Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Monday, October 30, 2006

2 1/2 months old!

It seems that I've got my facts and figures all wrong. Squish pages was born on 17 August, while the counter was only installed 1 October. Which means squish pages is actually 2 1/2 months old, and the now 169 hits have all been generated in just 4 weeks! One can only guess at the 1st 6 weeks interest. Google here I come!

Talking of Google, I can be!
'Googled', that is!
Enter 'Squish Pages' into the Google search engine and I am the 1st entry!
Game on!

I did make it to the gym after all, and I know daylight savings happen every year but, don't it get dark quick now!
7 weeks to Xmas by the way!!!

Saturday, October 28, 2006

I used to be apathetic, but now I don't care!

'Hands up who likes procrastination?'

'You will tell me tomorrow?'

'Fair enough.'

I've been lacking the motivation to visit the gym this week. In a normal week I'd go at least 3 times, not including 'badminton Wednesday' and my Monday night aerobics class. But this week I've been putting it off. Was going to go on my day off; use the gym and then have a nice steam and sauna, but then I put it off. As I did Thursday after work, and Friday after work and now Saturday after work.

I will go tomorrow about 11 am. (Yeah right!)

Friday, October 27, 2006

Keep on blogging!

I just wanted to say a big thanks to those of you who have visited squish pages. It's great to think that you guys would take the time out to read some rubbish I wrote. I've had, to date, 143 visits since I installed a counter, (although the counter was installed 3 weeks in, and the first 7 visits was me before I learned how to 'ghost' my computer from the counting). And this week I had a 'squish pages visitor record' of 16 hits in one calendar day. Doesn't sound much, but with and average of 9 hits a day it makes me chuffed that I've entertained that many people each day.

But just like everything, you always want more. And I'm now thinking of ways to keep you coming back and to make the occasional visitor or one off visitor come back again and again.

I've discovered a Yahoo Avatar, with which you can create a character, then dress it up however you want. Then as I found by accident when I played around with the female avatar, the changes happen live and your avatar takes on the new look. I had made a girl avatar up, then gone to bed. The next evening I came home and found the girl version had been on squish pages all day instead of the guy version I did first. Oooo the shame!

I hope one day to sell squish pages to Google (I kid). So 'Come on! Make me popular!'

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

I know. I'm sick, I need help!


With her sophomore album already released stateside and due for release here in the UK on 6/11, I'd like to say 'Wowzers' and welcome back to the charts to Jojo. Don't exactly know when her first single 'Too little, too late' is released, but its a cool tune and the video is Oscar material, in my opinion (well, just the rain scene at the end).

If you don't know who she is, then far be it for me to dig any more of my own grave but I'm off now to drool over her album release photos. With her and Christina Aguilera who needs anything else.




Thanks to Jojo-Online.net

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Another weekend, another wedding!

Another weekend, another wedding. This was a tad bit closer to home, but who else can say they have been to 2 weddings on consecutive weekends, in 2 different continents, in 2 different hemispheres. Not many I wager! Someone call the Guinness Book of Records!

David married Luan in a lovely and concise ceremony. Which I think Dave was glad was over quite quickly because he was as nervous as hell! Luan's mate Nikki and her daughter Lucy were bridesmaids and both looked beautiful in their red dresses. The venue was a lovely, grand building in the Essex countryside. And we did have a little difficulty finding it.

I was following Jason and Michelle in convoy as they followed Anna and Chris, and we got to one particular roundabout and we had lost the trail and ended up circling the roundabout 3 times. 3 cars all in a row. We did amuse some of the motorist there as well. Jason took the lead after that and Tom Tom got us there. Phil and his lady Danielle arrived after us so missed all the fun. Tracey was also there. As the BEST MAN! and she did the job just as got as any best man before her.

Thanks Dave and Luan for the invite. Hope you guys had a fun day too!

Michelle and Jason
Phil and Danielle
David and Tracey
Chris and Anna
Lucy and Nikki
Luan and Tracey
Rhys (Tracey's son) and Me!

A nice surprise

Imagine my surprise....... Go on! Imagine it!

Oh, you don't know what to be surprised about. Well, imagine my surprise when I got a phone call from a dear old college chum of mine; Devinder. She and another dear friend, Nancy, were meeting up in Canary Wharf for drinks last Friday and wanted to know if I would join them. I said 'yes' in a heart beat. I hadn't seen either of them in, must be, about 2 years and jumped at the chance to see them again.

We met. They were not sure if they would recognize me after so long but they did, and we headed for Canary Wharf. We had dinner, then continued the evening in a pub. Well.. outside the pub, under the heat lamps to chase away the evening chill. It was good fun catching up and seeing where our lives had taken us. And when the evening was done, we made loose plans to do it again some time, real soon. I think we did that once before. About 2 years ago.....

