Archive

Weeknotes 2020 #11

The Virus has arrived!

Weeknotes 2020 #10

Raclette!

Weeknotes 2020 #9

Weekend at Parents, March already!

Weeknotes 2020 #8

Windy rainy & Ikea.

Weeknotes 2020 #7

A week of solo parenting and reading books.

Weeknotes 2020 #6

Arthur turned 5 and I went to Sheffield for Frontend North Conference.

Weeknotes 2020 #5

Finished reading The Three Body Problem, running lots, went to Newbury

Weeknotes 2020 #4

Design Museum and Cirque du Soleil in London!

Weeknotes 2020 #3

We had our winter work retreat in Oxford, friends over and started sorting out our garage.

Weeknotes 2020 #2

Back in England, return to work. Weekend in London

Weeknotes 2020 #1

New Year in Brittany. Home to a water leak.

2019 Review

2019 in Review

Weeknotes #28

Christmas in France. Running with Marion.

Weeknotes #27

Almost Christmas. A marathon?

Weeknotes #26

Christmas Party!

Weeknotes #25

Running Races!

Weeknotes #24

So much rain!

Weeknotes #23

November Already! Serene launches! Cambridge visited!

Weeknotes #22

Didcot Demolition, Graduation for Arthur, sleepless nights for Emma and all

Weeknotes #21

A wedding in the French Alps, Swimming in Lake Annecy, JAMStack Conference London

Weeknotes #20

Since last time I have: run a 24km trail race, been on holiday to Croatia, celebrated Emma's first birthday.

Weeknotes #19

We have finally moved house! Last week was super stressful and tiring Marion went back to work Emma started nursery and didn’t sleep well…

Music I'm Currently Listening to

The top 3 albums I am listening to.

Weeknotes #18

Beautiful spring weather has finally arrived; Arthur mastered cycling; Emma is climbing the stairs and the cycling season has started.

Exercise Notes #1

This is the first of many exercise notes where I focus on what exercise I have been doing and how I'm feeling.

Weeknotes #17

This was the last week for me: A lot of other people are doing weeknotes. I personally love doing them as it gives me a chance to reflect on…

Running Goals for 2019.

In this post I finally write down the goals I want to achieve in running.

Trialling Eleventy.

I wanted to be able to write without having to fucking login to WordPress, I didn't want to use Jekyll or Gatsby. Thus I am using Eleventy.

Addicted to Vitality Points.

This is a post on My Blog about my addiction to Vitality Points.

Weeknotes #16

Last week was holiday time with Marion, Emma and Arthur.

Weeknotes #15

Hot winter weather, a date day at the Spa and weekend at the parents were followed by an exciting week of Electron development.

Weeknotes #14

Arthur had his fourth birthday and with 3 other equally aged friends had a joint birthday party with pirate ship, push cars, pass the parcel…

Weeknotes #13

Exercise Have started using the rowing machine at the gym, and also doing some lat pulldowns. Keeping at 3x a week always consisting of run…

Looking back to 2018

Emma was born in May and for the rest of the year our lives were turned upside down. One is fun but you forget about the early months and…

2020 Goals

2020 Goals

Weeknotes #12

At work I am developing an Electron app. I get to use React for the front-end, socket.io for the connection between local server and…

Weeknotes #11

Bro and his g/f stayed over with us last weekend Went running in the rain on Saturday morning (new rain jacket is excellent) and got lost…

Weeknotes #10

Gym twice a week - Weds after work, Fri before work - at the moment I prefer to go before work but it does mean getting up earlier. Running…

Weeknotes #9

I have finally joined the gym (thanks to work paying for it!) so have been thrice. Also: #ffconf

Weeknotes #8

This week was spent mostly on trains, with a little bit of wedding and birthday in between.

Weeknotes #7

This week was mostly about learning and reading.

How to trigger a webhook with WordPress

I have a Gatsby site andrewhudson.me which is a static Server Side Rendered (SSR) site built using React and hosted on Netlify. I wanted to…

Weeknotes #6

I've done a lot of learning this week and also I went for a big family walk last Sunday.

Weeknotes #5

This week has been mostly about: Learning loads about Gatsby, setting up andrewhudson.me using Gatsby v2 including creation of a couple of…

Automate Opening Zoom MacOS

I detail how to automate the opening of Zoom on MacOS using crontab.

New Arrival – Emma Hudson

We are proud and happy to announce the arrival of our Emma Hudson born on 29th May weighing 3.0kg. I’ve just returned back to work after…

Weeknotes #4

I launched a PWA, Arthur turned three and we went to the farm.

Weeknotes #3

We put the house on the market, I worked on a PWA, and I continued my juggling practice.

Weeknotes #2

I ran a couple of times, did some DIY and started juggling again.

Weeknotes #1

Inspired by Rachel Andrew’s weeknotes I am going to write some of the things that I have been doing every week. Here is the first one: 201…

I am implementing web mentions on this website.

After attending View Source Conference in London Yesterday I am now in the process of adding web mentions to my website. Jeremy Keith’s talk…

Running January

Today is the final day of January and at lunch I will go for a run. I have run at least three times a week for four weeks now.

Entered Reading Half

Starting 2017 with great intentions to do more running I have signed up for Reading half marathon on the 19th March.

FF Conf 2016

I have wanted to attend FFConf for as many years as it has been running and this year I was lucky to attend. Here are my notes from the talks which stood out to me...

30 running days of September

Last month I decided to go running every day. That's 30 days of going outside into the fresh and cool/warm/hot air and going running. Day after day after day, running.

First ever parkrun

On Saturday morning I ran my first ever parkrun - Didcot Parkrun. 5k is a fast and painful all out distance, but once complete it sets up the weekend nicely.

Morning Runner

Some people might say that there is never enough time in the day to go running. But there is always time. In the morning before everyone is up!

The Economy of Keystrokes - Kyle Simpson

Earlier today I watched this is a excellent video about writing code that can be read, understood, documented and accessible to all that will use it in the future (be that you, your team or anyone else).

Happy 2016!!!

It's the 4th of January and my first day back in the UK after an fantastic holiday with family in France - the food, weather and company were excellent, and Arthur wants to walk everywhere and has learned how to stand up with help of furniture.

