Sat Dec 22 2001
We went shopping for Christmas cards this afternoon, and I was disappointed to find out that they've turned all of the free street parking in Northampton centre into pay and display! :-(
We took Adam, Paul and Vikki's Christmas presents with us into town. After we'd got all of our Christmas cards, we popped in to see Adam in the Sony centre, and then drove round to Paul and Vikki's place to drop their presents in.
Naomi came back for Christmas this evening.

Fri Dec 21 2001
We went to Bluewater again this morning, and spent most of the day finishing off all of our Christmas shopping. When we'd finished, we drove to my Parents'.
In the evening Martin brought Grandma up from Bournemouth.

Thu Dec 20 2001
I got up at the usual time of 6:30 this morning as if I was driving back to work, but instead, I went over to Bluewater. I parked in the almost empty and very icy car park, and then headed into the centre. I had to wait a while for the shops to open, but I passed the time doing window shopping.
I spent most of the day there and found everything I wanted for Nicola. I'd already got the concert CDs and a cute fluffy cat for her. Today I bought an optical mouse, a set of Shot rocks, a candle making kit, some gloves for couples that have two normal single gloves and a shared double glove that you both put your hand in so that you can hold hands, and some Calvin Klein lingerie.
I drove back to Strood late afternoon, and had my car washed at Safeway while I went and did a bit more shopping. I tried to find a Zippy key-ring for Naomi again but didn't have any luck, I bought some wrapping paper, and got a card for Nicola.
When I got back to Nicola's place, I waited outside for a bit and sent her a few texts hinting that I might be there soon. I could see through a crack in the curtain that Dave was home, and rang him on the landline to find out exactly where Nicola was. He said she was in her room so I asked him to let me in, and then I crept up the stairs to her door. I was about to send her another text to ask her to open it when she came out to see who had been on the phone. She got quite a surprise when she saw me standing there! :-)
In the evening I wrapped up her Christmas presents out of the way in her Mum's room, and then we headed down to Chiquito for a meal.

Wed Dec 19 2001
I've already booked Friday off work, and I decided to take Thursday off as well today. Thought I might use the whole day to do Christmas shopping for Nicola.
The bootleg CDs of the Heather Nova concert we went to have arrived, and they're really good! I had a quick listen to them when I got back home from work this evening. The sound quality is great, and the songs have all been put on different tracks. I was quite impressed! I'm going to design some nice colourful CD labels for them, and give them to Nicola as a Christmas present.
Had some dinner and then headed down to Kent.

Tue Dec 18 2001
I'm using Freeserve for my ISP now. Their AnyTime package, with no call charges, is just £12.99 per month, and they have an offer on at the moment of one month for free.

Mon Dec 17 2001
Nicola spent the day at my parents' today while I went to work. When I got back in the evening, we had some curry for dinner, and then headed back down to Kent, as Nicola has an appointment there tomorrow.

Sun Dec 16 2001
We walked down to Strood in the morning to see if we could do a bit more Christmas shopping. Naomi wants a Zippy key-ring, and I've seen them before in Woolworths, but we couldn't find one there today. Couldn't find any marshmallows for Gran either, but we did get a gas lighter, and bought some chocolates for Mum.
On the way home we popped into Safeway and got some honey and mustard Chicken Tonight, some jelly and a bottle of Archers, some marshmallows for Gran, and a bottle of Jack Daniels for Adam.
When we got back, we cooked the Chicken Tonight for lunch, then packed up some stuff and headed to my parents'.
We told them about the engagement, and then went to see my Gran to tell her the good news too. I took quite a few photos of the ring yesterday, and uploaded them to the website tonight.

Sat Dec 15 2001
We got up nice and early this morning and went to Bluewater to buy an engagement ring and do a bit of Christmas shopping. We looked in the windows of a few jewellery shops and went into one of them to get an explanation of the diamond classification system. Then, after having been round about half of the jewellers in Bluewater, we finally found a ring we really liked, and asked them if we could have a closer look. Nicola tried it on, and the guy in the shop went and got the classification of it. It did look quite nice but, for the price, we weren't quite happy with the classification. Its clarity rating didn't even show up on the chart we had been given earlier. So we carried on looking round, and eventually came back to the first shop we'd looked at. This time we spotted a really beautiful ring in the window. We both thought it looked stunning and we went in to try it on. As well as looking fantastic, it also had a surprisingly high classification... 0.35ct SI1 G. We decided that it would be the one! :-) It wasn't quite the right size, but they said we could have it resized later. They fitted a clip on insert to make it slightly smaller so that we could take it away there and then.
We went to Pizza hut for some food, and managed to attract Helen's attention quite quickly this time. :-) We chatted to her for a bit while we were waiting for a table, but she didn't spot the ring, even though we were trying our hardest to get her to notice it! :-) We sat down to eat, and when Helen came over for another brief chat later, we told her the good news. She seemed quite excited about it! :-)
We did some more shopping in the afternoon, but by 4:00 we were getting a little tired, so decided to head off. We'd just started driving away when we realised that Helen would be finishing work soon, so we rang Nicola's Dad to suggest that we could give Helen a lift home. There was no answer on his home number, but we got hold of him on his mobile, and he said that he was shopping in Bluewater!
We met up with him inside, and then told him about the engagement. We were so nervous about telling him as we had no idea how he'd react, but he seemed very pleased for us both and invited us back for a meal. :-) We had a quick coffee while we waited for Helen to finish work, and then headed off. Nicola and I went via Safeway to get some garlic bread for the meal. When we got back, Caroline opened the Archers to celebrate the engagement.

Fri Dec 14 2001
Nicola moved back to her Mum's place for the Christmas holidays today, so tonight after work, I had to drive all the way to Strood. The traffic on the M25 wasn't brilliant, but it was reasonable, and I arrived at about 8:00.
Nicola still had loads of unpacking to do, so she carried on doing that until about 9:00, then we headed out for some food. We tried Frankie and Benny's first, but it was absolutely packed, so we went to Chiquito instead.
Nicola had told her Mum about our engagement when she picked Nicola up from uni in the morning. She seems quite pleased for us, and when we got back from Chiquito, she gave us our first engagement card. :-)

Thu Dec 13 2001
Had our work's Christmas dinner today at the Deddington Arms pub. We headed over there early afternoon, and I gave Andrew a lift in my car, as he was quite interested in seeing the satellite navigation system in action.
Our table wasn't quite ready when we arrived, so we had a quick drink in the bar first, before being called through to the restaurant about 10 minutes later. I had potato and leak soup for the starter, turkey for the main course, and strawberry parfait for dessert. The food was rather good, and we even got warm mince pies with our coffee. :-)
After the meal was over, we all headed straight off home, so I got back a little earlier than usual. Started work on an email advent calendar in JavaScript for Nicola... 25 buttons, with 25 reasons why I love her behind them. :-) And only the buttons up to the current day will be active, so she'll get a new message of love each day. :-)
In the evening I headed up to the Greyhound to meet John for a few drinks, then came back and had a nice long chat on the phone with Nicola. I hadn't quite completed the calendar by this point, so when we got off the phone just before midnight, I headed downstairs, finished it off and mailed it to her. I hope she checks her email tomorrow before she packs her computer away...

Wed Dec 12 2001
No sign of fog at all today, but it was really cold in the morning and I had to scrape loads of ice off the windscreen before I could set off for work.
The post card I sent Nicola from the BP garage yesterday never turned up. I wonder what happened to it. Oh well, it might turn up eventually.
Drove down to see Nicola in the evening. Took the logos I'd printed out yesterday for her with me. She was quite impressed with how they came out too, but she's not going to try any of them out just yet as this is her last week of term, and she'll be moving out on Friday. We'll have to wait until the new year to impress people with our artistic skills! :-)

Tue Dec 11 2001
Another foggy day today. There was some thin fog in the morning on the way to work, and although it cleared up during the day, by the time I set off home again in the evening it was back, thicker than ever.
When I got to Ardley road, between Middleton Stoney and the M40, I met a huge queue of traffic, which was quite unusual as that road is usually very clear. After about 10 minutes of not moving at all, I guessed that there must have been an accident up ahead and decided to turn round and take another route through Bicester. The fog was getting even thicker at this point, and my detour took ages as, at some points, I couldn't see more than a few metres in front of me! The strange thing was that as soon as I got back on to my normal route, the fog vanished. It literally went from being so thick you could hardly see anything to perfect visibility in a matter of seconds!
I stopped at the BP garage just outside Towcester to get petrol, and on my way out of the shop, noticed that they had a couple of "Information Terminals" which looked a bit like free-standing ATM machines, but with proper keyboards. They had touch sensitive screens and there were various things you could do, like route planning, find weather reports, etc. These were actually web pages... You could see it dial up and the URL got displayed at the top of the screen. It wouldn't let you type URLs in though unless you put some money into it, and then you got access to the Internet and email options. One of the other things you could do for free was send an electronic postcard with a message, so I sent one to Nicola. It hasn't turned up yet though.
We designed some "Nicola" logos over the weekend for her to put in the nameplate holder on her door at uni. I printed them out tonight, on nice glossy paper, and they look really cool. :-)

Mon Dec 10 2001
Had a lousy journey to work from London this morning. The traffic coming out of London was a lot heavier than usual so I got delayed there, then I got on to the M25 to find huge queues caused by a lorry that had broken down in the outside lane, and to top it all off there was thick fog from the approach to Oxford right the way through to work!
Found out at work today that we're going to be moving office in January. Andrew hasn't found a permanent place yet, but we're rapidly running out of space for new people, so we're going to be moving to Upper Heyford for about 6 months.
It's quite a good location for me. It's actually on my current route, and it'll knock about 15-20 minutes off my journey time. It's also really close to the M40, and as I can skip driving round Oxford, travelling down to see Nicola should be a bit quicker too! :-)

Sun Dec 09 2001

I just want to let the whole world know that Nicola and I are engaged! :-)

I want to thank you for giving me the best day of my life Oh just to be with you is having the best day of my life from Thank You by Dido

I love you Nicola! Thank you for everything!