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Yeah baby, I'm back! Pt 3

Day 5. With Mel's jet lag we now only got out after 12pm. The day consisted of shopping and a cruise trip down the River Yarra. This was to be our last full day as we were flying out the following evening.

guess who?
Me and Mel
Melbourne skyline and Melissa

Day 6. Started with packing, checking out and leaving our luggage in storage, then we jumped on the tram and headed to St Kilda and the beach. We had lunch and ice cream and generally enjoyed the nice 28c day. We rounded of the day with a coffee and a donut before flying home.

tram to St Kilda
Melissa
pier
St Kilda
Pimp Daddy Chocolat
Pimp Daddy (again)
Melissa
Melissa (again)
the plane home. 'Boo hoo!'

Yeah baby, I'm back! Pt 2

Day 3. Today was the day of the wedding, but before that, me and Mel hit the shops and had a general wander. The wedding was wonderful as was the reception after, with the food and the speeches and the dancing. All wrapped up at 12am but to continue the night Me, Melissa, Hilary (one of Carley's mates) and Amiee hit the town and when to a club till the wee small hours.

Mel and some horses
Steve and myself
Melissa and Me
Melissa and Amiee
Steve and Scott - The Best Man
Melissa and Hilary
Hilary and Carley

Day 4. Melissa had succumbed to a cold so felt like taking a time out. The advent of jet lag and 4.30 am finish also didn't help. I met up with the now joined two family's of Steve and Carley's, and Hilary, and Julie (Carley's best mate) at Carley's oldest sister's house. After some card and present opening we all took a walk to a BBQ restaurant on the banks of the Yarra. The day finished in the early evening as everyone was exhausted from the wedding. It was a night in this night as Mel still felt ill and I was tired and quite stuffed from lunch.

train to Fairfield
a trojan, something
Carley and Steve
Baxter

Friday, October 20, 2006

Yeah baby, I'm back!

What a hoo har! Get back from Oz and find that my computer keyboard ain't working, well, just the top line of letters from 'q' to 'p'. That meant; no blogging, no emails, no googling, no surfing. In fact, if I was to write this sentence with the keyboard it would read like this:-

"ha a h ha! G back fm z and fnd ha m cm kbad an' kng, ll, js h ln f ls fm '' ''. ha man; n blggng, n mals; n ggglng; n sfng. n fac, f as hs snnc h h kbad ld ad lk hs:-"

Needless to say I had to go out and buy a new one. Each letter is precious. Treasure them.

Problem. How do I condense a week in Australia and some 250 photos into concise blog style segments. Hmmmmmm. Lets see if this works.

Day 1. Me and Melissa went to the Melbourne zoo. Caught the tram. Saw loads of animals. That evening met up with Steve and his Mom, Dad and 2 of the friends he had lived with during his year long stay down under. Had dinner, then us youngsters stayed out and played; In an Irish themed pub on the banks of the city's river. The river Yarra.

Roos
Emu
Lions -"Roar"
Melissa
Me and Mel
Steve and Me
Aimee and Nerida (Steve's 'Queenslander' buds)
Melbourne at night

Day 2. Almost the same format as day 1. We decided to head to the same area for breakfast as we had dinner the night before with Steve. Next we visited the aquarium. Fishes! Then came an observation deck atop one of Melbourne's many skyscrapers. The evening was taken up with a meal with most of the wedding guests attending. Again us young stuffs continued the night once the food had gone. The bars are open till 3am as standard over there with free entry at any time. England take note!

Melissa
Pimp Daddy Chocolat aka Me
Melissa
sharks
Melissa
Carley, her Dad Phil, and Steve
Me, Steve and Nerida
Melissa, Aimee and yours truly

more to follow....

Monday, October 16, 2006

No church. No bell


Ah. Saturday was the wedding and thankfully the weather held up and the ceremony was held in the gardens of this magnificent looking function hall. It was really good, with us guests disappearing to the local bar for an hour whilst the dj set up. The dinner was very tasty and the dj played the standard wedding stuff, disco and party. Quite spookily both me and Mel caught the bouquet and garter (I didn't know this, but the garter is the male version. Maybe an Aussie thing. After the 12 o'clock finish a few of us headed into town to continue the evenings festivities. Dragged ourselves back to the hotel bout 4.

The next day I joined the 2 now joined families for a BBQ lunch down by the banks of the river in a picturesque suburb. Mel was feeling the effects of a cold, and jet lag, so stayed in bed. It's now Monday, and our last full day and night here, so we've gotta cram all the remaining stuff in. Today will be a river cruise and visiting the coast. Up and at em!