Realtime Communication with socket.io and WordPress

Last night I watched this video about connecting socket.io and WordPress for realtime update of WordPress content. This is incredible!

Using forecast.io with WordPress

How to use the WordPress Transients API and wp remote get() to grab the latest weather from the forecast.io API.

Codepen all the things

Every time I have an issue with code I turn straight to codepen to make a small demo to concentrate on only the parts that will affect the problem. If it is JS then I add the minimum HTML and then work through the issue in the JS window, same if it is with CSS. I love it.

Angular with WP API

Here is how you can use the WP API to pull in the 10 latest posts using Angular.

Arthur is 6 months Old

On Saturday it was 6 months since Arthur was born and he’s doing really well. Attempting to crawl, he also talks and smiles a lot. arthur…

UX of Offline

https://vimeo.com/125479288

Arthur is now 80 days old

Time flies. Arthur is now 11.5 weeks old and doing well. Each day he continues to change and life is a continual wonder, both for us to observe his new skills and abilities and for him.

New Arrival - Arthur Hudson

We are proud and happy to announce the arrival of our Arthur Hudson born on 8th February weighing 3.5kg.

Distracted? Let's make technology that helps us spend our time well

This is an excellent TEDx talk about distractions from technology, and value to be gained from spending our time well. https://www.youtube…

This is Water

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrOL-ydFMI via/CSS Tricks

Name One & Maxxi Soundsystem 'One In Three'

A lack of deep bass music these days (unless I've not found the good stuff) I found this on Veerle's Music.

Do One Thing Well

Here’s a list of things that show product design that focuses on doing one thing excellently well not trying to do everything at an average…

Thoughts on Inbox

I've been a keen user of google inbox for over a month and here are my initial thoughts.

I heart Podcasts

So I've finally started to listen to Serial, downloaded a Podcasting app, and fell in love with This American Life, restarting my affair with podcasts.

Hoorah for Science and Exploration

Yesterday the scientists at the European Space Agency managed to plant a probe on a comet. It took 10 years to get there and great teamwork and planning.

All the Stars - The Shifting Sands

I heard this last Thursday while baking my wife's birthday cake, and put it here before I forget the band.

José Gonzalez - Every Age

I've always loved the music of José Gonzalez after hearing “Heartbeats” in 2004. Now he's released a new track “Every Age” and here's the video of it.

Two to Become Three

This is where I announce that my wife is pregnant with our first child.

Why Work doesn't happen at work

An excellent TED video where Jason Fried explains why work doesn't happen at work

Road to Page Speed Perfection

A tweet inspired me to improve my page speed score and I managed to get both mobile and desktop to 100.

How I run my site

Skills that I’ve learned in my day job have enabled working on the latest version of this site much more simple and pleasurable than previously. I use Gulp, Bower and Continuous deployment to streamline everything.

Goodbye Facebook

What is the point of Facebook if not to compare yourself with others. I have had enough of this and have deleted my account. Here's why.

Mr Scruff IN Piccadilly Records

During my university days I lived in Manchester and frequently went to Piccadilly records for my weekly music fix. Mr Scruff was one of the excellent artists that kept me sane.

https

I read this morning that google ranks https:// sites higher than http:// sites, and I watched the video from this years I/O conference…

New Server

Logged into server last night. “The server operating system has reached the end of its life, please upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04”. I’d wanted to…

Re-install for better performance

The last few days at work I have been prevented from using Adobe products and with no solution I had to format and re-install.

Maximal Sentence Length

Gov.uk “use sentences less than 25 words long”, which is an excellent idea and one that I have started using on this site.

Picture Featured Image Post

The new element is incredible if you want to serve different images based on the width of the browser that the user is viewing your site on. While the browsers are currently working on implementing the spec, you can implement it with a polyfill called picturefill.js. I've applied this to my WordPress site and will detail how I've done it, starting first with featured images.

Running in Space

Look at how astronauts on the ISS can run in space. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_ikouWcXhd0

USA Pro road race champion

This guy became the USA Pro road race champion. http://vimeo.com/81173752

Updating my Site

Currently I am in the process of updating this site. I have already switched to a new theme “v4” and I am using Bower, Gulp, Foundation…

Making of Road Bike Party 2

Wow, if you’ve ever seen the incredible Road Bike Party 2 then you’ll love to see how they made it. http://youtu.be/xhI3CUDEWfU

Cool Surf Photography Video

CREATORS: Clark Little on Staring Down Shorebreak for The Perfect Shot http://vimeo.com/92529798

Croix de Fer

So I have a new bike. My new bike criteria was for a 4-season, commuter, explorer bike, I chose the Genesis Croix de Fer with Topeak rack…

WebP images

Here are a couple of webP images. I plucked them from this example webp gallery. 1.sm 5.sm

An SVG

Here’s an inline SVG image. kiwi

Goals for 2014

My key goals for the current year are: Improve my JavaScript, Solve my Rubick’s Cube, Do more exercise Improve my JavaScript Here’s why. I…

Lessons Learnt from breaking Servers

Last week I decided to upgrade the version of nginx that I’m using to run this site. Without taking any backups. On a Thursday evening when…

Automation (my) Solution

!/bin/bash function newSite { local appdir=“/Applications/XAMPP/htdocs/$1” local sourcedir=“/Applications/XAMPP/htdocs/source” local…

Automation

Recently I have been going through the number of processes that I need to do to set up a new WordPress site locally before development can…

Breaking Borders #3

laser-print Last night with the guys from work I went to the third edition of Breaking Borders (bi-monthly web meetup at Reading University…

I've Entered Henley Half-Marathon

I’ve done it, signed up for Henley half-marathon. It was a choice of two different half-marathons on the very same day: Oxford (£31) and…

i Made that too!

I’ve been at Electric Studio for 7 months and following on from my first site list I’ve a few more sites that I’ve developed: National…

One Week to Go!

What a week this one has been, returning to work after two weeks ill (tonsillitis / Quinsy — not very nice). Last night we ordered a fridge…

10 Years!

Thinking about Rippin Kitten and this years Tour de France especially stages 17 and 18 brings back memories of the summer of 2003 when I was…

Rippin Kitten — Miss Kitten

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTYJZtnUuF0 I’ve not heard this in a long time, way back at uni, but listening to the new LP by Jon Hopkins…

New Pixies Song!