Sat Dec 08 2001
We left uni reasonably early this morning and headed to Bluewater to do some Christmas shopping. Nicola's sister, Helen, got herself a weekend job working in Pizza Hut there just recently, so we decided to pop in and say hello. :-) There was a bit of a queue, and while we were waiting we spotted her working at the salad bar over at the other side of the restaurant. She looked our way lots of times, but didn't notice us once! Even when she came over to put some menus away right beside us she didn't see us! We kept on trying to catch her attention throughout our meal, but in the end we had to go up to her and say hello on our way out to get her to notice us! :-)
We did some Christmas shopping for a few hours after that, and then headed over to Nicola's Mum's for a bit. At 6:00 we drove back to Bluewater to pick Helen up after she'd finished work, then had a nice meal at Nicola's Dad's place. Mmmmm... Cajun chicken. :-)
Later on, we all went to the Red House for a few drinks and a game of pool. Nicola and I played Helen and Steve, and we won! Yay! :-)

Fri Dec 07 2001
I had a meeting at Argonaut again today, which meant I could have a bit of a lie in this morning. Got up at around 8:30 and left just after 9:00. The traffic in South street was a lot worse leaving at this time, but the rest of the journey was a much clearer, and it only took me about 40 minutes to get there.
The meeting finished slightly earlier than I was expecting and I was back at the University soon after 3:00. I bought some roses on the way to surprise Nicola with.
We decided we were going to cook some pasta for dinner and needed a few things like mushrooms, an onion and a pepper, so soon after I got in, we drove over to Tesco. We found that they were doing a special offer on drinks... Buy two 4-packs of either peach or orange Archers Aqua or Smirnoff Ice and get the third 4-pack free. So we got one of each! :-)

Thu Dec 06 2001
Drove down to surprise Nicola again tonight. The traffic around Oxford was very good, as was the M25, and although I got held up on the M4 for a bit, I made very good time. Got to the University soon after 7:00.
I gave Nicola a call and we chatted for a bit, not letting on where I was. Then she asked "Where are you?" and I replied "Right outside your window!" So she looked out and finally saw me standing there. :-)
She had a bit of filing to do with her course notes, so while she did that I headed out and got Chinese for dinner. They do a cheap meal for one person that is actually plenty of food for two people, so we had that between us... Sweet and sour chicken, beef chop suey, and egg fried rice... Mmmmmm! :-)

Wed Dec 05 2001
Went over to Towcester this evening for a meal at the Indian with John, Andrew (Who's over in England again doing some more work for the company John works for), and another guy from his work.
I managed to have a quick chat with Nicola when I got home from work, then John picked me up from my house just after 7:00. We left the car at his house and all walked to the Indian in the centre of Towcester. I had the chicken Madrass, and it was really nice.
After the meal we had a few drinks in a couple of the pubs, then headed back to John's house at closing time and Ian drove me back home.
Had another chat to Nicola.

Tue Dec 04 2001
Sorted out and uploaded the photos from Helen's 18th birthday meal and the ones from Warwick castle this evening. I'm very pleased with how well this sunset picture came out. It looks really nice!
I also renewed my xlcus.co.uk domain, as it'll be two years old in January. Happy 2nd birthday! :-)

Mon Dec 03 2001
It was Helen's 18th today, and she had a big birthday meal at The Windmill in Hollingbourne.
I left work at 5:00, a little earlier than usual, so that I could get down to Kent in time. I arrived at Nicola's Dad's place by about 7:15, and then we made our way over to the pub.
Loads of Helen's family and friends came to the meal, and we had a great time. She opened all of her presents first, including a digital camera and a sparkly magic wand. Then, before we ate, Helen even made a speech! :-) The meal itself was very good, especially the cake, which she really enjoyed! :-)

Sun Dec 02 2001
We had a great day out at Warwick castle today. There was loads of stuff to look around inside the castle itself, the castle grounds were quite picturesque, and we got some great entertainment from a juggler in the courtyard. On the walk we did round the top of the castle we caught a beautiful sunset, and I got some fantastic photos!
We left the castle just as it was getting dark, and headed back down to uni, stopping off at the BP Safeway garage on the way to get some milk.

Sat Dec 01 2001
We drove up to Milton late morning to pick up my old Psion and then continued on to Coventry. We went to Dixons to collect my band new replacement Psion, and then did a bit of shopping in the city centre. We found some nice shiny wrapping paper that we can use for wrapping both Christmas presents and Helen's birthday presents.
We were going to go to the Sozzled Sausage in Leamington for dinner tonight, but when I rang them up to find out what times they served food, they told me that they don't serve food on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday!
We decided to get Chinese and have an evening in instead. I wasn't too sure where the closest takeaway was, so I asked our next-door neighbour and he gave us directions. When we got back with the food we watched loads of episodes of Friends on DVD while we ate.
Gave Nicola's Heather Nova T-shirt a good clean.

Fri Nov 30 2001
Drove back down to uni in the evening. We went out to Pizza Hut for dinner.

Thu Nov 29 2001
I was sorting through some stuff yesterday and found my copy of the hilarious quiz show party game YOU DON'T KNOW JACK. I took it to work today and had a few games with Rich at lunchtime. It really is very funny.
I've booked another week off work at the start of the new year. I've now got just over two weeks off for Christmas! Yay! :-)
Drove down to see Nicola after work as she was getting a little stressed about her work, and I wanted to try and cheer her up a bit.

Wed Nov 28 2001
I was thinking last night that it'd be much easier for me if I could collect my replacement Psion from somewhere a bit closer than Coventry, so today I rang Dixons again and asked them if it would be possible to take my old one back to a different branch. Unfortunately they said it would have to go back to Coventry, so I'm going to have to make another trip up there some time.
Went out to the pub with John this evening.

Tue Nov 27 2001
Nicola was feeling much better this morning. She had some more food she'd bought with a meal ticket for me to take to work for my lunch... A yoghurt and a cheese and onion roll with loads of onions in it! Mmmm... I love onion. :-)
I phoned Dixons again today, and managed to speak to the manager this time. He said they'd be happy to replace my Psion! Yay! I'm getting a brand new one after all! :-)

Mon Nov 26 2001
Found a cool utility for Windows 2000 today. It's called Glass2K, and it lets you set the transparency of any window at the touch of a hotkey.
Dixons didn't call me back. I'm going to have to ring them up tomorrow and have a moan.
Nicola was feeling a quite ill this afternoon with heavy cold symptoms, so in the evening after work I drove down to see her.

Sun Nov 25 2001
I rang Dixons this morning and asked to speak to the manager, but he wasn't there. I spoke to the deputy manager instead, and asked for a replacement Psion. He said that because it was a different fault, it didn't come under the previous fault's 42-day replacement period. I wasn't going stand for that. I'm not waiting possibly another 42 days to have my Psion back all because someone created a new fault while fixing the original one! I told him this, but he said he couldn't make the decision. He said he'd have to speak to the manager about it tomorrow and give me a ring back. :-/ We had lunch at my parents', and in the evening headed down to uni. After Nicola had gone to sleep tonight, I planted the backdrop on her computer. :-)

Sat Nov 24 2001
We were up just before midday and drove up to Coventry to pick up a new Psion from Dixons. When we got there and spoke to someone about it, they went away for a bit, then came back to say my old Psion had been fixed, despite what I'd been told on the phone yesterday! I checked it over and it did seem to be OK. It's a shame really... It would have been nice to have a brand new one. :-)
We did a bit of window-shopping in Coventry centre, then headed back to Milton.
In the evening I played around with my Psion some more, and discovered a different fault with it! It now doesn't turn on and off when you open and shut the case. They must have forgotten to reconnect something or damaged the switch when they put it back together. I'm going to have to ring Dixons again tomorrow.

Fri Nov 23 2001
Drove to the new office in the morning, and it really is a nice place. It took about the same time to get to from my parents' as Radford, but it'll be closer to Nicola by about 20 minutes! :-)
I phoned Dixons about my Psion again today, as it'll have been there 42 days by tomorrow. They told me that it's going to be at least another 2 weeks before they get it back, so it looks like I'll be getting a brand new one tomorrow under the terms of the warranty! :-)
Drove down to Nicola's after work. We sorted out her washing and had something to eat, then drove up to my parents'.

