Stepping back in memory lane at the weekend I managed to find a Sega Megadrive at a car boot sale for just £10 with four games.  It also came with a third party controller, so I was keen to find some original ones.

I bought two controllers from another seller at the boot sale, and despite taking them apart, cleaning them and trying very hard, cannot make the controllers work.  One controllers C button does not work very well, while the others joypad does not work at all.  I’ve tried to make one good controller out of two bad ones, but no luck.  So the third party controller remains ‘gamefully’ employed…

I never owned a Megadrive as a kid, Jus did, and she regrets selling it.

After much cleaning and fiddling with the actual system itself, I managed to get it working (with the help of my brother).  Jus has already completed ‘Mickey Mouse: Castle of Illusion’, and I’m addicted to Lemmings…

Memories!…

When we were little our parents bought a caravan in Holland-on-Sea at the Valley Farm Caravan Park.

Above is us with our late Nan…

Above with Mum outside the van which was ours for seven happy years.

The next purchase was a touring van, a Sprite Alpine…

Followed by a Monza Supreme Elegance:

On Saturday Andrew and I stopped at a caravan sales centre in Weeley and were amazed to find at the gate for sale at just £800 a Monza Supreme Elegance almost identical (check out the window differences) to the one we holidayed in for many many years…

Walking around it was like stepping back in time, remembering a happy childhood all over the country.  Everything was almost the same, from the curtains right down to all the fixtures and fittings and the squeaky sounds the cupboards made as they are opened and closed.

My brother Andrew has now bought a touring caravan (but not this one!).

My colleague Hal MacLean and I are delighted to receive the thank you cards from the pupils of Alder at Darrick Wood Junior School.

All of the cards are excellent, well done class

Hal and I visited the school a few weeks ago and ran an animation session with Alder class, followed by an induction into some new software the children are testing for us.

We’re really pleased to have had the opportunity to work with them so far, they are a very smart group.  The children are logging in often to the software and have been giving us some really useful feedback and advice.

The class teachers, Mrs Tanner and Mrs Davey are exceptionally good and it has been a pleasure to work with Darrick Wood Junior School.

We’ll be pinning up all the cards around the office, thanks Alder, you are all great!

Here are some of the comments in the cards:

and…

and…

and…

It really was a really really good day.

We are looking forward to our return to the school in a few weeks for a feedback session with the class on our new software.

In East Anglia I think 'National Express' should think about maybe
removing 'Express' from their name.

I really am starting to sound like a young Victor Meldrew but quite
frankly the whole National Express East Anglia' train service
experience is quite shocking.

Every time this month I've boarded a train this month I've experienced
a delay, which is quite frankly annoying when trying to run a small
business. These days I'm actually having to factor in enough time in
my journey planning for National Express to screw up.

Wednesday morning I borded a train jouney to Norwich which included a
change trains stop further down the line. That's fine, but when
National Express East Anglia terminate the train one stop before I'm
due to get off of it and change that kinda screws things up. The
thing that has annoyed me the most is that nobody has bothered to tell
the passengers what is going on. I had a gentleman sitting a few seats
behind me who was missing a connection and will be an hour late for
his meeting, to my right I had a really nice elderly lady confused and
concerned as she has no idea how the change in services will get her
to her destination.

I on the other hand arrived in Norwich 20 minutes behind when I should.

It has been over 10 years since the railways were taken over by
private companies. On this track since them we've had 'First Great
Eastern', 'Anglia Railways', 'One Railways' and now 'National Express
East Anglia' as the brand running the line.

Come on guys, get Network Rail to fix the signals, refresh the track
where it needs it and to stop this constant 'damage to overhead wires'
problem replace the trains with Diesel locomotives or put a power rail
in like the trains run on in Kent.

I'm sick of delays, and all that I see as visible changes in the last
10 years is repainted stations, rebranded and resprayed carriages and
increased ticket prices.

Bring back 'First Great Eastern', yes they were bad, but atleast they
invested in brand new trains with air conditioning so you could sit in
some kind of comfort during a delay.... Those trains since National
Express took over (under the 'One Railways' brand are now dirty, and
the carriages with toilets in them absolutely stink.

What we need is choice. Network Rail should own the train that pulls
carriages that are owned and opperated by different companies,
those carrier companies will then be competing for passengers to
board their carriages on the same train. A 12 carriage train should
have three companies selling seats in four carriages each, all boarding
from the right portion of the platform for their particular carriage.

The railways are a monopoly still, and the east anglia line needs
heavy investment.

Today and tomorrow we're showing our stuff at the E2BN Conference in
Wyboston near Bedford.

Yesterday Jus and I went to Colchester Zoo. For just under £40 each we
can visit as many times we like over the next year, and have access to
other attractions too around the country.

Colchester Zoo gets better each time I go, the large and visible
variety of food the animals have along with large realistic enclosures
is pretty impressive.

Moving house is an expensive game and it seems that companies all try
and get in on the action taking more than they really should.

The lastest money grabber is 'More Than', the car insurance company
who Jus phoned to tell them she had moved. They took her new address
details and then told her that there was a £15 administration fee for
updating her record.

Sky Television, BT, the water company, electric company, gas company,
buildings insurer, contents insurer, TV licencing, local council, our
gym and even a national cinema chain we pay monthly membership to did
not charge an admin fee to tell them we moved.... so why is it an
insurance company who claim to do more think they should?

Now come on 'More Than', with a slogon like 'We do more' what exactly
have you done for £15? Answered the phone, updated a record and sent
out a letter! And all in less than five minutes!

So when renewal comes round for that particular car I'll be doing more
than usual to find an insurer who does a bit more to keep their
customers sweet.

After a rough patch of kernel panics and fear of losing my work, photos and music my MacBook Pro is humming along again. Big thanks to Hais and Alex for their help getting it back on again!

This blog entry was written on the move using an iPhone and sent to www.mattheweaves.co.uk and Facebook.

This is just one days worth of junk mail and leaflets at our house. Are we alone in getting this much? I dread to think just how much waste is created, I don't even look at it.

This blog entry was written on the move using an iPhone and sent to www.mattheweaves.co.uk and Facebook.

I’m loving Firefox 3, the new version of the popular and free Internet exploring browser.

I’ve found Internet pages open quicker, the interface much more user friendly and the experience much better than Apple Safari or Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Along with other new features one of the great things about Firefox 3 is that it has stronger filters and protection against phishing sites, cookies, and other tools that can compromise security and privacy.

Well worth a download, click the link below: