Recently in News Category

New blog entry?  Well, Jon posted a rambling today and I've been thinking about it for a while so here it is.  Not sure if anyone out there reads these (a perpetual question) but I do hope that it's more than just a mumble!

I'll start with some news.

The Old's have moved church!  We are now ensconsed in Rugby Christian Fellowship (Elim) and it's fantastic.  Full of challenges, new relationships and new experiences.  All very exciting.

Next a quick grumble.

I would dearly love to meet up with the person in the council who is responsible for pedestrian crossings.  On my journey to work (approx 1 mile), I pass through 1 lollipop crossing and 4 pelican / puffin crossings!  It is utterly insane and has added at least 10 minutes to the journey, which over 1 mile is nuts.  If I wasn't doing school and evening activity runs either end of the day, I would SO walk!

Finally a thought.

How come germs are so tiny but cause so much havoc?  Sarah had a slight cold this time last week.  This cold developed Friday / Saturday into a hideous chest infection which has her signed off work for the whole week.  She's been really poorly and all because of a tiny little germ.

Another thought...

With all the money being thrown at formula 1, how come it falls down to the driver to put out his own car fire (Kovaleinen, Singapore)???

Be good.

D

Follow me on Twitter - @derek_old

Something HAS TO CHANGE!!!???

and party the night away with Cahoots!

Last night saw the inaugural performance of the new band.  At the start of 2008, Vicky from church asked if Owen and Simon could organise a band to play at her 30th birthday bash.  They drafted in Ross and me and the band was formed.  We toiled and thrashed and got it together and duly played out last night at the aformentioned party.  From what I can gather, it went pretty darn well!  It was great fun to play in a band outside of church; a completely different feel and style of music (obviously), but still essentially just 4 mates playing music that they love together and having a great time with it.  Thanks to the band for all the work.  Thanks to Stewart for dropping the levels sufficiently to stop the volume trip from kicking in.  Thanks to Vicky for inviting us to play.  Personally too, thanks to an old friend, Tom Mulholland.  Once upon a time, he asked me if I'd like to start a band to play with him at church and really encouraged me to do so.  Several years on, I'm still playing and loving it!

So that's the start of 2009.  Where will it lead?  Let's put on our hi-heeled sneekers and find out......

TTFN

Hipp

......36, 35, 34 pints of mild in the garage!!!!

This one inventively named "Gracefully Old"

yum

FIX IT QUICK - BEFORE ANYONE NOTICES!!!

I love F1.  Even withstanding all the (quite frankly) stupid politics and non-race-related stuff, it's a brilliant sport.  The combination of engineering excellence and driving skills make for a wonderful spectacle.  I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it floats my boat (count the cliches)

Reason for the blog entry...?

During today's race, Felippe Massa left the pits with his fuel line still attached causing a major problem.  I obviously suffer from similar problems....I just tried taking my laptop across the room with the mains still attached.  It too was a major incident....I fell over and nearly dropped it!!!

I know what you're thinking....the similarities are just too numerous!

TTFN

Hipp

Well, the deadline for this lates OU assignment is tomorrow....today!  Cut-off midnight.

Nearly there, just need to print off and proof read before the dreaded submittal.  Be glad to see the back of this one - been pretty long-winded.

What a day today though?  We've been quite lucky here in Rugby, not too much rain.  Yes, a lot, but compared to down South, VERY fortunate.  My big prayer though is that it clears up a bit before Saturday as it's the Scout family camp this weekend.  I'm off there with Jamie & Caitlin (in a 2 man tent?) and it should be really good fun.  Nice if the weather doesn't put a damper on things.

Right. Off to bed for me and hopefully back to some form on normality tomorrow.  Where's my next lot of reading materials then????

TTFN

Hipp

PS - did anyone see the pic of the guy surfing near the volcano in Hawaii?  Mad....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/07/08/eavolcano108.xml

You ever get the feeling that you are, "out of control"?

That's a bit where I'm @, @ the moment.  I have so many things I want to do; so many things I should do; so many things I need to do; yet no ability to prioritise.  (no wife comments required, thanks!)

Let's go back a bit anyway, and fill you all in on the recent mumblings.

Jamie and I had a FANTASTIC day recently at the Monster Jam in Cardiff.  He's been talking endlessley about Monster Trucks recently, so I did some investigation and found that the Monster Jam event was to be held in Cardiff this year, at the Millenium Stadium.  I duly bought the tickets and off we went.  We combined the trip with a visit to Sarah's brother's house in Wales and caught up (a bit) with his wife and their two boys.  A great time had there.  As for the Monster Jam itself.  It was a great evening of big trucks, big jumps, stunt bikes, LOUD music and vehicle fumes - they had to part open the roof after a while!  The best bit for me was seeing Jamie's face as he was obviously having so much fun.  Since we got back, the craze has not dwindled which is great.