Thu Nov 22 2001
I prepared a backdrop image this evening, which I'm going to plant on Nicola's computer some time... A dark red photo of me with "I Love You" written in large bright letters over the top. :-)
We're going to see a new office for work near Cassington tomorrow. Andrew thought it might be a good idea if we all drive straight there in the morning. That way we can all see if the location's okay for getting to.

Wed Nov 21 2001
Had a couple of mails today from Matthew and Ben James telling me that the project I'd been working on at my previous job had been stopped and that everyone on the team was reassigned. I wonder if it'll trigger off any more resignations.
Went up to the Greyhound for a few drinks with John this evening.

Tue Nov 20 2001
The new Playstation 2 development kits arrived at work this morning, so we no longer have to share just one! :-)
The financial advisor who'd talked to us about the pension scheme came back in today, and I got my application sorted out.
Work email is still being slow. Demon appear to be having major problems with their servers.
Uploaded all of the photos from the weekend.

Mon Nov 19 2001
Drove to work from Brunel this morning. Nicola had bought some lunch for me (a roll and a yoghurt) from the canteen with one of her meal tickets, as she needs to use them up before the end of term.
Demon's mail servers are playing up at the moment, and work email is arriving very slowly. It's quite frustrating!
Nicola found most of the messages I'd hidden in her room over the course of the day. It made her so happy. She thought it was really sweet! :-) And there's still a few she hasn't found yet. :-)
Nicola had a surprise for me too. She'd ordered some heart shaped Hot packs for us both from Firebox, and they arrived in the post today. It's really cool the way the packs work. There's a little metal button inside each one and when you press it, it starts off a chemical reaction that turns the contents of the pack from a liquid to a solid. This process releases heat, and the pack stays warm for about an hour. To reuse them, you place them in boiling water for a while until the solid stuff becomes liquid again. Neat! They should keep our hands nice and warm this winter! :-)
Sorted out the photos from the weekend.

Sun Nov 18 2001
We walked to Syon park today, and visited the London butterfly house and the Aquatic experience.
The butterfly house was really cool. It was great being able to get so close to them, and I got some amazing macro shots. They had other insects and exotic creatures in there as well, and although they were behind glass, I managed to take some fantastic close-ups of these too.
The Aquatic experience was very good. It's an exhibition of endangered species that live in or near water in the tropical regions. They have a large collection of snakes, fish, crocodiles, poisonous frogs, and other amphibians. We wandered around the main section first, where they have all of the animals in glass cases. I got an amazing close-up of one of the crocodiles, as it was resting right up against the glass and I was able to take a photo from just a few centimetres away! I took some fantastic shots of the frogs too. We finished looking round the exhibits just in time to catch the "Animal encounter" show, where we were given an interesting talk from one of the keepers and some hands on experience with some of the animals. Nicola really wanted to hold the Boa Constricter round her neck, so after the show we asked the guy if she could. He was a bit reluctant at first, but in the end he went and fetched it out again for us, so Nicola got to hold it! :-)
We walked back to uni via the London Apprentice where we stopped for a quick drink. When we got to Nicola's room, we looked up showing times for The others and then walked to the cinema in Richmond. The Thames was really high on the way there, and the water had flooded over the bank in some places. Luckily we were able to get all the way to Richmond okay, though we had to turn off the path slightly earlier than usual.
The water had gone down a lot by the time we walked back after the film. When we got in, we cooked pasta for dinner.
After Nicola had gone to sleep tonight, I hid the 28 "I Love You!" notes all around the room.

Sat Nov 17 2001
The weather's been really cloudy recently, and I don't think there's any chance we're going to spot any Leonids. Oh well, maybe next year...
We got up late this morning, and headed into central London to do a bit of shopping. It's Helen's 18th birthday soon, so we bought a few things for her.
We found somewhere to sit down and eat the sandwiches we'd brought with us for lunch, had a few drinks in a pub near Victoria station, and then decided to go and do a bit of sightseeing. It was beginning to get dark by this time, and I wanted to get some shots of London at night.
We walked to Buckingham palace and then on through St James Park (Which had some very cool lighting under some of the trees) to Westminster abbey. We headed past Big Ben, and went over the river to get some shots of the Houses of parliament. We were getting quite thirsty again by this point, so we found a pub on Whitehall and had another drink. Next we walked to Trafalgar square, and then to Cleopatra's needle, before getting the tube back to Richmond.
On the way back to uni we got Chinese from the takeaway.

Fri Nov 16 2001
Drove down to see Nicola after work. Stopped off on the way to buy her some flowers.
We went to Chiquito for dinner tonight.

Thu Nov 15 2001
Another cold morning today and there was even more ice on the car windscreen than yesterday. The temperature outside was -1 on the way to work!
I was so pleased with how cool the night time shots I took last weekend looked, that I decided to take some more this evening. Got quite a few interesting photos of the house and garden in the dark.
I printed out 28 little "I Love You!" notes for Nicola. I'm going to hide them all around her room before I leave for work on Monday morning, so she'll be discovering them throughout the rest of the day! :-)

Wed Nov 14 2001
It was very cold this morning, and I had to spend a while scraping ice off the car windscreen before I left for work.
John was busy tonight and couldn't come to the pub, so I decided to drive down and surprise Nicola in the evening instead. :-)

Tue Nov 13 2001
It's a boy! Andy and Helen had their baby yesterday.
Uploaded a whole load of photos tonight. As well as the night time shots and the photos from Saturday's birthday celebrations, there were the ones of my birthday cake, my birthday meal, and the night out we had a few days before my birthday.

Mon Nov 12 2001
I read today that there's going to be a heavy meteor shower next weekend... The Leonids. I'm hoping it's going to be a clear night. If it is, I'll try and get some cool photos.
My parents' boiler broke down the other day, and it still hasn't been fixed, so the house was quite chilly when I got home. Especially in the kitchen, which is where my computer is set up at the moment. I decided to keep my coat on for most of the evening! :-/
I sorted out the photos from the weekend, but Naomi was using the phone line all night so I didn't get a chance to upload them.

Sun Nov 11 2001
I didn't feel too bad this morning, but I did have a bit of a spinning head. I had a lie in until just before midday, by which time I was feeling much better. Nicola was feeling a lot better today too.
We went to Tesco to buy some food, then came back and cooked cheese and ham on toast for lunch.
In the evening we went for a walk across Richmond lock and down by the side of the Thames for about a mile. By the time we got as far as opposite the London Apprentice, it was getting quite dark. I got some great night time shots of the pub and, on the way back, the lock and the river. I thought it'd be quite cool to take some more night shots, so we headed back to Nicola's room to get a fresh set of batteries for the camera, and then went round the uni grounds taking more photos.
We cooked pasta for dinner, then had some fun with a game Nicola had bought for us both.

Sat Nov 10 2001
Went out in London tonight with some friends to celebrate my birthday. Had a great time. I didn't have to buy a drink all night! :-)
Nicola and I headed into central London late afternoon and arrived at the Slug and Lettuce near Leicester Square around 5:30, where we were supposed to be meeting John, John and Andrew. When we walked in we were quite surprised to see Glen and Giles there. They'd been there watching the football, and were waiting around because Giles was going to a concert later. We chatted with them for a while, then soon after 6:00, John and David arrived, followed shortly by Charles, who was going to the concert with Giles.
Adam rang to say he'd got home late for work and couldn't really make it in time, and there was still no sign of John and Andrew, so at about 6:30 I gave them a ring. John said they'd been delayed, but would be at the pub in about 10 minutes.
We had a few drinks after they arrived, then Giles and Charles left for the concert, and the rest of us headed over to the Moon Under Water in Charing Cross Road for the rest of the night.
I had some very strange drinks bought for me by various people. One of which had quite an interesting consistency! What were those floating bits? Perhaps it's better I don't know! :-)
Nicola's been feeling a little under the weather recently with a cold, and she was beginning to get a bit of a headache soon after 10:00, so we decided to call it a night and head off home.

Fri Nov 09 2001
I phoned Dixons today, as it's been almost a month since I took my Psion in to be repaired. They spent ages trying to find out what had happened to it, and eventually said that it had been returned. I asked them to check to see if it was okay, and the problem hadn't been fixed! They told me they'd send it off again, but they've only got 2 more weeks to get it sorted out, otherwise I'm entitled to a new one under the extended warranty I took out.
Drove down to see Nicola after work. We went to the London Apprentice pub, which overlooks the Thames, for some food and a drink. It was a reasonable day, and the pub was only 3/4 mile away from uni, so we decided to walk there.
We're having a bit of a late birthday celebration out in London tomorrow, and on the way back from the pub I gave Adam a ring to see if he wanted to come. He said he could make it, but he'd be working during the day so he may be a bit late.

