Mark Dalton

So last weekend was one of those great Bank Holiday weekends where we get that extra day that make a weekend feel like a real break. Unlike other Bank Holiday weekends however the sun was out and so were the BBQ’s. Saturday was pretty much a standard day spent shopping and catching up on household duties however Sunday was a real treat! Not only did we all get together for a BBQ at Mum & Dad’s house, we were joined by Lisa, Andy, and the new arrival, Sam.

Lisa had brought William a sports day set, that included bean bags (for balancing on your head), ties (three legged race), sacks (sack race), and plastic eggs and spoons (for the breakfast race). Well, William wouldn’t let us sit still and we all had to play, of course there was only one rule, William had to win. This wasn’t a problem however as we had all had a drink or two. I caught the whole thing on the HandyCam so keep your eye’s peeled over the next week.

Dad did a wonderful BBQ and Mum ensured all the trimmings were available and everybody had a fantastic time, but by the end of the day I think we were all totally shattered and a little red from the sun. Monday I joined Mum, Dad, Lisa, Andy, and Sam for a roast dinner. It was another hot day but it’s the first roast dinner I have had in a while and I wasn’t going to turn it down. It didn’t disappoint!

I didn’t take an awful lot of photo’s (70 odd) as I have been trying to play with the HandyCam more, the one’s I did take can be found over on Flickr.

So following on from last weeks Duty Manager shift I had this Friday off so a nice short week. Of course that is a good thing but not without its own problems, as I still have the same amount of work to get through. The evenings therefore were pretty much a write-off as I just didn’t have the energy or the inclination to do anything more then eat and vegetate in front of the TV. The thought of a long weekend however kept me going.

Thursday night I met up with Chris Scott, and Leon, part of the crowd I went to Mumbia and Goa with. We had a few beers at the Globe on London Wall. We chatted about the Mumbia and Goa trip, and the time Chris and I had spent in India. We talked about there plans to climb Kilimanjaro this year, only teasing Leon a little about some of the nasty things that could happen. The guy’s tried to persuade me to join them, but I managed to change the subject (Lucky Escape).

Friday, after a little lay in, I got on with tidying the house up a little and caught up with some paper work. I finished running the new Cat 6 cables in the study to the new Gigabit switch and finished tidying up some of the cabling, although I am still not 100% happy and will need to do this again once I have picked up some cable ties.

Saturday I had arranged to meet up with Dave Birkett for a few beers so walked into town. I have been looking for way’s to hook up with Sony SR7E HandyCam to use as a web cam with my iMac so headed into the iStore and the Sony shop to see how I could do it. The guy’s in the iStore seemed to think it could be done via a simply USB connection but didn’t know what cable I would need so I checked with the guy’s in the Sony store. They explained that the camera couldn’t be used in that way as it didn’t support it, but did say it would be possible with some form of external device that allowed you to take the feed straight off the sensor and encode it in real time. So back to the drawing board on that one. Feeling dejected I set off to meet Dave and lets just say several hours later, and a lot worse for wear I made it home.

Today is another house catch up day with a bit of relaxing mixed in before work tomorrow. Next week however I really have got to start on sorting some of the bigger jobs out at home.

Okay so last weekend was a Bank Holiday, and a generally nice Bank Holiday at that. I didn’t feel too great going into it but the extra day helped. On the Saturday I welcomed little “Molly” into the world (see “New Additions“). Sunday and Monday were really chill out and catchup days. Long overdue!

Last week was the usual busy plus some as we are working on an internal event that aims to provide some insight into what we as a function do. A pretty good idea as very few people know what goes on behind the scenes and really only understand IT from the desktop perspective. I put my hand up and agreed to make a short movie that provides some perspective which has given me the opportunity to play around a little more with iMovie 09 on the new iMac.

This weekend however I am Duty Manager, which is always a downer especially as it has been a lovely weekend, but it has given me the chance to play a little more. The net outcome is a video I think will go down well at the event, but it has also shown me how much I need to learn about shooting video. That said with a project to work on it was a lot easier as I knew what I wanted the outcome to look like. It also allowed me to have a little fun with some of the footage I shot over the Easter weekend of William & Eleanor.

I would also like to announce that due to my increase in work load I have been forced to employe an assistant. At this point in time he is doing rather well, but does require some training. I would just ask that you all show a little patience as we all had to start somewhere.

So we have two new additions to the family/friends circle this week. Lisa gave birth to a beautiful baby boy who has been named Sam, and Anna Birkett gave birth to Molly. Congratulations to all!

Saturday afternoon I met up with Dave Birkett and had a few pints to welcome Molly into the world. A good time way had by all, and I decided to be sensible and call it a day about 17:00 waking up this morning felling great. Going by the various FaceBook posts however I am not so sure everybody else faired as well.