Business is booming
Things are moving fast in software development land. From being an idea we now have 7 staff plus myself and Jason!! Not bad since we only started properly in February.

The development team are going to have to move into another office, 5 mins up the road, as we can't fit everyone in. I was considering introducing shift work and desk share policies but as it happens another office has unexpectedly become available.

Must post some pics.
Flippin eck

Jason is off to a posh business do tonight. Black tie, looked very smart.

Amazing how things just start to develop their own momentum.

It was hairdresser day again today. Every time a new surprise colourwise. It turns out that they don't write down the colour they put on your hair as they can 'usually' remember. Possibly not that accurately judging by some of my recent colour adventures. I'm currently getting used to a new shade from today's experiment in hair pigments.

This time I did work up the nerve to object to the initial colour so thankfully I don't look too flame haired. The amended version is a bit more subtle and the kids have given it a nod of approval. Two hair cuts ago they agreed unanimously that I looked a bit like a Bratz doll, something to do with the purple highlights I think.

Anyway I was explaining that maybe it would be an idea to write something down in the book for next time. They've had a go...and it could be one of two or three colours, so they'll try the first of the other options in June.

Don't get me wrong I don't dislike the hair cut or the hair colour but it is sometimes hard to cope with the surprise! I think I need to avoid bright lights for a few days until the colour fades a bit. Do I sound stressed!!!!

I'm considering taking in a picture of Chorlton (of the Wheelies) and seeing if they can make me look like my profile photo. Now that would be worth a picture.

Things are moving along, the business is partnering with another open source company. We now have 3 staff! So our nice new office now has no space for me:-(
Still it is an ideal excuse to work from home.

The dog has gone all adolescent on us. So he is being walked on his lead as public displays of inappropriate behaviour can be rather embarrassing. Not that the lead stops him. He is not being snappy just rather overfriendly.

I've just bought the new First News paper for kids. The checkout assistant in Tesco's seemed bemused that I was paying £1 for a newspaper with only 24 pages. But as Jason has pointed out it doesn't contain any adverts. I think the writing is of a very high standard, I kind of wish the rest of the papers were as clear on the issues.

I feel like the Easter holidays have finally finished. Somehow I'm not so sure that it makes sense to have all the Bank Holidays bunched together up so much.

What with being in Scotland and then an extra day's school holiday + last weekends rush of parties and visits and another Bank Holiday + family visits it seems like today is the first day I have had without huge commitments to be somewhere.

I've decided to scale down the kids activities. Which means not going to quite so many swimming lessons but spending the time going swimming as a family, walking the dog or going out on the bikes. That way I might not find myself getting quite so resentful about being the child chauffer.

I've added a few business related links to the blog. This is mainly so I can keep an eye on them, and with any luck glean some information on what everyone else is doing in the service oriented open source market. It does look like the world of IT development is about to head into a step change. We're kind of riding on the coat-tails trying to keep up.

Back from a lovely easter holiday in Sandyhills, Dumfries. Did lots of walking, first time since the kids arrived that we've managed to go a decent distance without having to pick at least one of them up and carry them. The five mile walk from Sandyhills to Rockcliffe along the coastal path was wonderful, we didn't bump into another person en route and the scenery was great. We only meant to walk along the beach but ended up going on a bit of a trek.

The kids are very keen on cycling so it looks like more two wheeled outings are in the offing. I'm not quite sure how I've managed to convince myself that a mountain bike is a better investment than getting the exhaust on my car fixed (which is what I really should have done today) maybe it is the urge to get out while the weather is nice. I spoke to a nice shop in Chingford...ebay again...and the new Dawes MTB will be with me by this afternoon (Tuesday). With any luck I've got the frame size right and either myself or Jason will be able to ride it once the saddle has been adjusted. My trusty Claude Butler tourer is still in the garage, needs a bit of dusting off but is stil functional for when the whole family need to get out there and pedal.

I never did get a response from the National Trust on my query about why kids can't ride bikes at Gibside. Still it looks like we'll be riding the real cycle routes from now on. I just hope George can work out getting on and off a bit better. At the moment he throws himself off the bike, and refuses to get on without a push-off. When he is on the bike he pedals like a maniac and zooms off into the distance, rather than turning round and coming back to find us he usually throws himself into the side of the path and waits until we all turn up.

As usual the animals are having a settling in period after a week at the kennels. Fudgee is breaking records for chewiness, tally so far - drill cable (not our drill! the next door neighbours), two seals from the new drainage pipe, one sheet of blue damp proof membrane, and a flexi lead. Quite impressive as we only got back on Friday. The house is littered with official doggy toys but why chew them when you can chew everything in sight.

I'm trying a new method of protecting the kitchen cupboards from late night/early morning chwing - cayenne pepper mixed into a paste with white vinegar. It seems to be doing the trick at the moment but has a bit of a nutty aroma. It does blend in with the wood colour of the kitchen cupboards and hides the existing chew marks quite well. It helps that I have an industrial sized tub of cayenne pepper that I got from Makro years ago, which funnily enough I have hardly touched.