Thu Nov 08 2001
I had a meeting at Argonaut today, and it's only 10 miles away from uni so I had an extra 45 minutes in bed! :-) I dropped Nicola off at school at 8:30 and then drove on to the meeting. It took about an hour to get there through the London traffic.
I finished at 3:00 and was back at the school by 4:00 to pick Nicola up again. Back at uni I had a shower. When I got out, Nicola told me the news that her friend Laura had decided to leave her course and would be going home later on in the evening. We went over to the refectory with her and chatted while she had some food, then went out for some food ourselves at Pizza Hut. Laura had just about finished packing when we got back, so we said goodbye before she headed off with her parents.
We made a makeshift double bed to sleep on tonight, using some blankets, duvets and the sleeping bag. It wasn't the softest bed in the world, but it was still reasonably comfortable.

Wed Nov 07 2001
Nicola and I have been together 6 months now! :-)
I left uni at 7:00 this morning so Nicola would think I was going to work, but I'd booked the day off. I had planned to be in Coventry yesterday night and to go shopping there today, but as I was down in London I decided to drive to Bluewater instead.
I spent ages searching for the perfect card for the occasion. When I found it, I wrote her another poem inside. I then thought I'd get her a little gift too, and bought some nice purple lingerie from La Senza. :-) On the way back to Brunel I stopped of at a florist and bought 6 large red roses... One for each month we've been together.
I got changed into my suit in the car when I arrived at the uni car park, and then waited by the stairs in the hall for her to come back from her lecture. She was so surprised when she saw me! :-) I gave her the flowers and the card, and back in her room, she tried on the present. :-)
Later on in the evening we headed over to the cinema to see America's sweethearts.

Tue Nov 06 2001
I surprised Nicola tonight by driving down to see her after work. I waited outside her door for a while. I could hear her inside doing exercises with Laura, and I kept sending her SMS messages giving bigger and bigger hints that I was waiting outside. She realised eventually when I sent her one that said, "Why don't you open the door?" :-)
Nicola had some work to do for her course, so while she did that I designed a spreadsheet for her on her Psion so she can record her weight, see how well she's doing, and get a prediction about when she should reach her target.
Nicola cooked me a really nice cheese and onion omelette for my dinner.

Mon Nov 05 2001
There was a problem with the heating at work today and it was freezing when I got into the office. I had to keep my coat on all morning until it got sorted out!
Let my mum know about our plans for Christmas. As Nicola will be at my parents' on Christmas Day, Mum will need to do an extra Christmas dinner. :-)
I had my Alien island picture made in to a huge A0 poster last year some time, and we thought it would look quite cool on one of the walls in Nicola's room at uni. It's at Coventry at the moment. I think I might pop up there tomorrow to fetch it.

Sun Nov 04 2001
We headed over to Nicola's Dad's for lunch today. Their house extension has progressed a lot since we saw it last, and it's almost complete.
In the evening we headed back to her Mum's for a bit to collect a few more things, then drove back to London. On the way, we discussed what we were going to do for Christmas and where we were going to spend it. We've decided to spend Christmas Day at my parents', and then head down to Kent on Boxing day.
We went to Leisure West and were going to go and see America's sweethearts, but we wanted to have some food too and the show times were awkward, so we decided we'd see the film another time.
We went to Frankie and Benny's to eat. I had the American Hot pizza, and it really was the HOTTEST pizza I've ever tasted!!!

Sat Nov 03 2001
Drove down to Nicola's Mum's today to collect a few more things from her room for uni. While we were there we cooked pasta for ourselves and for Nicola's Mum and Dave.
In the evening we went over to the Conservative club in Gravesend with Nicola's Nan to celebrate her birthday. We had a few drinks and played bingo.

Fri Nov 02 2001

I wrote a poem for Nicola today...

Winter's drawing nearer, The evenings getting dark. But when you're close beside me, It's summer in my heart. The days are getting colder, The frost begins to bite. But you are there to hold me, And warm me through the night. The trees are losing leaves now, Their colour fading fast. But our love is eternal, Forever it will last. There's one thing that's for certain, Something that's strong and true. No matter what the season, Nicola, I Love you. by Jonathan Hunt

I headed into Chipping Norton at lunchtime and bought a nice card. It has a picture on the front of a heart drawn in the sand on a beach with some flowers by the side, and I wrote the poem inside. Nicola's wanted some cute fluffy slippers for ages, and while I was looking round the shops, I found some cool ones in the shape of cats. Tabby cats, just like Izzy. :-) I drove down to see Nicola after work, and gave her the slippers and the card. She really loved both of them. :-) Later on, we headed out to Pizza Hut for dinner.

Thu Nov 01 2001
We had a financial advisor come into the office today to talk to us all about the company pension. It sounds like it's quite a good scheme.
I've booked off my Christmas holiday. My last day at work will be Thursday 21st, and I won't be back until Wednesday 2nd. Over a week and a half! I've also booked off a day for our 6-month anniversary next Wednesday so I can do something special. :-)
I took the bear Nicola gave me for my birthday into work today and put it on top of my monitor. Looks so cute! :-)

Wed Oct 31 2001
It's almost pitch black when I leave work at 5:30 now. The Sapphire Torch I got from Firebox is coming in very handy for getting back to the car park in the dark! :-)
Paul came round this evening to drop off my birthday presents... Some very strong Warp mints, a 3D camera, and the first double part episode of Enterprise.

Tue Oct 30 2001

I won't go I won't sleep I can't breathe Until you're resting here with me I won't leave I can't hide I cannot be Until you're resting here with me

from Here With Me by Dido

Mon Oct 29 2001
After I got in from work this evening, Mum cooked us sweet and sour chicken for dinner. Then we packed up our stuff and Nicola and I headed back down to Brunel.

Sun Oct 28 2001
It's my birthday!!! I'm 25 years old today. Doesn't sound too bad until you realise that it's a quarter of a century! The clocks went back tonight too, so I had a 25-hour 25th birthday! :-)
Nicola gave me my first present just after midnight. ;-) The rest, I opened in the morning. She also got me a model Mini with a clock on the roof, and a cute little bear holding a box full of romantic messages she'd written. Some of the things I got from other people were a new black mobile phone cover, The phantom menace on DVD, glossy photo paper, a couple of printer cartridges, a big tin of Cadbury's Roses and a cake from Barbara.
We went to The Old Barn in Milton Keynes for lunch. It's changed a lot since the last time we went though. It's no longer as old and rustic as it used to be, and they've completely repainted the inside. Fortunately the food was still really good.
On the way back, Dad drove to the place where Naomi's got an interview tomorrow so that she won't have any problems finding it.
Nicola doesn't have any lectures tomorrow, so I asked her to stay another night, and she's agreed! :-) Just before midnight she gave me my final birthday present. :-)

Sat Oct 27 2001
We drove up to Coventry this afternoon to pick up the scales for Nicola and some more of my stuff. We stopped off at Draycote water on the way back for a walk and an ice-cream... The first Mini-Milk I've had since I was a kid! :-)
In the evening we all had takeaway from the Chinese chippy. Nicola and I both had one of their excellent chili burgers.

Fri Oct 26 2001
It's my birthday on Sunday, and we decided to have a bit of an early celebration after work tonight. I'd arranged to meet Paul and Vikki at their place first, and John said he'd meet us in the pub later with a few friends. I tried to get hold of Adam during the day, but I didn't get through until late afternoon. He'd just come back from his holiday in America, and although he was quite tired, he said he'd join us anyway.
He came down to our house first, and he'd brought me some presents back from his trip. Some chocolate casino chips, a car registration plate, and a huge bottle of Bacardi!
Dad gave us a lift over to Paul and Vikki's, then we walked the rest of the way into town. We went to Wetherspoons first, where John was supposed to be, but there was no sign of him when we got there. We had a drink, and waited for him. He turned up about 10 minutes later with a couple of friends.
The drinks were very cheap in Wetherspoons. Just over a pound a pint, and they were doing special offers on bottles and doubles too, so we decided to stay there until closing time. John bought me the, now traditional, birthday cement mixer, and we had a great night. :-)
We were feeling a little hungry after we left the pub, so we headed to the Up All Night burger place for some food. Nicola and I shared an Ostrich burger... One of their specialities. Tasted quite good. Though I'm not sure if that was just because we were drunk! :-)
Shared a taxi back home with Adam.

Thu Oct 25 2001
Got up and said goodbye to Nicola this morning, then headed off to work. When I got to the Radford crossroads, I saw Rich, Juan and Di's cars parked on the grass, and as I turned the corner I saw why... Two cars had collided head on with each other and were completely blocking the single track road. I reversed back to the crossroads, parked on the side of the road, and walked the remaining third of a mile to the office.
By lunchtime the accident had gone. Rich gave me, Scott and Nik a lift to the garage to get some lunch, and on the way back dropped me off at my car so that I could drive it to the office car park.
Nicola and I went up to the Greyhound in the evening for a meal and a few drinks.

Wed Oct 24 2001
Drove down to pick Nicola up from Brunel after work. Packed up all the things she'll need for the rest of the week, then we headed straight back to Northampton. Got in at around 9:30, which wasn't too bad.
We were starving by the time we got in though, so cooked some nice spicy chicken with potato wedges.