The Jimster has also thrown himself into Beavers really well, and has been to cub camp for the day and even carried the flag at church parade (aaaaah).  Really great to see him getting stuck into things and enjoying himself.

Caitlin has had another show.  This time, at the Town Hall.  She really enjoyed herself and (as well as we were able to see), she conveyed her pleasure with her trademark smile throughout.  The venue was not the best and we weren't able to see as much as we would have liked, but hey, ho - on to the next!

Sarah has been engrossed in marking again.  To be fair, it has not really impacted on anyone this time round, as she's been able to do a fair bit at school.  The time when she has needed to do some over a weekend, I have used to take the kids cycling to the sports centre for the "Polar Challenge" (a big inflatable assault course in the pool).  This was great fun and good exercise for us all.

Now for the control issues.  I'm desperately trying to learn some new stuff on my bass - I really need to be practicing for at least half an hour each night to be effective.  I'm also a week away from another OU assignment submittal.  On top of this, the Renault needs wheel bearing work, the front door key's gone missing, the garage door key's gone missing, we're soon to be going on holiday, etc, etc.

Nothing major on it's own, but putting it all into a sensible order.....Maybe some prayer might help?

Anyways - this blog should keep the blogmaster off my back for a day or two.  I'll post again to let you know if I get my life sorted; I may even post a couple of video clips from some of my fave bands who are similarly "out of control", let's see.

TTFN

Hipp

Long time since the last posting (just for a change).  Lots has happened.

Jamie's 6! 

Can't quite believe it.  He's an absolute diamond.  Just hope he realises how special he is!  Anyway, he got his DS for his birthday and equilibrium is finally achieved in the handheld world of the Old house.  Special moment watching him and Caitlin "connect" for the first time.  I don't fully understand how this works or what it means, but they seem happy!  Rather worrying that I'm in the IT business and don't know very much about DS consoles.  Maybe I should rectify this after their bedtime???

We've had Easter

Really odd to have Easter so early, but it has and was a timely reminder of how amazing God's creation is and how graceful he is to us.  Amazing.  We spent Easter entertaining the Gooch's (well, they may not have found us very entertaining - cue a comment Brian!).  Great to catch up after SO long apart.  Highlights were definitely taking the kids to the parks in the "odd" Easter weather.  They are all SO funny.  I managed to encourage Sarah to let them a bit more loose and just see what happened.  What happened was Jamie managed to master cycling on his BIG bike and Caitlin managed to fall off, a lot!  Hilarious.

We then spent the rest of the bank holiday with the Mills', up in Stoke.  Again, great to catch up and just watch children interact.  We went to a farm and adventure playground and had great fun.  I'll pop some photos on in a future blog, when I remember to bring the cable home from work! D'oh. 

D'minished

Tomorrow, we lose the kids for the night and Sarah & I let our hair down in the O2 arena.  It's, sadly, the last Delirious gig with current drummer Stew Smith.  Really looking forward to it, and excited at the new direction the band will undoubtedly take.  Another example of how God has changed lives and continues to do so, through my favourite medium - MUSIC

Plastic Hats?

While writing this epic, I have been slowly transmogrifying.  It's become a bit of a tradition that I "highlight" my hair before embarking on a West Runton camp.  As we're off to Motivation a week today, and as I'm off with work for a few days next week, this was really my last chance to get it done.  Sarah has obliged with the treatment once again and in approx 10 mins, the big unveiling will take place.  Watch this space.

Well, that's it for now.  TTFN

Hipp

PS - struggled to categorise again Jon!!!

What a great week.  It really got good from Wednesday onwards.

I had a trip to Manchester to do a few jobs in one of our offices and had decided to call in on Jon and Lara to let them have Jamie's old bike for Zak.  What I hadn't made allowances for was my apparent lack of direction and the Manchester ring road!  To reduce an exceedingly long and borng story to one which is more manageable, I wasted over an hour and 60 miles!

When I finally arrived at Jon and Lara's, the kids were both still up and really funny.  See the clip below to see how much Maisey loves her daddy!

I realised how cute Jamie was today too.  I went to his year assembly at school this morning.  It was all about dinosaurs and they had written stories, poems and songs.  He looked so happy singing and seemed really pleased that I'd taken time out of work to go to see him.  Top moment.  Again, I've popped a clip here from this morning.  You can't really see Jamie, but it's here for posterity.

Anyway, this has all taken far to long to sort out.  So I'm off now.

TTFN

Hipp