Pixies — Bagboy found this via the Guardian Music Site

The Tallest Man on Earth — Walk the Line

I’ve been listening to The Tallest Man on Earth all morning and I really like it. Shades of José Gonzalez, amazing voice and guitar singer…

Reading to Par by bike

Back on the Bike!

Yesterday Marion and I cycled to Didcot to see the progress of our new house. We cycled there together and after seeing the house (the roof…

Space Oddity - Commander Chris Hadfield

This is what the internet was made for. Incredible! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9danxNo

i Made That!

I’ve been at Electric Studio for almost three months and in this time I’ve made a number of different sites, of which I am proud to share…

Reading Half-Marathon Failiure

This year I didn’t run the Reading Half-Marathon. I’d signed up for it on the 30th of August last year and I totally was committed to doing it, right until the beginning of February when I changed jobs.

Time flying by

Flying past is the time, with no time to breathe or lookup and take in the scenery or contemplate what has happened or what is happening.

Responsive conference

I’m in Brighton sipping coffee and eating a patisserie waiting for the start of #responsiveconf which is the first responsive web design…

Between Jobs

Last week I finished my first ever web job - creative developer at HeathWallace - and took the train north to New Adventures in Web Design…

Running 2013 – Week 2

The second week of running for 2013 was not much better than the first week. Snow, travel and a WordPress meetup in London all were excuses…

Running 2013 - Week 1

A summary of the first week of running this year goes like this. After the lack of miles over the Christmas period (I only ran once, on…

Joe Banfi - Guts and Bones

Allo Darlin - Tallulah

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KtlzdrKd-8 Been listening to the excellent Imprint this on your Mind Podcast recently and this tune popped…

New Job

At the end of December I accepted an offer to become a front-end WordPress developer with Electric Studio a WordPress studio in Abingdon…

Happy New Year 2013!

I want to wish you a very happy new year. Twenty Twelve was an incredible year for me and I hope this continue into 2013. I’ll outline my…

Summary of 2012

Here are the highlights of 2012: Married (two ceremonies, two parties, two countries) Honeymoon in Peru Two kittens - Inti and Punku London…

Jessica Hische: Lettering for a Living

http://vimeo.com/47428975 This morning I had the pleasure of watching this excellent talk from Interlink Conference by Jessica Hische, who…

Sunday Morning Sweatshop Run

This morning was the first of Sweatshop’s training runs for the 2013 Reading Half-Marathon. For some unknown reason I decided to go fast…

Yorkshire Tour de France 2014 Grand Depart

This is incredible news: Yorkshire has been awarded the Grand Depart for the 2014 Tour de France. Two stages in Yorkshire and the third will…

Post-illness Whitley HW Run

Last night I went for a run with the HW club the same route as last week. It was cold, much more so than last week, and icy in places. I was…

Friday River

Ran tonight with Marion along the river. 4.0 miles in 37:32. Took my weekly total to 20.3 miles which I think must be a lifetime record for…

Turbo Thursday

I did 31 minutes on the turbo trainer tonight, first time I’ve done any form of cycling as exercise since August. It took absolutely ages to…

Whitley with HW Group

Last night I went running with the work running group and we did Whitley. Was pretty cold but good to do a route that didn’t involve…

Monday Long Run

Last night I went for my longest run since Feb with 10.4 miles through Caversham, Emmer Green and along the flooded river.

Happy St.Andrew's Day!

Today is St Andrew’s Day and as my name is Andrew I’m wishing all other Andrews a happy St Andrews!

Two Girl Kittens

This afternoon Marion took the cats to the vet and what we thought once as two boy kittens are now “girls”. So Inti and Punku are girls!

Running - Five weeks

Last five weeks have been really good as I have been running on average least twice a week every week since October 28th when I woke up…

Jason Santa Maria : Saying No

http://vimeo.com/53155584

HW Running Club

Last night was my first time with the work running club and we did 7.6 miles around Caversham and West Reading in 1:10:41 with some hills…

Cold Feet

Winter seems to have arrived early bringing cold air inside and out. Currently I’m freezing my arse off at the office at work and after work…

Moving to AWS

Following up from my decision to change web host I have decided to go with AWS. Now I’ve migrated this site to a Amazon Web Services (AWS…

Changing Web Hosts

For the last six years my sites have been hosted by Dreamhost and for the vast majority of that time I have been a happy customer. Unlimited…

Running with Ale

Last night I went running with Ale around Prospect Park. 4.5 miles in 45:58.

JavaScript : the Good Parts

It seems to me that the future of front-end development is with JavaScript and that now is a good time to become much better at writing and…

140 days - Reading Half Marathon

Today marks the end of British Summer Time (BST) and start of Reading Half-marathon training. Today also marks 140 days until the race and…

Music - a year in retrospective

I’ve been a member of the Rough Trade Album Club for the last year and not really listened to all the CDs so this afternoon while trying out…

The 2013 Tour de France

The route of the 100th edition of the Tour de France has just been released and Marion, Rob, Rich, Nick & I are planning to see some action.

Birthday #32

Today is my 32nd birthday and I am at work bug fixing. Marion made me an excellent (chocolate!) birthday cake and tonight a surprise is…

Chris Coyier - Big Web Show

Right now listening to the latest Big Web Show with Chris Coyier being interviewed by Jeffrey Zeldman

Beta Guardian Site

Yesterday I read that the Guardian website is currently being re-developed and is currently in Beta. The site is going to be responsive…

Sass 3.2: Silent Classes

I’m a huge fan of Sass and this slidedeck shows how to use the newly updated @extend functionality in Sass 3.2 to help write better CSS…

Gathering Festival this weekend

Looking forward to going to Gathering festival this Saturday in Oxford. Features bands including George Ezra, Swiss Lips and Paws. Gathering…

Inti and Punku - first photos

Inti is the one with white patch under its chin (first two photos). Punku is the one with fluffy hair (latter two photos). [gallery ids…

XKCD

George Ezra - It's Just My Skin

http://soundcloud.com/george-ezra/george-ezra-its-just-my-skin

Going on Holiday to France

Tomorrow morning we’ll catch the train to Gatwick Airport then fly to Marseille for a week in Provence. Really can’t wait!