Tue Oct 23 2001
The traffic was really good again today. I love half term! :-) There weren't any hold ups this morning, and I got to work on time. They've opened a bit of the new dual carriageway, but they're only using one side of it for both lanes of traffic, so it isn't any faster just yet.
I downloaded a modem driver for my mobile this evening. It lets me use the phone as an infrared modem, so I'll be able to go online even if someone else is using the phone line. :-)
I've decided what I want Nicola to do for my SnakeII prize. I've asked her to come up and stay with me tomorrow and stop until the end of the weekend! I'll be picking her up tomorrow, and I can't wait! It'll be fantastic spending so much time with her!

Mon Oct 22 2001
Drove back to work from Brunel this morning. It's half term at the moment and the traffic was really good, so I actually got to the office 10 minutes early! :-)
I thought I wouldn't hear anything from Nicola while I was at work, but her Internet connection came back up during the day so she was able to send me email. :-)

Sun Oct 21 2001
I beat Nicola's high score on SnakeII today. I got 1560! :-) Now I've just got to decide what I want her to do for me for my prize. She said she'd do anything, so I'm gonna have to think about it carefully. :-)
We went to the supermarket in the afternoon and bought some potatoes, onions and some nice sausages. Then came back and made bangers and mash with onion gravy. Mmmmm! :-)
We were going to go for a drink at the union in the evening, but when we got down there, we found that it was shut. We headed back to the hall and had a few drinks in Laura's room instead while we watched City of angels on TV.

Sat Oct 20 2001
Nicola's Mum came to visit her at uni today. We drove out to the Leisure West entertainment complex and had a meal with her at Frankie and Benny's.
Nicola had quite a lot of work to do for her course this afternoon, so after her Mum had gone, she got on with that, and I played around with my Psion for a bit. The Internet connection in Nicola's room has been broken for a while, so I fiddled around and got the Psion connecting through my mobile phone.
Had Chinese takeaway in evening.

Fri Oct 19 2001
Had the day off work today and we decided to go shopping in Oxford Street. We started off at Tottenham Court Road tube station and walked all the way down to Marble Arch. We had some food at KFC, then worked our way back again. Nicola bought a cool CD rack and a tall thin frosted glass to use as a vase, and I treated her to half a little something from La Senza.
After we'd finished shopping we had a few drinks in the Moon Under Water, then headed back home via the off-licence to get some Archers and lemonade.
In the evening we went to the union for a while with Laura, Laura and Darren. We all had a few games on the Hangman machine, and Nicola and I tested out our arm wresting skills. :-)
When we got back to Nicola's room, we had some Archers and lemonade, and a few Sidekicks, then Nicola tried on her new outfit. :-)

Thu Oct 18 2001
Someone from Australia calling themselves Kyobona left a really strange entry in my guestbook yesterday. Something about there not being any Pokémon, DBZ or Digimon on my website. Very odd!
Headed down to see Nicola after work. Stopped off on the way to buy her some flowers. We went looking for the El Torito resturant again, but we still don't know where it is! Ended up going back to Chiquito.
The Orgasmatron arrived yesterday, and we gave it a try out when we got back from the resturant. Mmmmm... it really is good! :-)
Just before we went to bed, I surprised Nicola with the news that I'd booked tomorrow off.

Wed Oct 17 2001

And when somebody knows you well Well there's no comfort like that And when somebody needs you Well there's no drug Like that So keep me, keep me In your bed all day, all day Nothing heals me like you do Keep me, keep me In your bed all day, all day Nothing heals me like you do And where I'm home, curled in your arms And I'm safe again I'll close my eyes and sleep, sleep To the sound of London Rain So keep me, keep me In your bed all day, all day Nothing heals me like you do Keep me, keep me In your bed all day, all day Nothing heals me like you do Nothing heals me like you do

from London Rain by Heather Nova

Tue Oct 16 2001
Found an interesting item on Firebox today... A head massager called the Orgasmatron. They say it's deeply relaxing and it gives you an intensely pleasant shivering sensation. Sounds like fun! :-) Decided to order one as a surprise for Nicola.
I also thought it'd be nice to have a long weekend this week, so I've booked Friday off work.

Mon Oct 15 2001
The weather was still very wet this morning. George, a bear Nicola gave me, and I got quite soaked on the way to the uni car park! On the drive to work I dried George out by perching him on top of the suitcase in front of the passenger seat so that the warm air from the air vent could blow over him.
Made another Forever Friends picture message and sent it to Nicola this evening.

Sun Oct 14 2001
Nicola got a really high SnakeII score on her phone today, and she's challenged me to beat it. If I get more than 1536, she says she'll do anything I want! :-)
We planned to go somewhere for a picnic this afternoon, and went and bought some food from Sainsbury's, but by the time we got back to the house, the weather had turned wet and miserable, so we had the picnic inside instead. :-) Watched some episodes of Friends while we ate.
In the evening we drove down to Brunel. Cooked pasta for dinner.

Sat Oct 13 2001
Gave Dad his presents this morning. After he'd finished unwrapping everything, he put the CD on and listened to it for a bit. He seems to like it. :-)
Nicola and I took Naomi's old bed up to the tip late morning in Dad's car, and while we were up there, she stayed back at home and washed my car. :-)
Early afternoon we drove up to Coventry and dropped my car in at the Toyota garage to have the ventilation system fixed. Ever since they fitted the satellite navigation, I haven't been able to turn the air vent selection dial all the way round, as if some cables had got tangled up with something somewhere. It didn't take them too long to fix, and we waited in the garage while they sorted it out.
I've also had a problem with my Psion recently too. I think the U key is stuck down... The keyboard locks up completely when you turn it on, you have to do a soft reset to be able to do anything with it at all, and then, you can't use the letter U. It's as if it already thinks the key is being pressed. After the car had been done, we drove into the centre of Coventry and took the Psion back to Dixons to be repaired.
In the evening we popped out to the supermarket to get some stuff, then cooked Chicken Tonight, and watched Go on DVD.

Fri Oct 12 2001
There was a fire drill in Nicola's hall this morning. I had just started to get up at around 7:00 when the alarm went off, and it was very loud! We threw on some clothes and headed down to the assembly point, and then waited around for about 5 to 10 minutes before they let us back inside. I finished getting dressed properly, then drove up to work.
It's Dad's birthday tomorrow, and we had a meal at Frankie and Benny's this evening to celebrate. The table was booked for 6:45 and the plan was to pick Nicola up from Northampton station at 6:30 and then drive over to the restaurant. There was a mix up with the trains though, and she ended up on one that didn't stop at Northampton, so I had to head over to Milton Keynes to collect her. We were slightly late for the meal, but only by about 10 minutes or so.
When we got home later, we all helped Dad to eat his birthday cake. :-)

Thu Oct 11 2001
Thought I'd give Nicola a surprise tonight and drove down to see her straight after work. She wasn't expecting me at all and had just finished cooking something for herself when I arrived. I had planned to take her somewhere for a meal and wondered if we'd have to do something else instead, but she said the food would keep and she'd eat it for lunch tomorrow so we could still go out tonight.
We headed over to Richmond and tried to find the El Torito, but we drove round and round for ages without any luck. We decided to give up in the end, and headed back to the first Chiquito instead.

Wed Oct 10 2001
Went over to John's in the evening after work. We had Chinese from the takeaway, and then chatted for a bit, until about 9:00 when I headed back home.
Talked to Nicola on the phone for the rest of the evening.

Tue Oct 09 2001
Found a website today with some cool Forever Friends picture messages on it. Transferred a few of them to my phone so I can send them to Nicola later. :-)
While I was looking up Chiquito restaurants the other day, I found another nearby Mexican place, El Torito, in Richmond. Thought we might try it out some time, so I've put the address in my car.
Found out that you can put new-line characters in SMS messages that you send with LogoManager. This means you can make simple flick-book style animated messages using 4 new-line characters to separate the frames. Designed a nice romantic one and sent it to Nicola. :-)

Mon Oct 08 2001

If you want, then start to laugh If you must, then start to cry Be yourself, don't hide Just believe in destiny Don't care what people say Just follow your own way Don't give up, and use the chance To return to innocence

from Return To Innocence by Enigma

Sun Oct 07 2001
Spent most of today over in Kent. We went to Safeway first to do a bit of food shopping, then headed up to Nicola's Mum's. Nicola put a big load of laundry on, and we chatted to her Mum while it was washing. Then, after it had finished and she'd hung it up to dry, we headed over to her Dad's for a bit. We had some food, and picked up a spare Network card her Dad had, which he said she could have to connect her computer up to the network point in her room.
We popped back to her Mum's in the evening to pick up the washing, and then drove to uni. When we got back, I fitted the network card and set up the computer for Internet access. And a nice fast connection it is too! :-)

Sat Oct 06 2001
We were going to go to Kew Gardens today, but it was a little dull and wet, so we decided to do some shopping in Oxford Street instead. We caught a bus to Richmond, then took the tube into central London.
Dad's birthday is next week, so I bought a few presents for him. A CD he said he wanted... Natural Elements by Acoustic Alchemy, and a book about the TV series Survivor. We also bought the new Heather Nova album, South, for ourselves. :-) We had a few drinks and a bite to eat in the Moon Under Water, then headed back to uni.
We went to the second closest Chiquito for food this evening, as it isn't much further away than the one we went to yesterday, and we thought it'd be worth checking out too. I don't think we'll be going back there again though. It took them absolutely ages to seat us, they put us in a smoking section when we specifically asked for non-smoking and then couldn't move us because the restaurant was too full, and to top it all, they got our order wrong! Some good did come out of it though... I complained to the manager and got 50% taken off the bill. :-)

Fri Oct 05 2001
Drove down to Nicola's after work. I decided to take her to the Chiquito I looked up yesterday, but wanted to surprise her, so I blindfolded her until we arrived. :-) When we got inside Chiquito we found that they had a 30 minute wait for a table, so we decided to try somewhere else. The restaurant's on quite a big entertainment complex, with a cinema, a Pizza Hut, and a Frankie and Benny's. We decided to try Pizza Hut, and got a table almost straight away.

