of an expectant father…yes, derive from that what you will.

1)  See ‘The Wrestler’ — OK its never going to give the up lifting comic feel that say, Bridget Jones Diary might…but its a sensational film, at times hard to watch.  You might just feel better about yourself.

2)  I met an American yesterday who didn’t recognise my accent as being American.  Oh dear…and with around 9 months to go before I got back this isn’t going to be pretty

3) Obama…he’s the man.  OK, generally quite conservative is I…but I love that guy.  I even spent 20 minutes surfing the White House website

4) Thanks for everyone who came out to the Tithe Barn Open Day on Saturday.  It was refreshing to do what amounts to a wedding fair with a limited number of suppliers in each genre.  The fact that I actually know, like and respect ALL of the suppliers also helps.

5) Facebook…love it, but shouldn’t there be a rule that states you must provide a profile pic for every decade you’ve been alive.  I’m getting people from high school add me as a friend and I can’t, for the life of me, figure out who the hell they are.  Sorry people.

6) Nesting.  Some folks have been led to believe that my lack of blogging must have something to do with the baby (the one that hasn’t yet arrived).  Indirectly yes.  Nicola (and all women apparently) do this nesting thing were they get anally obsessive about the smallest things needing to be done.  Add to that a recently completed garage conversion and you’ve got a list of DIY jobs as long as number of noughts in the US Federal deficit.  I’m glad to say most are now done

7) Confirmation.  On Saturday Nicola and I were both confirmed into the Anglican Church.  That’s the Church of England ’round these parts.  We’ve enjoyed getting to know many people at St Peter’s in Petersfield.  The service at St Thomas’ Portsmouth (the Anglican Cathedral) was quite moving…even Nicola’s Dad was doing his best ‘Bambi’ face.

8) Played 9 holes of golf last week.  First time since June I played.  How can something so pure be so frustrating.  For the record, The Great Salterns course in Portsmouth is…umm…PANTS.

9) Super Bowl is this coming weekend.  No doubt I’ll watch some of it.  Not really fussed who wins, just hope its a good game

An only child (for now)

But first..a rant.  HOTMAIL blows.  Why?  Well, did you know that if you contact any small business in the world there’s a good chance they can’t directly reply to you if you have a Hotmail account.  Why?  Well, if the aforementioned small business uses a shared email server (like most do) its likely that the ISP who hosts it will, at one time or another, had a scammer business use their IP range to send spam mail.  As a result, the bright sparks at Hotmail simply ban the entire range.  So when I reply I get a message accusing me of being a spammer and that I’m not allowed to talk to you.  Of course I have a Hotmail account which I can send from using my shootinghip email as an alias.  But its not as responsive.  I wonder why it is that Google and Yahoo seem to be able to overcome this but Microsoft can’t.  I’m getting to be more like an Apple user everyday.  Hell, next week I’ll want to start shooting Nikons.

Unfortunately if you thought the reference to the new member of the family was a baby…well, you’d be wrong.  Nope, we’re still waiting…however the in-laws have a new Cocker Spaniel named Monty.  All ears!

After some hard core decorating (no, that’s not me painting in my underpants) we decided to go out for a little walk on Elsted common (near Midhurst).  Here’s a few images.