Don't Hack the Core

As often as you are tempted it’s a very bad idea to hack the WordPress core. Each time an update is made, your changes are over-written. A…

Kittens

Kittens now are ~4 weeks old still being nursed by their mum. Here’s a photo:

James Burke - Admiral Shovel and the Toilet Roll

Your Browser does not support the HTML5 Audio element. Link from dConstruct 2012 archive Useful online mp3 -> ogg convertor

Benny

[gallery]

Putting Photos online with WordPress

Take photos off of camera Choose which ones you want to put online Optimise with program such as XnConvert I personally like to change the…

Big CSS

Presentation by Harry Roberts (@csswizardry) at canvas conf

Cats

Post London 2012 Blues

17 days of excellent sport and fantastic atmosphere have rocked this country following the London 2012 Olympic Games. Now, sadly, they have…

Honey Moon

Last night we booked our flights to Peru where Marion and I are going on Honeymoon! I am really excited and looking forward to going to the…

1Q84

Haruki Murakami is my favorite author and I am on the final chapter of the first book of his triple-book epic “1Q84” that I received for my…

Web Dev Conf

I’m really looking forward to tonight because tonight I am going to Bristol for my first ever “Web Developers Conference”.

Radiohead Remixes Stream

Tropical Music

Turbo Training

Darkness arrives way to early at this time of the year, too early for cycling after work and departs too late to go in the morning before…

Fourtet Remix of Radiohead

Separator - Four Tet RMX by Radiohead via Fourtet.net

Awesome Thom York Mix

Thom Yorke MoneyBack Mix - Xfm Music: Response 15/09/11 by Mary Anne Hobbs on Mixcloud

Sixty miles!

It’s been a bloody long time since I rode that far on a bike and the final 10 miles were those of a suffering knackered empty excuse for a…

Olympics a Year away

Today marks start of  one-year count-down to the 2012 London Olympics. Already there is much in the press and warm-up events that are here…

The Rules

The Rules of Road Cycling (again cheers bro for the link!)

Bad Mood Monday

This incredibly accurate image shows what I am feeling like this Monday morning. Tired achy, grumpy. (cheers to my Bro for the link) In…

Back from Italy

Back from a week in Tuscany. A wedding, the furnace of mid-summer Florence and mosquitos. All this mixed with plenty of deliciously sun…

Blogging via iPad2

Ever since buying my iPad2 in March I have always wanted to write a blog post and send it live from the magical device, I even bought a…

Blogging via Google Docs

Earlier this week I stumbled upon a video explaining how to run a news site and newspaper using Wordpress and Google Docs and I thought that…

Mid-summer

Reading writing and listening. Today is mid-summer and fete de la musique, a time of music and celebration. I am reading listening to Nada…

Speed!!!

Lately I seem to be totally obsessed with speed and tonight I have made two fantastic advances in my quest for online speed: I installed a…

Wedding and Website

Yeah it’s been really hectic lately, life that is! I’ve been working on a wordpress website for a designer called Kat, Marion and I have…

Website Optimisation

I love speed, everything to do to get something done faster is must for me. This week I finally have fiber-optic internet and now I am…

Back to Running!

A gorgeous evening to go running it’s the first time since winter that I’ve been out and the sun was shining and it was hot. It really feels…

Plugin Error Fixed!!!

I have found out what I was doing wrong to cause my wordpress plugin to throw up an error and it was this: On activation you put a piece of…

Coffee and Photos

Marion (my fianceé) has posted a couple of new posts with photos from our skiing holiday in Courchevel and walking in the Peak District in…

Plugin Error

Trying to work on my plugin this evening has been frustrating because I keep on getting an error that says : The plugin generated 30…

Plugin Development (part one) [wordpress]

This is the first time that I have started to make a plugin and here I shall write about the process of making it. To begin with I will…

Southampton Summer Time

This morning marked the beginning of Summer (time) and signalled a spring forward in time and renewal in the air. Yesterday Marion and I…

Ipad2 Prices

Looks like the iPad2 is cheaper than the original iPad. 16GB wifi is £399 whereas original was £429 (source: Guardian).

Spring in Madrid

As mentioned earlier last week we travelled to Madrid on Friday to see our friends Cesar and Inma. We were collected by Cesar at the airport…

ManU Chelsea Quarters

The draw for the quarter-finals of the Champions League was made earlier this morning and ManU were drawn against Chelsea. Here’s the full…

Going to Madrid

Tomorrow afternoon we’ll be taking the airplane to Madrid to see our good friends Cesar and Inma in their new home for the first time since…

IE9 is here

The latest version of Internet Explorer IE9 is here and now is the time to work out if Microsoft has finally found the answer to Firefox…

Pancake Time!

Another Shrove Tuesday arrives and now we’re going to head out to Pancakes at Dave’s.

iPad2?

After the introduction last night of the latest apple iPad I’m deciding whether Apple is still the best or have the other manufacturers…

TED - Work/Life Balance

This is an excellent TED talk about the work-life balance.

River and Back - 21m19s [Running]

Second run of the week after doing the same route in much colder conditions after work on Monday (22m14s though I had to wait to cross…

Last weekend was "Creating Custom Posts"

Last weekend I realised how little I actually knew about Wordpress (the CMS/blog system that powers my blog). My intention was to learn how…

Onwards into the future!

Now that my first post of 2011 is under my belt I can feel confident to write some more. You see for me the more I write the easier writing…

The Year 2010

To start again you have to let go of the past and move forward to free yourself of the baggage that weighed you down. This is what I want to…

2010 review

The year that was 2010 was for me a very good one and I completed a number of goals and I will summarise them here. I completed my Masters…

I passed!!!