Thu Oct 04 2001
Looked up where the closest Chiquito to uni is today, and it isn't too far at all... About 4 miles away. I think we might pay it a visit over the weekend. :-)
I've been playing Pontifex loads and finished the demo version fairly quickly. It really is great fun, and as the full version's only $20, I decided to order it this afternoon.

Wed Oct 03 2001
Nik showed me a demo version of a cool bridge building game called Pontifex today. You get given a limited amount of cash with which you can buy materials to build a bridge over a river. When you've finished construction, a train makes a number of passes across the bridge, and if the bridge is strong enough to support the train, you move on to the next level. A simple idea, but very well implemented, and I warn you, it can get quite addictive! :-)
Headed over to Chipping Norton at lunchtime. I bought a London A-Z which I thought might come in handy now that Nicola's living there, and a small wooden photo frame so I can have another photo of her on my desk.
In the evening I went up to the Greyhound with John for a few drinks. We found a nice spot in front of the open log fire, but half way through the evening we were asked to move as the two of us were taking up quite a large table, and they had a big party of people they wanted to seat for food. The bar man gave us both a free pint for our trouble! :-)
Printed out a picture of Nicola to go in the wooden frame when I got back, then chatted to her on the phone for the rest of the evening.

Tue Oct 02 2001
The Heather Nova "I'm no angel" DVD arrived today, and it's really cool! Although a few bits of it are in German, luckily most of the menus and things are in English. :-) It's a DVD on one side and a normal audio CD on the other, so you can play it in normal CD players too!
LogoManager has an RTTTL editor (Ringing Tones Text Transfer Language), and lets you transfer the tunes via the infrared, so I've been playing around with my own ring tones for a bit tonight. Made a really nice annoying siren tone! :-)

Mon Oct 01 2001
Drove Nicola to school in the morning, then headed on to work. She was a bit worried about how she was going to manage to get there every week, as it's quite a distance from the university, but she found out on her way home this evening that she'd been sent to the wrong school, and that the school she was supposed to be at was only just down the road from her room!
Glen came into work for an interview today. I picked him up from Charlbury station early afternoon, and dropped him back at the station again after the interview. He seemed to like the place, and it'd be quite cool if he ends up working with us.
Zebby passed away today. :-(

Sun Sep 30 2001
We got up about midday. Mum and Dad had gone out, so Nicola and I cooked for ourselves.
Did lots of Danger mouse related stuff this afternoon. Searched around and found a few images which I used to make a Danger mouse logo for Nicola's phone, and managed to work out how to use Sibelius to reduce the theme tune midi file down to a single track, so she now has a Danger mouse ring tone on her phone too! :-)
When we drove back to uni this evening, we went and found the school that Nicola's going to be doing her teaching placement in, and book marked it in the satellite navigation system so that we'll be able to find it easily on her first day there tomorrow. We also popped into the 24-hour BP Safeway garage to pick up some food. We wanted some chicken, but they didn't have any so we had to make do with turkey. When we got back we cooked honey and mustard turkey tonight. ;-)
Had a nice mug of hot chocolate before bed.

Sat Sep 29 2001
We got up fairly late morning and headed over to the supermarket to get some things for Nicola for next week... Some onions, mushrooms and pasta sauce.
In the afternoon we drove over to Draycote water. We got an ice-cream, then walked a little way around the reservoir. We decided that we'd stop off at my parents' tonight, and tried to phone them to let them know we'd be coming. Had a little trouble with the phones though. The first couple of times I rang using my mobile, I could hear my Dad, but he couldn't hear me. Then we tried with Nicola's phone, but had the same problem. We thought it might be a problem with my parents' phone, so we tried ringing Naomi's mobile, but that didn't seem to solve the problem. We both sent her a text, but we got no receipts back. Even walking to the top of the hill near the car park to try and improve reception didn't help. In the end we decided to just set off to Milton, and rang them when we were half way back. By this time, the connection problems had mysteriously disappeared!
We had Chinese for dinner tonight. Naomi drove us to the takeaway in her new red Nissan Micra. Later on, Nicola and I went to see A.I. at the cinema.

Fri Sep 28 2001
Drove down to work from Coventry today. We all went to the pub at lunchtime, and Andrew treated everyone to a drink! :-)
After work I drove back up to Coventry, and Nicola and I had an evening in... We watched a few episodes of Friends, then ordered a pizza from Domino's and watched The matrix on DVD.

Thu Sep 27 2001
Had a very sore throat this morning. Luckily I still had some of the strong throat lozenges left from the last time my throat was bad, which helped a lot.
Dropped the car off at the garage at 8:00, and was given another Yaris as a courtesy car for the day. An almost brand new dark green one with only 900 miles on the clock.
Felt a little ill when I got to work. My sore throat had gone, but I had cold symptoms all day. Rich gave me some Actifed tablets, which helped a little, but they weren't non-drowsy, so I felt sleepy for most of the day.
Late afternoon I rang up the Toyota garage and they said the satellite navigation system had been fitted okay. I left work a little early, at 4:45, and headed back to Coventry to pick up my car. It feels good to finally have everything back the same way as it was in the old car. :-)
Drove down to see Nicola. Stopped off at Tesco on the way and bought a bag of doughnuts and a party pack of Sidekicks as it had a couple of the new orange flavour ones in it.
We went out for a meal at Pizza Hut, then spent the rest of the evening back at uni. Just before midnight we drove up to Coventry.

Wed Sep 26 2001
We were paid by cheque again this month. The BACS system still hasn't been sorted out yet. Drove to Chipping Norton at lunchtime with Nik and Juan to pay them into the bank.
Headed over to John's after work for a curry. Then drove up to Coventry (Via my parents' house to pick up my hands free kit), as I'm dropping my new car off at the Toyota garage tomorrow to have the satellite navigation system fitted.
Spent the rest of the evening talking on the phone to Nicola.

Tue Sep 25 2001
Heather Nova's released her "I'm no angel" single on DVD, but nowhere in the UK seems to be selling it, so this evening I ordered a copy from Amazon Germany.
I also had a mail from one of the guys who left a message in the guestbook last week about the Heather Nova concert we went to. He said he knew someone who had a bootleg of the concert and asked if I'd be interested in getting a copy too. I certainly would! It'd be so cool to have a recording of the actual concert we went too! :-)

Mon Sep 24 2001
I drove to work from the university this morning. I thought I'd left myself plenty of time, but there was a traffic jam on the A40 just outside Oxford, and I arrived at work about 20 minutes late.
Made Nicola a separate guestbook for her online diary tonight. Also played around with LogoManager a bit more and discovered that it can convert simple midi files into ring tones! Thought I'd try and make Nicola a Danger mouse ring tone, so I found a midi file of the theme tune, and tried to use Sibelius on my Dad's PC to simplify it down to a single track. I wasn't really sure how to use Sibelius though, and it was getting late, so I decided to leave it for another time.

