Steve from England

Well, it did here around1am this morning. I have now experienced two earthquakes in my life and it is amazing how humble they make me feel when I realise just how vulnerable we all are! Of course, my first thought was earthquake followed by 'shit, this might make the new desk fall apart after we spent all day on it!' then I was concerned just in case it wasn't an earthquake but that one of the girls had fallen out of bed (repeatedly)! Have to say, I am still a little shaky. I won something on ebay earlier, quite a good deal it seems but I won't know for sure until I collect it which will hopefully be tomorrow evening. These past two days have been really busy. Am glad we got Nick sorted, at least he may have lost a few pounds!

Well, it did here around1am this morning. I have now experienced two earthquakes in my life and it is amazing how humble they make me feel when I realise just how vulnerable we all are! Of course, my first thought was earthquake followed by 'shit, this might make the new desk fall apart after we spent all day on it!' then I was concerned just in case it wasn't an earthquake but that one of the girls had fallen out of bed (repeatedly)! Have to say, I am still a little shaky. I won something on ebay earlier, quite a good deal it seems but I won't know for sure until I collect it which will hopefully be tomorrow evening. These past two days have been really busy. Am glad we got Nick sorted, at least he may have lost a few pounds!

I had a friend over last week that I grew up with and we were chatting away (like you do) about what it was like to grow up in the 60's & 70's. Obviously we didn't have CD players, hell, we were still using the reel to reel tape deck back then and the '78' had only just gone out of fashion having been replaced with the '45'. We could remember getting dead excited about having our first transistor radio. It didn't matter that it was 'am' and sounded like a tin can with a hole in it, these things could fit in our hand and run on batteries, they made a noise and that was all that mattered. Of course our TV was still operated by valves for some time and were all B&W, the sort which had the dot on the screen for ages when it was turned off. It didn't matter though because there was sod all to watch. There was no kids TV except between 4-6pm on weekdays. Much later came Saturday morning kids TV. We had Blue Peter , Crackerjack with Leslie ...

I had a friend over last week that I grew up with and we were chatting away (like you do) about what it was like to grow up in the 60's & 70's. Obviously we didn't have CD players, hell, we were still using the reel to reel tape deck back then and the '78' had only just gone out of fashion having been replaced with the '45'. We could remember getting dead excited about having our first transistor radio. It didn't matter that it was 'am' and sounded like a tin can with a hole in it, these things could fit in our hand and run on batteries, they made a noise and that was all that mattered. Of course our TV was still operated by valves for some time and were all B&W, the sort which had the dot on the screen for ages when it was turned off. It didn't matter though because there was sod all to watch. There was no kids TV except between 4-6pm on weekdays. Much later came Saturday morning kids TV. We had Blue Peter , Crackerjack with Leslie ...

Still awaiting the final decision regarding the DLA. I say it is the 'final' decision, I don't know that, it could just be the 'next' decision. To clarify, the DLA people are querying the decision. Apparently it is not an appeal just them asking the tribunal chairman what exactly they mean and how she reached her decision. That was send off to the tribunal panel about 2 weeks ago. I spoke to the clerk to the panel and she said that 'these things take time'. I asked how long and she declined to answer that but did say it would be by the end of March for sure - probably. Coincidentally (or not) Voyage (The Coach House) sent me a letter on Friday saying that I'd not yet made any contributions from Jermaine's DLA award toward the transportation costs. They say that I will need to start paying about £27 a week as of April. I wrote back and told them Jermaine is not in receipt of any DLA and that the PCT have informed me his transport is already fully fund...

Still awaiting the final decision regarding the DLA. I say it is the 'final' decision, I don't know that, it could just be the 'next' decision. To clarify, the DLA people are querying the decision. Apparently it is not an appeal just them asking the tribunal chairman what exactly they mean and how she reached her decision. That was send off to the tribunal panel about 2 weeks ago. I spoke to the clerk to the panel and she said that 'these things take time'. I asked how long and she declined to answer that but did say it would be by the end of March for sure - probably. Coincidentally (or not) Voyage (The Coach House) sent me a letter on Friday saying that I'd not yet made any contributions from Jermaine's DLA award toward the transportation costs. They say that I will need to start paying about £27 a week as of April. I wrote back and told them Jermaine is not in receipt of any DLA and that the PCT have informed me his transport is already fully fund...

... Complain that I have not made a blog entry recently! Seriously though, not a lot has been happening of late to make an entry. The DLA people are still querying the decision of the tribunal which is obviously delaying things. I need to call them again tomorrow to see what is going on. This week we have seen delivery of a new TV which we will keep here but Jermaine will have our old TV which is a better set but suits his needs more than we need it. Along with that he'll have a nifty multimedia hard drive to stream all his movies, songs and pictures to the TV. One last thing is that he has a laptop now as well (again) so we have effectively reinstated the system he used to have only with more of an upgrade. We will deliver all that to him on Monday when I have a van booked for. I bought something on ebay recently and it has not arrived over a week later yet the seller was happy to take my money the same day. They have not replied to any of my messages either. Thankfully it is just...

... Complain that I have not made a blog entry recently! Seriously though, not a lot has been happening of late to make an entry. The DLA people are still querying the decision of the tribunal which is obviously delaying things. I need to call them again tomorrow to see what is going on. This week we have seen delivery of a new TV which we will keep here but Jermaine will have our old TV which is a better set but suits his needs more than we need it. Along with that he'll have a nifty multimedia hard drive to stream all his movies, songs and pictures to the TV. One last thing is that he has a laptop now as well (again) so we have effectively reinstated the system he used to have only with more of an upgrade. We will deliver all that to him on Monday when I have a van booked for. I bought something on ebay recently and it has not arrived over a week later yet the seller was happy to take my money the same day. They have not replied to any of my messages either. Thankfully it is just...

Friday 9th Feb 2001 ... maybe that is the key, the reminder of the date and an email from Tony sent this day 7 years ago. The play "New Boy" is actually a false lead to me. For ages now I have assumed that this play was "The History Boys" but I know now it wasn't. Thankfully I archived every email Tony ever sent me else I may never have remembered what the play was or where we saw it ... I assumed it was Hemel but it turns out it was Bedford. Anyway, this waffle is not making a lot of sense to anyone but me. When I first heard about 'The History Boys' I thought of Tony. I don't know why exactly but somehow there was this link in my mind. Thinking about it, that it is set in a grammar school and is about rather well educated boys (no doubt cute) would instantly relate to Tony. well, we went to see 'New Boy' which is quite similar in some respects back in 2001 and Tony got somewhat emotional about it. I presumed at the time that it mirrored qui...

Friday 9th Feb 2001 ... maybe that is the key, the reminder of the date and an email from Tony sent this day 7 years ago. The play "New Boy" is actually a false lead to me. For ages now I have assumed that this play was "The History Boys" but I know now it wasn't. Thankfully I archived every email Tony ever sent me else I may never have remembered what the play was or where we saw it ... I assumed it was Hemel but it turns out it was Bedford. Anyway, this waffle is not making a lot of sense to anyone but me. When I first heard about 'The History Boys' I thought of Tony. I don't know why exactly but somehow there was this link in my mind. Thinking about it, that it is set in a grammar school and is about rather well educated boys (no doubt cute) would instantly relate to Tony. well, we went to see 'New Boy' which is quite similar in some respects back in 2001 and Tony got somewhat emotional about it. I presumed at the time that it mirrored qui...