This is the end of a long journey which I started a long time ago. In April 2008 I persuaded myself and my girlfriend (now fiancee) Marion…

Still Studying

It’s really cold in this office where I am studying. So cold that I cannot really feel my feet. I do have some really good music - the Tron…

Studying

Work, study. Work, study. That’s all I am doing at the moment. The exam is next Thursday and I am doing lots of revision for it. Nothing…

Sunday Morning

Good morning to all out there on this beautiful brilliantly cold ice-blue Sunday morning! On the stereo is Mercury Rev’s “All is But a Dream…

update

current I’ve been learning a lot about CSS3 lately. Having bought a copy of Andy Clarke’s Hardboiled Web Design I have also started to do…

shake shake shake

Weekends always come so quickly but never last for long. It’s been another busy couple of months: my new job, completing the GR20, and…

Friday the Thirteenth

A quick post at the end of a very busy week of work. I am getting my head around SVN and the workings of life as a developer. I’m looking…

Writing from w.bloggar

While I listen to the latest podcast from The Big Web Show (a weekly show about different topics related to the web, hosted by Zeldman and…

Thursday Training

This morning before work I went for my first run in 6 weeks. And I feel really great for having done it. Twenty minutes and the route was my…

Wednesday Stress

What began as a simple entry to life as a developer has quickly descended into a life with ten thousand different strands each taking up all…

Tuesday Fuckup

I thought that I would be playing badminton right now. Instead I am at home typing into my computer. That’s a bad swap and it happened…

Monday and Knackered

Every time I open up the “New Post” section of my blog admin and wait for the words to come to my fingers. The space to write is so large (I…

Final Day Chemist

Today marks the end of my career as a chemist, something that I have been working and studying for 13 years (since the start of my A-levels…

Coffee break

This morning not feeling very well I had to skip brekki so that I arrived at 10 o’clock absolutely starving and in need of energy and some…

Big News #2 {new job}

Just under two weeks separate the end of my Chemistry career and the beginning of my new career in web development. I have a job as Front…

Big News #1 {marriage}

I have some really fantastic news to share with you. Marion and I are going to get married. I proposed at the top of Glastonbury Tor on our…

First Training Runs with Forerunner 405

For our 3-year anniversary Marion gave me a Garmin Forerunner 405 which is a running/cycling watch with GPS and heart rate. While out…

A new Dawn - A new Speedo!

New Speedo for my bike! This morning I fitted it to the bike and rode to work. Normally I am happy to race cars and then take a breather…

Monday Morning!

The weekend flew past and it’s Monday morning. Before I go to work I will tell you what’s been going on since last I wrote. I passed my…

Weekend and Studying

Sunday afternoon and the birds are cheeping, otherwise it’s quiet and I am taking a break from studying. This week has been a busy one with…

Foals and Coco

Last night we went to see Foals at the Oxford Academy and was thoroughly impressed by the band. Very tight musically and some really good…

Running Again!

Tonight after work I went running for the first time since the 24th of February. Not very far and not a very long run (15m07s) to go around…

Weekend and PHP time

Good Evening Folks! I have been working on some PHP recently. I have decided to change from .html to .php on big-andy.co.uk so that I could…

Grid Layout

The last couple of nights I have been working on implementing some grid techniques (horizontal and vertical alignment of content) and have…

Dorset Wind Blast

Thank god for short weeks in May (there are 2) which allow for escape into the countryside. We went to Dorset via the New Forest, camping on…

Ideas

what this blog is missing in my opinion is something creative that’s not text-related. In other words it needs photos, graphics, design… and…

CIW Site-Designer

Web-design has always been a passion of mine and two years ago I started a course called Masters CIW Designer through a company called…

you should really download the new blur song!

sunny outside and this is a quick short post! You can download for free the new blur song which they recorded for yesterday’s independent…

Not Running [from iPhone]

This year I had to pull out of attempting the Reading Half-Marathon because of injury to my left knee I sustained from crashing my bike. Now…

Looking Forward - [Post from iPhone]

This is an interesting experience: I am now writing this post from my iPhone. Not the easiest of experiences but allows one to post on the…

sunshine walk along the river

This morning we went for a walk along the river to get some fresh air and were blasted away by strong in the face winds and bright blue…

Running to Work #2 [20m58s]

man that one was a tough one, the legs restricted by my running tights, the lungs by flegm, and the head by a desire to be back in bed due…

Running Home #4 [19m40s]

Coughing hard from tonight’s run, the first of the week, but glad I did go running as I took the weekend off and didn’t have the energy or…

Friday Summary

Writing this is in itself quite knackering because I have tired and drawn myself out with all the running (and running about) that I have…

Running Home #3 [20m40s]

I ran home from work on Friday and took my time, and was slowed more by having to wait at traffic lights to cross the road. Was cold and…

Along Canal Bridge [30min - 3.91miles]

Not having time to run to or from work I needed to go out running at lunchtime. It was raining and muddy too as I ran along the canal…

Running Home #2 [19m11s]

Despite my legs being heavy and my stomach full of chocolate birthday cake (thanks Aklile, happy birthday again!) I ran home tonight. Warmer…

Running to Work [20m07s - 2.69miles]

Yesterday I made the bold decision to carry on my running to/from work regime and skipped breakfast and jumped into my running kit with just…

Running Home [19m14s - 2.69miles]

Tonight I ran home from work - 2.69 miles in 19mins14s which equates to a 7.08min/mile pace . Not momentous in distance but definitely the…

Happy New Year!

Well it’s been a couple of weeks into 2010 and lots of snow has fallen and almost melted again. Christmas and New Year were great and lots…

Tonight it snew

2 o’clock sharp: snow started falling from the dark grey clouds. 3-45 gets heavier and heavier. By the time its time to leave (1630) there’s…

Running - Prospect Park with Cesar

The head was hungover but the feet needed to move, plus I’d made a promise to Cesar that we’d be going running in the morning. Seemed like a…

Wiggo into the Sky

Brad Wiggins, British cycling god, has today signed to join the British pro-team “Team Sky”. This is awesome news for British cycling and I…

Running - Short River

Second run of the week and it was damp foggy and dark. I’ve run this route in the daytime but in the dark it was much better. Sections of…

Let the Training Begin! [Running!]

My first run of the season (not including running in NYC) was tonight and it was good to be outside and running! Only 2.17 miles in 15’2…

juxtaposition of time

listening to Gilles Peterson using the cans that Marion bought me for my birthday is one of life’s greatest pleasures. That and sorting…

Photography at TVU

I have started a photography evening course - specifically titled “ABC Level 3 Award in Digital Photo-Imaging” - at the Thames Valley…

roll of film and the white cup of tea

Good evening everyone. Back online blogging again after what seems like forever. Today I had my eyes tested and I didn’t recieve my digital…

champions league draw

Champions League group stage draw (thanks bbc sport): Group A Bayern Munich Juventus Bordeaux Maccabi Haifa Group B MANCHESTER UNITED CSKA…

this is the week

this is where it happens? Ok then you’ve got me as I sit here in my office listening to Noah and the Whale’s new album (the beautiful sad…

Blue Sky Fly

Outta the window, out there, it’s just wonderful. Blue sky. Wonderful blue sky. I love it! => Link 60 Unusual Business Cards

start of the championship, stay safe in taiwan

saturday afternoon. week went fast past the eyes and now again its the weekend. last week: rained a lot but manged to get outside a lot too…

Weekend!