Sun Sep 23 2001
Nicola's Mum was a little angry this morning because someone had used her 3 to 2 pin mains adaptor and she couldn't find it. I'd been using it last weekend and hadn't put it back, but she blamed Nicola. Things got a little heated, and Nicola got really upset and rushed out. She didn't even stop to put her socks and shoes on. By the time I'd got downstairs and outside, there was no sign of her.
I was really worried. :-( I quickly grabbed her socks and shoes, and started walking around all the nearby streets looking for her. There was no sign of her anywhere, and after a while I decided I might have more luck driving around, so I headed back to the house, jumped in the car and continued searching.
I drove around for what seemed like hours, but still couldn't find her. :-( Eventually I got a call from Nicola's Mum to tell me that she'd arrived home safely. I was SO relieved, and rushed back to see her. She spent quite a while talking with her Mum, and eventually they patched things up.
We'd been invited over to her Dad's for dinner, and headed over there at about 1:00 to eat, but came back later on in the afternoon to do some more sorting out in Nicola's room.
Early evening, we drove back to uni. We thought we'd try and find the Pizza Hut in Hounslow, but couldn't see it anywhere. We found a 24-hour BP Safeway garage though, and Nicola bought some supplies for next week. We stopped off at the chippy on the way back to get something for dinner, and after eating, had a nice evening drinking Archers and relaxing. :-)

Sat Sep 22 2001
We got up late morning and headed over to Nicola's Mum's. We stopped off on the way to get some lunch at the Wimpy in Clacket Lane services, and at Bluewater to do a bit of shopping. We bought the two different "I'm no angel" CD singles by Heather Nova, a 3 to 2 pin mains adaptor for my shaver, and a couple of mobile phone holders which we saw and thought looked pretty cool... They're made of transparent plastic in the shape of a hand and they light up and flash just before you get an incoming call or SMS. :-)
We did some more sorting out in Nicola's room in the afternoon, and in the evening, drove over to The Hollywood bowl for dinner. It wasn't long after we'd arrived at the restaurant that I realised I hadn't got my wallet with me. I was sure I'd picked it up before we left the house, but I couldn't find it anywhere! I searched the car, asked the restaurant staff if it had been handed in, phoned Nicola's Mum and asked her to look round the house for it, but it had just vanished! Nicola had some money with her so we decided we'd still have a meal, then we had another good look around for it when we got back to the house. I was just about to give up and phone up to cancel all my cards, but had one last look in the car... and found it!!! Phew... It turned up in one of the pockets to the side of the dash, and had been hidden by some CD cases. I was very relieved! :-)
Nicola gave me a nice long massage to help me unwind, and we spent the rest of the night relaxing together.

Fri Sep 21 2001
I phoned up Gadgets Galore today to tell them that my LogoManager software hadn't arrived. They said that a registration code to unlock the demo version should have been mailed to me, but it turned out that they'd got my email address wrong so it'd got lost. I gave them my address again and double-checked that they'd got it right this time.
Later on in the day the registration code arrived, so I unlocked the software and played around with it for a bit. One of the really cool things it does is let you send flashing SMS messages! I sent a flashing "I Love You!" to Nicola. :-)
After work I drove down to uni. I stopped off at the service station on the way to get changed into my suite and to buy some flowers. Nicola was really impressed by the suit! :-) She'd dressed up for me too, and was wearing her little orange dress when I arrived. :-)
We relaxed in her room for a bit, then decided we were feeling a little hungry so we cooked some pasta for dinner.
As well as the suit and the flowers, I brought a few other surprises down with me for her... The framed Alien island picture, two photos of us together (Which I'd put in some nice frames she hadn't been using), and a copy of one of the games industry trade magazines (Which had my picture in it in the recent movers section). :-)

Thu Sep 20 2001
Nicola guessed "T" first thing this morning...

I'_ _oi__ to ____ __ s_it.

For most of the day Andrew and Rich were over at Bicester, checking out one of the new offices we might be moving to soon. They said we could pop along and see it for ourselves whenever was convenient, so just before lunch I headed over there and had a look. It really is nice and much more spacious than our current place.
I then drove up to Banbury to see if I could find Nicola any cute fluffy slippers, but couldn't find any anywhere. On the way back to work I remembered that the new Heather Nova single was out. I'd forgotten to look in HMV for it, so in the evening, I rushed back to Banbury to try and get there before it shut. I'd had a look on their website and it said that they shut at 6:00, but I needn't have rushed as, when I got there, I found out that they actually close at 5:30. :-(
My infrared adaptor has arrived! :-) It came with it's own phone interface software so I was able to have a little play around with it, but there was no sign of the LogoManager software, which is what I actually wanted to use. I'll have to chase it up tomorrow.
Printed out another sunset picture for Nicola. While we were talking on the phone tonight, she managed to guess what her surprise for Friday would be...

I'm going to wear my suit.

Wed Sep 19 2001
Nicola was still a little bit ill this morning. She had a few meetings to go to, and I didn't want her to be on her own, so I phoned Andrew and asked him for the morning off to stay with her. I walked her over to where she had the first meeting, and once she'd gone in and I knew she was OK, I headed back to her room.
I noticed that some of the very black sections of the sunset picture were stuck up against the inside of the glass where they'd been pressed by the back of the frame, causing patches of dark on the image. I tried to pull the picture away from the glass, but unfortunately some of the ink was stuck on too firmly and got separated from the paper leaving some marks where the white of the paper was showing through. They're quite noticeable so I'll have to print another copy of it for her.
Went back to meet Nicola after the meeting. She was feeling a little better and we thought it might be a good idea for her to try eating something, so we had some food in the refectory. After her second meeting, we headed back to her room and I felt happy enough about how she was feeling, so I headed off to work. Got there by about 1:00.
I drove back to see her in the evening and thankfully she was feeling much better. We cooked some pasta for dinner, and she picked "O" for the clue...

I'_ _oi__ _o ____ __ s_i_.

Tue Sep 18 2001
Nicola guessed "S" for the hangman clue today...

I'_ __i__ __ ____ __ s_i_.

I drove to Chipping Norton at lunchtime to get a couple of frames for the pictures I printed yesterday. Went back to WHSmith and bought two of the same type as the one I put the tulips picture in.
I popped into the newsagents while I was there too, and happened to notice that they were selling a strange looking brand of crisps called "Jonathan Crisp" crisps. Since they share the same name as me and as one of the flavours was jalapeno pepper, I just had to buy a packet! Mmmmmm :-)
Nicola was feeling very ill this evening and after chatting to her on the phone for a bit after I got in from work, decided to drive down to see her. I put the sunset picture in one of the frames before I left and took it with me. She really liked it and it seemed to cheer her up a bit. :-)

Mon Sep 17 2001
I ordered an infrared adapter today from Gadgets Galore so that I can hook my phone up to the computer and transfer the address book, logos, ring tones, etc. They have a special offer on at the moment, selling the adapter and LogoManager software together for £40.
I'm going to surprise Nicola on Friday and wear my suit when I go down to see her. :-) I've given her a hangman clue to see if she can work out what the surprise is before then, and told her that she can guess one letter per day. She picked "I" today...

I'_ __i__ __ ____ __ __i_.

I'm also going to frame a few more of my POV-Ray pictures for her, so I printed out Ocean sunset and Alien island on nice glossy paper this evening.

Sun Sep 16 2001
Today was Nicola's first day at Brunel. We finished all of the last minute packing in the morning and loaded everything into her Mum's car. Then, before setting off, we had lunch... Her Mum cooked a lovely sausage casserole with some of the nice sausages we'd bought yesterday. :-)
The traffic on the motorway was really good so it didn't take too long to get there... Just over an hour. We were following her Mum and Jo (One of her Mum's friends who'd come along to keep her company on the trip) to start with, as they knew the way. After a while we decided we could find it on our own, and thought it might be a good idea to get there first and get the keys sorted out, so we sped off! :-)
We found the place OK, and after parking the car, followed the signs to the building where the registrations were being done. Nicola collected her keys and sorted out the admin things, then her Mum phoned to say they'd arrived, so we headed back to the car park to meet them.
We all picked up some stuff from the car and headed up to her room. And a very nice room it is too! Much bigger than mine was when I was at uni, and nice and conveniently located right opposite one of the toilets. Handy for those middle-of-the-night trips! :-) We finished moving all the stuff from the car, then went to the Students Union cafe for a cup of tea before Nicola's Mum and Jo left.
Back in the room, I set up Nicola's computer and helped her unpack her stuff. It took quite some time to get it all sorted out and it was thirsty work, so when we'd finished, we went to the Union for a drink, then came back and made use of the hall's kitchen facilities to cook some pasta as we were also quite hungry! :-)
Spent the rest of the evening with Nicola, then headed back to Milton just before midnight.

Sat Sep 15 2001
We went shopping in Chatham this afternoon to look for a present for Steve's birthday and found a couple of CDs he should like. I also bought myself a new pair of black jeans as my old pair have a hole at the back that's gradually getting bigger and bigger! :-)
After doing all our shopping, we had KFC for lunch, and then headed back home to do some more packing for uni.
In the evening we went over to The Bull and had a meal with Steve and his family for his birthday.

Fri Sep 14 2001
We got up around lunchtime and headed down to Safeway to get some essentials... bread, bacon, sausages and Archers. :-)
We spent most of the afternoon and evening packing and sorting out all of the University forms and documentation, but we had a bit of a break at the end of the day and headed over to Chiquito for some food.