Fudge has also managed to forget that the cage is for sleeping not peeing and has discovered how to pee like a grown up dog - three legs and no wobbling. I guess he has been observing the other dogs at the kennels and I'm now having to watch him as he tried to territory mark the cat litter tray on Saturday. I have offered to re-home him (just yesterday - and I was serious) but Jason seems to have become attached, even if he is a one dog trail of destruction.
He is fast asleep under my chair at the moment, all cute and cuddly.

National Trust clamps down on rogue cyclists!
This is the last time the kids will be able to ride their bikes at Gibside. I admit the look likely to cause problems with the natural environment but due to a new rule (possibly made up on the spot) children on bicycles are now banned from riding their bikes at Gibside.

No matter that it was quiet, they have reasonable bikes and they don't deliberately go out to drive into anyone, we have officially been told by a man driving a tractor (who is causing the damage here...run that one past me again), that our children cannot ride bikes, even on the paths, as cycles could damage the environment.

They didn't even pull the 'health and safety' argument. The main concern was that they might ride their bikes on the grass. This was one of the few safe, traffic free places we could take them while they get used to riding in a straight line. The local cycle paths tend to be full of manic mountain bikers who do about 40mph and refuse to stop for anyone.

Jason did try to point out that driving the NT landrover and tractor and various quad bikes would be more damaging...but who are we to argue against the rules. One day when I get myself a guide dog and a disabled buggy I will deliberately go wild!!!!!!! There are laws to protect me then. Hmmph

It has officially been a busy week. We've interviewed and hired two designers, both students on 4 month placements who will help us to generate a great brand image. We've also found an excellent market researcher at Durham University who is doing a PhD in virtual networking...how spooky is that. Fortune currently shines upon us as a business team.

On the domestic front the end of term has required easter eggs to be decorated, rolling eggs to be provided and some interesting easter hat creations. The holidays are soon to be upon us.

George now appears to be free of nits. He is under strict orders to keep his head away from everyone else at school. Still I'll keep on checking. Rather unhelpfully my mum has told the local hairdresser, which I could really have done without as I have an appointment this Saturday - I think I might cancel it as I can't be bothered with 2 hours in the salon knowing that my hairdresser thinks I have nits (I don't think I have them personally).

The cats are all being kept indoors. Jason has got to fit the new magnetic dog flap this weekend to keep them in. Only the dog is allowed the necessary magnetic collar. Ninja - brother of Flash - is very unsettled, he has changed personality since last Saturday and is now very timid. Jasper and Cinders are their usual selves but things are very quiet around the house without Flash letting us all know what he thinks.

Just had to load this picture, originally the light meant that you couldn't see Flash's face on this one. I opened the image and clicked on the auto lighten and there he is. Jason said the last time he saw him was this afternoon, we've had other children round to play and all the other cats had disappeared. Not Flash, he was sitting in the middle of the living room floor cleaning himself. You can see it in his eyes, no fear.

This is Flash on the window, watching me working. You can see his personality in this picture. All noseyness and whiskers. He was still a baby, only 10 months old, no road sense. I want to lock the others in the house now, just in case. I sometimes wish nobody had ever invented cars. Life would be much simpler and far fewer people and animals would get killed every year. Such a shame, my poor flashyboy.

I'm so sad, today my beautiful black and white cat Flash was killed on the road outside our house. I think we found him fairly soon after it happened and he must have died instantly as it was obvious the car had hit him on the side of the head. There were no other injuries. He'd been moved to the pavement.

I really loved this cat.

Currently frustrated as can't get to previous post to ad a 'v' into moving. I think it must be the keyboard...it can't be that I sit and type whilst looking the other way can it?

Finally finished sorting out the kids rooms. They are tidyish, well tidy enough. The new home office is full to the point of near explosion, mostly with stationery, but it does at least look tidy to the untrained eye.

George is has acquired some new friends at school, small insects that live on his hair. Which I could do without! So we are trying the Harvard Olive Oil Method of removal, which combined with a combing regime is meant to kill everything within 3 weeks. I hadn't realised how tiny they are. Apparently nits have evolved into smaller insects because they keep getting eradicated and only the smallest survive...wow..what a joy that is to know when you have to go looking for them.

So lesson for the day, nits are now smaller so cutting most of your hair off makes them harder to get rid of. And there was me about to shave his head.

Pics of George covered in olive oil and wrapped in clingfilm to follow.

Four days of moving (spelling fixed hooray) stuff and I still haven't tidied it all up!

We started re-arranging the house on Saturday. Figuring that as we now have a proper office we don't two office rooms in the house. Having spent the last 8 months promising the children completely separate bedrooms (their old ones were adjoining and they only ever slept in one room despite the fact that there were at least 4 beds up there), we finally got round to taking some action.

