Puncture

The Almera has had a slow puncture for a little while now and today I organised getting down to Kwik-Fit and getting it sorted. The local Worcester Kwik-Fit is staffed by some nice people and is always very busy. As a result, it took over an hour before they were able to look at the car. Once they did, they repaired the tyre quickly and with a low charge. I was quite impressed as I was expecting to be told that I needed a new tyre.

As it’s Saturday today, we did homework. For Ben, this turned out to be his activity bag which had a farm animals theme. He liked the matching pairs games and the fuzzy felt best. Jon also went to guitar lesson today and seems to be getting on okay, even though he found today’s lesson quite hard.

Fuzzy felt

Birmingham

We’ve got key fobs that open the car park gate now, but they don’t work from inside the car! A fairly standard day at work, but I did get to go for a walk over towards the Symphony Hall where I took this photo:

Old and New

There’s something about photos with reflections in them that I really like.

Liquidation

Today, one of our clients went bust. They didn’t owe us a lot of money, but it was still a bit of a downer first thing in the morning. As a result, I didn’t work on a project specification for them and cleared a hundred or so emails from my inbox instead.

At lunch, I went to find a Post Office and found one in the Jewellery Quarter. Whilst there, I took a photo of this cafe:

Groan

Hard to know what to say really!

The Report

Every Monday I write a report about all the ongoing projects we have for one of our key clients. The main reason we do this is that they have a lot going on and usually, there’s 40 to 60 items on the list. The best bit for me is that once per week, I can make sure that I’m on top of everything and that there’s nothing that’s stalled due to lack of action on our part.

As a result I get very little else done, so I took a still-life picture this evening:
Coins

A busy Saturday

I’ve had a busy Saturday today and have managed to get stuff done. Jon went to guitar lessons with Georgina, so I helped Ben with his homework. I then did ironing and put on the next load of washing. When Jon was back, I took out another bush from the front garden. Only two left now, but one is a conifer, so it going to be difficult!

This afternoon, I took Jon to town to purchase trainers for outdoor PE lessons at school and rounded off the day by cooking a fry-up for dinner :)

Making potato latkes (4)!

Queen Victoria

I managed to cross off precisely two items on my to-do list today. Fortunately they were big ones, so a fairly productive day. Also, one of our clients complimented me on my management of her projects this week, so clearly I’m on top of things from her point of view!

I went for a walk around Victoria Square in Birmingham today. Rather obviously, but I didn’t realise it, there’s a statue of Queen Victoria there, so I took her picture.

Queen Victoria in Victoria Square, Birmingham

Ouch!

On the way to school, Ben managed to walk into the barriers they put in the middle of paths to deter cyclists.

Ouch.

As a result he’s got a massive bruise on his forehead. Oh well…

In other news, I wrote an article that was published in the php|architect magazine. I received my copy today!

My php|architect article in the Jan 2008 issue

Painting

We did some more painting with the kits that the kids got for Christmas. Then we played on the Wii :)

I also spent time today taking photos in Manual mode, so I have started to understand the meter built into the camera.

Painting