This is Friday afternoon and I am about to leave for home. The week has been long and tiring but I played badminton with my school friend…

Photos

Sorting out photos on the computer. Have not put any photos online in a long time but looking into sorting that out. Also looking into batch…

Le Weekend d'été

The weekend. Friday evening I met up with Cesar (he’s just back from his honeymoon in Thailand) at the Nag’s Head and joined by Marion in…

Gah. Just get the words down then!

Been back from Spain since Weds and been doing a lot of tidying and sorting out in the house this weekend, as well as watching sport (tennis…

5ifth day of being ill

image of unhappy face Greets folks, sitting here in the lounge at home waiting for the pizzas to arrive it’s been a hell of an ill week for…

Reading Half-Marathon

Reading Half-Marathon Medal That finishing line brings only pain and aching limbs but getting there was first fun then tiring then enduring…

Spring Un-Sprung

lyon-l Good Evening Folks, Sitting here in two jumpers a pair of gloves, scarf, hat and cup of hot tea it’s not that spring-like anymore…

Running Along the River

Good Evening, just back from the second run of the week. This evening I ran along the River Thames to the boat house and back in 33mins…

Lent Begins!

Now something totally different: Lent. Not a believer in any god or religion but full of belief that too much of one thing doesn’t do you…

almost the weekend

Sitting here reminiscing on the week gone past it’s safe to say that I’m knackered. Marion’s parents came to visit us (their first time to…

snowing melting

wow, another white morning. Marion gets the day off of work because people cannot get to work but I have to now go outside in the wet slushy…

Running

Yesterday [04.02.09] Second bridge along the canal. Some snow (in the shade) and some slush, but was great to get out there running…

Sunday Night Live

Muffins Jazzanova. Gilles Peterson. Snow. Cool. Yeh it’s Sunday night and the weekend is over. So what. Spent most of the weekend studying…

Clouds and Aeroplanes

cloud_aeroplane for my bro and all those interested in streaming radio over the internet, this is an article about cloud music (e.g. live.fm…

Obama the 44th President

2621-9-1-08_BARACKOBAMA Out goes Bush the second, in comes Obama. Here’s the inauguration speech.

Sackboy

sackboy is what everyone really needs on a cold Tuesday morning. thanks idodds. ggggGoing to work now.

Music

Gel Abril - Spells of Yoruba (Tactic Edit)

from scribefire with love

hands even colder than earlier. now trying out scribefire utlity for blogging to my wordpress blog from firefox (rather than logging in…

Sunday morning Winds

Good afternoon. Cold air returns to Reading. Just back from Sainsburys to stock up on milk and something for dinner tonight, and this week’s…

kid cudi

kid cudi Essie Jain

ManU Top!

Last week has been non-stop and knackering. I went running twice and recieved a Squeezebox Duet (for internet radio - it’s fantastic!) and…

password protection, testing #1

grrrrreat… a way to stop your boss and prospective other nosy-dozy folks from reading your intimate secrets (if you ever post them on the…

having a great and relaxing weekend!

sitting here with Marion and setting up her first wordpress blog. here’s some photos:p1020116 from frankfurt trip in December 2008.

Drowned in Sound's Top 50 Albums of 2008

happy new year to you all! DiS’ Top 50 of 2008 in full: M83 Saturdays=Youth (Review / Interview) Frightened Rabbit The Midnight Organ Fight…

back from Frankfurt!

Hello. been to Frankfurt for 3 days to visit my friend Christine and her fiancee Marcus. Had a great time there. Will write more soon!

an IT tech!

Good morning. the wind is blowing across this friday blue-sky morning. re-partitioning old crappy computer with gparted live. Passed my…

passed exam!!!

hi, took CompTIA A+ IT Technician Exam and got 93%!!! So now qualified and can progress onto CIW Associate Training. Glad that it’s out of…

K2

Sitting here in the break room for the second of my IT courses. This is CompTIA A+ IT Technician. The B&B I stayed at is cheap and basic…

friday morning

Holy shit I forgot to blog about it: I passed my A+ Essentials with 84%!!! Yes I am now learning the A+ IT Technician course work and have…

huzzah c'est presque le weekend

good morning folks, it’s almost the weekend almost the end of september and the sun’s a shining and the blue skies are a blazing. Have…

o' course

sitting here in kidderminster on CompTIA A+ Essentials workshop just had first mock exam waiting for the others to finish so can have…

Re-Turn-Running

Back to running for 3 weeks now after a prolonged and intermittant winter and spring while I was commuting to and from Walton-on-Thames…

back

back from the first day at the new job. took 20 mins cycle there in the morning and ‘bout 25 back. The job: well too early to say as only…

100 - one hundred

yes so another beautiful day in paradise. this day spent reading in the garden, finishing “Shalimar the Clown” by Salmand Rushdie, last…

TFFT

welcome back to this blog after a day off-line. Tried to upgrade Wordpress (the strings that hold this blog together) from version 2.5.1 to…

Good Morning World

I am now on two week holiday after 8 gruelling months of getting up at 6am, leaving at 6.30 for 1 hour commute, working till 16.30 and then…

Cavendish Wins ... rain-rain-rain-rain-rain

when is the summer gonna start? today rained from 6am till now (9pm) non-stop. Managed to get out at lunch for a walk with enormous umbrella…

Killer Run

Running: Just back from my first run in 2.5 weeks and was great fantastic awesome to kill myself for the name of getting fit, losing weight…

le week-end

Friday lunchtime and the weekend beccons, the sunshine dazzles and the blue sky dotted with white fluffy clouds. Been a long week but a…

music - second try

PM[Pharoahe Monche - Desire : 3m32] flobots[flobots - handlebars]