Saturday involved a lot of heavy lifting as all the office cupboards got moved downstairs. Sunday saw the beds being moved and Monday and Tuesday were mainly devoted to sorting things. My love of stationery and stuff has been revealed. Things that had been in boxes and drawers for years had to be opened and re-sorted. I could easily open a stationery shop with all the things I've accumulated - or I would do if I didn't like it all so much.

I think I still have at least two more days to go to sort out the kids' stuff. Then there is the garage....and then Ebay. I have amassed an incredible quantity of packaging materials in anticipation of selling off surplus stuff. So much that it is taking up half a shed on its own. I did spend half an hour sorting it, so it is now boxed according to type.

To prove how much this is all appreciated the kids had moved a sleeping bag into Elinor's new room tonight as George was going to sleep on the floor. They have only been apart for one night. I expect they'll get used to it soon.

I've noticed a couple of things today.
1. I bumped into a couple of folks today in Durham who I had not seen in a while and commented to both sets of offspring along the lines of 'haven't you grown'. It occurred to me that this is exactly what my great aunts used to say to me when I was little. At the time I remember thinking what a silly thing to say, but then children don't notice growing. As an adult bumping into children I now understand that height is the first thing you notice; especially if a child happens to be behaving him/herself, and as it is usually quite a striking difference it is very hard not to comment. Which I suppose means that I have finally grown up myself!

2. We are moving things around in the house becuase the kids are in desperate need of separate bedrooms. In theory they have this already, but because the rooms adjoin there is no real separation. Now the move is underway I am staggered by the sheer volume of stuff that we have. Jason always comments on our stuff quota, and it is true I have a pretty good hoarding instinct. I would like to point out though that so does my husband. So we are currently buried in boxes of stuff.

Well that is another 2 hours gone. Lost my links, got them back. Changed the template about 10 times. With any luck I can find a chapter in one of my new 'teach yourself technical things' books that will let me use an attractive template...with links. (they were the missing links...goodnight...oh dear terrible pun). Trouble is Amazon has yet to deliver so I will need to do that another day.

o'er I've lost my links!

justbloggin

Playing with the Blog This! thing to see what happens.
I'm looking at other people's blogs (yes all those lovely scrapping ones) and wondering how you get such great layouts. I'm going to have a go at changing the layout, which might not be a good idea...

justbloggin

Hyperactive hyacinths - can't blog the smell though...hmm 

Thought I'd take a picture of the office plants, we walked into a very fragrant room this morning as the hyacinths have had a busy weekend growing like little triffids.

I seem to be forever installing software at the moment. Skype and something called Pentaho this morning. If it isn't downloads then it is ordering more stuff from Amazon. I even found a book that may just interest me in programming...'Learn to Program' by Chris Pine. Apparently the book teaches you do program by getting you to do useful things like sort out your digital photo collection or get your webpage to send you emails. I can just about cope with that kind of thing, everyone I've worked with so far tends to stare at pages of minute text muttering about triggers and joins, and I nod and kind of think I might understand a bit of what they are saying. I never really got over the computer programming course that I did at university. So long ago that we used a VAX mainframe computer (not a model of vacuum cleaner, although today's vacuum cleaners probably have the same IT capability as the mainframe computer had in 1986). Anyway I was mystified by DOLOOPS and other jargon stuff, it all started to get very mathematical and I decided to blank out anything technical from then on!

Still here I am working in IT. Just goes to show what can happen if you don't make any kind of conscious career choices.

Elinor has been off school poorly today. Jason stayed home to look after her and when I made a couple of calls to check progress during the day it seemed that all was well, and Elinor hadn't moved much beyond the telly.

Still appearances can be deceptive, on returning home Elinor still claims extreme poorliness but it is Jason who has retired to bed ill. Elinor has found the time to bath the dog, and I have sniffed him and he does smell very fragrant, and has clearly had both shampoo and conditioner.

Elinor has also exhaustively tested the bounce on the sofa bed during a home disco for her and her soft toys. She also escorted the dog on a walk round the block. Now George is pushing her around the house in her dolls' pushchair because she is too ill to walk!!! Good job her brother isn't more of a detective or he'd have spotted the fact that all the pink panther wafer biscuits went very quickly once Elinor openend them - another tell tell sign of a serious illness? (maybe not) Methinks she will return to school tomorrow.

Just spotted a typo on a previous post and just had to correct it!!!! And I wonder why I don't get anything done.

Meanwhile more gizmos are on order for the office. We are getting a Skype phone, as I'm too averse to paying line rental charges for a proper phone when we hardly call anyone at the moment. It has a speakerphone, so should be useful for telephone conferencing (ie Jason ringing me at home). I also noticed that webcams are now very cheap so there is one of them on the way as well. It means we can videoconference...and more importantly I can leave it looking at the office when I'm away and sneak a peek from home.

Jason is off to Henley for an SME Conference at the end of the month. I really must get on with the marketing info for that as we could do with generating a bit of business.