And the dummy fairy came...

With a new baby due in January (yes forgot to mention that) we decided Ella had to give up the dummies once and for all, even if it meant she gave up her daytime naps. So in the first week of December Ella threw her dummy under the christmas tree for the Christmas dummy fairy to collect. That night a Cindarella doll and accessory horse appeared to replace the dummy. Ella never looked back.

Sanity over 3 child seats law

It was beginning to look like I needed to buy a wide gas guzzler in order to get my (soon to be 3) kids in the car. I've got a 4 year old and a 2 year old and one on the way. Can you get 3 child seats across the back? No chance. Nor is 2 child seats + one adult in the back any fun. I discovered that sanity prevails; in that if you can't fit 3 you are allowed to just use the adult restraint (see exceptions http://www.dft.gov.uk/think/focusareas/children/childincar ). Obviously safety is important, so I'm now looking in to belt adjusters and a cushion or similar that will fit for the oldest. When there's only one adult the eldest will need to use his seat in the front - so there's a fair bit of faffing about to be done.

Do 'Yes men' get paid more?

Had this discussion recently: Senior managers gather 'yes men' around them. They are valued as they pander to the managers need to be affirmed. The yes men, if they are clever, make use of people whose opinions are not influenced by seniority. Acting simply as a filter between the two. The real art of the successful 'yes man' is to say 'yes', whist putting your (possibly opposing) argument forward... Me? I say No when a No answer is warrented... I've got a long way to go.

Ella and big girl paygroup

Ella started at a playgroup where she stays without mum for two mornings a week. After much crying during session one Ella soon settled in and started to ask every day if today was going to be a 'big girl playgroup' day.

financial crisis

Much of the talk in recent days have appeared to be "to fix the markets". The markets are an indicator, a result, of the state of businesses and the economy. It is important that we remember that fact. The banks had made mistakes and been caught out; people didn't want to own them so their share price collapses - that's a market. I've got investments - most don't look too rosy at the moment - that's my bad. I've also got a mortgage (and it's bigger than my investments) so an interest rate cut helps me - but I'm not sure how much it helps the big picture.
I'm a non-interventionist in a free market.

Where did heroes come from?

Almost missed the start of the new season of heroes. I've seen a few trailers... with "coming soon" etc. But but what's wrong with just coming out with it and saying "Coming on October 1st"? Do we have to buy a naff TV mag to find out the actual date? Anyway. I missed the 1st episode on beeb2 but racked up the 2nd episode on bbc3 on sky+ and the repeat of episode one on Friday 3rd. Can't wait for friday... dont talk to me about episode one until then.

Ella is a big girl

After a couple of months of trying Ella finally says goodbye to her nappies. We started potty training her at 2 years and four months but we had a problem with doing number two's on the toilet. After many large and glittery disney princess stickers Ella finally learned the habit. At two years and six months she now goes on the toilet without any issues.

swimming in hexham

Started to go swimming more frequently with the kids now that Hexham has a new pool. The facilities are spot-on in my opinion. A good separation of lane-swimming for the serious-types, a versatile second pool with variable height floor and two tiny splash pools for the toddlers with fountains, bubbles etc. to keep them entertained.

The MPG Obfuscation

Petrol and diesel prices in the UK have been metricised to pence per litre for as long as I can remember (I would guess almost 20 years). Cars in the UK still use MPG in manuals and electronic displays. And the common language is certainly still in terms of MPG. Car manuals also quote efficiency figures in litres per 100km or similar - but that is still obfuscated by the fact that we use miles for judging distances.

I want to easily get to a pence per mile figure.

So here are the figures...

• 1 imperial gallon = 4.546 litres
• 1 mile = 1.609km

Using dimensional analysis you can see that to get to pence per mile you need to multiply your pence-per-litre by litres-per-gallon and divide by miles-per-gallon. Here's a table showing pence per mile for a few typical values (at the moment).

	20mpg	30mpg	40mpg	50mpg	60mpg
100p	23	15	11	9	8
105p	24	16	12	10	8
110p	25	17	13	10	8
115p	26	17	13	10	9
120p	27	18	14	11	9
125p	28	19	14	11	9
130p	30	20	15	12	10
135p	31	20	15	12	10
140p	32	21	16	13	11

There's a lot to be said for reviewing the 40p per mile tax-exempt approved mileage allowance (for business usage). This was set many years ago before the recent significant rises in fuel prices.

isp's rewriting email headers - spam is no excuse

ISP's rewriting email headers? I don't buy their "it helps to stops spam" line. They are just trying to tie people in. Forcing novice users to use the rubbish email address that they provide, and making the switch from one ISP to another even more of a pain. Many don't even allow the 'on behalf of'-type header sent by the likes of Gmail. They could easily implement a similar verification system like google (to check that you receive on the address from which you want to send from), but of course they dont want to offer the freedom.
Don't bother with their smtp servers. Get a domain name, get a pop box and use something like the outbound service provided by dyndns.com. The whole lot should cost under £20 per year. You'll have a pesonalised email address you can take with you.