Music - First Try

Cassius

CSS3 and other new stuff

New css3 selectors in Fx 3.1 Acid Test New Look BBC Radio Online

chili

How to grow chili from seed. Yes we’ve got a small chili plant bought from a garden centre and it’s growing quite slowly so this article…

To Do List

Rob’s Birthday Present + Card - yes I know bro that you’ve still not received it but at least I am thinking of it! Open DNS - see what…

update

Monday afternoon and the sun is shining. Weekend just gone was spent with M’s Mum M (also) who visited us from France. We picked up M at…

Re-track

Good afternoon! A week off in sunny Turkey with M and a week back in UK now almost settling back into life again. Great holiday in Marmaris…

VVC

In this insipid war-ravaged world writing has become something of a relic of the past when we have excellent music and, with the excellent…

Rock en Seine

Rock en Seine 2008 August 28/29; Paris, France. Having been previously to Rock en Seine 2006 I can say it’s an amazing festival to goto! Wow…

Soon!

Yes new camera at last arrived at work in time for the blue skies and sunshine! It’s a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX500. 10Mpix; 5x optical zoom…

Running in the Turkey Rain

It’s Tue afternoon and the rain continues to fall from the blackish grey sky falling for a few more hours on what should be a sunny and warm…

Wednesday or Monday?

Back from 6 days of rest. Been for 6days in Lyon and Nuits St Georges in France for wedding of M’s friends Armelle and Guillaume, to see M’s…

Bracknell Half-Marathon

Yah, wow, mesmerising, aching, happy. On Sunday I raced in the Bracknell Half-Marathon and beat my personal best by 7:08 in a fantastic time…

10k in the Sunshine

Last night: Having skipped the exercise Tue I had to get out, and the sun was shining and the blue skies were beating down on my lab all…

Back-Front

Monday: went running with Marion: two laps of Palmer Park. Pushed her perhaps more than she wanted to be pushed but that’s what running’s…

TFFiF

Friday! thank fuck for that, Friday has finally arrived. I woke up this morning slightly hungover from last night, bah.  Yesterday I went…

Paint Headache

Last night I had zero energy thus no running. Bah what a poor excuse, eh, I will try to go out tonight. Have party round our house tonight…

/115/

Following a nasty afternoon at work I jumped into the car and drove home. Into the rain I went and out the other side just before getting…

Spring!

Spring Is Here! April Showers, Sun, Snow, Furballs, EVERYTHING!!! Yes it’s Monday and I finally get round to up-dating the blog! So what…

Wales Biking

Friday::: Yes, end of another fast-paced week shortened by Easter and ended by rain and wind. On Monday I went biking with Alejandro and his…

Last Week:::

Running:: Running with Marion we did “Tesco River” 4.68miles in 50mins. Today I ran from Walton Bridge near work really heavy legs did…

Exploding Dried Tulips

Hi Hello Good Afternoon! It’s Friday sunshine dazzles the outerworld while in the innerworld I get ready to go running for the first time…

Running in the Wind

Running:: Just back from the first run of the week. Monday I was ill and Tue Marion and I went to see “4Months, 3Weeks and 2Days” in Oxford…

Oscars

The nominations for the 80th edition of the Oscars have been announced

Running Again!

Yes so I am back running, three times this week so far and it feels great! With my new Polar Heart Rate Monitor watch I can see how much I…

A Break

Marion (coucou mon amour) is in France, I am doing a clinical trial, I have started a new job, Marion and I have found a new place to live…

To Paris

Marion and I are going tonight to Paris for a long weekend staying at her friends house looking to see what one of the world’s most amazing…

Red Junky Crackhead from Venus

“Kings of Leon - The Runner” on current listen, torrential rain on the glisten outside wow what a nice sound they make! Had a couple of job…

Seeing You

Running: Thurs: “Lakes Dell Lane” in 53mins. Damn nice weather out: blue skies and sunshine, not too hot bit of wind perfect. Legs felt…

Ripe Red Tomatoes and the Whistle Stop Cafe

Yeas so I have been running again this afternoon. I died plenty of times, where has the energy the motivation to go running gone? Or am I…

Brrrrrr Winter's on It's Way

Running: Monday: “Ambarrow Ridges” in 33mins. Was really cold out there, fingers frozen pain in arse getting key into door to let myself in…

It's Cold in the Eve Run

Running: Tonight: “Devil’s Highway Nature” in 42mins (crowthorne end first). Began running at 1850 so was quite cold in places in the woods…

Monday Quickie

Running: Yesterday: after an interview and before meeting Marion I had a small window to go running so I grabbed it; I went for a usual…

Ridges Ambarrow

Running: Today: “Reverse Ridges Ambarrow” in 33mins. Really hot, quite knackered in second half of run. It’s the weekend its the weekend…

Down Up

Running: yesterday: “Broadmoor Devil’s Highway” in 44mins. Really struggling with breathing because of lung butter, and coughing too. Great…

Klaxons Scoop The Mercury Prize

Hi news just in Klaxons Scoop 2007 Mercury Music Prize and wow what a great band they are not. Sure I like their music, went to see them…

Welcome back WC

Running: Monday 27.08: “Wellington College+” 23 mins. Had to alter route cause the gates at the far end of the kilometer driver in WC were…

hey ho let's go

Now I am hungover, and punishing myself by being awake. Last night I met with Martin my best friend at school from age 5 till uni. Lots of…

Gin and Juice

Gin and Juice (mp3)

Update Update Update

Yeas so it’s been another month of hectic activity. I have great news: I have a girlfriend she’s called Marion (hi Marion mon amour!) she’s…

June to July

Running: (a brief resume):: 30.May:ELT (extended Long Toll); 1st.June:??; 4.June: WW (Walter’s Wood); 6th.June:River; 8.June:PO(Post Office…

I'm Back

I have not written on this blog for the whole month of June so far so now’s the time for some catch-up. Life is great. Still running a lot…

Black Swan

Running: after a wet sodden weekend of walking in the Cotswolds with the family today was the first day back at work, first day back running…

Sleepy Sunshine

up at 7 on my day off. what the fuck? sunshine sprinkles through the open window to my left, and cat snoozes on the bed to my right, me: my…

Shit am Knackered

Running: after playing football after work on Tuesday I went running on Wednesday: “Stables” in 32 minutes, solo, weather really good, bit…

Happy B'day Christine!!!

