Seaford seafront

Although a little more bumpy than Eastbourne's, me and Verity took to
our wheels and scooted up and down the prom'.

Bugger...

This picture didn't send the other day when I sent it but Sunday's sport exploits were enjoyed in Phil and Fi's back garden, although I think I need to watch the hi-lights of the F1 as I missed the last 30 laps!

At the dogs

For Jo's birthday. I've never so much as bought a scratch card but I
won £6.20 on my first bet. Happy days

One year old today...

This time last year I started this blog and hopefully you're all enjoying it.

Following the trend on this blog, since there has been a little lull in posts lately it means it's time for one of my trademark mega posts.

First up; V's bouncy Birthday.

We weren't sure what the weather would have in store for us that Sunday but thankfully it turned into a beautiful day. BBQ, football, frisbee, bouncing, music, swimming and fun ensued. The perfect end to Verity's birthday weekend.

Her Birthday was actually on the Friday, and whilst she was at work I set to work making a three course meal, making a card, wrapping her presents, and hiding them around the house. When she got back I gave her her card which had the first clue to her birthday treasure hunt in it. She loved it, and her meal, and her presents.

Saturday was of course England's first match of the world cup, but the less said about those first two games the better. Us lads headed to the pub for the night whilst the girls had a girly evening and we all met up at the pub afterwards. I did have pictures somewhere but I can't find them.

Next weekend it was Fi's birthday. Her fiancé arranged a surprise dinner for her at a fantastic local restaurant called Oliver's, and the following day she was surprised again with a trip to Hamdon Court Palace. I had never been and had a great time.

Tuesday was a great day which started of with James and I heading to the driving range at Lotbridge Drove followed by 9 holes. After that it was lunch and a beer at the club house when I noticed a prat in an England shirt waving an iPhone around playing a vuvuzala app, as it turned out it was my Grandad ; )

After golf we went home, got showered and changed before meeting up with James again for dinner. This time in Brighton to go and see Spamalot. It was amazing, I laughed so hard I cried.

Wednesday I yet again headed over to Brighton to see James. But this time, as you may have read it was so we could both get up early to get in line for the iPhone 4. when they opened the doors at 7am there was 120+ people in the queue, James and I got in 4th and 5th.

Over the road the same sized queue was forming outside the O2 store but they had to wait until 08:02am to get theirs so we walked past filming the queue with our iPhones, bad winners I know but nevermind.

Tired but rewarded

I stayed over in Brighton last night with my friend James so we could get up at 3am and get in line for an iPhone 4.
I have a whole folder of bits to blog on my Mac so stay tuned for Verity's birthday, golf with James, Spamalot, iPhone launch pictures and more.

Finished !!

I'll try them out tomorrow

Speaker rebuild...

I found a website that could supply me with the spare foam gaskets I needed to repair my speakers. After some research I found that Memorex use Tandy parts and found a dutch site that posted them to me the next day.

As you can see they are in pretty bad shape. This happened due to the foam becoming old and brittle. Not some crazy one-off party.

The repair was all going to plan until I glued the outer part of the gasket in place. After it had cured one of the speakers voice coil was chaffing on the sheath and making some nasty noises. I had to painstakingly cut the newly glued down gasket away from the metal surround to free up the voice coil, carefully cut out the centre paper cone and shim it out before re-gluing. If all goes to plan, once the glue has set I can take out the shims and carefully stick the centre cone back in.

There was a small amount of cosmetic damage on the speaker that went smoothly between 12 and 3 o'clock. As seen in the picture in the bottom right. This was from removing the 'tit-tape' that was holding the foam together before I attempted the rebuild.

Fingers crossed the Speaker curing at the moment will be fine.

Kayaking with Ben and Phil...

Whilst V and her friend Fi went to see the new 'Sex and the City' film I was invited to join the boys kayaking on Seaford beach. When asked if I had done it before I replied 'not in little while'. The truth is I had a go for about 20 minutes when I was about 10 and I don't seem to remember it having anything to do with massive waves!

After struggling to get past the breaking point of the waves for about half an hour I finally got out and we spent a few hours tussling with the tide. Great fun.

If anyone wants to buy me an early birthday present I'll have a GoPro HD Hero please!

Froyo

Without a Froyo in our part of the world just yet, V and I thought we would have a go at it ourselves.

Activity day...

With the weather being so nice, and V still being off work with half term, we decided to strip down to our smalls and play badminton and croquette in the garden.

Bank holiday party...

There were 10 of us in total, V made huge amounts of lasagne and we finished off the night with a game of spoons. It also finished off my Memorex 304's Gary and my Dad gave me for my birthday one year, so new parts have been ordered so they can be repaired in time for V's Birthday party I am trying to arrange for next weekend.