Billy starts school

Billy started school today.

He was so proud and excited to put on his school uniform. He went into his new classroom like a trouper no worries just very happy and smiley. Not like his mum...I have to admit being a little emotional when I left him. I spent most of the day pacing around at home just waiting for collection time.

Pension Industry - on borrowed time

The pension industry is done-for. I had a personal pension (actually I still do, but only because I can't get at the money in it and then close it) I stopped paying into it a few years ago. I'm no financial advisor but here is my reasoning. Life expectancy is increasing. At some point (and if you believe Aubrey De Grey... some time soon) the rate of increase of life expectancy is going to exceed 1 year per year. At that point people are going to start living forever and therefore buying an annuity will be pointless. God knows what will happen to the state pension. My policy is to try to keep my money out of pensions (personal and state) for maximum current and future flexibility. Obviously I'm obliged to pay NI but I opt out of SERPS (or SSP or whatever) and get that money into my own pension... at least I have some control over what happens with that. I subscribe to Tim Ferris's mentality (in a less extreme sense) for lifestyle. I enjoy life now (rather than looking forward to retirement). I'll probably work until I die, and why not if you really enjoy what you do?

The obligatory first post

Like many I'm going to be using my blog for random rants on anything and everything that happens to be relevant to me at the time of posting. I've never kept a diary of thoughts before so it should be interesting... and you never know may prove useful/enlightening to someone somewhere.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm about a decade too late. I just haven't had the time or inclination to write a blog until now. I'm not even convinced I will be able to find the time now but I'm going to give it a try.
I'll use this post to describe myself: I'm a married freelance computer games and general programmer and IT expert (relatively speaking) with 2 kids + one on the way. I went freelance about 3 years ago to enjoy the kids, family time etc. Living a bit of the good life while I'm able to enjoy it.

Billy is Four

Billy had a special birthday weekend with family coming on his birthday, then a party with his friends at Jungle Jacks the next day. He had a great time and received lots of gifts.

Kicky Leg

Ella has developed a funny walk. She kicks one leg sideways at the knee as she walks along. It's a bit like the 'Bring me Sunshine' dance from the Two Ronnies, but just with one leg. Ella calls this her kicky leg.

Ella is Two

Ella has just turned two and has turned into a funny little girl. She is very playful and her speech is coming along really well. Her favourite phrases at the moment are 'Ella Sad' Ella cross' 'Yeah I did it!' and she has started asking 'Why' already. Probably copying Billy. Her first use of it came at bedtime, I told Ella it was time to sleep. She looked up at me very earnestly and asked 'why mummy why?'.

What are they like now?

Well time to sum up. Billy and Ella are great friends. They make each other laugh a lot. They chase about the house together pretending to be superheroes (led by super Billy of course) or Biiiiiiyyyyyyiii as Ella calls him. Billy loves going to nursery every day. He hates being referred to as a baby and won't be seen in public with anything that might make him look babyish e.g a sippy cup. He loves doing crazy dancing. (Must get that on film!) He still asks about 400 questions a day. Last night he asked Pete 'How do babies get inside mummies tummies' and 'What do daddy's do... when the baby arrives?' ha ha. Pete managed to answer without going into any detail once again. Ella loves to dress up. She is very creative. One day she will be a fairy cop, the next Bob the wizard. She still loves dancing, and will boogie along to anything. She is quite loud when she wants attention and will yell 'Maaaamm' at the top of her voice if need be. She only uses 'mummy' when talking quietly. She is also quite naughty at the moment. Ella will not respond to 'No' She has to be physically moved from whatever situation she is in, and at the tender age of 21 months has been introduced to 'time out' (usually for hitting Billy).

Ella graduates to a bed

After the workmen finally left (2 1/2 weeks of central heating and bathroom renovation - yikes). Ella got to move back into her bedroom and we decided not to put her back into her cotbed and sleeping bag. She loves snuggling under her duvet and has taken to the big bed like a trouper. It's going to be bye bye dummy next (uh oh, that is going to be hard).