First of all: Happy Birthday to my friend Christine! have a great day! Running:  Played footie for 2 hrs hungover yesterday so not in the…

With Cesar

First of all I’d like to make an announcement: I’VE FINISHED WAR AND PEACE!!! In under 2 yrs I have battled through the many hundreds of…

while it rains I run

Last week. After work on Thursday went back to Marion’s house and we cooked something fantastic with veg, prawns and Quinoa before going to…

New Camera Boz

Running: Tuesday: “Stables” solo in the hard blast wind. Wednesday: “Extended Long Toll” effectively solo (only 3 of us: B + E took it…

Bank Monday Robbery

Busy Busy Week just gone. Starting last Monday I went running at lunch, just 4 miles stretching my left hamstring before, during and after…

Tweaky Ham Cycling

Running: Not today :( Got up at 7am but still felt twinge in left hamstring so didn’t want to risk agrivating it. Is this okay? Cycling…

The Other Side

Running: tried another new route today:“The Other Side”. Never run on the South side of the river so this is what I did: down the hill…

Not eht best

Running: “Reverse River” solo. Went out too fast, suffered on the uphill flint-path and managed to get back okay but not speedy after this…

not slow and EZ

Running: Long Toll (btw: what is the difference between this and “extended long toll”?) faster than I’d planned. Steve’s fault. He was doing…

While everyone was doing the Marathon...

… I too got up bloody early and went running! This morning I drove to the Look Out where usually my running club (sandhurst joggers) do…

Longer Maple

Running : “Mapledurham” is a new route that Mike and I ran this lunchtime for the first time. The Route is 6.71 miles and it took us 51 mins…

Mid-Week Kaner

Running: “Reverse Stables” quite quickly! Cooler than on Monday, with a bit of biting wind. I hate oilseed rape but there are many many…

Massachre of the Smiling Toadstalls

Running: easy recovery after yesterday’s long run, 5 miles in ~40 mins. Actual distance and time may vary! “Walters Wood” was the route and…

Look out 10

Running: Sunday is (now) the day when I do my “long run”. I ran the route that I used to cycle back in the days when I cycled with my…

Four times off

Running: Hard, fast, scorching. Decided to this week’s Hard Run today, when I did the “River Route”. Same principle as the EZ run but if I…

stinging eyes, banshee feet

Running: second day in a row, today’s run was a medium paced new route which is a mish-mash of two other routes so I’ll call “Banshee wind…

Ment to be takin it EZ

Running: One thing that I have noticed after looking back at my running journey (i started running Aug 05) is the lack of variety, if I go…

Quit yo jibba-jabba it's april you fool

Monday: running; first half of “Walters Wood” really good, then I couldn’t be arsed and so let Steeve catch up overtake and put 10m into me…

Newness

have new strides! I finally succumbed to the fact that the first ever pair of running strides were worn, wonked and bruised and needed to be…

Spring Back, Forward?

Monday: Shoes are really dying, causing feet to hurt. Time for a replacement. We did “Stables” and it was a bloody nice day, nice change…

cold running

Friday: legs like lead weights all morning before the run, like heavy weights during the run and in the afternoon after work I could hardly…

football running

cycled up the hill on Monday and I could not fit the running kit into my bag so I didn’t go out in the freezing cold bitter wintry lunchtime…

Snow, its a coming

Looking out of the window (I am doing a lot of this recently!) all I can see is good weather (sunshine, blue skies, green grass, chirping…

SPRING is Now

For the now and here spring is with us, the blossom on the trees, the birds and the flowers are all fighting for audio and visual supremacy…

Football

shite I am here inside and writing, whereas I should be outside - not writing - and enjoying the fine fine day. Adios Amigos. O.

Herman Düne

Running this lunchtime almost killed my soul. For the last couple of running sessions my will to go fast has been somewhat lacking, legs…

bloody marvelous

okay, shit this is the second time I have sat down to write this post. the first was wiped out accidentally (my fault) when I re-booted…

Running

Today - ~5 miles in ~45 mins (reverse long-toll, got very lost but made out of woods alive; next time I take a map;)). Last Week: Fri…

Running Muddy Snob

in the middle of the night I write this. For the first time in 3 weeks I went running (at lunchtime) and now I am feeling fucking knuncked…

tony parsons

tony parsons’ mirror column

England on FIRE!!!

England have just beaten a soggy Australian cricket team in the second match of the One Day Triangular Tournament Final in Australia, and…

me widgets ain't grooving to the Flux

Here is a quote: The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget. - Thomas Szasz…

Fuji Snow Suck

Fuji Rock 2007 (pre-reg from Friday, costs Â¥32,800, till Feb 18th). An enormous dump of snow is now slowly melting. Woke up this am to find…

sugar, lick my salty chocolate balls

weds lunchtime and am really feeling like getting out and breathing. The sky is perfectly crystal blue and the air suffocatingly cold…

klaxons #1!!!

It has happened, I don’t know how but it has happened. Indy, alt, decent… whatever you want to call it,,, it has returned to the cool…

guardian muso blog

Guardian Music Blog

deerhoof

listening to deerhoof and liking it much! I’ve gone through a faze of downloading every band that I hear is good (in nme, in the newspapers…

we're thru to the Vth round of the FA CUP

manu beat pompey 2-1 in the 4th round of the fa cup thanks to the magestical subliminity of Rooney. Tesco open in Beijing Tesco in China’s…

celeb apprentice

who is in this year’s celebrity apprentice

ill Ill ILL

Hillow, its Friday evening and I am at home ill as painfully and pitifully as can be. Two days of non-stop sleep and I’m getting bloody…

update and change, rewire and rebirth

Calm down, hold your horses, mind the gap and batton down the hatches … outside today was an exceptionally windy day. We were sent home from…

bright in the middle wick sunshine

yes. I went running this lunchtime. and for the first time this year I didn’t kill myself doing it. There were only four of us due to the…

HappyNewYear!!!

right, first of all i know it is already the 13th of jan and i have not written here this year but i have been bloody busy… so. Happy New…

Hello world!

Welcome you wonderful people, I am very happy that you stopped off to look at this first posting of my newly born blog, what will go here, I…