Thu Sep 13 2001
Nicola was feeling a little ill tonight, and after speaking to her on the phone for a bit after I'd got back from work, decided to go down and see her. I phoned Andrew to book Friday off and after quickly packing a few things, headed down to Kent.
We chatted for a bit on the phone as I was driving down. I wasn't sure how well the hands free kit would work in terms of background noise when driving, but it's very good... Much better than I'd expected.
I took the passport photos I'd printed out with me, one of which will go in the frame she bought me back from Holland, and the framed printout of the tulips picture, which she really loved! :-)
I was quite hungry by the time I got down there, so Nicola made me some nice cheese on toast with garlic and pepper sauce, and a toasted sandwich in the sandwich maker with cheese, onion and ham. Mmmmmm! :-)

Wed Sep 12 2001
I went back to Banbury again today, and this time I had my driving licence with me, which was one of the things Carphone warehouse said they could accept. I reminded them about the free phone offer they'd made me yesterday, but the guy I'd spoken to yesterday wasn't in and they said they'd need to see proof of the offer. After speaking to him on the phone they found out that it was a deal in one of the papers and went out the back to try and find it. They eventually found it in the bin! So they gave me my free phone! :-)
I also wanted a car charger, which cost about £11, and I took out their insurance package which came with a £10 discount voucher for the charger, so I got the phone and a car charger for a pound! :-)
I charged the phone on the way back to the office so I could play with it for a bit, and then fully charged it from the mains during the afternoon. The phone was working fine, but it had limited functionality while I waited for the sim update message. I couldn't send normal text messages but I could send picture messages, so I sent a flying heart to Nicola! :-)
I eventually got the sim update but no more options appeared. I rang Orange to ask them about it and also to ask them to enable data calls for use with my Psion. They told me that data calls were enabled by default so that would be fine, and that the extra options would appear if I turned my phone off and back on again. I also made sure that my bills would be paid by direct debit.
I drove to Johns' straight from work and we had Chinese. I stayed over there most of the evening until Nicola gave me a call on my mobile. I told her I was still there, but I'd leave so we could have a chat. I headed home, put the hands free kit in to try it out and then tried to ring her back. It looks like I'll only be able to use my phone upstairs as it seems very difficult to get a signal downstairs unless I'm right by the window!

Tue Sep 11 2001
I went to Banbury at lunchtime today to try and get a phone again. I thought the bank might be able to print me out something on headed paper to use as proof of address, but they didn't have any. All they could do was print my details out on plain paper, which Mobile phones direct wouldn't accept. They suggested I could try the Carphone warehouse and see if it was acceptable there. Carphone warehouse were slightly more expensive, but I asked if they would price match. The guy serving me went out the back to check, and came back to say that they would price match an offer in one of the papers and I'd get the phone for free! :-) Then I explained the situation about the proof of address and he said he couldn't accept anything I had with me. :-/ I said I might be back later.
During the afternoon I heard about the horrific attack on the World Trade Centre in New York City. One of the guys at work was informed about it in a mail from a friend. We then managed to get a signal on one of the TVs so we could watch the news and keep up to date with the events as they unfolded.
A shocking day for the whole world...

Mon Sep 10 2001
I drove to work straight from Nicola's again today. The traffic was really bad this morning and it took about 3 hours to get there!
I thought it would be nice to print out my tulips picture on glossy paper and frame it as a present for Nicola. I headed into Chipping Norton at lunchtime to see if I could find a frame, and found a nice natural wood one in WHSmith. I also popped into the florist to see if they had any real tulips to go with the picture, but they told me it wasn't the season for them.
In the evening I printed out the tulips picture, and a couple of sheets full of passport photo sized pictures of Nicola as she needs loads of them to register for things in preparation for University. It's a lot cheaper for me to print some than going to a photo booth, and they look just as good.

Sun Sep 09 2001
We had a very long lie in today, and didn't really get up until early afternoon. I set up PsiWin on Nicola's computer and showed her how to do backups of the Psion.
In the evening we headed back to the cinema. It was a little less busy today and we watched Scary movie 2.

Sat Sep 08 2001
Nicola's starting University next week, so today we went with her Mum on a big shopping trip to get loads of things like saucepans and cutlery, and food to get her through the first week.
In evening we headed down to Medway Valley Park. The plan was to have some food and maybe go to the cinema, but when we got down there everywhere was busy, so we decided to have a night in instead. We ordered a pizza and hired out Maybe baby from the video shop.

Fri Sep 07 2001
Nicola's back from her holiday! :-) I drove down to Kent after work to meet her. She'd said that she didn't know exactly when she'd be back and didn't know if she'd be at her Mum's or her Dad's. As her Dad's place was closest, I headed there first.
I arrived around 9:00, but no one was in, so, after waiting around for a while, I headed over to her Mum's place to see if she was there instead. Her Mum told me that she'd phoned to say they'd be there shortly and that I was to wait there for her. While I was waiting I helped her Mum and Dave eat their pizza as I was starving! :-)
Shortly after, Nicola, her Dad, Caroline and Helen arrived, and they all stopped for coffee and a chat. Nicola's bought me back a nice picture frame with dolphins on it and some After Eight mints. :-) I think I'll put the picture frame on my desk at work with a picture of her in it. :-)

Thu Sep 06 2001
I went back to one of the mobile phone shops in Banbury today to try and buy a Nokia 8210 on the Orange everyday 50 contract, but the only proof of address I had with me was some of the paperwork from the Toyota garage, and they said they couldn't accept that. I'll need to go back at some point with one of my bank statements.
Nicola tried to ring me again tonight, but my sister was using the Internet at the time, so she couldn't get through. When my sister did eventually go offline, the phone rang almost straight away and Nicola gave me the phone number of the payphone she was using so I could ring her back. When I tried it though, I couldn't get through. I rang the operator, but she couldn't help me either. I knew she might have her mobile with her, and rang that, but got diverted to her landline, and her Mum answered. I explained the situation, and her Mum happened to mention that she'd received a text message from Nicola's Dad, so I knew then that he must have his mobile with him. I asked her Mum for his number and tried ringing that. There was no answer, and eventually I got diverted to the answer phone. I left a message, then rang Nicola's Mum back and asked her to send him a text message too. Then, just on the off chance that someone might answer this time, I rang his mobile again... And got a reply! I think I must have woken him up, and he said he thought Nicola was in bed too, but he went to check, and I did get to talk to her for a few minutes! :-) It was costing me about £1/min though and her dad was getting charged 50p/min, so we kept it brief, but it was really great to hear from her again! :-)

Wed Sep 05 2001
I had a really nice surprise today. Nicola rang me up at work from Holland! :-) She couldn't talk long as it was quite expensive and she didn't have much money, but we had a bit of a chat, and it was so good to hear her voice again. :-)

Tue Sep 04 2001
I went to Banbury at lunchtime today and spent a while looking round all the mobile phone shops. I'm thinking about getting an Orange everyday 50 contract like Nicola, so when she's at Uni we'll be able to talk to each other for just over an hour and a half per day for free. I've got my eye on one of the small Nokia 8210 handsets. :-)

Mon Sep 03 2001
A few of us from work went to ECTS today. Nik, Brian and Di made their own way down by train. Juan and I got a lift down with Rich in his car. We parked in an NCP car park near Bond Street tube station, and caught a train on the Jubilee line to Canning Town. Here, we got on the Docklands Light Railway and travelled a couple of stops to the show, which was being held at ExCeL this year.
We arrived just after midday, and after meeting up with Nick and Di, went and bought some sandwiches for lunch. We split up and all looked round the show separately. It was nowhere near as good as last year. There were no really interesting games, and nothing stood out as being particularly revolutionary. After about an hour and a half we decided we'd seen everything we wanted to see, and Juan, Rich, and I met back at the entrance and headed back to work.
When I got back to Coventry in the evening, I packed up all my stuff into the car, and drove down to Northampton.
Web Hoster have fixed their mail server, and my email is working again now! :-) They sent me a quick message to let me know it was all sorted out, and to apologise for the inconvenience caused.

Sun Sep 02 2001
I updated the website stats this morning and noticed that it was only generating information for today. When I checked the log directory I found out what the problem was... The old access log had been gzipped up and a new one started. I thought this might happen at some point, as mine was getting huge! Luckily Wusage can cope with multiple log files, and what's even better is that it can cope with gzipped files too, so all I had to do to fix the stats was to change one line in the configuration file. :-)
Web Hoster's mail server is broken. Since this afternoon it's been rejecting all mail sent to it with an unknown user error, so none of my email is getting through! :-( It's not even queuing it up, which wouldn't be so bad. It's simply rejecting messages. :-( I've left a message with their technical support department, and hopefully it'll get sorted out soon.

Sat Sep 01 2001
I dropped my old car off at the Toyota garage first thing this morning, and they gave me a Corolla as a courtesy car to drive until my new one was ready.
I headed back home and did some website updating. I uploaded the macro shots I took in Shorne Wood country park the other day, and the boomerang photos which had been hiding away in a directory on my desktop and forgotten about.
I got a mail from Nicola today! Wheee! :-) She'd found an Internet machine near where she was staying, and managed to send me a quick message. :-)
The Toyota garage rang me in the afternoon to say that they'd swapped the CD player over OK, but that they couldn't swap the satellite navigation system over until they'd got some new manuals, as apparently the wiring system has changed since my old car was built, and they're not sure how to do it. They said I could have the new car now, and take it back when they're ready to fit the navigation system, so at 4:00 I drove the courtesy car back, did the final handover paperwork and collected my brand new Yaris. Complete with a bouquet of flowers! :-)
Although it's exactly the same model as my old one, there have been quite a few changes. The major difference is that it now comes with air-conditioning, so I'll be able to keep lovely and cool on hot days. The other changes are little things, like the fuel consumption average and average speed, which used to be just on a per trip basis, but can now be reset when you want them to be. The seat adjustment controls are slightly different, and the fog light switch is now