had a lie down.

To cut a long story short the meal was superb. Daniel and Adrian both enjoyed it and I’m not sure whether they’ve ever had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner before? Not that Dan’s was strictly traditional as he didn’t have any turkey (apparently vegetarians don’t eat that kinda stuff?). Still, there was plenty of vegetables and stuffing and pumpkin pie for him and none of what he ate even went close to a piece of meat.

The company was great and the conversation was excellent but, by the end of the night, everyone was so tired and worn out from their day that it was good to finally relax once Adrian and Dan had left. Not that Adrian himself could relax at all. The poor guy still had to do his graveyard shift at the radio station and then go home to bed, only to get up again some three hours later and go to work!

It wasn’t too bad for Amy and I. We decided to just spend the night there and drive back in the morning. Still, it was great to settle down for bed – another Thanksgiving successfully over…